Easter Weekend

SATURDAY

On Saturday Rich and I went to his parents for an Easter egg hunt, B.B.Q., and visit with the family. Easter egg hunts are always fun at Rich's parents because they hide chocolate and money in the eggs. Rich and I usually go slow and let are nieces and nephews get most of the eggs though. It is a fun time and we enjoy watching the little ones get chocolate all over their faces.

After the Easter egg hunt we enjoyed spending time with everyone. Our nieces and nephews like our dog Luca, especially Nathan. He had fun playing with Luca and thought it was funny to get inside Luca's crate. We also took Luca on a walk and Nathan was determined to hold his leash. It was fun watching Nathan try so hard to hold on to Luca's leash and not get pulled around.

After playing with Luca and enjoying our B.B.Q. we celebrated Kobie and Rachel's birthdays. Kobie will be 5 on March 31st and Rachel will be 10 on April 1st. We enjoyed strawberry cupcakes and ice cream. Then the two of them opened gifts. Rachel loved her Legos and Kobie was really excited about his transformer.

That night we enjoyed watching Enchanted on Rich's mom's projector. Rich's dad watched the UCLA basketball game on the TV and we watched the movie on the wall. It is a cute movie and I enjoyed the music. Everyone enjoyed the "Happy Working Song" scene and we had to watch it for a second time because it is just that funny.

SUNDAY

Unfortunately on Easter morning I woke up with a migraine which lasted until 2:30pm. Rich went to church and I took medicine and stayed in bed. That night we planned to feed the missionaries, so we had to keep that appointment. I did feel better that night so we were able to have a nice Easter meal and color eggs. Rich and I have know each other for almost 12 years and we have colored eggs for 11 of those years. This is a tradition that we enjoy and will probably continue each year. Besides its always fun to have colorful deviled eggs or egg salad sandwich following Easter.

Starting our Garden

Yesterday Rich and I started some seeds for our garden. This is the first year we are starting our garden from seeds and we are a little nervous. Rich set-up some lights in the garage and we bought some seed trays. Usually we buy plants from the local nursery, but this year we decided to be a little more adventurous. We ordered tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds online, so we could get hard to find varieties. We also bought some melon seeds at Lowe's to try. We are keeping our fingers crossed and reading the many books we checked out from the library to make our garden grow.

(Notice I'm holding a Martha Stewart book)
Here are a list of the seeds we planted:
Tomatoes
1. Neves Azorean Red
2. Oaxacan Jewel
3. Jersey Devil
4. Zapotec Pink Ribbed
5. Church
6. Florida Basket
7. Super Marzano
8. Sprite
Peppers
1. Giant Marconi
2. Rocotillo
Eggplants
1. Rosa Bianca
2. Kermit Hybrid

Once the ground is warm and danger of frost is gone we will also plant beans, soy beans (edamame), cucumber, and herbs. Rich and I enjoy having home grown vegetables around to turn into sauces, salads, and salsa. Last year, I started keeping a garden journal to document what we grow and if we like it. This way each year we can keep growing our favorites and then try something new. Who knew growing up that I would enjoy gardening so much?

This year I am also starting a flower garden on the side of our patio. This area gets some light, but not enough to produce good quality vegetables, so I am going to try flowers there. So far I have dahlias, gladiolus, poppies, marigolds, and zinnias planned. I will probably add a few more as I find plants that catch my eye. Last year we completed my small rose garden, so this year I bought a new mini-rose to put in a pot because that is all I have room for. My main problem with gardening is I don't have enough space.

We Love Spring

We have been enjoying the beautiful spring like weather and are taking advantage of it. We have been walking Luca a lot on the bike trail and enjoying the green grass and wild flowers. This past Saturday while walking Luca on the trail we let him sniff around an open field. He loves to smell and follow scent trails, so we let him take the lead and followed him around the short grass. Luca pulled hard on the leash and followed a scent toward some tall grass. Rich and I joke about Luca finding a pheasant and 5 minutes later Luca had scared a pheasant out of the tall grass. It was pretty neat to see and if we were hunters Luca would probably make a good hunting dog. It is so much fun to watch Luca follow scents. He really gets into it and sometimes snorts as he goes along.

Yesterday I took Luca for a walk by myself in the afternoon and it was so quiet and serene. We had the whole path to ourselves and I enjoyed the quiet. On our walk we came across 5 deer and 4 turkey. Even though we often see deer on the trail I still get excited every time we see them. We haven't seen turkey in a while so it was nice to see them coming back around this time of year. The only disappointment was I did not see the woodpeckers. There is an old tree along the path that woodpeckers live in, but the last few walks I haven't seen them. I hope they have not moved on because I always look forward to walking by that tree and looking up to see 2-3 woodpeckers hanging out.

I think we our so fortunate to have the bike trail so nearby. It is a beautiful place to walk and it is nice to have so much nature in the middle of the city. Now that the time has changed and it is lighter later, Rich and I plan to spend more time on the trail together.

BEAUTIFUL SAN DIEGO

We spent this past week on vacation in San Diego with Lisa's parents. We stayed in Oceanside and had a beautiful room with a view of the ocean. While there we went to the Zoo and Wild Animal Park. We also walked on the beach and visited one of Rich's mission companions.

The first day we went to the zoo. We got there just in time to see the baby panda. The panda was 7 months old and adorable. We were surprised when we saw the baby had climb up a tree all by herself and was comfortably taking a nap.

We then made our way to the Galapagos Tortoise exhibit. A couple of years ago we went to the zoo and missed seeing the Tortoise, so we made sure to see them this time. Most of you probably know Lisa loves Tortoises and Turtles, so seeing these giants was the highlight of our day.

On Tuesday we spent the day hanging out at the beach and visiting with Rich's mission buddy. At the beach Rich skipped rocks on the waves and I looked for shells. We both love the ocean and walking along the beach. That night we had dinner with Rich's friend. They served their church missions in Italy together. They had a good time reminiscing and catching-up.

The next day we went to the Wild Animal Park. We enjoyed the ride which takes you on a safari through Africa. It was neat to see the animals roaming free like in the wild. We were excited to see a baby giraffe and 7 lion cubs. We also had fun feeding the Lorakeets (birds) and riding the wild animal carousel.

We had a great vacation, but are glad to be back at home. We missed Luca and were happy to pick him up. We also missed our bed and are excited to sleep in it tonight. Rich has the rest of the week off so we are planning to relax and spend time at home.

Visit with Parker and Zoie

This past Saturday Rich and I drove down to San Diego for a vacation. On the way we stopped to visit with Rich's sister, Anne, and her family in LA. We spent the night and had a good time with our 2 nieces, Parker and Zoie. We were excited to see how much Zoie had grown and to meet Parker for the first time. We also enjoyed chatting with Anne and Craig.