Marco’s baptism

It was such a special day-not exactly how we planned it, but it turned out better. We had attended another baptism that morning and the Ward mission leader told us we could not show the slide show of Marco during the intermission time between the baptism and confirmation (we did show it after the service). I was in a little panic, but we found a beautiful clip on the life of Christ that totally brought in the Spirit. I also had the opportunity to bear my testimony, which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. Grandma and Grandpa gave beautiful talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost and Aunt Tami provided the piano accompaniment. We sang the Baptism Song and I am a Child of God. Uncle Dan and Uncle B gave the prayers. After Marco was baptized and we were listening to Grandma give her talk on the Holy Ghost, Julio and I looked over and saw Marco wipe away a  little tear. It was so precious. After the baptism, we served refreshments-donuts, crackers and cheese and fruit-Marco’s choice and very popular with the guests! But, since there was another baptism scheduled, we felt kind of rushed out of there and didn’t get much of a chance to visit with everyone. We did go outside and got some family pictures. It was a wonderful day and we’re so grateful to have such a good boy who chose to be baptized.

Marco got some gifts from friends-including a CTR ring from Sister Myers-our surrogate grandma/babysitter.

Sister ByrneI didn’t have the camera most of the time-so we didn’t get a lot of pictures after the service.Sister GianiMarco with his friends Matthew and Sharlee.

They wanted to do an action shot!

Beautiful cousins!

I need to get the pictures of the whole family from Tami and Dan! They used the timer on their camera, so we didn’t get any of those.

Marco’s 8th birthday

Marco had a big birthday this year. The Aldama’s came for the special occasion. It was so fun to have his family party on Sunday-the day before his birthday. He got new scriptures, backpack, Perry the Platypus and a new bike from us! (he had sold his old bike at our garage sale). He got an elephant and a blanket from the Aldama’s to “never forget the warm feeling he has on his baptism day.” Grandpa and Grandma got his the Lego Movie and he got fun toys from other family members as well. We had a great time-the kids played outside, we had a yummy dinner, and we played party games. A time to remember.

Our little weekend getaway

We just had to fit in one last little trip to the beach. We left on a Saturday morning and drove a few hours to Pacifica Beach-just south of San Francisco. It was sooooo cold! There were tons of surfers at the beach and it was packed! You wouldn’t know it was so cold by all the people there! The kids didn’t care about the cold and ran right into the ocean. They said the water was warmer than outside.

 

Sylvia didn’t last long in the water, she got out and laid flat on the sand and got all sticky and sandy. She didn’t like that feeling too much.Tessa and I just put our feet in-it was windy too. Julio took the pictures.I got one of him! It’s proof he was actually there. Tessa enjoyed playing in the sand.

Brrr.Grrr.After the beach, we went to our hotel and got clean and warm. The kids wanted to go play at the park, so I stayed and rested at the hotel while Julio took them. (I wasn’t feeling well).

The beach was right at the end of the street from our hotel. Julio took Lucia and Marco to see it.  We ate at a diner right by the hotel. We should have known when we walked in and it was empty that it wouldn’t be that good. I was right. The worst part was how expensive it was.

On the way home, we stopped at Treasure Island-it’s an island in between San Francisco and Oakland off the Bay Bridge. There is only a Naval Depot there, but we stopped to get pictures of San Francisco behind us.

Then we stopped at the Oakland Temple. We spent some time in the Visitor’s Center and enjoyed the beauty of the grounds. It’s been 9 1/2 years since we were sealed there. The kids loved to see the temple. It was a quick little trip, but the last one of the summer and it was worth it.

Some of July

The 4th was pretty low key this year. Lucia and Grandma were still in Idaho, so we just went and swimming, had tacos and then watched our neighbors fireworks.

Sylvia went to summer school every morning. She came home and watched Minnie’s Bowtique and became obsessed. Every day we would go pick her up from school and the kids would get free lunch. Then we’d go swimming at Grandma’s while the work was being done on the house.

The day Grandma and Lucia got back from Idaho-we went to Music Circus and saw Mary Poppins. I didn’t get any pictures of us together, but Deora and her granddaughter came with us. It was a cute show and we had a lot of fun.

Julio and I got a little getaway! Julio planned it-he bought the tickets to the New Order concert in San Francisco and booked the hotel. We left late Friday afternoon-leaving the kids with Sister Myers at Grandma and Grandpa’s house (they went to the Fair). We got to the city and checked into our hotel and then took the Bart downtown to the concert. We ate at a little diner before the concert, so we got there just as New Order was playing their first song. Walking into the venue, I got hit with a wall of marijuana smoke. It was like walking into a time warp-people in their 30’s and 40’s walking around dressed like they did in the 80’s. It was weird, but we had fun.

Saturday, we went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. It was fascinating-it was owned by a flamboyant widow who was told that the souls of anyone who died by a Winchester rifle were haunting her, and in order to avoid these souls, she would have to continue building and adding on to her house until the day she died. So that’s what she did-there were doors and stairways leading to nothing, windows in the floor and ceiling, secret passageway-a séance room-the house is reportedly haunted. We had a great time away-if only it lasted longer….

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, only outside.