Kill Joy

"Mom, we just had the most brilliant idea! 

We are going to cover ourselves in soap and roll on the car!"

Just call me Kill Joy

Wrapping-up Summer

Is summer really almost coming to an end?

It's a crying shame. Last week Elijah and I binge-watched Lost in Space. 

I feel like at least a little of binge-watching is a required summer activity. 

And this is the last week of swim team. 

I'm going to miss the older 3 biking together and 

this one and I straggling behind on the way to the pool:

And there's always quality cousin time in the summer.
This week my niece is putting on a Girls' Camp for her cousins to make a little extra cash. 

Swimming is always involved:

I love Sybil's face in this one:

Nuptials

We met Demian in Mexico City maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

David wants to live with all awesome people he meets; Demian is no exception. 

Demian and his new bride will be staying with us for 3 weeks 

with their dog (Porfirio isn't happy about that part).

There were only 7 people in the sealing room with them yesterday.

Elder Piper, of the 70, sealed them. He and I were the only ones who had known them for more than a few hours. The ceremony was beautiful.

I took a few shots outside the temple:

And a few more pictures of their first meal:

David's Son

Watching little kid renditions of the butterfly stroke 

was a wonderful way to start my Saturday. 

Here's my boy's rendition: 

Elijah has a substitute coach who said he had her calling him 

"Jorge" for the first few days she was there. 

That's David's son. 

This is David's son telling me not to 

take a picture of him IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS RACE:

Little white lies

#1
This morning I asked Sybil if she knew where the iPad was. She immediately sprinted to the couch, crawled under it, and emerged with the iPad. When I asked her how it got there, she said,
"Iris did it."
Iris is in NYC.

#2
Last night we made chocolate chip banana bread. This morning, the kids were vying for the remnants. I told them we would be saving them for Maria who is staying with us and getting married today.
That's when Sybil informed us that she is also getting married today.

Last week wrap-up

Leah and her kids left yesterday. We miss them already! 

After saying goodbye, Elijah made this in memorium lego artwork for Ethan.

Ezra's hair is so cute. It was just begging to be styled.

Eliza wanted pictures with the birthday balloons.

This little girl is the cutest role-poly baby. And Leah the seamstress makes her beautiful dresses.

Temple baptisms

Skateland

This was Saturday's splash and dash. The 3 kids did a great job.

On the road again (NOLA Part 6)

One of my girls took this gem:

And I found this gem from our BYU graduation:

The abuelos always have beautiful flowers in their garden.

This year, for the first time, we had great-grandkids spend the night at the abuelos house. 

They loved it! 

The picture below documents a historic moment: The entire Garcia clan was 5 minutes early.

We were celebrating the 40th anniversary of Rhina and Napolean Ortiz.

It was so sweet listening to them speak of their love for each other. And Rhina also spoke (an got teary-eyed) about her 40+ year friendship with Marguerite.

We headed home after the anniversary lunch.

Someone partied too hard in NOLA:

We ate Texas BBQ at our first stop in Houston where we met up with a childhood friend, friends from Mexico, and a friend from Arizona.

We listened to the second book of the Hunger Games series and started the third.

We've been home for a little more than a week and have had a great time with Leah and her kids visiting. David and Iris are in NYC for 10 days and Claire is in running camp. Tomorrow we have friends from Mexico coming to stay with us.

Iris' Ears are pierced! (NOLA Part 5)

Iris insisted on her Dad going wither because she's always more brave with him.

I thought she might go 80s style with one earring.

SHE SURVIVED...BARELY

Mississippi Beaching (NOLA Part 4)

We went to see Megan and Justin's new place in Mississippi and also went to the beach.

My kids get tan every summer, but Iris gets dark enough that she's almost ethnic.

The boys collected jellyfish. This is a cupful. 

They later filled a huge bucket that must have been at least 1-2 gallons.

Elijah said, "We are going to sell them as Orbies. I don't have enough money for someone to sue me."

This is what they looked like on the beach:

Claire also helped collect. 

A few people got stung while they were swimming, not hunting.

The kids dug a huge hole which later became the final resting place of dozens, if not hundreds of jellyfish.

David wanted to visit Beauvoir (house of President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis) which was nearby, but we got there late enough that the only site seeing we were able to do was Sybil peeing outside the locked gate.

On the way home, it rained quite a bit. Iris asked GG to look up to see whether there had been a hurricane named "Iris."

GG: "It was small and strong, just like you."

Fourth of July! (NOLA Part 3)

As always, we had a spectacular Fourth of July bash at the Ortiz house.

This year they got a pool.

Why do boy always feel the need to wrestle?

We also celebrated 3 decades for Cuzi.

My camera had major issues in with the humidity so a lot of the pictures were out of focus.

Waiting for fireworks

Sybil Swims!

Sybil has hated her floatie for quite some time.
Today, we took it off.
She started on the stairs.
Then jumped off the side and swam to me.
She progressed, swimming the width
and then the length of the pool without assistance.
She even did flips into the pool and then swam to the side in the deep end.
NO FEAR!

Cousin Time Continues!

My sister told her daughter that if she could catch a bird, she could keep it as a pet, which I think is ingenious. Every time I've been outside with Eliza, she tries to catch birds. 

These ducks were close to finding a new home in Mississippi.

 Post-swim team park time.

At home, I was confined to my room for quite some time 

while the girls planned their multiple-outfit fashion show extravaganza. 

Ethan and Elijah went to mutual last night and then got ice cream with David.

This morning we made a donut trip. Got sugar?