Newport Temple

Suzi was awesome and watched our kids for us, so Len & I could attend an Endowment Session at the Newport Temple. This is the 30th temple we've been able to serve in. It is a beautiful, peaceful place and we were glad we got to go there. When we were first married we decided we wanted one of our new traditions to be to attend a new temple each year on our anniversary. That tradition evolved to try and visit as many temples as we can and our new goal is to visit a new one each year of our life. This year we'll be 33, so we need to visit 3 more temples to get all caught up.




Two families were visiting the Temple today and offered to take our picture, if we would take one of their group. Come to find out one of the men had served his mission in Taiwan- it is such a small world!

Toon Town Tots

I want to bring a professional photographer with us to Disneyland sometime too, to take cute pictures of the kids at all of the fun places. Toon Town is definitely a Kodak place, and here the cousins took a little rest outside of Minnie's house.


Inside the girls had a rest on her Chaise Lounge.


Gavin sat at her table and wanted some of her tea and cookies.


Outside Mickey's house the gang climbed inside his coupe.


At the fire department they toured the fire engine and made sure it was all in proper working order. What a fun place!

Celebrity Sightings

Jessie from Toy Story 2.


Mary Poppins & Burt.


Our fam with Mickey...


...Steve & Suzi's fam...


...and all 10 of us!

Family Favorites

Kaleb couldn't wait to drive the Autopia cars. Notice he has on a Lightning McQueen shirt.


Noe has been a fan of the Disney Princesses for years and lately that admiration has stretched to the Disney Fairies too. Notice she has Tinkerbell on her shirt.


Gavin loved being swallowed by Monstro the Whale and visiting Storybook Land. He did have on a whale shirt, but after a diaper accident he got his first Mickey t-shirt.


Len had fun trying to pull the sword from the stone.


My favorite part was the ice cream of course! I took a picture of the ice cream treats they offer in Hong Kong, so I had to take a picture in California to compare. Here we have Mickey's Ice Cream Sandwich, Frozen Banana, Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bar, Mixed Berry Sorbet, Mickey's Ice Cream Bar, and the divine Nestle Toll House Ice Cream Sandwich (may I have another?)

The Original Disneyland!

The "R"eil family was lucky and we got to go to Disneyland again this year, this time in sunny California. Steve, Suzi, & their kids joined us and we all had a perfect day at the happiest place on earth!


It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, my heart skips a beat when I see Sleeping Beauty's castle.


Gavin found the White Rabbit's house and stopped to say hello.


Kaleb wants to climb the Matterhorn someday.


Noe had fun in Wonderland too.

Newport Beach

I love the beach! Perhaps it's because Jennifer means white wave and Lynn means waterfall. I was destined to be in love with the sea. Lucky for me, my family loves the beach too. After we flew in to Los Angeles from Taiwan we had some major jet-lag to get over. We had a relaxing weekend of shopping and beach lounging to help us with that.


Someday, I will have professional pictures taken of our family at the beach. Until then, our tri-pod and timer at least let us capture the day.


The wind was doing crazy things with my hair, but my honey likes me anyway.


30 strong toes...


...and 20 pink ones.

My honey!

Me!

The Incredible Kaleb!


The Remarkable Noe!


The Adorable Gavin!


We didn't bring our beach clothes, (our plan was just to take some pictures and then walk along the edge of the water) but since the kids cooperated so well for pictures we let them dive right in in their regular attire.


A fun afternoon in the California sun!

School's Out for Summer!

I thought of so many blog posts to make this week: Gavin & I hosting play group, Noe's class party, Len's birthday, Kaleb's class party, all the cute artwork Kaleb & Noe brought home, the last day of school, my marathon, my Standard Works completion, The Killer's Hot Fuss, Michael Jackson's Thriller. But alas, I ran out of time. We're leaving now for the airport. I hope you all have a wonderful summer! I'll be back here August 9th, and will do retro-active posts of our summer holidays. I'll look forward to getting caught up on all of the fun summer adventures you had too. Can I really live without my computer for 9 weeks? If you're an old or new friend stopping by, please say hello.

Farewell Kindergarten

I think Gavin and I were up at the school everyday of the last week of Kindergarten. First we went up for Noe's class party. That day was also the last day of their swimming unit in PE, so we got to go to the pool and watch the little fish perform what they had learned.

We also went up for Kaleb's last class party. His swimming unit in PE was last fall, so we already got to watch him swim like a fish.

The morning of the last day of school, I caught them reading together. Aren't they cute? They then headed off to ride the bus for the last time this school year.

It was a half-day, so Gavin and I picked them up afterwards. Farewell Kindergarten, we had a great year!

Now it's time for some serious summer time relaxin'!