Before the choir

The girls waiting for the Motab choir to give their first concert in San Jose in over 100 years.

Hot Date

We ran into the Cook family in our ward in the parking lot of the HP pavilion on our way in to see the Tabernacle Choir. Roy Cook and Abby have been good friends all her life, and he arrived just in time to be her date. (Though since they are only four, they won't be sitting together. You can't trust those younguns.)

Fun with Balloons

Balloon butterfly, take 2

Birthday Seranade

Abby listens on as Grandma and Grandpa Parker sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

Balloon butterfly, take 1 

Cutting the cake 

Finally blown out 

Opening her loot 

Abby's birthday presents 

Last day of swimming lessons

Abby also had her last day of swimming lessons today. She didn't pass. Actually the test was yesterday and Abby did fine on most of the skills, but failed miserably on the back glide. Abby freaks out on her back in the water, and when we tried to corporaly persuade her to lie down on her back with her hands above her head, she screamed bloody murder, instantly becoming the center of attention of the whole pool. That said, she did learn a lot this class, including blowing bubbles, plugging her nose to bob under the water, kicking, and front glides and floats. We are going to have to look into what the next step will be.

We had signed up for the earliest class, 9:45am, to allow me to get to work as early as possible. Turns out the early class is also the coldest class. Several of the mornings were overcast and breezy . . . and freezing. We developed an after-class routine that consits of drying Abby off, wrapping a towel around her, putting on a little swim robe, then putting on one of dad's old sweatshirts. Hence the vision you see above. Then, to top it off, hot chocolate from a thermos. The one time Jenna picked us up, she was greatly amused to see Abby waddling to the car in her warm-up gear.

Playing around

After eating, it's a quick trip to the McDonalds playground. We can't stay long because it's almost time for swimming lessons.

Steak & Eggs

She insists on ordering "#7", the steak and egg sandwich. We'll see if she eats it . . . . I guess she does. She takes a bit and says "Es rico!"

Abby's birthday begins

Abby's 4th birthday begins with breakfast with dad. Given the option, she chooses to eat at McDonalds.

Talk to the hand

Dad & Louisa

Birthday Dress

Abby wore her new birthday dress from Grandma Adams to church today. She took it out for a spin on the church lawn to test its twirliness.

Escuelita Potluck

Abby with her friends Marina and Isabela from Escuelita. Today the Escuelita families met in Mitchel Park in Palo Alto for a potluck BBQ. in typical latino fahion, everyone was at least 40 minutes late, and no one had reserved a spot, so there was no grill to cook our meat. The kids had a good time.

Mom & Louisa at Mitchel Park in Palo Alto for the Escuelita potluck.

Escuelita kids + siblings

Escuelita kids

Bathing Beauties, part 2

Abby has experienced another rite of passage. Yesterday she and I bedan swiming lessons. Yep, me too. Abby has to be accompanied by an adult until she passes off a basic set of skills. Jenna nominated me for that job, partly because finding someone to watch Louisa isn't a trivial task, but mostly because she doesn't dig public displays of swimming suits, especially when she's the one on display. Hence, I am making it to work between 10:30 and 11. It makes for long days.

Lunch with dad

To celebrate my safe return, the girls and I had lunch together at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Miyake.

Opening Presents

Abby and Louisa opening their presents from Grandma Adams.

card

Louisa

Home again, home again

Fielding waiting to take me to the airport to go back home and see my girls.

Dad's present

Dad in front of his Father's Day present, explaining the history of F-15's.

Father's Day Art Project

Sam suggested we paint a series of paintings for dad for father's day. After several days of deliberation, we decided on and composited a masterwork to (hopefully) present to him tomorrow.

Update: John came up with the idea for the final design - four F-22 jets in formation following an F-15 - as a representation of our chosen theme, "Follow Me Boys". John found some images of the jets on the internet, we pulled a satellite photo of a random location (which turned out to be southeast Kansas) from Google maps, and I composited them all in Photoshop. From Photoshop, we split the picture into 4 frames, which we printed, drew grids over, then sketched on 4 full size canvasses. John, Sam, Joseph and I all painted on every canvass. We took it in turns, each painting on one canvass for half an hour. At the end of that period we would each pass the canvass we were working to the person on the left. That continued all evening long until we were finished.

San Antonio temple

The John, Sam and I did an early session in the new San Antonio temple today, while Joe did baptisms. Dad was working there but didn't join us in the session, but he was waiting in the celestial room.

Dad Joins the Festivities

This post was inserted once I developed the following pictures.

Friday we all headed up to New Braunfels to rendevous with Dad at Schlitterbahn. It was a fun day, but the death-by-suntan float trip the day before had us feeling a little under the weather. We all wore t-shirts to protect our freshly broiled flesh, but in the end Sam cut out early for a much needed rest at home.

At the top of the tobogan.  

John boogying on his board. 

Obviously well worth the two-hour wait.