Spring

Spring is here. A step outside of our place and you can smell fragrant orange blossoms and hear the bees buzzing from the hive in our backyard. The kids and I are enjoying the sunshine and getting out of the house as much as we can.

Traever's in the middle of his most challenging semester yet. There is just an endless amount of reading and writing. So if you think of him say a prayer that God would give him endurance and efficiency to learn and do what he needs to do. He's still really enjoying his classes and feels so blessed to have the opportunity to learn here, I know he wouldn't have it any other way!

It's almost comical to me when I think about how different our days are. Traever spends his days reading and listening to some of the greatest minds in the past and present Christian world and I spend my days with three very... developing minds :). Here's a glimpse of a day a couple of weeks ago:

While Traever got to help unroll a 400 year old Torah scroll at the seminary: http://wscal.edu/resource-center/resource/torah-scroll-wrap-up?utm_source=HomepageBanner&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=ScrollRecap

A few miles away I was watching Thatcher jump and squeal amongst butterflies:

When our schedules allow it the kids and I head to the Safari Park or to the coast. It's crazy to think that we have just 12 more months living here so we're doing our best to enjoy it.

I'm so glad they have all gotten over their fear of sand!

While Thatch had some one-on-one time with his Dad the girls and I took a day trip to Point Loma to explore the tide pools, walk through an old light house, learn about explorers, and the whales that migrate just off the coast... we covered a lot of ground! Adalai made us go through the light house twice and as we drove home asked if we could find a lighthouse to live in... I wish.

Just beyond those rocks were the tide pools where you could see dozens of hermit crabs, anemones, and starfish. 

Below, an afternoon with friends in Sea Port Village.

Spring Break

Right now Spring Break is in full swing. Traever's still immersed in paper writing, he has an incredible amount of writing this semester, but he's been able to take breaks here and there and when he's around he honestly makes everything better. The kids laugh 10 times more when he is in the room.

He threw our little tykes slide in the van and brought it to the neighborhood pool. The kids know that Dad will find a way to make everything more fun.

Taking a break from the books with fellow seminary friends.

Update on the littles...

Thatch

Thatcher's days right now are best summarized in one word, "cars". I hear that word more times then I can count every day and he always says it with this deep down in his gut forceful but funny New Yorker voice. I hope he always says it like that, it never gets old.

We thought it would be fun to take him to the Automotive Museum in Balboa Park... he certainly enjoyed seeing the cars but we didn't even think how tortuous it would be for him to not be able to touch any of them. Poor kid.

Typical morning routine lining up all of the "choo-choos" on the window sill.

Remy

Rems has recently turned into our little artist. She can spend hours coloring and painting her masterpieces. She likes to color in the lines but to use as many possible colors as she's able.

Below a book that she illustrated and dictated. I love how she has portrayed me ;) obviously my baby bump is growing!

Below, spending an afternoon with her favorite person at one of her favorite spots.

She thinks out of the box a lot. Her idea of sleeping with her dolls/stuffed animals is creating personal beds and hammocks for them all. When her dollies are privileged enough to spend the night with her prepping for bedtime takes forever... for-e-ver!

Adalai 

Adalai just celebrated her 6th birthday!  

She got to catch up and Skype with family.

And have a party with a few friends. She said she wanted to make/decorate cupcakes with her friends so our dining table turned into a bake shoppe of sorts and they iced and decorated their own little cakes... a lot of icing, a lot of decorating, a lot of sugar consumed.

Remy was so intensely decorating/icing her little cake I was pretty sure her face was going to end up in it.

Most of the girls with their finished products.

Yep, all of that mass on top of her cake is icing. Yum...