Christmas Eve Morning

Dave flew in on Friday night and then their little family headed for Salt Lake City to have Christmas with Dave's family.  So we decided that Dave, Elizabeth and Evelyn would open our gifts to them before they left for the airport.  Dave put a Santa hat on Evelyn and she kept it on the entire time.  She still had the hat on when I dropped them off at the airport!  I thought that was amazing that a 6 month old would leave a hat on for so long!  I don't really have any other text, just photos to share.

April Events~~Dave's Graduation

So it's time to catch up!  The last thing I posted was about my mother on Mother's Day.  I realized that I had not posted about the trip that Jonathan and I made to Utah mid-April for Dave's graduation from BYU.  He actually had finished in Dec., but participated in April graduation.  I don't think that Dave really wanted to take part, however, because I was there, he went along with it.  He said afterwards, that he was glad he had.

Dave walked at graduation with his sister-in-law, Cody.

Very tasty reception upstairs at the Wilkinson Center.  I love the mint brownie's they make at BYU!

Katie, Dave, Elizabeth, & Jonathan

Here is a couple with loads of things going in life.  You can see that very soon, Elizabeth was to have the baby.

Very Talented Son-in-Law!

There were so many things going on during Christmas! Here is another big project that happened at our house.

Since Elizabeth and Dave were coming, Dave offered to help do any projects around the house. The first thing that everyone thought of--the front entry hall! The entry hall has needed to be replaced since we moved in. It was a long time in coming. We are so pleased with the outcome!

The entry hall needed to be done in stages, so that there would be a spot to walk through to the other hallway . So we took 2 days to lay the tile. Dave set up shop outside the front door on the porch. A friend of the family was coming to bring us Christmas treats, driving past several times. He finally stopped and he said, "I thought this was your house, but I didn't recognize this guy out front!"

You can see in this photo why it was on the top of the project list! We have had this ugly, yellow tile with grout that couldn't be cleaned, for way too long. The old tile was so low from the floors that were merging, that Dave opted to simply place the new tile on top. Made things quite a bit easier.

The pattern is starting to take shape! Hunter was very skittish about walking on the new tile. He would only walk on the old tile until the entire floor was put down.

Placing the spacers between the tiles for the mud to dry. Martha loved working on this project as she is very good at puzzles.

Cleaning up!

Almost done~

The finished job! Doesn't it look great! We have really enjoyed the newness. Last week, we painted the entry hall a new color and the baseboards are almost dry to attach to the wall.

We had so much fun with the entry hall, that we decided to do the main bathroom and the master bath floor! Actually, the main bath had some problems with the floorboards and needed to be fixed. That was very ugly. . . No pictures of that.

This is the tile pattern.

Below is the main bathroom.

Then the master bathroom.

Thanks Dave for a job well done!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Two days before Christmas, we went down to Monterey Bay Aquarium. What a beautiful day! Bright, sunny skies, with a nip of cold in the air. It is amazing to me, how many interesting and beautiful creatures are in this world! There were some awesome displays, especially the current exhibit of sea horses! I will share in another post what creatures captured my heart most.

For now, these photos are of who went.

Tired and grumpy after a long day?

Just kidding!

Outside the aquarium on the bay side. Jonathan, Martha, Dave, Elizabeth, and Katie.

Standing out here, we saw an otter playing in the canopy of the

kelp forest.