Legoland

Cory and I took the kids to Legoland a couple weeks ago. It started out as a little family trip to celebrate Christopher turning 8 (more on that later), but we ended up have all the Garretts  (with the exception of Lori and the little boys) join us.
I love San Diego and their weather, special in the middle of our awful Arizona summer. We left Friday morning and drove straight to the beach. There we met up with the rest of the family. The kids got to go boogie boarding and played on the sand. Kate and Christopher are very much like me and don't enjoy the beach much. Clarissa and Drew could have stayed all day, specially since their cousin were there.
We checked in the hotel that evening and I had dinner duty for the first night. Kady had dinner for the second night.
On Saturday we got up, had a nice breakfast at the hotel and left for Legoland. I got separated from Cory and the big kids right away. Cissa wanted to spend some time at the Lego friends land. We did the carousel, played their kiddy playground and watched their show. Kate really enjoyed this part.
Legoland was actually hard with Kate. She got diagnosed with an ear infection Thursday night before we left on our trip. She had a high fever and sore throat throughout the whole time so she was miserable and didn't want to take her meds. On top of being sick she was way too short to go on the rides so there was very little she could do.
Karen spent most of the afternoon with me and the girls and she went on several ride with Clarissa. At one point she bought us a churro with chocolate sauce, that was the best churro I have ever had!! I will forever dream of it.
Later in the afternoon I met up with Cory and we went into the water park. I got the first laugh out of Kate when she finally was able to go down a water slide with me. Clarissa really enjoyed everything she did.
We spent the rest of the evening together and Cory took Kate so I could go on rides with the older children. It was great to spend the last couple hours with them and see their happiness and excitement. It made the trip all worth it.
On Sunday we got dressed for church, had breakfast, checked out of our hotel and went to sacrament meeting. It was nice to get back home after such a fun filled weekend. I was pooped and slept most of ride back. Cory is a trooper for always driving.

School is out

And just like that the school year is over and the kids are home for the summer.
Clarissa broke her leg jumping on the trampoline the last week of April. She was in a lot of pain for the first week. She had to go to her preschool graduation sitting on her stroller because she still couldn't  walk on her cast. After a week of just moping around she finally felt good enough to start walking and now she's running, dancing and jumping on her cast. We just need to watch her so she won't break the other leg.
The boys got out of school the last week of May, just before Memorial Day. I can't believe Christopher is done with 2nd grade and going on to 3rd grade, and that my little Drew is going to be a 2nd grader. They both had really good teachers this year. Christopher's teacher, Ms. Pushor, was a first year teacher. She got married near the end of the year (now Mrs. Lauchner). Drew will have her as his second grade teacher. Andrew had Mrs. Ross for 1st grade. I was impressed with how he progressed in his reading and writing abilities. I really like the kids' school and am grateful for how well both boys are doing academically. We are hoping Clarissa gets Mrs. Web next year for kindergarten. She did fabulous with Andrew and is a fun teacher.
The Friday after school got out we took the kids to a Diamondbacks baseball game. The game was boring, but the food and fireworks at the end was great. I love spending time together with the kids enjoying things we don't usually do and seeing their joy and excitement.
Next week we start our crazy summer schedule. The boys have dive team lessons in the mornings, then we hurry home for lunch and are off to summer camp classes at their school. Christopher is doing a green thumb class and a duct tape art class. Drew is doing comic con and goofy games, and Clarissa is doing Itty bitty activities and goofy games with Andrew. After summer camp we come home for just enough time to get Clarissa dressed for swim lessons. I'm exhausted just thinking about all the driving I'll be doing. To make things even more crazy on Tuesdays the boys will have dive competitions and on Wednesdays Christopher will start going to cub scouts and I have mutual. Well, at least my kids won't have a chance to complain they are bored.