Labor Day Weekend at Big Bear

Our family has never been to Big Bear Lake, despite it only being a couple hours from our home.  We were excited to be invited to be invited to our friend's cabin along with what he calls the "Finlay Tribe". 

We dealt with some traffic (as expected heading East out of LA for a 3 day weekend), but made it up to the cabin in time to join everyone for a late dinner.

We brought up our tent to camp outside the cabin.  The days were warm and the nights were perfectly crisp.  

The girls had a sleep over with Uncle Ian, while the boys slept in our tent.  

The kids loved warming up by the fire in the mornings.  

We were spoiled with Hasan's Middle Eastern cooking.  He taught us how to make his delicious hummus and cucumber salad.

Every meal was a feast.

He had the men in the kitchen helping prepare the food.  Breakfast included potatoes, eggs with goat cheese, bacon, sausage and every kind of bread for toast you could think of.  

The guys assembled a new grill to be able to cook up all the meat. 

Grilled chicken, lamb, steak and hamburgers...the grill was broken in quite well in its first couple of days of use.

The days were perfect for getting out to explore the area.  We enjoyed a hike to the "Eye of the Gods" (despite passing it and taking a round about way of getting back.)

We enjoyed the Alpine Slides so much on Saturday that we convinced Hasan and Deborah to come try them with us on Monday.  (They were busy meal prepping Saturday while the Finlay Tribe all went out)

There was plenty to keep us busy while at the cabin.  Preston loved building 'obstacle courses' with the blocks, and dice to try to get a bell to ring.

Which then turned into building a tower as tall as possible using every item in the house.  :)

James created a movie to capture the weekend of fun.  

Preston 5-year-old interview and stats

Preston has such a love of life and engaging personality that he is makes friends easily.  His signature sign of approval is a thumbs up. He loves music and is often singing and dancing.  He sometimes seems to live in a fantasy world and has a hard time determining what is real (hence the bad dreams as noted below). He is usually happy and sweet natured but melts down easily-especially when tired and or hungry-and screams.  He will often on his own come to apologize to me after he calms down though and he feels bad that he “forgets to use his words” in the moment of upset. He is so excited to start kindergarten this fall.

My name is: Preston (aka: Friendador, Friendliest Friend, Prepre)

Height: 47.5" (99%)

Weight: 47lbs (86%)

Sleeping: About 11 hours usually around 8pm-7am. He does not like to go to sleep by himself.  He gets scared easily and has bad dreams, so will still often wake up in the middle of the night calling for me.  However he is the first of our kids that will sleep in when given the opportunity after a late night.

Hobbies: He is starting to really love reading. He also loves swimming, playing games, playing the piano and being with friends.

What is your name? My name is Preston

When is your birthday? My birthday was on June 10th

How old are you? My age is 5 What is your favorite color? My favorite color is green What is your favorite song? My favorite song is all of the ‘Follow the Prophets’ What does Mom do? My mom works to clean the house  What does Dad do? He works and cleans the house too What do you want to do when you are a grown up? I want to drive the Buckeye. Where do you want to live when you grow up? I want to live at Grandma and Grandpa's house. If you had 1 million dollars, what would you do with it? I would sell the house. What is your favorite food? My favorite food is Broccoli Cheese Soup What is your least favorite food? I don’t like all of the rest. What is your dream car? I want to drive the Buckeye What is your favorite animal? My favorite animal is a Jackrabbit Where do we go to church? I go to church here Why do we go to church? Because we can be respectful at church What is your favorite movie? The incredibles (but we thought he’d say The Greatest Showman, because he has been listening to the music from the movie and quoting it all day every day for the past couple months. What is something you’re good at? I’m good at doing…(wanted to show us a trick of a jumping plank) What is your favorite ice cream flavor? My favorite ice cream is all of the chocolate ice cream Where would you like to travel? I want to travel to Las Vegas Where do you like to eat? My favorite restaurant is all of the restaurants.

Preston's Birthday

Preston’s had big ideas for his birthday.  I heard a few different conversations when someone would ask him about what he was going to do.  He told one friend he was having a huge party with lots of presents, someone else he was going to the zoo and a third person that he was going on a mission.  Luckily he was not disappointed.

For his birthday meals he requested

Breakfast: Pepperoni Pizza (but ended up being talked into chocolate chip pancakes by his siblings)

Lunch: Potstickers

Dinner: Curry and Naan

Dessert: Volcano Cake with Chocolate Ice Cream

Preston has a perfect beginning of summer birthday that always lines up with fun activities.  James created a video, just of the weekend.  We got to do a weekend get away to the beach, a race (the kid's fun run was not a highlight for Preston who did not think it was at all fun), and horseback riding.  And then the day after Preston's birthday packed up to go to Utah where Grandma Christensen was ready for him with another celebration.  He was so excited!

Self Potraits

Our Family Home Evening focus attribute for June was creativity.  Ethan had us draw self portraits for our activity.  Art may not be a forte for our family, but I think James and Preston got themselves spot on. :) 

Christensen Family Reunion

We went to Utah for a couple weeks to get together with my entire family.  There is a lot of us, so it's a big deal when we can all be in the same place at the same time. 

It was such a fun-filled trip that every time I look at pictures to post about it I get overwhelmed.  I've finally convinced myself that I can document the trip even if I don't do a perfect post.  I'm just grabbing a selection of pictures that shows a variety of what we did on the trip and calling it good.  :)

The kids were happy to do anything that involved cousins.  They all had so much fun being together.  For the first week Megan and the kids played with those that were available at different parks and museums.  James flew in for the last couple days of our 2 week trip when all the siblings/spouses/kids made it in town for the reunion with everyone together.

So, in no particular order of chronology and not a complete list of activities, here is a glimpse of our fun:

Exploring the Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

Gale Center-Hands on Museum of the history of South Jordan

Learning to play pickle ball (and loving it-despite teasing my dad about it being a game for elderly people)

Church History Museum Family Festival

Getting to see Brooklyn perform in West Side Story

Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

Harry Potter Escape room for all the cousins 8 and up (plus Jared, the patient uncle with a plethora of Harry Potter knowledge)

 Roots of Knowledge stained glass display at Utah Valley University

Bowling at BYU

Racing (or in Preston's case coming in and at a leisurely non-competitive pace) with family.  Cousins did the fun run together while some of the adults did the 5k, 10k and Half Marathon

Adults making it out of the escape room (we split into 2 groups to allow for childcare, the other group of adults survived also, which was good, or we'd be stuck watching a lot of kids.) :)

 Museum of Curiosity, one of the kids favorite places.  We were there 6 hours that day and the kids would have kept going if the adults didn't have other conflicts that evening.

Outdoor shows and movie night.  Ferdinand was the movie of the night.  We also went to the movie theater for a showing of Incredibles 2.  With a group our size it felt like we were buying out the entire theatre. 

Chalk Art Festival-we didn't notice how 3D this one looked until we took a picture of it.  The art was incredible.

Aquarium including an "everybody birthday party" where we all got to have pizza and ice cream in a play room together.  

Itty Bitty Bluffdale City, in which Grandpa took close up pictures along the bike trail by their house and we split in groups to go find them.

Last Day of School

first day of 5th grade and 3rd grade

We made it through another year of school. The kids loved their teachers and excelled in their classes. 

last day of 3rd grade

Ethan's love of reading especially exploded this year.  His teacher appreciated his leadership skills and creativity.

last day of 5th grade

Brielle said her teacher this year was one of her very favorites.  She was wonderful at making learning fun with activities and educational parties.

first day of preschool

Preston's preschool group was wonderful. We rotated houses and Preston loved being able to go learn with his friends, and go on adventures with them on our field trips.

last day of preschool

All of the kids from the group (except Preston) are moving to new houses over the summer and they will all be at new schools next year.  

Preston was so excited to graduate and is looking forward to Kindergarten.

Brielle 11-year-old interview and stats

Brielle is kind and thoughtful.  She does well in school and is good about taking care of her homework and what needs to be done without much help or monitoring.  She is a wonderful big sister and cousin and is especially good at calming down Preston's big emotions.  She often acts older than her age and has enjoyed trying out the responsibility of babysitting this year.
She had a rough start to being 11, getting sick a couple days after her birthday with pneumonia and a double ear infection.  She was too sick to read, which for her is pretty bad.  She also had pneumonia over Christmas break, but even when she is sick she is still sweet and pleasant to be with.  

Height: 5ft 2in (97%)

Weight: 84lbs (53%)

Sleeping: about 9 hours (9:00pm-6:30am), Usually goes to bed at 8 and is supposed to have lights out by 8:30, but if I forget to go in and take her book away she'll keep reading.  It takes her quite a while to fall asleep and she loves to haver me come cuddle with her.

Hobbies: Reading-all day every day, anytime and everywhere.  She'll read whatever is around, not caring if she's already read that book multiple times.  When we do pull her away from her book she also still enjoys cooking, (making desserts is her favorite). She continues to play volleyball, piano and is also involved in Glee club, her school's singing group.

Brielle loves babies and playing with little kids.  When we get together with cousins she always ends up with a baby in arms while entertaining all the 3-year-olds.
She is quiet and reserved, but also quite confident with who she is and that her interests are different than friends at school. She has a fun sense of humor that sneaks out unexpectedly at times.

Brielle's responses to 11-year-old Interview Questions 

She was in a very talkative and slightly silly mood for her interview, so we got a lot of detailed responses.

What is your name? Brielle
When is your birthday? May 4th 
 How old are you? I turned 11
What is your favorite color? Pink and Green
What is your favorite song? The Greatest Show from The Greatest Showman
What does Mom do? Mommy stays at home with Preston until he goes to Kindergarten, then she'll clean the house at home.
 What does Dad do? Goes to work Monday-Friday to work to help the animals at Monrovia at City of Hope and the Duarte Building.
 What do you want to do when you are a grown up? Right now I either want to be a Librarian, a Teacher or  a Veterinarian.  I'm leaning towards Teacher, or a teacher-librarian-veterinarian.  
Where do you want to live when you grow up? I don't know, maybe here.  Yeah, maybe here.
If you had 1 million dollars, what would you do with it? Pay my tithing, then buy a laborador retriever that's golden. I'd name it honey and buy a giant dog house and then go buy a mansion.  And then I'd give $100 to Ethan and Preston to split, but only $100.
What is your favorite food? Gramma Finlay's Meat, Spinach Lasagna
What is your least favorite food? Corned Beef and Cabbage
What is your dream car? a Limousine, but that's not affordable, so just a normal car.
What is your favorite animal? A dog
Where do we go to church? Duarte Ward Building somewhere on Royal Oaks Drive in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Why do we go to church? We go to church to learn more about Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father and The Holy Ghost and how the church was made.
What is something you’re good at? I don't know
What is your favorite movie? Tied between Love Kennedy and The Greatest Showman
What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Anything that has to do with Cookie Dough and Peanut Butter.
Where would you like to travel? Hawaii again, Bahamas, Paris again and lots of Europe
Where do you like to eat? Souplantation, In 'n Out, Cafe Rio and I also like that place that has the good pita bread...Daphnes.  We haven't been there in forever but I also like there stuff.  I also like the USC cafeteria, even though I've never been there.  But Daddy took a picture and it looks like Hogwarts, so it's a good place.
Who is your favorite person? I have lots of favorite people
Who is your best friend? Priscilla
What is your favorite book? Don't ask me that question.  That question is an impossible question to answer.
What is your favorite thing to do? Lock the door to my bedroom, but I can't really do that, so close my bedroom door, lay on my bed, read a book while I listen to the piano guys with my blanky. 
What are you most excited to do this year as a 11-year-old? I don't know, I'm just excited!
Anything else you want to tell us? I decided I want to get a bunny before a dog this year.  Bunnies are really good pets and they're cute.
That's all!