The after PARTY

 After the Temple we all met, with some of their other friends, at this amazing lady, Robyn's, house.  We went there last summer also.  Her backyard is beach, it is so beautiful and fun to play there.  We ate and talked and played in the water.

You can't see it really well, but that is a dolphin's fin sticking out of the water, there were two of them swimming around this area.  It was amazing!

  They had a cute cupcake pinata to beat to pieces.

 It was all chocolate.  Hahaha, it melted quick!

 Burke gave the kids rides and Kaleb did it on his own, too.  He's amazing.

 Candice and Chalei on the Kayak.

 It was May 5th, Cinco de Mayo.  So the lunch was from El Pollo Loco, a Mexican restaurant and for dinner we went to a Mexican Restaurant.  Elaina was cracking up at Burke.  He was copying her.  It was adorable.

We had a lot of fun getting to know Josh's family also.  They are great people.

Kvavle family FOREVER!!!

 Little, sweet Elaina was sealed to Candice and Josh after two years them all loving each other - she was their foster child.  She went home with them from the hospital when she was 3 days old.  She's two now.  We've all been waiting for this day.  She is such a joy to have in the family.  Congratulations Candice and Josh AND Elaina!!!

 I love the San Diego Temple.  It's such a beautiful Castle-like Fairy tale Temple. 

 Cal and Cyndy, such a sweet photo of them. 

 We are all shouting HOORAY for the Kvavle family! 

SO happy little Elaina is in the family FOREVER now.  We love her so much!!!!!

More beach fun with more family

We went to another beach for a picnic with everyone else that had shown up on Friday.  The kids liked to pretend to surf on this body board.  It was pretty safe on the grass.  Hahaha.

Elaina loved rides on it pulled by the kids.

 Beach lovers.

 

 

 I love this shot of Candice jumping the waves with the girls.  

 If you look close you can see a little head...that is Kaleb!  He loved walking out far and riding the wave back.  It was freaking me out that he would go too far, so Burke went out with me.  He's turned in to a brave little thing with the water.  He had a blast!

The kids took turns with Burke pulling them in the actual water on the body board.  They loved that too.

 Kaiya digging an awesome hole for someone to step in.

 Chalei, Katelin and Chanelle.  It was so much fun to see Chanelle again.  It's been a couple years at least.  She lives in TN now and so could just fly over by herself.  SO glad she did.

SAN DIEGO!!!!!

 YES, again.  We got a call from Candice a while ago telling us that they finally had a court date to adopt sweet little Elaina!  They were planning on having their FAMILY sealed on May 5th.  We decided we would all go since I'd been gone so long.  Burke was just going to go, but it was really nice that we all went and had time together.  And the kids just love that little Elaina, so it was good they got to see each other again.  We got packed on a Wednesday and headed out at 9pm, the kids partied and slept and partied and slept.  They did GREAT!  We made some stops, but drove all the way through and got there about 9am.  WHEW!  That was amazing.  Oh, and did I mention Burke drove the whole way!  What a guy!

We got there and rested and then went to the beach!  Of course!  We followed Candice and Elaina.  Love the Palm trees.

 We went to Ocean Beach.  What a cool beach!  We hadn't been to this one before.

 (I'm pretty excited that I can post pictures with Elaina on here now!!!!! - We couldn't before the adoption.  I need to do a post of just her.  I have so many photos from the past couple years I didn't get to share of her cuteness.) Kaiya, her buddy.

 Searching for treasures already.

 We got to go up on the long pier and walk all the way out - it was cool to watch the surfers too.

 AND some sweet shadow shots.

For lunch we went to a little Raw restaurant where in the desert was buckwheat - Burke is allergic to buckwheat.  Not a fun vacation idea for him to eat that, but we didn't know it was in the darn thing!  Ahhh!  He rested, which he needed to anyway and felt better by the next day.  Poor guy!

Home again, home again...

 While I was gone Burke and the kids got a few more little chicks.  Why, you ask???  Because they are CUTE!  That is seriously the answer I got.  So I can now buy anything that is cute.  :)

 

 THEN, the neighbor cat got a couple of the little sweeties, SO Burke went to Ace and good ol' Duane gave him a bunch more.  So now we have 22, yes TWENTY TWO!!!  Oh and the cats decided they didn't like baby chicks anymore.  We did just give away 5 of our big ladies to a lady, so that helps, but STILL!.  The kids love them though, so THAT's good.

 

My first batch of sour kraut, Mmmmm (kidding).

 My favorite treat - freeze bananas in chunks in a baggie.  When ready for some "ice-cream" put in blender and let sit for a few minutes to thaw just a bit.  Put in a couple fresh strawberries, or nothing, then pulse and stir until ice-cream is made!!!  The topping is coconut oil, cocoa powder, coconut nectar.  YUM!

 And here's some pictures Katelin took - a crazy lady with some scissors - RUN!!

 AND her picture on the calendar since her birthday was coming up.

Since she was on a picture taking kick, I asked her to go outside and take a picture of our new rocks and the grass growing.  SO here's what you get...

AWESOME~!!!  Hahahahaaaaaa!