Elle's 16th Birthday!

I cannot even believe Elle is 16 years old already! What the heck?!

Chris had passes to Universal so we spent the day doing all the fun things you do there

 

Like. . .

Harry Potter Land!



We got butter beer, which was delicious, and we rode the Harry Potter ride, which made me nauseous.  It was probably because I had to close my eyes during a good deal of it on account of all the spiders! EW!



We went out for sushi and Chris and Elle enjoyed raw fish and stinky seaweed while I enjoyed my bento box :)

Elle's second choice of birthday dessert was carrot cake, so we totally cheated and bought a big slice at the local pizza place.

It was scrummy!

Then presents:

Elephant earrings

And an elephant necklace!

And a NEW phone!

 

Elle is so glad that it takes seconds instead of minutes to load applications now!

It was a happy day indeed!

Murder at Camp Harvey

I made another murder mystery party and begged Elle to invite some friends over to enjoy it.
This time it was camp-themed and took place at Camp Harvey.  The host/wilderness tour guide  (Elle) invited everyone for the reading of the will of a man they all had connections with.  After a picnic dinner Elle revealed that there was another reason she invited them all: one of them murdered the guy and they would all have to find out who!

Elle helped me decorate.  We had wildlife

And signs:

And trees

I totally forgot to get pictures of everyone!  I didn't even get a group shot! :'(

The characters were

1-Elle--the host and camp tour guide

2-The older son of the deceased who was vice president of his dad's media company

3- The younger son of the deceased who was a lowly mailman

4-A woman running for congress that the deceased was supporting

5-A girl's basketball coach who was a long time friend of the deceased

6-A pretty Jr. News reporter that worked for the deceased

7-A top investigative reporter who also worked for the deceased

8-The housekeeper/cook who worked for the deceased

Everyone talked to each other individually and found out what they knew about someone else that might incriminate that person as the murderer.


Then they all got together to use the evidence they collected to accuse each other and deny everything about themselves.


Finally, they read their confessions one by one until the murderer confessed!

It turns out that Elle was the murderer all along! (She didn't even know until confession time)

The will was written in such a way that any living relative of the deceased's wife would get 50% of everything.  No one knew, but Elle was the sister of the deceased's wife and killed the guy to get the 50%.

This incriminating photo of Elle and her sister was pretty damning evidence though.  (Chris does photoshop every time to make the party more interesting and funny)

We ended with s'mores on the BBQ which was a complete fail, but they ate them anyway.

I think everyone had a great time!

Ol' Pegleg

Since it's hot we decide that Jake should have a haircut.  It costs $50 at the groomers where they lock him up for 3 hours then bathe and trim him the last half hour. 😢

Well, we didn't want any of that so we sent away for a do-it-yourself-dog-clipping-cutting-hair kit.

Since Chris is the artistic one I decided to let him have a go at it first.It was tricky and he kept saying,"Do you want to try?!" 

I didn't.

He trimmed Jake's back with scissors and it looked pretty choppy.  It's been a couple weeks and it looks fine now.

Then last week we decided that Jake should have his little legs and feet trimmed.

Again, Chris had the first go.

For some reason Chris channeled his inner "little girl with some scissors."

He kept cutting a little bit of hair on Jake's leg, then cut a bit more to even it out, and just like a little girl cutting her bangs, he chopped and chopped "trying to even it out" until all the hair was gone and all that was left was sprigs.  In this case it was a shaved leg.

So now poor Jake looks like Ol' Pegleg:

(his back right leg, if you can't tell, is considerably less fluffy than the front legs)

Chris started in on Jake's other back leg but I made him STOP!

Santa Barbara

Now that we have a puppy we have to rethink our vacations.  I looked online and found that Santa Barbara is a great dog-friendly area.  We found a dog-friendly hotel and everything!

Jake could walk along the pier with us:

And he could visit Chumash Painted Cave

And Knapp's castle

 And we even found a dog-friendly beach!

Jake was chasing Elle around (while on the leash) and she led him right into the ocean!  

He wasn't quite sure about that.  

His favorite part was digging holes :)

Isn't he cute?!

He could walk around the beautiful botanical gardens too!

The garden was cool because it was divided into sections that represented the different climates of California.  For example, they had poppies, and a section of redwoods, and a desert area.

Jake was able to walk around Old Mission Santa Barbara, but not inside.

 He couldn't share our delicious Cuban sandwich from Pickles either.  But that's OK!

I think it was a fun and successful vacation!

WE GOT A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i bet you think i'm joking

Yes, we are crazy and we got a puppy!

We've been thinking about for like the past two years, but we've been going back and forth about the pros and cons of having a dog.

I thought it'd be nice to have some company after Elle goes *gasp* off to college.  Chris has fond memories of his family dog.  Elle is like every other kid who just wants a dog.

So.

I looked at the site for a shelter to see if they had any puppies.  They had a girl, but she was adopted while I was trying to make up my mind.

Then, the shelter said they had three boy puppies whose owner wanted his dog to have a litter and keep one puppy and didn't want to bother finding homes for the others.

I filled out an application which included

-pictures of the main living space

-two letters of recommendation

-passport or driver's licence 

-a 3 page questionnaire

-a legal document with many places to sign.

They told us different things about which breed he is and what day he was born.  So, he's some sort of Maltese/Shih Tzu/ poodle.  They think.  And he was born Nov, 16th.  Or maybe it was the 5th. 

It was pretty crazy, but they said we could have one!  I wanted to pick one up that night so I texted Chris to say "So, we're getting a puppy and picking it up tonight"

Needless to say, he was shocked.  He said it's like someone saying "we're going to have a baby. . .tonight!"

So I asked the shelter if we could pick up a dog Thursday night.  I figured we'd all go after work.  I didn't want to tell Elle because who can resist a surprise like that?!

We decided to go during Chris's lunch instead to pick up the puppy.

We fell in love instantly:

We brought a cardboard box to take him home which became the puppy's home until his crate came:

I played with the puppy all afternoon then we waited upstairs for Elle to come home from school.

Unfortunately, Elle heard the puppy before she saw him so the surprise wasn't as complete as I'd hope.  She was still shocked by the whole thing, so that's good!  In fact, she still finds herself saying, "We have a puppy?!" 

I think this captures how happy she was:

We couldn't decide on a name, but we finally settled on Jake after "Jake the Dog" from Adventure Time.  

 Chris and I didn't really know what to do that first night.  "Do we need a baby monitor?" We finally put up his pen in the laundry room and put him in his little box.  We both slept on the couch and took turns telling him everything was OK.
When his crate/home finally came, we decided to keep it (locked) in our room at night so we could take him out.  Thankfully, he knows just what to do when we take him outside a 1:00 am, 3:00 am, 5:00 am, and 7:00 am.  Chris and I take turns during the night and Elle is so good to help out when she's home.

Elle took this picture which is so stereotypical it made me laugh:

He was kind of smelly but it was too cold to give him a bath right away.  We waited a week until it was a little warmer:

 Aw! "Puppy's First Bath"  We're so pathetic.   We call him Elle's brother and Chris and I are mom and dad.

It's so fun when he is sleepy and snuggles on our laps:

One day I looked in and he wasn't there!

Then I looked harder:

Cute little puppy!

He gets sassy sometimes, but we really love him.

Welcome to our home, Jake!

Elle the Chef!

Elle is compiling a cookbook for college (which is crazy close).  She looked through cookbooks, chose meals, made a grocery list, shopped for the ingredients with me, and made all the food!

She even typed it all up in an organized fashion on google docs.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't think to take pictures of all the amazing meal she made!  Here are a few that I took when I came to my senses:

The falafels: 

 

Strawberry apple salad and sun dried tomato sandwiches:

Poblanos stuffed with chicken and cilantro rice on the side:

Potato soup and salad with homemade raspberry vinaigrette: 

 

Then the other day Elle made a recipe from this cool cookbook:

 Orange marmalade sponge cake:

 

She's pretty amazing! (not to mention organized!)  Way to go, Elle! :)

Elle's talk

Elle gave a talk today!!

Hi, I’m Elle. . . I was asked to speak on honesty and integrity.  In True to the Faith under honesty, it says “To be honest means to be sincere, truthful, and without deceit at all times.” Some people may think that honesty is unimportant and they rationalize cheating, stealing or lying.  However, The for the strength of youth pamphlet states that: “When you are honest in every way, you are able to enjoy peace of mind and maintain self-respect. You build strength of character, which allows you to be of service to God and others.” Choosing to be honest is always the best choice, it blesses you and others.  Honesty helps us build trust and character.  Integrity and honesty are very close in meaning.  

The For the Strength of youth pamphlet defines integrity as  “thinking and doing what is right at all times, no matter what the consequences.”  Integrity not only means doing right when others are watching, but even when we are alone.  When we are honest all the time, to ourselves, to others and to God, we will be blessed.  One of the greatest blessings that comes with being honest is having the companionship of the holy ghost

In my english class last year, each week, we were assigned a story or two to read that we might be tested on.  Some people decided not read the stories and they got all the answers from friends in previous classes.  I decided that I would read the selected stories and if I forgot to read them, I would accept the poor grade on the quiz.  This choice to be honest by not cheating made me happier with myself and I knew that I could feel good about my grade, even if it was lower. I know that choosing to  use our integrity will make us happy and as it says in Proverbs 12 “they that deal truly are his delight.”  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.