California~ The End

On Thursday, the morning after our three day Disney adventure, some of us went to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping. After we found our souvenirs, the Master and I sat outside in the shade drinking frozen pink lemonades and soaking it all in. We knew that cold weather and rain waited for us back home. You know me, I love a palm tree, so I was just dreaming of living in a sunnier place!

Our "selfie". Not bad for a couple of Baby Boomers!

Nick & Di hamming it up.

The next day was Nick's big day.

After two years of late night study groups, paper writing,

Internships, and plain old work he was receiving his Master's of Social Work 

from

 the University of Southern California.

Diana  made a little cap and gown for Lucas, no pattern!

Nick wanted Lucas to walk with him to get his diploma. We were all worried he might not be a happy camper but he loved every second of it! I swiped a few photos from Diana here.

 Look really close and you can see Nick and Lucas about to get the diploma!

Louie was a big hit! He had everyone smiling. Notice the security guy taking a picture of him!

I absolutely adore this picture! Nick and Diana had been posing for us and Lucas wanted to be a part of it. This photo and the next one speak true joy to me! They did this together with lots of sacrifice and patience

It's always interesting to be in the LA area. You never know who you are going to see. We were standing there and Kareem Abdul Jabar walked by with his SoCal casual Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and straw Panama hat on. My camera was not at the ready for that!

Then we had a fun photo bomber drop by. Nobody famous,

 he just popped into the picture we were taking and congratulated Nick!

Here are the members of the Mowes family who made the trip.

From left are Jessica, Nick's sis-in-law (husband Cameron is in Afghanistan right now), brother Brandon who just graduated from the Navy's nuclear school on the east coast, father Michael, Nick, Lucas being silly, Diana, and mother Tami. Mike and Tami are back in the States after being stationed in Germany. They live in South Carolina now with sister Hanna who was not able to come because of school.

I would like to mention that Jessica is living her dream while her husband is deployed. She is a member of the San Diego City Ballet! Love her darling personality!

Here we are...the Loose gang! Britt, Rachel, Sarah, Dee, Nick, Lucas, Diana, Richard, & Moi. It was Los Angeles and we were the best dressed people there! I told my men they had better wear a tie, it's a graduation for Pete's sake! Richard quickly discarded his! Dee would like me to point out that he forgot his dress shoes at home, and I had a blister the size of a quarter on my right foot so I wore my flip flops, feeling badly about it until we got there and saw how casual the atmosphere was!

 Also present were Nick's grandparents, Gunther and Hannalore. They are so cute!

Apparently it is tradition to have your photo taken by the Tommy the Trojan statue. The line up front was quite long so we sneaked in for a back view!

The next day we headed south to beautiful Laguna Beach for an afternoon of sun and relaxing.

It was so fun to be all together!

I love my kids and it seems they are all heading in different directions geographically, so I cherished this time.

 Louie is such a little water bug! He was totally in his element having been a beach baby his whole long life!

Roxie, on the other hand, was a bit more tentative and did not appreciate the ocean. 

 We had a wonderful trip! 

The best was seeing Nick get that degree and being all together! 

Isn't family just the best blessing there is? 

February~the Frozen Month of Love & Other Stuff

Every February 1st the world anxiously awaits the appearance the next morning of old Punxutawney Phil the Ground Hog, or Agua Fria Freddie the Gila Monster, or Radar the Weather Dog depending on which part of the country you live in. Here in our house though, we sort of forget about the predictors of spring and focus on the Master of the house. He was born on 2/1 which is kind of a cool birthday! He was out of town this year on a recruiting trip on his birthday so we celebrated on 2/2.
  It would have been fun to give him a tutu...get it?








We sent him this photo as a teaser and made him wait until the afternoon of the 2nd, after he had arrived at the airport, after church was over, and after Brittany had a chance to join us. He was such a baby! He wanted to open his big present so badly!

 

My husband loves hot cocoa. He wants to marry hot cocoa he loves it so much! He had a "Cocoa Motion" cocoa maker that sadly broke this fall. He was so sad. We went deluxe this time!

 Here he is checking out the spout and scheming the making of his first batch!

 Valentine's Day was............

 Lucas sent us a darling valentine with his thumbprints. It said "Thumb-body loves you!
 



 As usual Roxie was eager to eat-- umm,  help with the decorations.

 Don't give me that "sorry" face young lady!

 Dee and I ate a yummy lunch a Zupa's and I even pulled off making sugar cookies.
 OK, it was really late when they were done but I did it!

 

 We had a little heat wave in February! It was awesome! Notice, no coat?I am stopped at a red light here, I promise!

Does Roxie lok a bit blurry here? It's because she was! She had her annual dental  cleaning and was coming out of general anesthesia. She was very loopy and could hardly hold herself up! Notice her cute little hospital collar? Yeah, she wanted that thing off ASAP!

 Lucas asks his Mommy quite often if he can Skype with us. He climbs up into the chair and pats the computer. On this morning he showed me his amazing yogurt eating skills. What you don't see is his Momma's face moments later when he tried to feed her!

For the second year in a row I have been blessed to be able to travel with Dee and the BYU Swim & Dive Team to Los Angeles for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. Last year I wrote about my train journey and my four day visit to Diana and her family here.

This year I stayed in LA with Dee and My grandson came to me!

 Here he is opening our little gift for him, Megablox guys to add to his collection, and enjoying them while we waited for our dinner.

Later at the hotel he wanted to try on Pa's swim goggles.             

 

 The next morning I sat outside and read my book while I waited for Nick, Diana, & Lucas to arrive from their hotel. Did I say I was outside...in flipflops?!! Yeah, yeah, I now all of you people in AZ and St. George are not impressed, but I was giddy with happiness!

 Soon enough my kids arrived and we went on jolly adventures with the boy. He loves fireplaces, calling them "hhh-ot". There were two "Hots" in the hotel so he was busy going back and forth between them!

                 Outside "Hot".                                                                                 Inside "Hot".

We waited for the team to return from prelims around noon, then we spent the day together until Dee had to go back to the pool in the late afternoon for finals. Nick and Diana had a proposition for me. They had been given gift cards to have dinner at the Blue Bayou restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Since they hold resident passes they can go in at any time but didn't want to have their restless, squirmy son along. I don't blame them! It's kind of romantic in there! So...

I got to babysit my grandson! We had dinner together in the hotel room and played with anything and everything he could find! It was a busy, busy time. Did I mention that this kid has no hips? His pants are always coming down!

He had to try on the goggles again.

 Next he helped Gramma crochet while we watched some cartoons.

It was getting to be Sleepy Time but the boy would not slow down, so we put on our shoes, and our pants of course, and took a walk.We explored every nook and cranny, every spotlight and flower,

 

 

 Then we came back inside, got into our jammies, and settled in to watch some awesome Olympic bobsledding!

 

 Pretty soon Pa came "home" from the night's swims and the boys watched some Dumbo together. Lucas is really into elephants right now.

If you have stuck through all of these photos until the end you are to be congratulated, or revived! I took a lot of pictures. I love this little boy SO MUCH!
 Next time I post I'll share all about the conference meet with you! We had some great swims!