Our last day carnival

On Friday there was an end-of-year carnival in our courtyard. Dinner was provided, which was awesome since I had already emptied the fridge and packed up the cupboards. We were leaving the next morning super early and this was our last Stanford shebang before many (most) of our neighbors moved--and not like our Summer move, theirs is a forever move. Sad.
The Carnival in a very few pictures looked something like this:

 Games galore with the most incredible signage ever. If I ever need signs made, I'm hiring Grace.

A dessert contest that was seriously delicious! That carrot cake was the winner, winner and our neighbors were the bakers. They are lucky they are moving before we get back to Stanford because were they still there when we get back I'd be beggin for them to make that cake again. Yum! My contribution to the dessert contest was Red Vines. Classy, I know.

Everett's first all-his-own balloon animal. A giraffe. And James, who was tired but excited after finishing his last final of the quarter--an 8 hour beast of an exam!

T the Tiger--the first time he let them paint his face! I was so excited. He was adorable, but bummed that they wouldn't make his legs look like a tiger too!

Not a picture of the carnival, but too cute to pass over. T and Cedar-girl on their last day of swim lessons.

Um, I kind of forgot to tell you that we were moving

And now we already have!

We are calling this place home for the next few months and we are already loving it.

But before we dive into LA-living, I need to catch up about our last few day at Stanford (until next year, that is!)  

These pictures make me smile

We lucked out with the greatest neighbors this last year and I am feeling pretty sad about everyone heading their separate ways. I found these two pictures from crazy dinners we have had in the last month and they made me smile so big. Goodbye friends, we love you!

Evie's First Ride

We went to Happy Hollow again last week. Those annual passes we bought ended up being the best deal ever! I love it because it's small and easy, but the boys both really enjoy it.

And for the first time Evie got to ride some rides as well...

T's FAVORITE ride ever. Everett liked it as well. Talmage was really cute with Evie, letting him ring the fire bell. They rode this one a couple of times together.

 Both boys really liked this ride, but I had no idea when I put them on it that it not only went around in circles but also jumped up and down. Bad idea Mom, bad idea! While Evie was putting his hands in the air and laughing hysterically, I was sweating bullets and praying that he didn't fall out! Needless to say, we're not going to be riding the ladybugs for a while.

Happy Hollow has switched to their summer hours so we had plenty of time to walk around the Zoo. Usually all T wants to do is ride the rides, but after a few hours he was ready to see the animals.

T really wanted to ride the dragon on the Carousel and I helped him hop right up. When Evie and I were walking outside, an employee told me that I had to ride with T. I put Evie on the tiger next to T's dragon and buckled them both in. Then the ride-guy came over to tell me that Evie was too little to ride on the tiger. I asked if I could climb on with him...but that was a no as well. So instead we headed over to the Carousel benches and took a seat. Luckily Evie's young enough that he didn't have a melt down over not riding an animal.

In fact, I think he rather preferred sitting down, eating my necklace and patting my face!

National Doughnut Day

Just in case you thought we forgot about National Doughnut Day...

We didn't!

The missionaries came over for dinner and we had doughnuts for dessert. One of our missionaries is from New Zealand and had a hard time believing National Doughnut Day was really a holiday.

"Do you have all of the random holidays written in your calendar?" he asked me.

Heck. If it means I have an excuse to buy and eat doughnuts I will fully support National Doughnut Day. And any other sugary pastry day that anyone wants to throw on the calendar.

My favorite face

He scrunches his nose. He purses his lips. He squints his eyes. And he huffs and puffs.

Both of my boys, and my sweet little nephew, have all done this same face at this same age and it's my favorite ever. Evie's personality is getting stronger everyday and he makes me laugh.

Love him.

The thing about hiking...

The pictures are a beautiful memory.

And I wish I could say that the hike in Russian Ridge was as glorious as the pictures make it seem.

But alas, in the interest of honesty and transparency,

the hike was mostly lame.  

The thing about hiking is that when 3 out of the 4 hikers have undiagnosed strep throat and the 4th hiker has a crazy allergy attack, it kind of sucks the fun right out of an otherwise awesome experience. Screaming and crying is all we heard as we hiked up the mountain. Whining is all we heard on top. And when we started hiking down again, you guessed it, screaming and crying!

We bribed T with cheetos and that almost put a smile on his face. But not really. Everett was arching his back and slapping food away from his face. We were sharing the view with one couple who ended up packing their bags and heading off because of the mayhem. I almost felt sorry for those people, but quickly realized that I was the one who had to take these crazy muchachos home...so then I just felt sorry for myself.

Oh well, I'm sure someday we'll go on a hike that everyone enjoys. Until then I'll just look at these pictures, enjoy the views and pretend like it was the perfect way to spend Memorial Day. ;)