Easter with the Gagliardi Family

 

 

 

 This year our kids had two Easter egg hunts. We had one at home with grandma, grandpa, and cousins, and then on EAster we had a small one with Gavin and Renzo. We also celebrated Maddie's birthday on sat and sun, so that all the cousins could be part of it. We taught Gavin and Renzo a little lesson on the resurrection where every plastic easter egg contains a different object pertaining to the days leading to the resurrection. The last egg is empty symbolizing the empty tomb. We are grateful to be with family during these special sacred holidays.

A Visit with our Arizona Friends

 Our friends the Days came to visit. We love having them and spending time catching up. We ent to Portos(amazing bakery in town), this awesome park in Cerritos, out to dinner, and hung out. It's nice to see that even though the kids live far apart from each other, they can still play so well when they see each other, even though it's only once a year.

Charlie the gecko

Charlie is home again.  After a delightful stay at our good friends' home, he had returned.

While he was away, Charlie expanded his tastes from fruit goo food to a live meal.  Can you guess what he ate?  Do you think he liked it?

Tune in next week to find out!

And many thanks to our friends for taking such good care of the reptile while we were out.

Lucked Out

I forgot to move my car out of the road before leaving for Boise.

Somehow, the parking ticket gods smiled upon me, and only issued a warning.

Whew!

teest

gagdsad ag

Maddie and Emily sporting their "George Washington" hairdos in the pool.

Emily Visit

Our family is enjoying their cousin Emily this week. The girls have been enjoying each other. They've swam, done nails, talked, laughed, lit firewoks, painted, made cookies, and even cleaned the kitchen together.

Boy Scouts

Zach's been going to Scouts now for a while, but here are some pics:

Zach at a Merit Badge Day working on the Pets Merit Badge

Zach at the Fall Camp-O-Ree
with Cody Berg and his furry friend

Barker Dam at Joshua Tree

A cold and windy night in March a J-Tree

Seven of the nine boys who went.

Grandma Wilcox's 90th

It was fun to gather together and hear stories from Grandma's life, and about Grandpa, who passed away while I was very young.

Someone had prepared questions about Grandma's life, and we all tried to guess the answers.  This usually led to a story or two from Grandma.

Balboa Park

My first visit to Balboa Park was super.  The place is beautiful.  Being a holiday, many places were closed, so I definitely need to go back sometime.

The kids got to hold some exotic birds which have been rescued.

I still love my sweetie.

Mormon Battalion

For President's Day, we went to San Diego to play for the day.  We went to the memorial center for the Mormon Battalion, where we learned lots and had fun.  What a great place that is!

We also went to Mission Bay and played on kayaks, paddle boats, and stand-up paddle boards.

Zach and Alessandro

Zach and our neighbor Alessandro got ahold of a camera and goofed around in the tree.

Here are some of their top shots:

And here is their best vid:

Abalone Cove

In January, we went to Abalone Cove in Portuguese Bend near Palos Verdes.  We went with a family from our neighborhood, the Yotsov family.

We saw some Brittle Star . . .

some interesting rock formations . . .

with goo oozed out from under the layers . . .

and we saw pretty girls . . .

and were reminded of the wonder and majesty of the sea.