30 Candles for Yana Mama!

My beautiful Sister in Law Yana celebrates her 30th birthday this month so HeaBug, Breezer and I picked up our girl Yana and had tea at the a"cute"able Elise's Tea Room in Bixby Knolls! We dressed in our "lady tea clothes" and had the following at our full tea:

Original and Apple Cinnamon Scones with Devonshire Cream, Lemon Curd and Blackberry Jam

Lobster Bisque
Egg salad, chicken curry salad, cucumber, cream cheese with chives, 

black olive, and apple pecan tea sandwiches

Key Lime, Lemon and Caramel Cakes

and pots of Apple Cinnamon, French Vanilla Almond and Spiced Chai teas.

 It was wonderful to spend a few hours with the girls celebrating such a kind, talented and beautiful woman. I'm blessed to have her in my life and even more fortunate to call her sister and friend. She's a wonderful wife and mother, and a beautiful example of womanhood.

Happy Birthday to my darling sister Yana!

First Day of School!

We officially have ourselves a Kindergartner! We were luck enough to get accepted at an excellent Charter School in the LB District and are so excited for this school year!

Every First Day of School, the kids can have ANYTHING they want for breakfast... JT prepared for the day with Oreos in Milk!

 

Mrs. S invited parents to stay while she read a story to the class, then all the new Kindergartners blew kisses to their parents and sent us off. They have full day Kinder so J.T. is 9-3 everyday! We asked how school was when we picked him up and he told us that it had been the best day of his life! and that Mrs. S was the BEST teacher in the world. So proud of our little guy!

The Last Days of Summer

We LOVE summer and love to stay busy, busy, busy. Between daily 49er camp at CSULB (only for 5 weeks thank goodness!) and weekly piano, twice weekly jiu jitsu and thrice weekly Spanish lessons, we tried cramming as many fun things as possible in before JT started school.

The last two weeks we had lots of fun with our friends the Long Beach M's. We visited Pretend City, which was lots of fun... It's an entire community made for kids where they can dress up and "work" at different stations (marina, restaurant, fire house, police station, gas station, beach, farm, stage, home construction, market), getting stamps on their time card which they can then turn in to the ATM for pretend cash. With their cash they can choose to spend it, save it or donate it. I loved the concept and while I personally felt a little over stimulated around SO many little people, the kids and lillo B of the Long Beach M's had a great time together!

manning the boad, like older B's before hime

groceries bought with earned pretend city money!

Don't know where she gets her "razzle dazzle" haha

We spent an afternoon at Buccaneer Bay which is in Splash, an Aquatic Center for the city of La Mirada. SO much fun, after waiting a little bit to snag "beach side" seats, we planted down and enjoyed an afternoon of splashing, sliding, swimming and friends! A mini water park designed especially for little ones, there's a super fun playground in 2 feet of water. All little ones under 48" are required to wear life vests that are provided free of charge. There's a lazy river (my fave!), that was moving more swiftly than lazily, three "big kid/grown up" slides that Mrs. M of the Long Beach M's and I took turns going down. We ate hot dogs and pb&j's from the snack bar and rode it out until J.T., lilloB, and Hea Bug started to melt down as a result of no naps. Good fun though and yay our admission included a free pass to return! Better get back soon before it gets too cold, good thing the pools are all heated!

That very evening Grandpa B scored us a stack full of tickets to see Walking With Dinosaurs at the Honda Center! SOO cool! The Long Beach M's joined us and our Booth fam for awesome front row center seats. We enjoyed the show and the back stage tour where the kiddos were simultaneously awed and freaked out at the life like, giant dinosaurs.

Summer was grand, family is good, friends are fun and we are so blessed.

Herb Booth, heaven's gain.

      

Herb V. Booth
September 7, 1929  -  August 22, 2010

Herb was born September 7, 1929 in Wilmar, CA (which is now Alhambra) to Dewey and Dorothy (Smith) Booth. The 2nd of five children he had an older sister Nora, younger brother Ed and younger twin sisters Donna and Diane. He spent his youth in El Monte, California. He attended school there, played football and wrestled. Herb began working for the Plumbers Union Local 494 at 17. He was drafted to the US Army and after training at Camp Roberts, he left to the Korean Conflict from San Francisco. It was his first time being out of California. He was serving as a Corporal until January of 1953 and in September of that same year, married his sweetheart Martha Mae (Jinks) and they began their family in Long Beach, California.

He became a proud father to four sons: Gary, Donald, Ronald and Thomas. After Herb retired as a Master Plumber with 35 years in the trade he worked as a Park Ranger for the Boy Scouts. A lifelong Scouting enthusiast, Herb earned as a leader the Golden Arrow training award, which had actually been awarded to him while he was in Military Service in Korea. He also earned a Scouting adult leader’s highest award, the Silver Beaver. It it given to those who implement the scouting program and perform community service through self sacrifice, dedication and many years of service which he had shared with Pack and Troop 59. For 8 years, Herb, Mae and their family lived at Will J. Reid Scout Park in Long Beach, California where Herb was the Ranger and from there, went on to spend 12 years on top of “The Hill” at Camp Tahquitz, in the San Bernardino Mountains. Herb is member of the Tribe of Tahquitz as well as a 3rd degree mason.

Herb and Mae moved to Kingman, AZ after retiring (again), this time from 20 years of service to the Boy Scouts of America. A resident of almost 20 years in Kingman, he enjoyed undertaking projects around the house, playing bones (dominos) and bowling weekly with Mae and their friends and family. Herb attended Kingman Christian Church and the children there, as well as his grandchildren and great grandchildren benefited from his love and talent of working with wood.

 Always creating new toys and projects to keep himself and the little ones busy and happy, he enjoyed being in his shop. Herb could always be found, at any age, fixing something for a neighbor or helping out a friend. He wasn’t comfortable with lots of recognition and took joy in knowing he was doing something kind for someone else.

Herb departed this earth to be with our Lord on Sunday Morning, August 22, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was in the presence of his sweetheart of 57 years Mae and his sons Ron and Tom. He was greeted on the other side by sons Gary and Donald, Parents, Dewey and Dorothy, and sisters Nora and Donna.

He is survived by His loving wife Mae, Sons Ronald and Thomas and their families, 12 grandchildren and their families, 6 great grandchildren, his beloved Sister in Law, and nieces and nephews.

Herb V. Booth was a man that worked very hard and was loved very much.

to eternity and beyond...

Our family was sealed for time and all eternity in the Los Angeles Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday, July 17th, 2010.

When Mr. B was baptized a member of the church J.T. asked him, "Why do you want to be a Mormon? They don't drink coffee." (we don't drink coffee anyways so no sacrifice there). He told J.T., "I love you and your sister and you mommy so much, if there's any chance we can be together forever, I'm going to take it." And take it we did. 1 year and 1 week after Mr. B was baptized, we took our family to the temple. We were sealed, Mr. B and myself first to each other, then J.T. and Hea Bug to us.

I was a little anxious about going to the temple to do our endowments the night before because I wasn't sure what to expect. People keep saying that no one talks about it because it's sacred, not secret. But to those for whom it's not sacred, it just seems like a giant box of secrets. It was far less weird than I'd imagined it to be and turned out to be pretty special. I know I looked like the giant "newbie" because as we walked through the temple I'm gawking at the beauty of it's interior. Beautiful paintings, lighting and Austrian drapes (which are my favorite) were everywhere and I looked all around wanting to soak up every second of being in there. It was great though.

My favorite moments of the experience of being sealed to my family were:

     Walking into a room filled with friends and family all in white. Some faces I hadn't seen in years and it was a pleasant surprise to find them there. I'll tell you one thing though, as soon as I was kneeling across from my husband, I only had eyes for him. I couldn't have cared less if there were 30 pairs of eyes on me, he was all that I could see. I know every square inch of his face and while after loving him for almost a dozen years it shouldn't surprise me, I found that I re-fall in love with him every time I look at him. Especially at that moment.

     When my kids were brought up from the nursery downstairs and J.T. walked into the beautiful sealing room in his little white suit and tie with such confidence of where he was supposed to be. He told he me he tried to keep Hea Bug awake for the "blessing" but she was just too tired.
     As we're waiting in the lobby for Mr B. who was somehow swept up with the rest of the "grooms" (btw, 17 couples were sealed that day!!) Hea Bug is unapologetically taking off (as fast as one can in adorable poufy white dresses) down long halls that look perfect for straight shot running for tiny people. Instead of nasty stares for inappropriate behavior, we got smiles of understanding and some "how sweet" whispers. I guess the only time pint sized people are in the temple are when they're being sealed to their families so I can only imagine they were so happy for us to even be there that they didn't mind her cuteness.
     At the last moment before we stepped outside into the July heat, J.T. informs us that he thinks he just might live here at the temple. Mr. B told him that there's no TV to watch... J.T. says Heavenly Father could help him build one.

The crazy heat and our family awaited us outside. We were glad to be able to head home where we knew food and cake would be. Normally we throw our parties with a mix of indoor/outdoorsy-ness but the heat kept us and our guests inside surrounding the table of food, occasionally popping over to the portable A/C that Mr B hooked up literally the night before. We had hours of good eats and great conversation. Our kids all enjoyed trampolining, playing and chasing each other and were duly awarded unlimited popsicles. The day was a beautiful one. We experienced beautiful and eternal things and enjoyed amazing company.

Glad to know that we'll have that opportunity in heaven and that we'll all be together.