Vargas Carnival

Elinor's school held a carnival yesterday that was so much fun! A few good friends from the ward were in charge of big parts of the event, and several ward members pitched in to make things happen, so it was nice to see them and show our support. The kids had a great time deciding how to spend their allotment of tickets. We let Emily and Caleb run around on their own and I loved hearing Emily talk about how she felt so grown up being able to do that. It'll be happening more and more as time keeps speeding by, baby girl!

Jacob and El plus two cute girls from the ward that we see almost daily in the carpool.

One of the reasons we love California made clearly manifest in this pic: Beautiful, beautiful weather. Almost every day.

Doctored

We took a trip to the beach to take some family photos. We didn't have nearly as much success as we had hoped.  Next time, we'll bring a photographer instead of a tripod.

The sun was in the wrong place, but we really wanted the bridge in the background; so we were never not squinting. This is the best shot we got. Elinor's strangling Jacob and hiding behind me. I tried to fix it:

Sigh... that's why I'm a programmer instead of an artist. And why is it that this is the best shot of Jacob we have? He didn't smile the entire day.

Play with me, play with me, play with me please!

It has been play time at the Cooper household lately.  Emily and I had a special trip to see "Wicked".

Amanda and I had a fun date to see "Into the Woods".

But perhaps best of all was Family Home Evening's edition of "More Spaghetti I Say!"
It was advertised in advance with a handful of other shows.

When the big night came, we were so excited! Because we knew the director, we got really good seats. The curtain parted and out came the stars:

Ebony and Ivory

These guys have been working so hard on the piano! I flipped back in the piano notebook and we have been doing lessons for almost exactly 4 years - since April 25, 2012. That is more than half of Caleb's life!

Anyway, here is a recording of their first duet. It was the one and only take of the day after a somewhat rougher attempt a week-and-a-half ago, thus the exuberance at the end. I love seeing them work together and celebrate together. This is one of those awesome parenting moments.

Friday in Felton

My team went offsite to build camaraderie. I think it was effective. It was certainly fun.

The scenery was beautiful. My colleagues and I... maybe not so much.

A bit over a hundred feet above the ground level in a giant California redwood.

I'm psych'ed.

We zipped from tree to tree; it was great.  I tried to enjoy the view as I flew past, but I was typically focused on where I was going to land. I kind of felt like an Ewok... or a resident of Channelwood.

Family Night

We've been hit-and-miss with Family Night, but when we pull it off, it's awesome.

The kids have gotten into taking the stage to fulfill their duties. This week, we had a lesson about Ninjago, but it managed to turn into a lesson on being courageous and working hard.

One of our neighbors held a small piano recital. I wanted to take the kids' picture together there. I tried for a while to get the kids' attention but they were very distracted. As we were leaving, Jacob complained that his back was wet. How did your back get wet Jacob?

Play time

At last, the kids have begun to play together for an extended amount of time without fighting!  We always believed this day would come.  The Playmobil sets have been heavily featured in our home lately.  Awesome toys.  The lion tamer, soccer mom, and hazmat crew often end up teaming up to battle the fairies, unicorns, and medieval knights while the three wise men and pirates stay aloof on the sidelines and the ICU nurse tends to the wounded and children.

Conference

[Mosiah 2:6] And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear...

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We spent Thanksgiving in Utah this year.  It was fun but cold.  The California climate has made us weak.  But the chilly weather couldn't keep us from rockin' out.

Without context