Oak Glen and a 5k All in One Day

Saturday was a busy day for the Christensens that live in SoCal, but none of us were as busy as Steve Jordan, Kiel's brother in law. Friday night we drove to Yucaipa to stay at the Jordon's so we could get up early the next morning and run in the 5k/Triathalon that Steve put together. Shelley, my sister in law, watched Rhyan and Bruce so Kiel and I both could run. Bless her heart she had four kids four and under to watch all at the same time.

It was a lot of fun to run together. Kiel stayed back and waited for me, since I am really out of shape. Steve did a great job putting everything together, poor guy, I have never heard a name called so many times in just an hour. The only thing I will say is, Steve I don't think it was a true 5k because i finished in 28minutes and there is no way I was running faster than 10 minute miles (I was probably doing 13min miles.) Kiel and I want to run in the Crafton Hilltop Challenge every year! I do not dare post the picture of us after the run but is surfacing on certain blogs and on facebook, if you're interested. (I actually don't care I'm just too lazy to copy the picture and load it on here.)

After the run we had breakfast at the Jordan's and went to Oak Glen to pick pumpkins, berries and apples. It turns out the apples and berries were all gone so we let the kids run around and check out the pumpkins.

Above is the one and only shot of us four. Mariah did my hair do you like it?

And finally a good shot of the cousins! Whenever I try and take a picture of them, Bruce is running away, Jack refuses to look at the camera and Mariah says Cheeese.

Here are more pictures of us gallivanting around at Oak Glen.

After lunch we headed home so Bruce could nap. I napped too. It was a day filled with fun!

Yesterday for F.H.E.

Kiel and I thought it would be grand to go to the Temple. I rushed home from work, quickly changed and we were off. But to our disappointment, the Temple was closed :(. Temple work is a great F.H.E. activity for couples like us that have no children, but then it dawned on us, temple workers have families too and they get to be with them tonight :)

Since we were there anyway we took some pictures (are you surprised?) of us at the temple and then went to visit cousin Amy and catch up on some hot gossip.


All pictures in this post were taken by Kiel with his cell phone. To learn more about my religion and why we have temples click here.

Nesting

Dining Room

Tan or Black

Otherside of Dining Room wall

Ps. Kiel would like me to add that I take crooked pictures and that the shelf and artwork mounted on the walls are perfectly level and straight, thanks to Kiel :)

Bathroom

Theme: Black & White w/ accents of Cream

Bedroom

Dodgers Game

Bring Giants fans to a Dodgers game and this is what you get...Melissa bored out of her mind, so she would rather take a picture of her pedicure than watch the game...hot pink toes.

Yum cotton candy!
Kiel wishing I would leave him alone.
Babe, smile for the camera. It's our first baseball game together. Fine, I'll smile for the camera.
Stop pretending like you care who wins and look at the camera.

Ow! Okay fine, I'll leave you alone. Geez.
Finally, I got my picture I wanted.
What an awesome LA thing to do ;)

Shake It

I am the new activities coordinator for the 8 - 11 yr. old girls at church. Yesterday was our first activity and I taught them how to make home made icecream from bags. They had a blast and it turned out really good. It's a great summer activity and very simple so I decided to post for those that have kids and need ideas to entertain them during summer.

Homemade Ice Cream

Ingredients/Materials

1/4 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk or half n half (if allergic to dairy substitute w/juice)
1 Tbls Sugar
Ice
6 Tbls Rock Salt
1 gallon sz ziploc bag
1 pint sz ziploc bag

Steps

1. Fill gallon size bag halfway with ice and add rock salt
2. Fill pint sz bag with vanilla, milk, sugar and seal
3. Place pint sz bag inside gallon sz bag and seal the big bag
4. Shake for apprx. 5 minutes or until you have ice cream
5. Eat!

I also let them top it with sprinkles, we ended up making two bowls each and they loved it! The bags do get really cold so you might want gloves. You can also make other flavors, vanilla was just the easiest.

Happy ice cream making!

Melissa

Bucket List

Kiel and I did a fun family activity for family night. We watched the movie The Bucket List and then began our own bucket list. Here are few things we listed, when we are done we will have 100 items.

1. Go to Israel and see historical sites such as Gethsemane
2. Visit Mt. Rushmore
3. Go to Scotland and eat a chocolate cupcake in the Stirling Castle
4. Sky Diving
5. Go through every temple in the U.S.
6. Ride a bullet train in Japan
7. Walk on the Great Wall of China
8. Eat cheese in Wisconsin and pizza in NY
9. Visit Gettysburg and The Grove
10. Be Amish for a day in Pennsylvania
11. See the Mona Lisa in the Louvre
12. Ride a gondola in Venice
13. Run a marathon
14. Bike around Lake Tahoe
15. Learn to scuba dive

Family Night

Last night was our first family home evening! We saw the movie Angels & Demons and really enjoyed it. I thought it was so much better than The DaVinci Code. Although both movies are good. After wards we had a late night dinner at The Olive Garden. It was a great night.