Let the Summer Begin!

So everyone is back from all places in the world! Daren and Christopher took off on May 12 for the adventure of a life time. They traveled with a group to England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Christopher was in heaven! He was able to travel and see places most people only dream of! He even used a bit of his high school French!--go to Christopher's face book page if you want to see some of his 1500 pictures he took! AMAZING!

Mean while, back at the ranch, I took Laura and Cameron on their first plane ride. We were packed and ready to go the second school was over. We drove to Colorado Springs and stayed the night with my younger brother, Joseph and Jeri. We then boarded a plane for Long Beach, California! Laura and Cameron loved their plane ride! Once in California we were meet by my mother and we spent time in San Diego, Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert. You see my brother has his home in Rosamond. It's really in the middle of nowhere!--and I thought Kearney, Nebraska was the middle of no-where?!

The four of us had a great time eating at In and Out Burger, Jack in the Box , and other fun places. We visited my father's grave and put flowers there! It would have been his 79th birthday this year. We visited La Jolla Shores and the sea lions. We went to Legoland.--a dream of Cameron's. We shopped at Costco and all fun stores from the West coast. We went to Disneyland and played in the swimming pool. We visited old friends at the Grossmont Ward at Church. We ate dinner at Knott's Berry Farm. We did a lot of driving in the car and found traffic to not be one of our favorites. We went to Griffith Observatory and saw the great Hollywood sign. We really enjoyed the weather and all things Southern California. It was a great trip and I was so glad to share some of my favorite places with Cameron and Laura.

My mother was in rare form this trip! We really learned patience and to bit our tongues on this trip! Mom thinks she is the policeman of the world. There were times when she would run her shopping cart into someone because she didn't like how they were acting or the times she would tell people right in front of me that my children were not good kids or that I was a bad mother. We took it all in stride. Mother would spend hours complaining about her circumstances but not having any solution for it! She hasn't changed. I keep thinking she will! She just won't. But that entry in my blog can be for another day!

We, the Snider family, are excited to be back and to be getting into the summer routine. We are swimming, reading, doing math problems, writing in our journals, taking pictures, traveling, hanging, eating free lunch, learning how to play tennis, working on daily chores , scripture reading and playing with our friends. I am only teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer. It' s a great thing! We need a summer like this!

Colin(aka Elder Snider) is doing great in Tecate, Mexico. We counted it the other day and he has been gone a little over 200 days! Time has gone by really fast! We are so proud of him. The Mother's day Skye/phone call with him was perfect! Colin talks like a Mexican. That is a good thing!

So, until Wednesday!