Plus One

Gabe played in the rec center volleyball league again this fall.  His age group placed him in the middle league, but he wanted to play in the upper division so that he would be able to learn more and challenge himself.  As a result, he was place on a team comprised of all girls, most of the in the 8th grade.  To top it off, they selected the name "Spiker Chicks" with an addendum of "plus one".  Gabe was not particularly pleased with this situation, but he made the best of it.  Eventually he somewhat embraced his "plus one" status, especially after his coach required that he give high fives to the girls after every play.
In addition to the unique makeup of the team, he had an unusual coaching staff.  Jayd was assigned to coach his team.  I was a little worried that they wouldn't be able to separate being brothers from being co-players.  That is a difficult skill when one of the participants is an adult.  But they did very well.  I was there as assistant coach to step in when necessary, but other than a few verbal reminders (this is your coach, not your brother right now.....this is your player, not your brother right now, etc), they did fairly well.  Jayd had a lot that he could teach Gabe, and Gabe recognized that Jayd knew what he was doing and tried to learn from him.  Jayd seemed to take a particular interest in helping Gabe to improve.  It turned out to be a memorable experience for both of them.
Gabe played hard throughout the season.  Despite his youth, he was one of the better players on the team.  His passing was reliable, he hustled on the court, put down a few spikes for kills, and he managed to serve a few jump serves.

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely thanksgiving dinner in our home this year.  We invited our good friends, Steve and Julie Busco and their children.  Julie's parents, Skip and Sandy Worrells, were also visiting for the week, so they came to dinner also.  We had stayed at their house in Seattle 8 years ago, so it was very nice to catch up with them.  We had a nice dinner, then played a fun game of volleyball before eating dessert.

Halloweeeeeeen

For Halloween this year, we chose the theme of Little Red Riding Hood.  Gabe wanted to be the wolf, and Allie volunteered to be Little Red.  I was the Granny and Jeff was the Huntsman.  After Halloween, I reflected on the brutality of the story, basically we all kill each other.  But in this particular instance of the story, we are a loving family.  I was voted best Grandma at the ward party, beating all of the other "real" grandmas in the room.

Skipping Halloween:  I have been waiting to post this until I could put pictures up, but somehow we lost the pictures that we took!  I will keep looking for them.

A Frightful Evening

I took Allie and Gabe to Frightfest at Magic Mountain on Friday night.  Allie and Gabe were a little aprehensive about going to Frightfest.  I took them there 4 years ago and they did not like the ghouls, zombies and monsters.  But I thought that 4 years of maturity would help them get past the fear.  We arrived a little early for Frightfest, and spent the time going on some of our favorite rides.  Then, at 7:00, the ghouls came out.  It was very fun.  As I predicted, Allie and Gabe were not afraid of the zombies, they would defiantly look at them and just tell them to go away.  There were "scare zones" corridors through the park where the zombies hung out.  There were often black lights and fog machines to create an air of mystery.  The zombies/ghouls would sneak up to you and often jump right in front of you with their face in your face.  Gabe didn't like them invading his personal space.  I thought it was very fun to see the creative costumes.  There were ghouls on stilts, some had clackers on their shoes to make a loud noise when they lunged at you.  Others had special knee pads that would send out sparks as they slid across the sidewalk towards you.  It was very creative and fun.  We also enjoyed going on the rides in the dark.  They didn't turn on the spotlights, so it was much darker on the rides.  Maybe it was an illusion, but it felt like the rides were even going faster in the dark.

A Fall Visit

This week my sister left the beautiful fall colors of Colorado to come and visit our Indian summer in California.  With her came my three nephews.  They did a lot of falling around the house, especially the youngest who is crawling and learning to stand and walk.  But we loved having them here.  Allie and Gabe were worried that after a six month absence, they wouldn't remember us very well.  When they arrived, the oldest bounded out of the car, leapt into our arms and said, "I am so happy to come to your house!  I really wanted to come!"  It just melted our hearts.  We didn't do anything spectacular, just play with the marble tracks, do puzzles, build lincoln log towers, and chase them around the house.  We had a great time, and miss them already.

A Trip to the Islands

For many years, our ward would host a luau as a ward activity.  It was always held at the home of one of our ward members.  As that couple grew older, they asked not to continue with the tradition of having it at their home.  At that point, it seemed that the tradition would die, as we did not have a luau for several years.  But this year, it returned.  It was held in the pavillion behind the church.  First we had a delicious americanized island dinner complete with roasted pig.  Then we watched the dancers perform dances that were simple and graceful, heartpounding and enthusiastic, terrifying and amazing, and all mesmerizing.  it was a fun evening as we took a "trip to the islands"

The Road to Eagle

The road to becoming an Eagle Scout starts out humbly with becoming a tenderfoot scout.  Gabe has made a goal to become an eagle before he is 14.  Becoming an eagle requires 21 merit badges, and going through the rank of tenderfoot, 2nd class, 1st class, Star, Life and then Eagle Scout.  Since Star, Life and Eagle scout have time requirements he was hoping to attain the rank of 1st class quickly, while working on the many required merit badges.  He was finally able to finish his Tenderfoot requirement two weeks ago when the troop went on a campout to the Little Steamer's Train Club.  The boys had a great time riding on the trains, and even were able to perform a service project for the club the following morning.  This week, we focused on finding wildlife in our neighborhood.  We have been actively looking for animals, then hoping they will stay still while we rush for the camera.  In addition, we also completed the swimming requirements.  We selected the hottest day of the week (this is fall in Southern California, temperatures will range from 60 degrees to 105 degrees), and went to a friends pool to practice swimming and lifesaving techniques.  He only has a few requirements left, but among them are two more campouts.  Hopefully they will be able to go soon so that he can start the clock ticking on those time requirements!  In the meantime, he has finished 11 merit badges, has 3 more nearly done, and 2 more that he is interested in completing.  We are really enjoying scouts!

Allie playing football?

This week, Allie's band class played alongside the high school band at the varsity homecoming football game.  She was very excited to be playing at the game, it was so much fun for her to sit with her class and enjoy the game.  Most of the time they played at the same time as the high school, but during the end of the second quarter, the high school band departed to prepare for the halftime show.  The team happened to score two touchdowns while they were gone!  So the middle school class was able to show their colors by playing a celebratory song without the support of the high school band.  It was very exciting.  Another small personal miracle occurred prior to the game.  Jayd allowed Allie to borrow his volleyball sweatshirt so she could be warm and spirited at the same time.  Unfortunately lightening didn't strike twice, we lost the game in overtime when we failed to achieve a two point conversion.  It was a disappointing end.

It's a Hurricane

This summer, Allie, Gabe and I had season passes to Hurricane Harbor in conjunction with our passes to Magic Mountain.  It was really fun.  We went there several times this summer.  Sometimes we would go to Hurricane Harbor for a few hours, then go over and ride a few rides at Magic Mountain, then go back to Hurricane Harbor to cool off, or vice versa.  It made the day very cool and flexible.
Our favorite areas of Hurricane Harbor was the Endless River and the Wave Pool.  Allie and Gabe named all of the exits along the river to improve communication.  We spent a lot of time floating around the river.  The wave pool was equally exciting.  The waves would go off rhythmically every 15 minutes.  They enjoyed staying near the wave producer and riding the swells up and down.  Sometimes they would go nearer the "shore" and body surf on the waves.  It is really fun and refreshing.
We didn't like waiting in line for rides, so we didn't go on them very often, but we did go on nearly every ride at some time.  Our favorite was the bonzai slides.  They were terrifying and exhilarating.  you started the ride standing in a large tube.  They closed the hatch, then a voice counted down and the floor dropped out from under me.  We dropped straight down the chute.  I have to admit, the anticipation of standing in the tube, waiting for the floor to drop out from under you was more stressful than the ride itself.  The ride was over very quickly, and before you knew it, you were spewing water out of your nose and mouth and back on solid ground.  It was very fun.

Beach Volleyball

For the first time, Jayd's highschool has joined a beach volleyball league.  So he is playing volleyball on the beach every Saturday for the month of September.  It has been really fun to go and watch his games.  The atmosphere on the beach is so much more relaxed than in the gym.  The players have to switch sides after every 7 points, and they often slap hands and exchange smiles and jokes as they pass one another.  They compliment each other when they had a great play, even though they may have lost the point.  The spectators are relaxed and casual.  It is a much different feeling, more like we are all just friends getting together to spend a day at the beach. 
There are only two players on a team, so they play a lot of volleyball.  They are almost guaranteed to hit the ball at least once for every point.  Even though this is the first time that Jayd's school has played on the beach, they are doing fairly well.  We expected to be overwhelmed by the more experienced competition, but Jayd has won 5 of his 6 matches so far.  With no expectations of success, winning a few games would have been exciting!  It is fun to see him playing so well and enjoying the competition. 

Trading Spaces

Since Maddie has departed, the greatly anticipated event of changing rooms has occurred.  With only 3 children in the house, they each have their own room.  The boys were thrilled since they have been sharing a room since Gabe was born.  They did not start moving the moment Maddie left, due to an edict from the Queen (Mom) That no movement would occur until Labor Day weekend.  But as soon as I returned from Utah, we started to move rooms.  Allie moved into Maddie's old room.  But she did not get Maddie's bed.  We moved Gabe's bunk beds back into Maddie's room.  Maddie's bed went into Jayd's room.  We realized that he has been sleeping in a bunk bed since he was 7 years old.  We decided that it was time for our 6'4" son to have a bed where he could actually sit up.  Gabe moved into Allie's old room with the king size bed.  He's not thrilled about this move.  He likes having his own space, but wishes that there was a little more space and a little less bed.  He is willing to bear these circumstances because he knows that once Jayd leaves next year, he will have the largest room in the house....but for now, that honor goes to Jayd.  Jayd quickly rearranged his room once the beds were settled.  He had apparently given a lot of thought to the arrangement, and it looks very comfortable, and spacious.  He is happy with his personal area.  Immediately upon completion of the move, Allie and Gabe began to build permanent forts in their rooms!  Aah, the joys of having your own room!

Flying Away and Back to the Nest

This week, I took my baby back to her birthplace, and left her there.  It was a bit sentimental to think that 18 years ago, she was born while we were living on campus at school, and now, she is returning a full fledged college student ready to try life on her own.
We had a great trip.  We stopped by the St. George Temple to do baptisms for the dead on the way there.  It was very sweet to be in the temple with Maddie.  Then we stayed with my parents in law for a night or two.  Then we were off to the dorms.  We moved all of her stuff into the apartment, then started making lists of things we wanted to add, and things that she forgot at home!  We had a good time cooking for ourselves, watching Netflix, and lots of shopping.  Maddie was a little timid with the shopping, she said, "Mom, this is really strange, you hate shopping.  I am not quite sure what to do."  But in the end, I felt comfortable leaving her there.  She was prepared to try things on her own.  I will miss her, but I know that it is where she is supposed to be.  The joy of watching her become independent is dwarfing my sadness that she is gone.

Magical Moments

Since I have a season pass to Magic Mountain, I was able to bring a friend for free during August.  So on Thursday, I took my best friend to Magic Mountain.  Jeff and I went on a date, no kids.  We had a great time.  We tried all the different soda flavors and went on several roller coaster rides.  Jeff was excited because he was finally able to go on Superman.  He has tried many times to go on that ride, but was thwarted by various events, the line was obscenely long, the ride was closed down, or no one would go with him.  This time, all three occured to some degree, the line was over an hour long, the ride broke down while we were in line, adding another 15 minutes to our wait time, and I would not go on the ride with him!  But I was willing to wait in line with him, and he really enjoyed the ride.  In addition, we went on Colossus for the last time.  It is a huge wooden roller coaster and they closed it this weekend.  It wasn't our favorite ride, and for the past few years, they ran the cars backwards most of the time, so I hadn't been on it for many years.  But after we went on it for the last time, we thought it was a pretty good ride, it had several great drops and was a very long ride.  I am glad we went on it for the last time.

No More White

This week, I painted the last white wall in my house.  That's right, there aren't any white walls left in my house.  It doesn't really seem like it because the trim, the doors and the ceilings are still white.  I didn't even really notice until Maddie pointed it out.  Then I had to run around the house and check, but it is true, it was the last white wall in the house.
Where was it?  The kids/guest/general bathroom of course. It really needed to be a different color since the whiteness of the wall and the ceiling made it look big and empty.  It is basically the same color as the hallway.  I haven't decided yet if I am going to paint under the chair rail.  I might paint it blue.  But after painting it, I decided to move the beach wall into the bathroom.  The pictures look right at home on that wall, and the shells will make lovely decorations.  I don't even miss the display in the living room.  The whole move was a good thing and has improved both rooms in my house.

Since we were working on the bathroom, we decided to remove the toilet for a day or two, then put it back on.......okay, not really.  That was not part of the remodel, Gabe flushed a handful of paper towels down, and it was the only way to get them out.  It was great fun (tongue in cheek) to explain to the Japanese student that the toilet was missing, and she would have to use our bathroom for the day.

Welcome from Japan

For the past two weeks, we have been hosting a foreign exchange student from Japan.  Her name is Hitomi.  So we have been doing all sorts of activities with the Japanese group, playing games, going swimming, and trying new foods.  We even took her to TP someone's house. 

She is a little camera shy, somewhat surprising, so I don't have a very good picture of her.  The whole things is really filling up our last days of summer with a plethora of activities.

A Glimpse at Balboa

We headed down to the Balboa House again this year.  But as the children have become busier with their own lives, it has become more difficult to go as a family down to the house.  So this year, it was a short, but very sweet trip.
The whole family headed down on Saturday afternoon.  We arrived just in time for Maddie and Patrick to go around the island on the kayaks before darkness set in.  Maddie always likes to go around the island, so it was very important that she went!
Sunday we tried to do as many things possible.  We played games in the morning.  Patrick introduced us to scrabble.  Allie really enjoyed playing it and continued playing by herself for the remainder of our time down there.  She had some very interesting words during her own games!
We went to church.  That was one of the biggest sacrament meetings that I have ever attended.  We arrived were barely able to snag some seats in the back.  More people poured in and they continued setting up chairs until the entire cultural hall was filled!  After church, we took a quick look at the temple.

We went for our traditional Sunday afternoon walk around the island, although this year we walked all the way around the island, we usually skip the west side of the island since it is crowded with shops.
After dinner we walked down to the beach to eat ice cream.  That is our new Balboa tradition.  Since we seem to be there on Sunday's, buying ice cream on Saturday, then eating on the beach is a better tradition for us.  Then it was time for Jeff, Maddie, Patrick and Jayd to head home.  It was a quick little family day, but with work and other activities, that was all that we were able to do.
Allie, Gabe and I spent another two days at the house.  We had a very relaxing time.  We went to the beach, swam in the harbor, went on the kayaks, rode bikes around the island, built sand castles, and played lots of video games!  It was very nice to just do things as they came without a schedule.

I Love to See the Temple

Over the past two weeks, our family has gone on a grand tour of the Old South.  We have had a great time, and would love to share our adventures with you.

Our first and last stop was the temple.  Whenever we travel, we like to stop and see the temples in the cities we are visiting.  We walk around the temple as a family, and take a picture to put on our wall.  If possible, we do temple baptisms.  Prior to this trip, we had seen at least 29 temples.  This trip added another seven temples to our list.  We started with the Mesa, Arizona.  A pioneer temple, we loved seeing the Greek features, including several friezes of the pioneers coming across the plains.  

 The Gila Valley, Arizona Temple brought us along the pathway less traveled to find the temple in the middle of nowhere.  There wasn’t really a town, stores, or even a gas station.  One or two houses, a temple, a stake center, and a fabulous softball field.  What a group of stalwart members must live in that valley! 

 The Dallas Temple reminded us a lot of the Chicago temple.  We noticed that there weren’t any windows at this temple.  Allie has a special connection here, she alone was able to do temple baptisms here, a place where none of her siblings have been.   

The Baton Rouge Temple was very pretty.  It was a mini-temple built in the year 2000.  We were surprised that the temple was smaller than the adjacent stake center, but it outshone the stake center in every way.   

 

The Houston Temple was very pretty.  We especially enjoyed walking around this temple.  There was a forest with a brick pathway leading you through.  It was peaceful, quiet, shady and very unique.   

 

The San Antonio temple was beautiful.  Even from the outside, the stained glass windows were enormous, and vibrantly colored depictions of forests, water, and the sun.  I can only imagine how much more brilliant they would have looked from inside the temple.   

 

The Gilbert, Arizona temple was our last stop on the way home.  It is the newest temple on our trip.  Despite the 110 degree heat, the temple grounds were green and inviting.  We loved seeing all of the temples on our itinerary.  It reminds us of our purpose here on earth, and of the importance of being an eternal family.  We can’t imagine a more appropriate stop on our family vacation!

The Road to Dallas

The journey out to Texas was at a slower pace.  With just three of us, we had a little more room to relax and enjoy.  We stopped at Carlsbad Caverns to see the beautiful wonders that are hidden deep within the earth.  It was amazing.  The formations in the caves were just astounding.  They were so big, yet they take so long to make.  The ranger pointed out some formations that were 80 years old.  They were only about a half inch long.  Some of the formations that we saw were 20 feet tall.  Incredible!  My favorite part of the tour was when the guide turned out the lights (standard), then turned on a candle lit lantern to show us what the early cave explorers would have seen as they traveled through this geological wonder.  It was so different to see the features individually from a single light source.  The shadows created by them were full of character.  That was one of the most unique experiences.

We also made a stop in Dallas.  My cousin lives there, so we spent a few days with her and her family.  We went to Six Flags over Dallas.  I took 6 kids to the amusement park myself.  We had a great time on the rides, and being together.  That theme park has a lot of flair, and a whole lot of Texas in its theme!

We also visited downtown Dallas to see the site of the Kennedy assassination.  After seeing so many movies about the assassination, I really enjoyed seeing this location.  With the exception of a few markers, it really isn’t any different from that fateful day.