California: Marine Reserve, Beach, Rick's Birthday

As soon as the kids got home from school on Tuesday we headed to Las Vegas. I was nervous about driving to the LV airport (we had to take two separate cars) but Rick guided me through it. We had skipped dinner and of course there was no way that Rick was going to pay the exorbitant prices of airplane food. I had brought along a few granola bars and oranges, but that was about it. So everyone was hungry. But the kids loved playing on the moving sidewalk and escalator, watching the planes, and making silly videos on my phone. We finally arrived and the kids were SO excited to see their cousins! They had set up blow up mattresses for the kids and a couch bed opened up for Rick and I (which ironically enough was actually quite comfortable). 

Wednesday was rainy. We had been worried about the air quality from all of the wildfires in California -- in fact school had been cancelled for the Westras just the Friday before due to poor air quality. But thankfully the air improved before we got there and the rain helped to clear things up even more. The Westras fixed us a big breakfast of pancakes (including gluten free pancakes) and bacon and eggs and all kinds of yummy juices. We all went for walks on the bay trails and they showed us around the neighborhood. It was cool, but I have to admit that the busy city made me grateful for our big house and little town of Santa Clara. It had the opposite affect for Rick. The whole trip made him long for an adventure. He kept saying things like, "Do you think we should move?" 

The Westras brought us to a marine reserve -- it rained the whole way there but stopped once we arrived and so it was perfect!! It was a little chilly, but not too bad. The kids loved looking at all the cool sea life in the tide pools -- they even saw an octopus! We then drove to the beach for the kids to run around but soon they were all in the water and soaking wet!! And it was cold outside! The kids all fought over who got to ride in Trixie (the Tesla) which is actually a self-driving car!! It can't do everything yet and you still have to have to have your hand on the steering wheel. The concept of self-driving cars seems so futuristic to me. I don't think I would trust it! 

After we got back the kids all took showers and washed their wet muddy clothes and the adults went out to a nice restaurant. They offered to take us out for Rick's birthday, which was so nice of them! It was fancier than we are used to -- I didn't even know what half the ingredients were, ha ha. Then we came home and they had bought all of these little cakes (including several gluten free ones) and we had ice-cream. They really spoiled us!

Jaiden: Warrior Idol!

Jaiden was one of eight contestants who make it into Snow Canyon Middle School's Warrior Idol! All of the students were really talented and did a great job! Jaiden totally rocked it! I was so proud of her! She didn't get in the top three but that's okay! She sang and danced and did the Orange Justice (for a minute -- which got a lot of cheers). She  had the audience clapping along and cheering! 

Click HERE to watch Jaiden in Warrior Idol!!  

 

Geckathon

Josh had his Geckathon this morning and Jaiden had her Warrior Idol at the same time. Jase didn't have classes that morning and so he was able to go and cheer him on. I was really sad that I wouldn't be there to cheer him on and so I was happy that Jase could go represent our family and then check him out of school afterwards. I told him to take some pictures and videos, which he did. Josh got three minutes faster than last year (and last year his time was three minutes faster than Jared's time -- I think.) He did well! (Pictured with Tavin Guerisoli.)

Generation Gap Dinner

Generation Gap Dinner: For YW we had a dinner with older generations and played a game kind of like "speed dating" where the young women and young men sat across from an older ward member and asked questions from a list and vice versa and shared information with each other and then moved to the next person. They did it with us as leaders also and I was surprised at how much I actually got to know the kids too! 

Night of Excellence

We had our Night of Excellence on the 7th. These are all our Young Women.  There were two girls missing but I think everyone else was there. We had about 25 YW in the 5th ward and only 17 in the 17th ward. The girls helped to make the decorations for one of their YW nights and also brought items to display. All of the girls sang "Peace in Christ," which they sung at Girls' camp last year. They also sung it in church a couple of weeks ago and were asked to sing it at the Missionary Fireside coming up next month.  

 

Night of Excellence turned out really nice. I had taken pictures of all of the girls on Sundays and had them printed and put them in little frames for the event. The Young Women's organization has a lot of big activities, but they also have a lot of leaders, which really helps to spread the responsibilities around. I love serving with the girls and leaders. It is a busy but fun calling.

 

Janelle earned her Young Womanhood Award this year back in February along with Sophie Smith and so those two were asked to speak. Janelle talked about one of her final projects, which was making a personal history book. I have made a Blurb book for a few of my kids of their early years with tons of pictures and the annual histories they write along with our annual family histories and funny anecdotes and stories. 

 

Janelle's book covers her first five years and we thought it would be a great final project for her to make another book that covered several more years of her life. The ten hour project ended up being more like a hundred+ hour project with the two of us working on it. It turned out really nice and is a wonderful and precious history. Out of all of my kids Janelle is the one who has enjoyed the history books I have made the most and has read them often and pretty much has all of the funny stories and anecdotes memorized. 

 

Pajama Game

Janelle's play started this week. I went to opening night and again Saturday night. Pajama Game is sort of a weird play, but they did well and it was entertaining. The music is catchy enough that all of the kids in our family have been going around singing the songs. Jaiden saw it twice since her drama class went to one of the matinee on a field trip.  I told her I can't believe she knows the songs well enough to sing them around the house after only seeing the play twice. I am glad that Janelle did the play. She had a lot of fun and many of the kids in the play are in Madrigals with her and it helped her to get to know them better.   

Rick went to Salt Lake on Thursday night for a meeting with other teachers and Church employees who work with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He had gone up in the summer and set up a couple of meetings to meet several of the employees in order to introduce himself and share ideas concerning his deaf class. He was excited about going up and meeting everyone and discussing ways they can improve the deaf program. I think he would be a very useful addition with all of his experience in this area. He went up Thursday night and stayed with mom and dad. He was able to meet up with Derek and take a tour of Derek's floor and office while he was there.  

Saturday morning Rick went to Vegas to interpret for several hours. He got home in the afternoon and then we all went to Janelle's play. We enjoyed the show!

 

Jenna Fieldtrip: Town Hall

Thursday I went with Jenna's school class on a field trip to the Town Hall. I was wishing I hadn't signed up, especially since I had volunteered to help with the Halloween party the day before and had a lot to catch up on. But Jenna was thrilled to have me there and the field trip was actually quite interesting. There was lots of neat history that I didn't know about and it was cool seeing all of the exhibits in the museum. 

 

One lady told a story about the old school building that (that looks just like the town hall because the town hall was modeled after it). She said that back then all of the kids would go to school barefoot. One boy (around ten years old) wore shoes because his mom made him. He decided to take them off and run around barefoot like the other kids and so he hid them in a hole in the wall outside of the school. When he went to get them they were gone. One of his friends wanted to play a trick on him and pushed the shoes far back into the hole and apparently they fell somewhere in the wall and were lost. Fast forward many many years when this boy grew up and later became a teacher of the school and later became the principal. After many years it was decided that the school would be torn down and a new school built. He said when the school was torn down he wanted to find his shoes! Well, he looked through the rubble and found one shoe -- the other was lost forever. The old-fashioned shoe now sits in a glass case in the Santa Clara town hall museum.