Monterey, 4/7-4/8, 2009

We left home for Salinas at about 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 7th, trying a route we hadn't used before. This route was recommended to us by the lady with the Australian accent from Erin Clarkson's GPS. Who knew your Garmin could talk like you do? (Erin's actually a Kiwi, but close enough.) It was a full Suburban with Erin and Blake, Diana and Luke and Peter, Emily and I, but what a great group! We made it time for a 1:00 lunch at the Steinbeck house. It was as charming as ever and not at all busy, making us less embarrassed about our brood who ordered pizza from the kid's menu. From there, we dropped off the car at the Victorian Inn in Monterey and caught the afternoon sea otter feeding at the Aquarium. It was great to have two days to see the exhibits. We fit in a lot that day, then returned to the hotel for their "wine and cheese" afternoon snack. Diana and Luke stayed at the hotel while we strolled Fisherman's Wharf. Every restaurant offers samples, and our taste buds got a little confused, but we finally picked clam chowder and calamari from Gilbert's to take back and share. There was a Longs Drug a block from the hotel, so we walked there to buy a half gallon of ice cream for dessert. The hotel had a hot tub for the kids to jump in--a perfect end to our day.
On Wednesday, after a nice little breakfast at the hotel, I thought I was a smarty pants and got us to the Aquarium for the member's early entrance time. Well, I didn't read my member's newsletter carefully enough, shame on me! I had us there at the weekend entrance time of 9:00 instead of the weekday time of 9:30! The docents at the Aquarium were not happy to see us and marched us right back outside. My tour group was very patient with me; we used the extra time to read historical kiosks and take photos. Luke kept turning to look out to the bay when we were trying to get group shots! My favorite exhibit that day was definitley the sea horses. We took in everything--the penguins, the outer bay, the kelp forest, the jellyfish. We tried to spot whales with binoculars out the viewing window, but no luck. There was even a baby area where Luke could lay on a water bed and touch different textures. The other kids loved reaching to touch the bat ray. At lunchtime, we grabbed some goodies from the nearby Nestle's shop and sandwiches from Subway, heading for Dennis the Menace park. The kids played hide and go seek. Our last stop was the beach at Seaside where the kids splashed in an estuary (which a local told us wasn't very clean, so they hopped right back out!) and Emmy and I flew our kite (which nearly bopped Erin on the head several times!) The best news: rain had been predicted during the time we'd be there and we got clear weather instead! I was grateful for our terrific trip.

Spring Break

I hope to blog a lot during the time the kids are out of school. We will do some chores, but I hope to have lots of fun. When I was visiting teaching Thursday, Julie Raybould mentioned it was going to snow in the Sierras. Emily had recently missed a friend's birthday snow trip because it was on a Sunday, and I knew she wanted to go. We had an exhausting Friday evening (Emmy: swim practice; Peter: baseball in the cold wind and a basketball game--won one, lost one), but we jumped up Saturday morning, grabbed our sleds and headed to Yuba Gap snow park with friends Blake and Megan, whose birthday we'd missed. Megan is a Star Wars fan so we watched "Thumb Wars" on the drive and gifted her a Lego Tie Fighter ship, or whatever you call the one Darth Vader escapes in at the end of Edisode IV. Peter surprised and confounded me by arriving at the snow park without his snow boots and gloves. Fortunately, the park store had supplies. Peter will work off the cost of the unbudgeted expense this week! I built the little snow dude myself--he was supposed to be a guard for the snow forts the kids built for their snow ball fight--forgot to take pictures of the forts!

Sunday was a wonderful opportunity to watch General Conference. I watched most of the morning session on my own and was particularly touched by Elder Holland's talk regarding the lonely nature of Christ's sacrifice for us. He reminded us not to betray the Savior in our behavior, as Judas did, or deny him through our actions, as Peter did. The afternoon session was viewed with the family, including the Christensen clan. Emily and I used the Conference Notebooks I had prepared to take notes. Peter had a super hard time settling down/being quite. Diana played with Luke, who is starting to scoot, on the floor and Mac was once again very well behaved. I just love Mac and enjoy watching him be a dad. Anytime I ask him to do anything to help around the house, he's so sweet to pitch in. He and Diana were kind enough to finish up our winter puzzle (two pieces missing, one chewed up by Lucy.)

Marching On!

Much of the month of March was devoted to preparation for Emily’s play and Peter’s baseball season. Both began last weekend! We run kid’s activities concurrently! I will tell all about how I do it in this blog!
Wednesday evening (3/25) was a perfect example. I fed the kids an early dinner of leftover Shepherd’s Pie, which I thought was delicious and they thought was yucky. I then dropped Peter off to baseball practice, then drove crosstown to get Emily to her Seussical rehearsal, making a brief stop to purchase tickets for several friends, then back across town to pick Peter up from baseball, then Peter went on to Boy Scouts. The dogs came along in the car for the evening so they wouldn’t be lonely. During the Scout meeting, I walked them at the nearby park until Peter was done. From there, it was to the airport to pick up Kevin--hooray!--then back to get Emily from rehearsal. Because they had eaten their less than favorite dinner, I treated everyone to a burger from In-N-Out. Everyone was happy and full for bedtime.
Kevin has been a big help while home. Although he has homework to keep up with, he still finds time to do dishes, run errands and be the “techoguru”.
On Saturday, I sent Marv off early to a volunteer shift for thebaseball league in the kitchen, then the family came to the Opening Day Pancake Breakfast. I tried my hand at scorekeeping at Peter’s first game. Baseball is hard for me to pay attention to so scorekeeping is a great way for me to maintain my concentration. However, with the sun glaring and music blaring from loud speakers, this was the beginning of the migraine that kept me company the rest of the day. Peter hit the ball, stole bases and played catcher (he said his knees don’t even bother him.) He is quite a performer himself. From there, I dashed to work backstage at the afternoon matinee. The Seussical show has gone well and Emmy, as the Young Kangaroo, is the best part of it to me! She is maturing and learning so much with each role. The Theatre Alive group is extremely comfortable to work with. Having prepared a picnic in advance, the family brought it to the theater and we noshed together before watching Emmy’s evening show. Diana, Mac and Luke were sweethearts to spend a big portion of their day with us.
I can’t help but feel as though we’ve all accomplished quite a bit this month. Although it’s not perfect, the house is standing and layers of dirt and dust are being removed at regular intervals, the schoolwork keeps getting done, Marv juggles his job while searching for a better one, and I do my best at work, working my regular shifts and subbing for an injured friend, the school volunteer assignments--how many art docent lessons have I given this month? And Primary--did I mention I conducted and gave a sharing time lesson last Sunday? Wait a minute--I get it! I am not alone in my efforts. My family helps me. The Lord blesses me tremendously with health and strength.
Here are some other things I feel good about. I took charge of the director's gift for Seussical's closing night. Dana, the director, had admired a fuzzy blue and green scarf my friend Tami had given my for my birthday. Well, just say "knitting" and Diana springs into action. She and I practically dueled to see who could knit scarves for each of the directors faster and Tami stood by to coach us. I ended up finding wonderful pincushion flowers and spiky mums--very Suess looking--to present at the curtain and lots of other gifts and goodies from the families of the cast presented in big gift baskets.
I tried to make sure Marv was honored for his birthday. We all took him to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory 3/31 as he was out of town on the actual date (4/1). We gave him a cute card Emmy had picked out, a Blue Ray player with his favorite Disney movie, Pinnochio, to go along with it. For a better report, you should really see Diana's blog!