Family

Christmas this year was promising. We were all fighting off head colds but nothing too severe and I was cautiously optimistic that we would not have a repeat of last year’s stomach bug. We had the Bannings and Jamma over for a very casual Christmas Eve and all went well. I had such a nice time that I completely forgot to get out my camera, so you’ll just have to trust me.

The kids basically put themselves to bed so as to encourage Santa’s arrival. He came and dropped off a boat load of goodies.

We were all ready for Christmas morning.

The boys had a good time opening all their stuff.

After a few hours of relaxing, we got ready for our surprise for the boys. We told them we were headed out to Jamma’s house, but really we had booked a night at the Legoland Hotel. We had made these last minute reservations because a) we’ve been meaning to take the boys there and we’re running out of time for it to be relatively close and b) we were having Christmas with the rest of the Moisions on the day after Christmas, so this gave us something to do on Christmas Day and got us almost all the way to San Diego.

The best laid plans … We got there fine, the boys were flabbergasted and took a while to even realize what we were doing. We dropped our stuff at the hotel; the kids enjoyed some in-house LEGOs while we checked in.

Then we moved on to the park.

The first thing they wanted to do was drive the cars.

Ezra was too far away for a good photo. That driver on the farthest right is him.

We saw Miniland and a model of San Francisco. The boys were unimpressed at its proximity to our new home.

While we were at the park I started to not feel so good. In fact, I told Bruce I was going to go back to the hotel but then had to sit down as a wave of nausea hit me. I made it back to the hotel without a moment to spare and spent pretty much the rest of the trip in bed. About 8:00 pm Finn, laying down in their super cool pirate bunk beds …

… said his tummy hurt. We prepared for the worst, separated the sickies from the well, and Finn and I hunkered down. About 10:00 pm our fears were realized. About 11:00 pm housekeeping came to take mercy on us (and our room) and then we were able to get some rest.

Kids are remarkably resilient though, and by morning he felt fine. Bruce took the boys for breakfast and back to Legoland for early entry. They had lots of fun before returning to collect me at 11:00. We then drove to Bill and Therese’s house to drop of all the Christmas gifts and visit briefly with everyone before heading home.

I had another miserable day, Ezra picked up the bug a few days later, and then Bruce was flattened the day after that. So, our Sickmas lasted from Christmas to New Years but I think we’re all on the mend now. The kids are back in school and we are in the midst of preparing to move. Happy 2014!

I have a few things that just don’t fit into any other post so I’m going to dump them all here. With all that’s been going on, I haven’t been taking very many pictures but I pulled some off my phone recently.

Here’s Jake and Ezra at Bob and Vanessa’s house. We were there after Thomas’s birthday party and the house was crazy-full of boys (10 of them!). I just loved this relatively quiet moment amid the madness.

Here’s one from the archery class I took the boys to while Bruce was flying up for his Google interview.

And here’s the Google swag he brought back.

Ezra’s been spending a lot of time on the monkey bars at school so I got a picture one day.

And a video.

We went to the beach with the Bannings after Thanksgiving and had a wonderful relaxing time. I took no pictures except this one of all three of my boys on the pier.

Finn’s soccer season finished up in November. It was a bit of a bust — the last game was canceled — but there was an end-of-season party. Finn got the “Best Attitude” award from his coach.

Someone left us a St. Nicholas present in the Library with a nice note. And chocolate, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.

And lastly, I’ve had some fabulous skies during my walks these last few months. It makes getting up at 5:00 so much better when the sky is so beautiful.

Ezra’s group had their second Eaton Canyon hike on December 13th, although it wasn’t actually to Eaton Canyon (that’s just shorthand for the set of hikes in this curriculum) but to Rubio Canyon. It’s a very interesting route — where there used to be a train to take wealthy patrons up to hotels at the top of the mountain. Only remnants remain now but we did see railroad ties.

We had a very large group of kids this time so it as a stressful trip, but still a great day. Here’s a slideshow of my photos.

Well, I should clarify … our final woodworking class was December 6th but the class will continue next year without us. Needless to say, this was a bittersweet evening for us. I can’t even really put into words how much I treasure these families. It’s such a fantastic, fun group that even though the class part of it wasn’t really a great fit for our boys, we couldn’t have given it up.

This was the 16th class (!) and the kids finished up their boxes from previous classes and used rivets and (mostly) pre-cut shapes to build animals and anything else they could imagine. They loved it.

I didn’t take very many photos as light was scarce but here’s a slideshow of what I got. A good time was had by all. As always.

We decorated for Christmas pretty early this year, or at least it was done before my birthday which almost never happens. Bruce strung the lights between the palm trees again. This year he sketched out a drawing to make sure it would work with the number of strands we had. I thought his drawing looked pretty cool.

Here’s the final product. Kind of a grainy photo …

We even got the tree up the first weekend of December, which is unheard of. The boys helped decorate; mostly they just like to look at all the ornaments. This year they both opened “ornament shops” and Bruce and I had to ask for the ornaments we wanted to put on the tree.

When Ezra got bored manning the shop, he serenaded us with a little Jingle Bells.

He also made us a LEGO topper again this year.

Here’s the tree all done.

And, of course, the Little Free Library got decorated, too.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year and as usual I have very few pictures of the event. Too busy cooking, eating and drinking to remember to take photos. But here are the three I have, so at least we’ll be able to remember who was here!

Our November woodworking class was a tough one for me. Bruce had decided to apply for jobs outside of Southern California but no one knew about it yet. I was just so sad at the prospect that this would be the last woodworking class at our house that I had some trouble getting into the spirit of things. I tried to take photos but only got a few. Here is one of Bruce making the instruction sign, with a little help from Finn, Ashlyn, Terra and Amelia.

Here’s the final product.

And the last picture I took — of the class listening to Bruce’s instructions.

Of course, everything livened up in time and as usual we had a fun party with great friends after class. We will miss this so much!

We had several days of prep leading up to Halloween. First, the serious pumpkin carving.

Finn was very excited to carve his own little pumpkin.

Then he took it to a whole new level.

Here are the final jack-o-lanterns.

Of course, there was costume prep as well. Ezra was easy — he wanted to be a ninja so we just bought him a costume. Finn, however, wanted to be a house. Thank goodness Bruce is so handy and creative. Here are some pictures of the transformation from cardboard box to house.

Here’s the first time the chimney (with dry ice) was working.

There were lights in the windows as well.

Here’s Finn’s original drawing — not too far off from the finished product!

On Halloween night there were some minor adjustments that needed to be made.

And Ezra needed a ninja sword — drawn by Ezra and made by the two of them.

Then the sword was attached to his candy bag and he was ready to go.

Full ninja mode.

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Finn was all set, too.

He had little holders for candy inside his house so he could give out candy as well. He liked doing this from right outside our door.

It worked — kids came to his house to trick or treat.

The ninja patiently waited for the real trick or treating to start.

Finally, we were off!

Finn stopped traffic.

Everyone loved his costume.

One passerby said, “Man, that’s nicer than my house!” But he didn’t last long. He and I came back after just a few houses and handed out candy at our house with my friend Linda who’d come up to handle the trick or treaters while we were out. We had a nice visit and handed out bags and bags of candy, the usual for our neighborhood.

Pumpkins … friends … cow train … combine slide … miniature tractors … yada yada yada.

Have a look at the slideshow.

Aveson’s Outdoor Adventure Action Team put on a bike ride in October and we decided to go. It was fun — a small but mighty crew of diehards showed up bright and early the morning after Aveson’s Bingo Night. I don’t have any pictures of the actual ride because it’s hard to ride and photograph, but here are some of the rest/play periods and a group shot.

Not surprising which dad took the kids into the channel.

We stopped here because we thought the little airplanes would be a hit with the kids.

But the airport was no match for some gross water to touch and steep sides to climb.

Here’s Bruce interviewing Finn, Aiden and Hailey after the ride was over.

And fixing Ezra’s flat tire.

And here’s the whole group!