We took our kayaks out for their maiden voyage on New Year's Day. It was an adventure getting them all loaded on the top of the van. We went over to Alameda and did a loop from the Encinal boat ramp over toward Crown Beach, then back past the Ballena Bay. It was a little rough on the ocean water, and Jack was definitely devastated that his seat was wet. We should probably stick to reservoirs and lakes, but they are for the most part locked down these days. Hopefully that will not be the case come spring and summer. Hazel and I loved being on the water, but Todd ended up towing Gemma and Jack, and got tired before we did.
The girls pooled their money to get Jack Watch Your Mouth - this goofy game where you put a piece of plastic in your mouth that makes it hard to pronounce words correctly, and your team has to try to figure out what you're saying. You look and sound silly, and the kids love it.
Todd and I were able to reveal our surprise trip for Jack - a visit to Death Valley to see the stars. Jack has been dreaming of DV for months, and I told him there was no way I ever cared to go there. But it was so obviously his dream trip, that Todd and I had to at least consider it; and as we researched it, we found out that it's actually a pretty cool place to check out in the wintertime. The trip was scheduled a week later, so we could be there over the new moon, when the sky was at its darkest.
Ginger spends time on everyone's laps while they do their schoolwork. He's seriously a great cat; he catches rodents in the yard and can take care of himself and doesn't fuss, but he will happily snuggle on your lap for an hour. and purr and lick your hand and just be adorable.
We went to Holdener Park with friends to visit the animals and take a walk. It was a beautiful day, and it felt amazing to be outside. We live in a beautiful place.
The drive to Death Valley was pretty long! We ate lunch after church and then took off, and arrived around dinner time. One of the huge benefits of coming in the wintertime was that we didn't have to wait till the middle of the night to stargaze. I opened the van door and stepped out, and literally sat back in my seat again because I was so blown away by how big and bright and right there the stars were. We were in the middle of the desert with almost no ambient light, and man, words just don't do it justice, and neither do pictures. The sky was seriously phenomenal. We had researched best spots to drive to for stargazing, but we quickly realized that was simply unnecessary: we sat on our porch and soaked them in. We could see the Big Dipper, Orion's belt, Jupiter ... and truly just billions and billions of stars of different sizes, brightness, colors. We loved it. Jack brought out his telescope, but mostly we just gazed in awe and talked about how amazing God is.
Our trip was cut shorter than planned - our lodging in the center of the park was cancelled as everything government-owned shut down for the latest Covid shelter-in-place orders. Luckily, we found a family-owned spot to stay an hour outside the main hub, but that meant that we had to condense a day and a half's adventuring in to just one, and we found an alternate hike in our new location for our second morning in DV. All that to say that Monday was jam-packed as we booked it from site to site, and ended up cutting out some extraneous hiking to allow more time at the spots we were really digging.
We started off the day with a hike in Golden Canyon. It was fun to billy goat up and down the rocks and through the baby slot canyons.
We had a great view from the top of the Red Cathedral rocks.
Then we visited Artist's Palette, this spot where oxidized metals have colored the clay, making green, pink, purple, and white hills. We got out of the car and trekked through them - it was seriously cool. We had lunch here while Hazel painted the scenery.
Then it was off to Badwater Basin, the point of lowest elevation in North America. When you think of Death Valley, this is probably what you visualize: endless salt flats. They raise up in diamond shapes for, like, a mile as you walk endlessly toward the mountains in the distance. Todd and I made the fortunate mistake of letting the kids run ahead and they just never stopped. Which turned out to be a good thing, because the further we walked from the parking lot, the less stomped-on the salt flats became, and they looked really, really cool.
Everyone's favorite experience at Death Valley was sledding down the hills at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. We walked a ways and tried one hill out, but decided it was underwhelming, so we trekked for, yikes, twenty more minutes or something to get to the tallest, steepest hill EVER. And it was absolutely worth it. The kids went down that baby so many times I lost count, even though it seriously wore me out just watching them fight their way back to the top after each ride. Their screams of pure joy as they blasted down, sand spraying left and right, ending with giggles of satisfaction, filled me to the brim. Aaaand, it didn't hurt that we had an impressive desert sunset to enjoy while they played.
We saw a roadrunner. Apparently he's a regular at the gas station we picked breakfast up from.
At said gas station, we took a crazy leap and bought scorpion suckers for our last hike. I will never do that again. Disgusting. Everyone kind of gagged when they reached the bug in the middle, except for Gemma, who claimed hers tasted like caramel and wanted another one. What the?!
We hiked an easy two mile in and out to Darwin Falls - who knew you could find a waterfall in Death Valley? It was a pretty walk.
And then it was back in the car to be home for dinner. I wish we could teleport.
A couple days later, we had Gemma's birthday. Our day took a surprise detour when the kids rescued a bird before Ginger finished him off. All the kids were crying in the backyard, and begged me to do something to save the bird's life. Normally, I'd say what's done is done and that's just part of having a cat and we've got to deal with it, but I didn't want everyone crying on a birthday, so.... We drove it to a wildlife rescue center.
We had ribs for dinner, Gemma's favorite. We were lucky enough to have Poppa there, who had spent the day driving out to participate in Gemma's baptism.
The kids gave Gemma hair chalk. Todd and I gave her a set of scriptures and her first journal. And we were able to reveal our big plans for her birthday extravaganza, which is to take her to Safari West, a spot in Santa Rosa where they give you a safari experience, riding a jeep around their preserve looking at African animals (wildebeest, rhinos, giraffes, lemurs, zebras ... ). Todd took Hazel there when she was four, and she still remembers it, so it seemed like a fun bet for this animal-loving lady. We had to postpone our visit because the Covid cases went up and California went back on lockdown, but hope to visit in March.
My mom and dad, and my brother Chris, also drove out for Gemma's baptism, arriving Friday evening. Erika lives in the Bay Area and was able to attend as well. We were grateful for the family support for this special milestone.
Because of the Covid shelter-in-place, we could only have the baptism inside the church building if we only had six or fewer people in attendance. Lucky for us, we had balmy upper-sixties weather, and our ward friends Doug and Jana Marden let us use their backyard and their hot tub for Gemma's baptism.
Chris and Nana gave sweet talks, then Todd performed the baptism. We wrapped Gemma in a white towel and sat her in the sun to be confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Afterward, people started visiting with each other, and I watched as Gemma stood quietly o the side for several minutes, calmly feeling the peaceful happiness that comes after you are baptized and confirmed.
Because we weren't going inside the Marden's home, we had to come home for Gemma to be able to put on her special dress and play "When I Am Baptized" on the piano. Then we had a luncheon and had a good time showing off our fabulous January weather to our Utahan guests.
Larry drove home on Sunday, but we had the Binghams with us for a weeklong visit. We loved having them with us! We hadn't seen any of them since Ryan and Xiao's wedding 16 months earlier. We hugged a lot and talked a lot and were so grateful to be able to spend so much time together.
Monday we took everyone to Half Moon Bay to play at the beach. Todd and Chris played hide and seek with the kids in the dunes, and Grandpa played catch/monkey in the middle with them. It was a happy day!
Grandpa came with us to gym class on Tuesday. Nana and Chris had to work mornings the rest of the week, so we kept up our schoolwork and then played hard in the afternoons. Wednesday we went to Sycamore Grove. I wanted to go for a nice, flat hike, but the kids just wanted to play in the trees, and we couldn't leave them behind. So I wouldn't say we hiked, but we did spent the afternoon in a beautiful spot.
Grandpa left us early Thursday morning. He wanted to get home before a snowstorm hit. Todd and I sold our Altima to Nana so she could have a car back home, so she and Chris had options and chose to stay with us for a few more days. We had a nice visit to Holdener Park, where the animals did not disappoint, but they did, once again, prevent us from walking very much. There were adorable baby goats to admire, and then when we walked around the hill, there were llamas up close and personal that were fun to observe. It was gorgeous outside again.
Selling the Altima meant getting it ready for a long drive. Todd took the opportunity to involve the kids in a two-vehicle oil change fiesta.
Friday was a rainy day, so we didn't venture far, but instead took the time to hit all of Nana's bucket list items. She painted with Hazel, took a violin lesson from Hazel, and rode the zipline in the backyard.
Gemma also went to the orthodontist on Friday and came home with an expander, a thumb guard, and a lisp. She was a good sport and impressed everyone with her resilient attitude, but definitely had to stick to applesauce and smoothies for a couple of days.
We played lots and lots of games all week long: Sushi-Go, Gnoming A Round, Othello, Chess, Tiki Topple, Furglars, and of course, Watch Your Mouth. We were sad to see Nana and Chris go, but grateful to hear they made it home safely.
The rest of January was more ordinary. Gemma wrote in her new journal a lot. The kids splashed in puddles. We met up with friends at the park. The kids had music lessons. I went grocery shopping. Probably the most adventurous thing we did was try slack lining during a park play date.
