We traveled home from Jamaica on January 3rd. It took all day. Gemma and Ginger were so happy to reunite after a week apart. We put the kids to bed, decorated the house for Jack's birthday, and hit the sack ourselves.
No rest for us, that very Sunday, Gemma taught Young Women's. Lucky for us, her assigned material was Moses chapter one, which is chock full of awesome doctrine. Then we had dinner at the Dix's that night.
Jack and Jane Harrison made a plan to meet weekly to practice tennis. However, they only had a chance to meet once before open gyms for spring sports started up and they no longer had time in their coordinated schedules to practice. Jack has started attending tennis open courts and we are excited to hear about tryouts in early February for the school team.
We found ways to connect all five of us on Gemma's busy Wednesday birthday. Todd volunteered as a driver on a field trip for Hazel's field biology class to see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo. We all gathered for breakfast before heading in our different directions. In the afternoon, Gemma did homework, studied for her math test with Katie, and played some games with me. We all met back up again in the evening for delicious ribs (and, unfortunately, burnt potatoes) before Todd and the kids all took off for youth night. They were having a coed sports night, and Gemma wanted to be there. When they all got home around 9:00, we opened presents and had cake. It was hectic, but it worked! Now all our kids are teenagers for reals. Crazy.
Birthday interview for my new teenager:
Favorite color - teal
Favorite toy - Harry Potter dolls (because of Clara)
Favorite movie - Gilmore Girls
Favorite animal - horse
Favorite book - Harry Potter 7
Favorite song - The Beatles, Oldies music
Favorite food - ribs and potatoes, small ones
Favorite season - spring
What do you like to do outside? Volleyball, basketball, and running
What do you like to do inside? Read, piano, snuggle Ginger
What do you like to sleep with? Ginger
What do you want to be when you grow up? A ranch owner, a librarian, and/or a bookstore owner
Where is your favorite place to go? Hawaii
What’s a place you haven’t been that you would like to see? Iceland
What do you do really well? Read, volleyball, write
Three words that describe you: bookworm, cat-lover, sporty
One food you really dislike: couscous, quinoa, and zucchini - and buckwheat
If you had one wish, it would be: to own a bookstore, to have a library in my house, and to have horses
What makes you laugh? I laugh a lot, I don’t know
What are you afraid of? Boredom and being alone. I bet I could die of boredom if I didn’t have books.
What do you like to do with your family? Watch Gilmore Girls and have read-a-thons
What do you love to learn about? Writing, ooh, and poems
Books, books, books. Gemma is obsessed. She's been talking a lot lately about becoming a librarian. She was so excited to get a Kindle for her birthday so she can basically carry a library with her when we travel. She and Todd decided she could use a bigger bookshelf in her bedroom and set to work building one together.
Hazel, Jack and I all had dentist appointments. Hazel had a cavity and I have gingivitis! Crap!
Everyone liked having a slow long weekend at home for MLK day. We zoomed with Zoe, made bread, Hazel came with me to do some ministering visits, we had Susan Alger over for homemade potstickers and fried rice that Jack and Gemma made, Jack went to the theater to see the new Avatar movie, Gemma played for hours with Clara, and Hazel went to Monterey with Noah for their second day of kelp free diving observations. I guess when I list all that, it wasn't such a slow weekend after all. We just didn't go anywhere overnight.
Gemma had a birthday party with her friends from church. They had a muffin-making contest and Jack was the judge. Hazel went to the temple with friends after club practice.We squished in a there-and-back day trip to the cabin. It was literally the first time we'd been there since we had the youth over in October. We really should have gone up over the 3-day weekend, but we scheduled a couple things we felt like we couldn't cancel. Anyway, it hasn't snowed hardly at all - just a few days over Christmas break, mixed with some rain. The snow was crispy and packed. The kids took the snowmobiles out but said they slid along the road if they went too fast. Todd and I took a long walk around the lake, which was delightful. It's so beautiful up there.
We had no mice in our traps, but we did find a mouse nest in a closet (old, hopefully). Todd and I went to town, glue-gunning cheezits to about fifteen traps and leaving them all over the place.
We had a youth fireside at our house Sunday night. Todd gave a nice devotional and then they all played various Uno games with mix and match groups.
Katie and I hiked Brushy Peak. I was dying to get out into the green hills. I swear I used to hike in them all the time in the winters and springs, but the last few years, I haven't been nearly as much. I think it's because I used to take the kids to get their wiggles out and now I can't get them to come with me anymore.
Seriously, who wouldn't want to walk around in a place as lovely as this?
We're back to studying the Old Testament. I bought a New International Version Bible to make the reading easier. It's always exciting for me to study Eve and Adam. There's so much to learn in their story, and so much woman empowerment that, frankly, we wouldn't have without the Restoration.
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