Princess and St. Patty

Believe it or not, It is hard to get pictures of my kids. Celia dressed up as Elsa one day, finally. She has been asking for an Elsa costume for years and when I found a beautiful one that fit her, it took some getting used to. With a shirt underneath she was ready to play princess. We watched the movie Frozen together and had a grand time.  We do get a lot of family time together. It is nice. My folks hosted a St. Patrick's Day dinner and we enjoyed over at their house. Life flies by, it is good if I can even document a little. We are teaching Joseph to drive the Land cruiser and Emmy is doing quite bit with her single's ward. Spence is in a more calm mood lately which is always welcome.  This year is going to fly by, I just know it, but I'm going to try to enjoy and work hard in the meantime.

Age of Sails

 It was fun clue into the past and all things nautical to go on Celia's Field trip called Age of Sails. Were were on a ship in San Francisco. I had volunteered to drive months before and Celia had been anticipating the day for. She knew the captain and first mate would be strict. She knew there would be punishments for talking in everyday language from the 20th century and for having idle hands. I didn't realize being a "tall sailor" I would be participating so much in the back to the ages event. It was fun to be in character. I learned to say A Vast when I spotted anything unsafe. There was definitely some team building going on and I felt privileged to bu-lei the sailors as the rigger and learn to hoist sailors up high to reach the sail and mast. Our captain looked a little like the Character Russ Poldark and it felt very surreal like living in real life at the time and place of Pirate's of the Caribbean.

We did get rained on, an the ship did rock to and fro a little too much at times. Overall it was a great experience. I especially felt blessed and noticed the Lord's tender mercies towards me. Pack meeting was on the same day as this event. I was worried about traffic and getting home in time for the track master to set up for the event. The other fifth grade classes that went the this same field trip returned home much later that was feasible for me to do all my duties in preparation for pinewood derby.  We avoided traffic on the way there and a semi that jack knifed on the freeway we were on. We were ahead of our group an arrived there 30 mins early. I noticed I didn't have my lunch for the all day trip so with the extra time I was able to park closely, get a lunch and get some validation for the parking. As soon as we were off the boat, I was able to leave early with the group I was in charge of. They took their birthday cupcakes to go and we arrived home early after all.  Another Mom that knew I was in a hurry offered to wait with my scholars I was in charge of so I was on my way home in no time. We saw many beautiful birds and rainbows were in abundance as well. Pinewood derby went well and I was glad to have had the stamina to endure the busy, demanding, blessed day!

Reminising in L.A.

Traffic in L.A. was so different than in Colorado. I think even I was a little culture shocked about the pace of the city on a Friday Night. We made it and safety after 16 hours of driving. It wasn't too bad. Celia and Joseph each got bags of rocks at a souvenir shop on the way. Celia picked some rose quartz and black obsidian while Joseph mainly picked petrified wood. I felt like a tourist all through Arizona, but once we hit Barstow my homing radar kicked in and I drove us to my parent's house. Since Brian and my anniversary is only a month away, I thought it would be nice to visit the some  places we went to on our wedding day. We stopped by the Summit house restaurant where they were prepping for a wedding reception. We visited the Richard Nixon Library where there was a wedding going on as well. It was really special and all the ground were so beautiful. Emmy, my mom and I took a tour of Richard Nixon's birth home while My Dad went through he museum tour inside. Emmy was impressed with a piece of the Berlin wall displayed inside and I really liked the limo and dresses the first Lady wore.

We order Ortega's Mexican food for lunch and celebrated a belated Birthday for my Dad and an Early 40th Birthday for me. We swam and visited the Temple and the Santa Monica beach at Sunset. I love that someone offered to take our picture on the temple grounds. I cannot get over how big that temple is and how special it is to have all our immediate family members on my mom side sealed there. We survived the car ride home and enjoyed many meals with my parents who are such great hosts. It was a wonderful stop to finish off our vacation. That was a wonderful reprieve.We made it home safe and readjusted to routine I cant wait to celebrate our anniversary and birthday again on the actual dates.:)

Musical~

Its amazing to me that Brian and I haven't been the theatre very much together. I think it was because I had seen Phantom of the Opera several times and he had seen Les miserables and we couldn't find any other plays we thought looked fantastic we could both agree on. Opposites attract right? Our tastes aren't exactly the same which is fine, it makes for a great time appreciating what the other likes. Well we went out with our friends and they were going to see 9 to 5 at the Sacramento Civic center and I thought that sounded great. They got us seats right by them. We borrowed binoculars and I really enjoyed being up high to see the play . The music was great, the actors were animated and as far as I could tell there were no mess ups! True Broadway professionals. Some songs I liked better than others. They had a lead portraying Dolly Parton, She did pretty good singing her songs. It reminded me of listening to Dolly Parton with my parents when I was younger. The song sounded a lot like coat of many colors, but with different lyrics. It was a story about three women and how they were oppressed by the man's working world. the girls were the beautiful one, the new divorced homemaker, and the single mother. They showed their ingenuity, creativity, and spunk after an evening of Marijuana(shocking I know! The play was set in the 1970's..) The story was a slight bit feminist for my taste, but it was all in all pretty fun. The second half of the show was better overall. The costumes and backdrops seem to come alive, the songs were better, and it wrapped up nicely as the story concluded. Its nice to go out with the Goldthorpes. We always have interesting and intriguing conversations and we do things and go places we don;t normally. Its pretty nice to mix it up!