Surf, Sand, Sun and Fun

Our second day took us to a totally different locale-- the beach at Santa Monica. This day started with something we simply cannot resist doing when the three of us get together, shopping and Starbucks. Santa Monica has a great promenade with shops in our budget and a whole line up of talented street performers.

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After Old Navy and mochas, we hit the beach! We laughed as Midwesterner Heather frolicked in the surf with her shopping bags. It was a beautiful day to walk with the waves lapping at our ankles.

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We walked the boardwalk, which was much like Santa Cruz, but surprisingly smaller. We all settled on the fact that riding the famous Ferris wheel was a life experience we could not leave without having.

In our Ferris wheel bucket we snapped 100 pictures as we took in the great views. The ride was really really long!

Back at the promenade we ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's, then returned to the shore for some play at the famous Muscle Beach. We spent a great deal of time here trying out and falling off of all the equipment (balance beam, rings, uneven parallel bars, parallel bars, swings...) and trying to best each other with cheesy poses.

We decided to just walk until the sun set. As the sky turned pink, we strolled by dogs, surfers and ritzy beach hotels.

The sunset was gorgeous and the huge Mexican dinner we ate that night at El Cholo was a great way to end beach day.

Hooray for Hollywood!

Here comes yet another series of posts describing yet another fabulous getaway! I knew going into this long weekend in LA with Anna and Heather that I could expect interesting sightseeing, fun meals, and plenty of laughs. Anna was the hostess with the mostess, taking time off work to show us around, making us feel welcome in her apartment and planning an itinerary with one cool thing after the next on it.

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On our first day we did the Hollywood touristy stuff-- Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Walk of Fame, Kodak Theatre and the LaBrea Tar Pits

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Grauman's Chinese was way cooler than the last time I was there (5th grade) because I know so much more about movies now. We loved strolling around and seeing all the hand and footprints of the mega-stars, old and recent (some of the classics dated back to the 30's!). Heather and I just had to snap a picture by the John Wayne footprints since it's featured in one of our favorite I Love Lucy episodes.


We walked down the Walk of Fame, taking in the sights of super-trendy shops (stopping in the H&M, of course!) and eclectic people (a dude dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn't leave us alone!).

I loved seeing the Kodak Theatre, sight of the Academy Awards. We were able to climb the grand staircase, read all the Best Picture winners sculpted on the massive pillars and peek inside the lobby, perhaps standing in the exact spot Tom Hanks or Nicole Kidman have stood in! Maybe someday we'll return, when Anna is accepting her Oscar for Best Screenplay!

Anna was an expert meal planner, showing us a variety of neat restaurants, each with amazing food and impressive history. For lunch we went to Pink's, which is a famous hot dog stand. Their extensive menu of hot dog options rivaled their extensive wall of celebrity head shots thanking the owners for a great meal.

Last stop was at the LaBrea Tar Pits. This was crazy! Right in the middle of the bustling city was this park with a calm lake of tar. The tar flows naturally (something about geology and prehistoric times?) and was stinky and bubbling with these random elephant statues floating in it.

What was most interesting about the tar pits was finding little holes of bubbling tar along the path as we walked around the lake. We took a cue from the others there before us and dipped a stick into the tar to add our names to the graffitied wall.

Dinner at a cozy and delicious little Italian restaurant, a drive down Rodeo Drive and crashing on Anna's big couch for some veg-out time concluded our first day in LA.

Bragging Alert! (You may want to skip this one if you're not Grandma...)

Miss Debbie opened up the parent-teacher conference with the observation, "Well, you have a very bright little girl here." We smiled in agreement, then bit our cheeks to keep our mouths from gaping open as she pulled out the graph showing the results of Ella's tests. The first thing we noticed was the yellow 4 year old average line, then we saw how Ella's points fell way above it-- in the 6 1/2 year old bracket! We listened for 15 minutes as her teacher explained the near-perfect report card, went through every detail of Ella's academic development, showed surprise that she's not actually reading yet and gushed about how wonderful she is. We left this year's conference glowing with pride and patting ourselves on the back for producing such a blessing of a daughter!

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The one area of concern Miss Debbie expressed is that Ella is very quiet and all business at school. She takes the rules, her work and even attempted conversation with her teacher very seriously. Her teacher told us to encourage Ella to have more fun and show her silly side at school. Dave remembers being this kind of strict, rule-following student and I recalled my desire to just blend in by keeping quiet through most of grade school. We assured Miss Debbie that Ella is, of course, full of joy at home and we're all going to work on getting her to show that side more in the classroom.

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Goofball evidence: Ella created this outfit on her own then insisted on the photo shoot. Each pose is all her! Minus the bikini top and pajama bottoms, we hope Miss Debbie will see this Ella before the end of the year.

"Delia Do It"

"I do-a by-ya-self." This is something we're starting to hear more and more around here from our youngest. We recognize this as the next stage of life and enjoy that it's presently more about proudly showing off rather than defiant stubbornness (evidenced by Delia congratulating herself with a "I so proud-a ya!" when she does accomplish something on her own). There are still plenty of times I hear, "Pees, Mommy help ya?" With this declaration of independence comes lots of tests of patience: shoes on the wrong feet, inadequately brushed teeth, soap everywhere, spilled food. Good thing lots of laughs come with it too, as you can see from the inside-out undies!

Every Sunday...

You'll find us walking home from church like this. As we collect pictures of church life for our new photo directory, this is one Jeremy took and shared with us.

Some Truth

As you know, we are the perfect family. Whenever we spend time together it is always happy, fun and full of adventure. We plan phenomenal vacations that go off flawlessly. My husband is superman, ministering effectively and constantly, yet finding time to come home and be a dream dad. I cook my family fabulous meals every day and am proud that every activity I introduce to my children not only engages them, but makes them smarter and more creative. You know these very things because you read them here on this very blog. I am aware that I tend to share just the good and probably over-emphasize the highs of life in each thing I post about. I don't lie, but most of the time, I intentionally leave out the melt-downs, tension, stress, sickness, fatigue, sibling squabbling, accidents in the undies, disappointment, sadness and junk food that plagues our daily life.

I debated if I should write about this or not. The break from blogging somehow convinced me that I should. Here's the truth: I am far from the perfect mom. Two weeks ago, I lost Delia. Yes, that's right, I left her unattended for what I thought was just a moment and she took off. This happened at Family Fun Night in a gymnasium sized space with at least 500 people crammed inside. I quick got up to get some dessert with Ella and when I returned to our table, she was gone. I thought, since we were sitting with people we knew well, "She's just with someone. A friend took her to play games." This thought stopped comforting me, though, as I ran around searching and not finding. My panic grew as I realized HOW many people were in this mob and HOW many different places she could be in. I flew around with my heart pounding, ignoring the "Hi Jen!" I kept hearing from every other person in the vast crowd who knew me. I told a few people and the word just spread until a whole anxious search party was out looking for Delia. And we debated. Do we get on the loudspeaker and make an announcement? Do we start running down the sidewalks and searching the neighborhood? It was unbearable to think about finding my baby scared and overwhelmed in this busy and unfamiliar place. It was even more unbearable to think about not finding her at all.

Well, I did find her after what felt like an eternity, but was probably more like 10 minutes. She was outside playing on the playground. She was not huddled in a corner sobbing and she didn't fly into my arms as soon as she caught sight of me. She joyfully informed me, "I play park, Mommy!"

There is no redemption in this story. No cute anecdote to conclude it with. I won't even try to teach some lesson, except, perhaps the obvious, don't take your eyes off your children-- especially the ones you yourself have described as "adventurous, wild, spunky and curious." Days after the incident I was sitting in my Beth Moore Bible Study still feeling rotten, when she reminded me that even Mary lost Jesus when he was a boy. And he was missing for 3 whole days! I guess I just tell you to confess that life is not always as rosy as you read here on the VM Family Blog. And I suspect there are a few out there that can even relate. :)

Playground Monkeys

Yes, I avoided all stores and money-spending completely for the past week and a half. But no, I have not just been cooped up inside the house. We made 3 different trips out to 3 different parks. I have been loving the park lately. The girls show me they are capable and confident of all sorts of climbing without me spotting them or freaking out. If we go in the morning, school is in and we have the place completely to ourselves also. Four and two seem to be perfect park ages.

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Since the start of preschool this year, Ella's love has been the monkey bars. Her school has a short set that she flies across on her own. For taller bars, like these, she still needs help, but remains eager to try.
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Delia is as much of a fearless climber as she has been since before she could even walk, but now she has better strength and balance. This lets me trust her more.
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You can just barely see it in this picture, but I post it to show you Delia's self-cut Kate Gosselin hair-do. A little while ago, Ella was doing a craft when Delia some how obtained possession of the scissors. Ella lost 2 chunks out of the back of her hair and Delia now has this stick-up spike off the side of hers. Just for the record, this happened on Dave's watch. :)

One week, No Computer, Long Post

We're back! Our formerly virus-riddled computer has finally been deemed clean! After paying the tech support guy a mere $120, we learned that what we had, the Vundo Trojan, was in fact "pretty gnarly." You would think I'd have a whole line of posts ready to type out when my computer was returned to me in good health, but I surprised myself by truly taking the past week or so off from it-- hardly thinking "This would be great for the blog!" as I normally view life. So sad... please tell me you can relate blogging friends! Maybe a regular week of "Computer Turn-Off" should be something I consider. So, just a few pictures and stories about what a week at home with no internet or superfluous errands to distract Mommy looked like:

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The week is a blur of game marathons, Shrinky Dinks, Ramona Quimby, Little People, puzzles and baking. I worked hard to not go insane over my constantly messy house. I think every toy and game we own got some use in the past 10 days. I realized I've become really dependent on letting the girls just play together while I "get stuff done." They are old enough to do this pretty well now. I needed the reminder to get down on the floor and set-up, pretend and play with them. One night we laid out all the dress-up clothes and shoes and made a little carpet runway. The girls put on a 5 outfit fashion show. When Ella ended her walks with this pose, and then Delia started copying, I had to pull out the camera!

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It's becoming tradition to watch a movie together as a family on Friday nights. We usually go with a Disney classic and lately have enjoyed The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Bolt. Ella is so funny in her play. After watching a movie, she'll act it out for the following week. She asked me to take this picture. In it, she's Penny. See Bolt, Mittens and Rhino posed behind her on the couch, just like the final shot of the movie? She had a whole ocean set up 2 days ago when she was Nemo's Daddy.

And just a silly picture of Delia to even things out. The past several weeks have been another real vocabulary explosion for her. She is speaking so clearly and conversationally. Instead of just copying phrases we commonly say, she comes up with her own stuff and it is funny! We've always known she was a big personality, we see it more and more each day.

Technical Difficulties

Hello faithful blog readers. Our home computer has caught a bit of a bug this week. It was not a crash- and-knock-out-the-whole-hard-drive-in-one-shot type of virus. Instead, it seems to be a slow, lose-one-favorite-sight-each-day type of virus. First I couldn't get on Amazon. Then it took away Google-Reader. Facebook had to be accessed through back-door methods and I couldn't navigate away from its home page. When our email refused to open or send, Dave and I started to take action. (Isn't it sad how long and how far we will go to push our internet-availability and not just turn off the computer?) Our own research and troubleshooting doesn't seem to be sufficient, though, so tomorrow our computer has a doctor appointment. Just wanted to quick explain why the blog's been so quiet this week and will probably remain so for a little while. I actually write this from Dave's office.

I've learned a neat lesson this week. I made a pledge to not do any shopping this week. It was an exercise in money-saving and viewing what things are truly necessities (turns out we didn't have any necessities this week that required a trip to Target or the grocery store!). This was a week I forced myself to be home-bound. An interesting twist to lose my internet this week too. I've actually enjoyed the removal of distraction and have done lots of fun things with the girls we may not have otherwise done. I'll have to blog more about that in a week or so, though...

Happy Harvest, 2009!

My computer time is short, but I wanted to post a few of the pictures I got from last night's church Harvest Party. Ella was so excited to go as a fairy, she couldn't fall asleep the night before the party. Delia asked all day, "I go church and be cow girl?" This year's party was another success, with lots of laughs, great fellowship and a whole hall full of people dressed festively.

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Dave was Delia's rodeo clown. I don't know if this costume, or simply his role as youth pastor, prompted the pie in the face he surprisingly and hilariously got from a few guys in the youth group.

I was reflecting, once again, and what a neat tradition this has become for us. Neither girl has ever trick-or-treated, so they don't even know Halloween as Dave and I do-- freezing in the dark as you trek from one stranger's house to the next and then consuming massive amounts of candy for the following months. Ella didn't even want to use her tickets on the candy games, instead spending about 10 of them in the bouncy house. She came home with just a handful of it. I'm a little bummed, since I was planning on raiding that candy bucket! :)

What we did come home with was about 10 painted pumpkins and gourds. Painting and bouncing equal Happy Halloween to these girls!

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And friends! What a great time Ella and Delia had running around with their friends-- little and high school aged!

After pie-eating contests, apple-bobbing, potato sack races, face painting, games, pizza, prizes and laughs, the night concluded with the costume parade. Here the Under-6 crowd lines up for judging.

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Thanks to Dave and his youth group for giving us such a fantastic alternative to the traditional Halloween!