Northern Coastal Getaway

Ella has discovered the classic "Do you want the good news or bad news first?" way to introduce a story with great suspense.  I'll write this blog post under that same premise.  We are just returning from a fantastic four day getaway to a new place we've never explored-- California's glorious Northern Coast.  However, this vacation, more than any other, had its shares of bumps in the road.  So, for sake of keeping it real, I'll start with the bad news.  The twists and turns of Highway 1, though beautiful, made most of us sick.  Like, dump the bread out just so you have a bag to use kind of sick.  Then the hotel had no record of our reservation.  Then I got some bug that totally knocked me down for one whole day.  The day I couldn't get out of bed also happened to be a day where it was pouring rain...all day...in a place where 100% of the entertainment is outside.  

But, there is good news too.  Our hotel found us eventually after a phone call from Travelocity.  We had an indoor pool and the Olympics on TV to make the sick and rainy day actually be fun.  And the days we did get to spend outside with the vast, powerful, awe-inspiring Pacific Ocean far made up for any troubles!

      

On this vacation we mostly explored a chain of beaches and state parks all lined up along the coastline.  This post will show you three favorites.  One thing we were super excited about was wildlife sighting.  It is currently the height of the whale migration and we saw several!  They weren't jumping out of the ocean or anything, but we saw definite and follow-able water spouts whenever we stared out at the water for a while.  And then there were the tide pools-- perfect little pools of peace in contrast to the foamy, pounding surf around them, home to starfish, anemones and hermit crabs.  

The following six pictures are from McKerricher State Park.  We followed a paved walkway along the shoreline to watch seals playing, HUGE waves, and our favorite, a blowhole that erupted each time a surge of water pressed into it.  We also learned more about grey whales by visiting the skeleton.  

  

The next three pictures are Pudding Creek Beach.  This was an actual stretch of sand to play in, something rare along a coastline of jagged rocks.  It had warm sand to dig in, a huge bridge to climb and long kelp stings that made a perfect finish line to our many footraces.  This beach was probably the girls' favorite-- lots of play and little hiking. :)

And these next three pictures are from Russian Gulch State Park.  This park is known for displaying all the different ways the turbulent water has carved out the land.  There were natural bridges, caves, more blowholes and even a big inland body of swirling water called Devil's Punchbowl.

We enjoyed lots of treats on this vacation!  If it wasn't handmade ice cream from Cowlick's, it was our daily stop at the Mendocino Cookie Co., where we attempted to try each variety of freshly baked cookies before we had to leave.  (And we got very close to succeeding!)

 The night before we left, we enjoyed a lovely sunset.  No matter how many sunsets you catch over the water, it just never gets old.  We had to miss a Sunday church service to make this trip happen, but felt there was no shortage of opportunities to praise God for being a good caretaker and the creator of such cool stuff!

Disney on Ice

Just like last year, we were excited to find that our library offered free Disney on Ice tickets to students who completed a simple reading program.  Jetta and I, with our NINE combined children, jumped all over this fantastic deal!  This year we added a few more guys to the mix when Phil and Peter joined the gang.  The show was impressive and great fun to watch again, especially experiencing it through the eyes of our kids.   Seeing their huge smiles, hearing their screams and watching them snap 100 pictures on their cameras has us already planning on taking this outing again next year, provided the library hooks us up again!

    

With so many kids to keep track of in a packed arena, we used a buddy system.  Everyone had to hang on to their buddy and had to somehow be attached to one of the 4 adults.  So here are my girls with their buddies: above, Ella and Helia, below, Cora and Delia.  Though Delia is not showing off her new gap in this pic, Cora is.  All three of our first graders lost a tooth on this same day!  Sometimes I think they really could be family!

A Gap in Her Smile

So, you know how I feel about my kids growing up too fast, right?  Well this weekend I've had to adjust to a huge change in my baby's smile as she lost BOTH front teeth in a matter of THREE DAYS!  Delia's thrilled, of course, but I just can't get used to that big gap or the new lisp that she now sports (though I do think it's pretty cute!).

We're keeping the Tooth Fairy in business around here!

What to Do...

When Daddy is sleeping off his middle school lock-in hangover and the kids decide this is a good morning to pull all the cushions off the couch and play Wrestle Mania in the living room: 

Make our annual trip to the jumpy house place!  It is always a hit!  This year a new King of the Mountain inflatable was where we spent the most time.  Don't let her size fool you, Delia claimed most of the victories here!

Still Cheering for Calvin!

Plans have been in the works for a get-together with my college roomie Dorina for a while now.  When we realized the weekend we were looking at was also the weekend of the BIG GAME, that settled it.  Dorina decided to drive up to Dutch Country and watch the game via satellite with a bunch of other Calvin alumni from our area.  We haven't made it to watch The Rivalry between Calvin and Hope for a few years now.  To attend this event again with one of the people most responsible for shaping my college experience into something positive and life-changing was super fun.  

Watching our kids get into it was super fun too!  First they colored their Rivalry coloring pages.

Then they enthusiastically waved their Calvin flags every time we needed to rally and score some points (which was pretty much the entire game).  The kids also found a corner of the restaurant to bop around the maroon and gold Calvin balloons we were given.  If these girls attend the school their moms did, Calvin's volleyball future may be looking bright! :)

Though Calvin didn't win, we had a great time catching up with our friends and cheering for our alma mater.

After the game, Dorina and her girls came back home with us for a few hours of play, conversation and dinner.  It is always exciting to hear our friend's stories about how God is working in their ministry.  I met Dorina at a floor mixer my first night in the dorm freshman year.  Today, while our 5 children ran around us making up shows and playing restaurant, we dried dishes together in my kitchen, discussing the surprising ways God speaks and gets His will done.  I'm thankful that eighteen years later, my friendship with this amazing gal is still going strong!

Our Old Lady

Today Lily turns 70!  Okay, actually 10.  And actually we're not certain that today is her real birthday-- since she was adopted, January 9 was the birthday the vet gave us.  We celebrate having such a wonderful, sweet, and smart dog for a whole decade now!  Though her face is whitening and she's slowing down, she remains the same loyal Lily.  I think I'll make her a warm fire to curl up in front of tonight for her birthday!   

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So, I found the perfect shirt for Delia...

You know, since she does tend to be the personification of an "excited mark"!

Would my excitement over the price, just $3!, make me the personification of a dollar sign? :)

The Best Parts of 2014 (So Far)

After the fun of kicking off 2014 last night, we have not been disappointed in the start this new year is off to!  I think it's gonna be a good one. :)

We stayed up pretty late last night, so after sleeping in, we spent a lazy morning watching the Rose Bowl Parade and making Oliebollen.  Dave gave me a deep fryer for Christmas for the sole purpose of making New Year's Day Oliebollen.  The Dutch members of our congregation have introduced us to this traditional New Year's Day treat and we wanted to give it our own try.  One friend even shared "Beppe's Oliebollen Recipe" with me.  My fried dough balls were not quite as good as Beppe's yet, but maybe after years of practice I'll get it!     

Then, since it was so much fun last year, we decided to head to Sacramento for some New Year's Day ice skating again.  Guess what?  This year was even better!

The girls have skated all of one time, exactly one year ago.  So, they were shaky when they first got on the ice.  They clung to us and the wall.  Delia assumed her "rag-doll" ice skating position...

But then, after just a few minutes, they let go!  They got the hang of it and were willing and excited to proceed on their own for the rest of the afternoon!

Delia's ice skating method had Dave and I laughing the whole time.  We'll call it "Running Baby Steps".  She doesn't glide, she takes teeny tiny, super fast steps.  She adds in a little booty wiggle with each step too.  No one else on the ice had moves like she did, but they worked!  She only fell a few times.

Since the girls were good to go on their own, Dave and I actually got to be a couple and take some laps holding hands!

Because of the impressive progress that was made today and our abundant praise, Ella does seriously believe her next step is the Winter Olympics, but there were still a good amount of tumbles.  Although, as we realized last year, when it comes to laying on the ice in a heap, we were in good company at the Sacramento, California ice rink!  No one knows what they are doing, so dodging skaters taking spills is the hardest part of skating around here! (The easiest part?  Having it be so warm, you can skate with no coat on!)

We get to skate for 2 hours at this rink and Ella could hardly be dragged away.  We stayed until the very last moment, even watching the Zamboni clear the ice for the next group.

We're already excited to go back on New Year's Day 2015!

Lots of Drama this New Year's!

Once again we rang in a new year with tons of hearty laughter with friends.  For the third year, we continued our tradition of celebrating with Phil and Jetta's family and a few other couples from church.  The deal always is that Jetta provides the house and Dave and I provide the entertainment.  This year, thanks to this Christmas gift from Kristen, we were excited to introduce the group to Reverse Charades.  This game couldn't be more straightforward: play traditional charades, only instead of one actor and a team of guessers, there is a crowd of actors and just one guesser trying to get as many cards correct in a minute as possible.  It's chaos, but it's hilarious.

So what happens when 7 people are acting out one word like "Lance Armstrong"?  Well, one is confused and thinks the card means "Louie Armstrong", so she plays a trumpet.  Others are little kids, so they follow her and pretend to play all different instruments.  One person rides a bike.  One person pretends to smoke.  This leaves the guesser yelling out things like "Smoking on a bike!" or "Bike-riding marching  band!"  Mostly what happens, though, is one person starts pretending to do something, like walking a plank.  Then others jump in to be supporting characters, like angry pirates and crocodiles in the water.  When the words on the cards are funny things like "chest bump", "genie in a bottle", "rock band" and "mistletoe", you can just imagine the fun!

The game moved fast, so I didn't get tons of good quality pictures, but here are some of the best and what I think we were trying to act out...

 "Pick up sticks." Somehow it was established that Kirsi was "sticks".

 "Operation."  I think Phil had just removed Kirsi's leg at this point.

 "Go fly a kite."

 ???  Hmm, I really don't know...maybe "hammock"?

Dave said his favorite part of the game was watching the guesser in the hot seat talk all around the word their exasperated team was trying to dramatize.  For example, I think Dave used up the whole minute saying every lyric in the song "We Three Kings of Orient Are", but never "Three Wise Men."  (See someone shoving 3 fingers right in his face?)

 And here are our 2013 New Year's Eve Reverse Charades champions!  This team did beat my own by just 2 points, earning them the coveted Academy Awards I brought along.  What another fantastic New Year's!  Looking for a simple, but awesome group game?  We give this one big thumbs up!

Happy Nooyer's, everyone! :)