Christmas Adventures in the Mountains

And then it was our Christmas Baby's birthday!  On his birthday, Dave said what he'd most like to do was show us what our favorite camping spot looked like in the winter.  He's been before with the youth group, but the girls and I have never seen it not in summer, or completely covered in snow.  Pinecrest in the winter, without snow, was indeed something unique to take in!

We took this picture of our December 28 outdoor picnic just to torture you Midwest and East Coast friends, freezing in sub-zero temps!

We do need the snow really badly, so even though the day was beautiful and perfect temps for a vigorous 5 mile hike around the lake, we were sad that this tiny bit of snow was all we could find.  Isn't this photo amazing, by the way?  Auntie Heather even got our bouncy puppy perfectly posed!

Yes!  We brought the dog!  She did SO great on the long hike!  And so did our other baby!  Delia didn't complain once, even when the terrain was rough and the uphill climbing tiring.  We had a goal, set on December 28, 2016, to hike 40 miles in our 40th years of life.  This hike around the lake definitely pushed us over what we needed to meet the goal!

The birthday boy finding the hardest way across the river possible.  I love this about him, but I took the bridge just a few steps up! :)

Happy hikers!

This is why Dave wanted to bring us here in the winter.  The lake is actually a dammed reservoir and, in the winter, the controlled water is drained quite a bit.  So strange and interesting to hike on areas that are under water in the summer!  Where Dave and Ivy are above is our fishing spot.  Where the girls are below is the buoy we always swim quite a ways out to.  Weird!!!

This was another fantastic outing to share with my sister.  She's never been to Pinecrest and the day's hike was just strenuous enough to be exciting, but quick enough to not exhaust us completely.  It couldn't have been a prettier day.  Bringing the puppy and seeing the lake in such a different state added a new element of fun that I suspect distracted Delia from all the miles we once again made her walk!

Christmas Adventures in the Capitol

Sadly, Andrew's time with us was short as he had to get back to work the day after Christmas.  We LOVED hanging out even a few days, though, and getting to know him better.  And as long as we were driving through Sacramento to get him to the airport, we decided to make a day of it!  Delia has spent the last month memorizing her states and their capitols.  Though she's been here before, she doesn't really remember, so we thought a tour of our state's capitol would be appropriate.  Always learning, we are!

Pretty Christmas tree outside the capitol building.

The always fun-to-see rotunda.

The state legislature chamber, where a docent explained to us how laws are made in as fair a way as possible.  Given the insanity of some California laws, I'll refrain from political commentary.

Auntie Heather getting attacked by the grizzly outside our governor's office. 

We also wandered around the gorgeous capitol building grounds a while too, learning about all the different trees and plants represented in the state garden.  Not the most exciting of our outings, perhaps, but still a pleasant day.

Christmas Adventures in the Tomb

If Heather will tell you that kayaking with otters and jellyfish was the coolest thing she's done in a while, Dave will tell you that the Escape Room we did on Christmas Day is the coolest thing he's done!  For Christmas last year, Kyle gave our family tickets to an Escape Room.  We put them to good use during Heather and Andrew's visit.  I can't give too many details because upon exit, we promised not to reveal things to people who may want to give it a try.  But I can tell you these 3 generalities about our time in King Tut's Tomb:

1.  This was Dave's JAM!  My husband is a puzzle-lover and he's incredibly smart.  He was flying around solving clues like a master escapee.

2.  Even though I do believe Dave could have probably single-handedly escaped, we did all contribute something.  I especially enjoyed seeing even our youngest team member pitch in in her own special way.  Delia somehow quickly memorized a hieroglyphic/alphabet stone that had her breaking codes at record speed.  Or Andrew, who works with his hands operating on people, whipped all the wooden puzzles together.

3.  We did in fact escape!  Given 1 hour to solve a long series of clues that unlocked various things, we succeeded in finding the treasure and unlocking our room's (tomb's) door!  WITH 6 minutes to spare!  And in so doing, we joined the elite 23% of people who are actually able to escape the room!

We are a surgeon, a nurse, a teacher, a pastor, and 2 straight A students, representing quite a few college and advanced degrees.  I'm proud of us for escaping, but not too surprised. :)

Christmas Adventures on the Sea

Yay!  We made it!  I am actually blogging about things that happened THIS WEEK, not a month ago!  This year for Christmas, Heather and Andrew were able to join us!  I knew I wanted their time with us to be special and to show Andrew some unique parts of Northern CA, since it was his first visit here.  Moss Landing  has long been one of our favorite spots to view ocean wildlife.  Remember the summer of the whales?  Or how every time we stop by we are greeted by otter friends?  Kayaking the Elkhorn Slough, which is the salt water wetland system connected to this unique piece of ocean, has always been on my To-Do List.  My friend Amy did it with some friends this fall and gave me all the tips and advice I needed to finally pull the trigger on this grand outing.  And it exceeded our expectations in every way!

Sea kayaking in December can be chilly.  We were excited that the company we rented from offered skirted kayaks, to keep us nice and snug and dry while paddling.  And dang, don't we look gooooood in these getups?!

My sister, the queen of selfies, snagged this one of the whole group.  

Andrew is already a wonderful uncle, agreeing to paddle with Ella.  We got such a kick out of their conversation, which was mostly Ella pumping him for every detail of his schooling and career.  She has now decided she wants to be an orthopedic surgeon too.

So, I had my phone in this handy waterproof case, attached to my arm with a floating buoy.  Unfortunately the inevitable splashing of salt water with each paddle, did sprinkle my phone, and while it was in no danger, it did fog the case and make my pictures of this awesome day less than awesome.  While the above pic is a bit blurry, I still love it because it shows the rafts of otters we floated RIGHT by!

Heather and I had a blast together on this day.  We unintentionally even wore the same shirt, joking that we truly dressed as a team!

My amazing view for about 3 hours.

Okay, let's' talk about the wildlife.  It was incredible!  A while ago, a tide brought millions of sea nettles into the Monterey Bay and the entire time we paddled, these huge, orange, tentacle-y jellyfish would float right by.  Along the banks were constant clumps of hilarious seals, cracking us up with their "yoga moves" and funny noises.  Once, Heather even laughed her big infectious laugh, and several popped up RIGHT next to us to see what the noise was!  The otters were everywhere too.  We saw too many to count, some super close up, one mama with a baby riding on her belly.

And then there was the show going on in the sky.  Huge white and black pelicans were fishing RIGHT around us-- a little unnerving actually as they would seemingly fall from the sky and dive bomb the water to catch a fish.  It made Delia nervous, but was sure something to see.  

Heather's been visiting us almost yearly for 15 years now.  We've taken her all over our state, but she said this was the neatest thing she's done with us.  Somehow we scored a perfect day on the slough-- warm enough to be comfortable, no wind  or current, and wildlife galore!  Not promising every day has these ideal conditions, but I'd enthusiastically recommend this outing and the kayak company we used!!

Christmas Videos

These are 3 of my favorite videos from our Christmas season.  They showcase the girls and their musical contributions to various concerts and programs.

The school Christmas Concert is a long one-- 5th-12th grade, ALL bands and choirs.  The grand finale, and our reward perhaps for sitting through several hours of a school concert :), is when all the students get on stage for a mass choir performance of "Peace Peace."

This is Ella playing "O Holy Night" for the Sunday School Program prelude.  She worked hard on this song and "rocked it", as her piano teacher said!

And here is Delia singing in her girls' ensemble at the Sunday School Program.  She too did a wonderful job singing her heart out!

Scenes of the Season

Getting closer, folks!  Here we are at Christmas time!  The following are some random scenes of the season...

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we also got the Christmas tree and made our house all festive.

The girls had a play date with some friends and this is what I just LOVE about how my kids play: They creatively cooked up this hot chocolate and caroling stand and charmed $32 from the passers-by with their product sales and singing!  They even got a cop to stop!

Delia once again danced in our small town's Christmas Parade on Main Street.  This year her dance studio danced to "Run Run Rudolph" and took first place in the competition!

Sinterklass made his annual December 5 appearance.

I so enjoy decorating my classroom for Christmas!  I had the rule growing up (and so did my kids actually!), that you were NOT allowed to touch the tree or its ornaments.  From this was born the idea that my preschoolers might love playing "Christmas" and touching/decorating the tree all they want!  They also give each other presents (empty wrapped boxes) and bake cookies and it's just the cutest thing.

For the first time, both girls were in the school Christmas concert.  Though Delia complains every week about hauling her xylophone to school (with good reason, the thing is crazy heavy!), she was thrilled in her choice to play percussion when she was given the all-important jingle bell part in the song "Sleigh Ride".  She was so excited, and did great; we were so proud.  Both girls' bands and choirs sounded awesome. 

My administrator took the whole preschool staff out for a Christmas lunch.   When you see us all together like this, you realize how much our program has grown!  It was a fun time of Secret Santa gift exchange, laughter, and delicious Mexican food.

As Delia is a 5th grader, it was our last time to watch one of our own kids in the Sunday School program.  Ella still played "O Holy Night" on the piano for a prelude.  Delia ended her years of Sunday School programs with a bang-- reciting a long speaking part and singing in an ensemble with the other 5th grade girls.  Like he always does, Dave read all the kids on stage a Christmas story.  This is a Christmas tradition that I will miss having my kids be a part of.

Our girls ministry at church hosted a super fun Christmas party with games, a craft, a hot chocolate bar, and a sock exchange.  Here are my Fabulous Fifth Graders sporting the head wraps I gave them.

And one last scene to end with, my favorite: a lit tree, a warm fire, a snugly puppy, and a pile of presents!

Ivy's First Big Hike

Another fun thing we did over Thanksgiving weekend was take Ivy on her first big hike!

When we adopted her, she was not fully vaccinated, so we were told to be cautious about taking her out and introducing her to people.  The day she got her final vaccination from the vet, we HAD to leash her up for a walk around the neighborhood, even though it was raining!

A few weeks later, we ventured to Knight's Ferry to see how Ivy would do on a trail and with some climbing.  

Overall, our new puppy did pretty well!  To be in our family, you must tolerate hiking, so we're encouraged! :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, Blog Readers, you can once again thank my sister for the gentle reminder that the old family blog hasn't been updated since October.  I have a whole week's worth of Christmas Vacation Adventures to share with you, but my OCD won't let me post those without first backing up to Thanksgiving just to keep things in order. ;)

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at home this year.  Dave had a busy season of funerals and a lot going on at church, so a day with just our family and nothing but good food and rest on the agenda was something we embraced.  

Ella helped make the pumpkin cheesecake.

Dave once again smoked our turkey on the Traeger and it was fantastic!

I love this little family of mine.  Though we sit down to eat around this table every single night, Thanksgiving is a special time to celebrate God's goodness together.  This is what I said I was thankful for this year: "A while ago I heard a musician on KLOVE say, 'God does not intend for us to sacrifice our family on the altar of ministry.'  I'm so thankful that no matter how insane his schedule gets, or how heavy his stress load is, Dave continually prioritizes me and the girls.  He reads aloud, he grades homework, he helps me wash dishes every night, he stays home and takes care of us when we are sick, he gets our turkey beautifully smoked while also preparing to lead a church service.  This Thanksgiving, I thank my God that we have such an awesome pastor...AND husband/dad."

Ivy discovered the joy of turkey!

And, while I have read this favorite book multiple times, as has Ella, Dave and Delia have never read Wonder by RJ Palacio, so they spent the season reading it together.  When they finished over the long weekend, we all went to see the movie together, which was great...but not as good as the book. ;)

Okay...one Pre-Heather-Visit post down, a few more to go and we'll get to the exciting stuff!

Halloween, Kyle, and Wisdom Teeth

The 3 things in this title sum up the major life events of the VM Family the past 3 weeks.  

 Even though I keep checking in with the kids to see if they feel too old for our church's little Harvest Party, they continue to assure me they are not!  They started planning their costumes in September!  Fun for each girl this year was Delia having her friend Kate along for the party, and Ella walking away with another "Best Costume" prize in her age group!

Since our youth pastor likes to hold the Harvest Party on a weekend, for the second time now we've actually been home on the night of the 31st and could do a little trick-or-treating.  I must admit that when it comes to this Halloween tradition, I can take it or leave it.  But, as I was strolling around in the dark with my excited girls, crunching leaves under my feet, bundled in a puffy, warm vest and surrounded by swarms of other kids in costumes, it did strike me as a perfectly lovely fall moment.  And coming home, putting the kids to bed after a long school day, and diving into that candy bowl with a book and a puppy by your side is pretty fantastic too! :)

 I had fun putting this little collage together of the girls' costumes through the years.  I do love their creativity and passion for dressing up!  I think the stoplight and Stanley Cup are still my favorites.  Which ones are yours?

The next weekend we had Kyle visiting!  Once again, clients brought him to the Bay Area and he was able to make a weekend with us out of his travels.  We learned that when Kyle visits a new place, some of the first things he like to check out are 1. the book stores, 2. the churches, and 3. the coffee shops.  Since the weekend he visited was totally rainy, we made plans to show Kyle some these favorite things in a new-to-us area: Stanford University.  It was the perfect, gorgeous, fall day.  We spent an hour browsing this wonderful old bookshop.  We strolled all around the university and visited the golden-mosaiced church in Stanford's Quad, and we stopped for some coffee.

This weekend has not had costumes, candy, or family visitors...it's been consumed with much-needed oral surgery and its ensuing recovery for me.  I put off getting my wisdom teeth out for way too long and finally had to endure this procedure this week.  It has actually gone really well.  The discomfort, swelling, pain, and fatigue are not unexpected and I have nothing to complain about.  My family, Dave especially, has taken the best care of me!  I'm so thankful to have such a tender, nurturing husband, who was so sweet and helpful when I was at my most weak and disoriented.  The precious pileup of loved ones pictured below has also embraced a long weekend of rest with me--  indulging me in multiple meals of soup and a monster Lord of the Rings movie marathon!