Quality Down Time

Friday was a great day of adventure and new sights, but the following Saturday and Sunday of down time to just hang out were some of times I'll treasure most from this trip.  

Our creative children treated us adults to a game show they put together called "The Wheel of VMs!"  For this game we had to spin a wheel, answer family trivia questions, and uncover letters that spelled out key phrases from the day before's outing (like "Redwood Trees" or "Marianne's Ice Cream").  The wheel had funny traps on it that made you either lose a turn ("Leave your purse at the beach!" or "Clouds covering your sunset!"-- actually happened) or gain more points ("Win a game of Trains!" or "Become a Believer!")  There was even a "Banana Slug Bonus Round".  It was BRILLIANT!  We loved it so much.  

We also spent some time on Saturday supporting our local businesses with lunch at a downtown sandwich shop and a shopping spree at my favorite little friend-owned home goods store.  Afterwards, we picked up our Christmas tree and decorated together.

Since Aidan loves to be in the kitchen, I had Ella teach him how to make stroopwafels.  We were so impressed! I helped throw the ingredients together and gave a quick assembly demo, but other than that, the kids put these multi-step Dutch treats together 100% by themselves!

No pictures to show, but there were also countless games played, a few Christmas movies watched, dozens of mugs of tea and hot chocolate consumed, many meals shared, and tons of great conversation and laughs.  Our hearts are so full after this wonderful week with our family!  We are so blessed and thankful that Karen, Aidan and Kyle honored us with their time and presence and heaped love and attention upon our girls this Thanksgiving.  

Banana Slugs, Pirates, and MYSTERY in Santa Cruz

We opted to go green instead of black on the Friday following Thanksgiving.  I planned an outing to Santa Cruz that hit all our favorite places and a new one.

We started the morning with a hike around Mount Hermon.  It was neat to show our family this place that has become so special to us.  To hike around in the fall was a treat!  Leaves were changing and banana slugs were EVERYWHERE!  We found about 17 of them on the short looping trail through the redwoods.  The picture below is my favorite of the whole week.  Auntie Karen was taking a closeup picture of the huge slug on her hand when Aidan finally worked up the nerve to touch the thing right as the camera snapped.  She caught his look of horror and disgust!

After Mount Hermon, we hit two more favorites--  lunch at Pizza My Heart and pirate mini golf on the Boardwalk.  We took a short walk down the pier too.

The high point of this Santa Cruz Day was our visit to the Mystery Spot.  I have actually been saving this outing for an Aidan visit, since he is the one who introduced my girls to the intrigue of the show Brain Games.  The Mystery Spot is either a huge optical illusion OR a true gravitational anomaly, explained by crazy things like aliens, or a hole in a ozone layer, or iron under the earth.  At the Mystery Spot, balls roll and water flows uphill.  Taller people appear shorter.  You are physically unable to stand up straight.  Some of us went into it pretty skeptical and cynical.  But, the kids kept encouraging us to "Become a believer!" We had a fun, enthusiastic attitude and our family had a blast here!  It also helped that we were the only Americans in our tour group. And our guide was phenomenal and hilarious, a theater major we guessed.

Members of our family volunteered every time our guide asked!  Here are Aidan and Ella showing how their height changes depending on what side of the Mystery Spot they stand on.  The crazy thing is that our guide laid a level down and showed us that the ground was, in fact, perfectly level here!

The story goes that a cabin built up on a hill slid down it, pulled by the Mystery Spot's mysterious gravity.  The cabin now sits at nausea-inducing slanty angles. Inside it you can feel all sorts of weird standing in ways you should not be able to.

(Look at Dave and Kyle's amazed faces in this pic!)

Outside the crazy cabin, we were treated to another demonstration in height changes, featuring 3 people from our family.  See how Dave shrunk?  Once again, the ground is supposedly level here.

When you visit the Mystery Spot, you get to take home as many free bumper stickers as you like!  (So you can be a part of their brilliant "free advertising plan", our guide explained.) Sooooo...is the Mystery Spot real or an illusion?  You'll have to visit and decide for yourself.  But, I will tell you two odd things that we experienced that made us become believers!  One, some of us were immediately motion sick when we got out of the car up in those woods.  I felt dizzy and queasy and "off" the whole time, until we drove away.  And two, while we were parked in the parking lot, our van's GPS said that we were actually driving (and driving fast-- up to 30 miles an hour)...IN THE DIRECTION OF THE MYSTERY SPOT!

After the Mystery Spot, we had some pressert (before dinner dessert) at Marianne's.  The scoop of ginger ice cream I ordered, with chunks of real candied ginger in it!, was just what my unsettled stomach needed after our time at the Mystery Spot.

Before driving home, we found a spot by the Santa Cruz lighthouse to watch the sun set.  Cuddling up by the crashing surf, watching the sky turn pretty colors was the perfect ending to a day packed with fun and favorites...and MYSTERY! :)

Thankful for a House Full of Family!

It is family tradition that Dave's older sister, Karen, hosts a grand gathering at their lovely home in Chicago every year.  She invites both sides of her family and any other local friend who needs a place to feast.  This year, though, their home is under construction with a major renovation project well under way.  And she felt it was about time that she made her regular visit with just one son; this time our middle nephew, Aidan, was up for a turn.  We were thrilled to have them.  THEN, Dave's brother Kyle learned that he had a work thing in the Bay Area the weekend before Thanksgiving, so he asked if there was space around our table still!  

Hosting a larger group of family than we've ever had made me feel extra thankful this year.  I am thankful for the board game pieces that were constantly spread across that table.  I am thankful that I had a kitchen full of helpers, including my nephew Aidian, who loves to cook.  I am thankful for the whole pew we took up in church and for the tears of pride Dave's sister sheds after hearing him preach.  I am thankful for family recipes like corn souffle, cranberry salad, roasted veggies, sweet potato souffle, and an amazing smoked turkey.  I'm thankful for a long walk through the orchard to make space in the belly before eating pie in front of a warm fire.   I am thankful that every bed, couch and cot in the place was full of people sleeping each night.  I am thankful for all the laughter and love my house was filled with for a week, and for the notes they left that we are still finding!  I am thankful that my in-law story is perhaps not the norm-- there is no drama or stress or frustration.  Dave's family is truly my family too.  And they are our best friends.

October and November Happenings

You guys. We just had the BEST Thanksgiving week with our family.  I have so many great pictures and stories of our time and outings together.  But, the OCD in me won't feel right about posting those end-of-November adventures until I get these October pictures and memories on the blog first. :)

One fun part of October was our friends' annual pumpkin carving, chili-eating, firepit-fellowshipping party.  It was a good time and we all came home with some cool looking pumpkins and our bellies full of delicious fall foods.

  

Our church did host its annual Harvest Party also, but we were just returning from our weekend at the safari and mission.  And Ella was invited to her first boy-girl party at a friend's house on that night.  So, we didn't even stay all that long.  Since the Harvest Party was on a weekend night, NOT Halloween night, we actually took the girls out trick-or-treating for the first time.  This was such fun!  They were timid and shy at first, thinking the idea of knocking on strangers' door was a pretty strange one.  But, it didn't take long for them to realize that all the free candy for minimal work was possibly the best thing ever!  They came home with some serious loot, that will probably last until at least next Halloween!  (We went low-key with the costumes this year too-- panda jammies that we found on clearance for Delia and an old cookie monster costume from the dress-up tub for Ella.)

And, of course, the highlight of our October-- watching the Cubs win the World Series!  We ran the gamut of emotions on the night of Game 7.  Delia was even in tears at one point watching our Cubs lose their lead.  But then we were ecstatic when they regained it and came back to win.  With the two games we got to attend and the month our whole family spent listening to Cubs playoff games on the radio and watching on TV when it was aired on a network, this truly was our "Year of the Cubs".  Watch for a special Cubs-themed Christmas Card to come your way soon! 

Not nearly as satisfying or ecstasy-inducing as the Cubs win, we also watched the election coverage.  I could barely stomach it.  Mostly Ella watched.  She was too funny with her electoral college maps, and laptop's refresh button, and shouting across the house things like,  "MOM! Trump just took Louisiana!"

We also participated in one of our favorite Christmas traditions-- packing an Operation Christmas Child box.  With all the little goodies they've chosen, the girls always include some artwork in their shoe boxes also.  Here is another masterpiece from Ella that I couldn't seal up without photographing first.

Okay, now that I am caught up on the little happenings of fall, let the posts about family fun begin...

Mission Possible

After our soggy safari, we packed up at Safari West and headed more into town to stay at a second hotel within walking distance of Delia's mission.  We strolled around downtown Sonoma for a bit, warmed up in the hotel hot tub, ordered pizza, and watched the Cubs game in our hotel room.  For one person in our party, coming face-to-face with a giraffe was emotionally and physically exhausting, and sleep overtook them early.  We were cracking up when we saw the way she fell asleep in the bed and asked through giggles, "Who's sleeping with Delia tonight?  Apparently no one."

Our last day of this getaway was all about learning.  Armed with my camera and her little notebook, Delia was very serious about collecting photos and facts for her mission scrapbook.  We were thankful that a wonderful docent, who just loves 4th graders doing mission projects, became our personal guide for an hour and showed us every detail of the Sonoma Mission.  Especially since the Sonoma Mission is really tiny and there was actually not too much to see!

We learned that of the 21 missions, this was not only the most Northern one, it was also the last created and it only operated for about 12 years, under Mexican leadership, not Spanish.  We also learned that it is only 1 of 2 of all the missions that are not under the ownership of the Catholic Church.  Because it is owned instead by the California Park System, and because it practically crumbled to the ground in the 1908 earthquake, almost everything we saw was a recreation and "artist's rendition" of what it probably looked like, made for educational purposes only.  The only original thing still at this mission was its bell, which our docent encouraged Delia to ring with his mallet.

This mission was the perfect one for Delia to study, because it was not too huge and there is not an overwhelming amount of information that goes with it.  We're glad to have toured missions that are all different with totally unique-to-them stories now.

We made another stop at a mission museum attached to a winery, also.  This museum has paintings and models of all 21 missions, as well as authentic Miwok Indian artifacts.  Our stop here helped Delia glean just a few more pieces to the bigger mission story.

The mission museum/winery also had this cool fish pond where we fed the entertaining carp.  And we took a nice walk around the vineyards, where the colors are starting to change and look spectacular!

We feel like such smart parents squeezing two great vacations out of our girls' mission projects.  If you have an upcoming 4th grader, we definitely recommend giving them that nudge to explore a mission in a getaway-worthy area! :)