Surprise!

Well before Ella left college to head home, her boyfriend Gideon texted me with an idea for a grand surprise for Ella's birthday.  We conspired for weeks and pulled it off in what will probably be one of our best weekends this summer!  Many pieces had to be put into place just right to prepare for 5 guests in our home for 4 days without Ella having any idea!  Cleaning happened early in the morning while she slept.  The suspicious amount of groceries I bought was stored in the church fridge.  Air mattresses had to be borrowed.  A birthday cake was made in secret.  Even plans for attending graduation that night had to be flexible and come with logical excuses.  Dave, Delia and I waited in nervous excitement all day as we knew this carload of Ella's people was making the long trip from LA.  We kept whispering "ETA?" to each other in the hallway!

  

The idea to knock on our door and blow Ella's socks off didn't quite happen.  Gideon pulled up and parked on our street, right outside her bedroom window, where they were immediately detected.  We knew they had arrived when we heard Ella run out the door yelling, "WHAT?!" ;)  Still fun and she was still super surprised.

What an amazing group of young people!  Three guys, Gideon, Javen, and Logan and two girls, Ori and Emma, made up the Surprise Crew.  They shared sweet prayer times together.  They thanked me for every meal.  They washed their own dishes.  They made their beds and left their rooms as if no one even stayed in them!  They showered Ella with generous birthday gifts and cards full of kind words.  They asked Dave and I deep questions and invited us into conversations and games.  I'm not surprised Ella has found such quality friends.  It made our jobs as hosts extra easy!  We tightly hugged them each goodbye and already miss them (especially Ivy)!

I had asked Ella when she got home what she wanted to do and see in her few weeks of summer before leaving for her job.  She immediately said, "Yosemite!"  I had to tell her that unfortunately Yosemite was operating on the reservation system this summer and those spots filled months ago.  Little did she know that I managed to snag one of the last 100 spots they open up the week before a day trip!  This was part of her surprise! 

Gideon and Ella were the only ones with Yosemite experience, so they got to show it to brand new eyes!  I sometimes wish I could see Yosemite again for the first time.  These are city kids, we got a kick out of explaining "hiking" to some of them the night before! ;)

They decided to tackle the, arguably, best day hike in Yosemite-- the Mist Trail.  It's a hike we've done many times.  It's straight uphill, but has great view payoffs.  They all loved it. 

Dave went along as chauffer, passholder, guide, and photographer.  He really liked getting to spend a whole day with these kids.  Delia and I had grad parties to attend on this day, so we didn't go.  There wouldn't have been room for us anyway.  Delia was not sad to miss a day of hardcore hiking, I was a little.  Especially after the stress of securing the reservation.

In May, the falls are really pumping!  Clothes and shoes needed to be hung up to dry when they all got home, they got SO misted!

They even conquered allllll those killer stone steps that take them to the top of the falls!  

They had time to do the Yosemite Falls trail loop too-- an easy hike after the strenuous Mist Trail.

These 6 college kids (plus Delia) spent the whole weekend laughing and playing games and showering Ivy with attention and loving one another!  How we enjoyed getting to know them and learning more about the awesome community Ella has built this year.  We heard a lot about it and got peeks on visits, but to be in the middle of her group was different and so special.  My table, couch, church pew, house, and heart were full!

On our last day with the college visitors, we shared a special breakfast together before they hit the highway for the long drive back to LA.  Since this was the day before our big 25th anniversary and Dave's busy schedule prevents any kind of other celebrating this week, I'm counting this as our fancy anniversary meal.  It's kind of perfect actually-- 25 years of marriage has yielded a life that is full and sweet and a family we created together that I adore.  

Spring Formals

A Spring highlight when you are an upperclassman is always Junior/Senior Banquet (JSB).  This is our school's version of Prom, but with a twist.  The whole night is designed to honor the Seniors and is hosted by the Juniors.  Delia loved being on the JSB Planning Committee and gave up many lunch times this season to brainstorm ideas and get plans finalized.  She's proud that the theme "A Knight in New York" was actually her idea!  The venue was decorated to look like New York City, with string lights, street signs, a cityscape, and a flowery photo backdrop for "Central Park".  Each table was set with an iconic scene from NYC-- like Yankee Stadium, Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, or cabs and city streets.  The food was served in stations and was themed for some of the different parts of New York, like pizza, Chinese food, and cheesecake.  She worked hard and felt like the event went well.

So, best friend Natalie is actually a sophomore and not able to go to JSB, but she still sweetly offered to do Delia's hair for it.  She did a great job and, as always, the getting ready time ends up being some of the most fun!

Fun story about Delia's dress-- it came from Emma, the friend Ella is going to room with next year!  It was a dress she had ordered that didn't fit quite right, so, on a visit, she offered it to Delia with the tags still on.  We just bought the cute hot pink shoes!  When asked about her dress, Delia likes telling the story of how it was free and from the closet of her sister's college friend!

Delia has a couple friend groups.  This Junior girl friend group is one I really enjoy!  They are silly and creative and tons of fun.  

Poor Julia broke her ankle days before sliding into a base at her softball game, but she's the artist of the bunch and bedazzled her cast to match her dress. Don't you love it?

Kate and Ava have been Delia's friends since early elementary and preschool!  They are each uniquely gifted.  Ava is brilliant, Kate is amazing at all sports.  I love this trio-- the actress, the athlete, and the (probably) valedictorian!

I must have a hundred pictures of Delia and Kate together through the years.  When asked how they wanted to pose, "Let's high five while cheering 'Friendship!'" was how these goofy girls answered.

A few other Junior friends joined the group for photos a little later-- twins Meg and Katie.

At the event, Delia met up with dear Senior friends Laura and Anika-- this is a group featuring some of my favorite gals!  They are all leaders and Jesus-loving, light-shining, beautiful on the inside and outside ladies!

Their table-- Delia scored the Broadway table for her and her friends (of course).

Ella had a Spring Formal too!  Hers was a masquerade!  She loved getting dressed up to dine and dance with all her good friends as well.

Her friend group is also uniquely gifted and awesome-- there are some big brains in this group, performers, Logan (in they yellow mask) is a Cinema Arts Major who you might actually recognize from the commercials he's done, and just some wacky humor too-- don't you love the guy in the gas mask?! ;)

Ella's Last Days

The month of May has been a blur-- not for the same reasons as last year, though!  Without a graduate, we find ourselves much less busy.   It's mostly because we've been in a time of transition again!  Ella is home!  However, a two week sinus infection that kicked my butt and kept me in bed for several days, finishing up school (while writing sub plans for some of those days, grrr), closing up my classroom for the summer, and taking AP and final exams for Delia has kept us from doing super fun things with her.  She's getting lots of time to rest and recharge and connect with her old high school friends.  She started some of her online summer classes too.  She leaves for her summer job already on her birthday!  Yesterday was the last day of teaching for me and attending classes for Delia and each day I feel a bit better, so hopefully we'll have 2 weeks of amazing quality time together before we have to say goodbye again.

Before she left school, she and a good friend did a cute photoshoot around campus.  All of Ella's exams, even her hardest ones, went great!  She finished with an impressive GPA and a lot to look forward to next year!  Bidding goodbye to the friends for a few months was hard, but they had some fun adventures before they parted-- like trips to the LA Zoo and Long Beach Aquarium.

As the stories from the school year trickle out of Ella, we just thank and praise God again for clear calling, providential dorm placement, the strength and clarity of mind to kill it in those tough pre-med classes, and the amazing people He surrounded Ella with.  It was the best year and we've already discussed how dropping her off again in August won't be sad at all.

Dave did something kind of fun when it was time to move Ella out a few weeks ago.  He took a whole week of vacation and did a little SoCal baseball stadium tour!  He saw a San Diego Padres game at beautiful PetCo Stadium. 

An Angels game at their old, iconic park (right by Ella's school actually). 

And a game at historic Dodger Stadium on his last night in LA.

Ella and Gideon actually joined him for that game for a last date!

It was an exciting extra-innings, walk-off-win game with fireworks on the field at the end of it!  A truly grand finale for Ella's first year of living in LA.

Dave got bit by the baseball stadium touring bug now!  We won't travel just for this, but he said if we're ever in a place vacationing or visiting family (like Denver!), he wants to make seeing a game there a priority!  He works hard; I'm glad he could have this week of fun enjoying something he loves.

Girls Road Trip!

About a week ago, my 16 year old cuddled up to me and said, "Mom, I miss Ella so much.  Is there any way we could go see her?  We could make it a fun girls trip!  The time together in the car and then on campus with Ella could be so great!"  How do you say no to that?!  So, a very last minute, but perfectly-timed with our Spring Break, trip to LA was planned.  Dave was busy with all the Easter services, so sadly he had to stay behind.  But, he'll be making the trip in about a month to pick up Ella, so he'll have his special LA time then.  

This trip did not disappoint.  Delia and I had a half day on Thursday, so we hit the road right after school let out at noon.  She was an amazing co-pilot!  We had 7 hours of singing, laughing, and diving into deep conversation.  Her heart and humor just delights me!  To spend that distraction-free, uninterrupted quality time with Delia was alone worth the trip!

Road trip pro tip: pass on the pickle flavored jelly beans! :)

We arrived around 7:30 to hugs from Ella and Gideon.  We snuck into the Caf before they closed the doors for the holiday weekend and right away got busy catching up.  After dinner we settled into our home for the next 4 days-- Ella's dorm room!  When Ella's roommate was homesick on the night they moved in back in August, we kind of saw the writing on the wall.  The girls got along well, but she was local and spent every weekend at home.  At Christmas the roommate bailed on res life and became a commuter student.  It's sad, but there are perks to Ella having a room to herself and an extra bed...like the opportunity for us to all have a dorm sleepover!  These are where my Easter 2024 core memories will be: late nights, movies around Ella's laptop, visiting with friends who dropped in all weekend, the infamous Sunday night trash pick up, cooking Dutch soup in the hot pot.  

On Friday, Gideon drove us to one of his favorite local places, the dog beach at Huntington.  His family loves to walk their pup Pepper here.  Ella and Gideon have even brought Pepper here together.  For a mile we walked on the picturesque beach while awesome friendly dogs came bounding up to say hello!  It is a dog and dog-lovers heaven!

Delia listed "getting to know Gideon better" as a trip goal and it was achieved!  Fun to see their relationship growing since the last time we were together 2 months ago.  We like him a lot.  They are both in the Swing Dance Club and were adorable practicing some of their lifts and tricks on the soft sand.  His home is about 30 minutes away from school and when his parents heard we were in town, they were so sweet to make the drive just to take us all out for tea and spend an hour connecting.  We loved this time.  We like them too.  

Can't go to Huntington Beach without walking the iconic pier or doing a little shopping in the soooo SoCal surfer shops downtown!  Delia bought a cute sweatshirt and we saw a fishing guy catch an actual sting ray off the pier.

Back from the beach for Good Friday service at the church Ella has found to call home this year.  When we walked in, she was warmly greeted by name by her new church family, which was probably what I loved best.  That and watching her craft her artistic sermon notes, the thing I miss most about attending church with Ella.

Saturday was cold and rainy all day.  This is the day we met up with Gideon's family, but also the day we decided to do allll the shopping.  We got Ella stocked up on snacks and personal items.  Then we went to the famous Citadel Outlets.  

Easter Sunday at Ella's church was amazing!  They went all out with a big choir and a glorious, every instrument you can think of-- including harp!, orchestra to lead our worship.  We stayed for a bit afterward to fellowship with some of her friends.  Then we had our Easter Sunday lunch at Porto's-- LA's well known and loved Cuban bakery.  Stuffed potato balls, Cubano sandwiches, empanadas, banana chips, and cheese rolls were an untraditional, but super delicious, Easter meal!

Actually, the whole weekend was full of great food!  The avocado toast at Cream & Sugar Cafe and the multiple stops for boba were highlights.

Delia will tell you one of the best parts of the trip was something I have no pictures of-- the hours of time she got to spend with Ella and her friends having all the wacky late night fun!  The girls returned to the room around 2am each night after dancing/karaoke parties, Jackbox game nights, and movie viewing in the dorm lobby.  Ella has found a group that is as creative, silly, and pure in their fun as she has always been.  On Easter Sunday night, a bunch of them met on the top of their dorm's parking structure just to worship!  Accompaniment courtesy of Ella on the uchalele, Javen on the violin, and Ethan on the guitar.   

We've seen Ella 5 times this year, 2 of those times were when we've gone to visit her.  Starting when we visited last year, and growing when we dropped her off in August, to Family Weekend and this one spent almost entirely on campus, her school is finding a special place in our hearts.  Walking around campus is now familiar and homey.  When I see her school's sign, I feel happy and proud-- like when we see the Mount Hermon sign or the Disneyland sign.  It's likely Delia will end up here too as she grows to love it and its amazing, fun, Jesus-loving student body.  

Ella's dorm is a freshman-only dorm, so on this trip Delia and I said goodbye to it, knowing we probably won't step foot in it again (unless Delia does go here and gets put in this home).  Such cool timing that Ella's dorm assignment for next year came while we were there on Friday!  She will be rooming with one of her good friends Emma, also a biology/pre-med student.  Her whole friend group applied to live in the coolest, newest dorm on campus and they all got in! She and Emma be on the top 5th floor, Gideon and all the guys on the 4th floor, Ava and Tori on the 1st floor. We walked over to check it out and this dorm is incredible.  We even met her RA and peeked at her room, which comes complete with a palm tree view.  Ending such a stellar first year was gonna be bittersweet, but this next chapter is one Ella and all her relocating friends are really excited about!

The ride home was a little quieter after the long weekend jam-packed with people and fun.  But, the Lord brought us safely through LA traffic and crazy snow-covered mountain passes.  It was a perfect weekend to celebrate His Goodness!