School Starts

I'm trying to catch up a bit - got a little behind on the blog.  School started about 6 weeks ago here in Northern California.  The kids are settled back into the routines of the school year.

 Ashyn is a senior (I know, I can't believe it either) and Dallin is a sophomore.  For them the day starts with seminary at 6:15am.  Ashlyn nanny's after school every day so it feels like we already don't see her much.

Breann's in her last year of middle school as an 8th grader.  Standing at almost 5' 8" she's looking all grown up.

That leaves Alexa and Bryant in elementary school - Alexa in 5th grade and Bryant in 2nd.  These two are such good friends - best buds.

This is a pivotal year for us as we will have 3 graduations at the end of the year (all the girls) - Ashlyn from high school, Breann from middle school, and Alexa from elementary school.  Can't believe how fast they are growing up!

Summer vacation recap

Our summer started off with a bang - all our vacations back to back.  A week after school let out, the big girls and I headed to YW Camp for a week.  The day after we got home, we headed to a Larsen family reunion near Blanding, Utah (Four Corners area).  We stayed in a big, beautiful lodge and enjoyed a week of the outdoors. We also got to spend a day in the new Monticello, UT temple.

 Breann's birthday is the day after the 4th of July so she's usually always spending her special day with extended family.  This birthday she spent with both sides - the morning with all her Larsen family and cousins and then the afternoon with the Bruschke side.  We drove straight from Blanding to Lake Powell for our traditional, much anticipated week on the house boat with the Bruschke's.

 Besides bringing a horrible 24 hour virus onto the house boat to pass around, it was another great week on the lake.

Lots of fun times with cousins....

 and lots of this....

 and this.....

 and some of this....

 and this...

and so much more.  We can't get enough boating!

After Lake Powell we headed to Utah for a week while Breann attended soccer camp at BYU.  We were able to spend some more time with Bruschke family and see many great friends from Singapore.

Big Sur

Spent our Memorial Weekend in Big Sur, California - a beautiful redwood forest right on the coast about 2 hours south of us.  This camping trip has been a tradition in our ward for many, many years.  We attended a few times when we lived here before and the kids were super excited to do again.  I'm not a fan of camping but I tolerate a couple of nights for the kids - they love it so much.  They spend the weekend roaming from campsite to campsite visiting with friends.  We also hike and some hit the beach for a bit.

 Bryant loves the fire and roasting marshmallows.  Craig just loves the excuse to wear his cowboy hat.

Another year of great Big Sur memories!

Hawaii

So I decided that I needed to go somewhere for my big birthday this year (at the end of April)- I know it's hard to believe, but I actually turned 40.  I just don't feel that old - I'm still shocked when I'm at the gym and the machine wants my age and I have to punch in that 4 first.  I'm not sure I'll ever feel old.  The way it goes in our house, if there is something I want for my birthday then I take initiative and go for it.  Craig has many amazing qualities but gift giving is not one.  He did support my desire to do something memorable and for that I'm appreciate (especially since he travels so much for work that when he's in the US he doesn't have much motivation to get on a plane for fun).  I decided I wanted to do something adventurous - show that I still got it at 40.  I looked up amazing hikes and settled on Napali Coast in Kauai.  Craig has never been to Hawaii and I haven't been since I was about 11 so this was a fun adventure for us.  We hired a babysitter for the kids and headed off.

 We started on Oahu and did the typical tourist stuff - Pearl Harbor, the temple, BYU Hawaii, and the Polynesian Cultural Center.

 We were constantly amazed at the beauty around us.  Hawaii truly is an incredibly beautiful place.

 We headed to Kauai to do some hiking.  The Napali Coast is on the north side of Kauai and is an area of the island that is not traversable by car.  I hiked 2 miles up the coast and then two miles inland to a waterfall then back out 2 miles and then another 2 1/2 miles further up the coast.  About 11 miles all together.  The die hards hike the whole 11 miles along the coast, spend the night camping and then hike back the next day.  I'm not that die hard - no camping for me.  It was a pretty tough hike but truly spectacular.

Easter in SoCal

Our Spring Break landed the week before Easter.  Ashlyn and I were gone part of the week on choir tour but as soon as we returned, the family packed up and headed down to Southern California to spend a few days at the beach and with family.

 Who can get enough of the beach!  We love the beach and go as much as we can, especially when we are down visiting grandma and grandpa Larsen.

We met up with a few other families from our ward who were also down south for the week and spent a day kayaking Huntington Beach Harbour and playing at the beach - with dinner and bonfire in the evening.  

Saturday morning we did a great little hike along the coast - can't get enough of this place, so beautiful.  Then it was time for Easter festivities.

 Who says your ever too old for Easter Egg hunt!  Even the teenagers enjoyed (helps that grandma puts $ in some of the eggs :).

 The kids were so excited to have their Easter Egg hunt on grandma and grandpa's hill - it's their all time favourite place to do this tradition and it's been sorely missed over the past few years.

 And what makes it even better - having cousins to hunt with!  The kids love spending time with cousins.

Choir Tour

A few weeks back, Ashlyn and I headed to Nashville and Memphis Tennessee on tour with her high school choir.  First off, this is an amazing choir.  Choir is a big deal here in Danville (much to Dallin's dismay :) and the high school has some phenomenal choirs.  This all girls choir Ashlyn is in took first place at Golden State back in February - they are really good.  I decided to tag along for tour this year as a chaperone since I've never been to Tennessee.  Getting there was a bit hairy - our flight out of San Francisco was delayed (for 1/2 our group), causing us to miss our connection in Denver.  We wound up traveling the whole day; routing thru Denver, then Chicago and then finally arriving in Nashville 12 hours later.  A fit beginning to this whirl wind 6 day tour.  

The choir sang at a beautiful cathedral in downtown Nashville on Palm Sunday.  It was interesting to sit through mass on this unique occasion.

I loved downtown Nashville.  Broadway Street is lined with restaurants and bars with live music spilling out onto the road - all the up and coming country artists trying to be noticed and make it in the industry.

 We got a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry and even got to sing a bit on the stage.  Being a country music lover, this was all heaven.  We also visited the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Other places of interested we toured: The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's home) and Bel Meade Plantation.  We also attended two evening musical theatre performances and an incredible choir concert at Belmont University.

After three days in Nashville, we headed down the road a few hours to Memphis.  We left the country music capital and entered the historical city for the Blues and the beginnings of Rock & Roll.

 I think one of my favourite places was Sun Studio's - where Elvis and Johnny Cash did their first recordings.  It was so inspiring to be standing there in the studio room listening to the story of 17 year old Elvis coming in and paying $4 to have himself recorded.  He hung around the studio for a year trying to come up with something the studio owner would professionally record when finally a song was recorded and taken up the street to local radio and the rest is history.

 After the studio we headed to Graceland.  Can you believe Elvis was really blonde (he dyed his hair) - who knew?  I've never been a huge Elvis fan but his story is so interesting and inspiring and so very tragic.

In Memphis we also did a ghost walk downtown (including Beale Street - home of the Blues) and visited the Civil Rights Museum in the old Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was shot.

Another one of my favourite parts of the tour was the visits to three high schools: one in Nashville, one in Memphis, and one across the Mississippi River in Mississippi.  Our choir would visit that high schools choir and they would sing for each other.  It was so interesting for these kids (and me) to walk into these other high schools, on the other side of the US, and see how things are the same and different.

Such a great experience to visit these musical cities with a musical group.  It wore me out, didn't get much sleep, but it was a jam packed schedule of interesting, history packed places.  I really enjoyed spending the time with Ashlyn and getting to know a few of her friends.  Coming to realise how short our time left with Ashlyn really is.

Robotics

Dallin had the opportunity this year to participate on a robotics team at the high school.  They spend several weeks building a robot that would compete in a couple competitions in the northern California area.  Their first competition was a few weeks ago at UC Davis and then this last weekend they competed at San Jose State University.  All the robots are given the same specification for certain tasks that it must be able to do.  They put six robots in an arena at a time and they go at it - completing as many tasks as possible and also trying to stop other robots.  It was an interesting, fun atmosphere. Their robot placed third at both competitions (out of over 50 robots).  The robot was built and programmed by the team.  Dallin's learned a lot and will hopefully participate again in future years.