Memorial Day Weekend

We started off the weekend by going to the 32nd annual  Pow Wow at UCR. We love to listen to drums as the dancers compete and look at all the beautiful costumes. The girls also love to look through all the stalls to find little trinkets that they can beg their dad for.

It is also a chance for them to learn about their Native American ancestors as they are...let's see...1/16th Navajo!




We ended the weekend by trying to take advantage of the last of the cooler weather we are likely to have by going for a hike and picnic at the Santa Rosa Plateau.

I don't know if it was the holiday weekend or if it is just getting really crowded there as well. There are always people out there but it seemed like we ran into many more of them around the trails than usual.

It is really evident what a dry year it has been as the vernal pools are already dried up and summer has not even yet begun.

We covered most of the South Eastern part of the reserve. We hiked 9.2 miles (round trip), stopping only for lunch and an occasional stop for water, snacks and to wait for the kids. They were dragging a bit that day but I did not realize what a long hike we took...although it was an easy 9 miles as there was no elevation gain to speak of...just pleasant rolling hills.

A coyote crossed our path on one of the trails. That was interesting for the kids to see. It blended in with the grasses pretty well but  some crows were harassing it for some reason so it was hard to miss. The crows ran it off and then it turned around and crossed back over when the birds gave up on their game.

We were all a little foot sore in the end and were happy to return home to rest.

Mother's Day

Christian took us out to Idyllwild on the Mother's day weekend. I needed very badly to get out into the open where I can breath. I miss being able to take off on road trips whenever the itch to travel comes but with the kids and the price of gas being what they are, it has been difficult.

We decided on a relatively local hike out to Idyllwild. We have never taken the kids but Christian and I had been there a few times many years ago. We took a  nearly 3 mile hike from Humber Park to Skunk Cabbage Meadow with a 1700 feet elevation gain. The trail used to be called "the devil's slide" because it was a very difficult climb but in recent years, they have made the switchbacks a lot more friendly to use so it isn't nearly as vertical as it used to be. The kids still thought that it was pretty grueling in some parts.

We brought along a picnic. It was a little more crowded than I had hoped but it wasn't too bad once we got up a little ways. We passed under Lily Rock (aka Taquitz Rock). We also had to stop on the trail to let a king snake pass...that was less than pleasant.

It was a beautiful day. We hiked back down the way we went up. It wasn't too hot yet so it was a pretty pleasant hike. But they got very little precipitation this year as there was not a bit of snow left. In fact, most of the springs were dry or nearly dry. It does not bode well for us this year.

Christian and the kids got me this digital converter which allows me to attach my little digital music player in my car just using a simple auxiliary cable. My CD player has not been working well for quite some time now and it basically died at the beginning of the year so this makes it a lot better for us to be able to listen to whatever we want while we travel.

Christian made me Persian naan and smothered cabbage for my actual Mother's Day meal. It's a strange combination that we discovered some time ago but I really like it. It was so awesome. Even the kids enjoyed it a lot.

Pandamonium

After Caitlyn's baptism, we had a party for friends and family who came to town to celebrate Caitlyn's 8th birthday. It was pandamonium...and a little pandemonium as well!

Caitlyn's favorite animal are pandas so Auntie Marian planned a party around that theme. Everything was black and white and lime green. There was a panda pinata (which was enormous, by the way).

There were panda prizes and panda party favors. Pandas on the cupcakes and panda presents...well, you get the idea.

Caitlyn was so excited. The party turned out pretty good despite the pandemonium aspect of it. We started late because the decorations were not done. The wind was blowing and popping many of the balloons...those that didn't fly off. It took us a while to get the party going after that as the kids were already engaged in playing with each other. The gigantic pinata was kind of hard for the kids to destroy as they are more of a cardboard box nowadays than an actual paper mache pinata. After all the younger kids had their turn, we finally had one of the teenage cousins put an end to the panda's misery and to let out all the candy and toys for the younger kids.

We didn't get to half the games I think. My elderly father had to retreat to the shelter of my sister's car at some point because of the misery of being in the constant wind. And so by the time we got to the shave ice, more than half the guests had to leave and the kids ended up just playing with half of the shave ice like snowballs.

It was quite an exhausting day. For Emily's party, we had quite a bit of leftover food which we then ate for dinner and so I tried not to go too crazy this time with making too much food. This time, we actually ended up not having enough food! Most of everyone that came was able to eat all they wanted but we had a few late-comers that ended up with very little if any at all. I had over 10 pounds of shredded beef for drip beef sandwiches, over 10 pounds of grapes, 3 heads of cabbage for ramen salad and a big stack of hot dogs for the kids...along with water, juice boxes and chips. I thought that there would be enough, but apparently, I was wrong. It is so hard to plan for feeding so many people. On the bright side, we didn't have to bring any food home except for some cupcakes. For Emily's party, we had over half a Costco sheet cake left and no one really wanted to eat it. Costco cakes used to be pretty good, but they taste a lot like grocery store cakes now and we are too spoiled with homemade cakes to want to eat it. I sucked it up and made my own cupcakes this year and we didn't have any problems polishing off what was left this time!

We had a little thank you gift for Auntie Marian (for without her help, there would not be these big crazy parties).

Caitlyn made her a black, white and green friendship bracelet as a thank you. She had a lot of trouble with it as she wanted to make a new design for her, but after having to take apart the bracelet several times because of mistakes, one of the strings snapped off halfway through and she had to start over, but as time was short, I just had her make one of her more basic designs.

When almost everyone was gone and we finally finished cleaning up and loading up our cars, we finally retreated back to the house to open presents.

Happy Birthday Caitlyn! We hope you had a good day. We are so very proud of your decision to become baptized. Thank you to all our friends and family that was able to come out to support us and share in this day with us and a special thanks to Auntie Marian for all her hard work, crazy ideas and generosity.

Caitlyn's Baptism

On Saturday, May 4th, our youngest, Caitlyn was baptized.

Christian, of course, baptized her. Three kids in our ward got baptized at the same time. Incidentally, all the girls from her CTR7 class got baptized at the same time. All the boys are younger. I was afraid that it was going to be chaotic but it turned out pretty good. Only one other boy in the stake was baptized that day, so after he went, the rest of the time was ours. 

The only difficulty was that there was only standing room in the back by the time we were ready for the actual ordinance. Three families and all their supporting families and friends would not quite fit in the primary room where the baptism was taking place.

Afterwards, Emily played "I Am a Child of God" on the piano in front of everyone back in the chapel. As we do her piano lessons at home by ourselves, we are not afforded many opportunities for recitals and such, so we required her to play at her sister's baptism. I promised to sign off on her "developing talents" portion of her Faith in God program if she would do it. She stumbled a little in the beginning, but recovered quickly and was able to play the rest of the song. 

One of the other little girl's sister sang a solo song (accompanied by the piano) as well, so it made the program a lot more personalized and special for us all. 

Most of our family was able to come to support Caitlyn, so we were very grateful to have all our family with us on this joyous occasion. We are so very proud of both of our little girls.