In many ways 2008 has been an uneventful year for us, certainly not filled with the major changes we have had in the past few years. We are continuing to enjoy our home in La Mesa ( just east of San Diego) and all the projects and responsibilities that come with once again being homeowners. Jon continues to work as a project manager (soon to be Senior Project Manager) for Interfaith Housing Assistance Corporation, a non-profit, low income housing development and management company (whew, what a mouthful). He has a great commute to work. He doesn't even have to get on the freeway! Jared (12 and in 7th grade), Grace (11 and in 6th grade), and Justin (10 and in 4th grade) are all enjoying their 2nd year enrolled at The Classical Academy (a public charter school). They are on independent study, and as such, are still home-schooled full time, but enjoy a day of elective classes once a week on campus. Madeline (14 and in 9th grade) is enjoying here first year at The Classical Academy High School and is on campus full time. I (Hillary) am adjusting to having only 3 students at home and being part time chauffeur for Madeline. The commute to her school is about 40 minutes each way! Although we haven't had any major changes this year we have enjoyed a wonderful 2008! Here are some of the highlights of our year:
We celebrated the New Year with, what has become our tradition, a walk at La Jolla Cove with friends old and new. It was once again a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time walking, enjoying the seals, eating ice cream, and playing and chatting on the grass.
Then we enjoyed a wonderful turn out for our annual Epiphany party. We had a great time eating, drinking, being merry with our friends, and of course, having some great laughs over the White Elephant gift exchange.
In February we celebrated Jared's 12th Birthday! He enjoyed a camp out with 6 of his friends. And yes, they slept outside in a tent in February (one of the perks of our mild Southern California weather)! Madeline worked very hard to fill his request for a Garfield cake.
In March we enjoyed an afternoon Easter Brunch with Family and Friends. The kids had a great time hunting for Easter eggs in our yard, some of which were so well hidden that we continued finding them for months!
Hillary also enjoyed co-hosting a Luau Baby Shower for her good friend, Jenny, to welcome the second little Erikson girl, Cordelia.
Spring was also filled with weekend Drama and Music lesson at Jr. Theater in Balboa park. This resulted in many pleasant Saturdays spent enjoying the multitude of things to do in this lovely park, including riding the carousel! Madeline managed to grab the golden ring (something I was never able to accomplish as a kid despite many tries) earning herself a free subsequent ride!
Grace and Justin enjoyed adding to the mosaic bird bath at an arts fair, also in Balboa Park.
At the end of May we enjoyed a trip to Disneyland with Jon's Brother, Matt, his wife, Luciana, and our nephew, William. It was the first trip for all of the kids and a great way to celebrate the end of the school year.
June marked the end of 8th grade for Madeline. It was a very successful year for her at a new charter school, The Classical Academy. She was recognized as an Achiever of the year for her excellent academic work.
Our summer was filled with Drama Camp, swim lessons for the kids, weekly trips to the beach and summer reading programs.
In addition, we traveled to Idyllwild, Ca in July for a long-weekend reunion with the Taylor clan. We thoroughly enjoyed our time visiting and relaxing with almost all of the extended family.
In August (yes, that's right August and the first week there of, I might add) Madeline marked the last weekend of summer before starting high school by attending the midnight release party for the final book in the Twilight series. Staying up half the night reading the book with her friends was a great way to say farewell to summer!
Then in September, Grace celebrated her 11th birthday and attended the release party for Brisingr. She won the costume contest and was very excited to receive her prize, a signed book plate for her copy of the book!
With the arrival of October, we had a visit with some friends from back east. The Pedo family stopped in to see us, in route from Los Angeles to Arizona. It was such a pleasure to have them join us at church on Sunday and share a couple of meals with them!
Jared headed off to 3 fun -filled and action packed days in Catalina with the rest of the 7th-graders at school!
We also hosted our first sit down dinner party in our new house! We were delighted that we had no problem fitting 16 in our dining room for our Timpano night!
In November, we took a family vacation to Northern California to spend Thanksgiving with Jon's Dad. We drove up the coast and stopped at Hearst Castle. We all enjoyed marveling at the extravagant houses (main house and multiple guest and staff houses), swimming pools and gardens that fill this mountain-top home. I think we (or, at least I) were most impressed with the fact that the furnishing and sculptures were mostly imported works of art from around the world that had been incorporated into the architecture!
The view was pretty impressive, too!
Then it was off to the Bay area to see Jon's Dad. Jon and I took the opportunity to get away for a night! We spent the night on a vineyard in Napa, and took this picture right outside our cottage room, in the vineyard!
We had a great visit and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal! We even managed to fit in a bit of hiking to work off all that tasty holiday food.
We close out the year enjoying the traditions that fill this Christmas season. We are looking forward to Christmas morning caroling, spending time with family and friends, lots of cookie baking and a much needed rest before returning to schooling in the new year.
