September Highlights

The girl's birthdays are like bookends to our September each year. We celebrated Madeline's 15th birthday while we were in Catalina for Labor Day weekend. We forgot the candles for the cake, so we improvised with the chicken candle that was in the house we rented...We then enjoyed a delicious cake, chocolate cake with a whipped ganache filling and ganache frosting. Thanks to my wonderful cake baker, Jon, for all his labor on this one! It was all the more challenging because we weren't in our own kitchen.
We enjoyed our first field trip of the year with a visit to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Air and Space Museum. We planned the trip for a Monday so that Madeline could join us. We all had a great time and learned several new things about this remarkable man. Here are the kids with a portable bridge built from simple notched logs. Ideal for troops to carry and assemble while traveling. I had no idea that Da Vinci had created so many military tools! He truly was a Renaissance Man.
And we finished off the month, celebrating Grace's 12th birthday with the traditional sleep over. They had a scavenger hunt, decorated totes, painted nails, and played lots of games. Here are a couple pics of the fun!

showing off their totes...

... and playing the nail painting game

Check back soon for October highlight!

Catching up on blogging... again!

I can't believe I have let myself get so behind on the blogging, again. It has been a busy 4 months! Summer came to a close all too quickly: school is now in full swing, phase 1 of our patio/laundry room/kitchen project is nearly done, and I can't believe that the holidays are right around the corner! Stop the Merry-go-round, I want to get off! Life seems to continue on full steam ahead despite my attempts to slow it down. The kids are a year older, an inch taller, or a bit more independent every time I turn around. So, here is my start on catching up on the blogging!

Father's Day weekend, we enjoyed meeting Jon's cousin, Rebeca's, new twin baby boys! Here are Christian, Rebeca with Blake, and me.

Jon with Vincent, our great nephew, and me with Blake. It was a good baby fix day for this couple of baby-lovers!

We spent a fair amount of time this summer working on a household project. We began the process of screening -in our back patio. We first had to do a lot of repair: replacing several beams and a couple of the supports due to termite damage. Next came the half wall and new cover. The last step is screening and screen doors! I should have the completed pics in the next week or so. My amazing husband finished the screening this past weekend and now we just need to build and hang the screen doors! Then it will be time for phase 2: moving the laundry area out of the kitchen and into the screened in patio.

A picture of the progress!

And a picture of Fezzik, our neighborhood pheasant, walking through our yard.

We celebrated the end of summer with a trip to Catalina with Jon's family. We had a great time with his parents and his brothers and their families. We played in the water, snorkeled, ate, and relaxed. The best part: we walked everywhere! No cars for 3 whole days!

Jared, Grace and Justin with their cousin, Nichole, dripping wet from a spontaneous dip in the water!

At the top of Wrigley Monument. Quite a view from up there!

More to come... soon.

Camping in Yosemite

We just returned from our vacation in Yosemite. What a fantastic trip! We camped with 6 other families from church for a week just outside of the park. The weather was beautiful, the waterfalls were at near peak flows, we enjoyed taking in many of the sites, and can't wait to go back and see some more. It just doesn't get much better than that! And to top it all off, we enjoyed devotions around the campfire each evening followed by great fellowship, some music, a little dancing, a bit of wine (& beer) tasting, and of course, loads of laughter.

Just look at that beauty... what a majestic site. It is humbling to look up at these massive mountains. I think this is part of Cathedral Peaks, but I am not positive.

On Tuesday, we ventured in to the Valley for the first time, stopping at Bridalveil Falls on the way in. Once in the Valley, we headed over to Yosemite Falls. We had so much fun climbing the rocks and enjoying the mist from the Falls.

There were a couple of pools of water that didn't have current running through them. Some of our friends even took a dip in the chilly water.

It is hard to see them, but Jon and the boys along with a couple of their friends are way up next to the falls. They are just to the right of the falls in this picture.

Justin and his friend, Isaac, on the walk back from the Falls

After the Falls, we spent some time in the Museum and Visitor Center. The Half Dome hikers had a little planning pow-wow while looking at the route on the relief map in the Visitor's Center.

I don't have any pictures from the Hike, because my camera didn't go on the trip. Jon, Madeline, and Jared hiked Half Dome on Wednesday with 8 others from our group. 9 made it all the way up. 8 of them even climbing the cables to the peak. It was an impressive accomplishment for all of them! And, an experience they will never forget. The rest of us spent the day pool side at the campground and visiting the Museum in nearby Groveland. Stay tuned for picture...I will post some once I get copies from those who had cameras along on the hike!

The next day was spent in the Valley at Sentinel Beach. This gave the hikers a chance to rest their weary muscles. I can't wait to go back to this spot next time! The water was a bit chilly, but we all had a ton of fun playing in the water, riding the current down the river, and running in the nearby meadow. The kids had a really good time, but the grown -ups sure seemed to be having their share of fun, too.

Testing out the water... It took some getting used to.

They decided it was worth the chill.

Pretty soon, they were all hopping in.

The girls warming up on the beach with a little sun bathing.

My boys, in the water, of course!

Jon and I got in as well, but I don't have a picture. We had a lot of fun floating down stream with the kids. We were supervising and making sure everyone stayed safe, ...or at least that was our excuse for joining in on the fun.

We spent our last day in the valley checking out the Sequoias in Toulumne Grove (one of the smaller of the 3 groves in the park). Here are our kids at the trail head.

Me, taking a closer look at some of the cool roots sticking out of the hillside on our way to the grove.

Much of the group in front of the first sequoia on the trail.

Grace inside the base of one of the giants.

This one formed a tunnel on the path. It was cut sometime in the 1800's.

This fallen log had a tunnel you could crawl through.

Jared crawling out the other side of the log... They were so dirty!

How many kids does it take to circle a giant sequoia? Lots.. there were 11 here, and they could barely reach around this one!

On top of a log that had fallen near the path... If you could climb on it, or crawl through it, they did! They had so much fun exploring everywhere we went.

The Taylor kids along with the Lopez and Brown kids in front of the tunnel log.

and their parents... yes, we are all kissing (aren't we cute)!

another shot of the kids along with the James kids, and Alexander's friend Zach.

When we returned to the cars, we spotted a young bear about 50 ft from our car. It is digging in a fallen log just to the right of the third tree over from our van. Justin spots the bear and takes off running. My response: "Justin Taylor, you stop right now" Let's just say, we all found out how loud I can shout!

Our Friend, Roy got closer than I dared for a picture. I was too busy jumping in the van.

Alexander and Zach playing us some good campfire music on our last evening there!

Until next time, I will be dreaming of waterfall mist on my face and floating down the river... and maybe even climbing Half Dome.

2008 in Review

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.