Happy Martin Luther King Day!  Beth surprised us all by reciting this to us at the dinner table.  LOVE that she learned that at school!  Otherwise, we didn't do much during our day off.  Kevin had to work.  Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben all had friends over to play.  Sarah had to work in the afternoon.  Megan and Mariah rested up before they had to go back to school and . . .

Start a new semester!  Which is what most everybody did on Tuesday.  Sarah lost her web design class and her free period and gained child development and photography (fun times!).  Meg lost her graphic design class and gained health (blah!).  Mariah lost sewing and cooking and gained PE for fun and choir.  Life didn't change much for Chey, Cali, and Beth.  Benjamin went back to Joy School and he was glad that it wasn't any different.  Bethany did have ballet that afternoon and Sarah had tennis and Mariah had play rehearsal.  We had a fun service activity for YM/YW and late that night a ring of our doorbell announced that Megan had gotten asked to the Sweetheart Dance in February!

Wednesday was piano lessons for Sarah, Mariah, Cali, and Chey.  Cali and Chey had a great basketball game after that and Bethany had jazz.  Sarah worked.  Mariah had rehearsal for the play.

Thursday Ben had Joy School again.  I went to the gym to walk and type while he was there.  Here's a picture of my cool set-up.

Also on Thursday, Mariah had a basketball game and Cali and Chey had Up With Kids.  That night I recruited Sarah and Megan and Mariah (when she was done with her basketball game) to come play on our ward women's basketball team.  It turned out we were ome of the only ones there, but we had a great time playing against ourselves!

Friday Mariah and Kevin had basketball practice.  Kevin and I went out to eat after that and then over to our friends, the Grosland's, house for some games.

Saturday morning was church YW basketball where we had eight players show up for our team!  (Pretty great for a ward team).  But no team showed up to play against us.  So, we split them up and had them play against each other.  It was really fun.  That evening, Mariah had a Bantam basketball game where she played great and they won!  Kevin hurried over to meet me at the adult session of stake conference which we had the general session of . . .

Today.  Cali and Cheyenne have been learning the "Cups" choreography at school.  Apparently they did a massive performance with everyone in their grade doing the choreography at once.  I bet it was pretty awesome (and loud!).  I had them perform it for me, too, and have included it for your viewing pleasure!

I've done a lot of writing this week.  I got to thinking, wouldn't it be great if I could walk and type at the same time?  I'd keep myself awake and the creative juices flowing and I'd also get my exercise done!  What could be better?  So then I thought, I bet I could do that on a treadmill . . . there's treadmills at the gym . . . if I had a board . . . Voila!  I walked and typed Tues and Thurs while Ben was at Joy School.  Thursday I walked for two hours, went five miles, and typed 2000 words!  Rock and Roll!  I was feeling particularly triumphant.  I am still.

Savannah loves her new writing class and also learned a new jujitsu move that she came home and taught to Cheyenne.  We hope to see more of her today!

Sarah worked some this week.  She also went back to her tennis group once this week and did awesome.  She organized a game night and sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's on Friday night and brought Mariah, Chey, Cali, and Bethany.  They all had a great time!

Megan had a couple more early-morning orchestra rehearsals.  Friday night she went with some friends to watch a scary movie and she spooked herself out!  She went over to her Mia Maid instructor's house on Saturday and got her first lesson in how to knit!  After that we had a ward basketball game at the church.  The team we were supposed to play against didn't show up, so we threw in some young men who were there and played against each other.  I got to see a lot of really good Megan vs. Mariah plays!  They're both so good--especially in that setting.  ;)

Mariah had three basketball games (four if you count the one at the church!) this week.  The Springville games are completely lacking in competition so Mariah and her coach (Kevin B.) are really struggling to wrest some skill-building out of their time there.  The Bantam game they played on Saturday, though, was really good.  Their team played GREAT and just barely lost in one minute of overtime!  On Friday she got to go to a birthday party and learn how to decorate a cake.  Here's a picture of Beth with Mariah's cake!

Chey and Cali had one game of basketball this week.  They won by thirty points!  Cali and Chey had a great time.  They also have received their scripts for the play they'll be doing in Up With Kids and are excited to get their parts soon!

Bethany had a good time at school and at her two dance classes.  She went to a friend's house who has moved out of the neighborhood to play this week.  While she was gone, three of her friends (and two of Ben's) came over to play anyway!

Ben learned more about the Joy of Order this week and learned about Gunny Bag who "eats left-over toys and keeps them in his tummy."  I've never seen that little guy so excited to clean his room!  His big sisters with whom he shares the room were thrilled.

Ben's Joy School went to the Fire Station on Thursday!  We were talking about the joy of order and goal striving and we went to the fire station to see some adults who have goals that keep us safe!  The kids were pretty excited to see the fire jackets and helmets and to climb into the engine.  Ben liked it, too.  He curled up next to me playing on the ipad while I read my book this week.  It was one of my favorite moments.

Bethany enjoyed being back at school, seeing her teachers and friends again, and speaking Chinese.  She says she'd like to visit China when she's in third grade because then she'll "know all the words."  We shall see about that!  I signed her up for a ballet class at the studio where she's taking jazz so now she dances two times a week and she loves it.  She's really enjoyed being back with her friends in the neighborhood, too.

Cali and Cheyenne went sledding three times this week!  They came home from school, grabbed their hats and gloves, friends and sleds, and were gone until dusk sledding at the softball fields which are just a short walk from our home.  None of my other kids have ever really taken the initiative like that.  I'm glad they've been enjoying the out of doors!  Of course, we did have a problem when they went sledding in their tennis shoes and came home with them sopping wet when we had a basketball game to play in one hour.  Luckily, we have other shoes their size lying around the house from their sisters!  They played in games on Monday and Wednesday and are having great fun with basketball, too!

Mariah played two basketball games this week--one for Springville and the other for Bantam--and had practice for Bantam, too.  She also tried out for the school play this week!  And guess what?  She gets to be one of the townspeople in The Music Man!  Pretty exciting, huh?  I think she will have a great time with this new thing in her life.

Megan spoke in church today.  She put a lot of time in on Saturday working on it, so it's no wonder that she did great!  She has started early-morning orchestra rehearsals which are every other day and doesn't seem to mind the early hours.  I think she enjoys it at a different level than driver's ed.  You think?  She also started indoor track and went to a few workouts there this week!

Sarah went to MORP last night which you may already know is PROM backwards!  She took a fun guy from the basketball team named Mitch and they went with two other couples.  They went out to eat, to the dance, and then ended with games at WalMart and at one of the girl's houses.  Sarah said it was "fantastic!"  Yay!  She had to work Monday through Wednesday this week because of inventory at work, but she had the rest of the week off.

Savannah started her first week of winter semester at BYU this week.  She's taking 2 1/2 less credit hours than last semester and hoping things will be a little less hectic.  She managed to get 20 hours in at work this week so that is a good sign!  We saw her on Thursday night and she could barely walk because of the exercises they had been doing in her new Jujitsu class!  I think she might like that class best of all.

I've been glad to get settled back into home but I have not enjoyed the white stuff outside nearly as much as Cali and Cheyenne!    I taught Joy School and was happy to have a washer and dryer right in my very own home to use whenever I wanted but I did not take down the Christmas decorations.  I like them still.

Kevin coached three basketball games this week and two practices in addition to a crazy amount of client hours at work.  He got his Christmas/Birthday gift as soon as it came out--the new fitbit watch.  He is not sure whether he likes it better than his small fitbit or not.  There are quirks that he likes (and quirks he doesn't like)!  He is still assiduously getting in his 11,000 steps a day.  It's a lot of steps, but he never gives up.  That's my guy.

The week of Christmas was a busy one!  Monday was Megan's sixteenth birthday!  After playing her several sappy sweet sixteen songs from the 50s, I took her out to buy her what she really wanted for her birthday!  A blue mandolin.

She is ready to join her first bluegrass band!  Later that day she went out with some of her sisters and some of her friends to see a movie (Big Hero 6) and get a treat at the mall.  It was a happy day!

The 23rd and the 24th were a blur of finishing Christmas and trip preparations!  We settled down at last to enjoy Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's house.  We enjoyed delicious food, great company, and yearly traditions.  We watched a sweet movie, the kids reenacted the nativity, we played the bells, and finished the night with a music recital.  Savannah read us a poem, Meg played Joy to the World on her mandolin, and each of the other kids played us a Christmas song on the piano.  It was peaceful and nice.

The next day was Christmas!  We opened presents and then ate French toast with orange juice and then opened more presents!

 

We left that very day for our trip to California!  We drove away from the snow that was beginning to fall into the sunshine.  We spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Elton and got to see my sister, Amy, and her family, too!

The next day it was on to the beach!  We got there in time for a walk on the beach as the sun set.  Hello ocean!  Did you miss us?

The next day was Saturday!  We tried to go to a local aquarium in the morning, but it was closed.  So we looked at their big ships instead, browsed their gift shop, and took another good look at the sea. 

After lunch, we packed up and went to the San Clemente pier.  The kids played in the water and gathered rocks and Ben and I walked down the pier and back.

The next day was Sunday.  We attended sacrament meeting at a local ward and then came back for a walk on the beach across the street from our hotel.

After our walk, we went to the family lounge at the hotel with windows that looked out on the sea and played games until the sun set.

Monday morning we drove to the local park that we had seen on our trips to the grocery store.  Kevin, I, Sarah, and Megan played tennis!  Mariah and Chey and Cali played basketball.  Beth and Ben played on the playground and Savannah sat under a tree to read.  After lunch at the hotel, we went back to the beach!  This time to Salt Creek Beach about 10 minutes away.  This is our favorite beach.  You walk down an enormous hill to get there, but once you're there, the beach is long and flat and has great waves and great soft, sand in abundance.  We borrowed wetsuits from our neighbors and bought some boogie boards and boy howdie did we have a good time playing in the ocean!

On Tuesday, it rained!!  That's okay.  The morning was cold and cloudy but the older girls and their dad had planned to go to the Newport Beach temple anyway and that, I am told was a great experience.  I took the four younger kids to the pool where I read my book and they spent more than half of their time in the hot tub!

We decided it was a good day to drive to Old Town in San Diego.  So, we drove through the rain and went to the new Mormon Battalion exhibit.  It was a neat exhibit complete with talking pictures, instrument playing, a cattle stampede, and panning for gold!  Afterwards, we walked through some of the shops in Old Town and had dinner at a Mexican Café.  It was fun.

Wednesday was beautiful again!  We drove up to visit Kevin's brother's family in Ranchos Palos Verdes and then had professional family photos taken on the beach.  It was also New Year's Eve so we watched a movie back at the hotel and toasted Utah's New Year at 11:00.

Thursday morning we walked through the shops at Dana Point Harbor, but the afternoon found us back on the beach at Salt Creek where we rode the boogie boards, jumped the waves, and built sand castles.  What a wonderful way to spend a birthday!  It was mine!



Friday we finally had to leave.  I promised the little kids one more time at the pool, so before breakfast, we were back!  (While everyone else was packing!)

After we were packed and checked out, Kevin dropped us off at the beach for one more visit while he got some gas.  We tried to stay dry, but did a lot drawing in the sand.  Meg drew a picture of me so I could stay at the beach.  Funny girl.

Farewell ocean!  Until next time!

We stayed at my mom and dad's again that night and it was so good to see them and get hugs like always!  The next morning was even my mom's birthday so we made her a big breakfast before we had to go!  It was a great trip and a fun two weeks!