Camp Lehi

Friday night we camped at Camp Lehi, a patch of the Santa Cruz mountains co-owned and maintained by several stakes in the area. One of the consequences of that arrangement is that our ward has an assignment to provide 100 man-hours of service to help maintain the place. This year we took the whole crew, making this the first camping outing for bothe Louisa and Lini.

The condition that Jenna made on daring such a feat with three under the age of five was to get a new tent. We received our old three-person wilderness shelter about six? years ago from a scout that no longer wanted it. As you can imagine, the tent wasn't in the prime of it's life, and with five people, just wasn't going to provide the buffer space we all craved.

So, we bought this tent, the Coleman Ridgeview (I affectionately named it "the Chateau") from Target:


The Chateau is a 13'x13' three-room behemoth that has plenty of space even after swallowing queen and twin sized mattresses and a pack-n-play.



The girls had a lot of fun making s'mores, looking at the stars, playing with other kids in the ward and discovering the local flora:



Louisa experimented with controlled substances (charcoal from the previous night's fire), and decided she didn't like them.



For service, I climbed up on a scaffolding with a power washer and a poncho to strip the cellulous (i.e. newspaper) based insulation from the walls and cieling of the dining hall, as it was wont to fall into peoples suppers unannounced. It was fun, then tiring, then unbearable. I ended up soaked, poncho notwithstanding.

Mother's Day

Today is mother's day, which is the day we celebrate the choices in life that allow us to experience things like the going-on pictured above: 18-month-old Louisa riding 10-month-old Lini like she was a Shetland pony. The surprising thing was, Lini didn't seem to mind. At least until Louisa swung around, put her in a headlock and rammed her noggin into the wall.

To celebrate the day, Abby and I (meaning I) left mom in bed and prepared ham, cheese and egg english muffins for mom. Being mother's day, I got to forego Bishopric meeting and PEC and we actually went to church in one car, a rare occurance the last four years. I wrangled kids in sacrament meeting while Jenna played the organ, then used Lini as an excuse to escape Sunday School (I actually did think she was sleepy). Third hour I pitched in in Nursery, as all the women had hied away to Relief Society to eat drink and be motherly.

I've been remiss on the blogging the last couple months, but will attempt to catch up on some of the highlights, in no particular order. Read on. 

Cinco de Mayo @ IDEO

The girls came to work to join the annual 5 de Mayo party. I could be wrong, but I think this is the first IDEO party that Lini has been to. As seen in the following photos, the girls had a great time.

Louisa got her sour fix from the fresh limes at the Margarita stands. 

Cinco de Mayo @ IDEO

 

Cinco de Mayo @ IDEO

 

Cinco de Mayo @ IDEO

 

Cinco de Mayo @ IDEO

 

Cinco de Mayo @ IDEO

 

Basic Training

Louisa's strong. The little bugger saw me doing a pull-up and wanted a go, and to my suprise, she was strong enough to hold herself up by her fingertips. We've always said that Louisa will be our gymnast, because she such a waif and because she's so physically intense. Maybe we were right. 

Be our guest

We have a new guest in our home, a six-month-old little girl. A social worker called us last night and again this morning, and Jenna went and picked her up. We're not sure how long she will stay. It may just be for a week or two. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Gingerbread house

From a kit, but hey, I squeezed out the quick-drying cement, er. . . frosting.

Smily Louisa

 

Ward Christmas Party: a Night in Bethlehem

 

 

 
Louisa refused to keep her headdress in place. Something about stereotypical racial profiling, or something like that.

 

 
You can see that Jenna had to hold it on to get this picture.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I almost went the whole day without saying happy birthday. And since you are probably already asleep, I send this birthday message out into the ether.

We love you!! See you in a couple of weeks.

PS - the photo is a PhotoShop montage of mom at the pulpit at the Conference Center. I put it together when she was called as RS president last year as part of a prototype magazine look family newsletter. It's never seen the light of day . . . until now. 

Oh Christmas Tree

When Jenna called me this evening to see if I would stopping home for dinner before bishopric meeting, Abby yelled into the phone, "Daddy!! When are you coming home?! We need to go get a Christmas tree!"

So bishopric meeting convened a little early to grant Abby's wish. I headed out to the nearest tree stand, and the girls all got in the car and met me there.



Once we picked a tree, we plopped it into the back seat of the convertible and brought it home. Then I had to remind myself again how to use the tree stand we pull out once a year.



Abby was so giddy she kept listing off all the people she loved, each time concluding that she loved everyone. Tomorrow we will decorate.

The Juice is José, and the Milk is Maaay-ree

Our wall heater isn't working, making our apartment a tad chilly in the morning. This morning, Abby took to wrapping inanimate objects, like the gallon of milk, in a scarf and hat, because "they're freeeezy". Riffing on the theme, she created her own nativity scene using the breakfast beverages. Hence her proclamation that the juice was Joseph and the milk Mary.