I think the picture says it all. Really. You women have husbands!!! And children!!! And, by the way, Edward is not hot. He’s funny looking. What’s the other guy’s name? James? Jacob? I think it’s Jacob. I don’t even know what he looks like, but I’m sure he’s not hot either. Now go home to your husbands and tell them that you love them more than Edward. Or Jacob, if that’s even his name.
I usually don’t get nervous. I started playing the violin when I was four, and played in festivals as far back as I can remember. I can’t remember ever being nervous at a young age, but I can remember being nervous in performances as I got older. Still, I don’t get nervous very often. Now, though, I hardly play my violin at all. It sits for weeks at a time in it’s little coffin, never seeing the light of day. I can’t really say why I don’t play it much. I’m sure it has a lot to do with my kids. London hates it when I play. But I don’t play when they’re in bed either. Not very often, at least. I think I’m starting to see why. I get nervous. Taylor’s home when the kids are in bed and I’m nervous to play in front of him. He’s a music professor. He knows what sounds good and bad. Although I know he’s not paying attention or critiquing me, I’m apprehensive to play around him, and especially practice within ear-shot of him.
I practiced tonight while Taylor was upstairs watching a movie. He opted out of doing the dishes while I was practicing, trying to stay out of my way and make me more comfortable. I appreciated that. After a good practice session, I feel good. I feel muscles that I don’t use much anymore. Maybe if I played more often, I wouldn’t be so nervous to play in front of my own husband. I’m playing in a recital this Friday evening. I got a phone call a couple of weeks ago from an older lady in our previous stake, asking me, no telling me, that she would like me to play a concert in her home. Before I could even think of an excuse, she was telling me all about how she loves having concerts in her home. She has a big room with a piano and can seat 40-50 people comfortably. She told me that her daughter would be my accompanist and that I needed to prepare 5-6 pieces. She also informed me that a tenor from New York would be there singing as well. There was no way for me to say “no.” I guess that’s a good thing because I’m sure I could have and probably would have. But here I am, having practiced twice so far, and playing a recital on Friday. I’m surprisingly kind of excited about it. It’s nice to work toward something and I’m surprised at how quickly old music is coming back to me. I’m even going to play a couple of pieces I’ve never performed before and just kind of worked up on my own since college. Hopefully I won’t be nervous. I’m not yet.
Sometimes I forget what a cool place this is where I live. I’m so close to so many things. People come from around the world to vacation here. I should take advantage of the interesting things around me and really enjoy where I live. We’re trying to do that more, so on Monday after Taylor’s parents left, we drove over to Point Loma to see the Cabrillo Monument. This was the first place in the US that Spanish explorers found on the west coast in the 1500s when they were looking for a trade route to Asia. It was really interesting and beautiful. We toured the old original lighthouse and explored a bit. London thought the lighthouse was one of the coolest things she’s seen in a long time.
view of Coronado from Point Loma and London's super hero pose
We even took my mom back to see it when she was here on Saturday, waiting for my dad to finish up his ride. I hope to spend more time this summer doing touristy things here in my home town. I love San Diego!
Last Sunday was father’s day. I don’t feel like a did an extra super job of letting my dad know how great he is, or letting my husband know what a great father he is to our children. I hope they know. I think we did do an okay job of helping Taylor feel special and even though I wasn’t with my dad, I saw him on Wednesday for his birthday, which he said was a great surprise and because of it, ended up being the best day of his ride down the coast. But for father’s day itself, I tried to help the kids remember to treat their daddy extra special. They didn’t do too bad.
After church, Taylor’s parents came over for dinner. They spent the night and brought along their kayak so we could all go kayaking on Monday. London was so excited to go. On Monday morning she got up and dressed herself. The outfit included shoes and socks. I told her that she needed to wear flip-flops since we were going to get a little wet, so she took her running shoes off and added the flip-flops, socks and all. It was the funniest thing. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead and I didn’t get a picture before Taylor made her take the socks off. We had a great time at the bay.
London ran around all morning with her princess life vest and couldn’t wait to get in the boat.
Ashton even took a little jaunt around the bay, but I think his favorite part was chasing the ducks and yelling, “du du, du du!” He was really excited about them. He was also really excited about the water, which meant he was really mad when we wouldn’t let him get in it. Such is the life of a one-year-old.
I signed London up for ballet through the city recreation center a while back. Her culminating performance was on Friday at the county fair. It’s funny to watch these little kids dance. London just looks around, wondering what she should be doing and I’ll have to say, she’s not the most coordinated of the bunch. I guess that’s what practice is for. But since you already saw (if you checked out my blog about London’s previous dance performance and clicked on the video link) the real dance, you’re in for a treat today. After London finished her dance, she hung out under the bleachers, dancing more. She’s definitely a freestyle dancer. I love the moves she comes up with! Check out the video here. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.
After the dancing fun, we walked around the rest of the fair. Ashton loved the animals. He wouldn’t stop mooing. My favorite exhibit was the wood-working exhibit. There were some amazing things that were made. There were even some shops set up where we could watch wood-workers at work. One of the wood-workers showed London how to use this cool band or maybe scroll saw that was powered by pedals. He told her to remember the words, “pedal power” and gave her a wooden alligator for her to paint at home.
This pedal car was so cool! It was pulling a trailer with all sorts of things like a surfboard, skateboard, BBQ, etc. It was so detail oriented.
What would the fair be without nasty fried food? I couldn’t help but take a picture of this place selling chocolate covered bacon and deep fried butter.
Yes, folks, this was real.
NASTY!!! Just thinking about it makes me want to heave. And speaking of butter, we saw a really cool butter sculpture.
I wonder how many batches of cookies one could make with that much butter.
Yesterday was my dad’s 60th birthday. We decided to go up and surprise him for his big day. Tuesday night we drove to Taylor’s aunt and uncle’s house where we slept that night and last night, since they are much closer to where my dad was that day. He and my uncle Dee were planning on making it to Carpinteria last night. Once we got up into Ventura county, we called to find out where my dad was. Then I dropped Taylor off near where they were and he rode his bike toward them. He passed them about a mile or two later. They, of course, didn’t recognize him. Taylor saw them then crossed the street and caught up to them. He pulled up beside my dad and asked him what he was doing way down here. Needless to say, he was happy and surprised. Taylor then rode with them for the next 40 or so miles to Carpinteria.
While they were all riding, I took the kids to Solvang and met up with my mom. Solvang is this cute little Danish town. It was fun to walk around a bit. Then we headed back toward Santa Barbara, stopping to pick blueberries along the way. I had seen a sign advertising blueberry picking on our way to meet my mom and thought it might be something the kids would enjoy doing. Boy was I right. London had a great time picking, but wouldn’t eat them.
Ashton wasn’t too interested in picking at first. Mostly he just wanted to push the stroller around. Then I made him try a blueberry. There was no going back. He found a bush and started stuffing blueberries in his mouth. I couldn’t stop the boy! At one point his started walking down the row toward my mom and I asked him, “Do you want to go pick some more with Grandma?” He realized he could have more. He stopped walking, signed and said, “more,” (or, “ma, ma, ma”) and kept picking right where he was. He would have been content to stay there forever.
Once we had our fill of blueberries, we decided to go to Santa Barbara and see if we could find the men. We had no such luck and headed to Carpinteria where we checked into the hotel room where they were all going to stay. Not long after we got there, Taylor called to let me know they were close by and to be ready when they rode in. We screamed and hollered at them and I was hoping to get a little video, but I pushed the wrong button and got a still shot instead. According to my dad and uncle Dee, yesterday was the hardest day. They were glad to be where they could rest. It was fun to see them and I’m excited to see them again on Saturday when they’re all finished. I’m so proud of my dad! But I still think he’s crazy.
Yes, that's my dad. And yes, he's wearing shorts.
I think my dad is insane. Somehow he came up with a crazy idea that he wanted to do something big and adventurous for his 60th birthday, so he decided that it would be a good idea to take a week and bike down the southern coast of California. You may think this is a crazy thing for any 60 year old to do, but I think it’s crazier for my dad. You see, he’s never really been the exercising type. A couple of years ago he was diagnosed with diabetes. That was his wake-up call to get up and get moving. Since then he has taken up biking. It’s his preferred mode of exercise. He also gets up really early and goes to the gym every morning. He lost a bunch of weight and is doing really well. In fact, his numbers are way down and he doesn’t have to be on diabetic medication anymore! Anyway, I don’t really know what was going through his mind besides the fact that he thought that it might be a great adventure, but he decided to take this trip and even convinced his brother to ride with him.
About a month ago I was putting together some things to send my dad for his birthday. I wanted to get him some exercise clothing and asked him how many outfits he planned on taking on this trip. His answer, “well, I only have one pair of sweats.” Oh boy. I headed to Kohl’s and picked up some things, boxed them up, and sent them to him. I even bought him shorts! I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen my dad wear shorts unless he’s swimming. And that doesn’t happen very often either.
My dad and my uncle started their trip on Monday in Big Sur. They plan on making it to the Mexico border by Saturday night and they’re still on track to do that. I know my dad is stubborn and has a lot of motivation. He’s come far and I’m sure he’ll make it.
I got the pie. And it was good. I went back to get it and once again, asked for strawberry rhubarb. The girl took one look at the shelf in the front and said, “let me see if we have any more in the back.” Then I started to get really nervous and wonder what I would do if they ran out. Luckily they had more in the back. She rang me up and I opened my purse to take out my wallet to pay, and lo and behold, my wallet is missing! Then I started to panic. I wasn’t so worried about my wallet. I was sure it was somewhere around. Maybe I left it at home? I didn’t know. My biggest fear, though, was that I wouldn’t get that danged pie! I knew they wouldn’t hold it for me. I ran with my kids out to the car. Luckily I found it there. So we all breathed a sigh of relief, bought the pie, and picked up Taylor…late, of course.
After my super productive morning yesterday, I was hoping for a repeat today. I was sorely disappointed, but at least I’m still in a good mood. Taylor had somewhere he needed to be at 10 this morning so the kids and I dropped him off and headed over to Marie Calendars to buy his favorite: strawberry rhubarb pie. When we got there, they didn’t have any. They told me that it would be another half hour before they were done. They wouldn’t put one on hold for me, even if I was to pay for it. So I ran a few errands in the area and came back a half hour later. I unloaded the kids and dragged them into the restaurant once again. This time they told me that it would be another hour and a half until they were done. Really? A half hour previous, I was told a half hour. Now another hour and a half. Pretty annoying. Now it’s almost time for me to go pick up Taylor and, once again, try for a pie. I’ll be REALLY mad if they don’t have any left.
Yesterday we met some friends at the park right by our old apartment. It’s probably the park in the county that’s the best for summer time play since it has a sprayground and it’s totally free. It gets quite crowded, especially on hot days. This particular day, there was a bus full of kids from some school so it was really busy. But that didn’t stop the kids from having a good time. It’s the same park where London’s pre-school graduation was held last week and Ashton really wanted to get in the water. I knew he would be excited to go again. The kid did not want to stay out of the water.
He had a great time crawling around, and he even started walking around! He’s finally to the point where he walks about as much as he crawls. He’s still kind of unstable but he’s doing really well. Here’s a video of him walking. I’m SO glad he can start wearing out the bottoms of his shoes now and maybe his pants will stay a little cleaner in the knees, but no guarantees on that one.