Kiersten’s Blog

I think there must be a crazy gene that comes through the Henrie line.  I’m glad I didn’t get it.  Maybe I did and it just hasn’t surfaced yet.  I wrote about my dad’s crazy bike trip down the California coast with is brother.  While they were on their week-long trip, my cousin and his dad (my dad’s brother) were on their own crazy bike trip, except theirs was even more insane.  Wayne, my cousin, decided to ride his bicycle across the country and somehow he conned his dad into going with him.  Because of a really bad motorcycle accident a few years back, my uncle couldn’t ride a bicycle, so instead he rode a moped.  Either way, they were in for an adventure.  My uncle pulled a trailer with supplies and they typically biked around 100 miles every day.  They started in June and arrived in San Diego the third week of July.  That means they were riding through Arizona in 127 degree heat.  Did I mention that they’re crazy?  The nice thing about their ride was that they finished in San Diego.  That meant that we got to have company!  Not only did my cousin and uncle come, but my aunt, my cousin’s wife, and their baby (the same age as Ashton) also came!  Sharon and Jenna wanted to be there for them when they finished.  We had a nice visit with everybody and I was so glad they stayed with us!  Wayne, Jenna and Chase live in Barrow, Alaska and Curt and Sharon live in Calgary, Alberta so we don’t see any of them very often.  I wish we could have spent more time together but they were all leaving the next day, as were we.  I’m so glad we were here when they were so that we could visit a bit and I’m glad we have a place big enough to accommodate guests.

I think these two (2nd cousins) look more alike than London and Ashton! Chase wasn't so happy about the grass, but Ashton was just happy to be outside.

Our last day in Oregon we spent at the county fair.  It was a quaint little small-town fair, which was a great time for all.  We walked around a bit and saw the animals.  We watched some dancing done by a group Karli clogs with when she’s not pregnant.  They were great!  It was fun to watch.  It’s too bad Ashton didn’t want to sit still.  Right after the clogging finished, we went to and adjacent stage where they put on a wild west show in which the kids could participate.

Mylie and London both scored parts as cows.  Of course they were excited to dress up and get on the stage and perform.

Afterward, they wanted to go on rides and we promised them each that they could go on just one.  There was also a booth where they could learn safety and become a junior deputy.

In their swearing in, they promised to obey their parents and go to bed on time.  It’s too bad London doesn’t remember that part.

Later that evening, we got a babysitter and all of the adults (including my parents who were also in town) went to see Taylor perform at the student concert for the conclave he was attending.  He did a great job and it was nice for us to go spend some time with him after not seeing much of him all week.  It was also a much needed break from the four kids we had been wrestling all week.

We had a wonderful time staying and playing with Nick and Karli and Mylie and Nolan.  Before we went, I knew that London and Mylie were quite a bit alike.  I had no idea.  I was amazed by how similar these two girls really are.  I was a bit worried that their similarities would make them clash a bit with each other, but it was quite the contrary.  I think they understood each other so well, that they played really well together.  They even made up some crazy games.  One was pretty gross.  It had something to do with one of the girls pretending to eat the other, then the one who was eaten, climbs on the stomach of the other who is laying down, and covers herself with a blanket.  Then the girl who “ate” the other girl poops her out.  Gross.  They loved it.  Sure, during the week they had some blow-ups, but I think that was also good for them.  That way they could see what they look like when they throw fits, by seeing the other one do the same thing.  By the end of the week, they had even learned to talk things out!  Karli and I were so impressed.

Our week in Oregon was a great thing for us.  We loved spending time with cousins.  Nick and Karli were so great to let us stay with them.  I hope some day soon that we can return the favor!  We miss them already!

While in Oregon, we took a trip to the beach.  Taylor had a half day on Wednesday so Nick left work a couple of hours early that day and we all headed for the coast.  We had a great time!  We built a bon fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  The beach was gorgeous.  There was a little tunnel that went through a rock and took you to the other side where there was another beach.

The girls thought that was a really fun adventure.

We didn’t really spend any time in the water since it was freezing cold, but we had a good time playing in the sand.

You can tell by the look on his face that this kid was having fun!

For some reason, the boys thought that sticking their heads in the sand was a great idea.

I love how in this picture you can see both Nolan and Ashton with their heads in the sand.

When we left, the kids were screaming and we were all sandy and reeked of campfire smoke.  I guess that means we had a good time.

This year for our vacation, we drove to Portland.  Taylor had a Viola da Gamba Society of America Conclave there so the rest of us decided to tag along on the trip.  If you’re wondering what the conclave is, Taylor explains it on his blog.  We all stayed with my cousin, Nick, and his family for a week.  It was so nice to see them and play a lot.  They were so generous.  Taylor and Nick were gone all day every day, so most of the week I spent with Karli and the kids.  More on that later.  Sometimes they did drive us nuts.  The girls also drove around the yard in this Barbie Jeep.  Mylie is a CRAZY driver!

Our drive was mostly uneventful.  We left on a Wednesday evening and drove to Sacramento, where we climbed into bed at my Grandma’s house around 2:30 a.m.  The next couple of days were spent with my family in Sacramento.  It was nice to have a break before taking another long drive on Saturday.  This time we went all the way to Hillsboro, where Nick and Karli and their 2 and a half kids live.  Taylor has never been to Oregon before and the only time I’ve been was for a day or two when I drove up with my parents and siblings seven years ago for Nick and Karli’s wedding.  I didn’t remember how beautiful the drive is.  Of course, there is a lot of boring brown, but there are areas that are just breathtaking.  We drove across Shasta Lake and drove by Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen.

Shasta Lake. Pay no attention to the reflection in the window. I didn't want to roll it down for fear of waking kids.

The two glaciers were really striking next to the greenery of the summer.  Driving up through Oregon was gorgeous with all of the forest areas.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Although the drive was long, I did enjoy it.

Mount Shasta

On the way home, we again stopped in Sacramento and stayed for a couple more days.  Wednesday morning around 5, we hopped back in the car and drove home.  It took us a little longer than hoped because we hit traffic in a few places.  We even drove by a fire just south of Magic Mountain.

You can see the flames through the smoke

We are happy to be home, safe and sound.  Ashton was really excited to get back home to his books.

I was a little worried about the kids on such a long trip, but they did great.  We did have a few meltdowns and now Ashton hates his car seat more than ever now, but for the most part, it was a pleasant and quiet drive.  I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have a portable DVD player.  That kept London occupied for a lot of the trip.

She was awake the WHOLE drive from Sacramento home until we got off the freeway at the exit to our house.

Ashton didn’t care much about it unless they were watching Cars or Sesame Street or They Might Be Giants: Here Come the 1, 2, 3s, but he was okay for the most part, as long as I kept the food coming.

Ashton got into these Rice Krispies all on his own. What a mess! He sure was happy, though.

Now, 2200 miles, 4 long days of driving, and 2 weeks later, we’re happy to be home.

On our way up to Portland, we stopped for a few days in Sacramento to break up the drive and visit my family.  We stayed at my grandma’s house, which is right next door to my parents house.  The other day I was in a bit of a munchy mood, so I decided to go through my grandma’s cupboards and find something to make that I could munch on.  Boy, did I find some winners!  This Jell-o mix was the oldest thing I could find.  I don’t know when it expired, but I do know that it was bought in September of 1989.

I didn’t want to eat it.  I just wanted to see if it would still work.  And it did.  I was really excited to use this old blender as well.

The directions called for the mix to be blended on low for a minute and then on high for another minute.  Needless to say, I only blended it on high.  Or was it low?  I tasted the finished product.  I think it was still “good” but it wasn’t really good.  It probably wouldn’t have been good even if we made it in 1989.  I’m excited to go back next week and find some more treasures to whip up.

Every Monday night (or almost every Monday night) we have family home evening (FHE).  It’s usually pretty short and consists of a short lesson, maybe an activity, a couple of songs, scriptures, prayers and refreshments.  We make it really short and informal since we have two small kids and it’s hard to keep their attention for long periods of time, especially Ashton.  On Thursday, London had a primary activity where they made FHE kits.  They made cookie mixes for dessert and came home with a bag of things for games and some papers for lesson and game ideas.  So this afternoon the two of us made the cookies and prepared her lesson.  Today was the first time that London has taught the lesson.  She mostly read it  but she did a great job!  I was so proud of her!  She taught us all about the star spangled banner (flag and song).  Then we played a game called Oink Piggy Oink.  In this game, a person stands in the middle of the group, blindfolded and spins around.  Once he/she stops turning, he/she points to a person and says, “oink piggy oink.”  The person pointed to then must oink and the person in the middle has to guess who is oinking.  During one round, London pointed to Ashton and said, “oink piggy oink,” and right on cue, he leaned over and farted.  I almost cried I was laughing so hard.  Even as I type this I am laughing out loud.  It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.  After a day like yesterday, I’m glad my kids can make me laugh every once in a while.

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.