Part Three-Beach Day

To sum it up: it was cold, the sand was black, the little boy LOVED the sand, the boys skim-boarded, everyone was happy, the dogs were happy too, and it was the perfect day with grandparents and cousins at Ocean Beach!

Part Two

In CA we went to Oakland first to visit our old stomping grounds and see cousins.
We visited Sulpher Creek a nature place. Here are the three cousins that were inseparable.

The birds of prey were fun to have stare downs with.


Girl #2 had a Birthday! She was so excited to celebrate it in CA.


Grandma and Grandpa came out to visit in the Bay Area too!


The criss-cross of freeways and the bridges all brought back so many memories

The Bay

The Tolls

Bay Bridge



Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco

Part One: CA Trip

We started out on a beautiful morning very early to drive to CA. We stopped 4 times before it was noon! This is going to be a long drive!


The first stop we came too the eight year old needed to use the potty but couldn't find any shoes. She had forgotten all of her shoes! Luckily there was a box with her Birthday presents wrapped up and one of the presents was flip flops. She opened it and wore these the rest of the trip. (good thinking mom)


It had snowed a few days before we left. As we progressed closer to CA we shed the layers of clothing because it was so hot. This coat was worn the last time at the salt flats.


Everything was a first for the baby. We said this many times during the trip. This was a first for the salt flats for him.


Look at those mountains!


Elko Park, traditional playground stop.


He was pretty happy for most of the ride there. He really liked looking out the window. I wish he was just a bit higher.


Stretching at Donner Pass.

We saw lots of dogs at the rest stops. This was going to be a dog gone trip of doggy adventures. The first one was when little girl #3 said she liked dogs. Then one ran in front of her as the owner tried to catch him while trying to hold the other one. Mike helped her catch it and then the little girl #3 said she didn't like dogs anymore. She always spotted them first at each rest stop and kept her distance.

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Another story about the Holocaust, which is important so we don't repeat the past. This book wasn't what I expected because the author tried to write it from a little boys perspective yet he didn't quite get it. Sometimes there were very adult perspectives or phrases used.
I haven't seen the movie yet but it will probably be really depressing and scary.

Broken Book

Catching up on Reading

I remember the really good book I read while on vacation. It is called The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It has been made into a HBO movie. It is a whole series of detective stories that happen in Africa. It has quite a unique twist on them because they aren't your normal England or American Mysteries. It was very entertaining to read and I can't wait to find the next ones in our library.

I also finished these books:

Homestead by Rosina Lippi - It was a bit too immoral for me. There were a few interesting things about living during world war I and II in the Austrian Alps.

Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan - This was a sad story about a little girl that was in an arranged marriage at an early age and within a few days her new husband, also very young died. She is then left homeless after her new family can't afford to support her. Takes place in India I beleive, it does have a happy ending.

I listened too a few classics on CD too:

Little Women by Alcott - theatrical version so it wasn't exactly complete but entertaining.

The Kevin Kirk Chronicles by Patricia Wiles, book #1 and #2 My Mother is a Mortician and Funeral Home Evenings. These are re-reads. Great LDS YA Fiction that makes you laugh. I loved the poor friend that never had his name said correctly. Melonhead, Melonrind, Melonseed...

Forgot I read this one:
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Alcatraz, #1)
by Brandon Sanderson

This was a silly and adventurous book about a boy that finds his quirky family after being an orphan all his life. He has powers and they do to so they can defeat the evil librarians trying to take over the world. I will never trust a librarian again, sorry.

Am I Not A Man? The Dred Scott Story by Mark L. Shurtleff

I loved this book! It is a historical fiction. I thought it was well presented and researched. The whole story of Dred (Sam) Scout (Blow) and his childhood all the way to the day he died. PLUS the best part was the interwoven facts of the key players in the abolitionist movement and what led to the civil war! Lincoln, the lawyers and judges and senators all played key parts in the case Dred vs. Stanford. What made them decide for or against slavery? What in their own lives influenced their choices when they had power to change a nation? It is all in this book!

Dred Scott lost his case but because of his endurance through the long legal system he opened the eyes of many to the horrors of slavery and the unjust treatment of human beings. The color of your skin does not decide if you are a citizen of the United States! All men are created equal and Dred Scott is a man, not a horse or a dog but a man created in the image of God just like you and me. He died a free man after his former owners bought his freedom. It was sad to see the justice system at the time of this case completely fall apart when it came to fairness, not only with blacks but also religious groups like the Mormons. It was great to see great men prepared from birth step forth and lead the US to greater heights. It took years and years but it had to start somewhere to chip away the oppression and greed of the Southern plantation owners. I am glad that Dred Scott was brave and didn't give up nor did his friends.

Whole Book

The End of the Beginning ... by AVI

Being the Adventures of a small snail (and an even smaller ant)

This would be a great book to read out loud to 3-4th graders! It was interesting to me so grown ups would enjoy this book too but on a different level.

This story begins where it ends and ends where it begins: in the treetop home of a rather small snail named Avon. He wants to go on an adventure. An ant goes with him. They go at a snail pace which takes a very very long time. Their friendship grows and they are silly. The whole journey is the length of a branch but it does turn into a big adventure.

I love the word play all over this book. The fable could really start some great discussions. I will read it to my kids out loud tomorrow and see what happens. The pictures are simple but great too! There are about 143 pages but I read it in a half of an hour.

My favorite part is: the two snails coming at each other for a big battle!
And when the worm falls asleep and when he wakes up he can't remember which end is his head.

This is a great story of friendship. They leave home to find home! Loved it!

Classification Whole Book

CRY FEST 2010

We had an onion problem so we processed the whole box! 22 giant onions are now frozen, dried, fried and eaten.



I had a good helper. She of course had to wear goggles.




We opened all the windows and turned on the fan.

The kids love onions. Way too much oil for me! But we had some left over from FHE donuts night.



All this and it only filled a zip lock baggy.


We did not put any onions in Mikes B-Day cakes. This one is called a boy and his butter fly.


"Go way key. Don ea miii eerl!"




Big boys don't cry!

Meridian Magazine:: Ideas and Society: Orson Scott Card on the Dismantling of America

Meridian Magazine:: Ideas and Society: Orson Scott Card on the Dismantling of America

Adam's Story: A Novel by Jack Weyland

You have to be a fan of Jack Weyland and you need to read Charly and Sam first to really get this book. They are all a series. Charly was made into a movie in 2002

Ever wonder what happened after happily ever after? Adam is the son of Charly and he is grown up...it starts when he is on his mission for the LDS church and then comes home and tries to find out who he is and what he wants to do with his future. Of course it is also a sappy love story. I love these when they are written by LDS writers and easy to relate too. It was a short good read. A nice distraction on my rainy day.

Whole Book, Healing Book

Wayne Thiebaud The Dessert Artist

Thieboud is pronounced TEE-BO. He lives in Sacromento CA and is 90 years old. He still paints and plays Tennis!





Yummy!

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

This was an incredible true story about surviving the worst thing ever, genocide. I don't think I will forget this story for a long time. A young woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza tells about how she survived the 1994 idyllic killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million in her country of Rwanda.

For over 3 months, she and seven other women huddled quietly together in a tiny bathroom while hundreds of killers with machetes looked for them. They were being hunted and their families were slaughtered by their neighbors and friends but they couldn't do anything but hide or else they would meet the same fate. Usually the women were raped and other evil things and when you die by a machete usually it is torture by getting your limbs chopped off and bleeding to death. It is so sad and so overwhelming I don't know how anyone could do such horrible things unless they were possessed with a bad spirit. Nazi Germany stories are bad and this story is bad.

The best part about this story is that during the time she had to go through unspeakable frighting things she was able to discover the power of prayer. She was able to be brave and prepare herself for the future. She came to know God and His great love for herself and everyone. She discovered the meaning of true unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers later in life. She was also able to help others by her example.

I was so impressed with her story. She lived through the darkest and worst things ever yet was able to not blame God but praise His name. She lost so much but gained such a unique perspective on this life and the after life by the experience. I don't know if I could do what she did and I never want to have too but I hope that I learned something from her story she was left to tell. I cried so hard reading it and I don't understand how it was allowed to happen in world we live in. I would have been graduating from Highschool going to college and then on my mission while this was all happening in Africa in her small country of Rwanda. I never heard about it. Why was it kept so secret and ignored by the world? It should have never been allowed to happen. Just like the holocaust in Germany. So sad.

Healing Book

To Kill A Mockingbird

This is a wonderful and unforgettable classic story of a little Southern town in Alabama during the 1960's. There was still so many problems with peoples behavior when it comes to equality. Black or white, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, you name it and there was problems.
The story was told by a little white girl. Her voice it so innocent yet wise as she learns about kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and how unjust human beings can bee to each other. Where does dignity come in and the unity in the human race? The little girl grows up and learns to walk in others shoes before judging.
I love this story. I saw the movie a while back and it was pretty good too. I will look for it at the library today and view it again. This is a book you can read again and again and still get so much from.

Healing and Whole Book

Strawberry juice runs in my blood!

Today I received a flat of Strawberries for an outrageously low price. They were the biggest, reddest, Californian fresh strawberries sold by Bountiful Baskets!

So after everyone ate as many as they could for breakfast, I started making Jam.

First the freezer jam then the canned stuff. I don't know which one I like better. I like having both. My oldest son helped me make it and thinks he is entitled to eat most of it.


The next day after eating as many more strawberries as we could and having them on french toast we decided that we should make a pie. So we made two! One for the neighbors to thank them for helping me replace the section that flew off the barn this last storm and one for our family.



This strawberry pie making business brought back so many childhood memories. During strawberry season in CA my mothers fingers were always stained red.
It is from the secret ingredient in the strawberry glaze for the pies.

We would make so many pies to earn money for Scout Camp and Jamborees and whatever else the Scouts needed money for. I think we must have made over 500 pies. I didn't make them myself but it sometimes felt like it. Mountains of KFC boxes to fold, stacks of pie shells, huge vats of bubbling red glaze and of course so many flats of strawberries to wash, sort and pluck. It was pie heaven or slave labor, you decide. All done because my mother loved all her Boy Scouts and wanted them all to succeed. I liked it best because my brother would be gone for so long and not around to tease us.

These pies were special because ward members and community members bought them for 3 times the price it was to make them. I think they sold for $8.50. Now days that is nothing. They also didn't last, you either ate them fast or they would get so soggy and the strawberries would turn to rotten mush you had to chuck the whole thing. Never wait till the next day to eat. So all the pies had to be delivered immediately. My mom was really in business.

Looking back it is all like a dream. Did we really spend all that time and effort making strawberry pies? Someone pinch me quick!

The Shortstop by Zane Grey

Baseball fan? This is the book for you! Written in 1909 Zane Grey the author takes you back to the beginnings of baseball. A young boy age 17 had to quit school to earn money for his family. He worked in a factory but was getting no where so he quit and goes on a journey to follow his dreams of becoming a professional baseball player.
He catches a train and has some hard breaks but eventually finds a manager that believes in him despite his appearance. He learns the ropes of playing on a minor-league team. Wins the hearts of the town and falls in love.
The book uses a lot of the old baseball jargon and sometimes I have no idea what they are talking about but you kind of get swept up in the excitement of the game so it doesn't matter. I wish baseball today was a little like baseball back then. Now it seems to be so easy because everything has been done. Back then it was all new, the curve ball the home runs, the umpire calling a game or kicking someone out...exciting.

classic
Whole Book