September through the eyes of......

September FamiLee Report
Joe - Hello all! As you know, I am the Administrator of Woodland Skilled Nursing & Rehab center, a 91 bed, 100 year old hospital focusing on rehabilitating seniors (and others) recovering from stroke, heart surgery, broken bones, knee replacements, hip replacements, and other ailments of the mind and body. My job is fascinating. In many ways I feel like I'm on my mission again... in terms of the emotional effort, and service rendered every day. Historically, I could easily be categorized as a night hawk, but since taking this job, I am ready for bed by 9:00 p.m.. Amy thinks I must be getting old.

It is interesting to be here. A few months ago I had never heard of Woodland, CA; now I run one of it's founding businesses, and serve in the Bishopric in one of it's two wards. We have been uniquely blessed with an instant immersion opportunity into this historic, agrarian city.

Well about September.... Wonderful business month! I've seen the fruits of my labors increasing and ripening daily and it is very exciting. I love that the weather is cooling off here. The tomato harvests are over and many of the surrounding farms are now plowed, empty fields. The leaves are beginning to fall, and we are discovering much of the "Mayberry" like charm of this place. The majority of the city is very old; old buildings, old large victorian homes; enormous OLD oak and cottonwood trees. Rather romantic and quaint, to tell you the truth.

Brynn plays soccer at an old elementary school in the middle of the city. During her first game last week, I yelled and cheered and tried to give her directions from the side lines. This was a new experience for Brynn. In her past performances with dance and ballet, we cheered and clapped for her energetic efforts, but here at the soccer game I was yelling directions! "Stop the ball... Go Go.. Kick it... Run!!" It was all too much for my sensitive little angel. In a dramatic moment, 5 year old Brynn took the ball on a solo breakaway, dribbling all the way down the field, passing the other rug-rats and scored a goal! I was whooping and hollering.... and Brynn was overcome in the moment. She started sobbing on the field! She didn't know what to make of her baffoon of a bellowing, screaming father. I called for her and she ran to my arms. She wanted to go... never to play that aggressive sport again. I calmed her down, explaining to her that I was cheering and yelling because I wanted her to have fun and do her best. It didn't matter to me if she "won" the game, but it was always important to try hard and give her best effort. Well, she overcame her reservations and yesterday had a marvelous, enjoyable, soccer game with her team. I toned down on yelling directions, and focused on big smiles, thumbs up, high fives, and happy hollers. She jogged off the field happy as can be. (Victory)

My greatest joy in life is my beautiful wife. She is a rather remarkable, incredible mother to our children. I am constantly in awe of the million little things she does. I make the living, but she makes our life WORTH living. She is creative and smart, detailed, and diligent. After every 10+ hour day at work, She greets me with a super sweet smooch and hug, and my children wrap their arms around my legs, and I am fulfilled! I am most blessed among all men.

In three weeks I am signed up for Foxy's Fall Century, a 100 mile road ride (race) starting in nearby Davis, CA. I have not ridden much for the last month... a few measly miles on the pedal bike. Where is my time? Oh yea, running a big business, serving in the church, and squeezing in as much time as possible with my family! Oh well, I may not set a world record time, but I am a fairly determined fellow, and I will have a great race! (I will report in a few weeks with pictures hopefully). I am riding with Bishop Brooks with whom I serve. He is the eccentric, Institute Director for UC Davis, who surfs, sails, cycles, and skateboards. What a cool, unique man.

Speaking of Davis, what a town! With regulations precluding city growth, it is teeming with academics and bicyclist's. We enjoyed a great date Friday night, trying out a new age salad shop called "Pluto's" and an extraordinary dessert house called "Ciocolat". We tried the carrot cake and cranberry/apple crisp. Davis considers itself the bicycling capital of America. Everyone travels by bike. At every stop light, swarms of people. all shapes, colors, and varieties rode by. We saw pirates on bikes, nun's, men in suits, and even (albeit blasphemously) a man dressed like Jesus riding his bike (with crown of thorns and all). Phew, what a place!! Amy and I loved our evening and really enjoy the energy of college towns...but we are glad we live 9 miles away in conservative, homey, Woodland. That's all for now.


Amy - This month has been a long month for me. Long in a good way, long in that we crammed so many wonderful things into the month of September that it is amazing for me to think that it was just one month. It was a wonderful month of happiness, hard work, personal refelction, spiritual growth. and lots of great family time. We were blessed enough to see my whole family this month and Joe's mom.

As we start to settle a little more into life here in Woodland, I feel more peace that this will be a fine place for us to live for this season of our lives. I really struggled when I found out that we would be moving here. I had heard positive and negative things about the city, and we were leaving such a paradisical situation at our home in Anatolia (living there was more like being on a two month vacation). Now that we have been here in Woodland for a couple of months, I know this is where we are supposed to be. I know there are things for us to do here and people for us to reach out to, and that there are people who will touch our lives and help us become better people. I have already been amazed at the faith of those around me and I am grateful to have the opportunity to get to know them better. The other day on my way home from the girls dance class in Davis, I felt that I should call Joe and tell him of the peace and happiness I was feeling about being here. I was so glad I did, it meant so much to him. I want to make the best of any place we live, and in fact make it a better place to live, in part because I know how much it means to Joe to know that I am happy! One thing I have learned about myself is that I can be happy even when circumstances are not exactly as I had planned or hoped for, something I am grateful to realize, because I have often questioned this ability in myself. I guess it really just takes noticing all of the many blessings rather than the little disturbances in life. It's funny, the blessings absolutely outweigh the challenges, but sometimes it's easy to let the hum-drum cloud our vision.

So....a few of the things that have made me happy this month. I love the place we have found for the girls to take dance. I googled dance areas near Woodland and came up with the Applegate Dance Studio in Davis. Davis is such an interesting college town. It is very liberal and highly educated area. I think it has the most graduate degrees per capita than any other city in the nation (or something like that). Anyway, so it looks like there will be some cultural opportunities we can take advantage of living so close. The girls are in separate ballet classes and look forward to their classes each week. I love going because it is in the coolest area. It makes me so happy just driving there. First of all the city is full of lovely tree lined streets, and the dance studio is in an area called "Village Homes." I don't even know where to begin to describe this place. It is so awesome, in a simple sort of way, I hope I don't make it sound larger than life, because it's the simplicity of the place that makes it so unique and wonderful. I'll have to take a picture sometime, because my words won't do the place justice...anyway, right outside the studio there is a little neighborhood nature park with swings, big boulders and manmade "mini mountains" for the kids to climb. There is a huge cement pipe tunnel that is tall enough for them to walk through and there are big logs for the kids to climb all around and sit on. Then, you walk over a little bridge (no water thank goodness) and there is a grape vineyard the kids can run through, I guess it's a neighborhood co-op vineyard and garden area where the neighborhood can reap the benefits, I guess???? I don't know exaclty how they work it out, but it's cool and very well kept. There is a grassy area, probably 3 acres with a little ampitheater (sp) and a bike/walking path around this entire area. It makes me look forward to Wednesdays and Fridays because I get to spend time with my kids in this fun little nature area. Aaron LOVES it! He thinks he is a mountain man and I try to give him as much freedom as possible to let him roam and feel tough, and get a little dirty. Eventually maybe I'll bring a book or something, but right now, I have so much fun chasing them around and watching them, it keeps me very entertained.

Brynn continues to love school. it's fun to take her to school and see all of the little girls yell,"Hi Brynn!" with enthusiasm. I love that she is making friends, I want her to feel the happiness that can come from developing relationships with the people around her and being a good friend. She works hard on her homework and loves it. I have to pace her on her homework packet each week, because she wants to complete it all in one shot, she just gets on a roll and says, "I just love doing my homework!" Hopefully she'll continue to be this enthusiastic as the years go by.

She reminds me of myself as I watch her play soocer. When I played with some EFY coordinators at BYU, my mom used to tell me that I looked like I was frolicking on the field. I imagine I looked like Brynn does . I'm glad she's able to have some fun and get some good exercise. And she of course has lots of fun with dance, she has some natural talent that will be fun to see her develop throughout the years.

I started a little musical playgroup once a week at our house with about 10 other children. We do it in the morning so all my kids are here and they all love it. We based it on the Cherubs program that we did in Spokane, so it has taken some work to prepare everything to go along with the songs, but anything that enriches their lives is worth the time I have to put in. We will start our Halloween songs this week and my kids can hardly wait.

Abby has also had lots of fun playing with friends at park day, primary and our singing group. This month we also started having 2 little twin girls come over on a weekly basis. Abby goes to their house too. We walk to Brynn's school with Molly and Maggie. She keeps us roaring with the things she says. She's 3 going on 30. The other day I was staring into space and Brynn asked me what I was thinking about. I told her I was daydreaming. Abby then remarked, "She's just daydreaming about her huthband!" They both had a good giggle about that. It was so funny.

My husband and kids make me so happy. I won't pretend that life is perfect, because it's not, but when I am serving them wholeheartedly I feel extrememly happy and so blessed that I get to do life with them! They are wonderful! I loved it when Sister Beck talked last night about families and children and the work that they are, but that we can do, and are good at....work! I love the happiness and satisfaction that comes through hard work!

Oh and I'm glad to report that I made it to church today by myself with the kids and with time to spare. I lost Aaron and Abby once this morning, I know, how do you lose your children before 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday, but they were on the side of the house. Aaron was sitting on top of the lawn mower and Abby was trying to push him, yes they were both in their church clothes, it sounds a lot more dangerous thinking about it than it seemed at the moment. Sacrament meeting went well, Aaron was good for the most part, he only tried to escape once getting a few feet from the stand, and then thankfully one of my young women, Talmage Ellis, was sitting next to me and she captured him. She only had to take him out once at the very end, so I think this is going to be doable. Today required lots of preparation and extra time, but I know I had the help of heaven! We are as excited as ever for October!

What has YouTube done for you?

After running some errands the other day I came home to the sounds of "Wicked" playing in my house. I thought I would find my kids dancing and singing to the soundtrack like they always do. No, this time I found them all gathered around the computer... with Joe... watching clips from the musical via YouTube. I think they've seen nearly every song. So what has YouTube done for us? I figure they've saved us about $300.00 in the price of tickets, $200.00 in gas getting to LA, $150 for a hotel, $75 for food, and $25 in incidentals for a grand total savings of $750.00, and that's for Wicked alone. Of course going to see it with my husband would be, you guessed it .......priceless! Thanks YouTube!
What has YouTube done for you?

The things they say to bring a smile to my lips....

This weekend we had a wonderful last minute visit from Joseph's Mom. She came to offer support to him for his ordination and setting apart for a new calling. It also happened to be our ward's primary program. It's so nice to be able to kill two birds with one stone. I think we can consider it one of those "tender mercies of the Lord." We all loved having her here. The Primary Program Sunday is my most favorite Sunday of the whole year. Every year my spirit feels so elevated as I watch my children sing about such important principles that it honestly feels as though it may jump right outside of my body. I don't know of any other way to describe it. I feel so blessed to be a wife and mother.

So anyway....Joe's mom was talking to the kids about the Savior and the songs they were singing and about how kind the Savior is and how much he loves little children. I don't really remember exactly how it came about, but I think Shawny may have asked if they knew any one like the Savior. Brynn said, "That sounds like my Grandpa Billy, he LOVES little children and he is so nice and kind....he loves to make little children laugh, little children love him... (and later she added) and he loves to talk like Donald Duck!" Brynn is right, my dad is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. I couldn't agree with her more. I am so glad my children have such a wonderful relationship with him. It makes my heart happy! I love you dad! We sure miss you! Later in the day we asked her again to see if she would say the same thing, but this time she said, "Grandma Rowene, 'cause she's really nice to us and she REALLY loves us!"

On a funnier note, tonight Joe was singing "Follow the Prophet" with the kids and Abby said, "Dad, I can't believe that my Uncle Adam was the foorst pwophet!" We had to call Adam to let him know....and then we filled her in on the true doctrine. Oh the funny things kids say....

Do you remember any funny innacurate associations you had as a child? Gospel related or otherwise?

More hiking and pool party pics!

If you want to see some pretty sweet moves from our pool party in St. George, check out the slide show on Wade and Sara's blog and Mom and Dad's at billandrowenevest.blogspot.com Does anyone know why some of my pictures disappear?

Happiness is......

....making it to St. George...and eating ice cream soon there after! First things first...when everyone arrived late Thursday night we had our usual ice cream party. My dad is a firm believer that there should always be plenty of ice cream in the freezer. It's a must at any Vest Family event.

Aaron was so excited to see Grandpa! When Grandpa walked in the door, Aaron ran up to him with a huge grin reaching for Grandpa to pick him up. When Grandpa did, Aaron put is head of Grandpa's shoulder for a welcoming cuddle. So cute! They became good friends while we were living with my parents.





Future Mozart

Our attempt at the impossible

Because Joseph wasn't able to make this trip we decided to forego the family picture and just update a picture of the grandchildren. This is easier, right, because the adults don't have to worry about getting ready, they can just focus on the children....WRONG! I think it would have been easier to do it with the adults so that we could pin down the 1 year olds. Namely Aaron! Kaden could have used some TLC from his mom, but Boston was content to do whatever anyone told him to. Oh the joys of family pictures....Emily brought Chris to meet our family for the first time and they showed up right in the middle of the sitting. Chris probably thought we were all a bunch of lunatics! But, we got through it knowing that dinner from Cafe Rio was waiting for us at the park! YUM!

Cinderella

The girls loved Cinderella.....the boy loved climbing all over the seats and through the aisles at Tuacahn. At one point I coudln't find him anywhere.....until I saw a guy pointing down below where he was sitting. His shoe had come off and he was sitting down trying to fix it. That boy moves fast.

Sara sat with Abby and said it brought tears to her eyes to see how "into it" Abby was. She was so excited when it was obvious the Prince and Cinderella were falling in love and going to get married. On the way home, she rode with my parents and before her eyes drifted off they asked her what her favorite part was...to which she replied, "My faborite part was when they KITHED!"

Chris was Aaron's little buddy. He ahs the energy of Joe, so he and Aaron were a perfect match!
Abby was a little nervous meeting Cinderella. We asked her to stand in front of her for the picture....that was too close. She wanted to be as far away as possible. Interesting!
Aaron wasn't interested in meeting Cinderella. He was interested in climbing the mountains (molehills) nearby!

Hiking/Swimming

This one is for Joe. I wore my Chacos hiking and he was so proud. I am a flip flop girl, yes even after CBS did a segment on how unhealthy they are for your feet. It drives him crazy that I wear flip flops so he bought me Chacos a couple of years ago. I am trying to wear them more often. I love the red rock in St. George. It's so pretty and so fun to hike on!

We were definitely due for a dip in the pool after hiking in the heat!

We had contest to see who could do the most graceful jumps into the pool. This was my favorite. I don't know if I should show the ones the big boys did. They might not ever speak to me again!

Water ballon launching and the yearlings around the corner.

This was Abby's face each time she let go of the water ballon launcher. Take note of the marking on the back of Chris' right leg. He decided to have a fake tatoo put on his leg while they were at the state fair before coming down...he wanted to see how long it would take anyone to notice. What a tease! Chris is from Virginia so this was the first time my family met him, someone finally said something a couple days into the trip.


I couldn't find Aaron so I wandered to the side of the house and look who I found in the batting cage....they had put everything on themselves. You can tell Boston has been trained well! Aaron needs a little coaching, but I think he did pretty good getting the helmet on and atleast he picked up the right side of the bat. Maybe he has some Vest blood in him after all.

Parachute

My mom asked me to come up with an activity for everyone to do together. I thought of my favorite activity in P.E. as a child.....the parachute. The kids (and the adults) loved it! I have a small one, but I think I will try to get a big one like this for our family. It was alot of fun!

Church and the Temple

We attended Wade and Sara's ward all together on Sunday. They go to church right across from the temple, so when Aaron was a bit too active during Sacrament meeting, we skipped our usual trip to the foyer and enjoyed the sight of this beautiful temple. As a little girl, I loved the St. George Temple because of how bright and white it was. I thought the blue sky and clouds really added to the beauty of it that day.


I love our family so much. It was hard to drive south when I headed for home. I have been to St. George probably about 100 times or more and when it's been time to go, I've always driven north. Well this time, everyone else went north and I went south. For some reason I didn't feel like I was going "home." Just another reality of all the miles between us! Once I pulled into Woodland after the long trip, saw our house, and saw Joe come home from work, I knew I was in the right place. It's always good to come home. I'm lucky enough to have two places to call home! Thanks everyone for a wonderful few days! We had a great time!

And so happiness is....being here and making memories with all of you!
I think it's time to figure out how to do a slide show on the blog. These pictures downloads are taking too long!

We're on our way.....

I'm headed with the kids for 5 days of fun with the Vest Family in St. George. We are so excited to be together with everyone. The car is packed, the house is clean, we're just waiting for Brynn to finish school. We're sad Joe won't be joining us, he adds so much to our happiness. Have fun biking Diablo sweetie! Tonight we'll stay in Bakersfield to break up a the 12 hour trip. After the 10 hour trip to Utah alone in July, I decided to make it easier this time. Hopefully I'll be able to continue the drive tomorrow having had a good nights sleep. It should make it easier on the kids too! I am so thankful for families! They are the best! See you soon everyone. It's a good thing we're doing a grankid picture, I think we're overdue. Thanks mom and dad for organizing this weekend! As you know, we can hardly wait!



I love my brothers, sister and sisters-in-law, it will be fun visiting and laughing with them this weekend!

The last picture was taken before Sara joined the bunch.....we are so glad she's part of this clan. It's seems like she's always been with us (just like the rest of the in-laws), now it's hard to imagine there once was a time she wasn't . She is so great to jump in and help with everything!

Our newest additions! We are so sxcited to watch these boys through the years. Kaden is about 14 months now, Boston is almost 20 months and Aaron is 16 months. Wow, how time flies!

The Question of the Day!

I love being a mom!...I mean, otherwise how often would you get asked, out of the blue, a question like this.... Abby: "Mom, what color is pig's poop?" If anyone knows the answer, please let me know! I told her I'd have to get back with her on that one.

Bridging the Gap

My excuse for so many random pictures?....to share my children with their grandparents 700 miles away.......

The other morning, I went to answer the phone while the girls were in the bathtub...I came back and someone else had decided he needed a bath too!

Aaron tried watermelon and popsicles for the first time this summer. He really enjoyed them both, except he couldn't figure out how to eat the popsicle without gagging himself!

_________________________________________________

Brynn's first day of school. August 8, 2007 I think I sent the email to you. . .but I posted it here with the pictures for the record.

August 8, 2007 - My thoughts about this FIRST in our family. . . . Well today was a milestone for our family. It was Brynn's first day of kindergarten. Gulp, Sigh. . . The whole event started yesterday as we went to her kindergarten orientation. We went to the school for Brynn to meet her teacher and for her to get acquainted with the classroom. Her teachers name is Ms. Bueno.

I often wish I could get into the heads of my children to know exaclty what they are thinking. I think I get bits and pieces of what's on their mind by the comments they make. I know she and I were having similar thoughts and fears. As we stood outside the classroom waiting for the doors to open, we saw and heard many parents speaking to their children in their native tongue. Most were not speaking English. We were prepared for this. . .Joseph had already met with the administration at an earlier date and voiced concern about any language barriers that might exist. The administration assured him that while most students speak Spanish, and some Punjabi (sp) many also speak English and that the students would be taught in English. So we weren't all that surprised at the situation. As we stood there, Brynn turned to me and said, "Mom, the Cheetah Girls (a musical group from the Disney Channel) speak Spanish and they also speak English." I think Brynn was trying to console herself, trying to make sense of it all in her own mind, and trying to assure herself that it would be okay. Little did she know that she was also assuring me that things would be okay.

Brynn has been so excited to start school, she says everyday that the reason she is excited to go to school is to meet new friends. There is one little girl her age at church, the bishop's daughter, and she is going into first grade. Brynn loves to play with her and have her over, but she has been so excited to make new friends at school. The other day she heard Joseph and I talking about the concern we had about the demographics of the school, purely because of the language. She came to us a little later and said, "Is everyone at my new school going to speak Spanish? Because I don't know Spanish and it will be hard for me to make new friends?" This about ripped our hearts out. It's hard enough to be worry, but to know that your children worry about something is torture! We assured her that most of the children would speak Spanish, but that most would probably speak English too, and if they didn't they would learn, and she might learn a little Spanish in the process. We then recalled all of the Spanish words any of us could think of. (Which weren't very many ) Anyway, so after the orientation we came home and proceeded to get ready for the BIG DAY. Family dinner, a father's blessing, a bath, setting out the clothes, putting her hair in curlers, stories, prayer and bedtime. At one point during the process we were sitting on her bed and she said again, "What if all the kids speak Spanish?" Abby then decided to tackle this one. . ."Well Brynn, if they speak Spanish all you do is pretend that you are speaking Spanish too, like this. . ." and she proceeded to show off her (non-existent) Spanish skills. You can always count on Abby to relieve the tension in any given situation. Thank you Abby!

About 2 1/2 hours (and 5 tucks back in bed) later, she finally went to sleep. I remember how exciting the first day was. I could never sleep the night before. Even when I was the teacher. Every time she came out of her room, she said with a huge grin, "I'm just SO excited!" Well today came, she woke up at 6 a.m. ready to go. I was at the gym, but Joe talked with her about the first day of school and what an exciting time this is. . .she said they just sat on the bed talking about all of the fun things you get to do at school. This morning lasted an eternity, for her and for me because she was begging to go all morning. We went outside to pull weeds and water flowers. This was not the best idea since we were out there when all of the kids were on their way to school. That's what you get when your the new kid on the block, the afternoon time slot. She was ready to eat lunch at 9:45, not because she was hungry, I'm sure. We held off until 10:45 by doing her hair and picking up around the house. After lunch she brushed her teeth and put her backpack on. I interviewed her with the video camera, and took some stillshots of her outside. I asked her what she remembered about the blessing her daddy gave to her and she said she remembered that, "angels would be watching over her." That melted my heart!

It was then 11:00. School started at 11:25, one problem, the school is only about a 3 minute walk from our house. I couldn't handle her begging to go any more. We went outside and walked around the block a couple of times. I have never walked so slow in my life! It was 11:20. The time had finally come to line up at the door. I must admit, I expected my child to be a minority and I was excited about the opportunity for her to experience diversity, something that I certainly didn't grow up with, but I wasn't prepared for her to be the only white person in the class. I don't think she even noticed. The line started moving forward and we were at the end. . .I walked with her and watched as other parents hovered at the door and the teacher told them they couldn't come in. . .what? I wanted to help her hang her back pack up, help her find her seat, make sure she was settled. . . nope you had to say good-bye at the door. I pulled her back and gave her one last hug, holding back the tears I let her know how happy and excited I was for her. She turned away and walked into the door without looking back. I stared as the teacher closed the door. The tears had welled up and as soon as I was out of sight, they fell freely. To have a child is to forever have your heart go walking around outside your body. I called my mom and we cried together. We played at the park until I pulled myself together. We came home, put Aaron down for his nap. Then Abby and I spent some time reading stories and playing and talking. I am so excited to have this one-on-one time with her everyday. Now she is napping until we get Brynn. She will miss Brynn, they are the dearest of friends and Brynn is sooo good to her. Everyday at 3:00 will be a sweet reunion for these two sisters. I can't wait!

(Later note) And of course everything went well. Brynn continues to love school and has made many friends. I have to admit, I feel kind of spoiled when I pick her up from school, I'm the easiest mom to pick out of the crowd, so I don't have to wait very long. Being the minority has its advantages!

___________________________________________________

And the county fair pictures.....not prettiest background if you ask me, but I adore the subjects. I was at home preparing my talk and YW lesson, I had double duty the next day.