Hiking with Brothers

A trip to Utah is never complete until Joseph gets some time in the mountains with his brothers. He went with Casey and his brother from another mother, Brent.

Sledding with Cousins

The kids had a great time sledding at Joseph's mom's house. They stayed out in the cold for hours. Even Isaac spent plenty of time out there until his little body froze and he had to come in for some warm cuddle time with mom. It was cute to see all of their rosy cheeks!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a tasty Thanksgiving with Joseph's family this year. My parents went to visit Wade and Sara in Arizona, so we stayed in their home and spent the holiday with Joseph's family. It was a treat to be with everyone!

Grandma

While Joseph and I were in San Francisco, my mom was at our home taking care of the kids and shuttling them here and there. It was hard because she had to take Brynn to so many rehearsals to prepare for her performance, but everyone survived. There was one amazing story about how hte GPS told her the wrong way to go and she got lost going to pick Brynn up. She had no idea where she was a she was really scared. I was just entering the play "West Side Story" and was about to turn my phone off for the play to start. I had a clear prompting "Call mom before you turn the phone off" I called my mom and she told me what was up. I directed her back to the studio so she could pick Brynn up, we were both grateful for that prompting, because I didn't have my phone on for the next 3 hours and the GPS had lost satellite coverage. It was a small miracle.

Mom did an excellent job with the kids, as usual. On the way to the airport for her to fly home, we stopped at La Jolla Shores and she received a phone call that her flight was delayed and then another phone call shortly after that her flight was cancelled. It was so frustrating for her because she needed to get back home, but we were secretly very happy because we got to have Grandma for one more night. She came home and made a bed on the deck and read to the kids all evening. They LOVE this woman!

Aaron had a nice chat with Grandpa on the phone.

Mom took the earliest flight in the morning and then was off to help Emily because baby Stephen was having surgery. Now that I think of it, I think that was delayed as well. We were very grateful to have her with us to help and enjoy the week.

Coppelia

When we first moved to Oceanside, we decided to take a break from our activities for a couple of months to ease into the area. We eventually picked up piano, swimming lessons, soccer for Aaron, and Brynn kept asking when she would be able to start ballet again. I did some research about different ballet schools in the area and then asked a long time friend and ballet dancer, Polly Creer if she had any connections to the area. She happened to have a friend in Northern San Diego County who gave her the recommendation of San Elijo Dance and Music Academy. I was a little wary about trying out the school because it is a 15 mile/ 35 minute drive from our house, but she told me about the professional background of the directors and I called and visited the school. I was very impressed during my conversations with the directors and with my visits to the school. When I learned that they don't have performances or rehearsals on Sundays I was sold! Every other dance studio in the area does their recitals on Sunday. I am so grateful that San Elijo doesn't! It has been a huge blessing not to have to deal with that.

Abby wasn't thrilled about starting, but I made her try atleast one day of a lyrical ballet class and she LOVED it! (Her experience with ballet in Davis wasn't as positive as Brynn's.) We started out doing a ballet class and a lyrical class and the girls were really excited about that. After Brynn's first class they invited her to be part of their Conservatory program. I was a little nervous because of the time commitment it required, but we decided to give it a try. It has been excellent, but too much time was spent in the car. Brynn was in ballet for almost 6 hours a week. Couple that with the drive there and back and it was just too overwhelming...for all of us. I pulled her out completely because I didn't want her to experience burnout and the director came to me and told me she would modify Brynn's schedule so that she could still participate. We agreed to do that, she still has lots of dancing to do, but now we go on 2 days of the week instead of 4.

Brynn's class had a Fall showcase where they performed an excerpt from the Coppelia ballet. It was beautiful! Both girls performed in the Nutcracker as well. It basically took over our life for the month of November and December, but it was lots of fun and we survived. We're still trying to figure out the extra-curricular activity thing. As in, okay where are we going with this? I'm happy about the things they are learning and the responsibility and accountability to remember your part and props and such, but sometimes I feel like other worthy things like piano, etc. get pushed to the side because the actual "lesson" isn't as often. Yet, when I think of it, I would much rather have them be excellent pianists than dancers because of the opportunity to serve in church. Anyway, still thinking these things all through...

Brynn and Abby Ward Talent Night

Brynn and Abby performed in the ward talent night on Saturday. They danced to Brahms Serenade in A Major. The video cut off right before the end, but they did a great job and most importantly had lots of fun!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k0gFf2eVm8

San Francisco

Wow, time flies. This picture was taken in San Francisco back in early November. Joseph had budget meetings for work in San Francisco and spouses were invited. This was our first event with his new company PLUM Healthcare. I loved it. It was interesting getting into San Francisco, but the week ended up being lots of fun.

My mom took care of things on the home-front and really deserves a ton of credit for what she did. Brynn had 3 days of 4 hour rehearsals until late into the evenings on school nights and Mom was kind enough to take not only her, but the rest of the kids to the dress rehearsals which were 35 minutes away. She was amazing.

Joseph was already in San Francisco when I arrived, so I was to meet him at the hotel. We were staying at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. I flew into San Francisco airport and because traffic and parking is crazy, they told us not to rent cars but to get taxis and have drivers take us where we needed to go. We were also very close to the shopping district, so we could walk to get to places to do things. I arrived in SF and went to find a taxi. I had never ridden in a taxi before so I was a little nervous. I had 2 suitaces in tow and I found a driver to take me to the hotel. After I got in the car, I had this terrible nervous and anxious feeling. The cab driver stunk like cigarette smoke, and was kind of a maniac of a driver. He told me he had to charge me extra and it was going to take longer to get there because it was the day after the Giants had won the World Series and they were having a parade through town. I started practicing situation management to figure out what I would do and how I would escape if this guy was a bad dude.

We finally made it into the city and traffic was at a standstill just off of the 80. I could tell the guy needed a smoke because he kept tapping his knuckles on the window and bouncing and acting really irritable. He looked at me and said, "I can't take you the rest of the way, it will take too long...get out here, walk up about a mile, and catch another cab on Market Street." I was so scared that I just got out. I was also so scared that I even offered to pay him, even though he was dropping me off, just off the freeway, in a ghetto-y area, 2 miles from where I needed to be. I'm very familiar with the Embarcadero area of San Fran from our time living in Northern CA, but I wasn't familiar at all with where he dropped me off, so I put my head up and walked fast. There were some real doozies I had to walk past, but luckily because of the parade there were plenty of people out, so I felt okay. I got a hold of Joe. He was in meetings. I was so mad and hot from walking and pulling my luggage all over downtown San Francisco!!!! He told me where I was and where I needed to go and then he met me at Union Square and we walked up the 90% incline hill to the hotel. He told me I never should have paid the cab driver and that I should have demanded a ride to the door of the hotel. You live and learn.

When we arrived it was time to get dressed in theater attire to go to dinner and then to see the Broadway play of "West Side Story." I was so sticky from my long hike there. It was CRAZY, but I was glad I was safe. It was fun to meet many of the other administrators and visit at dinner. Everyone was so nice! "West Side Story" was awful. The PLUM directors felt so bad. They've done theater in SF before and have had bad experiences because of the liberties that are taken in that city, but they felt "West Side Story" would be safe. It wasn't. It will take a long time before I can listen to some of the songs again because of the liberties they took. It was so disgusting and sad that people can twist and be so evil in their actions and intentions. Members of Plum's executive team apologized to us personally afterward.

The Governator of California, good ol' Arnold was staying in the same hotel. It was election week, so Joseph saw him with his body guards walking into the hotel on election night.

On one of the mornings, they called for a spouse's meeting where they told us a little about the history and beginnings of PLUM and then we were allowed to ask them any questions we wanted about anything. We all introduced ourselves and they gave us shopping money and gift bags with maps and other goodies to enjoy San Francisco. I went with a group to Union Square to shop and have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. It's been forever since I've been shopping (unless you count groceries) and even longer since I've been without kids. I didn't know what to do with myself.

Joseph met me a little later in the day. We did a little more shopping and then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the dinner, entertainment and dance.

I spent the afternoon with Joseph and later that evening we had a more formal dinner and then they did PLUM skits GLEE style. It was hilarious. I live under a rock and have never watched the show GLEE (or about any other tv show for that matter) but it was fun to see what everyone came up with and to hear some fun renditions of songs from the past. I think lots of the skits were later posted on YouTube. We all had tender cheeks and perma-grin. It was a very fun night. We ended with a dance. It was fun. They had hired a couple of people to come and help liven up the dance. At first Joe and I thought they were intruders, but we went to talk to them and found out it was their job. They were really fun. Most of the administrators are also members of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and some of the owners and directors of the company also are. Because the majority of those in attendance don't drink alchohol, they didn't serve alchohol and the event planners and servers for the night said, "We have never seen a party with that much action, and that's without alcohol, we would hate to see what it would be like if you DID serve alcohol." It was funny.

I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I will say that we left early because Brynn was performing that night with the other conservatory ballet students a piece from the Coppelia ballet and we had to make it back. We woke up early and headed for the airport right after breakfast. Joseph made it up to me by hiring a respectable driver with a private car, who was clean-cut and very professional, who took us exactly where we needed to go. As independent as I think I am or try to be sometimes, I'll admit, I was glad I didn't have to find a driver for the trip back to the airport. I've decided that Joseph knows how to pick them much better. :)

Happy Birthday to Isaac!

Work

Joseph put the boys to work one busy Saturday while I was with the girls at a ballet rehearsal. I hope they always find this much joy and fun in work.

Happy Birthday to Brynn!

I don't know exaclty what we ended up doing for Brynn's birthday. I do know it was a busy weekend, but we still managed to celebrate our little miss. We are so glad she is in our family.

While Mom is Away....

I'll admit, I wasn't very far away. Often when Joseph and I attend a session at the temple we will tag team. One of us will take the kids to do something while the other one does temple work and then we will switch. It's been a great opportunity for the kids to get to visit the temple grounds and do something fun in the La Jolla area. When it's Joseph to turn, he usually takes the kids on a fun hike or to La Jolla Shores, but sadly, I usually end up doing something boring, like taking them to Rubios to get fish tacos. (Well okay, I eat the fish tacos, they do quesadillas.)