Ashton's Birthday Interview

How old are you? 10

What is your favorite color? Baby green

What is your favorite animal? Dolphin

What is your favorite book? Anything animal

What is your favorite show? Dr. Oakley- vet show

What do you like to eat? Chicken salad and fruit salad

What is your favorite game? Set

What is your favorite thing to do? Go on hike

Who is your best friend? Lyra/London/Kate

What do you like to do with Dad? Go on rides (Joseph is the one to ride the rollercoasters with the kids)

What do you like to with Mom? Crafts

Where do you want to go on a vacation? Jewel Cave National Monument (she's doing a research project on it so wants to go now. Unfortunately, it's in South Dakota. It will be a while before we're in that part of the country.)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Teacher/vet

What is your favorite song? A Million Dreams; she just sang it in a talent show

What is the best time of day? Morning, after breakfast

What makes you happy? My friends and family

I Love to See the Temple

The temple in McAllen, Texas was finally ready for the open house! We have waited a few years for this. The timing of the open house wasn't great- right after school started and in the Texas heat. So I had the big kids miss a day of school to go. We drove 6 hours south and stayed the night in McAllen the day before the open house began. We were there at 10am for one of the first tours on Friday. After the temple, we drove to South Padre Island. We rented a beach house for the weekend. It was a great trip.

The kids enjoyed the temple. Gemma shared a sacred experience with me afterwards that I hope she will remember as she gets older. Ashton liked seeing the baptismal font as she is only 15 months away from being able to attend the temple as a youth.

After the temple and drive to the island, we visited a turtle rescue/rehabilitation facility. The kids loved it all. Then we spent Friday night and all day Saturday at the beach. Having the beach house right there was nice so we could walk back and forth for lunch and breaks when we needed it. The beaches and water were so much nicer than Galveston. We even found a sand dollar, along with bags and bags of seashells.

We drove back Sunday after going to a small branch in the area. The people there were so excited to have a temple nearby. The kids did great on the trip as well. We found out at the branch that this temple is a huge blessing to the area it was built in. There is obviously a customs border check at the actual Mexico/US border (maybe 30 minutes away) but there is also one an hour north (that we hit on the way home, complete with drug dogs and lots of border security officers). This means much of the area's population due to their illegal immigrant status are unable to leave the area due to the risk of crossing a checkpoint. This limits their ability to attend any temple- US or Mexico.

Tanner's Soccer Team

Last winter, Joseph was approached by another coach in Tanner's rec soccer league. He had seen Tanner play over the last two years and wanted Tanner to play on his club soccer team. I immediately said no when Joseph told me. I don't like competitive sports at such a young age and I don't want to pay that kind of money. Even the rec league is a little pricey for me. But then Joseph explained it to me. The coach finds business sponsors to offset fees. So there was no expense to play on the team. We decided to try it out.

The coach enters the team in little 3v3 or 5v5 tournaments. Some are local and easy to commit to. Others are farther away and require hotels/travel. We also made it clear we wouldn't play on Sundays, which wasn't an issue for the coach. Tanner enjoyed playing with the boys and liked that he was finally on a team of players who understood soccer. The coach is definitely stricter and more focused on skill development. 

The team qualified for a regional competition in Austin. Since it was on our way back from Arkansas and a Saturday-only tournament, we went. Tanner's team took 3rd place in the tournament, which made them eligible for nationals. It was crazy! Tanner was playing against teams that pay over $1000 a month for the coach/equipment and Tanner's team was beating them! His team has committed to going to Nationals in Alabama so that is our Thanksgiving plan.

After that, the team will go back to local tournaments. It's been a good balance for our family- nothing too expensive or high commitments but higher level soccer for Tanner. He loves it too.

Arkansas

 I took the big kids to Arkansas this summer. We wanted to do more hiking without as much complaining when we take the littles with. So I planned a fun trip to Arkansas. My sister flew into Houston and joined us for the first half of the trip. That was nice to help with the driving as well as the river float.

The first day, we found some fun hikes. I wanted waterfalls and we got more water-trickles. I want to go back some spring break and see the big waterfalls. We had fun just exploring caves and natural areas.

Then, we spent a day on the Buffalo River. We rented two canoes and did a 4-5 hour float down the river. The kids did well with the float. The water was a little low so we got out a few times to help the canoes through the water. We stopped at the sandy beaches and a little creek. Tanner loved the creek as we did leave races for a long time.

The final day with my sister, we drove to Little Rock and visited Little Rock Central High School. We read a ton about the high school and desegregation before the trip so the kids were pretty good about learning more at the visitor's center and seeing the school. We said goodbye to my sister who was flying out the next morning.

The kids and I kept going to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We visited the national park there and did some hiking in a nearby state park. We also went horseback riding.

Saturday was a tournament for Tanner back in Texas so we finished our trip off with the tournament.

Our view from our cabin.

Swim Season

We participated in the summer swim team again this year. The big news was that Gemma made the team! It took her the entire week of tryouts to make it across the pool unattended. But she did it!

Ashton moved up in age groups, which meant she swam 50 yard races instead of 25 yards. Tanner also moved up in age groups and swam all four strokes this year. Gemma swam free and back, when she felt like it.

Gemma earned "most improved swimmer" for 6 and under girls. It helps that her first 25 yard freestyle was over 2 minutes long. You can only improve from there. Tanner qualified for the "playoff" meet in July with his breaststroke. Ashton was very close to that in her backstroke. I have a feeling next year will include Ashton and Tanner qualifying in more events.

Lydia was the honorary coach for the year. She loves the head coaches and they love her. She gets popsicles from them all the time. At the end of year swim party, Lydia got right in the pool with the coaches. I don't think she'll be strong enough next summer for the team. Maybe the year after.

We had a good swim season. I am grateful it helps my kids be strong swimmers. When we canoed the Buffalo River, I had minimal concerns about their swimming ability in the river. They are strong swimmers, which is nice to know in Texas.

His face when he found out he qualified for the playoff meet.

Trip to Whitney

Back in January, my sister called me. She asked if I would be willing to hike Mt. Whitney with her in the summer. Nonchalantly, I said, "sure." My thoughts were- it's a lottery to get a permit and we probably won't get one.

Fast forward to March when permits are released. Lo and behold, we win a permit for late June! My first step was to actually look up what Mt. Whitney is. And then I see all the articles about record snowfall in the California mountains. My brother, my sister, and a close family friend were all planning to hike together.

Over the next few months, I trained physically and mentally for the challenge ahead. With the snowfall, making it to the summit would be very difficult and with additional risks. In a regular year, late June can be a little tricky with snowfall. So in a record year, there was no doubt we would be facing extreme conditions towards the top. Typically, there are 97 switchbacks towards the top that you take. While they are physically easy, the challenge is the mental game of being so close and yet so far. However, in a snowy year, the switchbacks are not available. You can't see them with all the snow covering it. Instead, you must hike up a snow slope that is about 40 percent grade. And it's a mile or so in length. On average, it takes 2 hours to hike just that one mile. If you slip, it is a straight fall into rocks. Not exactly the best scenario. Experienced hikers recommended helmets, crampons, and ice axes (and the knowledge and experience to use them) to make it up the slope safely.

I wasn't about to spend $200 on an ice axe that I would never use again in my life. Nor did I want to train on one while on the mountain. I decided I would stop the hike at the base of the slope, roughly 6 miles of the 9-10 mile hike.

My sister, family friend, and I all flew into LA a few days before our permit date to acclimate to the elevation. My brother spent the weekend before in Las Vegas so would meet us in Lone Pine (the town by the Whitney trailhead) the day before our permit. We got to spend some time in California, enjoying the mountains and hiking around. A highlight was hiking some of the Pacific Crest Trail, which was beautiful. We stayed at a neat house up in the mountains and soaked in the cooler weather and sunshine.

Monday came and we all met in Lone Pine to go over our hike. The first two miles of the hike do not require a permit so we hiked those on Monday. That's because we would be hiking them in the dark the next morning so we wanted to see them in the daylight. The first two miles also has the most intense water crossing so it was nice to navigate that in daylight rather than at night for the first time. After our short 4 mile (up and down) hike, we went back into town, grabbed dinner, and rehashed the plans for Tuesday. Because of the amount of snow, we knew we had to start early before snow started to melt in the middle of the day. We tried to go to bed early.

Our hike day started at 2am with the goal to be on the hike by 3am. We were at the trailhead at 3am and ready to go. Navigation was a little difficult because of the snow covering the trail so much. We got turned around a few times, which added extra mileage to our hike. Seeing the sun come over the mountains though, was amazing. We kept trekking up and hit trail camp around 8am. I got to use my crampons, which was a first for me. At this point, I was content being done. My brother and sister attempted the snow slope. They made it about 1/2 mile up and turned around. The 1/2 mile took them 1.5 hours so it was rough.

On the way down, we got lost for about an hour, which was stressful. Thankfully, we found our way back to the trail. When all was said and done, we had hiked 18 miles for the day, in about 11 hours. All of us were safe and no one experienced altitude sickness. Despite not summiting, we had achieved our goals of being safe and getting down the mountain.

We drove back down to Lone Pine, found some food, and went to bed. The next day, my brother left to Las Vegas and we went back to LA. I met up with an old friend from Lake Jackson and got to have dinner with her. We visited the Pacific Ocean as well. Then we all flew out Thursday morning to go back home.

The scarier water crossing. It was about mid-calf deep in the middle of the day. But both sides are waterfalls. So a slip isn't an option.

Mirror Lake. So beautiful.

One fun part was these little snow slides all over. Going down them was much more fun than climbing up the snow.

This is at trail camp. The sign for it is buried and you can barely see the top of the sign. I'm guessing 4-5 feet of snow. The lake here was also frozen. You had to climb the snow up to the trail crest- the top ridge. Then it was still another 2 miles to the summit. You can't see the summit in this picture.

Our PCT day. We hiked over this lake. Beautiful views.

Is I?

I find myself wanting to remember more of the simple and small moments of my day. As Lydia gets older, I see the baby and toddler years getting harder to recall. Some memories I don't mind forgetting- little sleep, blowouts, screaming and crying, etc. But other moments, I crave to experience again.

Sunday nights, I try to ask the kids what they learned in church. I love hearing what each of them learned in their individual classes. Lydia, attending nursery, typically shares what her snack was or what toy she played with.

This last Sunday, I did the same routine and started with Lydia. She had subs in nursery so I wasn't sure if a lesson was given. Lydia told me about who her teachers were and what kids were there. I asked her if she was a child of God, hoping to get her to say something spiritual. She looked right at me and asked, "Is I?"

Aside from her adorable but incorrect grammar phrase, I had the opportunity to testify to Lydia in 3-year-old terms that yes, she was a child of God. I sing "I am a Child of God" to her every night, followed by "I Love to See the Temple." My prayer is that those words help her know who she is and where she can go for peace.

I've had times where I also ask, "Is I" (just a little more grammatically correct) to the question of am I a child of God. I am grateful to have that knowledge for myself and that I can share that knowledge with my children.