another summer birthday

my lovely car is 16 years old. It is almost time to get rid of this wonderful gal who has served us well!

We are considering some of the minivans, and maybe even another suburban.

If you have a shout out for your great family car, or warning against, I'd love to hear it!

best birthday ever!

This week I got old. We'll skip that sad news and just move on to telling you about what a fabulous day I had celebrating my bday while at girls camp on Coronado silver strand beach. We spent the morning kayaking on the bay. We went around for a while, then did some relay races and other games I never knew would be so fun on a kayak. The girls and leaders surrounded me and gave me a beautiful b-day song and lots of splashes to go with it. Now if that's not love, I don't know what is.

silver strand is a neat place because you have the bay and beach within 100 yards of each other. WE camped on the bay side of the highway and were able to have great access to the beach as well through a tunnel.
another cool ariel pic of silver strand I found on the internet



in the afternoon we had a surfing class. The weather was pretty cool (around 70) and very overcast and most of the girls didn't like the water much. Some of them were surprisingly very good. I was not that good but I had a lot of fun trying! I wiped out A LOT -- and not just the fall into the water kind of wipe out, the kind of wipe out where water goes up your noes and in your ears and there is sand everywhere and you get sand burns from hitting and rubbing on the ground so hard. It was crazy and I had a lot of fun. I surfed until I was so tired that I couldn't lift my body to standing position anymore!

tyring to "pop up"

often by the time I finally caught my balance and got up I was on the sand as seen here!


barely on!


the waves were actually pretty big so we surfed in the white wash which is a great place for beginners to start! There are no pics here of my glorious wipe outs but one of my friends said that for her bday present to me she will watch the kids sometime so that dave can come watch me make a fool of myself.

In the evening we had a great fireside that I planned and put together for the last 3 months. It turned out well. I'll post about it later if I have a chance but for now I'll say how great it was for Pete and Jessica to come sing and to have a guest speaker come too. that made it very special.

I took my kids to camp the first day and kept them there all evening until about 11pm. They were filthy and had a good time!
They loved singing the campfire songs and seeing all the girls have fun. Calvin loved the bike rides we went on and I even let him come back to camp Wed night with me so that he could do more of our bike riding! .

Girls camp is awesome! The girls have such a great time and it is totally worth all of the effort it takes to plan and prepare! I especially love that the girls are so willing, make that sort of willing to come without phones and ipods so that they have so much time to talk and get to know each other and help each other. It is just a beautiful thing to see how amazing these young women are. What a privelidge it is to associate with them!

continuing the funeral post

this is a couple of months old and I had never finished the post...better late than never, I guess.

So, back to grandpa's funeral. I have a few pics and thoughts to add.

When I first heard that grandpa had passed away it was in the middle of a work/operating day for dave. I thought it would be best to wait 'til he was out of the OR to tell him the news so I started making some plans and checking into flights to send him up to Reno for the funeral. When he got home from work and we were able to talk a bit he said that he wanted to drive up (to save $) and since he was driving I could tag along too! I hadn't even considered going w/ him as it is such a pain to pawn off the kids and not an option to bring them. However, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to spend a few days w/ dave alone and I really wanted to go to the funeral so I made the arrangements to leave. Bless my friends hearts, it was really easy to find rides for the kids and places for them to go. The only part of the babysitting I had to pay for was having someone come over each day from 6-9am to hang out with my Calvin and get everyone dressed and ready to go.

one of the difficulties in making these plans was the fact that my backpacking trip was Fri Sat and the funeral trip was Sun Mon Tues. Meaning all of my plans had to be made super fast and that I'd be gone from home for so many days in a row. But, it all worked out.

Trip Summary:
Sunday - Dave and I drove to Reno - 9 hours. We arrived in time for a family dinner w/ all of the Gonda relatives at Uncle Mark's house! Dave hung out w/ family all evening and I went to choir practice. We sang the most beautiful arrangement of "Oh, My Father" I have ever heard. It is called "My Father." The Stake choir had sung it a month or so earlier for Stake conference and offered to sing it at the funeral. They invited any family that wished to join in to come and sing with them. I cried buckets. however, the advantage of singing in the choir is knowing that the crying is done ahead of time instead of during the song at the funeral.

We stayed at Grandmas house with a few other people. We were given the bathroom time of 6-7am since we are the early risers in the family!

Monday - 9am we went to church and hung out, set up chairs, etc. while we waitied for everything to get underway. 10am open casket time.



Monday late afternoon we went back to the cemetery to see the grave site. Reno is such a pretty place w/ mountains all around.


Monday evening we had a FHE with daves entire family, first meeting in the hotel to talk a bit and then going out to marie Calendars for pie.

Tues we got up early to drive home. We stopped at Great Harvest bread to buy some whole wheat bread. We don't have any bakery's in town that make great home made bread (at least a wheat variety) so that was a special treat.


This is a picture from a distance looking at Lake Mono. It was beautiful.


We stopped at the visitors center to learn about the late and get closer to the lake. This lake is super alkaline, with a salinity 2x the ocean. There are no fish that are able to live in the lake but lots of birds nest there and there are a lot of brine shrimp in the water. It was an interesting place to learn about.


these are tufas, formed by the freshwater springs under the lake interacting w/ the water, are made of calcium carbonate.


here is a picture I stole of the Internet of the same lake w/ better pics of the tufas.


We arrived home around 5-6 on Tues. on the drive home we listened to "silence of the lambs." I never finished the audio book b/c it was too creepy to listen to at home or in my neighborhood as I walk, but it was entertaining for a long and boring drive!

Overall it was a great 3 day get-away for Dave and I. We had a lot of time to talk and a lot of time to be together uninterruped by the sweet children who are usually occupying 100% of our attention. A perfect weekend trip.

Funerals are a bittersweet event. The loss of a loved one is always difficult and often comes when we are not ready. Because really, when are you ever ready to say goodbye to someone special. I feel a pit in my stomach when I think about the what if...'s in my life. The sweet part of the funerals is realizing what is important in life. All of the day to day activites which allow us to live and survive in this busy world are put on hold when we attend a funeral and we can ponder on who we really are. It is a cherished experience to have these times (which can come at other places than a funeral) when we truely feel and know that we have a Heavenly Father and that our happiness isn't about how clean our house was today or dance class or soccer games, but about who we are in relation to Him. What matters most is how we treat our family and friends and how we are making ourselves better. I always leave a funeral ready to forget the small stuff and focus on being ready to meet God when it is my time. Of course, it is easy to forget this once I reach home to the hussle and bussle of life but those feelings stay with me none-the-less.

Clare-bear

Clare loves to have her picture taken. It takes a total of about 4 minutes in the studio because she is so cooperative and sweet!

Clare is a delightful little person. I am going to miss her when she goes to school (1/2 day) in the fall.

not happy, not happy at all

Today we had checkups at the dentist. They recommended a total of $700 worth of dental work for Calvin and Clare combined. It is only 2 cavities each + 2 places to buffer and check, but since they are working on two sides of the mouth they want each kid to have 2 visits. AT each visit they need NO which isn't covered so just that part alone is $200 ($50/visit). + a $50 deductible each. Really, the dental work is about 1/2 of that cost.

I am depressed. I told the kids it is like a trip to disneyland for 4 days.

I am debating as to whether it is totally necessary to do this dental work. Whenever I go to the dentist I feel like I am visiting the mechanic which is best described as being in a war w/o a weapon. And I have to say, I honestly fear the dentist more than the mechanic.

patching update

Yesterday we had an appointment with Calvin's eye dr. I am always extremely anxious about these appts because it is devastating when we slide backwards (which we have done a few times) and frustrating when we don't progress (which we do most of the time) in spite of our best effort and bleeding of our checking account to keep him in a patch and glasses.

This appt. Calvin stayed the same. His vision in his good eye is 20/20. In his bad eye it is 20/80 uncorrected and 20/50 corrected. My hope is that he can move to 20/20 corrected in his bad eye. I don't know if that is a reasonable goal or not. Calvin still doesn't have 3D or depth perception. The 3D vision check is when you put on the 3D glasses and then look at the circles or animals on the special paper and see if any pop out of the page. None ever pop out of the page for Calvin.

The dr. was actually very excited about our "progress" since our last visit. He says he fully expects kids to go backwards in the summer so the fact that Calvin hasn't moved backwards is very good news to him. He figures if we can just hold on to where we are now for the rest of the summer it is really good. Then in the fall when school starts and there is more concentrated eye activity hopefully we can progress forward.

The dr. also said that for the severity of Calvin's eye problems, we are probably in the top 10% of outcomes so far. This surprised me b/c I feel like we are absolutely failing. We haven't made any progress in a year. He hopes to move us into the top 2%. I don't know if that is full vision or not but I wish I did know so that we could moderate our expectations. Instead of hoping for full vision restoration we could just be happy to do our best. Dave is especially anxious about full vision restoration no matter the cost whereas I'd be happy if we could just quit now and not have to worry about this any more.

We started patching 4 years ago. After a pretty short time, maybe 6 months, Calvin did have corrected 20/20 vision. Then his glasses broke and we went a few weeks w/o his glasses while we ordered new ones. (I learned to always have a backup pair ready from this experience). By the time we got his new glasses he had lost his corrected vision. Since then we have never been able to get better than where he is now at 20/50 corrected.

Summer is a really hard time for patching b/c we spend time in the pool and we are busy and it's hot and the patch itches...... when summer first started I told Calvin that if he would wear his patch all the time w/o me having to fight w/ him about it. If he put it on when I asked him to do so and kept it on w/o a fight I'd take him to disneyland the day before school started -- just me and him. He thought it was a good idea. 2 minutes later I asked him to put a patch and he threw himself on the ground and cried. I gave him a few more tries over the next couple of days and he was never willing to do it w/o a fuss......

Patching:4 years down. ??? to go. Patching is WAAAAYYY harder than residency. I could be a resident's wife forever. I could not patch forever.

Funny side story. one family in our ward who had to deal w/ patching in their little boy joked w/ him that "if you wear your patch, then you can have a little brother." Currently he is youngest of 4 and the family had no plans to have more kids. Oldest kid is 16, and the youngest boy who is the patcher in the family is 8. Well low and behold a month ago the mom of this family (at age 43) SURPRISE!! found out she is pregnant. She didn't find out 'til she was about 5 months along! Anyway, they will be having a baby boy so little William got his wish for a baby brother. He actually was a great patcher! I did tell Calvin about this and he was pretty impressed. I can't make any promises but perhaps he can have his own wishes and hopes.

i love america

and I am so grateful to live here, for the freedom and peace I enjoy, for those who serve and have served in the military, for those righteous and honorable people who serve in positions of leadership.

I am proud to be an American!

Happy 4th!!

to spite me

dave has decided to grow out his hair and look rediculous just to spite me for giving him a hard time for spending more on beauty in a year than I do. Pictured above is one of his new favorite tricks w/ his long hair: wings.

cute kids!

I just love these guys!