Peter had an Activities day activity on the 15th. They got to tie knots, he came home wanting to tie us all up.
Track started on the 14th for the Middle school. Kendal is pursuing some distance events and triple jump, she'll join a relay and dabble in other things as the season continues. They've had a variety of weather for track so far, but mostly wind and cloudy skies. The first track meet is this Tuesday.
St. Patrick's wasn't anything crazy. Alice was hyped up about leprechauns from Sadie's house and preschool. So while I'm not into leprechaun visits I did leave some "gold" (chocolate) for the kids to find in the morning. Alice got to celebrate at Sadie's with games as well as Preschool!
We left for Spring Break on the 20th. We left after church and hoped to arrive in Las Vegas around 8:30. Unfortunately part way down Nevada we got stopped at a Rest Area along with everyone else traveling south. There was a dust storm and a wreck in the midst of it; both needed to be cleared before anyone could continue on. We debated turning around which would have added over 2 hours to our drive (still had 3 hrs to get to Vegas). We opted to wait, and two and a half hours later we thought we'd go crazy and maybe we should turn back, but we sucked it up and just about three hours at the rest stop we were able to roll out! We - and the rest of the convoy headed out and made our way to Vegas. We rolled into our hotel around 11:30 that night. We were so done with the day and being in the car!
We let the kids sleep in a touch and after breakfast we headed out on our way to visit Death Valley. We looked out at Dante's view, and zabriskie point. After which we went to the visitor center. We looked at the displays and the kids filled out Jr. Ranger booklets; when they were done they got sworn in as Jr. Rangers. After we had lunch we went out to Badwater basin and did the Artist's drive. It was fairly hot out 86 degrees, which felt so nice after many weeks of Idaho's iffy weather, but towards the end of our visit it was pretty hot to be out in. We made our way through the park enjoying the sites from the car and headed out of Death Valley towards Fresno. We had a 5 hour drive between Death Valley and Fresno. The kids did well and we stopped after a while and had dinner at Wendy's. We rolled into our hotel pretty late. We were very disappointed in our hotel choice for the night, but were to tired to do much about it. We opted out of staying there two more nights and quickly canceled that and picked a better hotel to finish out in.
Tuesday we drove out to the Sequoia National Park. It was a nice drive there all along the way we were surrounded by fruit tree's / fields. As we made our way into the park the valley was beautiful and green! We had to climb the mountain to get to the big sequoia's. We went to the foothills visitor center and the Giant forest museum then walked around the area for a bit exploring. The kids kept trying to one up each other on finding the "biggest tree" there. Some of the paths were snow covered, but it was so sunny out we didn't mind one bit. There were fires along the hills last year which did a lot of damage, but didn't detract form our view in the least. We continued to wind our way through the mountains and visited the Sentinal tree, and General Sherman (The biggest sequoia in the park, and the most wood inside it in the US!) We made our way over to the Kings Canyon side of the park. We saw General Sherman, which is the tallest Sequoia in the park and big stump! We did a few more walks around the area. We got to go through and under a couple of sequoia's (we couldn)'t do the drive under tree it was closed). The kids got a on the go version of Jr. Ranger booklet and badges that they worked on as we rode along. We were in awe the whole day and really enjoyed our time in the park. We made our way back to Fresno to a new hotel and then headed just down the road to Denny's for dinner.
(A couple of fun side notes about some pictures. Peter was all about walking sticks. If he could find one he would drag it along. - Alice would often request a picture by herself after she was "forced" to take on with her siblings. So any alone picture is often just after a group picture. - Peter turnd into a cat at the hotel and perched on the ledge all of the time.
Wednesday we headed out to Yosemite national park. The drive was longer to get there but our scenery continued to impress. When we made our way into the park we found out their Sequoia area was closed because many of them had fallen down early this year due to really high winds. So we continued on. We went through a mountain (Crazy long tunnel!) and came out to a beautiful view on the other side showing off bridalveil falls, and the beautiful canyon view. The kids got a bit car sick so we stopped a couple of times to get a breather and enjoy the area. We passed a lot of burn tree's and dry area's, not yet awake for spring. We made our way to the Yosemite falls area and ate lunch. Unfortunately the museums and visitor's center weren't yet open for the season, but we got our Jr. Ranger books and headed out on a hike. We walked a loop around Yosemite valley and got to see Yosemite falls (double - top view, and the lower falls). The kids picked up acorns and we found different things in nature that they were supposed to look for in the park. We say the half dome (huge cliffs) and El Capitan (climbing wall) from a distance. Our hike was a few miles and the area was neat to explore. Afterwards we helped the kids fill out their booklets and went to get their official badges! We we continued through the park and drove alongside the river on our way out of the park. The kids were starving when we made our way out so they got Sonic at our first gas stop and Casey and I chose to wait to try a local Mexican restaurant near our motel when we got back.
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Thursday we left Fresno and headed up to Vacaville to see Mia, the kids, and a bit of Cody ; ). We got there just after lunch and enjoyed the afternoon catching up and meeting our nephews! We went to the Jelly Belly factory tour later in the afternoon and the kids enjoyed themselves quite a bit! Casey, Mia, and I were in awe of the amount of Jelly Belly's there and the process was neat to watch. Alice was pretty impressed by it all and was ok with her initial pack of Jelly Belly's, bu when we broke open our flops later she didn't like any of the flavors, which Kendal and Peter didn't mind - more for them! We got to see Cody after work and catch up a bit.
Friday we had a chill day at the house. It was nice not to have to drive, and the kids played so well! Peter is a baby master and had Andrew and Benjamin smiling and loving him right away! We hit up a neighborhood park after lunch and had a pizza and movie night together that evening.
Saturday we had a nice big breakfast and the kids played the morning away. Cody got half a day off and we drove out to "Andrew's park" a cute "castle" park thing. The kids played all over and enjoyed a round of tag with us all! We went back to the house and the kids played outside for a while. We put the little kids to bed and had a game night with Kendal, Peter, and the adults. We loved spending quality time with them and were very grateful they let us crash there for a few nights. The kids have missed their cousins since and were grateful we get to see them in a few weeks!
We headed out Sunday morning towards home. We had a 9 1/2 hour drive ahead of us. Poor Alice got car sick about half an hour in, she threw up and we had to stop and clean her / her seat up. We got on the road again and thankfully Alice napped off the rest of her nausea. We stopped for Gas and lunch then hit the road yet again. The kids watched a movie for a bit, mostly we listened to Inkheart. We had a few hours left of the audio book and were all invested and wanted to finish. (It was a 16 hour audio book we stretched out over our spring break.) Our bodies and our brains were very much done with traveling by the end of the day. We rolled into home around 7:30 and tried to unpack our mess of a car, and put kids to bed - hoping a week of late nights and a different time zone wouldn't ruin their Monday. Overall we had an amazing spring break! Loved the sites and spending time with family was a cherry on top. We drove over 50 hours in the car, gas Ranged from 4.59 to 6.40 on our travels, and we enjoyed some sunshine for a week.
Monday was a rough / hard day. Peter and I pulled into the school parking lot to see a teacher running. As I parked she yelled at me to call 911 and I turned to see another teacher collapsed in the parking lot. With other's help we got her out from under a truck and started CPR. (Peter had stayed in the car a few minutes then cautiously made his way to the building while I was in the thick of things.) Thankfully an ambulance arrived just minutes after I called and the paramedics took over. We were asked to evacuate the play ground because they wanted to bring in a medical helicopter to get her to the hospital faster. I rushed out and got the kids off with the help of a few other teachers. After kids were shuffled inside I went to the office to drop off Angie's (Champneys) shoes and pocket stuff I scooped up in the parking lot. I helped check on teachers and classes then went to calm down Camille who had found her collapsed. Soon after they called an all staff meeting while the school of kids went out to recess. They updated the staff on what happened and informed us that they were still trying to work on Angie (CPR and the defibrillator hadn't worked so far). It was a very sad morning at work and I felt bad leaving. Around lunch the staff found out that Angie passed away - we think she died at the school, and it was later ruled a heart attack. It was a heavy loss and so many are devastated over her sudden loss. It was a hard week at school. The staff is mourning, and the kids are just doing their thing. Camille took Tuesday off and I did my best to fit in the classes during my hours and help out the best I could. Honestly I was shook on Monday and felt physical and mental pressure from the day. It's something I'll never forget, heartbreaking in so many ways.
Random picture that again Alice insisted upon. Love this cutie!
Kendal started Volleyball on Tuesday. I've been asked to coach - which means I'm there for games on Satruday's, but not really essential to practices since it's all ran by the middle school coach who wants to teach these girls her way before they hit 7th grade volleyball this fall. Since Kendal is fitting in both track and volleyball this spring she'll only be able to do volleyball practices on Thursday's and her Saturday games, because all of her track meets are on Tuesday's. Kendal got grouped into the B team (I wish the teams were more even, but again her coach wants this ran like middle school volleyball will be so it is what it is.) Saturday was her first set of games out at Minico. Kendal's team lost their first two games, won their second two games and lost then won their last set of games. Overall not to bad. Kendal forgot her knee pads and held back some in her games, but did fine overall. Katherine, and Grandma and Grandpa Loosle came into town for the weekend so they got to come out to the games. Grandma and Grandpa Darrington came out to support as well! I had moments of feeling clueless as a coach, but I did my best.
After Volleyball we came back home and enjoyed conference. We went out to Applebee's to celebrate my Mom's birthday a bit early and then us girls headed back home to watch the women's session of conference while they boys and Alice ran an errand. We ended the night with Pina colada's and popcorn with a couple of episodes of Jeff Goldbloom's show on Disney. Today we got to enjoy more conference together. We listened and did a lot of coloring. In between sessions we enjoyed the sunshine and went for a walk and played at the playground. After our conference we had some dinner, sang to my Mom and sadly had to send our awesome guests home.
Peter starts soccer tomorrow, and Kendal has her first track meet this Tuesday. It's a full week ahead!
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