Summertime

As soon as we got back from our aforementioned vacation, we went straight to work.  Elijah and Gillian were going to sing at church on Sunday, so on Friday they practiced with Gillian's voice teacher, and on Saturday they went to the chapel to rehearse a few times with the microphone.  I remembered to record them singing toward the end, so although it isn't a full song, I hope you enjoy it.  They sounded even better on Sunday.

The week of July 15th went by really fast.  The kids and I worked hard and had fun.  They started piano again after a few weeks of taking a break.  We also worked on math and spelling, as well as on a lot of projects around the house.  One of them Elijah and I have been wanting to do for a while: cleaning out the shed.  Jefferson is the child in our household who comes up with tens of ideas for various projects each day, and his ideas require space and specialized tools. The problem is we don't have any room to set up shop for him.  The shed was the only option in our minds.  We took everything out, gave half away, threw away a bunch, and cleared out one half of the shed to be used by just Jefferson.  We placed a table and chairs, and gradually we'll start buying him some tools to work with.  While cleaning the shed, the kids and I found this cool train set that Elijah used to play when he was very little.  James and Charlton had a blast playing with it for the rest of the day.

During that week, besides school work and various projects, we had a lot of fun as well.  I took the kids to Pump-it-Up, a structure filled with adventurous giant inflatable slides and bounce houses.  It was too noisy for me, but the kids enjoyed themselves.  Charlton and Jefferson were inseparable.

We continued to attend the pool everyday, swimming, diving, and sunbathing.  Charlton has developed a love for the water, and that has made me think that he might be ready for some swim lessons.  The boys also played with cushions (a favorite pastime in my house), used the garden for hide and seek, and just read and chilled outside.

We ended our week with a karaoke party at one of our friends' home.  I love Janelle's garden: it's simple and yet beautiful.  The kids had a great time playing with their friends in the trampoline, zip line, or in Charlton's case, in the tree house or relaxing on a beach chair.  Singing karaoke was the icing to the cake.  The Websters sure know how to party. 

Wishful thinking :)

On Monday morning, I had Charlton start swim lessons.  It took five minutes for him to warm up, and then he went straight into swimming.  The swim instructor was expecting a timid and inexperienced little 4-year old, but Charlton surprised both of us with his perfect breathing under water, swimming on his own, and wanting to dive off the diving board.  I guess all of those afternoons at the swimming pool paid off.

Gillian was spending a few days at music camp nearby Yosemite with her chorus.  On Monday night, Elijah picked up his brother, Abel, from the airport, and surprised my boys.  Abel was looking forward to seeing Gillian's face when she got back and found him home the next day.  That night Elijah, Abel and the boys worked hard into building one of Gillian's birthday surprises: a trampoline.

 

When Gillian came back from her camp, she was so shocked and overjoyed to see a trampoline in her own backyard.  When she got inside, she opened her birthday wishes from family and friends.  Abel had hidden himself, but had written a letter to her with the captions "open immediately" on the envelope.  In the letter he had suggested that they try the Chronicles of Narnia closet magic and see if it works.  Gillian followed Abel's instructions all the way.  She went to her room and opened the door of her closet hoping that Abel would be there - and he was there!!! She was surprised, scared, and so happy to see her sweet uncle drop out of nowhere right in front of her. The best birthday gift ever!  Later on, Gillian couldn't believe we had kept such a secret from her for so long, but she was really touched that her uncle made it for her birthday.

Enjoying her birthday gift

Preparing for Gillian's Party

Racing with her uncle

Water fights!

James trying his new snorkel gear (he won them by reading three classics and three biographies in one week!)

Gillian trying her hand in synchronized swimming.

Hot tubs nearby swimming pools: best inventions ever.

Ending the day with eating and reading.

It's a beautiful mornin', I think I'll go outside a while, an just smile...

After having enjoyed two days of Santa Cruz, we decided to trade this beautiful beach area for a warmer city.  Amy invited us to her house in Sacramento, and the kids couldn't have been happier. We decided to call Amy's house (being spacious and all) our beach house #2.  The kids ran around non-stop all day.  Gillian was so happy to be with her best friend, Mary; Jefferson and Caleb couldn't stop their conversation about Harry Potter; Zoe was a master in dividing her time between James and Harrison, but kept complaining about the older girls not including her; Charlton and Mckinley played quietly with each other; Joshua...well Joshua, tried to do anything to get attention; and Truman didn't leave his mother's sight for more than two minutes.  Okay, I got tired just counting all of these kids.  You can only imagine this wasn't my kind of vacation.  I told Amy later after receiving a headache from the constant bangs, complaints and whinings that I had been scammed twice, and I needed my money back from my time at the beach house #2.  We couldn't stop laughing after that.  Good thing the adult company was more than acceptable!

The next day, we took the kids out of the house and straight to nearby Lake Folsom.  This was a very fun place to take kids of all ages.  Everybody had a great time swimming, snorkeling, tubing, and unwinding.  My favorite events were Charlton getting dressed in all of his snorkeling gear, waiting for the water to come to him (hilarious), and Joshua's fearless attitude in the water (he reminded me of a Baywatch character!)

After a long day at the lake, we threw all of the younger kids in Amy's commodious shower, fed them dinner, let them repose while watching a movie, with Gillian and Mary trying to excuse themselves so they could have a few last minutes with each other, and us moms trying to take advantage of the almost lack of kids around us and chat.

The goodbyes were endless, but we each finally made our way to our cars.  On the way home, I recounted in my mind all of the events of the past four days.  Everything from the scam to the whining of the kids sounded surreal to me, except for the forge and renewal of our friendships.  That was all worth it... except that I still need a real vacation, preferably to a monastery.  :)  Till then, I'll just smile and sing (or pretend to sing):  It's a beautiful mornin', I think I'll go outside a while, an just smile... (I've been told singing is a fantastic therapy for your nerves.)

Under the boardwalk, down by the sea...

On the second week of July, my older boys attended cub scout camp.  They both loved it, especially James who attended it for the first time.  My friend's husband was his group leader, so I felt totally at peace with my boys being away from 8:30 to 3:30.  Needless to say, Gillian and I used this time to our hearts' desires shopping, eating lunch out, reading, going to the pool for hours, watching movies (Pride and Prejudice being one of them), and of course talking.  

Gillian also helped me clean the house.  We were doing another spring cleaning. My mother left on July 9th, and as soon as she left we returned Gillian to her room and suited it up for her needs.  We transferred Jefferson downstairs where Gillian was sleeping while mom was here.  I transformed our guest room to feel a little bit like a boy's room with sports theme lamp, decorations, decals on the walls, etc.  

When he got back from cub scouts, Jefferson was extremely excited to have his own room.  He kept hugging and thanking me for making his room special to him.  He then proceeded to bring all of his books, as well as his paraphernalia.  I had to put a stop to it after he kept bringing more stuff.  I asked him to return all of them where they belonged in the upstairs toy box, but as I noticed an heart-broken look on his face, we came to a compromise.  The thing is that the downstairs is my area, and I can't breath if there is too much stuff around.  As it is the books are taking over our life, but I can't do anything about that except pray for a new house with a library room.

The week after scout camp (the week of the 15th), my friends and I had planned to chill for a few days at a beach house down in Santa Cruz.  I left late morning on Monday right before traffic got bad, and arrived there early afternoon.  I was there first, with my friends, caught in traffic, planning to arrive later.  Although Amy had made all the arrangements, payments, and email exchanges with the person who was leasing the house, I decided to check in, get the food out of the car, and then let the kids go for a swim.  When I arrived at the house, I found a note taped on the gate informing the reader that if we had rented this house on craigslist, we had been robbed and that that transaction was a scam.  They had written down the name of the sheriff and the case number, explaining that this was an on-going scam.  I couldn't believe my eyes, thinking this was a joke.  

I knocked on the door and got to talk to the real owner, who felt instantly bad for three women with three/four kids each.  She told me this had been happening for months, at times huge groups of college friends from east coast arriving to realize they had been robbed.  She helped me write down numbers of hotels and nearby cottages. The truth of the matter, however, was that we had been played.  I was praying that Amy hadn't pay our stay in full, or at least if she had, with something refundable.  I didn't want to call either of them and disturb them while driving.  My kids were very upset, so I said a quick prayer to receive inspiration and peace.  At least I was prepared.  I had brought a cooked pizza for my kids with lots of fruit and water, with lots of left over for my friends' kids.  And lots of books and drawing sketch books for them to use.  That was a blessing, since it kept the kids busy and fed.  Translation: not cranky.  Through my phone, I found good hotels in the area, as well as involved Elijah in the search.  

As soon as my friends arrived, and I informed them of the our situation, we started making plans.  The idea of turning back was thrown around, but I was really thinking about the kids and their crushed expectations.  I was determined not to allow evil people and events destroy our fun times.  I told them that much when we initially realized our problem.  Gillian, almost bursting to tears, hugged me and whispered in my ear that she was so grateful to have me as her mother.  She told her brothers that as long as they had their mother around, they needed not worry.  Life was good.  You can imagine now why I had to make this work for the best.  My kids were looking up to me to change this horrible situation into something enjoyable.  Big responsibility for anyone, but turning back was not an option.

Earlier, I had made a reservation with the Marriott hotel for three rooms, and after trying and driving around checking various cottages and hotels, we decided to go with the Marriott hotel.  I called them back, and explained a bit of our situation.  They were very kind and reduced the price for each of our rooms.  That was a blessing.  The kids had a great time being together.  We fed them dinner, let the older kids watch a movie in a different room, and the younger kids watched some cartoons in another room.  We chatted and caught up with each other's lives, as if the early events had not really happened.  The money might be lost (Amy wired all of the money!), and the dream vacation in a beach house by the ocean with your best friends wasn't probably going to happen, but we were still together, the kids were happy, and we had awesome plans.  As surreal as our vacation had started, we were going to make fun and a wonderful experience a reality.

The next day, after a continental breakfast, we took the kids down to the beach.  We had all been by the main beach in front of the boardwalk before, so we decided to attend another one.  We tried Pleasure Point, a huge hit for surfers and photographers, but the parking was limited, so we moved on.  I had wanted to visit Natural Bridges beach as part of our four day vacation, and since we weren't going to follow our previous plans, we decided to go there right away.  That was a right decision: lots of good sand, beautiful views, not too high waves, plenty of benches to sit and picnic, and spacious parking lot.  We stayed there all day.

After dinner, we took the kids to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park -  fun for everyone, or as we found out later - heaven for kids of all ages, but hell for mothers with more than three kids each.  Our kids really had a fantastic time.  We sent Laura with the older kids, since she was the only one who loved roller coasters.  Yours truly might be a great mom with magic in her hands, but when it comes to roller coasters I'm truly a chicken.  Just looking at them makes me sick.  While Laura was screaming alongside our older kids, Amy and I took charge of our little brood and tried hard to keep them together and happy, not an easy task.  Fortunately, there were a lot of rides for them to have fun, and the lines weren't that long.

And that was the end of our second day.  Stay tuned for more...