Big Bear

In addition to La Jolla on Friday, we spend the Labor Day weekend in Big Bear California. More and more I appreciate where we live and all that it offers. From our house we can be at the beach in 1 hour AND from our house we were in the San Bernadino mountains in 2 hours where temperatures were in the 70 and 80's. Perfect hiking weather. And thats just what we did. The picture above was taken lakeside on one of the paved multi-use trails.

Sunday was the BIG HIKE DAY. The 6 of us and the dog hiked almost 6 miles roundtrip from the lake to the PAcific Crest Trail somewhere around 8000 feet in elevation. I am please to announce that not once did any of my kids whine or complain or want to be carried. Actually it was Winston who I think struggled the most. We've turned a corner, I know what my kids are capable of if they can have a "can-do" attitude. I am so glad we did this because I burned of the Chocolate Torte from Friday night.

Sea lions and Chocolate Tortes

We were able to paddle right up to these sea lions, there were even a few playing around in the water that would swim by the kayak. It was really cool.

We had a fabulous Italian dinner, complete with lots of bread and a few good glasses of wine at a place I love in Leucadia Ca called Vigiluccis. In the back of the main restaurant is an old little cabin that has been converted to seating and we had this whole room to ourselves. It was like we were in someone's home in Italy.
Gabriel and I threw down on this delicious chocolate torte thing with hot fudge and rasperry sauce. I rolled to the car and then passed out into a slight diabetic coma for the ride home.

La Jolla Kayaking

Mom was here last week and I wanted to make sure we had plenty of non stop fun on hand for us, so on Friday we pulled the kids out of school and took them to La Jolla for an afternoon of kayaking. In the picture above, Henderson's expression is saying " I really wish I was in the kayak with Dad, cuz Mom is pissing me off" He and I could not find our paddling groove. ( Actually I paddle just fine, he was the problem). Shortly after this was taken I traded Troy one grumpy 9 year old for an excellent paddeling 6yr old. The rest of the day was just fine.

See there, he is much happier now.

And Gabriel was so happy to be with me too....

Back to School

The kids went back to school August 11. And not a moment too soon, everyone was getting on each others nerves from all the togetherness. I am already looking into camp for the boys next summer so if anyone would like to contribute to the Camp Sea Gull 4 week money suck for the boys I think I will be needing about 5 grand...(don't all rush to the checkbook at once :~))

Anyhow, I digress......Here are the kids being forced to look like they aren't totally sick of each other for their 1st day of school photo. In case you didn't figure it out already by the fingers being held up , Henderson is a 4th grader, Vivian an 8th and Gabriel a 2nd. And the best news is that Troy and I have the house to ourselves for 7 whole hours each day. Things are clean again, the tv is off, there is no bickering and fighting over the Wii...... there aren't these eating machines going thru hundreds of dollars worth of groceries every minute...it's glorious. But seriously I should probably think about getting a job.......or going back to school...or going shopping...or having my hair done.... or maybe meeting my friends for lunch....

Whats been goin' on?

Well , for starters Henderson has been taught to cut the grass. I fully expected one of those experiences where he whines about having to keep the lines in the grass perfectly to Troy's standards, and then Troy would get short of patience with Hendersons futile attemps at perfects cut lines,....but I was way wrong...Henderson did great, and actually loved cutting the grass. Now he askes if he can cut the grass even when it doesn't need cutting. Im really proud of him for trying his best and for doing so well.

Since operation money hoarding is still plodding along nicely, we had to find fun ways to entertainthe kids this summer without breaking the bank. So what did we come up with? Outside movie night. We borrowed a projector from friends(now were gunna have to buy one) and we project a movie onto a sheet that we put up on the swingset. We've been letting the kids camp out in the yard and cook hotdogs and smores over the fire. I has been a real hit. Here are the boys with the Rucker Brothers (we always say "Rucker Brothers" and never call them by their names because we cannot tell them apart) at their last campout before school started.

Way past time for an update.....

And I am so sorry for letting almost a year pass without any news/photos of the kids. Mostly this is because my computer is getting old and slow and I use my phone for just about everything computing related these days, thus making my computer practically forgotten. Additionally since I began operation money hoarding/no credit cards usage actually parting with the cash for the Mac of my dreams is really difficult. Everything on this computer backed up and in the event of a major unfixable repair, I'll part with the money and get said Mac of my dreams, until then I really only turn on my computer about once a week and updating the blog really slips my mind. So again, I apologize.



As for the Louviere's, well we are all great. Troy has been training really hard for a set of half marathons in San Diego county called the triple crown. He has completed the first two and has the final race coming up in August. In addition to that he just started training for a triathalon in San Diego this fall.. He has been managing to fit in some surfing. He has a buddy who visits each spring for a long weekend of surfing. The boys are also taking a real interest and that makes Troy happy that he can take his boys surfing. Troy is now an official Agilent employee. So far so good. The corporate culture seems to be very similar to that of Varian, and the merger thus far has been seamless. November we will be transitioned over to the benefits package that Agilent offers and from what I can tell they are pretty generous with their benefits, so hopefully we are on the right track with this new company and Troy will be happy with them. Additionally, there is a lot of oportunity for him to transfer within the company, options we may explore after the new year. If we're gonna uproot the kids I feel like it will have to be next year before Vivian starts High School.



Yep, you heard that right ...this time next year I will be taking my daughter to register for High School. Don't know where the time went, and if I think about it too much I get a little wistful for the baby she once was. Even though she is almost 13, I am just starting to get glimpses into the moody teenager that may be about to visit for awhile. She is for the most part still very sweet and easy. She had another great year at school. She made all A's except for her Algebra class she got a B both semesters. Swimming is still her thing, and she just competed at the Southern California Swimming Age Group Invitational in Irvine , CA. She qualified for the 50 freestyle. She just missed two other time cuts by less than .05 seconds. But nevertheless, she swam well and was glad that she made the cut. Vivian was also selected last year for a peer counseling program at her school which she loved. It is a great leadership oportunity that teams the counselors up with kids at the school that are struggling in various social/academic areas. She also ran for and won the Public Relations position for peer counselors which means she gets to do the morning announcements a few times a week. She is a really great kid and we are very proud of her.



Henderson.....turned 9 yesterday. For me this brings back memories of living in Denver where he was born and having no air conditioning in our house and being so hot and fat and miserable and then so happy that he was finally born. Again, I cannot believe it has been nine years since this sweet little boy joined our family.. Henderson finished 3rd grade this year and what an awesome year it was. He had a fabulous teacher who just inspired him on every level.. Suddenly I have a kid who loves to read, cant stop writing and scored perfect on the district math test. He's always been smart but he was lazy and was much more interested in recess and wallball. He has also become quite the baseball player. He played in the fall and we had a lot of issues with his sportsmanship, but over the winter he matured a lot and this spring his team(coached by his dad) placed second in their division and Henderson was chosed for the AllStar team. He originally was shortstop, but when his shoulder started bothering him, the coaches put him at pitcher( its coach pitch division) and he played that position really smartly. He loves the game and thinks about it all the time. He is always doing this thing I can only call "shadow baseball playing" He is always pitching imaginary balls, or swinging imaginary bats...it's really cute.



And Gabriel, my baby.....he turned 7 a week and a half ago. Another July baby, born here in CA where it was even hotter, we did have air conditioning and I was still miserable. He is one of those kids who is just happy to be here. Aside from being a super picky eater, I couldn't ask for a more easygoing kid. He seems to have a real grateful nature and is most often the one who shows how much he appreciates even the little things we do for him. He just finished 1st grade and is proving to be quite studious. He wants everything to be perfect, and while reading isn't his favorite, math just lights him up. He is always building something with legos, or tinkertoys. And he has an obsession with paper airplanes. He still sleeps with his blanket which is in 4 pieces, but I don't mind. He is the baby in the family and I definately treat him that way. He has been missing his two front top teeth for months and was just so stinking cute. He also played baseball this year on the same team with Henderson and coached by Troy. We had to get permission form the league to move him up a level but after they saw him play, they agreed he was ready and he had a great season at second base. He and Henderson had a great little shortstop/2nd base cohesiveness that was fun to watch. Next year, the boys will have to be seperated because Henderson must move up to kid pitch and Gabriel isn't ready for that style of baseball yet.



As for me, it is been a great year. Mostly because my family is doing so well. I love seeing everyone thrive and excel and that is really all I need. I am no longer teaching swim lessons. I had a rather significant back injury in March and quit at the swim school to focus on strengthening my back. (I must admit that since school had been out, I have slacked a bit about going to the gym, but will pick it back up in 2 more weeks when they go back.) Slipping on the wet floors was a big concern for me since this injury really scared me and had me flat and on narcotics for almost 10 days. I recently spend a week in Raleigh and Charlotte, the purpose of my trip was twofold. My Dad and his twin sister turned 70 and so I went to Charlotte to celebrate with them. I was so fantastic to see my cousins and their kids that I hadn't seen in 10 years. I also spent some time in Raleigh with my dear friend from High School who has been having some health related issues. It was wonderful just to hang out and offer my support and apparantly having her girls around lifted her spirits, so were gonna do it again in Key West in September. Yay us!!!



As for Winston, he is still neurotic and loves going to the park to chase his ball over and over and over and over. If dogs could be autistic, I think he might be. He needs schedule and any variation from that schedule sends him over the edge. He still runs and hides when the doorbell rings and chews whatever he can find to release the anxiety. Be the kids love him and he's part of the family, so I guess we'll keep him.



Enjoy the pictures that follow...I'll try to caption the ones that need explaining.

Miracle

I am happy to report that after 4 years of asking nightly, Gabriel Louviere has finally hung up his own towel. Still working on his brother.