On December 27th, we hiked Annie's Canyon. I've seen pictures of the place and wanted to check it out. It was super crowded - largely with families we know from the Oceanside 4th Ward. We saw the Foulgers, Moffats, and Clarks there, as well as another family I've met through them. Pretty funny.
First up was this crazy toppled tree on which Ever would have liked to play all day. (She's in the hat toward the top.)
I wish I'd gotten more pictures up the canyon, but things got rough for a bit. I had to get Tiny up, and Tutu needed a boost. Then Wrenzy started freaking out when she had to go up a giant ladder. She did great and got all the way up the ladder, but then she fully lost her mind and refused to go any farther, even though we were nearly at the top and the rest was easy. I stood off to the side on a little ledge with her while she cried. Eventually we made it to the top.
We realized that Ever wasn't with us. I figured she must have gone ahead and kept thinking we'd spot her as we headed down the hill, but we didn't. I was quite sure she was fine but became increasingly nervous. I texted Lauren Foulger and Rene Clark and asked if Ever were with them, but I didn't get a response right away. At the bottom of the hill, Wrenzy and Tiny did some log walking and tree climbing.
I left them with Tutu and Papa and ran ahead to find Ever. Of course she was back at the toppled tree having the time of her life with all the friends.
Back at home, we had dinner and watched Home Alone 2. Wrenzy was intrigued but also terrified. She could only watch while peeking out from behind the island.
We were planning to go to Hawai'i for Christmas, but tickets were about $900 apiece. Tutu and Papa could get tickets to California for less than $300, I believe, so they took one for the team. They flew to California the week before Christmas and went straight to Ventura to spend some time with Christian and Shandra's family. Then they took the train down to Oceanside on Christmas Eve. I made a lot of terrible food while they were here. It was tragic, really, this streak of bad cooking I was on. Anyway, we made a chocolate caramel pecan pie that actually turned out OK. Tutu's first order of business upon arrival was helping Ever make the crust.
For some reason, the littles love playing with Papa. He does not solicit their affection, but kids love him. Tiny and Wrenzy dragged him off to play. Fortunately for Papa, Zoza told him exactly what to do. Here, his instructions were to go to sleep on the chaise.
After dinner, we read the Bible account of Christ's birth and awkwardly tried to act it out. (I finally realized that to act out the nativity, the narration has to be a modern-language summary of the story, not a reading from the Bible. News flash.) Then Tutu read The Happy Prince.
We sang. Despite the fact that she cannot read, Zoza tried very hard always to be on the right page in the book of lyrics.
Then Jim read a little more to the kids, and they were off to bed at a pretty decent hour.
The girls slept until a normal time on Christmas morning, which was lovely.
Tiny wasn't really great at the stocking thing. Hers didn't get unpacked until Ever and Wren did it for her. She just fixated on each present and didn't want to move on.
We had waffles with Nutella for breakfast. Ever is a nutty Nutella eater. Somehow she got it on her pants and all over her foot.
I had done a last-minute Target run a couple days before Christmas to get a few things to add to the girls' Christmas gifts. One of the things I'd gotten was a leotard (technically a "biketard," but I hate that word) for Wrenzy since she was starting gymnastics. I was so glad I did because she was ecstatic about it. She said something like, "This is the best present ever!" when she opened it, and she wore it all day.
Ever challenged Papa to a game of chess on her new chess set.
Tutu and Wrenzy played a memory game.
That night we watched Home Alone, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. I loved hearing the laughter from the couch while I was in the kitchen. It's amazing how many of the lines from that movie I remember.
The day after Christmas, we did a little hike on the Agua Hedionda Trail in Vista. In the morning before we left, Tiny donned the new dress she got for Christmas and sat down with some treasures in the middle of the kitchen floor to read to herself.
Once we hit the trail, Bear Bear took off running. She's way out ahead of Tutu and Papa here:
I took a ton of pictures of her running.
We stopped for some boulder climbing near the creek.
Papa challenged himself to jump up onto this big boulder. I was pleased that after several attempts, he managed to do it without falling backward down the cliff even once.
Tiny, trapped in the hiking backpack, took it all in.
Papa, Bear, and Ever playing mountain goat.
The biggers tried out their new sunglasses (briefly).
Tiny jumped into the frame while Zoza made a call on her walkie talkie.
Then Tiny got in on the running.
We found more rocks to climb but had to make it quick, as it was getting late. These girls would be happy to climb around on rocks all day.
Lovebirds in the afternoon light:
For much of the walk, Bear Bear was being Owlette from PJ Masks ("Amaya becomes ... Owlette!"). It really made her speedy. She was very cute running with her arms out.
It was nice to get outside. Pod made a comment at one point about how all the hikes here are the same, and it's true. The landscape is what it is. None of the trails in the area are spectacular, but they're better than nothing!
Miss Paula took Wren's class to visit Santa at the mall in a parent's old party bus. For the first time in her career, she didn't call ahead to make sure Santa would be there, and alas - Santa was not there. They got a class pic with his sleigh, though, and Wren was front and center on Miss Paula's lap:
Bear is an independent lady, in a good way. She doesn't usually do things that I don't want her to do, but she gets her own dishes down, gets herself water from the bathroom tap, etc. When I'm making lunch for all the girls, Bear-ba-loot will often say, "I'll get the plates!" Then she'll climb up on the counter and ask, "Ever, what color plate do you want, or do you not care?" Ever will answer, "I don't care." And Wren will get the colors she and Tiny want and pick a color for Ever.
She likes to help make her peanut butter and honey sandwiches. It started with squirting the honey, but then she started asking if she could spread the peanut butter, too.
Ever has a crush on a boy named Marcellus in her class. I never thought my kids would have crushes so young, but there you have it. Classmates and idiotic adult playground attendants have taught her about such things. I first learned about Marcellus when Ever told me she had earned "lunch with teacher" and had chosen Marcellus to join her. Apparently the kids who want to join the lunch with teacher raise their hands, and the kid who earned it gets to pick a friend to join. Ever always picks Marcellus, and they have little supervised lunch dates. It's so weird to me that she doesn't have a good girl friend in class that she'd pick. I hope this isn't a bad omen about her teenage years. Marcellus is the little guy two kids away from Ever:
Ever's last day of school before Christmas break was Friday, December 21. Kristi Rondo took my littles so I could watch Ever's singing performance and then help with gingerbread houses.
I videotaped all of the songs, but I was way in the back and had a lady holding her phone in front of me almost the whole time. Didn't work out. Ever is about fifth from the left in the front:
Gingerbread house:
After gingerbread houses, the kids were free to leave. I thought Ever would want to come with me, but instead she said she wanted to stay. She ran off to join her classmates in a corner (I think possibly because of the school's iPads) and didn't give me another look.
Jim continued his work on the bathroom. Taking out the shower tile:
This was our pile of demo debris:
I was able to get my new BFF, Pierre from Clear Junk Removal, to come haul it all away before Tutu and Papa arrived on Christmas Eve.
On Saturday, December 22, we went for a short walk/ride, and Ever took a spin on the trike.
She and I had an ice cream date later that day.
Proof of Ever's Rocky obsession - listening to the Pandora station as she folded laundry:
Sunday we had an hour-long church service, and then we baked. I don't remember what, but the girls liked the batter.
Wrenzy was playing the guitar and singing an amazing song about baby Jesus and Mary. She kind of froze when I started videotaping, which is a real travesty.
On Monday, I spied a very sweet, spontaneous group hug.
Ever and Wren sat through the weirdest song because it was from the Rocky soundtrack. I'm certain that if it hadn't said Rocky, Ever would have told me she didn't like it and tried to change the song. The Rocky obsession is powerful. The song contained lots of screaming and growling. I didn't capture the best of it.
