January 2023

 Wrenzy wrote more stories. Always they are secretly written and tossed into the garbage. 

So many writings in the garbage can.

I spied this list in there, and it is amazing. So telling. Particularly insightful are "I take my own time to forgive" and "I believe in magic." Sweetest Bear.  

Ever and Ella Rondo baked.

We invited a mix of friends over on January 4 to belatedly celebrate Ever's 11th birthday - Aubrey Overduin from soccer; Ella Rondo, Chloe Bunnell, and Avery Walker from the ward; Lelei Thompson and Ellis Martindale from our old ward; and Leela Subrebost, Ella Herrell, Ailana Halper, and Lucy Bowen from school. We did deep-dish pizza, Caesar salad, root beer, cake pops, and milkshakes with various mix-ins. Ever tried to prepare crushed candy canes for milkshakes using a hammer. I told her that the bag would get holes in it and the candy would make contact with the very unsanitary hammer and there was probably a better way. 

On birthday party night, we ate and did a scavenger hunt that Jim had put together with three different routes. (I made a mistake and mixed up the friends for the scavenger hunt groups. I should have let them stay with friends they knew. Big regret.) Then we went down to the golf course for glow-in-the-dark capture the flag. It had been raining, so there was mud. The school friends, in particular, were all highly concerned about their shoes. (They all seemed to have expensive new white ones.) Capture the flag didn't go perfectly, but it was fun and different for the girls, I think. We hurried back for milkshakes before pickup. 

There was no time for presents before people left. After everyone cleared out, Wrenzy presented the gifts to Ever on bended knee, head bowed, as if approaching a queen. Sometimes it took a second for the queen to pay her any mind.

As part of Christmas, Jim got everyone NWSL cards for the new soccer season. They arrived late and were sorted through. 

Ever wanted to get her ears pierced, and 11 seemed like a reasonable age. So we took Lelei Thompson (weird that Lelei was involved because they hadn't spent time together for years) and went to Icicles at the mall. The worker girls took a long time with the ear-piercing customer before us but did Ever's very quickly - before I had really satisfied myself that they had even marked the right places in her ears to pierce. It was a little freaky for Ever, but we did it. Also a generous fellow shopper in Icicles let the girls each pick a little piece of jewelry because there was some buy-three-get-one-free deal or something and she only wanted one thing. So nice.

At JCS Mountain Oaks (the girls' school), students have three weeks off over Christmas, the last of which is "project week," when they're supposed to be working on projects at home that are then presented at school. Tiny did a Goldilocks and the Three Bears thing, where she built a house out of straws and popsicle sticks and blew it with a hair dryer to see if it could withstand the wind. 

Berry did a very underwhelming project involving a Christmas stocking and the symbols of Christmas or something. After she turned it in, I was contacted by her teacher to come in and discuss it. It felt like a summons to the principal's office. I had asked Wren repeatedly if she wanted to do more on her project, but she insisted that she was done. I let her call the shots. Mrs. Haseyama was very nice and didn't chastise; she said it was unusual since Wren is such a project person, and she wanted to check in, see what happened, and make sure everything was OK. The girls were humbled when they saw everyone else's project; many kids (and their parents) go all out for project week, and ours were so meager in comparison. Anyway, during project week, Bear liked Tiny's house and wanted to build one of her own, so she did. Because she really is a project person - always making up projects for herself. She even built a cool rocking chair (not pictured).

We took Ella skiing with us.

We went with the Rondos to the temple so Ever and Ella could do baptisms for the first time. We had to wait forever because we got there just before a huge group and the temple workers were sticking to some policy and wouldn't let us slip in before the group even though there was plenty of time (and didn't ask the group if they minded if we worked in with them). We used some of the wait to hit up the distribution center. In any event, we are so grateful for Ever's friendship with Ella, and it was special to take them together. 

Post-temple BJ's occurred, as well. 

We went on another Sunday walk - this time from the Beacon's Beach parking lot down Neptune Ave. to Moonlight Beach. 

The Littles gave this to Ever. Berry wrote the note. (Apparently Ever didn't get a Sophia Smith trading card.) "Wishing you wonders"? Could Berry get any cuter?  

We did cupcake buns on Ever for crazy hair day. 

The Young Women had a new-year kickoff / welcome-the-newbies event. 

Jim is the most fun dad. 

As the most fun dad, he helped Tiny and Ever make a video for their Girl Scout cookie site. He made some videos (post-shower and shirtless) as if he were a Girl Scout selling cookies but couldn't help himself from focusing on the unconscionably low percentage of proceeds that goes to the troops and the unconscionably high salary of the Girl Scouts CEO. 

Tiny and Ever ultimately made this one to include on their cookie site.

The children also tried to make a Jim-esque video. 

Girl Scout cookie season kicked off with a bunch of us from Ever's troop going to load up several cars to the brim with cookies. It's a CRAZY operation with an older troop that sells tons of cookies. Miss Marin has it dialed in. 

I laughed when Miss Jen (Tiny's troop leader) texted a picture of her carful of cookies with a message about how many boxes she'd picked up. I thought, "She has no idea what a serious cookie operation looks like!"

The Young Women made beanies for Shanna Warr's family to distribute on their trip to Africa (Zimbabwe, I think) where her parents were serving a mission. 

Cikaneks took the Littles to the tidepools with them, which was really fun. 

Wrenzy with some friends at school:

Lola, somebody I don't know, Sienna, Fiora, and Bear

SkyZone with Ever's school friends:

Left side, back to front: Lola (Wren's friend, Lucy's sister), Ever, and Hana or Ryo (I can't tell the difference). Middle, back to front: Leela, Lucy, and Ella. To the left of Ella are the other of Hana and Ryo and Ailana.

One of Wren's friend's moms organized an after-school gelato date. It was very cute. The price of the organic gelato was not.   

L to R: Wren, Sienna, Fiora, that girl I don't know, and Lola.

It was really lovely that the girls found friends quickly at JCS. They've definitely had an easier time socially here than at prior schools. 

Vision board activity at YW:

L to R, back to front: Mia or Kayla Batt (they are not twins, but I still don't know the difference between them), Olivia Walker, Joann (German foreign exchange student), Elizabeth Bishop, Chloe Bunnell, Kara Karner, Avery Walker, Ella Rondo, and Ever Leigh Kringel

One last pic of Wrenzy at school:

Christmas Break 2022

In keeping with recent tradition, Toots and Pops came for Christmas. They arrived within a day of the girls' last day of school. First order of business was gingerbread houses. I stuck Tutu with the job of making the cardboard structures.

We drove to La Jolla and took the train from there to Old Town San Diego. The whole train thing was incredibly complicated, and I had a hard time figuring it out. But we made it to Old Town and found a Mexican place for lunch. 

We enjoyed the Mormon Battalion. It had been a long time since we'd been, and the girls didn't remember it well (or at all). Tiny gamely volunteered to try on the battalion getup.

After the presentation, we panned for gold. 

We went quickly through the exhibit with the old coaches and stuff. 

And we hit the temple lights on the way home. Pod sported the Wyoming beanie Mamo knitted for him when they were first married. Waste not, want not. 

Tiny jumped into this pic. 

We went on a hike at Palomar Mountain (one of the Doane trails) and ended up having to traverse a fair bit of snow.

There were some sketchy parts, and Mamo needed a hand for balance.

We came upon a massive ladybug colony. There had to have been hundreds if not thousands. I've never seen anything like it. They were everywhere. 

Tutu and Ever stayed behind for the last stretch. It ended up taking a long time for the rest of us to get to the end because of snow and ice and an unexpected geocache find. I felt bad leaving Toots and Ever for so long. 

There was an icy slope at the end that was incredibly treacherous. Jim had a really hard time crossing it, and I was certain that Pod was going to break a hip. I thought it was a really bad idea, but we all made it over that section and to the structure at the end. Pod somehow very nimbly navigated across this part.

In that old stone structure (with a hollow inside, which made me afeared that a child would fall), we found a box containing a bunch of notebooks. Wrenzy wouldn't leave until she had looked at every page.

It's hard to see, but Wrenzy and I came upon Jim and Tiny in a big love fest. He's holding her in the air and hugging her while she dangles. She's so incredibly lovable.  

Almost always, Wren and Ever lag behind together and chat about who knows what. 

Tiny used her hat as a face shield against bugs. 

Christmas Eve we caroled. Tiny's earnestness while singing was my fave. 

When it came time for Christmas songs that Ever had been playing with Miss Amber, she took a turn at the piano. That was an exciting milestone. 

The girls each chose a present to open. Tiny was most eager for that portion of the evening.

Christmas morning Tutu and Papa slept in a bit while we got started on presents. I love Wrenzy in her robe.

Ever wore the Christmas sweater she had gotten for a performance with Cadence Dance Project, so that was fun and festive. 

After church, we went on a walk on the golf course. 

Toots and Pops did some late-afternoon present opening. 

Tiny really latched onto this poem. She uses it all the time. I'm not sure if I found this lying around or if it was given to me:

Wrenzy had been working on a duet of "Up on the Housetop," and what better person to play the other part than Tutu? 

The day after Christmas, we went to Julian and did a tour of the Eagle and High Peak mines. I'd thought about doing this for a long time and was so glad we finally did. It was very cool. 

We did a short hike before heading home. We had a hard time finding it and ultimately did a different little jaunt than the one for which we were looking, as we were running out of daylight. The girls wrote their names in the dirt of the path. 

Back at home, we had ice cream cones. At least Ever did; she's the only one I have a picture of. 

Our Christmas-break puzzle was an impossible Harry Potter one consisting almost entirely of tiny little dark blue and black pieces. Tutu and Papa had to work hard at this one. Bear (and the other girls) helped, although Berry said no to pictures. 

Toots said she'd be up for the zoo again since we hadn't gone for years, so that made for a fun outing.

Of course the girls' favorite part was the sky tram. 

We watched a silly little movie. 

The red panda became everyone's new favorite animal. The girls and Tutu were obsessed. 

We also caught a show, which I enjoyed. 

Tutu was so cold she had to hood up under her hat. 

I like the children in the background of this one:

The girls begged for another sky tram ride. I love the sister love. 

Just more random notes by Bear.

And this invitation is the cutest thing ever. (Tinger, referenced in the last sentence, is Berry's stuffed tiger. Berry is really good at naming stuffies.) 

We went for a walk in Carlsbad and then out to dinner at Nick's on State. It was a gray day.

Service at the restaurant was slow, so the Etch A Sketch provided by the restaurant was thoroughly enjoyed. The highlight of dinner was the butter cake we ordered for dessert.  

Before we left, Wrenzy wanted to make sure Ever saw this message she had written for her. The sweetest. 

Toots and Pops left the following morning. Hooray for another great visit with the best parents/grandparents!