More Birthday. . .

We continued to celebrate Gloria's birthday on Friday and Saturday beginning with the moment she woke up. . .

She was pretty happy with her gifts. . .

We celebrated with my side of the family on Friday evening. We have 3 December birthdays in the family so we usually combine them into one big party. . .

More gifts to open. . .

My daddy turned 70 this year. That's hard for me to believe. But it's true.

Shelly made the birthday cake. . .

. . . and we brought the cupcakes that Jeanie made for Thursday's horse lesson which we skipped due to freezing temperatures!!

On Saturday, we spent more time celebrating! I made my annual trip to the mall which I only tolerate for Gloria's sake. We even spent some time in Hollister which is annoying to me on so many levels. I guess I'm just too old to appreciate it!!

The mall trip was just Gloria and Megan this year because I'm getting older and that's pretty much all I can handle!! Meg is still a centimeter or two taller but this just might be the year that Gloria catches up!

I trailed the girls at a short distance but still managed to take a few pictures. I'm sorry, but Claire's is just about as annoying to me as Hollister's!!

This wasn't so bad. . .

And I never mind stopping at the pet store. This sweet pup is just like my childhood pup, Mitzi, only with spots!

After the mall and a bit of running around here, there and everywhere, Gloria had three friends over for (even MORE) gifts, dessert and a sleepover. . .

It was fun but I'm glad this only comes around once a year!!

Sneak Peek. . .

A little preview of next Sunday's program. . .

. . . Should be good. . .

Happy 11th Birthday, Gloria. . .

This picture was taken at Quaker Hill in 2005 but it's one of my favorite pictures. Ever. Hard to believe my baby is 11. . .

Socialization. . .

A few weeks ago I signed our family up for a holiday special at the Homecourt YMCA that is just a few blocks away from our house. Basically, it's a free 6 week membership and if you or a family member workout at least twice a week during the 6 weeks, they will waive the registration fee if you decide to sign up. We've been meaning to sign up for the last year, so it was kind of a no-brainer.

Gloria and I have really been the only ones to take advantage of this great deal. It's been a fun, bonding experience for us. Not that we hang out together or anything. I run on the treadmill and she walks around and meets everyone. I'm not sure exactly what she does but she's usually good and sweaty by the time we leave.

She made friends with a girl about her age last week whose father teaches a class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It's geared towards kids ages 10-18 and teaches all kinds of skills while offering a pretty good workout. Tonight, as I was finishing up on the treadmill, I could hear shouts coming from across the gym that sounded something like, "Go, Gloria!!" I had no idea what to expect but I had my camera phone ready. . .

Gloria and her new friend were wrestling on the mat while the rest of the class stood by and cheered them on. It was kind of a strange sight but the coach was closely supervising and handing out words of encouragement as they wrestled. I could tell Gloria was having a good time so I just sat back and watched. She had a real sense of accomplisment afterwards and I think it was a positive experience for her. It was also probably her first experience with a competitive sport. She still surprises me sometimes with her confidence and people skills. Kind of strange for someone who's been homeschooled all her life. . . :)

Birthdays. . .

I love that my mother-in-law goes all out for birthdays! She always makes family get-togethers a priority and pulls us all out of our busy lives and plants us in her living room as often as possible. . .

It's not that we need to be bribed or anything but she goes all out with favorite desserts (cheesecake!!!) . . .

. . . favorite activities (coloring!!!!!). . .

. . . favorite foods (homemade noodles and peas!!!!!!). . .

. . . AND favorite people!!!!!!!

There is even a special plate just for the birthday person! Gloria and I celebrate together so, this time, she got to use the plate!!!

After dinner we all hung out and colored pretty pictures. . .

Nice work, Tony. Love the colors you chose. . .

We eventually got around to the huge pile of presents. . .

Birthday Cheesecake!!!

We even had birthday cotton candy! McKenna hadn't ever had the pleasure of eating this delicious pink stuff and it took Gloria awhile to convince her to try it. . .

McKenna finally gave in to the spun sugar. . .

. . . and her life will never be the same!!!

That's how I feel about sugar, too. . . mmmmmmm. . .

The girls provided us with some great birthday entertainment. . .

I have the best mother-in-law in the whole world!!!

Thanks, Jeanie!!! I love you!!! (My father-in-law is pretty great, too!! Love you!)

Road Trip!

We headed out to our first quiz meet of the year early Friday morning. We rented a six passenger SUV for the trip but by the time we loaded up three adults, three teenagers and all of our stuff, it was a little crowded!



Zach and Andrew were in the very back and probably had the least amount of leg room. Steph and I were in the middle and we managed to have fun in spite of the sleeping bag/suitcase barrier between us!


We made pretty good time on the way over to the coast and Twin Rocks Camp with good, but cold, weather and dry roads. We were there in plenty of time to join in the ice breaker games. This was an office chair relay. A little dangerous, but fun. . .


We were divided into four teams and each team had to alternate groups of three people who would ride into the center of the gym and answer a question. . .


It wasn't dangerous so much for the groups of three as it was for the person in the middle asking the questions!! Glad it wasn't me!!





It was good to see Steph's brother, Zac, who is going to college in the area and came out to the camp to help with the quiz meet. . . You can tell they were happy to see each other!! :)



The rest of the evening was spent playing Mad Gab. . .




You probably had to be there to find the humor but it was hilarious. . .



It was great to hang out with the McConaughey's. . .


Steph and I even ended up staying in a cabin with the Newberg girls!! I took this picture of Elsie and Hailey and sent it to Gloria who was very sad to miss this trip:
This is dedication!! It was so cold outside and Talli and Marissa laid out on the porch and studied!! Brrrr. . .

We had to be up and around before 8 a.m. on Saturday for a full day of quizzing. . .


Zach actually memorized chapter's 1-10 of 1 Corinthians so I had a feeling he would do pretty good. . .


Smile, Steph!! :)





I always love when Ken and Judy officiate. I think they are the most fair and impartial of all the judges and score keepers!

Tami does a great job, too. . .

In fact, we knew the officials in every room! It was nice having Zac as a score keeper!!

All of the teams did a good job and really encouraged each other. . .

Michael came along just to experience the thrill of being a Quiz Master. He did a fine job!

After the morning rounds and lunch, the Verse Off began. . .

There were 10 "survivors" of the Verse Off which is pretty amazing considering they all had to memorize about 25 verses so they could quote verses word for word in order to avoid being eliminated.

Talli's late night review paid off!!

More quizzing rounds in the afternoon. . .

Besides the Newberg team, this Hayden Lake team is my favorite to quiz against. . .

They take it very seriously. . . but not too seriously!!

Gary has the "fun" job of tallying up all of the scores. He spent about 12 hours sitting in this chair entering (and re-entering!) scores into the computer in order to be ready for the awards ceremony in the evening. . .

We had a couple of hours between dinner and the awards ceremony to hang out. . .

Judy, Tami and Ken:


Stephy and Elsie:

Hailey and Elsie:

Quiz Master, Michael. . .

The Award Ceremony started with the certificates for "surviving" the Verse-Off. . .

After the middle school team and individual awards were given out, I started to record because I figured Zach made it into the top 8 in the high school division. . .

He worked so hard and definitely deserved it!!!

The evening activity was a bonfire at the beach.

It was fun but very, very COLD!!

We didn't stay at the beach long because we had big plans for a game of Cities and Knights. No pictures but we played until about 1 a.m. when Steph finally put us all out of our misery and won the game. It was fun but we were all very tired from a very long day.

We were up by 7 a.m. on Sunday morning in order to eat breakfast and hit the road for another long road trip. This is the cabin we stayed in:

I ran over to the beach to take a couple of pictures of the ocean. It was beautiful . . .

Once again, we packed in like sardines and headed for home. . .

It's a very pretty drive. . .

It was a very looooong drive. . .

It was a great weekend but I was very happy to pull up to my house and unfold my body after 9 hours in the back seat. I've decided I'm too old to sit in the back! I don't regret any of it, though, and it was a very nice way to spend my birthday weekend!!! I'm very proud of my team!

I was too busy going back in time last week to post in the present so here are a few belated pictures from our horse lesson last week. The kids must be progressing really well because Kim actually took them on a mini trail ride!

Happy Birthday To Me. . .