My next blog post won't be terribly long, because I don't have a whole lot of insight on this particular topic. In fact, Lorelai's recently completed baseball season felt like an afterthought for our family in many ways, since Nathan and I weren't very involved in the team at all. However, I did want to record for posterity the one (and hopefully only) time our daughter played baseball.
Lest I sound like a horrible, un-supportive parent, let me explain our issues with her latest extracurricular venture. Our eldest daughter is a very active, enthusiastic, "carpe diem" kind of kid...she wants to try everything. As parents, we want to be as supportive as we can (within reason) of her discovering new things and having enriching life experiences...particularly when it's keeping her physically active! We did two seasons of soccer last year, with Nathan as coach. Even though it was very time-consuming, Nathan and Lorelai both had a great time and felt very connected to each other.
However, this year, Lorelai kept insisting she wanted to try baseball, not soccer. This made me kind of nervous (and Nathan even more so). Although she had improved somewhat in soccer during her two seasons, baseball was a different game, with more complicated rules and a whole new skill set. We were concerned she wouldn't have the hand-eye coordination necessary to do well in baseball. We also worried that this would greatly upset her little competitive heart (she burst into tears on multiple occasions after losing soccer games; we shuddered to imagine her reaction when she couldn't even hit a baseball with a bat!).
Lorelai persisted, though, and we finally gave in...we decided that since she was still in the younger ( 5 - 7 year old) age bracket, it would be a good opportunity for her to get in on the "ground floor" of baseball. As it turned out, it was very "ground floor"--possibly even "basement level" instruction.
Here is Lorelai's entire team. Yes, the brilliant USA Youth Sports league created a team with only five kids (there was a sixth on the roster, but we never saw him after orientation day). Every other team we played had at least eight or nine kids, and it was infuriating...really, guys?? You couldn't have distributed the players a little better? Needless to say, that was barely enough kids to populate the infield...thank goodness no one in the league was capable of hitting deep.
Our coach seemed forced into the job against her will (she was in college at the time, and had two small children), but she ended up being a decent coach and a supportive teacher to all the kids. "Coach Rachael" didn't worry about anything beyond teaching the kids the basics (I think out of the team, her daughter was the only kid who had ever played before). Practices were mostly running, hitting, and catching drills.
Game days were a mixed bag. As I've said, the games themselves were
very loosely organized and usually only lasted about three innings.
Nobody kept score, and every kid at bat had the ball thrown to them over
and over and over until they managed to hit it (they pulled out the batting tee when things got especially dire). Fielding was pretty
nonexistent most of the time; when a kid did manage to field a ball,
they usually threw it straight to first base, without looking around to
see if it could be better used elsewhere. Oh well, even if the parents
were restless, the kids were happy to get their treat bags after the
games!
As you can see, proper baseball rules were not really much of a
priority. I'm not too upset about any of that (after all, most of these
kids were pretty young), but if you are a particularly competitive
person, it might get tiresome to watch the "feel-good" baseball. What
frustrated me were the two games we skipped (and never made up!) due to
poor weather. This was an unusually cold winter, but the lack of
interest in rescheduling just highlighted the fact about how little
anyone cared about this season.
Nathan wasn't able to coach (or even assistant coach) Lorelai's team this season, mainly because of the practice schedule...he was never able to get home from work early enough. Besides that, though, he was still reluctant to coach Lorelai in baseball...despite his having several years of Little League experience from his youth. Why the hesitation? Probably because he knew too much about baseball...he worried about being too hard on the kids (and too critical of the league's policies & regulations) to be able to relax and have fun with it (unlike his stint as a soccer coach, where his lack of knowledge of the sport made it more of an "adventure"). It was sometimes hard for him to watch Lorelai's games; he got frustrated at the lack of attention to detail, and at the league's lousy scheduling and team formation. In spite of that, he was still happy to support Lorelai on an individual level; he helped her on the weekends by having batting & catching practice in our backyard!
Despite our misgivings, it was encouraging to see Lorelai's grasp of those basic elements improve over the course of the season. Her hitting, while never great, got much better as the season progressed, particularly when she switched to using a lighter bat. Her base-running was very good; in fact, she sometimes "lapped" her teammates earlier in the batting order, as they all rounded the same bases together! She also got pretty good at scooping up grounders (too bad she didn't always know what to do with it after that!). We were pleased to see her learn some new skills, and enjoy herself doing it.
By the time the season ended, Lorelai was sad to see it go...she really liked all the kids on her tiny team, and she liked her coach (who, despite her initial hesitation, was always warm, supportive, and encouraging to all the kids). We were happy that Lorelai was happy...plus we were happy she got a sweet trophy out of it all!
Will Lorelai ever want to do baseball again? I honestly don't know. If she does, we may have to look into finding a new league, since USA Youth Sports seemed particularly disorganized when it came to baseball (although we weren't as bothered by their disorganization where the soccer was concerned). Our gut feeling, though, is that Lorelai has mentally checked off baseball from her "to-do" list, and may now want to try out yet another sport.
For example, karate...which she has been talking about a lot lately. We'll see what happens this fall!!
This will come as a surprise to few people, but I am not an exercise nut. I like my comfortable couch, television, and computer. I enjoy being sedentary (at least SOME of the time!). However, I'm getting older by the day, and starting to feel it...in other news, I've been gaining weight more easily these days, and looking a bit chubby in the process. So among other things, I've chosen to fight my mortality by working out more than I used to. If I'm going to be fat, at least I can be fit at the same time!
My goals to get more exercise are imperfect and sporadic...much of it depends on my kids' schedules, and since my girls are still relatively young, my free time is somewhat limited. I have been very fortunate over the last few years to have been part of an "exercise co-op" between myself and three other women in the neighborhood (while all friends of mine, the women participating has shifted over the years based on age, availability, etc.). Basically, once a week, I watch everyone else's kids for an hour; on three other days, someone else will watch my kids for an hour, and I can use that to exercise any way I see fit. It has been fun to try out many different workouts, all of which have been beneficial to me in some way.
Luckily, our neighborhood has a pretty nice clubhouse with several weight and aerobic machines. I have often rode the stationary bikes there, walked on the treadmill, done crunches, pull-ups, and other fun stuff. More recently, I started swimming laps in the clubhouse's pool, and that was my favorite workout yet! I am a pretty sweaty gal, and my complexion gets very flushed when I exercise (to the point that many concerned people approach me, worried I may pass out any minute. Not to worry, folks: that's just how I look post-exercise!).That's not a problem with swimming; I can push my body and get a hard workout, but I don't feel all flushed, sweaty and gross afterwards. Plus, my joints are pretty wimpy, but swimming puts almost no strain on them. It's a win-win! Unfortunately, the clubhouse pool was shut down several months ago for repairs...boo!
Most of the time when I run, I go around this lake in the middle of Rancho Sahuarita; the trail circling the lake is just under one mile long
So, for lack of anything else to try, I found myself running. Let me make one thing clear upfront: I am a very slow, not very good, runner. Some days, I can speed-walk faster than I run! But a funny thing happened over this winter...I actually found myself looking forward to my runs (infrequent though they sometimes were). I hated them while I was doing them, but there was a great satisfaction I felt after a run that was very different than many of my other types of working out. Slowly, slowly, I have been trying to increase the speed and distance of my runs over the last several months. Progress has been gradual, but noticeable. While I never see myself as a marathon (or even half-marathon) runner, I started making goals to participate in longer runs.
At the beginning of 2013, I made a New Year's resolution to participate in at least one 5K race in the next year. As it turned out, my first 5K opportunity turned up a lot faster than I expected...
...thanks to The Slaughterhouse, an old meat warehouse in Tucson that's been converted into a haunted house in recent years. Apparently, the owners of The Slaughterhouse are hoping to use their facility for more than just scaring folks in October...they organized a mud run called Escape The Walkers. It's a 5K mud run/obstacle course with one "scary" twist: you also have to avoid the "zombies" that wander the area (well, "actors DRESSED AS zombies," but that's what imagination is for)!
I was immediately intrigued by this idea. Since I get bored by "just" running for miles on end, a mud run sounded like a good way to "mix up" the exercise, and get a little dirty while doing it! Also, my nerdy, Zombieland-loving self relished the opportunity for make-believe...running away from the undead sounded like a definite adrenaline rush. Nothing like brain-eating, raging zombies to increase the heart-rate! (Time to share a clip from Zombieland to give you a clue as to what I had in mind...)
My decision to sign up was made even easier for two reasons: 1. Rita, a good friend of mine (she's in the Primary presidency with me AND she is an awesome athlete to boot) agreed to do the run with me; and 2. I found an online coupon that made registration quite affordable. Done, and done! The run was scheduled for March 23...I had about two months to get myself physically ready.
I was very excited to participate, but very nervous too. Having never done a 5K before, I didn't know what to expect and doubted my ability to participate. My time to exercise was still pretty limited (particularly in the weeks leading up to the run, due to my kids' Spring Break). I imagined the run as being populated by entirely skinny, muscled super-athletes, who would mock my paunch and my waddling jog while blowing past me effortlessly, scaling a 20-foot wall and beating a dozen zombies in the process.
The "rules" of the race that we read beforehand stated that each runner would have to wear six "flags" around their waist, and the zombies would try to steal them at every opportunity. If all your flags were taken, you would only receive a flimsy tinfoil medal at the end of the run ("survivors" with remaining flags would receive a more substantial medal). I made a humble goal to have at least one flag left by the end of the run. I prayed I wouldn't embarrass myself.
When the day of the race arrived, I was pretty nervous, but having Rita along was very encouraging. She is a very positive gal, and she promised to stay with me for the whole run. In addition, a few more of Rita's friends came along to run with us (most of them much more fit than me, but still...more warm bodies to distract the zombies!). The thought of running in a group was a new one for me, but an encouraging one for an event like this.
So...off into the zombie apocalypse we went!! Sorry I don't have pictures of the actual run, but I couldn't ruin my camera, could I?
The event registration was, unfortunately, pretty disorganized. We had originally signed up for the 8:00 am wave of runners, but on arrival, we were told there would be no wave until 8:30 (this meant that I totally missed Lorelai's baseball game...I think she forgave me, though!). And although every runner got a belt as promised, there were only three Velcro-attached "flags," not six, as had been originally promised. That got me a little worried again...my chances of escaping unscathed by the zombies was growing weaker all the time! 8:30 arrived...and still we waited, as the event organizers did a final check on all the obstacles.
While waiting to start, I was encouraged to see the variety of ages & physical types present. True, many of the runners were young, buff, and attractive...but just as many of them looked more like me (aka, None Of The Above)! Some runners were overweight; some were pretty old. All of them looked pretty excited to be there. It was pretty encouraging.
Finally, the alarm sounded, and off we went...through an initial gauntlet of zombies and through some shipping containers filled with hanging "corpses," complete with fluid dripping out of them...yuck!! It was an action-packed start, to be sure. The setting was perfect for a "zombie apocalypse"-style run; The Slaughterhouse is right in the middle of an old, run-down, heavily industrialized portion of town. Walking (and running, and crawling, and climbing) past quiet shuttered buildings, abandoned cars, empty storage facilities, and weedy vacant lots put me in a very post-apocalyptic mood.
Rita was having too much fun to be scared of these guys!
Of course, the zombies themselves added an element of horror to the whole thing...horror AND humor, as we found ourselves laughing at our own wimpy-ness on several occasions. Having people in costumes and makeup chasing you around while you're jumping into mud puddles, Dumpster-diving, climbing walls...it ended up feeling like a weird combination of haunted house and Tough Mudder. A weird AND awesome combination, I should say! Not only was my heart rate nice and elevated (for a variety of reasons!), but I was having a lot of fun.
There was a large divergence in "zombie" enthusiasm. All of them looked the part (splattered with blood and various other fluids, and wearing tattered mismatched clothing). They, too, were participants just like the runners; they'd paid a fee to be here, but they still behaved in very different ways. Some just stood there moaning, feebly reaching out for you as you ran past them easily. Others went full-tilt, 28 Days Later-style "rage zombie," roaring, screaming, and chasing you at full speed. They liked to congregate close by the obstacles (climbing walls, mud canals, and Dumpsters filled with tires, mostly). Thankfully, if you made it onto the obstacle, the zombies would back off (probably out of safety concerns). Their favorite trick was waiting for us to complete the obstacle, then "attack" us just as we were transitioning back to running. Most of the gals in my running party (myself included!) got our flags stolen this way.
Some zombies were sneaky, and all the more terrifying for it. One female zombie waited quietly in some bushes just off the path; she stepped out without any fanfare just a few feet in front of us before we walked by. Scared the daylights out of us! Another (very tall!) zombie walked up silently behind us as we were walking towards the final leg of the race, thinking the "threats" were all finally behind us. Only a quick glance behind us by Rita saved us that time...well, the quick glance followed by a whole lot of running!
The scariest part of the run for me occurred in a huge storage facility for shipping containers (tall rectangular metal boxes, about ten feet high and twenty feet long). The run organizers had strung about twenty of these narrow metal containers end-to-end, and the runners had to go through them. Not surprisingly, a zombie was waiting for us at the entrance. His back was turned, and he slooooowly turned around and made ready to attack us...it got the blood pumping! As we ran pell-mell through the containers, other zombies randomly jumped in and started chasing us. If this had been a real zombie apocalypse, I'm ashamed to say I would have abandoned my friends to their deaths...I was too focused on running like crazy to save my own skin!
Most of the obstacles were pretty standard for this sort of run, I suppose. We had to crawl through a passageway criss-crossed with ropes; that required a lot of dexterity plus courage, since zombies were waiting greedily for us outside. There were several climbing walls, most of which were angled. One wall, however, was about 15 feet high, straight up and down...with nothing but a rope to aid us. I confess to chickening out and walking around that one (but everyone else in my group did, too, so I didn't feel TOO bad). There were also a couple of Dumpster-dives; the first few were only full of tires, but thanks to my wimpy arms I had a lot of trouble climbing out of them.
My shoes barely survived the ordeal
For a self-proclaimed "mud run," Escape The Walkers didn't have a whole lot of mud obstacles. This is probably because we were in a fairly urban area, and you can't just pour mud all over business parking lots. We did have the opportunity to dive into a muddy ditch or two early on in the run. Just before the final portion of the trail, we had to crawl under a bunch of giant wooden spools (the kind that carry power lines); of course, the ground beneath was very wet and gross.
However, the relative lack of mud in the early going was more than made up for at the end of the race, when we arrived at this ghastly arrangement (we had to crawl through a mountain of mud and under a chain-link fence to get here in the first place):
First, we had to dodge the zombies guarding the entrance. Then, we had to scale a wall of tires to get to the top of the storage bin. From there, it was a steep slide down a metal slope into a Dumpster full of mud. And I do mean "full"; the sewer-smelling cold muck came up almost to my waist. Then we got to repeat that delightful sequence two more times, getting wetter, slower, and more sore every time!
The last Dumpster was one of the long industrial models, and of course two zombies were waiting for you to emerge at the other end. At this point, however, we were within sight of the finish line, and apparently the event organizers decided to give the runners a little assist at this point...
...namely, a generic "Army guy," who stands there shooting at the zombies with his paintball rifle, urging everyone to safety. Nothing like a little role-playing "color" to give your zombie apocalypse a little authenticity!
After escaping the last round of zombies, we all got medals! Yay! I'll admit it, I was a clumsy oaf for much of the race, and according to the original rules of the run, I probably lost all my flags several times over by falling into the grasp of so many zombies. However, I think The Slaughterhouse must have decided it was better to just give everyone a medal instead. So I lucked out on that one!
Loving my bright shiny medal
Here's how it looks close up
At the end of it all, the six of us were sore, tired,bruised, covered in mud, and very smelly...but we all had huge smiles on our faces!
I honestly can't tell you if I did much "right" or "wrong" on this run. The run wasn't timed, so I don't know exactly how long we all took...off the top of my head, I would say we did it in about an hour (give or take several minutes). I wasn't the fastest runner by any stretch, but I wasn't the slowest either. My muscles were all incredibly sore for the rest of the day, and it took about 24 hours before I could get the smell of the foul sewer-mud out of my nose. For the next week, I kept discovering scrapes and bruises all over my body, sometimes in weird places (my elbow was bleeding immediately after the race). But in spite of all that, I can definitely say this: Escape The Walkers was a huge rush!
Bless these guys' undead hearts...they were willing to put up with our endless post-race photographs. For zombies, those guys weren't half bad.
This was probably the best possible experience I could have had on my first-ever run. I ran with a friend, and a bunch of other very sweet, patient ladies. We all had a great sense of humor about the whole thing, and were laughing at ourselves the whole time. The pace was relatively leisurely, and I didn't feel much pressure to go at full-speed...except when zombies were chasing me, of course! And although some may think less of "themed" races, I can honestly say the whole experience was a hoot, and I would do it again in a heartbeat! In fact, if The Slaughterhouse hosts this race next year, I hope to convince a few of my other friends to join in the fun.
I will probably never be a lean mean machine...but I think this experience gave me confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. It's a feeling of triumph I've never had before...most of my accomplishments tend to be more of the "domestic" or "artsy" variety. It's nice to perform a physical feat (however imperfectly); it makes me feel like a more well-rounded person. I hope to try a more traditional 5K later in the year, one that will test my endurance more harshly. Wish me luck!
Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go clean myself off...
EEK! March has swiftly come and gone, and the blog has been largely ignored for that time. A lot of things have conspired to keep me away, most of them having to do with the word "spring." Most significant of all is Spring Break, which my kids have been on for the last two weeks. School finally started today...whew! Keeping all three of the girls entertained has taken up a lot of my time. I've been doing a lot of fun "me" stuff over the last few weeks, too (some of which I'll talk about in detail in a later blog post). And around Easter, when I finally had a little time to sit down and compose my thoughts, I was hit by a massive allergy attack that left me feeling very fuzzy-headed and ready for bed. And here we are!
The week leading up to Spring Break was a very busy one for all of us, especially Nathan. He held several open houses in different parts of the community, which meant working many late hours. As a result, he only ended up with a two-hour workday on Friday the 15th! We decided to celebrate the Ides of March by taking a quick family trip to the Mesa Arizona Temple, something we've been hoping to do a little more often.
We didn't quite make it in time for the temple's annual Easter Pageant (one of these years, we have to take the family to that!), but we did get to see the stage all set up and ready to go:
Nathan and I took turns doing short sessions in the temple, while we also took turns taking the kids outside to play.
After we finished, we took a short trip over to Deseret Books, an LDS Church-owned bookstore chain that always leaves us feeling a bit weak-willed (we each bought a new book there...oops!). After that, we drove to Chandler to have another delicious family dinner at Rudy's, our new favorite barbecue restaurant. We've eaten there before, so I'll spare you the details. It was delicious...again! After that, we drove home in the evening twilight...it felt so great to spend some time at the temple. I hope we can make it there again later in the year.
Sunday, of course, was St. Patrick's Day. Whew...good thing all of us have Sunday-appropriate green clothing! Besides the green-wearing, though, this is not a really big holiday for our family. Besides cooking my usual corned beef-and-potato cakes dinner, I also got really ambitious and made orange rolls for breakfast for the first time:
Nathan and I thought they were incredibly delicious...the girls didn't like them much, though! Unbelievable. Oh, well...more for the parents! I am thinking of making them again and selling them at our community yard sale in a week.
Here's a quick rundown of what our family did during the first week of Spring Break:
Monday: After a few months of waffling, we finally decided to go "satellite-and-cable-free" for a while. We hardly watch any live TV at all any more, so we think this is a safe bet. To this end, we went to Best Buy and bought our first streaming device (a Roku 2 XD), and an HD
television antenna. We will now be living at the mercy of Netflix and Amazon Prime for all our entertainment needs (with the occasional network-TV stopover to scratch my NFL itch, come fall). We had lunch out at Wing Stop, then went home and attached all our new toys. So far, they work great! That very day, I called Dish Network to cancel our nine-year service with them. It felt weird...but liberating at the same time! That night, Lorelai and I attended the baptism of Elnorra, a friend of Lorelai's from school. We were pretty pooped after that!
Tuesday: This ended up being our "slow day" of the week, since Aurora spent the middle of the night throwing up violently. So sad! Anyway, it meant a lot of sitting at home and watching TV (not that anyone complained about THAT!). We had intended to have a "movie party," and invite all our friends over, but we sadly had to postpone that for a week. After a long day of rest, everyone (especially Aurora) felt like themselves again, and it was back to Spring Break!
Wednesday: This was intended to be a "running errands in Tucson" day, but we got off to a late start, since our garage door broke in the night! Specifically, the spring used to pull the door up and down snapped in half (the resulting "snap" was so loud that Nathan and I heard it the previous night; we thought someone had thrown something at the garage door from the outside!). This made it basically impossible to pull the door open ourselves, and both our cars were parked inside! Unfortunately, we had to call a repair service just so Nathan could get the car out to go to work (he ended up being a couple of hours late). Our wallets felt uncomfortably lighter afterwards, but the serviceman showed up very promptly, worked quickly, and was very polite and helpful.
After our unexpected ordeal of getting out of our own house, we loaded up our car with all the old girls' clothes in our house...which is quite a lot, as you might imagine. Boxes and boxes worth! We also stuffed a bunch of old board games and puzzles into the trunk, for good measure! The reason for hauling all this stuff to Tucson? To trade it in for credit at some of our favorite second-hand stores: Twice As Nice, a secondhand clothing store that has had a lot of great finds for the girls and myself over the years; and Bookmans, an entertainment exchange (they carry books, DVDs, music, and games). We got very lucky at Bookmans; they bought almost everything we brought in (including some puzzles I thought were surely too "junky" to be bought, but who's complaining?). Twice As Nice was stingier, however; they scarcely bought back any of our old clothes (maybe five percent of the entire haul). However, since some of those clothes had been worn by all three girls, I couldn't fault them too much. In both cases, we got store credit to use for later. I am planning on selling off most of the remaining clothes at the upcoming community yard sale next week; hopefully that will be a bit more profitable. Anyway, after all these errands, the kids were clearly pooped, so home we went.
Thursday: This was definitely more of a goof-off day...
I decided the girls deserved some fun after our errand-heavy outing the day before. So, to Pump It Up we went!
Lorelai was determined to run up this wall and grab the flags. She did pretty well...
...most of the time. She never made it ALL THE WAY UP.
Yes, I realize this only shows half of Celeste's face...but it's the IMPORTANT half!
As always, the girls played themselves crazy!
This is one of the coolest pictures of Aurora ever...she looks like she's going so FAST! Kind of symbolizes her whole toddler-hood to this point.
After the playtime at Pump It Up was over, we drove back to Rancho Sahuarita, where a friend of mine had organized a cookie-decorating party in honor of the upcoming Easter holiday. The girls decorated some cookies, ate them immediately afterwards, and then went out for Round Two of climbing, jumping, sliding, and playing. Needless to say, their afternoon was spent crashing on the couch while I taught some piano lessons.
Friday: Another Lazy Day at home! The weather was incredibly beautiful, and so of course all the girls wanted to do was stay home and play. I made them turn off the TV (finally!), and they were able to spend much of the afternoon exercising their imaginations and play-acting with all their toys. I am so glad they play so well together. The monotony was broken up somewhat when some friends came over for a game night in the evening. It was short, but sweet.
With that, Week One of Spring Break came to an end...but there was a crazy, zombie-filled, baseball-season-ending Saturday just ahead. I will post more about both of those things soon.
Not a whole lot of interesting new things to report for this blog post. Life is going along busily but otherwise pretty smoothly. However, I noticed the camera was getting kind of full of cute pictures of the girls, so I thought I would share a few.
Right after getting home from our trip to San Diego, it was time to celebrate Read Across America Day in school/preschool (where is was celebrated with various activities spread out through the week!). Coincidentally, this celebration of reading occurs on the birthday of one Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. All the more reason to celebrate, if we get to read a bunch of Dr. Seuss books in the bargain!
Lorelai dressed in her "whimsical best," for Dr. Seuss dress-up day at school. She looks "straight outta Whoville."
Like many families, we have several Dr. Seuss books on our bookshelves (not nearly enough, in my opinion!). Despite the current market being flooded with many wonderful children's books (written by many talented authors), I still feel that no one has ever really matched The Seuss. He had a killer combination of whimsy, creativity, energy, and subversive social messaging. That, combined with his prodigious lifetime output, makes him the gold standard in children's literature in my opinion.
My little "cats in hats"
So any holiday that involves Dr. Seuss is one I am happy to celebrate! Luckily, we managed to find a huge omnibus collection of twelve Seuss books at our local library. This has given us a lot of great additional reading in the last week or two! And besides Dr. Seuss, we managed to read a lot of books by other authors throughout the week-long celebration. My personal favorite activity was a "reading picnic" held by the school; I brought a blanket and snacks, sat out on the school green, and read books with all my kids in the warm late-winter sun. It was both relaxing and emotionally fulfilling!
Although I am an avid reader myself, I sometimes forget to take a little time and read to my kids to "infect" them with the same passion for books Nathan and I have. It has been refreshing to be reminded how fun it is to read out loud to my girls; this holiday has been great at getting me back in the "reading habit" with my family!
Now to segue into some non-book-related whimsy: a few cute, random pictures of our girls having fun over the last few weeks. I took Celeste and Aurora on a long walk around the lake last week, and they found all sorts of ways to goof off:
Perhaps Dr. Seuss would have loved the images of cute little girls on turtles as much as I do (despite none of the turtles, to my knowledge, being named "Yertle").
Here's one more picture I loved:
Celeste wanted a "spa day." She recently watched an episode of the show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, in which some of the main characters visited a spa to relax (complete with towels, face masks, and cucumbers on the eyes). Celeste, being the incredibly feminine creature she is, wanted to try a spa day for herself...and as luck would have it, I had an extra cucumber in the fridge this weekend. She even spent the whole day at church bragging to her Primary teacher about how she would be going to a "spa" that night! Lorelai wanted to join in, too...it was fun to catch her doing "girly" stuff for once!
After laying around for a while, the girls ate their eye-cucumbers, and found them delicious! I suspect this will not be their last spa experience, though...experiences like this make me really excited to see them as teenagers!
Our San Diego trip was almost over already! We were a little sad to be heading home so soon, but Real Life was beckoning us with its darn obligations and responsibilities. However, Nate and I were kind of tired out from driving and hiking all over San Diego, so driving home was a secret relief, as well!
The morning we checked out from the hotel, we decided to take another trip to Old Town San Diego, to see the sights there that we'd missed on our last visit. Most notably, we wanted to visit this place:
The Mormon Batallion Historic Site! It had come to us highly recommended by several trusted sources; it was located right inside Old Town; and best of all, it was free! (Can you tell that our family likes free things?)
Westward ho!!
The tour was about 40 minutes long, and it involved visitors moving from one room to another, while a narrative of the Mormon Batallion's march played out in various semi-interactive ways. The story of the Batallion's journey was told by several actors, each of whom portrayed a character who participated in the Batallion march in some way (I am not sure if the characters were real historical figures or merely amalgams from several accounts).
You first "meet" the characters in the waiting room, where a worker dressed in period clothing welcomes you to the center. After a couple of minutes, the framed photos behind her on the wall actually come to life (through the magic of digital video, of course!). The characters in the portraits welcome you and offer to tell you the "story" of their journey with the Mormon Batallion. It's all very cute and kinda Harry Potter-esque (if Hogwarts was populated by Mormons).
Anyway, the tour takes you through several rooms decorated like various stops on the journey; there's a pioneer encampment in Iowa, where members of the Batallion were first recruited; next, you journey to Fort Leavenworth, where you are "outfitted" for the march to San Diego...
Lorelai made a very adorable soldier!
There was another room "on the road" (it was an undefined camp in the wilderness that showcased the hardships faced by the Batallion soldiers & crew). At one point, the furniture in the room actually started shaking, and Lorelai started freaking out, thinking we were in the middle of one of those famous California earthquakes she'd been reading so much about lately. But no...it was all part of the show! Turns out, the Batallion was "menaced" by a stampeding herd of cattle, and that's what the shaking represented.
The final room on the tour was a replica of the Old Courthouse, a longtime San Diego landmark that Batallion members actually helped build! It was very fun (and inspiring) to see the journey these brave members of the church took, all in service of a country that hadn't always treated them fairly. It was nice to see how the legacy of the Mormon Batallion's march left imprints not just in San Diego, but in Salt Lake City as well.
After the official tour ended, there were still several activities to do in the center. There were several interactive activities & games on computer screens in the area:
In one activity, you can learn the actual names (and biographical information) about all the soldiers in the Mormon Batallion.
In another, you can virtually stake a claim on a portion of the hills, then "mine" them for gold:
Celeste and Nathan both racked up quite the load of cash playing that game!
Lorelai attempted (unsuccessfully) to wrestle an old-timey cannon.
After our antics indoors, we went outside to "pan for gold." There was a cute little stream and well provided for just this purpose.
The family with our tour guide...one of the sister missionaries who works at the site (she also happens to be related to my piano tuner back home...small world!)
Celeste took the sample bricks from the brick oven, and decided to build a tower, because why not?
There was a small tower atop the center which gave us a nice view of Old Town...and a nice view of the activity courtyard connected to the historical site.
We even got a great family picture to commemorate the event:
Yes, we are honest-to-goodness members of the Battalion now, or something! Anyway, it was a really clever, funny, and moving tour. I highly recommend it as a short, easy family activity in San Diego.
After the historic site, we walked back downhill into the thick of Old Town, to search for a delicious lunch. We had heard good things about the Old Town Mexican Cafe...
We got to watch the abuelas make fresh tortillas for the cafe..fun!
...and it did not disappoint! Their handmade tortillas were very delicious, and we ate like pigs. The atmosphere was loud but friendly, and the food was very satisfying.
Yum.
There's not much to report after that. We "walked off" our meal by checking out a few other sites in Old Town--mostly old-time candy stores, courtyards, and blacksmith shops. Sadly, I didn't think to photograph any of those sites...silly me! We will have to document them next time we go to Old Town...because there WILL BE a next time! There have been many great discoveries in San Diego this time around, and we hope we will be able to fit them all in on future trips.
When we decided we could walk no more, we reluctantly piled into our car and headed home for Arizona. The drive was mostly uneventful, with one big exception: when we stopped for gas in Yuma, the van suddenly refused to start! Somehow the car battery had completely run out of steam. Luckily, a good Samaritan at the gas station helped us jump-start the car, and we were on our way again, with no further incidents (even managing to stop for dinner). We didn't get home until about 10 pm, at which point Nathan, the kids, and I all crashed and burned pretty hard for the rest of the weekend!
It was a whirlwind weekend, but we are all so glad we were able to go to San Diego! It is such a beautiful, green, lush city (at least compared to our desert paradise!). It is a city we felt safe in, and welcomed. We hope we will feel that way again on our next visit.
