Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park

While my parents were visiting, we made an excursion into the Sierras.  Seeing Sequoia National Park has been on my "To See Someday" list for a long time, and we had been putting it off waiting for the perfect weekend, which never seemed to show up, as perfect weekends are apt to be scarce. But this weekend was perfect - there was a foot of snow on the ground, which thrilled my children who haven't seen substantial snow since 2010.  My parents were up for an adventure and were interested in seeing a little bit more of California than just the coast. The entrance to the park takes just under four hours from our house, but the change in climate and terrain is remarkable. We arrived in time for some evening snow play, a short trudge, and a visit to the General Grant, second largest tree in the park. Instead of camping, my first choice in National Parks, we stayed in the John Muir Lodge, which was comfortable, if not luxurious.  I nearly, well, did have a meltdown trying to reserve it, but in the end all worked out beautifully. It was a short visit, without much hiking, but lots of fresh mountain air and family time. Happy memories. 

Kids jumped out of the car to touch the snow as we drove into the park.

First snow

The General Grant

Beautiful ending to a beautiful day

Relearning the perils of ice

Sledding on pantseats

Tree huggers

Good morning Hume Lake

A view off to Kings Canyon - roads were closed to this part

Enjoying time with the grandparents

Baby and I have matching hats, thanks to a friend

These could put your eye out!

Driving Generals Highway through the park

More snowplay

The General Sherman - largest tree by volume

Hiking in the Grove of Giants

Another massive trunk

Tree growing out of a rock

Enough photos, paparazzi

Too many scenic views to capture

Goodnight Sequoias!

Worn out after a nice trip

Now we have visited three National Parks lately - Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Sequoia.  I think I would say I like Sequoia best. The Grand Canyon is so crowded. The view is amazing, but you experience it as if you are at a museum, unless you have the time and permits to hike down into the canyon, I suppose. Yosemite was also breathtaking. I'm sure if the falls were roaring it would feel completely different.  We went at an ideal time, when it was still warm, but not as crowded. I've heard the summers are crazy. I'd like to go back, but if I had to choose one to go back to, I'd pick Sequoia because I like the woods. The southern part of the park was still full of tourists and people come to play in the snow at the big sledding hill. We saw three ambulances carry people away with injuries from the icy hills.  But the northern part, where we entered and spent the night, was very quiet at this time of year. Maybe because we arrived late in the day, we had the path around the General Grant nearly to ourselves. The kids could run and slide and throw snowballs to their hearts' content.  We played cards in the lobby of the hotel in front of a large, cozy fire and ate leftovers we had warmed up in the crockpot.  Our morning hike around Hume Lake was accompanied only by wintering ducks and an eagle and a few ice fisherman, although some other intrepid walkers showed up as we were leaving.  I'd love to go back when the snow is melted and the roads are open to get in some good hikes off the main thoroughfare, but that may wait for another lifetime, when a perfect weekend shows up again.

This trip confirms again my feelings about travel - I don't think you have to move around and see the world in order to be a better person. But I do like to go places with the family so that we are self-contained and together enjoying a place that is miraculous and awe-inspiring.  My favorite part of this trip wasn't seeing some really giant trees, but seeing the joy on the kids' faces, watching them playing together in the snow and in the lobby, and even in the car. (We did take two cars on this trip.) We've made some beautiful memories on this trip with my folks that have nothing to do with the views.  Instead we'll remember the baby touching the snow, the weird sound of tree branches skimming across the ice, sliding around on the paths, eating snow, rolling down windows to get fresh air on the winding road down the mountains, jamming into a shuttle bus against my desires, wondering at the tailgaters in the snowplay parking lot, trying to capture light and size in a small frame, trying to capture time in this retrospective.

The party ends

The house is unusually quiet.  Christmas vacation is over.  The kids are back at school. The baby is sleeping.  My parents were here for a week and left last night.  I started to take down Christmas decorations after our Epiphany celebration yesterday.  I have nothing on the calendar until the 2:45 school pick up and then tennis lessons, my first class, and picking up the older boys after Mock Trial in the evening.  Back to business.

My parents flew out of LAX last night, which is about 65 miles from our house. The drive can take anywhere from an hour and fifteen minutes to more than two hours depending on traffic. I thought about sending my folks on the shuttle bus, but since their flight was late enough that I could leave all the kids with Dad, I drove them into town to extend our visit a little longer.  Traffic was moving, and the drive home was almost too short. Just over an hour of near silence in the dark was relaxing, even if I did have to keep part of my brain attentive to traffic.  I now have done this drive enough that I can almost go on auto pilot. As I crested the top of the hill nicknamed "the grade" and was greeted with the expansive view of Camarillo at nighttime, a sense of both glory and dismay washed over me.  All the lights are beautiful as they sparkle in the valley, but all the lights! 

That valley is home and not home.  In another six or seven months we will be moving again, not closer to family and friends who are almost family as we had hoped, but farther away.  We'll be staying in California and moving three hours south to the San Diego area.  No orders are in hand yet, but that's the word being passed around.  More on that when we have something in writing.

For my literature class on Monday night, I read Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" and Yeats' "The Magi." Both poems allude to the complexity of emotions the Wise Men might have felt when coming before a baby in a stable who was supposed to be a great king and whom they were supposed to condemn to death through Herod. Glory and dismay.

Our feast for Epiphany was a bit subdued since we had to go to the airport.  Supper was chili, but for accompaniment, I made Rosca de Reyes from a recipe a Spanish friend gave me when we lived in Illinois. It is kind of a complicated recipe, but this batch turned out well - it's more like a sweet egg bread with a sugary topping that includes candied citrus peel than a cake. Some of my peels were sweet, others - perhaps they had too much of the pith or weren't ripe fruits - were still slightly bitter.  Those few bites threatened to overshadow the deliciousness. Chiaroscuro is everywhere.

 

Now for a brief photographic record of our past weeks.  How quickly the vacation days flew by after the long days of anticipation! 

Tamale fest fun.  I love tamales!!

HS band concert

Frugal family fun at the hardware store instead of a tree farm.

Elementary Christmas musical. Questionable Silent
Night rap and interminable pre-school number, otherwise better than
last year. Son number 4 had a solo.

Son number 3's gift to Baby

The exchange of sibling gifts before Midnight Mass

The Midnight Mass crowd

Christmas morning procession with all the nativity sets' Infant Jesuses.

Baby's first Christmas Joy

Holding it together

Last week was the week of celebrating saints, cheerfully bedecking the halls, lighting candles, smelling butter and sugar baking into deliciousness. . .

This is the week of AHHHHHHH! Nine days until Christmas! Three days left of the kids being in school!  Too much to do!  And where to begin! 

Deep breaths. One thing at a time. Reminding myself that what gets done, gets done; what doesn't, doesn't, and life goes on . . .

All is well for today. But as we put these ornaments up with little faces that have changed so much in a year or ten, I'm having to struggle to put off thinking about the looming heartbreak of changes ahead.  Such a bittersweet time. 

Prepare the way

Ahh, Advent!  Already! At last!

I love this time of year.  It's cozy and cheerful, especially since we have received some much needed rain. Hurrah for rain!  Even saw a brilliant rainbow yesterday morning - what was old hat in Guam is cause for parking lot confusion here. Everyone was stopping and getting out of their cars in the drizzle to take a photo.  It's amazing how quickly the hillsides take on a greenish tinge.
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Some other updates:

The Thanksgiving weekend holiday went smoothly. Dinner was delicious and the company low key. Four young sailors came over to my brother- and sister-in-laws and my boys took them paddle boarding and surfing. It was the first time one of them had seen the ocean. One of them said as he was leaving that his friends had given him a hard time about going to the CO's for dinner, but he was going to let them know what a great time he had in the water.

The next day we went to Fresno for the state cross country meet. Two kids stayed with the in laws for the Notre Dame- USC game. I had been fretting about which two, but in the end everyone made peace and was happy about where they were going.  Kids 4 and 5 stayed behind and the rest went with us. We stayed with our old neighbors and had a great dinner of left overs, homemade enchiladas, and good wine.  Their sons were hospitable, and their son's friends, all freshman home from college, showed up with 4 extra TV screens and six gaming consoles to play video games. Hilarious.

The meet was a success - oldest son ran well and the team placed 7th, much higher than they expected. The winners were crazy fast. California has some of the fastest high school runners in the nation. I'd much rather tailgate at a high school cross country meet than a college football game.

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First Sunday of Advent was a flurry of unpacking looking for the wreath.  No Black Friday shopping - no big requests this year and I don't want to get more stuff just to get stuff. Kids will probably get clothes this year.  My gift to my husband, who is out of town for a couple weeks, -- car repairs!  His clunky Toyota needed some major work. Hoping to keep it limping along until we move again.
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Just finished helping out with an Advent workshop for our M.O.M.S. group (Making Our Mothering Significant).  A crafty, snacky morning with four tables of crafts for St. Nicholas, Immaculate Conception, St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Lucy.  The table decor included a statue of each saint and an appropriately colored candle and a snack.  I helped put together a CD with music (found some good downloads on Noisetrade) and a pamphlet with blessings and links to sites with more ideas to celebrate Advent. So much on the internet!

But what things do we really do during Advent?
-Advent Calendar - preferably chocolate. Lego and Playmobil were biggest hits ever.
- Jesse tree for about 2 weeks
-Advent wreath with prayer "Jesus Christ is the light of the world" "Come, Lord Jesus, Come."
-St. Nicholas day shoes filled with candy coins, real coins, a candy cane, and a small gift (this year: nice pens!)
-OLG Mexican food for supper. Used to do a fiesta with a pro-life prayer group many moves ago.
- Mass for the Immaculate Conception
- Decorate tree on Gaudete Sunday
- Travelling Mary and Joseph from Nativity set for Las Posadas week before Christmas.  Baby Jesus doesn't show up in nativity sets until Christmas morning. Kids sing happy birthday to Jesus before opening presents.  Then the 3 Kings travel around the house until Epiphany.
- We have had a generic elf on the shelf for the past 3 years, but a friend sent me the link to have the 3 kings stationed around the house looking for Jesus. (http://www.catholicinspired.com/2013/11/wisemen-adventures-again-this-year-sooo.html)
- Crafts, cookies, cards, concerts, shopping - all the traditional stuff and some holiday events with work and school.  Sometimes we do gingerbread houses some years with friends or cousins.

Each year is a little different.  I am not a great crafter, but I like making things at this time of year. But I'm welcoming the time to spend reflecting also. After the busy fall, Advent provides a much needed moment to restore focus to things of the heart and soul and to renew my attentiveness to prayer and liturgy.

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Taking an online class to learn how to teach online classes. I'm a learning some useful tricks, but can't say I'm convinced that online or even flipped classes should replace traditional in class learning - or instruction at home.  There's just no room for the unexpected, impromptu moments and conversations when lasting learning takes place.  But I can see online learning being useful in many cases, and I am seeing how an active, involved instructor can make a class work.  As I've been helping my senior with some essays, I'm wishing I had time to get established in a writing tutor job.  But by the time I could find some clients, it will be about time to move again.

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Moving!  Getting anxious for a word. People around school and church are asking. Don't ask, people! I still have at least six months here! Don't drop me yet!  We should know soon what our future holds.

 So many mixed emotions about this life.
It helps develop resiliency, the latest trendy word in child development talk.  And we've had some great adventures.  But we leave behind pieces of our broken hearts everywhere we go.

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I do have some anticipation for a different house.  Would like to let go of my frugal ways enough to shed some old ugly stuff we haul around because it's useful and buy some new things because they are beautiful -- for instance, the kitchen table.  The dishes. Some new art and home decor. A new couch and chair.  My latest - rather, recurrent --- mental struggle is between minimizing clutter and cost and maximizing comfort and loveliness.

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Finally, what I've been reading: I've gone back to 19th century England to meet Phineas Finn in Anthony Trollope's book of that name. Like Dickens, Trollope is a master at creating interesting characters and capturing the era.  The politics are a little out of my ken, but I'm fascinated by the contemporary themes in the depictions of marital relationships.

I'm reading Redwall outloud with the three youngers. The 10 year old loves it. The 8 year old falls asleep.  It's entertaining to read, but long, and I don't see myself reading too many books in the series.

And I've started the biography of my grandfather that my aunt wrote and self-published. She worked on it for years. Lots of pictures and history included.  I'm loving it and will write more about it soon.

What am I thinking?!

It's Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving and here I am sitting at the computer. Woman, what are you thinking!  Shhh... the baby is sleeping, the kids and husband are off at the aunt and uncle's.  They are cooking the first of three turkeys (the balutan turkey), cleaning, and surfing in between all that.  So I have some stolen moments for contemplation...

Dinner tomorrow will be at the cousins' house with some sailors who aren't going to their own homes and some friends.  We are bringing sides, which are started, and pies, and a second turkey, which will be cooked in the morning.  I've baked some sweet potatoes, made the cranberry relish and sauce, and will make Gonga's yeast rolls in the morning.  I might be making corn pudding, but I think my sister-in-law wants to do it, and I'm happy to oblige.  Tonight, after we serve Thanksgiving dinner for homeless and old people at church, we'll make pumpkin, apple, and one other pie - maybe Jefferson Davis, maybe Shoofly, maybe sugar cream... something different.

The day after Thanksgiving, we're going to Fresno for the state cross country meet.  My oldest son's team is now one of the top 25 Division 5 CC teams in the large state of California.  That is a good place to be - no stress for the championship race Saturday morning, other than my son really wants a PR.

He also PR'd on his latest SAT. He took it once back in January, and did well, but the idea was that that was his practice test.  This time he scored an 800 in the reading section and a 700 in math, even though he did little in the way of preparation. I'm tickled pink for him. Where else can I brag but on my own little blog?

Other points of pride - school conferences went well. I have been worried about the academic achievements of my 3 youngers, but their teachers all assert that they are doing fine, and all three were complemented for being kind to children who are...not as easy to get along with as others.  My youngest (save the baby), who did awful on her Iowa tests, was praised by her teacher for being a friend to all in a class that has a few cliques already in third grade.  So as long as she continues to be a compassionate little person, I will gladly overlook her not scoring highly on her quantitative assessments.

I am also pleased to report that my oldest daughter did great in volleyball - her team pulled together to get 2nd in their tournament.  Her science fair project is coming along, and she has been a great babysitter lately - other than the night she let Baby gnaw a carrot.  A piece of carrot lodged in Baby's throat and she scared everyone with her gagging, but she hacked it up.  So babysitting class is in order.  Our fourth son, who also doesn't love academics, has a starring role in the upcoming Christmas play. Apparently, he can sing and dance - gifts he didn't receive from his parents.  And one of the pre-school moms came up to me the other day to tell me how kind he was to her little boy - the fifth graders buddy up with Pre-K for activities like a Thanksgiving program.  My kid apparently helped serve and take care of this little 4 year old. So even though I'm constantly after him to clean up after himself, to stay off the computer, and to settle down and do his homework, some lessons are sticking with him.

Sons number 2 and 3 also have earned praises - they are class presidents, their grades are good, and they both stuck with sports that they didn't love, but participated in because they love being a part of something.  And they have integrated well into their school in this second year.  All three high school boys - all three very different in personality - were invited to a birthday party last weekend with a 40's theme. They had to dress up and use good manners. The birthday girls' parents hired a dance instructor to teach swing dancing.  It sounded like so much fun, I wish I could have gone.

So this is my thankfulness post.  The kids are doing great, praise the Lord.  Not that I don't still lie awake at night worrying - about them going away to college, about the "girlfriend," about their progress, about their happiness, especially as we anticipate moving again in the summer.  One of the kids was complaining that we have favorites because someone received some special treatment, and I reminded him that love doesn't divide - it only multiples. But as love multiplies, so do the potential swords that can pierce your heart.   Last night we watched "Into the Wild," and I lay away thinking about how I would feel if one of my kids wanted to run off into the wilderness and live alone.  We need each other, I would plead. I need you.  I want all my chicks around me.

I worry that this itinerant life will teach them to resent staying anywhere for any length of time. We used to go to see family for holidays like Thanksgiving, but the longer we live far away, the less I even consider it as a possibility.  My aunt just sent 10 copies of the book she wrote about my grandfather (one for each of us and an extra).  It's a beautiful book, and an interesting read, I think. I read bits about our ancestors in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars aloud to the kids last weekend in the car, hoping to inspire them to feel connected to their extended family and their own family history.   Perhaps if they feel connected to a bigger family picture, they will make the effort in their grown -up years to come back to visit often.

And so even though I am taking a little break in preparations for tomorrow right now, I'm hopeful that our small celebrations will help the kids feel like they belong somewhere together.  On Sunday we'll revive more traditions when we'll pull out our Advent wreath and Jesse tree and set shoes out next week for St. Nicholas.  I'm looking forward to Advent this year - everything - house and soul  - seems to be crying out for a good clean sweep and a renewed focus on essentials after a very busy fall winds down.  I'm grateful I have time to take a moment to refocus on gratitude:  the kids are doing fine, I'm doing fine, my husband is fine, we've got plenty to eat and drink and wear and plenty to be proud of.  We live in a beautiful place, we have friends and family who love us, we have abundant opportunities for learning and admiring beautiful things.  It's a good life.