Happy Birthday Joe - in Pictures:)

Love you Joe - hope you have a great day!

Seaside Success

After our hiking experience, we felt like we needed a more successful family outing for our long weekend, and we knew we couldn't go wrong with a simple trip to the beach:)  So on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we headed over to Salinas River State Beach.  We'd never been to this beach before, but I heard that you could find sand dollars there, so I was excited.  Of course, all the kids really care about is playing in the sand;)

 

Alex, who has spent the majority of his life in Korea, is converted to the idea that you use an umbrella to shade yourself from the sun, so he brought his spiderman umbrella with us.  Joe and I borrowed it for a bit;)

The first thing we found at the beach, was that it was covered with the remains of crabs.....just the remains, no live crabs for dinner:(

 And I found some sand dollars:)  Some of them had other shells attached to them.  Weird.

Everyone was happy:)

 The End.

Oh wait!  I'm going to add a short video.  If it's been a while since you heard the waves of the ocean rolling in, then you might enjoy this.  Sorry I can't add the smell;)

Our Pheiffer Phailure

Remember a couple of months ago when we went to Pheiffer Big Sur State Park to hike up to the waterfall, but we couldn't because we had taken Bo with us, and dogs aren't allowed on the trails?  Well, we decided to give it another try, this time sans the dog.

Can you say DRAMA?  Can you say FRUSTRATING?  Can you say PAINFUL?

You know, we've done a lot of hiking with our kids, and WAY tougher hikes than this one.  Sure, there's been complaining before, but I would never say that any of our hikes had been a failure.....until now.

Sooooo much whining.  "I'm tired."  "I'm thirsty."  "I'm hungry."  "I want to go back to the car."  "I want to go home."  "My legs are burning."  "My legs are going to fall off."  "I can't find a walking stick."  "I want to be carried."  "This is a waste of my time."  "This is the worst day of my life."  ALL the way to the waterfall, and ALL the way back.

And one of the kids, who shall remain nameless, literally burst into tears at the sight of the waterfall, completely inconsolable, because it wasn't as majestic as he/she had imagined it was going to be. 

Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

Joe and I tried our darndest.  We told them to breath deep.  We told them to look up from the dirt trail in front of them, and enjoy the view around them.  We took things slow, and stopped for rests.  We talked about how cool the Redwood trees were.  We showed them where some of them had been damaged by fire, but were still able to survive.  We pointed out some saplings and told them that even though the Redwoods put off millions of seeds every year, very few of them survive.  We pointed out erosion, and birds, and moss, and mushrooms, and fallen trees, etc.  We gave encouragement, held hands, gave hugs and kisses, talked about the rewards of hard work and doing things that are hard/challenging, we talked about what a unique opportunity this was, and how beautiful the earth that God created for us is, and how that shows his love for us, and how grateful we should be, etc.

But there was no stopping the drama.

At times, we were not so paitent.  There's only so much complaining you can handle on a measly 1.4 mile roundtrip hike.  I may or may not have called my kids sissies.....in the most loving way possible, of course.

At the very end of the hike, Joe joked that we were going to turn around and hike back to the waterfall again.  He almost had a riot on his hands.  Too bad we couldn't have left the kids in the car and hiked back up it ourselves.  But I assume that since the park rangers won't let you leave your dog in your car unattended, they wouldn't have been too happy about us leaving our kids either.

Funny enough, the ride home was quite pleasant.  We talked, and joked, and enjoyed the view, and nobody got car sick.  It was the vacation after the vacation, so to speak;)

But even a few days later, and the kids are still describing the hike as "horrifying".  Did I already say drama?  Whatever. 

I don't know if any of the kids will get any joy out of the pictures that I took, but maybe you can;)  They're nice, and everybody's smiling for the most part.  You'd never know from the pictures.

 

Seeing the Light

Cora had a field trip to Point Sur Lighthouse. It was a beautiful and warm day, which we were grateful for after the cold spell we've had.

It's in a beautiful location too.  This is the view on one side.

 And this was the veiw on the other side. 

Inside the lighthouse.

 

 Outside we were able to see some whales in the distance, and some sea lions on the rocks below.

  They also had the skull of a whale that had washed up on  shore many years before.

  Overall, a fun fieldtrip, and a great way to finish up Cora's first semester as a homeschooler:)

Espionage

We decided to try out one of the local tourist traps - the Monterey Mirror Maze and Lazer Challenge.  Waaaaaaaaayyy overpriced, seriously......but a lot of fun.  We did the mirror maze over and over again, beginning to end, then end to biginning.  Nobody got lost....for very long.

 The lazer challenge was hilarious, and hard.  You had to make your way around the room and push buttons, without touching any of the lazers of course.  If you touched a lazer, a buzzer went off.  You could try it on easy, medium, or hard.  Cora was the only one who made it through without touching any lazers on the easy setting.  At one point, Joseph gave up, literally threw both of his hands up in the air, and ran across the length of the room to touch the last button.  He came out laughing pretty hard.  It was so funny to watch.  Joe said that's the way muppets look like when they run.

 Outside of the lazer room, you could watch the person inside on a TV.

Alex was also pretty funny to watch.  When the girl who worked there explained to us how to navigate the lazer room, she said it was like being a spy.  Alex took his job as a spy seriously!  He was jumping, and diving, and tucking and rolling.  If people hadn't been watching me on the TV outside, maybe I would have done some tucking and rolling myself;)

Merry Christmas

Christmas Morning - traditional picture on the couch with the stockings:

Grandma Liddell made them all pajama bottoms for Christmas eve, and they decorated their own T-shirts to go with them.

Our Christmas card for the year:

Part of some thoughts I shared for a Christmas activity at our church:

Luke 2 -

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

 

In the time when Jesus Christ was born on earth, shepherds were a little different than they are today. If you've ever been to southern Utah (or wherever else they raise sheep), you might see farmers herding their sheep with sheep dogs, or 4-wheelers, always herding the sheep from behind, pushing them forward. But that's not the way it's always been. In ancient times, shepherds never herded from behind, they led out in front, and all the sheep would follow them. The shepherd would call to them, and they would come. Why? Because they trusted the shepherd. He would always lead them to greener pastures and clearer waters. When danger was near, he wouldn't abandon them, but would fight for them, risking his own life to keep them safe. He knew each sheep individually. He loved them, and they loved him.

 

 I don't think that it was a coincidence that shepherds were among those chosen to witness the birth of the Savior who is our own Good Shepherd.

John 10 -

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

We hope everyone had a beautiful and joyful Christmas!

Gangnam Cousins

The last few times we have gotten together with Joe's family, all the kids have gotten together and performed something for us - a dance, a song, whatever - just being silly and having fun, as cousins do (and should).

Here's what they came up with for this trip.

I got to see a bunch of my own cousins at our Petersen family Christmas party.  Even as adults, we still know how to be silly and have fun too:)