Fun with Friends and Brothers

We had various opportunities this month to see friends and hang out. This included a visit to Cover's Apple Orchard with the boys' friends Noah, Brianna, and Lydia. We played at a park in Sacramento and then had dinner with Brett's college roommate Steve and his sons Jonah, Riley, and Nicholas. Joy and the boys saw Gusto, Ali, and Anton at a Native American Festival in Stockton. Garrett also got to hang out with one of his friends from school, Caleb, at a waterpark.

I declare that I will be annoucing when this train will be departing. Are you ready?

Caleb and I loved running around getting wet at this local park, I think we get to name it?

We had a good time at dinner in Sacramento. How's this for a gathering of boys?

This was our normal picture...and as for Bryce, he became a little hand on the back of the seat.

The hostess didn't believe that we would all fit in this booth...they wanted to put us on two separate tables...like that would have contained us all...we're looking for containment and only one exit point, so this did just fine.

If you ever thought Griffin doesn't get in on the wrestling with us brothers, this will dispel those rumors.

Identify whose body parts belong to who...

We have come for the bounty on our big brother Garrett.

Ali and Anton enjoyed a little shade during the Native American festival.

Max reminds us she is our front door cat.

Theo reminds us he is our backdoor cat.

September School

Building a Tower of Babel out of marshmallows to learn a Bible lesson.


Bryce's Classical Conversations class with his teacher (Mrs. Miller) giving him the opportunity to be the pointer.

Everybody had something to do at the table, so Mommy wanted to capture the moment with all her boys doing work.

Reading a book under a tree is a relaxing activity I wanted to capture in a drawing.

Venn diagram Friday is always a little something different with Daddy.

Even Griffin wanted to earn some baseball cards (although he proceeded to try and eat them), so he did some appropriate math for his level.

Garrett's state postcard collection up to date, we are still 14 states shy of the 50.

The Indian Pow-wow in Stockton was highlighted by a dancing performance.

Bryce is motivated to do some math for baseball cards (1987 Sportflics packs). The hardest part is actually writing the number, so this is a dual purpose activity.

Sometimes God provides one of the science learning lessons for the day--today a praying mantis.

Studying Columbus and his sailing of the ocean blue required some lessons in water density and air currents.

We built an hourglass with our sand to understand how they told time in Columbus' day.

Tough Mudder -Squaw Valley

We returned for a second time to the Tough Mudder challenge. This year we spent the whole weekend up at Squaw Valley for the event. Brett's parents came up with us and watched the boys during the 6 hour competition. The original advertisement was for a 2000 ft elevation gain and a 10 mile course. In the end, it turned out that we had a 4000 ft elevation gain and a 12 plus mile course. Interestingly the three couples that did it together last year were down by the two men (Chris and Eddie)from the other couples (Brenda and Michelle competed again this year). Fortunately, we had recruited Jason and Amy to join us this year, so we had 2 guys and 4 girls on our team. We worked together and got through the obstacles and all finished the course uninjured. Considering that we saw bloodied scalps, neck injuries, neardrownings, and numerous folks being airlifted off the mountain, this was a significant achievement. The highlights for Brett were successfully navigating the monkey bars and crossing the very long balance beam (there was ice cold water underneath that you had to swim out of if you fell). Joy was most proud of getting over the 10 and 12 foot high walls which required a lot of upper body strength to raise yourself up and then lower yourself down the other side. There was something mysterious about seeing the 11 mile marker while we were ascending up to the third peak we had been to. The best addition this year was that food was provided on the course (apples, bananas, water, and gummy sharks). And yes, you do sign a death waiver...


Nice and dry before the whole thing began: Michelle, Brenda, Mommy, Daddy, Jason, and Amy.



The start was an uphill sprint through smoke...if you didn't get some bronchospasm to start off, you weren't breathing.


A gorgeous view of Lake Tahoe from High Camp at Squaw Valley...didn't stop long to take in the sites.


Daddy (closest to right) tries to ascend the half pipe and grab a helpful arm.


The trail of runners covered most of the mountain terrain during the day.


Daddy's successful monkey bar expedition (the only one in our group to make it across).


Mommy was distracted by the splashes next to her and soon joined with a splash of her own.


Mommy ascends the vertical rope to the platform 10 feet up.

Warming up with the space blankets felt so good when you were wet and cold.

Jumping off the 15 foot platform into freezing water (yes they were adding ice to it), Mommy, Brenda, Daddy, Michelle from left to right. Oh yeah, and afterward they had to swim over to the tubes and bob under each of a set of three of them before you swam to shore.

Daddy finishes off the race by running through electrically charged wires. ZAPPPP.

Enjoying a post-race food supply of protein bars, drinks, and fruit.

Thank you Grammy and Poppy for watching our boys while we competed.

This was our favorite closet to set up camp and hide ourselves in. Grammy joined us in here--it was FUN.

It was great to stay at the place where the event started from, because then we were able to walk to the restaurants, listen to the bands, and generally relax after the big event.

We asked Mommy if we could get one of these huge chairs for our backyard...

Just a little sampling of only 2000 feet in elevation gain.

This is where the 1960 Winter Olympics took place, can you imagine playing hockey at 8200 ft?

Well I guess we decided that Griffin was the gold medalist.

Softball Championship

We have faced the same team in the playoffs for the last four seasons and lost to them. This year we had gone undefeated in the regular season for the second consecutive time and knew that we needed to finish the season with a win against our nemesis. Well, we were down by a run in the bottom of the last inning. Chris had doubled off the wall in right to set up runners on second and third with one out. Joy came to bat and wasted no time lining the first pitch she saw into centerfield to drive in two runs to give us our first coed softball championship. Brett was coaching first base at the time and told Joy to stop at first base which irritated her a little because she wanted to keep going to second, but Brett told her "You just won the championship!" Brett is still more excited than Joy about her feat: a walkoff, championship winning hit is a rarity to be cherished and indeed we still are. Our team from left to right: Crystal, Carlos, Chris, Michelle, Lisa, Joy, Brett, Lara, Scott, and Jeremy.

September 2011

September was the start of many things including soccer games for both Bryce and Garrett. The new year of Classical Conversations started for both of the older boys. Bryce and Garrett also joined a sibling gymnastic class where they are there at the same time but the skill level is divided up appropriately. We won our first coed softball championship due to a clutch hit by Joy in the bottom of the seventh. We spent a weekend at Squaw Valley in Tahoe where Brett and Joy completed the Tough Mudder challenge course of 4000 ft elevation gain and 12 plus miles. We even had some time in there to see some friends.