Day 2.

Don't you feel bad for the second day of school?  It's like the day right after your birthday and you think, I have to wait all year to have another one of those!  On the second day of school you are thinking, Shoot, I have to go to school everyday?!?!?  The excitement has definitely diminished,  everyone got up later, needed a bit more encouragement getting everything together, but all in all, still a good day.  Hooray for day two.  Now you are getting some love and you don't have to feel so jealous of day one. 

First Day!!!

I LOVE the first day of school.  Pacen was up and dressed before any of us were out of bed.  They made their own lunches (lets see how long that lasts!).  Just a super exciting day.  

Here is Camry the First Grader!!!!  

And Pacen boy the THIRD grader.  That is nuts. He was more reluctant to smile for me.  This was the best "get this over with ASAP" picture he could muster.

Don't you love dads?  We were lucky enough that he could walk to school with us today.  In this picture of Pacen and Cam I had just said, "Now get together and hold hands!" and this was the look I got.  He was not amused.

This was than's pic he got from his phone. Many people thought it was like a mini Than and mini me, but I just think that they look like twins in this one.

On the walk to school, the turkeys were out.  It made me think of my mom.  I'm sure she was walking with us on this important first day of school.  She would have been so proud!

The day went really well.  The kids were happy.  Pacen said that his teacher was so nice and "focused".  He said she told him that.  Camry had lots of details to tell me about Mr. Seigel's room and what they did today.  This is what happened when I put her in a time out for being sassy at me....one tired first grader. 

I have to say it was super quiet in the house today and I did enjoy it.  We did some play-doh, both Claira and Gentry took naps, it was pretty glorious.  From the looks of it, we're gonna have a good year. 

BEST DENTIST EVER!

So I took the kids to the dentist today since Camry has never ever been.  She's six.  I blame it on our no dental insurance ever and my laziness.  But now we have dental insurance and we have had for 8 months, and I'm just getting them in.  I told you, lazy.  I just randomly found the closest dentist that accepted our insurance and they had the cutest sounding chinese lady at the front desk who was really nice to me on the phone.  So all of us went today.  I was trying to get Pacen, Camry & Claira in for an appointment and when I walked in both the Dr.'s, a father and his son, came out and were super friendly with my kids and asking them all sorts of questions.  Pacen had on his BYU shirt and A's hat so there were lots of questions about that and just made them feel super comfortable.  The younger Dr. talked to me a lot about BYU because he had a lot of buddies at dental school that were LDS and had  a gaggle of kids like me.  The dad dr. made balloons out of his gloves for Claira and Gentry while they waited and seriously the kids were playing volleyball in their office and "hide the hand" and they kept saying how they really didn't mind and to make ourselves at home and so we totally did.  While I was trying to get Claira to sit in the chair for her appt (which didn't really ever happen even with a bribe with a new toy from Target), the chinese receptionist lady (I should learn their names) took Gentry and Camry out for a walk so I could just help Claira.  Seriously I have never ever been to a Dr's office where I have been treated so kindly.  Like ever.  (I'm channeling my inner Taylor Swift with my never evers.) (And using lots of parenthesis.)  Usually people look at all of my kids, and now especially with my growing belly, I get a look of, "Seriously you are going to bring in all of your kids at once?  Where is your nanny?" People just aren't that tolerant of big families out here and these guys went above and beyond and I couldn't have been more happy with this dentist office.  Go see Dr. Chen!!!  And besides that, both Pacen and Camry had small cavities and they filled them and my kids didn't even let out a peep and were totally at ease the whole time.  Amazing.  

This is Camry doing some fluoride.  It was hard to take pics, and fill out lots of paperwork and keep Claira and Gentry somewhat under control but I did get a few.  I had to document her first dentist visit ever. 

Pacen with the younger Dr. Chen.  He had two small cavities and the dr. is worried about his growing underbite.  I wonder where he gets that from?  It's weird, right?  But seriously I've never noticed it with Pacen but it's definitely there so we are going to go see an orthodontic specialist in the next few weeks and see what they have to say about it.  

This was just them getting worked on at the same time.

And as soon as I took a picture of Pacen and Camry, Gentry pulled out her cheese but wouldn't keep still enough for my little phone camera. 

And I thought this was from this outing, but then I realized that couch is from Summer's salon from when we got Camry's hair cut.  It's so cute.  I have some pics I need to upload of her new first grade bob.  She's cute.  And so are these little piggies.  

Tomorrow is the first day of school.  The clothes are laid out.  My kids are all asleep.  Camry has Mr. Seigel who were were hoping for and Pacen has Mrs. Gheysels, who we hear is fantastic and sent Pacen a postcard a few days ago telling him how excited she was to have him in class.  I'm torn on the whole school thing.  I have LOVED having my kids at home but I feel like we need that structure back in our lives and I have been terrible about getting school stuff in this summer. I think it'll be a good year.  I think Gentry will be sad to have her Pay-Pay gone all day.  I think I will enjoy having more more time with just Claira and Gentry.  I think I'm really going to enjoy our little co-op preschool this year because we are going monday & Wednesday and then every other friday or so we are going to do a field trip and there is soooooo much to do in this area.  It's going to be tons of fun.  I think (no, I know!) that I will enjoy not have a kindergartener because picking up Cam at 11:30 last year was not fun, just from the running errands perspective.  I think that every year is going to be like groundhog's day because as I was going to back to school day it was like, "Wasn't I just here giving you all my money?"  Yes, you have to pay for public school here in the WC.  I think it'll be great.  But I also think I will miss my kids. 

Than's #1 Trending cougarboard post!!!!!

On Sunday night, Than and Pacen had to opportunity to go to a Jabari Parker Fireside and the interstake center in Oakland. Jabari Parker is the best high school player since Lebron James and the cool thing is, he's LDS!!!  Both Than and Pacen loved listening to him and his family.  I'll let Than's cougarboard post tell you all about it.  The post that is the number one trending article right now that has had over 1600 page views since he posted it a few hours ago.  That's just how many BYU nerds...I mean BYU awesome supporters are out there. :)  We're pretty proud of Than's latest achievement. Here's the cute picture of my Pacen boy and Jabari.   He really seems like an amazing 17 year old.  Pacen is very proud of this picture and kept telling the girls what kind of great basketball player Jabari is.  

You should read Than's post.  It's a pretty cool story. 

Jabari Parker Fireside Recap

I feel a bit like a Jim Rome clone here, "long time listener, first time caller" which we all hate to hear, but I finally feel I have something of value to share CB and figured I would finally take the plunge.

I had the chance to attend the Jabari Parker Fireside last night in Oakland, CA and I must say that Jabari is a very special young man from a very special family. If last night is any indication, he has the potential of being a HUGE force for good and for the church around the world.

I am the YM president in my ward and when I found out that Jabari was coming to town I immediately alerted the troops and made it a mandatory activity. I also took my 8 year old son with me. Needless to say Jabari and his family did not disappoint. The meeting was very spiritual, fun and was one of those "so proud to be a Mormon" moments! Here is a quick rundown of the night.

First, it was hosted by the Tongan stake in the bay area and the Oakland stake center was packed, which is no small taks since it seats a few hundred/thousand and even has balcony seats. Jabari's Mom is from Tonga and served her mission there so this was a bit of a homecoming for her and her family. The Tongan stake did an awesome job hosting the event and you could tell they are very proud of Jabari's polynesian descent. Jabari's mom also seemed to know every one in the room. She spoke first and recapped the story of how she met Sonny (similar to what was in the SI article) but shared some other interesting stories. Two that stuck out were when she asked Sonny if raising her family in the church would ever be a concern for him. He said it was not, to which she re-inforced that if there was ever day he told her she could not take her kids to church or raise them in the gospel would be the day her and the kids would leave him. She said it with so much power and conviction that you couldnt help but feel her deep commitment and love for the gospel, it was pretty powerful. She also shared experiences when she was a relief society president in Chicago and how Sonny would accompany her on visits to sisters in the "projects" despite the concerns of the local church leaders for their safety. It was pretty cool to hear how supportive Sonny is of their faith and commitment to the church. The second experience was when Jabari and Chris (Jabari's older brother) where young kids she had a sister in the ward that needed help moving. It turned out that nobody showed up to help so she grabbed her sons from the basketball court and they drove over and helped the sister move her entire apartment up 9 flights of stairs. She really emphasized the importance of service and being an example of service to your children. It was a GREAT talk for the adults in the room.

She did say that she gets calls from coaches constantly but has stopped taking them because it takes time away from her family. She said time with her family is most precious of all and so if need be, she will take 2 weeks to respond to coaches calls. She also said she told Jabari and all of her children that they should use their gifts and talents for one thing and that is to bring people to Christ. She was very humble, but extremely bold and powerful.

Christian, Jabari's brother spoke second and shared some great stories from his mission. He was extremely well spoken and sounded like an EFY speaker. He shared how he and Jabari were talking about how amazing it was that they were doing a fireside and was very humble about the fact that they were the "main event". He then went on to share some great stories and experiences from his mission which was great for our young men that attended. He shared how he was pranked as a new missionary and was told to wear an orange vest and use orange airline light cones everytime his trainer needed to back the car up. He said this happened for more than a month and even in a walmart parking lot. It took him a month before he realized he was being punked by his trainer. It was a really funny story and everyone got a kick out of it. He also shared how important it was for us to honor our commitments and how our agency is weakened or strengthened by the choices we make. His fun and engaging demeanor was a perfect balance between his Mom's more serious tone. He provided a great "warmup" for Jabari.

Christian then showed the ABC feature on Jabari (which Jabari said was the first time he had seen it) and the crowd gave a huge round of applause afterwards (pretty standard for Non-Utah firesides). He then introduces his brother and shared his accomplishments. He was very proud to be "Jabari's brother" and seemed to be a strong influencein Jabari's life.

Jabari was your typical 17 year old, a little awkward because of his size and not too eloquent, but definitely had a humility to him that was very atypical. He only spoke for about ten minutes but shared experiences that anyone who serves with the youth would die for! He basically made it cool to be Mormon, cool to be different, cool to stand up for your beliefs. He shared how Proverbs 3:5-6 helped calm his anxiety before a state championship game. He also shared how we has not giving his best recently in preparation for the U17 world championships and his coach called him out on it. Afterwards he worked super hard in practice to the point that he ended up with a fracture in his big toe. He said this left him in a "very dark place" because he could not play or help his team. While in his hotel he decided to turn to the scriptures and prayer to find happiness (yeah, you cant make this stuff up! ) and shared Ether 12:27 with everyone. He said after reading in his hotel all day he was uplifted, filled with the spirit and ready to cheer on and support his teammates. He also went to the doctor that night and x-rays showed that his foot was miraculously healed and he was able to play in the final few games of the tournament. He also told the youth that "We all need to stick together, because in the end we are all the same" all believers in Jesus Christ which was really cool for our youth to hear.

He did not mention where he was going to play of course, but I was hoping! He did say that he gets frustrated with people asking him about his mission because in his mind, "Why Can't my mission be right now." This did seem a bit like he was suggesting he didnt need a mission to bring people to Christ, but I dont want to read into it too much. Finally, he encouraged the youth to build their talents and to be the "Diamonds in the rough" and to not fold under the pressure that society brings and to be shining examples of faith.

After the meeting he was swarmed for photos, but given that I am that obnoxious Dad who uses his son as an excuse to fulfill my own desire for autographs and cheesy famous people run-ins, I positioned us perfectly to get the first pic with Jabari. The photo sums up everything!



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You could tell Jabari expected the response, but was till young and naive enough to enjoy it. It could not have been more different than my recent encounter with Jimmer, who could not have seemed more annoyed when we met him! I realize they are on different levels, but I truly hope Jabari never loses this excitement and kindness. I introduce him to my son, told him he loves basketball and that he was just baptized. Jabari congratulated him and then instantly picked him up in his arms. At 6'9" this was pretty cool for my son. I took a pic of him and my son and then took a pic him with my YM group. We were all ecstatic to meet him and the way he made us all feel. Again, as a YM president, not living in Utah, you are constantly fighting the battle that it is cool to be different. Jabari's presence, demeanor and attitude taught this principle far better than any lesson I could have ever prepared or given in Sunday school/Priesthood quorum.

I know this post is way too long, but I seriously have been on cloud 9 since the meeting last night. It was such a great moment and I truly hope Jabari lives up to the hype, no matter where he goes. I am a die hard BYU fan, season ticket holder (out of state), Cougar club member, etc but I can honestly say, after last night, I dont care where he goes, I will be his biggest cheerleader. He made a believer out of me and my son last night! (Of course I am hoping beyond hope that he comes to BYU, dont get me wrong.)

I hope this was helpful and worth the read. I figured it was about time I contribute to the craziness that is the BYU fandom! Cant wait to make the long drive from the bay area to Utah for the home opener against WSU, I have a feeling this is going to be a special season.

PS For those of you who mock the BYU Football firesides, I think it is important to remember how special nights like these are for us not living in Utah. I spent 4 years in PG and recently moved to the bay area. You forget how much those of us outside Utah have to stand up for our religion every day. Nights like last night once again make you so proud to be a member of the church and help you stand strong in your beliefs. I know the football firesides seem like a distraction, but I attended the Ole Miss fireside and can tell you the same spirit of pride and encouragement was there as it was last night here in Oakland. It really does strengthen the members who dont often get access to everything that is in Utah. So next time you dog on Bronco, keep this in mind, it is nice for us outside Utah to feel that connection to the church.

Camping at Mt. Tamalpais (Started on Thursday I think.....now it's Monday....That's my life these days.)

So I've just survived two days of back to school shopping with the kids.  For the most part it was fun letting them pick backpacks and shoes and school supplies but the other part was not fun being out corralling them around for two days.  I liked letting them find clothes that they liked and it's funny because now I can't just find shoes for them.  They are getting so big that they actually have to try them on and have an opinion.  The problem with shopping for Pacen is that all boys clothes that are out right now are ugly and I just don't like them.  I hate obnoxious character T's that are all bright and in your face and he doesn't want to wear polos and button ups all the time so it was a struggle finding him some shirts.  But he picked out a few today at Old Navy.....a sportscenter one, a Raiders shirt and a 49'er shirt.  He's a sports kid, what can I say?  And I slapped the veto to any angry birds shirt he found. :)

Here is the photo I took yesterday of Pacen after he found his beloved hat. (This is how far I got....sad...so picking up from where I left off....)  He has worn that thing every day.  EVERY DAY!  He LOVES it.  And feels very cool and handsome in it.  Especially when paired with his jeans, white church shirt and suit jacket.  What can I say?  My boy is fly.  

The real reason for this post (as shown in the title) was to document our short impromptu camping trip with some friends in our ward.  We went to Mt. Tamalpais since it's one of the only first come first serve campsites around here and it's pretty close and since camp sites around here fill up months in advance, you have to be pretty on the ball.  But we headed up and they found a spot.  It was not my favorite spot and I would probably never go again just because you couldn't drive your car into the site and you had to hike your stuff up this pretty steep hill and with kids it just doesn't make sense.  If you were backpacking or had a troop of boy scouts it would be perfect.  It's beautiful, tons of hiking, just not ideal for family camping with little kids.  But we still had a fantastic time because we love camping.  Than had to work so he came and met us Thursday night, went back to work on Friday, then came back camping Friday night and then we went home on Saturday.  I didn't take a bunch of pictures since my camera didn't make it up the hill and I didn't want to make a special trip for it but we did get a few.  

Friday morning we went on a short hike with all the kids.  Our friends, the Taylor's, have three kids....one a 1 month old baby and our other friend who came up WITHOUT her husband (she's crazier than me!) also has three kids--a three, one and one month old.  And then there is me with my four kids.  Brian, the poor loan husband had to do a lot of work for us but he was a good sport.  

After the hike, we went down to Muir Beach and just played for a while.  

I had to take a picture of Claira's perfect curl on the end of her braid.  So cute. 

And after I took this picture, I think my camera really died.  LIke dead dead.  It's my original canon rebel from 2006 that I take (and don't take very good care of) on outings like the beach so I don't have to take my nice one and it still hasn't come back to life.  I have hope since it did this once before and revived itself but it's not looking good.  You've been a good camera, little rebel.  

We had a few funny experiences while camping.  This crazy lady came up to us and told us that she was A--homeless B--had two broken ribs by being hit by a bus and was on the news about it and C--allergic to the electromagnetic waves sent by our cell phones and asked that we all turn them off.  Than thought it was so she could abduct our kids and we'd have not way to report her. :)  Oh and D--the pg&e smart meter is killing her and many kids each year.  Did I mention that we thought she was crazy???  And when Than and Brian were hanging out at night they looked over and she was just staring at them.  FREAKY!!!  Lock up your children folks! :)

And Michelle's almost two year old started crying at like 5 am and the really loud young people next to us ( I can say that now because I'm a mature mom of 4) didn't shut up until 2am so they were not too happy with her when she couldn't get him to go back to sleep but what goes around comes around as Justin Timberlake says. I'm pretty sure he was the first one to say that. It was sad because poor little kevin was just crying...more like screaming...and she was trying to get him to feel better and then those losers started fake crying mocking him and I wanted to go yell at them but obviously didn't.  But I did go out and help her especially when her three year old started crying too and we stayed up and watched the sunrise.  Oh to be a young mom with no husband camping.  She's brave.  And crazy.  But not like the crazy anti cell phone lady.  

Saturday we got up and wanted to go to Muir Woods but forgot it was tourist season and a Saturday which means that it was PACKED!!  We figured...hey we live here and can come back whenever we want.  Let's go home and take a shower.  So that's what we did.  Overall super fun and so glad to get the invite.  We are up for camping anytime!  

San Fran.

Before I write about last week, I should write about what we did yesterday.  I had a great plan of going school shopping and getting that all out of the way.  Then I got a text from Cari saying that we should go to the 1$ showing of Charlotte's Web at 10.  So, of course I was like, Sure!  I can do that and then go shopping and I get to be productive and do something fun for the kids.  The movie was packed...lots of moms (and nannies in the WC) getting in last minute fun before school starts....Gentry did okay.  We  did have to go out and walk around for a bit in the middle.  The kids loved it although Pacen just can't handle when movies are not exactly like the book.  I said, "Did you like it?"  And he says, "Yeah, but the beginning really isn't like that.  It doesn't..." and rattles off all the things that aren't just like the book.  Don't worry, Pacen, you will be continually disappointed for most of your life with books turned movies. :)

Then we ended up going out to lunch since it was Ethan's birthday.  We went to the Habit and it was packed and we couldn't find a table so all 9 of us (7 kids) are all just standing around and I'm trying to get tables from people that are leaving and TWICE the tables were taken right from me.  One lady snuck in ahead of me while someone was leaving and I say to her, Hey, we have all these kids can we have this booth?  She was there with one other person.  She looks at me and says, "Well if I can't sit here then I have to sit in the sun and I have to go back to work."  Really?!?!  There are two of you and 9 of us and you won't go sit in a place for two people (which there was available in the store) you have to take the entire booth!  RUDE!!!  And then the other lady hadn't even ordered yet and told me that if I was planning on waiting for this booth it's already taken because she's waiting for it.  She hadn't even ordered and I was sitting there with all of our food!  Seriously people.  And she was just two people too.  I don't think people need to bend over backwards for me and I realize that it's my choice to have kids and take them into public places but I just thought it was common courtesy to let someone have a bigger seat since they have a bigger party with kids and we already had our food and were just waiting there for a seat.  We did eventually get a seat but I really haven't been that mad in a long time.  I really wanted to tell them how rude they were but I didn't. Or maybe I just wanted to throw fries at them.  But again, I refrained.  

Anyway, lunch turned into swimming and hanging out at Cari's house until 6pm.  That means that I didn't do anything productive but we had a super fun day.  

But last Wednesday, we had a treat and Rian came into town for just one day and it was awesome because I've been wanting to do stuff in the city with the kids and just don't make it down there very often.  We met at Union Square and did some shopping.  We went to Anthropologie and I we found some sweeeeeet deals.  I got the cutest white trench for 70 bucks when it was originally $268!  And Rian found some dresses....one she got for 50 bucks originally priced at like $278.  Isn't that awesome!!

This was us after our purchases.  Even the kids were happy about it. :)

Then we got some pretzels and hotdogs and parked it for awhile.  The weather was amazing that day.  Not too hot and not too cold.  I did pack the jackets and blankets in the stroller just in case but we never needed them.

Here I am with all the kiddos being super brave in the big city.

Pacen was just being funny in his thug Jimmer hat.

Rian and me.  You better get used to seeing pictures of us because we are going to Ireland together!  It's a totally crazy last minute thing that Than has to go to Ireland in September and I'm going too!!!  And luckily, Rian was already planning on being there with Sid so we can go explore Ireland together.  Cant' wait!!!!

Pacen likes to continually snap pictures and I like to make ugly faces at him.  This is what we get. And who doesn't want to see it in an extra large size??

This picture makes me laugh just because it must be what I look like to everyone else.  We've had that stroller forever...it was a hand-me-down from a friend in Michigan who used it with her two boys first.  But for some reason, even though its ugly and disgusting and a little embarrassing, I just can't seem to replace it.  And i've tried but I just can't pull the trigger.  I really want it to just break so I can't use it anymore but it just keeps on going.  It's the energizer bunny of double strollers.  It's been everywhere from New York to Florida and LA.  Just don't look too close.  It is really disgusting! :)

 From there we headed off to Crissy Field.  I had never been there before but had heard about it.  The wind went crazy there right on the water!  But it was so pretty looking at the Golden Gate. 

Then we just ran around and explored a bit. 

And played some hide and seek. Gentry was a great seeker. 

We chilled on the little beach for a bit and just soaked up the sun.

I love this one. 

 Anybody want some cheerios???  They were successfully contaminated by the time Gentry got to them. 

 And a boat came in!  They are so big and I did not know that those containers sometimes don't make it all the way from China and can just fall off in the ocean.  Rian gave me all of her knowledge. 

 And then it was time to leave.  What a view from both sides. 

 We got some dinner at the fabulous House of NanKing and then finished off the day with my favorite thing in SF...the Nob Hill Chill!  

 We are lucky to have been friends with these two for so long. 

A little sister love in front of the breastfeeding mermaid.  

This little monkey was being crazy in the ghiradelli ice cream shop waving and getting other people's attention.  She won over the heart of this little 14 year old girl that had to come over to our side to say goodbye to her new friend.  She is the most friendly baby.  

And that was our day in SF.  So much fun. So glad we went into the city that day.