Back to West Point

13 years ago, I took a little trip to New York with my boyfriend...  One of our stops was a day at West Point, his alma mater.

 

Then 10 years ago, I went back with my husband and a future Baby Scott in my tummy to celebrate his 10th reunion:

And last week the whole Syphi gang went back for the 20th reunion!  Things have changed a bit, huh? More than just my hair color...

We had such a wonderful time taking our kids back to West Point for Drew's reunion!  We went a day early so we could see the Statue of Liberty.  Unfortunately it was closed because of the government shutdown, but we still were able to take a 60-minute boat tour that was JUST right for the kids!  We even braved driving in Manhattan, which was an experience.  Clearly there wasn't a lot of master planning when building NY/NJ roads and freeways.

The next day we went up to West Point for the reunion festivities.  Drew's college acappella group, Six-Pack, sang at a memorial service for the members of his class who have passed away.  It was in the amazing Cadet Chapel.  The guys sang Soldiers Again, which was incredibly beautiful and powerful.  Then Six-Pack did a sound check at the football stadium in preparation for singing at halftime of the football game the next day.  They best part about that was running around on the football field all by ourselves!

Then Friday night we dropped the kids off at a friend's home and got all dressed up for the fancy dinner.  Somehow we didn't get a picture of the two of us!  But here is Drew with group he was with for the first 2 years at West Point.  

Then Saturday morning we told the kids we were going to a parade...  It was a parade, but not quite what Trevor envisioned.  If you check out the video, you will catch the moment when he realizes this is NOT a Disneyland parade!  This was my third time witnessing this parade and it is inspiring every time.  

The kids favorite story that Daddy told about being a cadet is how the Plebes (freshmen) are required to cut the dessert at meals and present it to an upperclassman for inspection.  And typically the upperclassmen at the table will make it as difficult as possible, like requesting the dessert be cut into 7 or 11 equal slices.  So when Martha Washington Cake is served, if the Plebe destroys the cake when cutting it, he/she must leave the mess hall, go outside to the statue of George Washington (below) and apologize for ruining his wife's cake.  The kids all thought that was hilarious!  I did too...

Then came the highlight of the trip for us -- the football game!  Army played awesome and won 50-25, and the running back broke a school record rushing for 304 yards.  And the kids loved the pretzels, sparkly drinks and dippin' dots.  But the best part was the halftime show when Six-Pack sang:

And Sunday we were able to attend church on campus and see so many great LDS cadets and families.  Then we had brunch in the mess hall.  Can you imagine feeding 4,000 cadets 3 times a day?  I wish we could have seen it full and just witnessed the meal-time rituals...  I would really like to hear a true, sincere apology to General Washington :) 

I just love being at West Point with Drew, surrounded by his classmates and their families.  Our kids also thought it was second only to Disneyland.  It was so fun to hang out in friends' homes on campus because it felt like stepping back in time...  There were dozens of kids and no fences so Scott, Charlotte and Trevor just roamed the neighborhood with our friends' kids and enjoyed playing on the playgrounds and just being totally free!  Even though I was never an Army wife and haven't experienced true military life, it is inspiring and humbling to be surrounded by such genuinely good people who love their country and their families.  And I know Drew endured his share of misery while here as a cadet, but all the good memories and the bond with his classmates seem to overshadow the hard parts.  He loves that place.

5 of the Six Pack

In the end, we were all worn out, but so glad we all went together to experience it!

First Day of School

It's back to school for everyone!  After a super fun and busy summer, we are back to a routine...  Let's start with Trevor:

Trevor started his second year of preschool with Teacher Cathy.  We love her!  It is a little strange that this will be our last year with a child in her class...  As expected, I drove up to the house, and Trevor did NOT want me to get out.  He is big and can hop out of the car and ring the doorbell without me!  So I had to let him have his independent moment, then get out to take pictures.   

Charlotte is a big 2nd grader!  Her teacher is Mrs. Nethercut (that's who we were hoping for) and she has some of her best friends in her class.  And as you can see, she FINALLY lost her top front tooth the week before school!  

And Mr. Scott...  He's in 4th grade!  He has Mr. Haskins, which will be his first male teacher.  So far we are both very impressed.  Scott's best friends are also in his class, so he is thrilled.

Now 3 days into the week and all the kids are happy and excited to be back!  I love our school :)

Summer Summary

With my blogging efforts seriously lacking, it is time for me to catch up a bit and document our super fun summer!  So here's the whirlwind tour...

It started with a fantastic couple of days at the beach house with 2 of my best friends from college, Liz and Becky.  We talked and shopped and read and talked more and slept on the beach and ate fantastic food and talked even more!  I love those girls and they always provide such needed therapy!  We really missed the other girls in our gang, but hopefully we can get a few more to come next time.  Somehow I don't have a picture of the three of us, but here's the view from the beach house :)

Scott had lots of fun at Scout camp building stuff, shooting stuff, knocking stuff down, throwing stuff...  You know - exactly what 9-year-old boys love doing!  Check out the video of him trying archery.  He was great!

We finally were brave enough to do a couple of REAL camping trips!  Last year we just bought the gear and "camped" in our backyard.  This year we did a couple of short trips - one to Scotts Flat Lake above Nevada City and the other to Sugar Pine Point state park on the west shore of Tahoe.  Sugar Pine Point was definitely our favorite and we would go back again.  I tried to recreate all my favorite camping memories as a kid, including eating lemon drops and lots of other treats we wouldn't get at home, playing card games or board games in the dark by the light of the lantern, doing the "dishes" by throwing the paper plates in the fire, and swimming.  We were able to do all of those!  We may be a little more adventurous next year and do a longer trip up in the Redwoods.

We decided to spend the hottest week of the summer in St. George, UT -- where is was another 5-10 degrees hotter than in Sacramento.  But we has lots of fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa and several of the Syphi cousins.  Thank goodness for the indoor pool and the inflatable water slide in the back yard.  The kids were definitely entertained!

While in St. George, we took a day trip to Zion Canyon, a place I haven't been for 20 years.  I forgot how beautiful it is!  The kids loved playing in the Virgin River.  We HAVE to come back when our kids are a little bigger and spend more time in this place!

And for a little intermission at home, we were able to test drive the Tesla Model S, our dream car.  Given the recent safety ratings that came out (it received the highest rating EVER for any car), if we truly love our kids, we will get one. :)  Scott is totally onboard with this plan!

Then back on the road...  Next we spent some time at the beach house near Monterrey, our favorite family getaway.  On the drive down, we were able to stop in Palo Alto and have fun visiting Papa and Pauline!  The kids put on a nice crazy show for them and are begging to go back to swim in their pool.  Then on to the beach!  We did the usual -- playing the freezing waves, digging holes, flying kites, searching for sand dollars, building sand castles and feeding the ducks.  We had some dear friends from our Palo Alto days come hang out with us for a couple of days.  It was great to see Jason & Elisabeth and Jeff & Terri and their kids.  We've grown up!

Then conveniently, I was assigned to teach a class in Austin, which meant I could go a little early and spend the weekend in Dallas with Cindy and fam!  That was awesome timing since I was very anxious to meet my new adorable niece, Baby Rachel.  She is a doll.  The best part (other than hanging out with the fam) was eating some real Texas BBQ.  Check this out:

The last week before school was filled with other awesome activities, like more swimming, Chuck E Cheese, playing with friends, and finally dinner at Woody's - the kids' favorite restaurant.

Now let the school year begin!

The Disneyland Birthday Party

Scott, Charlotte and Trevor all have their birthdays within about 5 weeks of each other.  The pattern we have established in our family is that we alternate years between friend birthday parties and family parties.  So this year was the family party...  We decided to take the gang down to Disneyland and Legoland to celebrate!  We went at the absolute perfect time - the first week in March.  The crowds were really small because we beat the Spring break rush!  It had been 2 years since we went to Disneyworld, so it was all pretty new to Trevor.

Mom drove down with us, and Dad flew down and met us there that night.  Day #1 was all Disneyland, and the highlights are as follows:
Scott: The Zurg ride.  I know that's not the official name of the ride, but it's the one where you shoot lasers at all the Zurg targets for points.  We probably went on it about 6 times.  Good thing we all love it!
Charlotte: The rocket ride that just goes in circles and Star Tours.  That surprised me a bit...  She was actually the most brave of the 3 kids!
Trevor: All things pirate...  The only thing better than Pirates of the Caribbean was the store after the ride with all the pirate accessories!  But unfortunately the Peter Pan ride was his least favorite.  He screamed through the whole thing.  Star Tours was also NOT a favorite.

Then we spent day #2 at California Adventure.  Last time we went was 4 years ago, and we barely spent any time there and didn't leave super impressed.  This time was different.  We LOVED California Adventure!  We all decided it was our favorite day of the trip.  And given that the crowds were small, we were able to do even the most popular rides multiple times.  Wow - Cars Land is amazing!  Here are our favorites:

Scott: Toy Story Mania.  We probably did that one 5 times and loved it each and every time!  

Charlotte: Soarin'.  What a cool experience!  She also loved the Little Mermaid ride, as expected.  

Trevor: Also Toy Story Mania.  And he enjoyed dancing and flirting with women while waiting in line.

Adults:  The clear winner was Radiator Springs Racers, the Cars ride.  That was absolutely awesome!  And we were so lucky that we could do it twice with literally no wait -- the first time we had fast-passes and the second time we did the single-rider line.  That was SO fun and so creative!  We also loved California Screamin'.  Sweet roller coaster...

On a side note, it was interesting that at work I have been involved with developing a bunch of custom training for Disney.  They use our software to evaluate customer surveys and forecast things like staffing and food.  I'd like to think my company is part of the reason why Disneyland is such a special place :)

Finally, day #3 was Legoland.  It was a fun place, but I'll admit it was a little cold and we were a little exhausted after our 2 long Disneyland days.  The highlight for the boys was really just building Lego cars and racing them...  But it was awesome to see all the amazing Lego creations.