What A Tripp!

Back to School 2011

After a crazy, busy, hectic summer, the kids are finally back in school. They started on Monday, August 15th. Caemlyn and Zephram are both in 7th grade at the Middle School, and are thus far very happy there. {breathing a huge sigh of relief there}

Kezia is in 4th grade and Ada is in 1st and both are very happy with their teachers.

This will be an interesting year, having my kids split between 2 different schools. The older kids have to leave 1/2 an hour earlier and get home about 10 minutes earlier than the younger ones. Tyghe has one more year at home with mommy. Starting in September we will be participating in a co-op preschool with some friends from church. Hopefully it goes well and we can enjoy our last year together.

anniversary getaway

Justin and I celebrated our 14th anniversary on August 8th.  Justin’s grandmother also turned 90 on that day, so we took a quick weekend getaway to Washington to celebrate.
On Friday, we got up early and drove to Anacortes to take the ferry over to San Juan Island. It was SO foggy, we couldn’t see anything until we were almost to the island. Luckily, the rest of the day was sunny and beautiful. We walked around a little, then headed off to do what we went for – ocean kayaking. Even though this was the 2nd time we had been ocean kayaking, it was a very different experience than in Hawaii.


We had a good time though, and managed to stay out of the frigid water. While beached for lunch, we got to watch a pod of orcas swim past on their way north. Unfortunately, none of my pics show enough since they were rather far off the coast, and I didn’t have a digital camera with me.
We took the evening ferry back, with beautiful views.

Due to our long and late day Friday, we slept late on Saturday then we went to Justin’s aunt’s house for a big 90th birthday party for his grandma. We hadn’t told anyone we were coming, so Justin’s parents were quite surprised to see us. It was nice to see some of his siblings that we don’t get to see very often as well. There were even cousins there that I had never met before.
That evening, we went to downtown Seattle. We walked around, enjoying the sights, then had a very nice dinner on the water, while the sun was setting.

We headed back home Sunday morning, just in time to get the kids ready for their first day of school the next day. All in all, it was a very nice weekend.

Children’s Theater

As soon as the kids returned from their month long exodus, we hit the ground running. Caemlyn attended a week long art camp and had a great time. While she was gone during the day, Zephram, Kezia and Ada auditioned for the Missouls Children’s Theater production of The Princess and the Pea. They enjoyed their 2 hour group audition, but unfortunately, Kezia didn’t get a part. Ada got a part as one of the dust bunnies – friends of the princess.

Zephram didn’t get a part in the play, but he did get the opportunity to be one of the assistant directors. He was in charge of lighting and sound and enjoyed going to rehearsals and being part of the production.

While Kezia didn’t get to be in the play, she and Ada did attend a workshop on stage make-up. It wasn’t quite what they expected, but Kezia did get to have her face painted.

After a week of rehearsals, they put on a very nice production. They’re already looking forward to a chance to be in next year’s production.

Of course, the children did all of this while camping out in the backyard, as their bedrooms (and the living room and dining room) had been emptied of all furniture so that we could refinish the hardwood floors. Justin got started while we were in CA, but it took a lot longer than anticipated. A couple of weeks after returning, we finally finished the floors and the kids *finally* got to sleep in their own beds! The floors look lovely, but I’m not sure I ever want to do that again. Ugh.

Cali

After trek, I got to fly back to CA to spend some time there with my kids and parents. The kids had such a great time swimming in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool – nearly every day. One of the highlights of our visit was a camping trip to Yosemite with all of the older cousins. What beauty! We’ll have to go back and take Justin. This one is much better explained in pictures.

The kids also had fun playing with lots of their cousins. Tyghe and Asher had no trouble finding things to do together.

I’m glad we also got to visit with my grandparents.

I even got a girls’ night out with my mom and sisters…which never happens. We went out to eat and then to see “Oliver” at the Music Circus in Sac. (stole the pic from my mom)

Thanks to my mom & dad for such a great time!

Trek

As mentioned in my last post, Justin and I had the opportunity to go on Trek with the youth in our Stake. We got to serve as a Ma and Pa and work directly with some amazing youth. We rode buses all night to be able to spend 3 days pulling handcarts in the Rocky Ridge, and Martin’s Cove area of Wyoming. I won’t bore you with the details of this adventure, but will just share a few of the high (and low) lights.
The Good: amazing youth that set a great example of hard work, never complained and were a lot of fun to be with. square dancing. great food – that I didn’t have to cook.
The not so good: too much muddy water and hence the AWFUL mosquitoes. (Did you know that mosquitoes prefer O+ blood?)

We visited and trekked near the Willie Center, at Martin’s Cove and even crossed the Sweetwater River. We also took a side trip to Independence Rock. I didn’t have a camera with me, but did pull out my cell phone for a pic on top of the rock. The view was amazing.

We had changed into our trek t-shirts, but this gives you an idea of what we wore. I made my skirts, apron and bonnet – and they were so cute.

I’m glad that we had the opportunity to do this and that it was such a positive experience.

Fire

Just a few days after we returned from our quick trip to CA, a fire broke out in the mountains behind where we live. It began around 1pm on Sunday afternoon, June 26th…



very dry conditions and lots of wind sent it quickly towards town

and by Monday morning, it had burned 44,000 acres.
With all of that smoke, this was our sunrise.

Caemlyn and I took a bike ride that morning to get a better view of the smoke just beyond the National Lab and Bandelier National Monument.

We took some time Sunday evening to pack up some clothing and a few things of importance, as the town called for a voluntary evacuation. At noon on Monday, the “officials” proclaimed it wouldn’t harm town and we would be fine. The smoke quickly filled the air though, and by 2pm the fire had reached the ski hill (just above our home) and they issued a mandatory evacuation. We packed up the car with what we could and headed out of town, not knowing if we’d ever see our home again.
We decided we wanted to get further from the smoky air, so we headed to Albuquerque. Not wanting to spend money on a hotel, we were very blessed to have some wonderful friends make room in their home for us to stay. They have 4 children close in age to ours, and the kids had a great time playing together. We also headed out during the day to spend time with friends from home at Explora! (children’s museum) and a great swimming pool. After 3 nights and no end in sight, we decided to head to CA to take the kids to my parents’. We would have love to just enjoy our evacucation, but our commitment to go on Trek with the youth in our Stake made the situation much more complicated. My mom was supposed to fly out and stay with the kids on Sunday the 3rd, but not knowing if there would be a home for the kids to stay in led us to take the kids to her instead.
Our drive went smoothly, until we pulled into my parents’ town with a flat tire. We got lucky and got it fixed rather quickly, but found our travels had put our credit card company on alert and they decided to put a fraud block on our cards, making it difficult to pay for repairs and other necessary items that we needed, but didn’t bring with us. After a couple of chats with the cc company, we were back in business.
Justin and I flew back to NM on Sunday, July 3rd and were lucky to be able to go home for a few hours before leaving on Trek. The evac order was lifted that morning at 8am as the town was deemed no longer in serious danger. Yay! We returned to extremely smoky skies, and I was glad the kids weren’t here, and knew they were safe and having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.
I’m so thankful for everyone that helped us and prayed for us during this ordeal. I’m especially grateful to the firefighters and emergency personnel that worked so hard to keep our town (and the lab!) safe.

Happy 90th Great-Grandpa Tripp!

Justin’s grandfather turned 90 in June, and we got to take a quick trip to Cali to celebrate.  We don’t get to see Grandpa Tripp very often, so this was a nice opportunity to see him and spend some time with him. Had to take our traditional 4 generation photo.

Justin and all of the kids with Grandpa and Great-Grandpa.

Grandma Tripp was there too, but I don’t seem to have any pics with her.
Justin’s Aunt and Uncle (that we met for the first time) put on a great little party. They also invited us to their home for dinner, where we got to see their menagerie of large game animals that they hunt. Quite an impressive collection, as was his story of how he got the 10 foot square grizzly in Alaska.
It was nice to spend time with family we don’t often get to see, and even meet some new family members.
Since we were there on Zephram’s birthday, we decided to head to the Superior Ice Cream company to celebrate. Zeph loved that everyone in the restaurant sang to him with they brought this giant sundae.

That was some *tasty* ice cream!

4, 12, 11, 36

Sounds like too long of a lock combination, but it’s just the ages from our recent slew of birthdays. On Flag Day, Caemlyn turned 12, and Tyghe turned 4. I can’t believe I’ve got a child old enough to go to Young Womens/Mutual. She is so excited though, and even got to attend girls’ camp last week. At least her age hasn’t kept her from being her crazy self. She had 7 friend over for a water party/slumber party and had a ton of fun. Luckily for me, she didn’t almost all of the planning. I didn’t have to do much at all. Of course, I didn’t get many pics either.

About an hour after Caemlyn’s friends left, 5 of Tyghe’s friends showed up for a superhero party. I made the most awesome capes for all of the boys.

And doesn’t a superhero need a phone booth for changing in?

Caemlyn helped by drawing a superhero for the boys to pin their emblems on.

Had to have a Super “T” cake.

And the super awesome car “caddy”/track I made for him.

Pretty sure he had an awesome birthday – and I can’t believe my BABY is 4 years old!

Since we were headed out of town (another blog post) we celebrated Zeph’s birthday a little early. He didn’t get a party (only do them at 4, 8, 12, 16), but we did have lemon lush (instead of more cake) and he got to open his gifts.

And and Pack meeting on the 14th, Zephram earned his Arrow of Light, a special patch for earning ALL of the webelos activity pins and did his crossover into Boy Scouts. Crazy!

And yes, there is a 36 in that combination, cause we celebrated my birthday as well. No pics of me, but I do have one of my super tasty lemon swirled cheesecake. SO good.

Running – the Good and the Bad

Running can be such a beautiful thing. Last week I went on a trail run along the ridge over Los Alamos. I was greeted with spectacular views of the Valles Caldera and then later with an awesome view of where we live.

Except for the smoky haze from the AZ wildfires, it was a beautiful day.

Last week at church, Tyghe and another little boy were running in their classroom. The other boy ran into Tyghe, knocking him into the corner of the cinderblock wall. The resulting scene was his primary teacher holding him in his arms with paper towels on his head and blood all over his sleeve. I ran upstairs to get Justin and our Bishop (a surgeon) ended up coming down a couple of minutes later (when he finished teaching his lesson) to check on things. He was given a priesthood blessing in the boys bathroom and then the bishop drove Justin and Tyghe to the ER, where he taped and glued his head up.

The tape is now gone and Tyghe only has a red line down his forehead. I don’t think the resulting scar will be bad at all.

Kinder Star

On the last day of school, Ada’s class had a Kindergarten Star Celebration. The kids shared with their parents all about their accomplishments for the year. They sang, they danced, they read stories and they earned awards. Ada has done excellent in school and “she just shines” (quote from her teacher). She also towers above most of the other kids. lol

She really has changed quite a bit. She can now read chapter books (and the Old Testament) and even learned to ride a 2-wheeler during the last week of school. Way to go Ada Jane!

After school got out, we spent the afternoon at our friends’ house. Caemlyn and Ada are both good friends with sisters, so it makes things kinda convenient. They had a sprinkler, water balloons and food. Kept everyone entertained for several hours. Thank goodness the weather cooperated – even though it was windy, it was warm enough to keep the kids outside.