Mt. Diablo

While in California this summer we took a trip to Mount Diablo State Park. A favorite book of Landon's includes a scene on top of and inside of Mount Diablo. He was determined we go there this summer. We drive by it every year on the way to the Jelly Belly Factory, but we've never turned it into a day trip for my kids.

We took two cars because we don't all fit into one car any more. I was driving. My dad was driving. Have I ever mentioned we both have a fear of heights? I have been to the top of Mount Diablo. My dad has been to the top of Mount Diablo. I have no recollection of being scared stiff making my way to the top. Neither does my dad. I suppose one tries to forget about experiences that cause so much anxiety you think your heart might jump out of your chest. Can't be good for the heart.

As we slowly made our way up a small two lane road with no guard rails, I kept having to remind myself to breath. Ainsley, Landon and my mom were in the car I was driving. Kaylee was with my dad. I was having visions of us driving straight off a cliff while my mom was worrying about my dad's fear of heights. Little did she know my knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. I was trying not to talk because I didn't want to scare Ainsley since she has a fear of heights too.

We made it to the ranger station. I thought, surely we must be close to the top. We pulled off into a small parking area. My dad agreed, the summit was near. We felt proud of ourselves for accomplishing such a difficult feat and decided to continue our journey. Suddenly the road became even more treacherous. My mom kept telling me to pull off to the side so she could make sure my dad was alright. I could barely respond, but there was no way I was stopping on that road of death. All I could think about was making it to the top. If I could just make it to the top everything would be fine. By then Ainsley was crying in the back seat because she was probably just as stressed out as I was. We continued. After what felt like hours, we finally made it to the summit of Devil Mountain. Ainsley wouldn't get out of the car. She wanted off that mountain as soon as possible. Eventually we convinced her to leave the car, and then we started to enjoy ourselves. We picnicked, we explored, we posed for pictures, and Ainsley got to see Mount Tamalpais (where some of the action takes place in one of her favorite books) from a distance.

All too soon it was time for the drive down. My mom wanted to drive one of the cars. She doesn't have an irrational fear of heights, so to her it made sense that she be one of the drivers. No way, I thought, if this car is going off a cliff I'll be the one in control of that, thank you. We stopped half way down at a part of the park known as Rock City. The kids had a great time rock climbing. For as scared as Ainsley was previously, she was quite daring climbing up giant rocks (maybe because she was in control of the situation).

The rest of the drive down wasn't too bad because we were on the mountain side of the road. It was still nice when we reached flat-ish ground. Aside from the terrifying drive, our day at Mount Diablo State park was way fun, but Devil Mountain is probably going to end up being a one time trip.

Sports and Stuff

I still have much more to write about our summer vacation, but we're already almost through the first nine weeks of school. I thought I'd better report on what we (the kids) have been up to before I continue writing about our summer fun.

School started much too soon for any of us. It took a couple of weeks to really get back into the habit, but get back into the habit we did. On the first day of school we were in a rush and barely had time to take our annual first day of school pictures. Getting back into our routine has helped us to feel a little less rushed in the mornings. It's still been a bit hard dragging the girls out of bed each day (Landon gets right up and plows through his morning responsibilities. Let's hope that continues!), so Chris and I have decided that starting on Monday we'll be getting everyone up at 6 am for scripture study. This will hopefully solve our getting out of bed in the morning problem and will definitely solve our, we're always rushed in the evenings when we study scriptures problem. You know, since we won't be having scripture study in the evenings any more.

Ainsley isn't super fond of her first day of school picture this year, but it's going to be her only one in braces, so I wanted to document this milestone. Besides, I think she looks cute, and her rubber bands match her shirt!

Ainsley is swimming on her school's swim team every day and is loving it. I thought that swimming hard for two hours a day would surely cure her issue of having a hard time falling asleep at night, but all it seems to have done so far is increase her appetite. She's still up later than me most nights. I don't know how she does it. She's also taking a theater and choir class this year. She'll be performing in her first play in December. Seventh grade has been a pretty big change for her, but she's adjusted to her new schedule and work load quite well.

I love it that Kaylee wore a scarf on her first day of school. It was probably already in the upper 80's when her picture was taken and was definitely in the 100's that afternoon, but she'd just finished knitting the scarf and wanted to wear it to school.

Kaylee has become quite the little Judo master. She absolutely loves going to her Judo classes each week. On Friday there were a couple of guest Sensei's helping instruct her class. One of them was the #1 ranked Israeli Judo player (Ori Batya). She was super excited when he chose her to go against him in a match. When Landon heard that Ori was from Israel he kept saying, "That's so cool! I bet he's walked where Jesus walked!" So cute. 

Our backyard gate started falling apart a while back and finally fell off it's hinges a couple weeks ago. Chris built a new gate with Landon's help. Landon did a great job hammering in many of the nails.

Landon's soccer season started, and he played in his second game yesterday. He loves it. He also loves that his team's name is the Firebolts and that his jersey number is 10 (his favorite number and Uncle John's jersey number). He would like to take Judo lessons with Kaylee, but right now soccer is where it's at. He's pretty funny. He really wants to be goalie. Every time his coach is assigning a new goalie he jumps up front asking if it can be him. He did get a chance during his first game. I like that his coach is having the players take turns in goal. I don't mind if Landon plays goalie, but it's nice that he's getting to try out all of the positions.

Halloween is coming up and none of my kids are entirely sure what they want to be yet. Usually they have it all figured out by the first of October, so we'll have to see what this Halloween turns up. Landon basically wants to carry a bunch of weapons for his costume (sword, ax, wand, nunchucks). He told me all I need to make him is a belt and a cape. I keep telling him that he can't carry weapons at school and trick-or-treating with weapons would be a big pain, so he's stumped about a costume at the moment. Kaylee wants to be Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter. That's going to be a bit of a tricky costume (she really wants the long jacket and combat boots), so she's trying to come up with an alternate just in case. Ainsley came up with pirate and crayon so far, but at the moment has no idea. We may end up having to dig in dress up boxes at the last minute if decisions aren't made soon.

Speaking of Halloween, Kaylee and I made a super cute Halloween decoration during Conference this weekend. That's about it for now!