Ryan & Erinn's Family: Piano, Evan's Birthday, and Wiley

In early January, we had a series of long rainstorms that left the mountain-facing part of our property several inches deep in water. One of our sumac bushes fell into the driveway, and our crawlspace even got flooded - it was very exciting. The kids and I spent a good part of one day digging mud out of our neglected drainage ditches and figuring out how to siphon water with a garden hose!

We continued to settle in to our new piano program. The kids started attending group theory classes to prepare for the Certificate of Merit exams coming up in March, and Evan and Elise got ready for a concerto festival. They have met a lot of new friends through piano, surprisingly.

Everyone likes the baby.

Learning Theory at the Keyboard

I stole this picture from Facebook, but it's such a great shot of Kevin and Liz. Kevin has been doing so much better in recent months. He lost his job when his company went out of business last year, and had a health crisis in the fall, and was doing a lot of intensive treatment. He seems so much healthier and happier, and is able to work again. I love him and am so happy to see things going well for both him and Elizabeth!

In mid-January, our friends the Palmers came down to visit, and persuaded us to buy season passes to Universal Studios! The day we decided to go was super crowded, but we still had a good time. Tiffany and Mariah even offered to hold Celeste a bunch of times so I could go on some rides!

Waiting at the Jurassic Park Playground

We ate two with the Palmers, took two to the Kennys, and two to the marriage class dinner.

Eating Pulled Pork

Connor earned his Tenderfoot rank!

My sweet boy Evan celebrated his 7th birthday! He had a tres leches cake (Dad helped him choose,) and got a pinball machine and a tumbling mat as gifts. The mat has turned out to be a favorite piece of furniture for the whole family, especially Celeste!

Good Morning, Seven-Year-Old!

Baby Gymnastics

Other stuff we did:

Elise made Corinne a mermaid costume.

Primary Talk

Priesthood Preview

Superbowl Party at the Dastrups'

Evan grafittied his wall when I made him go to bed.

We finally started the rabbit pen project.

Cute pictures:

Grapes the Monkey

In Thousand Oaks for a Birthday Party

Celeste looks a lot like me sometimes.

At the Vances' House

Evan REALLY loves his baby.

Balloon

I had to put the sad part at the end of this post. On February 6th, I put Wiley outside to go potty while I got ready for bed. I noticed after awhile that he had been unusually quiet, and I went into the kitchen and opened the sliding glass door. Instead of seeing Wiley there, however, I saw a massive pale shape on the other side of the pool, trying to jump over the fence and shaking the branches of the apricot tree. After a moment, it gave up, went around, and jumped the fence near our bedroom window. I remember trying to comprehend what I was looking at, and telling myself, "It can't be a mountain lion, it's too big!" It was then that I saw that Wiley was hanging, lifeless and limp, from the wrought-iron fence. I yelled for Ryan, we quickly figured out that Wiley was already gone, and we made sure the kids were okay and confined to their rooms (luckily they never saw anything.) We also went to the neighbors' houses to alert them, then wrapped Wiley's body in towels and said goodbye to him. It was just so surreal and scary. Our first thoughts were that Connor had been outside that very night in the dark, and it so easily could have been him or one of our other kids (Fish and Wildlife claim that mountain lions have never attacked people in this area, but I wasn't convinced.) It took us several weeks before we were comfortable letting the kids play in the yard without us, and it's still frightening when we have to go outside at night alone. The day after it happened, Ryan told the kids, "Wiley's job as a dog was to bring us joy and protect his family, and he died doing just that." I'm grateful that, as far as we could tell, he didn't suffer, and that he didn't get carried off. Ryan felt it was important to warn people, so in addition to telling our neighbors that night, he contacted a news station the next day, who sent out a camera crew. Several other stations, along with the Glendale News-Press, picked up the story as well. Hopefully it helped people be more careful with their families and pets.

Lion Prints

We think he was ambushed and killed under the swings, then carried across the yard.

Camera Crew

Wiley Brown (MTS Megaman's Dr Wiley) was born January 27, 2006 at MTS Poodles in Livermore (Michelle Schultz.) Everyone who knew Wiley commented on what a sweet, patient, good-natured dog he was. All of our children grew up with him and loved him as part of the family (their first words were all "doggie!") Even Ryan, who initially objected to getting a poodle, eventually admitted that he was the "best dog." Our house is much too quiet and empty without him, but we're so grateful we had the chance to have such a good boy in our home for eleven years!