Ryan & Erinn's Family: January 2020

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get better at camping. I read articles on backpacking and car camping, and bought myself an amazing sleeping bag. It's light, super warm, and it's not a mummy bag, so I can sleep on my side! I also got a tent potty for the girls to use - one of my best purchases ever.

On New Year's Day, Ryan and Rich Hillquist took the kids to see the stealth bomber flyover. We saw it at our house, too, but their version was more exciting.

Ryan taught Corinne to do the "Air Horn" sign to truckers.

Our House

Ryan and Connor did a bike ride with friends to a local waterfall (we can't remember which one).

On my mom's advice, I bought a balaclava for skiing. Now we kinda match.

Celeste had her first day in Primary as a Sunbeam! Things were a little different from our previous kids, since Primary is now only an hour long, but she had a good first day, and loved her crown! She was not as happy the following week when she tried to go back to nursery. She's been cast out of the Garden of Eden with the rest of us.

I finished the New Testament! This was one of the most rewarding years of scripture study I've ever had. Despite the stress, I'm so grateful for my calling in Sunday School. I was a little unsure if studying the Book of Mormon in 2020 would measure up, but so far it has also been an amazing experience. I'm studying it in a slightly different way - just making detailed notes about each chapter - but I'm learning so much just from that.

The "Borders by the Red Sea"

During the first week that school was back in session, the Palmers came down for a Disneyland vacation. We went with them to Disneyland itself on Monday, then did a week of school, then joined them at California Adventure on Friday. I loved doing the parks separately like this! Also, I had never done the Tower of Terror/Guardians of the Galaxy ride before, and realized it's probably the best ride on earth.

Chipotle

Last Day of Christmas Decorations!

Also my first time on Splash Mountain

Holiday Parade

Star Wars Land Restaurant - The "Ronto Meat" was cooked by a big spaceship engine.

In between the Disneyland days, I took the girls for haircuts along with Corinne's friend Sasha. All the haircuts went well, except for Celeste's. The lady thought "don't trim these bangs" meant, "trim these bangs". Oh, well. She looked like she stepped out of the Great Depression, in a cute way.

California Adventure Day:

Guardians of the Galaxy. I went twice.

"Inside Out"

We walked 10 MILES at California Adventure!

Connor (almost) single-handedly cut down the plum tree so I could put together our Christmas trampoline. It was not an easy project, but it did eventually get done, and everyone suddenly started getting exercise in the middle of winter!

I went to a genealogy class one evening organized by our Relief Society and taught by a recently returned missionary couple. She showed us the "relatives near me" feature on Family Search, and it was so funny to see that most of the ward is some sort of cousin. (Polygamous pioneer ancestors tend to help with that!)

Ryan finished our new family stickers! The old ones were from Street Fighter, but I have to say that these Zelda ones are even better. Connor is a wizzrobe, Elise is a rope, Evan is a blue darknut, Corinne is a pols voice, and Celeste is a peahat. They all picked their characters, but we made the boys blue and the girls orange for consistency.

Kevin and Liz were super nice to "chaperone" our piano teacher's son when he competed in the Gina Bachauer piano competition. He made it to the next round, of course, so thank you to Kevin and Liz for pretending to know him!

The Highlands Latin Pasadena Talent Show:

Dance Number to "This is Me" from The Greatest Showman

"I Just Can't Wait to be King" Featuring Birds and Lions

These ones were birds.

Dance Routine to "Cool" from West Side Story

Hiking as a family always looks like this. The big kids go far ahead with Ryan and climb on rocks, and I fall farther and farther behind with Celeste who plays in the dirt.

It's Great to be Eight! Corinne got to attend her baptism preview. Since Ryan is the boys' Activity Day leader, he got to participate in the program, and showed the kids what would happen at their baptisms. (Spoiler alert: I don't think most of these kids ended up getting baptized in this font....)

We went to the Eagle Rock mall one night and tried all kinds of Filipino food. I got pumpkin curry, broiled whole fish, and this coconut rice cake called bibingka that was kind of like a sweet cornbread.

Our charter school organized a field trip to the "Shakespearience" show. Connor and Elise went and had a good time, but then complained later that it wasn't "real Shakespeare". Because they're way too sophisticated or something.

Corinne's friends (twins) had a spa-themed birthday party. Their mom had originally booked something at a real spa, but it fell through, so she just created her own party at home. Corinne thought it was awesome.