2 days

What you typically think of as sibling rivalry didn't exist in our house...ever! Johnathan has always been so tender with his siblings. Johnathan was 3 years old when Timothy was born. I was able to leave the hospital on time, but Timothy had to stay for a full 10 days. Johnathan cried because we had to leave the baby at the hospital. He never reverted to earlier behavior because the baby was getting all the attention. He never treated Timothy, James or Hannah poorly. He has always been so sweet, caring and patient with them.

However, a type of sibling rivalry did finally show up at our house...

When Timothy got his Eagle, he pinned the father's pin ABOVE Johnathan's pin on Tom's lapel. James says he will put his above Tim's AND he will be younger than they were when he gets it done!

But I think Johnathan got even when he proposed to Laney the day AFTER Timothy received his mission call!

3 days

Johnathan has always had a good head on his shoulders. He has been able to discern right and wrong and make wise choices. I always felt sad that some of my siblings were examples of poor choices, but what a wonderful son I was blessed with...a boy who could look at his uncle and aunt and decide at the age of 3 that he would not smoke and drink like they did.

We talked a lot about choices in our family from the time Johnathan was tiny, and it showed in his first testimony. He was nearly 4 years old, and gave his testimony by himself with no prompting. "I'm a big guy. I know the church is true. I know that my church is true. Boys and girls need to have right choices. I want everyone to be happy in the whole world. My testimony is about Jesus. So, boys and girls, we need to get right choices. I want everyone to be happy in the whole country. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I probably should have worried about the friends Johnathan chose to hang with over the years, but I knew he was strong. He knew where he was going and how to get there. Most of his friends have been non-members. Rather than them being a poor example for him, he has been a good example for them. He accepts them where they are at and loves them no matter what they choose, but at the same time he has helped many of them overcome a wide range of problems. I guess that's where he found his talent for psychology. The van has been known as "Dr. John's mobile psychologist office" for years now!

4 days

Johnathan has always been very energetic and quick. Not only did he learn everything early, but he went about doing them with vigor. Often I have felt like Johnathan is rushing to meet the world about 100 miles per hour faster than I'm comfortable doing. Half the time I wanted to put on the brakes!

Johnathan has always been very articulate, too. He thinks fast on his feet (another thing he did not get from me). A good example of this is the talk he gave in church last Sunday. He literally remembered he was speaking when he saw his name in the ward bulletin. Those of you who were there...did you even realize that as he spoke? I only realized it when I notice he was using Tom's scriptures.

He is a deep thinker and very analytical (I think he did get that from me), but he has NO FEAR of public speaking and he has always loved to perform. His earliest role was as the son of Jens Nelson in a musical about the handcart pioneers. He has always been interested in producing films, too. While we were in Utah he produced a short film about growing up entitled "Suddenly I Turned Around." He entered that film in the school's reflection contest and it went to the state level, if I remember right. Of course, his favorite part in that was throwing the watermelon off the roof!

I'd sure like to know what happened to that little boy. I can't really have a 22 year old getting married in a few days when I haven't aged a day over 27, can I?

5 days

One thing I learned about Johnathan was that he couldn't do anything quietly!

I remember thinking one day after Johnathan first learned to talk, "There go our quiet car rides!" And I was right. It seemed that Johnathan thought it was his job to keep everyone entertained while we were driving anywhere. He talked non-stop! Many times we'd have to tell him to stop talking so "mommy and daddy can say something, too."

I especially noticed Johnathan's loud tendencies when Timothy came along and was so quiet. I would watch them play in the yard...Timothy very quiet and methodical, Johnathan very loud and wild. I can still see him in my mind, running, sliding, swinging...and yelling at the top of his lungs!

Six Days...

Until Johnathan gets married.

I've been thinking about my baby alot lately. Johnathan did everything early.

He sat at four months.

He crawled at six months.

He pulled himself up to furniture at six and a half months.

He walked at nine months.

He pedaled a bike at twelve months.

And he's been running every since!

If you ever wondered why we are so busy around here...now you know...we've been keeping up with the kids!

Cubberley Class of 1980

That's the class Tom would have graduated from if they hadn't closed his high school between his junior and senior year. So instead Tom graduated in the Palo Alto Class of 1980.

Now, after 30 years alot of these kids have found each other on facebook and decided it was time for the first reunion of the Class of 1980 from Cubberley High, Palo Alto, California.

And that is how we ended our trip to California. We had fun meeting all Tom's friends from high school and getting to know them. For me it was a new experience to be in a large group of people, most of whom were toting a can of beer or some other alcoholic beverage.

We left the party Saturday night about an hour before it ended and while looking at the photos later, Tom commented, "I think the party got wild after we left." Since we've been home, Tom said, "When my two friends came and told me how they feel...I think they were sloshed." Because I grew up in Utah, that just wasn't something that happened in my neighborhoods or schools. I asked Tom if we were the only members at the festivities and he said, "No, there was this guy and that guy, too." Five or six of us in 150 people. Very different than what I'm used to, but I never felt out of place or weird because I wasn't doing what they were doing.

All in all, I think Tom was part of a pretty good group of kids/people. Since we've been home some of the comments we've read thanked us for coming, commented on how much they enjoyed meeting me and the kids, and, my favorite, calling me "the love of Tom's life." I just love that phrase!

A couple of Tom's friends told about a time when they decided to dig a fox hole in the backyard. They got it about 4 feet deep and ran into hard clay. So they filled it with water, thinking it would soften the clay. After four days the clay was still hard so they covered the water hole with a towel and then a truck tire and built an obstacle course. The goal was to get Tom and a couple other boys to run the obstacle course, fall into the hole filled with water, and get mad at them and chase them around the yard.

Well, all was going well until Tom fell into the hole of water...climbed out of the hole and finished the obstacle course. It definitely wasn't the reaction the two boys wanted, but it was so Tom!

Tom also took us to tour his old high school. It is a number of buildings that contain classrooms. The "halls" were only covered overhead by a roof, but other than that it was open to the weather with the class buildings on either side. The lockers were on the sides of the buildings. So virtually they were outside except for when they were in class. I'd never seen a school built like that, but in Palo Alto where the weather is so temperate year round...why have walls and air conditioning?

I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from one of Tom's classmates...

"Mid-life sure beats teen angst!"

I've always said life STARTS at 40!!!

Hands on!

I've visited several National Parks and have always enjoyed the sights from afar. However, we learned from our friends in Yosemite that the best way is to get up close and personal. I've never seen a place where you can scramble, boulder and climb to your heart's content.

We had a blast scrambling to the foot of the Lower Yosemite Falls to find there's a swimming hole where you can actually swim! Tom and the kids climbed close enough to put their feet in the water, but I sat in the mist and enjoyed nature's air conditioning.

Tom and James thought it would be fun to take pictures of us actually climbing El Capitan. So...

And James had a grand time jumping on top of the world! (On top of Sentinal Dome, that is.)

Next we discovered another swimming hole at the base of El Capitan. Tom and the kids are standing on the rock at the bottom of the picture. I was standing in the middle of the river.

And finally, we discovered a fallen sequoia tree that was hollow. Tom crawled half way through it, but the kids made it all the way.

I think I put in another 20 miles of hiking on this trip, so overall for the summer I have a total of about 35 miles hiked. I'm so excited about that! I couldn't do that just last summer. How I've missed hiking!

Hannah's birthday

What's more memorable...

Swimming in the ocean on your birthday?

And having a genuine Hostess cupcake birthday cake?

OR!

Receiving a poster of your favorite actor?

And having a real birthday cake?

And having friends to enjoy it all with you?

OR Maybe both?!!!

And still more wildlife from our trip. Hannah was so excited to see the wild horses.

Wildlife

We've always enjoyed looking for the wildlife while we're camping. Yosemite had lots of wildlife...and most of them liked to pose for photos.

While we were hiking Sentinel Dome we saw a bear and her two cubs.

The Best Thing

First...

The friends we stayed with in California were an older couple who lived in the ward Tom grew up in. Hank was Tom's bishop at one point. His wife, Colette collects nativities and had hundreds of them on shelves in the garage.

Colette gave this nativity to Tom because Tom's mom made it.

She gave me this one because I served my mission in Honduras. This nativity is from Honduras.

Best of all...

While we were in California I checked my facebook and found a message from a girl whose family I taught while on my mission in Honduras!

This is the Meza family: Jose Angel (dad), Francisca Blanco de Meza (mom), Nancy (smallest girl) and Jasmin.

Jose Angel and Francie took the lessons for a long time. We should have dropped them several times, but we just couldn't because they were such a great family. Jose Angel had studied with the JW's for two years. He was very careful to study everything out to be sure of the move he was making. Finally, they committed to be baptized and I was transferred out of the area just before that happened. I kept in touch with them for a couple years after I came home.

Here's the Meza family on the day they were sealed in the Guatemala temple. Both parents and Jasmin have been active in the church ever since. Manaces served a mission in Costa Rica and is now 24 years old.

I keep thinking of the story that was told about a general authority who served a mission in his youth and only baptized one person. Yet, how much good came from that one baptism?

I wasn't the one who first introduced this family to the church, but I played a part in their progress. How much has happened because of my role in that? Already six people in that one family have been influencing those around them. Add all the others I taught and it is mind-boggling.

Merced

Usually I post about events chronologically, but this time I thought I'd get the unpleasant out of the way first. Back in April we got the rear brakes fixed before Tim left on his mission. Not long after we started hearing noises from the front brakes. We hoped it would last until after the trip to California, but it wasn't to be. On the first day in Yosemite the brakes were toast. We did the best we could while in Yosemite, but we were NOT going to waste an entire day traveling to a city over 100 miles away to get them fixed. Finally, we left Yosemite on schedule and made our way to Merced, California. We found the Sears there, left the car and walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Long story short...finally 4 hours later we left Merced to drive to Palo Alto and arrived there soon after 9 pm Pacific Time.

Here's James after lunch.

"Hey, I know you're a teenage boy, but don't you think you ate enough?"

(Really, that's all the plates for the entire family stacked up in front of James.)