Disneyland Memories

The day before Thanksgiving, we all went to Disneyland. Gavin and Ellie wanted to spend as much time as possible at "It's a Small World".
During the day, we took a break and had lunch at Uva, a restaurant in Downtown Disney.
One of our favorite rides, and by far the longest wait of 1 hour, was Toy Story Mania. . .the best score we got was 140,000 points.
It was great to have Jeannie and Alana home for Thanksgiving.
Evan is shown here riding on Uncle Tude's shoulders.
We had a whole boat to ourselves at Small World. It was decorated beautifully for the Holiday season.
Auntie held Ellie and Jeannie held Gavin when we all went on the Small World ride.
Here are the three people in our group that have had their cars hit in the last 4 weeks. . .too bad some people out there can't drive. Below, Gavin is shown watching the fireworks show at Disneyland, enjoying some popcorn.

Friends, Family, Food and Fun

With both sets of parents here for dinner, we had a feast of steak and lobster tonight. What a blessing for all of us to be able to share good times together. My parents and Brad's parents have been close friends for about 35 years so it is always fun when we get together.
Ethan and Coco at least enjoyed having the steak. . .they weren't quite into the lobster yet.
After this very filling dinner, we all had Family Home Evening together and learned about Cooperation vs. Contention. Ellie and Gavin were especially helpful with the lesson.
James and Gavin are displaying some of the lobster tails that were the deal of the year at approximately a penny a pound - and there is quite a story behind that price.
Now that's a dinner fit for a king!

Spring in San Pedro

Evan just got word today that he will be in San Pedro for another 6 weeks. . .and he is pretty excited about that. He loves San Pedro and the ward there. Also, he will be in a location and with people that he knows well for Christmas - and that makes a mother very happy. He is shown above in front of the city sign with one of his favorite companions, Elder Amasio.
There have been a number of baptisms in San Pedro since Evan has been there. These are two children that were recently baptized, Marisol and Ariel.
Here is a picture of Evan looking at the ward building. He said that the weather is just now starting to get a little bit warmer. . .but that it will heat up a lot by the time their summer comes in December.

Mahalo

We continued to work on the condo while we were in Hawaii. Other than watching the surfers on Sunset Beach for an hour one morning, we never made it to the beach again. On one of the trips into Honolulu to get some furniture, we stopped to take a picture of beautiful Waimea Bay.
Mom and Dad have found a new way to bicycle on E-bikes. These are regular bicycles that have a battery pack on the back that gives an assist when pedaling up a hill. They were great!!
We always enjoy a stop at Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. . .our favorite on the North Shore.
I made sure that I had plenty of pictures, with this one taken from the condo lanai, to post on the new website advertising the condo for rent.
We worked on getting some new furniture and rearranging the upstairs bedroom. The new bathroom will be put in around the first of the year.

Aloha and Happy 60th, Mom and Dad

Helen and I have been in Hawaii with our parents for the past 5 days, working on fixing the condo up. We have made some progress and it looks like the major work will be done in February. The weather has been pretty rainy, off and on, and today is the first day that the sun has shown consistently. We went to Ted's Bakery with Mom and Tat and got the macadamia nut Danish and went to Sunset Beach to watch the surfers. The mauka showers produced a rainbow right over where the surfers were in the water.
Sunset Beach had very few people on it today. The surfing championships ended yesterday. . .they had 25 foot waves for the championship.
Tat came up to North Shore and spent the weekend with us. A friend from home that is going to BYU Hawaii, Kristine Magnusson, joined us for dinner out on the lanai.
For their 60th Anniversary dinner, Mom and Dad chose Lei Lei's on the golf course and Helen Tat, and I joined them. The seared ahi is excellent at this restaurant.
The Hawaii Temple at Laie was having an Open House for the first time since 1978. We all went to the temple and enjoyed how beautifully it has been refurbished.

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween with all of the grandkids. How fortunate we are to have them living near us. They are pictured here on the front steps with all of the pumpkins that they carved.
Gavin and Coco went out Trick or Treating tonight. Gavin was an engineer and Coco was a BYU cheerleader.
Here they both are, ready to go to the Ward Halloween Party.
Megster made her traditional stew in a pumpkin. . .and we all loved it. Everybody had a good meal before they went out trick or treating.
Here are the four kids dressed up at the Ward party. Ethan was a frog, Coco was a cheerlead, Gavin was an engineer, and Ellie was a fairy princess. They were the cutest little kids.

Sunshine in Santa Barbara

We stayed at the Doubletree in Santa Barbara and both Megans were able to slip away for a night with the four kids. We loved having them here.
One of the speakers that we met was Peter Vidmar, the captain of the U.S. Gymnastics Team that won the team Gold Medal at the Olympics in 1984. He also won an individual gold medal in the pommel horse. He told of the parallels of government and working hard to win a gold medal. Gavin and Coco met him afterward and he showed them some of his skills.
You'd never know it by this picture but Peter was swinging his legs around this pommel horse very fast. Gavin was impressed.
It was one of the clearest days I have ever seen on the Santa Barbara Channel. The Channel Islands, normally obscured by fog, appeared so close. Ellie and Ethan loved playing in the sand with Megster while I attended meetings.
The big bathtub was a hit also. . .so deep that water wings were essential.

Virginia in the Fall

Last week, Dan, Helen, Grammie and Grampie flew to Norfolk, VA to visit Jeannie. We had perfect fall weather while on our trip. There were so many different sites that we had never seen before. The first picture is of the wild horses on Chincoteague and Assateague Islands on the DelMarVa Peninsula. No one quite knows how the wild horses got to the islands, but one theory is that in the 1600s, Spanish galleons were transporting the horses to the Viceroy in Peru when the ship was wrecked in a violent storm off the Atlantic Coast. The horses swam ashore and have been a part of the barrier islands ever since. These islands became famous because of the book by Marguerite Henry Misty of Chincoteague, published in 1947.
An old lighthouse station on Assateague Island that is still used today. Every July, the horses are rounded up by the Chincoteague Fire Dept. on Assateague Island and they swim across the small inlet that connects the two islands. Once on Chincoteague Island, an auction is held to sell the horses. In this way, the population of horses is kept low. So interesting to see these magnificent animals out in the wild.
One day we toured Yorktown, which was the site of Cornwallis' surrender to Washington during the Revolutionary War. We learned so much more about the battle that lead to the end of the war for our independence. This picture is on the car ferry across the James River from Jamestown to Scotland, VA. And the ferry was free of charge!
The commemorative monument from the Battle of Yorktown. This monument wasn't erected until the 100th anniversary of the battle, which took place in 1781.
In August, Jeannie and her roommate Nicole moved to an apartment in downtown Norfolk. They really like the busy location of the downtown area, which is very close to the waterfront. We had a wonderful time visiting Jeannie and getting to know more about the southern VA area. Jeannie had to leave us early on to attend a school on Cape Cod to identify different fish. This will be in preparation for her next underway in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Family, Friendships and 60 Years Together

Last night at the Duarte City Council meeting, I, as Mayor, was honored to present Mom and Dad with a certificate honoring them for their 60 years of marriage. This is something that the city does for couples that have been married for 50 years or longer in our city. . .and I just happened to be Mayor this year to present Mom and Dad with their certificate and cake. The evening started out with many friends and family coming to the council meeting, much to Mom and Dad's surprise. Ed and his 3 children came out from Highland and John and Nicholas posted the colors and led the flag salute as Boy Scouts. Ian had business in So Cal so he was able to fly in here for the ceremony.
Here are Mom and Dad explaining that their great friendship with one another is the basis for a long and happy life together, filled with love.
Here are some of the family and friends that joined in the celebration, left to right: Shirley Eckenberg, Megan, Gavin, Elise, Brad, Nicholas, Ginny Joyce, Dad, Ian, John, Megster, Ellie, Ethan, brother Ed, Mom, Stephanie, Patsy Harbicht, Lois Gaston (councilmember), Bob Harbicht (bicycling friend and councilmember/Mayor in Arcadia), Dr. Dean Conklin (school superintendent), Martha and John Jansen, Mayor Pro Tem Tzeitel Carracci, Ruben and Reyna Diaz (school board member), neighbors Betty Elliott, Mary Ann Ur, Russ Elliott, Margaret, Joey from Joe's Place that provided the great cupcakes, and Assemblymember Anthony Portantino. After the ceremony, we took a recess and everybody had cupcakes and talked for about 20 minutes. I left the council meeting for about an hour then and we all went to dinner.

Ragnar - What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

Helen and I went to Las Vegas to work SWAT (Sweaty, Wet and Tired) for the Ragnar Race, a 200 mile round-the-clock relay race. We have both run it twice before and we decided to work at this one, as Exchange Managers, to get a free registration for the Big Kahuna Team this year. The race started on Friday morning at the Valley of Fire, about 50 miles northeast of Vegas. We are shown above at the starting location.
You can just make out the Ragnar Start in the distance. These were the types of roads that most of the race was run on. There were 12 runners on each team and over 400 teams competed. Some of the team names included "The Oxymormons" and "This Seemed Like a Good Idea Last January".
Here is a picture showing one of the groups starting the race. They started about 15 teams at a time every 15 minutes starting at 6 a.m..
Our Exchange, Number 18, was located in Henderson, Nevada. It was a beautiful venue, with nice facilities for the runners. We set up our pylons, the runner's chute, water stations, etc. and had two shifts of 10 volunteer workers to train and manage. Our work started at 5 p.m. on Friday and we went back to sleep at the hotel when the last runner came through about 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. We had so much fun and met a lot of great people.
Just before we started our shift on Friday, Helen and I drove out to the newly opened bridge that spans the Colorado River just beyond Hoover Dam. It is an amazing engineering marvel to behold.