Spring Trip 2013 - Day 4

We did not try for the two Hawaii flights today because there were no connecting flights from Hawaii to Japan anywhere on the horizon, and we knew that there was a direct flight to Tokyo on Saturday with 73 seats, which we were told are rarely filled.

So we slept in a bit, Clint and I went on a short run around the duck pond fitness trail, then we took the boys to IHOP for breakfast. Cole had double dipped French toast--He is a breakfast man through and through. Jack, whose code name among his friends is "Baconater", had a double bacon burger, Trace had chicken strips and waffles, I had a veggie egg white omelette with added avocado, and Clint had a crepe with whipped cream cheese and pancakes.

Then we drove to Alameda and took the ferry across the San Francisco Bay to Pier 41.

There we saw Sea Lions,

And busquers, like Wilson, the one-man-band.

Very entertaining. We thought he definitely deserved a Lincoln.

Then we ate at Boudin's Bakery which has been making famous sourdough bread on the Bay since 1898. We all had the bread bowls with crab and corn bisque, except Clint, who had clam chowder.

Then we went through the museum and bakery tour where Clint searched for tips on how to better his sourdough bread making and found out that, even though he ordered sourdough starter from San Franciso, local bacillus have now taken over and it is now Utah bacillus!

Then, our favorite part of the day was a tour of the submarine USS Pampanito. It had a wonderful audio tour with many voices of Pampanito veterans. They described how it was so hot that their uniforms were permanently stowed in their mattress covers and instead they wore shorts, flip-flops and tank tops the entire cruise. The diesel fuel stench was so pervasive that submariners could be recognized by their smell. There might have been another smell as well, as water was so precious that showers were a bi-monthly treat. The diesel engines were so deafening that only sign language was used to communicate except when they submerged and switched to battery power. Here's Tal in the enlisted bunkroom which had 36 beds, four-deep.

Here are Trace and Jack at two of the four tables in the mess hall.

Man! I thought my 1940s kitchen (on Yalecrest Ave in Sugarhouse) was small! Imagine cooking for 75 in this!

And speaking of small, this is office has about 18 inches by 24 inches of working space.

They played the "awoogah" alarm and explained that the men up in the crows nest had 30 seconds to get down the hatch and sealed in. Then the sub would be 60 feet down in the following 30 seconds. 

Most of the veterans agreed that the best memory of theirv time on the sub was when they rescued 73 Australian and British POWs off their lifeboats (after the Yanks sank the ship that the Japanese were transporting them on!). 

Most people don't know that the subs were responsible for sinking over half of all the Japanese ships in the war, far more than any of our ships or planes, and 25% of the subs never made it home, but were underwater tombs for their men. It's appropriate that the submarine force is nicknamed the Silent Service.

San Francisco is a perdy perdy city. After the sub tour we took a trolley to Ferry Landing, took the ferry back to Alameda and then we drove back to Travis. 

Spring Trip 2016 - Day 3

Clint got up and tried and failed for two flights. One was a failed flight from the day before, so it was already full, and the other had only a dozen seats. We were tired and decided to chill on the base. We went to the commissary and exchange, got haircuts (Clint and Cole) and ate lunch at Subway. Everyone got footlongs and saved half for dinner. 

Then we went to the Travis Airforce Air Museum. Clint was our docent outside.

Inside we got a private 30-minute lecture on James Dolittle who led the first air raid on Japan in World War II. The gentleman was so excited about it as he spewed details at top speed, it was easy to be enthralled, but he did assume a lot of knowledge that is not in the kids heads, but they listened quietly. 

Then we went back and hung out at the apartment and I went on a run around the beautiful base. The Air Force is the only military branch that has base beatification as part of its core mission. 

Spring Trip 2016 - Day Two

IWe got up at 6:00 showered, packed, and were at the terminal by 7:15. By 9:00 we knew that we had not made the flight, which had 73 seats, but it stopped over in Hawaii, so it was a very popular flight for spring breakers. 

I appreciated Clint's buoyant attitude as he immediately began texting our friends Jessica Ellis, Rebecca Sandulli and Matt Asay about things to do in the Bay Area. There are certainly worse places to be stuck!

Our first outing of the day was to the Jelly  Belly factory.

It was fascinating to watch how few people were needed because of all the robotics. FYI, it takes 14 days to make a Jelly Belly bean.

After a stop at Jack in the Box (Jack's new favorite restaurant), we headed to Muir Woods. Clint noted, as we drove up Mount Tamalpais, that we were at the scene of the Titan battle in Percy Jackson's-- The Titan's Curse.

After a four-mile hike in Muir Woods we drove down to Muir Beach. We hadn't realized that Trace had no memories of ever having been to a beach. He and Jack were ecstatic, but we only stayed for 10 minutes because we wanted to get to the Golden Gate Bridge before dark. We assured him that we'd do the beach again.

On to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Glory be! All the days of my life I did not know that the Golden Gate Bridge was Art Deco! Look at that beautiful cloud lift! It makes me so happy that when they built such a massive structure they made the effort to make it a thing of beauty.

After we crossed the bridge we went to Crissy Park to get pedestrian access. It was a major highlight because the boys got to watch the waves crashing in and the surfers surfing the south break of the golden gate.

Do you see Alcatraz behind them?

Taken from atop an old battery from World War II. 

We had to walk on the bridge, but we didn't get very far because by this time we'd walked about six miles and feet were sore and boys were hungry. Trace, who had taken a fall in Muir Wood, looked really bedraggled, so I gave him a piggy back ride to the car. As we went, he told me, "I have six pains: my knee hurts, my hand hurts, my left foot hurts, my right hand hurts, my stomach hurts and I have to go pee!" But he said this with a smile on his face. I have to say it is so nice traveling with older children, they don't whine much and they know stuff which makes them enthusiastic to see things. Heck, the teens were taking pictures with their phones and posting it on social media.

The traffic was a bit of a nightmare on the way back. Got to our room at 10:00 with Chick-fil-a for dinner. Mom was a little grumpy about the late dinner, but the boys maintained a good attitude--they are growing up!

Spring Trip 2016 Day 1

March 22, 2016

Here we are on Day One of our spring break attempt to get to Tokyo. Our goal was to drive to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California and catch a military flight to Japan. We had to stop on the way to see the Great Salt Flats and check that item off of our Utah bucket list.

I was curious as to why there weren't a whole bunch of animals just standing around licking the salt, because I tasted it and it was delicious! :-)

An unfortunately labeled hillside in Battle Mountain, Nevada. 

When we left Salt Lake it was snowing and we checked the road conditions on Donner Pass and it was chains required. But by the time we got there it had cleared up, but the wind was intense all day long, two white knuckled hands on the wheel at all times.

We stopped at Roseville California on the way, because Clint wanted to buy me a new fleece at the REI with our dividend.

We got to the base and checked in at the terminal just before it closed at 10 PM. Then we went over to the base Domino's and had a late night meal. We were just trying to move forward to Tokyo time ;).

The Air Force lodgings were so nice! For $63 a night we had a two-bedroom family unit with a full kitchen and laundry closet. We fell asleep at about midnight.

I love where I live! 3/16/16

I haven't had a steady diet of these kind of mountain views since I graduated from BYU in 1994! It is so good for my soul. The snow powdered mountains make me so happy. This is a view walking out of the front door of our elementary school.

Provo City Center Temple - February 26, 2016

I took the boys to the LDS Provo City Center Temple this Friday, the last weekend of its open house. The boys were fairly good considering that we waited in line for an hour. This temple has a pioneer era look with lots of dark cherry paneling on the walls and ceilings and old style hardware--even the exit signs had an Art Neauvou font. The other thing that really reminded me of the early days of Utah was the dark rust marble with the white veins, which looked just like the faux painted marble columns in the tabernacle on temple square, except of course it wasn't faux, it was the real deal. There were many original paintings that I've never seen before including a gorgeous pair of room-width panels of Christ teaching the Nephites, then Nephi leading the Nephites after Christ's departure. Both the creation room and garden room murals included Mount Timpamogos and a cougar--but no Y :).The sealing rooms were the most memorable with their soaring gothic windows and white Turkish marble floors with the palest purple veins, leading me to wonder if this temple might take the pressure off of the SLC temple marriage schedule. The older boys say that they want to come back and do baptisms in this temple. We'll have to make it a date. 

Ski Buddies! January 2016

Yay for year round school! And yay for the 5th Grade ski pass--that's three free ski passes to every ski resort in Utah. Our backyard neighbors have two boys who are the same ages as Jack and Trace. We took them skiing four times during our two weeks off of school in January. We went twice to Nordic Valley and twice to Brighton. Jack, Braxton, and Brody went off by themselves because they're all intermediate skiers. Trace and I stuck to the bunny hills and he really made a lot of progress!

Getting Official in the Swim World - February 4, 2016

Jack getting ready for his 50 meter Freestyle

     It has been two and a half  years since I began the older three boys on the swim team at the Fairmont Aquatic Center in Salt Lake City. I am so proud of how far they have come! They can all do kick turns, a legal breastrke and the butterfly--all way beyond what I can do. 

     Talmage has come the furthest. It used to be that he could not swim the full length of the pool without stopping to play with the rope, hang on the side of the pool, swim to the bottom to blow bubbles or mess with fellow teammates. Because of his noncompliance he was generally the only teenager in a lane of five to seven-year olds. I told him that if he could swim 1000 lengths without stopping I would buy him an Xbox. I kept a tally from the side of the pool and many days he only did three or five legitimate lengths, but by the end of the first year he was usually doing about 20 or 25 lengths and he earned his Xbox (in conjunction with Cole and Jack completing a year of piano lessons). 

     When we moved to Farmington it took six months before all three boys were on the South Davis Aquatic Team--the Tsunamis. Cole tried out and made it on the team right away.  Spaces opened up for Jack's age group in November and he tried out with 16 other kids and was among the eight who made it. They did not have space in Talmage's age group, so he practiced on his own in the play pool, swimming butterfly strokes in between basketball players and Marco Polo-ers. The coach was very impressed that he would work out on his own and I think that came into play when she decided to let him on the team ahead of the rest of the waiting list in January.

     This team is a step up from the Fairmont Penguins because it is an official USA Swimming team. That means their times are recorded at the meets and carry their PR's into every meet they go to. It is also more work! Talmage and Cole now practice four days a week for an hour and a half. Their next step will be attending the twice a week dry land practices.

      This past week the boys attended an invitational in Provo. The day before, I finally bought the boys some competition swimsuits that look like biker shorts. It must've helped because Jack reduced his time on the 50 m backstroke by 10 seconds--25%!  Jack got first in his 50m freestyle heat (fifth overall), second in the 50m backstroke (sixth overall), and second in the 100m freestyle. It was the first time he had raced a 100m and he was really nervous so instead of using the blocks he just dove in from the side. He was a full body length behind everyone in the first lap, but he saved it for the last lap and passed all the swimmers except one and took second place. He was pretty stoked.

Jack launching off for his 50m Back stroke

     Cole and Talmage were in the first heat for the 50m freestyle as neither of them had a recorded time on the books yet. It was a very tight race and Cole came in fifth but it was within one second of the first place finisher. Talmage came in about five seconds later- respectable considering he is now in the same league as his age group peers.

Talmage getting ready to launch for his 100 meter Breastroke

Below is Talmage finishing the first 50m of his 100m breastroke. Not bad! He was right on their tail for the first 50, but tired in the second lap.

Tal keeping a tight third in the 100 meter Breastroke

     Cole must be recognized for always working his hardest in every practice. He is in the pool the entire time and does everything his coaches ask of him. He also has great endurance. In addition to the 50m free he did with Talmage, Cole did a 200m freestyle and he came in fourth in a very tight group-- awesome! Four laps is a lot when you are racing! 

Oklahoma! November 14, 2014

This is a really horrible picture, but I need to remember this amazing event we were able to witness! Brigham McKay was Curly in Oklahoma! at Weber High and Gabriel Mckay was Will Harper! Clarissa was a town folk and Anika played her flute in the orchestra. So proud of my amazing neices and nephews and so proud of my alma mater--WHS! They put on the best musicals in Utah and that is saying something because Utah is the most art-saturated state in the country!

Here, this picture is a little better. Brigham was the lead because he's the lead in every room he walks into by virtue of the fact that he loves everybody and makes everyone feel so important. Brig's a class act. One of the best things about living in Utah is that my boys get to benefit from the great examples of their cousins. I don't miss a chance for my boys to be around them.

Here's Brigham with his leady lady

Here are my boys messing around in the Weber High "commons." Such dejavu to be at my old highschool. But seriously, how did I not notice that I went to school in a cave! Zero outside windows. It was built at the height of the cold war and it actually a fallout shelter. Glad windows are back in style!

Greek Banners 11-12-14

For the 2014-15 school year, I was the Room Parent for Mrs. Martinez, Bonneville Elementary's amazing 6th grade teacher. Walking into her class is an educational experience in itself. There is a suit of armor, Roman pottery, mosaics, world maps, models of medieval castles and more. She taught history from ancient Egypt, Rome and Greek, through the Middle Ages and up through World War II. Those lucky students!  She opened up the wonderful world of  history to both Talmage and Cole. I also knew Mrs. Martinez personally as I was the cub scout leader for her son for four years and I adore her. When Talmage was in 6th grade he demanded that I make an Athenian Flag as he was part of the Athens vs Sparta rivalry in the classroom. It is the second flag from the left. Cole's year Mrs. Martinez requested flags for the other city states, so I made a banner for Argos (The eyeball which represents Argos Panoptes the 100-eyed giant), Athens (the owl representing Athena) and Corinth (Pegasus was the symbol of that city). I told her it was super easy, no problem and that I had all the materials on hand. But it took the most part of two days to complete the last three flags. I really enjoyed it though. I rarely do anything artistic and it was so much fun!

Trace's Campground Birthday April 15, 2014

Trace turned six while we were camping at Kodachrome State Park. The ant farm was a perfect camping activity, the stomp rocket was fun and the giant gummy bear managed to stay clean and he chomped on it for days. We love this big guy.