My So Cal Vacay

We recently returned from a wonderful vacation in Southern California. I have been coming to this area in So Cal for 42 years; my parents brought our family for the first time during the summer of 1968. Mike and I spent our honeymoon in San Clemente, and first brought our children to the beach house in 1984. We've enjoyed many visits since and look forward to many more.

This was the first time that we have stayed in this particular beach house. The bottom window is G'pa and G'ma's room and Caitlin's room is just above. We were very lucky and got to stay in the upstairs master bedroom at the front of the house; facing t'ocean.

Every morning Mike and I enjoy our daily walk down Beach Road. On this particular morning we walked across the Pacific Coast Highway, up a steep road and into the community just above us. This overlook is directly above the beach house.

Our beach house is in the center of the picture, just two houses away from our usual house. Directly below us is the Pacific Coast Highway, the railroad tracks, and Beach Road (private road). There is a brick wall that runs the length of Beach Road separating it from the tracks. As you can see our front yard is the beach.

San Clemente is our neighboring community and we love to spend time there each time we go to the beach house. We love to walk on the pier, swim in t'ocean, shop.... Mike and I love to eat at the Fisherman Restaurant (on the pier) every time we visit; it's our favorite vacation restaurant.



This year we did something that we have never done before in all of the years we have come here... we went on an ocean cruise. I.LOVED.IT. It is one of the funnest things that I have ever done. I love t'ocean and I loved being out in the middle of it.

We saw hundreds of dolphins, the captain told us that for every one we see on the surface... there are seven just below.



Here we are arriving back at Dana Point Harbor. Mike stood in this spot at the very front of the boat for the entire two hours. It was an amazing ride.

My nephew Michael and his little friend Jack. They each seem to be missing something.

Caitlin enjoying her time in the sun.

2010 Strong

This morning Caitlin left for our stakes youth conference; 2010 Strong. For the next four days they will be re-enacting what life was like for the people in The Book of Mormon.

This youth conference has been in the works for a year, and for several months the youth have been involved in rehearsals of re-enactments from The Book of Mormon which they will perform while they are there.

This morning the entire stake was invited to come witness the first re-enactment scene before the youth left for Zarahemla (our stake camp). In this scene, Lehi's family were sitting in their living room listening as Lehi told them that they must leave Jerusalem before it is destroyed. Lehi's family danced around their sofa as music began to play and Alex Boyer... yes, I said Alex Boyer (well known LDS recording artist, I've watched him perform at BYU Women's Conference for the past four years) came out and sang the theme song (written by him) for the youth conference. After singing, he spoke (powerfully) to the youth. What a way to start a youth conference... our kids are in for a great week.

Dress Rehearsal

Our float made its debut today in the West Bountiful parade. It isn't quite finished yet, but being in our communities parade was a goal of mine since the beginning of the project.

We had just inches to spare as the float was driven from the shop where we have been building it. The first attempt caused some paint to be scraped from a wing tip, but... that is one reason why we have a dress rehearsal.

Once the float was safely out of the shop, we had to re-attach the handcart wings and re-attach the wording on the sides of the float. Those items had to be removed in order to get the float through the doors.

None of the children or the creatures had been permanently attached yet, due to the fact that we still have to get back up onto the float and do some work, so, once we arrived at the line-up we had to do a little repair work. One of our boys broke his arm en route and the other children fell. We did a little taping and re-arranging and they survived the parade route.

As we turned this corner we took our place in the parade, and the minute we did the car stopped... we ran out of gas. There are no gas gages on these float bases, but... Mike had a gas can in the car, as soon as the engine started the crowd cheered and in just minutes we were "floating" down 800 West.

We have a little "tweeking" to do which includes, getting our seagulls in the air and our fringe around the bottom, as well as our handcart wheels turning and wings flapping. We will also have some sound effects. But tonight I am a happy, satisifed, and tired camper. I am going to rest from my labors for the remainder of the holiday weekend.

It's Starting To 'Pop'

Isn't it amazing what a little paint and shimmery stuff can do for a float!?!

I Feel Like I'm 'Floating'

Just a few more pictorial updates of the float. We are scheduled to be in two parades this Saturday. What do you think? Do you have faith in our ability to do it?

Our handcart is just about ready to be mounted onto the float.

Our float theme is The Pioneer Spirit-Onward and Upward.

How many young single adults does it take to make a ba-zillion clouds? A whole big bunch.

The front of the float will be covered in clouds that surround the airplane.

Our amazing designer and artistic director; Keith Maloy, holding the handcart wings...yes, our handcart has wings.

This is Doug Vandegrift; our amazingly talented creator of children and creatures, all made from styrofoam.

Our stake presidency came one evening and carved rocks.

Here is the finished product. Cool huh!?!

Remember these kids? Here they are all ready to parade. Sherry Meidell is the wonderful artist who painted these children who are standing next to their new friend Alex. Doug Vandegrift's daughter came to make clouds one evening and when she saw the pioneer girl exclaimed, "hey... that's what happened to my wig head!"

Our airplane keeps getting fancier. We're almost ready for the propellers.

A picture still says a thousand words.

Just 'Floating' Along

We had a successful day yesterday as our committee and a few recruits spent the day working on the float. As promised, here are a few pictures of what has been happening in our 'float' world.

All of the children and creatures you see in the pictures are carved from... styrofoam. Yes, I did say styrofoam.

Our handcart has some amazing wheels that will soon be attached, and they will actually be turning around as the float travels through the parade.

This is the same dog that was in the previous picture. Isn't he a cutie!! He has a tongue that still needs to be painted, and then attached with a spring so that it wags as he enjoys his ride through the parade.

These are our big rocks that have been sculpted out of... you guessed it, styrofoam. There will be some smaller rocks scattered on the bed of the float as well (I made a few of the little ones).

This is our turtle. He is so much happier now that he has some color in his life.

Here are some of our cloud makers with our Artistic Director (in the blue hat). The clouds are off to the right. They are also made of styrofoam.

Our airplane was built off-site, yesterday was the big day for it to arrive at the float-site. We were all pretty excited.

Can anyone guess what the body of the airplane is made of? You got it... styrofoam.

Doesn't it look fabulous!!!! It will have two working propellors on it's nose.

I climbed up on the float for this view of the airplane. Isn't it awesome!!!

Here I am covered in pieces of styrofoam; it really is messy stuff.

I hope you enjoyed the short pictorial, there will be more to come. What do you think of our float? I'd love some comments.

"Just Give Me Somethin' To Blog About..."

I haven't had a lot to blog about lately, nor the time to do it. Life has been incredibly busy... and even in the busy-ness of it all; it is still good. Most of my time seems to be consumed with the float; thinking about it, working on it, business end of it, organizing (or agonizing... whichever works at the moment), shopping for supplies (by phone or at various retailers), going to float workshops, phone calling, praying (lots of praying), asking people to help (hard for me to do), and yes, I will admit, occasional tears (I just tell Mike to wipe his eyes, it will be okay... JK!!). But enough of that for now... we have made incredible progress and we still have much to do, so I will be posting pictures this weekend after we mount our airplane to the float on Saturday. Our amazingly, incredible, you-won't-believe-how-fantastic airplane. I'm not kiddin'.

Enough about the float for now, stay tuned this weekend. Last week I purchased a new camera, I haven't really had the time to become familiar with it yet, but here are a few of the last pictures that I took with my old camera (you may quickly recognize that they are my very most favorite little people, and a couple of my favorite bigger people behind the scenes).