our own personal trainer

We had a nice spring break, even though Luke was sick, then Caleb had a fever for three days, and it rained most of the week.  It was still nice to be together, go for walks in between the rain storms, and go out to eat a few times.  When the week was over, Gracie said her favorite part of the week was going on walk/runs with Bill and I and at each corner Bill would be their own personal trainer.  We got some strange looks from people as Bill was having them do push-ups, sit-ups, squats, power-bursts,etc., at the corners around our house! 
So every day this week we have continued on our walks without Bill, but now Dylan is the personal trainer.  Gracie and Luke have lost most of their interest but he keeps plugging along.  
I also decided at the beginning of the month, I was going to try to cook everything in my freezer, so that it would be empty today.  Did I accomplish my goal?  I came close. Today we had frozen blueberries for breakfast with our cereal and a blueberry smoothie for snack.  We had fish sticks, corn on the cob and green beans from the freezer for dinner.  Last night, we had breakfast burritos with frozen hash browns and the night before we finished the salmon burgers, but I still have a a few things in there.  I managed to clear out a lot of space, and had to throw away so many things that were not edible!  This was a good exercise to remind me to ask myself one important thing before buying something just because it is on sale:  will I really use this item?  I have a frozen turkey from thanksgiving still in the freezer because the price was so good.  I am determined that this won't be a waste of money.  Next week, we will have thanksgiving in April!

Blest be the tie that binds...

Bill had a day off thanks to budget cuts, so we took advantage of it, and headed to Sea World.  We weren't sure it was even going to be open because the beaches were on a tsunami warning, but by 10 am, everything was clear so Sea World was open!  Very few people were there which  made it a perfect afternoon for us!

The kids have always wanted to feed the seals but there are always so many people!  Not this day.  Each kid was able to throw a fish to the seals.  The biggest problem we had was keeping the birds away from the fish.

This trip was the first time that Caleb really started to pay attention to things.  He loved looking at the sharks, and wanted to see everything!  The past few times we have visited sea world all he has wanted to do was eat snacks!

Here he is actually watching the Shamu show and laughing at the tricks!

He especially loved the penguins and of course Gracie thought he needed one to take home.  I didn't fall for it because Caleb never plays with stuffed animals except for mickey mouse!

We decided a few weeks ago to make this trip a two day vacation, so off we headed to our hotel.  The hotel had free drinks in the evening, so one of the highlights of the trip for Luke was that he was able to drink three cups of hot chocolate!  We also got free breakfast the next morning, and I wish I had taken my camera down to breakfast to see all of the food that Dylan piled up!  There was barely any room left on the table for the rest of our food. He had some potatoes, eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast, cereal, a danish and a muffin.  He didn't eat it all, but Bill pointed at the teenage boy at the next table.  He had even more food than Dylan and looked like he was going to eat it all.  Bill said to get ready, that would be Dylan in a few years.  I think my grocery bill is big right now!

As you can see, we still took the stroller but Caleb didn't ride in it very much!  I will be tempted to still bring the stroller even after Caleb is too big for it... where else are we supposed to put all of the jackets and snacks?

We decided to fix dinner for Grandma's birthday.  It took us all day, but each one of them helped fix some part of the meal.  Gracie and Dylan breaded the chicken, Luke helped shred the cheese for the cheesy potatoes, and all four of them (even Caleb!) helped with the chocolate pudding cake dessert.  They each made Grandma a card and Bill brought home flowers.  We even got out the nice plates and cups!

We convinced Bob to come too, and there is usually no shortage of laughs when Bill and Bob get going with their stories.

The kids were shocked by how far Luke can stick out his tongue!

We also got to enjoy spending some time with Tim and Alicia Short and their kids while they were out visiting.  Samuel and Luke hit it off right away.  Luke was able to have his first experience of sitting with a friend in church and riding in someone else's car.  He felt pretty important getting to go over to the Shorts house without the rest of us!

We enjoyed having Emi and Lily with us for a little while after lunch.  All three of the girls played dress-up together.

Joy was sweet to have all of us over after church on Sunday night so that we could enjoy spending a little more time together. The boys spent quite a while just staring at the Nintendo DS while Dylan played a game.

Love, basketball and green eggs

 We finally had our valentine's party two weeks after Valentine's Day!  Caleb and Luke had both been sick on the actual day and it took a while to get everyone together again.  Caleb loves his buddy Abby!

 Here we are in front of the valentines boxes, with a basket set up for Winona, Wade, and Weston who couldn't be with us on that day.

 I don't know whether it is more fun giving out valentines or looking in the boxes once they are all full!  I caught Gracie and Abby excitedly going through their boxes together.

 We had a much smaller group than usual for our party so we were able to all sit around one table and play one of our favorite games, Apples to Apples.

 Now that Luke is reading, he loves this game!  He keeps track of how many green cards everyone has and is always up for another round.

 Here is a picture of Luke through the glass at the Rancho Sports Center right before the start of his last game of the season.  Watching a game behind a glass wall is definitely a strange but funny experience.  The parents are always screaming out commands for their kids and the kids can't hear anything! (Not me of course! :)  )

 Along with coaching his own team this past season, Bill insisted on coaching both Luke and Dylan's teams.  He told me many times how much he enjoyed working with these boys.  They won all of their games except for the last one. 

 Luke loved having his dad for a coach, and really loved getting to go to both his and Dylan's practices throughout the season.  He was the smallest and youngest on the team but kept a great attitude.  Bill praised him the most when he dove down on the floor for a loose ball, and in the last game, when he ran straight through a bunch of kids to make a basket!

 Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  In honor of his birthday, I made green eggs and ham for breakfast and read the story to them.

 Caleb did not understand what I put in front of him, but after calming down, he finally took a bite and realized that it was his usual scrambled eggs!  I have no pictures of Luke because it took him all day to warm up to the idea of eating them, and finally finished them at dinner.

 "Say, I do like green eggs and ham!"

 I had no problem with Gracie, she was so excited that I actually bought ham (one of her favorite things) that she had no problem with the color.

Dylan is always just happy to have food in front of him, no matter what the color.

Loyola Blues and Orange Chicken...

The season has been over for almost two weeks now.  We have gone through the transitional process of letting Bill catch up on his sleep, and developing a new routine that does not involve two or three or four basketball games a week!  In honor of Bill's awesome season I have included a couple of special pictures from this past season that I took before I started my blog.  Here is Bill and the team after winning the Atascadero Christmas Tournament.  We have made this tournament a family tradition the past few years with Chris, Lori and family joining us. This year we rented out our favorite house in Cayucos and Chris went to all of the games with me, while my wonderful Mom watched the younger kids.  It was a great week!

 Here is the team after winning the Jurupa Valley Tournament in early December.  I really regret not bringing the kids to this game.  It was a wonderful win and not quite the same without my group of cheerleaders with me! 

 Here we are at Dino's restaurant before the start of what was going to be the last game of the season.  We had to travel down to Loyola High School in Los Angeles and decided to try a small place near the school.  It had lots of good reviews online, but was definitely an interesting spot.  Chris gave a homeless man $5 to watch my car while we went inside, and then of course he walked off with the money!

 When we walked up to order, there wasn't any menu.  We learned rather quickly that you just order however many of the chicken specials that you want.  As you can see from the above pictures, Gracie wasn't quite sure about it, but Dylan loved the orange spicy goodness of the chicken and french fries.  I can honestly say it was unlike anything I have ever had before and my fingers stayed orange for a quite a while afterward!

 Here we are in the Loyola gym.  Delaney made the trip out with us too!  Chris drove for us: Matt, Sarah, Dylan, Gracie, Delaney, and me!  I loved the beauty of the school and the gym.  That is about all I loved about this night though!

Here is the only picture of the game that I took - the tip-off!  We all recognized that Loyola was a great team, but it was hard to see the season end.  In Bill's words, we never wanted the fun to end!  I have been looking through all of the emails that Bill got over the past two weeks, and there are some I am going to include here just so Bill can remember these words...

I just want you to know that we have a superstar basketball coach and Athletic 

Director in Coach Blades. This year our boys’ basketball team won more games and 

moved to the quarterfinals of the CIF tournament and truly brought Cavalier pride 

back to this community. Bill also kept his students academically eligible and ended 

the year undefeated at home (11-0). Since you had the opportunity to watch our team 

in action on several occasions this year, you also got to see how Bill handled 

himself in game action and I am positive that you realized that he is a true role 

model for any coach out there. We are all blessed to have Bill as our coach and 

athletic director and to have him on staff at Montclair High School.

MH to MH
 

You have done such a tremendous job with the basketball team and they deserve 

every ounce of support they got!! I am truly proud to be a Cavalier and cheer you 

guys on!!! It was a great year......a year that will go into the history books of 

Montclair!! AMAZING!!!!!
ML

Proud of you guys!  You deserve a parade down Central Avenue!

FB

You, Danny and Dom did a fantastic job this year. Despite injuries and a couple 

of other bad luck events, you guided the boy’s basketball Cavs to one of their 

best seasons ever.  You impart dignity and correct behavior to all that you do.

The student athletes who have been associated with you learn important life lessons 

that they will carry with them all their lives.
JR