The foot.....

So, snowboarding is fun, right? Except when you end up on a stretcher behind a snowmobile.....

A January day at Snow Summit ended up as half a day in the First Aid station, then a trip to the ER and multiple trips to the orthopedist. We are still not sure how it actually happened, but Doug broke a bone on the side of his left foot. He was in a cast for two months...

then a walking boot, then walking shoe. He is finally back in regular shoes, but still not running or lifting any weight. He has avoided physical therapy, but it has taken a long time to heal. The next x-ray is on Thursday and we are hopeful he will be cleared to be more active. It has been excruciating for him to miss out on Ultimate for 6 months!

But Snow Summit gave him a free lift ticket for next year ....

What's the latest?

So, I am way behind again... that seems to be a pattern, unfortunately. (Distracted by Dr Who and knitting class)

I need to write about:
- Doug's broken foot (snowboarding - but getting better. xray on Thursday),
- Zach's birthday (very fun with lots of jumping),
- Mexico (a day trip to make breakfast for kids living in the dump),
- a NASCAR day (rainy, but still fun for the boys),
- the beginning of baseball season (Go Lugnuts!)
- And Easter

But it is Spring Break at the moment. Tomorrow we are going to take a backstage tour of Petco Park! So more photos and an update will be coming soon! Meanwhile - here is a photo from Easter.

Our fake snow

So, this may seem a bit silly to those friends and family members that have "real" winter. But we enjoyed some sledding this winter too! At the Wild Animal Park. On a very small hill. After waiting in line. And I couldn't find the gloves, so the boys had socks on their hands. Pretty pathetic, I know.

But they loved it!


Here they are in action:

Family

Christmas goodies

This year we made a gingerbread train together. Nana has a cake mold for the engine and cars, so she made it ahead of time and brought lots of sugary decorations. Aunt Jeannette led the train team - it was lots of fun!

My big food project was making a Swedish Tea Ring at Doug's request. Doug remembers his mom making one almost every Christmas. Not at all sure that I can live up to that memory, I decided to try it anyway. Here is the uncooked version: looks like a ring, right?


Well, I call the finished version a Swedish Tea Pillow....

Doug said that it tasted the same, but looked really different. I don't have a lot of experience with real breads (you know, kneading and yeast and all that), and I don't have a pizza pan to help keep the shape. And the frosting was really runny. But at least it tasted good! We'll see if I practice the Tea Pillow again next year....

Andrew turns 3 x 3

Andrew turned 9 on Christmas Eve. We had the rock climbing party at 8.5, so this was a small family celebration.

One thing he really liked was the Cubs gear from Renee! (goes with the Bears jersey)

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Christmas Decorating!

A few years ago, Doug convinced me that a fake tree was the right choice for our family.

I grew up enjoying the tradition of going with my dad to pick out the biggest real tree we could convince my mom to get - so it seemed like a huge betrayal of all things Christmas. What about the rich, outdoorsy smell of the fresh pine boughs? What about the scratchy branches and slightly tilted tree (despite the adjusting and turning and cutting off the bottom)? What about having to fill in the empty spots with extra ornaments and having one side that definitely went in the back? What about crawling under the tree every day to see how much water it needed (or finding out too late that it needed more - the signal of dropping all its needles was never clear enough.)

Plastic just seemed so ..... plastic.

But... maybe I have lost some Christmas spirit. Maybe I have given into the instant gratification culture. Or maybe I just like my Christmas with a little less work these days. I must admit the joys of a pre - lit tree are extensive. It always took forever to get the lights on, and that could only happen after the strands had been untangled (because I only managed to store one or two correctly the year before, tossing the rest into the box willy-nilly with a tired, oh well). Now the tree comes out of the attic in three pieces, goes together like a large simple puzzle, gets some branch fluffing and is plugged in. Ta Dah!

We have much more time to put on all the ornaments, from hand made snowmen to the golden Wright Flyer and space shuttle the boys chose in DC last year. More time to have hot cocoa and watch Food Network Christmas specials. More time to set up the Nativity set and talk about what our favorite Christmas carols mean. I have found Christmas songs one of the best ways to begin discussions of faith - Hark the Herald Angles Sing is one of Andrew's favorites and clearly lays out the gospel.

And it is still exciting to put the star on top:

Thanksgiving 2007

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Nana and Papa's house with Aunt Jeannette and our friend Elizabeth (who generously opened her home to us during the recent fires).

Mom and Dad's house renovations weren't done yet, but the kitchen was functional and worked great! (though Papa did need to look up the manual for the oven on the internet, and I had to bring my meat thermometer because theirs was still in a box.) The boys loved making crescent rolls (a perennial favorite) with Aunt Jeannette.


After dinner Andrew and Aunt Jeannette played Scrabble and Zach and Andrew played a game of giant Pick Up Sticks with Dad. (that was very loud on the new tile floor!) Then there was the pie...


We were thankful for the yummy food and the good time together!

I need some good titles...

So this is clearly not a creative writing blog - pure autobiography...if I wait to be inspired to be clever, it will be 2009 before I post again, so ...nothing fancy. But great photos, right? :-)

In November my cousin Kristen got married so we drove up to Sacramento for the festivities. We had some time in old Scramento where we found at least 5 candy shops within three square blocks! So of course we had to sample - here is Andrew's "jawlipop" I am not sure he ever finished it, but he did get to the center, many rainbow layers later.


Here we are with my sister at the reception. It was in a beautiful winery outside of Sacramento. Poor Zach was just exhausted - he rarely wants to miss the action, but he couldn't keep his eyes open. We took turns holding him and then took him back to the hotel.

The wedding was just beautiful and we all love Alex. There were some interesting adventures that evening, including a tipsy limo driver getting the limo stuck in the mud, the bride and groom riding back to the hotel in the truck of reception venue employees, and... the groom's pants catching on fire. Yes, they pretty much melted. He was not in them at the time, but the happy couple did have to air out the hotel room for a few hours - rental tux polyester doesn't smell so good! But they were laughing the next morning. They honeymooned in Africa - a dream trip.

2007 recap continues

Okay, I will get caught up one of these days... maybe even today!

So here is the first day of school for most of the Summerhill Gang - it is very fun to have great neighbors!


Halloween brought us a meerkat (recognize the costume?) and an American Indian. (his favorite was the real mohawk....and yes, it was mostly warm enough to be shirtless for trick or treating. Or at least he wouldn't admit to needing a jacket.) We projected It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown onto the garage door and had a firepit in the driveway for trick or treating. We were a very popular house! It has proven to be a great night to spend time with the neighbors!



And we went on the All Church Retreat at Forest Home (a great camp in the San Bernadino mountains). This is mini golf with some of the kids of our small group. (notice that Andrew still has his mohawk...)

What we did on Summer vacation (part 3)

Oregon for GG's 101st Birthday!

We picked blackberries...

... rode bikes, played cards, read good books, stayed up late, slept in tents, ate birthday cake, played disc golf, and climbed trees.


It is such a great time to spend with family. Andrew and cousin Hayley and I took a great bike ride along the Rogue River bike path. This year the boys had their own tent right next to ours (independence for them and more room for us!). And we we started most mornings with fresh Belgian waffles, whipped cream and blackberries right off the bush. So it really isn't roughing it - car camping with electricity. And Aunt Judy and Uncle Merle bring their trailer full of extra bikes, coffee maker, industrial waffle iron...next year we may have the kitchen sink!

What we did on summer vacation (part 1)

Petersons (and Princes and Martins) visit San Diego!

We went to the Padres game, Legoland, the beach, biking on Coronado, and the Zoo, with breaks for a round of disc golf, some tennis and lots of Wii! There are pictures at our Flickr site, but here is one of cousin David at the baseball game.

What we did on our summer vacation... (part 2)

Yosemite!
We hiked to the dry water falls...

Toured the Valley ...


Visited with family (60 people, 4 generations - the Esterline side of Christine's family)...

Stayed at the historic Wawona Hotel ...


And took lots of pictures of beautiful views!

Summer fun with old friends

This summer we got to spend some time with old friends. The Heymans were here from France and the Ricketts came down from Northern CA. Photo op! Hard to believe these kiddos were once little together...

Happy 8.5 Andrew!

So we thought we would try a half birthday for our Christmas Eve boy. So in July we had a rock climbing party! This was the second party Andrew has had at Solid Rock Gym - he is really enjoying indoor rock climbing! (we have climbed at the Air Show and Forest Home and REI... where ever we can find a wall!)

Here are the highlights...

Early summer fun

So, now that our Christmas tree is up, it must be time for a summer flashback...

Andrew gets out of school in mid June. Here he is at the end of second grade with friend Blake.


Zach and his friend Olivia went to Critter Camp - a day camp at a local animal shelter. They had a great time together!

And of course we went to the San Diego County Fair. The boys loved the sweet corn...


And the roller coasters...

We are fine

So things are calming down here. Doug went back home this afternoon and it is dirty outside and smokey, but undamaged. We will stay one more night at our friend's place and go home in the morning.

So far we have only heard from people whose homes are safe - but a large portion of our church community live in one of the burned neighborhoods. We are having a special prayer and gathering service on Thursday night and should get more of an update then.

So far, so good for our immediate family and friends ... keep praying as 500,000 people were evacuated and about 1000 homes burned throughout the county.

Fires

We are all fine - but many in San Diego are not. So far 250,000 people have been evacuated and thousands of acres have burned. Because the Santa Ana winds are still so strong, they have given a very wide range of evacuation areas. My parents and sister were given the mandatory evacuation order this morning and had time to pack up the cars. Our home in Encinitas was not yet in danger of fire, but the smoke was thick, making it hard to breathe. We started packing up this morning too.

So it's almost 5 pm and we are all here at my parents office in Carmel Valley, which is just outside the evacuation area. We have supplies (air beds, some food, books and games for the boys) to stay here overnight if need be. I'll post an update later.

Please pray.

Chance of rain.... .01%

So, it never really rained. It showered pretty well for about .... 5 minutes. We had long enough to boil the water for hot chocolate, but by the time we were drinking it, the sun had reappeared. Oh well...

It seems strange to complain about perpetual sunshine, but there is something to be said for variety.

So instead of a chill in the air or cool rain announcing the coming of fall, we have the arrival of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes.

The stinky trees will bloom soon

So it must be fall again. Our stinky tree has buds on it - soon it will bloom with the fall fragrance of stinky pumpkins or buttered potatoes.

"But, Christine, it's only May in the world of Petersons Online," you say.

Yes, it is true. Online, we are stuck in the past. A summer recap should be coming soon.

In real life we are heading towards October! Third grade is going well for Andrew (who has vowed to ride his bike to school for all 180 days). Zach is upstairs at preschool in Room D and loving it. Our wonderful Renee is back from France for a while, so we get to see her regularly, and Doug and I are in the groove with work.

Today it is supposed to rain. San Diego news is plastered with "Storm Watch!!" reports but we'll see how few inches we actually get. The boys and I are actually looking forward to a quiet afternoon, with Legos and games. There might be some hot chocolate involved as well. I am hoping we can do some reading.

At the moment it is clear and sunny - not a cloud in the sky.