Write My Life

Jennifer’s most beloved birthday present this year was a digital camera from Grandma and Grandpa. She was so excited about it! She took it on our first hike after she got the camera and loved being able to take her own photographs. Unfortunately, she ran out of memory on the hike. She now has more memory and likes to tell people that her digital camera will hold more pictures than my fancy SLR digital camera.

It wasn’t easy. But it’s done and she’s happy now.

It wasn’t easy getting glasses for Jennifer. She did not want them. She has complained about seeing overheads in class but her sight didn’t seem to much of a problem otherwise. But the problems with seeing things in the classroom concerned me enough to take her to the optometrist. She didn’t want to go. In the exam room, it became clear that she needed some glasses, at least for some situations. She cried. “I don’t need glasses!” she said between tears. The optometrist, Jackie and I all tried to help but she was not happy. Not at all.

The next day we returned to pick out frames. She hesitantly tried them. Gradually, she came to accept that she would have glasses and that there were some styles that would look good on her. “I didn’t know if I would look good in glasses,” she said later. “But now I know there are some I like.” That made a big changing point.

Her optometrist said she only had to wear them in the classroom, but she wears them a lot of the time. I think she likes having glasses now. She really enjoys that experience of seeing everything so bright and crisp.

As a mother, it was so hard to see her in the optometrist’s office crying. It was hard to see her struggle and worry so much. It was hard to have her be so mad at me. I knew it was for the best, but sometimes that just doesn’t make it any easier when we are watching our children struggle. But it is great to see the other side when they make it through the struggle and can truly “see” what is better.

It’s spring, the wildflowers are in bloom and we are forcing our children to take hikes. We are mean parents!

Take a look at what we saw at Henry W. Coe State Park:

It’s the day of surprises and fun. It’s Jennifer’s birthday! Today is birthday #9. How did we get here so fast? Jennifer enjoyed the mound of presents and the joy of opening each one of them.

I asked, as I always do, “Do you want to decorate eggs this year?” Jennifer said yes, but Jaclyn hesitated and agreed without as much enthusiasm as usual. I thought, “My little girl is growing up.”

Time passed and between our vacation the week before Easter, Jennifer’s birthday party Easter weekend and the Easter play at church, we never got to decorating the Easter eggs. On Monday after Easter I asked again, “Do you want to decorate eggs this year? We could still do it.” Jennifer said yes, but Jackie now said no. She explained to me that eggs have nothing to do with Easter and how it didn’t really fit in with the real meaning behind Easter. I agreed about her thoughts about Easter and eggs. There was a spring/new life aspect to it, but it wasn’t technically about Jesus.

When Jennifer heard Jaclyn wasn’t decorating eggs, she declined. That made me sad - losing both of them to the egg decorating tradition in the same year seemed sad. I told Jaclyn about her sister’s lost interest and Jaclyn agreed to decorate eggs with her sister.

So, I look at these freshly decorated eggs and wonder if this will be the last batch. I think about them growing and changing. I think about how I like some of it, but not other parts of it. I think about how time doesn’t stand still.

This is it…at least for one more time.

After racking our brains for Jennifer’s birthday party theme, we settled on “stuffed animals.” Jennifer’s friends at school carry stuffed animals to school each day and love to play with them during recess so we thought it would be a good theme. With my experience in scrapbooking and showing dogs, we came up with a party plan. We invited several girl friends and asked them to bring a stuffed animal to the party with them.

The first part of the party involved making a book called “Me and My Stuffed Animal.” Inside each page of the SEI blue 6X6 scrapbooks were pages with questions to ask about their animal and themselves. They also got to decorate the books with stickers and colored pencils. They could add Prima flower to the cover as well. Each guest posed outside with their pet. I quickly printed out the picture and they included that in their books as well.

When everyone finished their books, we had an obstacle coarse in the backyard. I used some of my agility equipment (jumps and weave poles) but also some other items like a table to crawl under and a rope swing. They ran the coarse with the animal in hand one at a time. We cheered as they ran around the coarse.

After a grooming session, we had the animal show where each person showed their animal. A friend read from the books they had created while the owner showed their animal on a table.

We ended with food and presents.

Ahhh, it’s the best thing about vacation - family time. We had lots of it on this vacation. We hadn’t planned a full day of activities so we had time to rest and relax together. Yes, we read books, but we also played games, watched a video, talked and even had a “variety show” one night. As with our last trip, we took the dogs and enjoyed the time with them as well.

Our home base was a Murphy vacation rental cottage, i.e. the little yellow cottage.

In the day we visited several California state parks, Moaning Caverns, ate pizza at Firewood in Murphys and hiked. All of it together, of coarse.

Our Spring break vacation this year took us back to Murphys, CA and an exploration of the California Gold country. We visited several state parks know either for their historic significance or natural beauty.

We started outside Sacramento at the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park. Here James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848 on the South Fork of the American River. We walked along the river and viewed a replica of the sawmill Marshall and his partner were building when they discovered gold.

The next day we visited Railtown 1897 State Historic Park. Located in Jamestown, it has steam trains and an authentic roundhouse. Mike, being as engineer, was especially intrigued by the tour of the trains and roundhouse and all the information about how the trains operated. This site has also been the home of many TV shows and movies including “Petticoat Junction,” “The Wild, Wild West,” “High Noon,” “The Virginian,” and the railroad portion of “Back to the Future Part III.”

The next day we visited Columbia State Historic Park, a preserved California gold rush town.

Everyone enjoyed the candy store the most, but the girls also enjoyed playing on the large boulders on the outskirts of town.

On the way home we stopped at Caswell Memorial State Park. The park is located along the Stanislaus River and protects the declining riparian oak woodland, which once flourished throughout California’s Central Valley.

Here’s some views from my backyard. The plum and apricot trees are beautifully in bloom and the bulbs are making their grand appearances. What an inspiration to get outside and enjoy the beautiful of all that God has created!