Gymnastics update

Ainsley has been nagged with little injuries here and there, mostly her ankle, but she seems to be finally done with that after a week of crutches and some time in a boot.  We've been doing exercises to strengthen her ankles and wrists (since she complains of them too) and trying to continue stretching to avoid other injuries.  She is still so tight! 
Since her season ended, she has been picking up skills like crazy!  She had a long list to make level 7 and we got her report card a little bit ago and there were only 2 skills she was still working on.  She is doing her backhandspring on high beam, cartwheel backtuck off the beam, giants on bars (to fly away), cast handstands on the high bar, Tsukahara's on vault, layouts on floor, front tuck/front tuck on floor and last week she did a double back into the pit!  Here's some video of a few of her new skills.

Mom and Dad visit

While we were in Maui, grandma and grandpa had so much fun filling in for us and running the kids all over for their activities.  I think they want us to go for longer next time!  These are the things that keep grandparents young :o).  They did a great job...the kids made it where they needed to be, were well fed and no one got sick....that is truly a success!

St. Patrick's Day parade:

 Reggie's friend David came to the parade with his mom who was a great help to mom:

Mom and dad also spend A LOT of time working in the yard, weeding, planting, etc.  Dad repaired the driveway again and found a paving project to do as well!  The weather was absolutely terrible when we were gone, but the last few days the sun came out and mom and dad took full advantage!
My new satsuma tree!

We also celebrated my birthday and had the best flank steak we've ever had.  Ryan was out of town and there were only a couple pieces as leftover...the kids kept asking for more!
Here's Grandma and Ainsley playing Happy Birthday....

Reggie is dangerous with a selfie stick!

Reggie and grandpa also played a lot of checkers.  Reggie is getting much better, but still can't beat grandpa...

I drug mom on a hike up the back-side of Del Valle and it was such a clear, beautiful day and the lake was the fullest I have ever seen it.  That was from all the rain while we were gone!  The cows were out and very close, but unusually friendly, so that was good we didn't get charged!

 This was a very long, steep hill!

Our school hosted a multi-cultural night and that was lots of fun.  The kids tasted food from other places and we saw some amazing dancers from other cultures.

Reggie's favorite place when grandma and grandpa are here.....he visits them every morning at 7 (we had to put a time on it or he would be out there at 5:30!)

There was one small mishap during there visit and that was that some person with very poor judgement decided it would be fun to bash their car window :o(.

Maui

What a great break from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives!  Mom and Dad came to relieve us for an entire week and we fully enjoyed it.  A very big thank you to them :o).
I had one request from Ryan that he not take a work call.  I didn't care if he did e-mail but that seemed reasonable for someone on vacation.  Well, he took a call at the airport before we left and then about 60 seconds after we landed and my blood was boiling.  I reminded him oh so kindly that I had a problem with him working on our vacation.  So, we (I) decided he should leave his phone at the condo during the day to avoid the temptation to work and it was great (not sure if it was great for him, but I think it was a healthy thing to do).  Of course, the rental car place was late to pick us up at the airport and was calling from a California number and he wouldn't answer it (because he didn't want to take a work call) until they called 4 times in a row...what are the odds that someone in Hawaii would have a California number?  I am glad it all worked out and finally went on our merry way.
We did our usual grocery shopping on the way to the condo and then sat by the pool.  We managed to find lots of goodies at the store....things we never eat and it was such a treat.  But, now we are both trying to work off the extra weight we gained!
We had a couple little smell issues with our room (smelled like mold) and our car that smelled like pot.  We got a new room and car and then it was smooth sailing.  We spent several days at the beach, just doing nothing.  Well, we did body surf when we got too hot, but I did a lot of sleeping and reading and Ryan read the 3rd book in the Maze Runner series.  There were a few new things we did that we hadn't done before....we hiked the lava flow trail, tried surfing and went to Molokini with our friends, Mark and Jen, from Livermore (they just happened to be there at the same time).

Surfing was great!  I was a bit worried it was like paddle boarding...Ryan can't seem to figure out how to balance on those, but with the force from the wave and stability of the board, it was pretty easy for both of us.  We went back later that day to try by ourselves, but the wind picked up and it was really tricky.  I bought one of those cases for my phone and we got a couple of videos, but for some reason I can't seem to upload them on this site right now.  Maybe I will try later.

Molokini was freezing!  Our tour was at 7:30 in the morning and the water was cold.  The concentration of fish was not like Hanauma Bay, which I was expecting, so it seemed a little boring, but we did see an eel and finished the trip off at the Turtle cleaning station which made it all worth it!  It was amazing to swim with the turtles....there were several of them in this particular spot and my phone did pretty darn good under water!

Oh and I almost forgot, we were at Little Beach on Sunday in the late afternoon when they have a big party and it was starting to get really busy and a lot crazy, so we didn't stay for long.  The path to get there was quite treacherous because the sand had washed away.  The beach was pretty quiet all week until Sunday!

Rental

Our new property closed toward the middle of January and we had an open house on January 23rd that was very well attended.  There were probably 10-15 families who filled out the application to rent it, but we found there to be a very different population of renters than we were used to.  Lots of pets/low income, so it was easy to narrow it down to 2 families.  One took another place that they were offered, so it left us with one (which seems to always happen!).  They are a great family and started moving in on the 1st of February which was really nice for us, but a little stressful since Ryan was traveling the last 2 weeks of January and we had to do a few things to get the place ready.  He flew home on a Friday and we went up there all day Saturday and worked (the kids enjoyed this so very much) and then he flew out on Sunday.  It was such a crazy couple months and that is part of the reason I got so far behind, but I will catch up, right?!

Replacing carpet with tile.....

 I think he did a pretty good job!  Thank you utube

Mission Field trip

I chaperoned a field trip for Ainsley's class a couple months ago to San Juan Batista Mission and we really lucked out with the weather.  It rained before and after the field trip (we have had so much rain the past couple months).  It was a long drive, but worth it :o).
We learned a lot about the purpose of the mission and saw some really old, interesting things.  It was Ainsley's favorite field trip ever!  She really enjoyed seeing the toys that the kids used to play with.  I enjoyed looking at the old fire truck that was pulled by people and had a bunch of water buckets!  Society has come a long way!!!

The girls standing on the San Andreas Fault!

 Beautiful church:

 Fire truck:

Reggie's birthday party

Well, I had hopes I would catch up awhile ago, but not so.  We couldn't seem to get it together to have Reggie's birthday party in December and since our neighbor was doing the game truck for her son's birthday, we decided to split it and have it in January.  There was a bit of a mix up and the truck thought the party was 4 hours later, so we had 9, 12 year olds running around our house.  It was a little chaotic to say the least.  Since he is at a new school this year, there were lots of new faces and it was good for us to meet these boys that he's been talking about.  He has good choices in friends and I hope that continues!
Thankfully, we got ahold of the game truck and they ended up coming about an hour late, so we decided to eat which contained the boys for a little while.  Thank goodness we have many places for fun.... the trampoline, Casita, the hidden play room, the front yard!  We were very thankful when the truck arrived and they all disappeared and all was silent!!!