Thursday, April 17, 2014

Sarah’s spring break

Sarah went with the Concert Choir to Southern California for spring break – we were all totally jealous of her opportunities…just wait & see all they did!

In addition to singing at several schools, churches, rest homes, and festivals (one of which was at Disneyland and their choir took FIRST PLACE for a school of their size!!), they had a lot of fun. ALL the pictures are of the fun. Smile 

Sarah & McKenzie

They went to the beach. Huntington. My favorite. Sarah & her XC co-captain.

Taking a selfie

Epic jump shot

An epic jump shot by the choir member with the photo skills. Can you find Sarah?

They went to Anaheim Stadium and watched the Seattle Mariner’s DOMINATE over the Angels.

Sarah & Madi

M's cap

They also had a choir collaboration workshop with the choir at Biola University. Sarah adored the campus and her time there. She thinks every college campus she visits is amazing.

Sunny college campus shoes

She likes to take pictures of her feet…here they are on the campus of Biola!

Biola

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The choir got to spend time in one of our favorite CA locations…REDLANDS! It’s our favorite because of these people:

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My sister-in-law and brother helped the choir immensely by finding host homes and organizing the school and church events on their end. It was a great part of the trip – for the whole choir, not just Sarah!

The boys

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choir

Here’s the choir at The River CRC in Redlands. Had to steal that one from Facebook, but at least it’s proof they sang!

From there, the choir went to Disneyland!

Sarah & Christina

Sarah & Ryanne

Disneyland!

Sleeping Beauty's castle

Castle at night

Sarah & Monet

Arty banister

Kissing Flynn Rider

AND they went to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor on their last day.

Endeavor

A very cool trip. Makes me wish I was back in high school. A little. Mostly it makes me want to go on a sunny, beachy, vacation with family!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Spring Break, among other things

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I know I already talked about track, but I found some pictures! Track has begun and Sarah’s doing great. This was from her first meet, where she ran the mile and ran just 3 seconds off her PR, coming in first.

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That picture was after the first lap. She stayed right there in 2nd place for quite a while…and at the end even held off a long-time rival! I love how all the track “helpers” are getting their donuts right as the mile runners are passing through. Donuts for track helpers has been a long-standing tradition at our school. It’s amazing how cheap labor can be.

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Signs of spring are emerging everywhere and Sarah has been enjoying practicing photography in the sunshine on family walks!

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I think she’s really getting good at this photography thing!

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The first day of spring break, after taking Sarah to school so she could leave for her choir tour, Bethany & I put 2 yards of dirt + compost into her new vegetable garden (Christmas gift from my parents) to get it ready for planting! We had a lot leftover, so my flower beds in the front and on the sides also got some nice compost covering.

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The next couple days were full of fun with friends & errands…and a little bit of feeling wiped out from a cold, so the girls & I watched Pride & Prejudice one afternoon. Rather out of character for us, to spend an afternoon watching a movie, but we all just wanted to rest, anyway. I think the girls all liked it, though I had to press pause frequently to explain what was going on.

Then on Thursday & Friday we headed to Seattle for a little family getaway. We visited the Pacific Science Center and watched the IMAX movie on the journey to the South Pacific (which consequently caused both Ed & I to even further miss Hawaii, and in particular, snorkeling). We also watched a planetarium show and checked out several exhibits, including the butterfly house!

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JUST as Becca put her hand up to flick her ponytail, a butterfly landed on her elbow! So, my Fancy Nancy had to hold this pose for a bit…and then slowly moved her arm down, but the butterfly flew away.

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And of course, smashed penny souvenirs! Those are my favorite…51 cents and it’s small and easy to store!

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Next up was the Museum of Flight, which is free the first Thursday of every month from 5-9! It was crazy busy in there, and we saw our friends from MV and another Lynden family there as well! Cool place, though. We’d love to take all our parents there someday.

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I have more pictures…but they just don’t do the place justice. And besides, Air Force One wasn’t open when we were there.

And then we were off to our hotel in Bothell…it was a Groupon deal, but I don’t think we need to go there again. We thought it might be nicer than Embassy Suites in that we wouldn’t see half our town there…but we saw two families from our town! Apparently they buy Groupons also. It wasn’t as big as Embassy Suites either, nor was the pool area as nice. But now I’m making it seem like it wasn’t nice…it WAS nice and we enjoyed ourselves!

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The treats from the Market in the hotel – our Groupon included a $10 credit there!

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After swimming in the morning, we checked out and headed to this sweet place called Country Village Mall. From all the shrieking you would have thought the girls thought they had died and gone to Pioneer Heaven.

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Just forget that there are gas-powered vehicles parked there and pretend it’s horse-drawn carriages.

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The place was truly adorable, with a merry-go-round made of these sweet little horses. REALLY heavy…they could hardly get the thing going for a ride!

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It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed the gardens and bridges and walkways, as well as several gift & antique shops.

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Oh, and these horse statues. They fit right in and the girls even named them. Blazen and Stoney, I think?

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Panera Bread for lunch and then we headed home! It was a great two-day getaway!