Around the House

It has been a fairly routine week at the Stout house this week.  We have done the usual activities, scouts, volleyball, swimming and, of course, lots of homework.  Since life has slowed down a bit, we are trying to focus a little on our home and some of those projects that we have been wanting to do for a while.
This week the focus was on a workbench in the garage.  Having a workshop has always been high on Jeff's list.  After 8 years of fixing and building things in the "spare room", the addition of the garage had a big impact.  But it just wasn't quite complete without a workbench.  Now that our garage seems to be our own, and we happened to get some free scrap lumber, it was time to get busy.  The project just seemed to become more complicated as the day went on, but in the end, we have the sturdiest workbench I have ever encountered!  Jeff is looking forward to using his new workbench for our next project, after he finishes cleaning up the mess in the garage!

Trading Spaces

Last week was the big week, the one that Maddie (and others) have been waiting for since the completion of the garage over two years ago.  The fourth bedroom in our home was finally converted into an actual bedroom.  This had a domino effect that gave every child considerable more space.  Since the birth of Gabe, 9 years ago, Maddie and Allie have been sharing a 10 foot by 10 foot bedroom and Gabe and Jayd have been doing the same.  With the vacancy of the 4th bedroom (it took me two years to purge, remove and relocate the items that had been stored in that room), every child now has a space about that size each.  Maddie stayed in her original room.  It has remained nearly unchanged, the only difference is the bunkbeds were replaced by a single bed.  Allie moved into the boys bedroom.  It is largely filled by the king size bed, such a big bed for such a little girl!  We are grateful to have reduced Allie's floorspace and hope that it will inspire her to stay a little neater.  Gabe and Jayd moved into the "new" bedroom.  With nearly twice the size of the other rooms, they should have a little more room to breathe.  An ironic twist of fate, the biggest room has the smallest closet.  I suppose it is a good thing that they are boys and don't need nearly as much closet space!  We have been experiencing a few growing pains over the week as we sorted out personal belongings, moved furniture and arranged it all, but in the long run, I think that it will be good for the family.

Allie's Room:

Gabe's "Room"  (note: the big white square behind the bunk beds is Jayd's Room)

Jayd's "Room" (note: I am standing next to the bunk beds in Gabe's Room)

 

Maddie's Room

Hollywood Bowl "Flicks" to life

 Friday night we went to the Hollywood Bowl.  I have always wanted to go there, but hadn't remembered to buy tickets early enough (it seems like every time I looked, only box seats were left).  This year, I remembered early, and was able to go to the box office and purchase tickets the day after they opened.  There are so many good concerts performed there over the summer, but I was thrilled to be able to purchase tickets for the concert I really wanted, John Williams. He is one of the most successful composers in cinematic history.  He has composed the scores for Harry Potter, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Jaws and Star Wars, and many others.  It was so much fun to go to that concert.  We recognized most of the songs he played.  The opening song we immediately recognized, although we never would have associated it with him.  He played the Olympic Theme that NBC uses.  During that performance, they showed great Olympic moments on the screen.  It was very entertaining, and aappropriate for this year They didn't use the video screen for every song, but they did on occassion. 

  They showed famous sword fighting scenes.  Maddie was satisfied, they included the scene from the Princess Bride.  For the finale, they played the entire last reel of the movie ET as they showed the movie on the screen.  It was over 15 minutes of music, and just amazing to think of the impact the music has on the film.

As an encore, they played several selections from Star Wars.  The crowd was very excited, and several people had brought light up light sabers.  As soon as those familiar notes began, the light sabers came out and were waved around the theater.  It was a very fun experience.  The evening was full of laughter, entertainment, and of course, very emotional music.

First Day of School

It happens every fall, or at least every near the end of the summer.  In my mind, summer seems to end when the kids go back to school.  But it is hard to think that summer is over when the temperature is just ramping up.

I think that September is the hottest month of the year.  Luckily for me, the temperature has obliged me, at least for the time being.  The kids went back to school, and the longest heat wave of the summer broke on the same day, bringing the temperatures down to a cool 93.  I know it won't last, but it was a refreshing way to start the summer.

This year is the same as last year, I sent two children off to highschool, and two children off to the elementary school.  Jayd was quite pleased with his schedule, Maddie had a class that she didn't request and didn't want, but quickly went to the counselor and was able to get it changed to a more satisfactory subject. 

Allie was put in the class with the teacher that she wanted, although it didn't matter much because the two teachers team teach and she will spend nearly as much time in the other class.  Gabe has the teacher that I wanted him to have.  He is a little worried, she has a reputation of being a tough disciplinarian.  I am not worried, Gabe generally isn't a behavior problem and I think that he will do just fine.  Here are their pictures on the first day of school.

The campy, cozy beach trip

For our last hurrah of the summer, we went beach camping!  It is quite a popular thing to do in Southern California.  We made reservations 6 months ago, before our summer came together and we discovered we were going to be camping more than ever.  We were a little weary of camping, but much more practiced at it, and after all, it was at the beach.  Upon arrival, the kids were quite disappointed that we weren't actually sleeping on sand on the beach.  The campsite was about 100 yards from the beach on plain old dirt.  They were quickly pacified when they discovered the tree behind the tent that was very easy to climb.

We spent a lovely two days at the beach.  It was so convenient to be camping so near to the beach.  We went down to the beach, swam in the ocean, played a little volleyball, then went back to the campsite for lunch.  We returned later that day after the crowds had gone.  We walked along the beach, made footprints in the sand and watched the sunset.

The next day, we had a sand castle building contest.  Here is Maddie with her sand rendition of Helm's Deep from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  It was very well done.  Allie, Gabe and I finished the day on the boogie boards.  It was low tide, but the waves were quite big and we caught a lot of good waves and rode them until we reached the shore. The ocean was very strange that day.  If you look closely at the picture of Gabe on the boogie board, you might notice that the water directly behind Gabe had a glassy effect to it, similar to a calm and still lake.  The ocean was like that all morning.  The waves would roll until and look perfectly smooth and glassy until it crested and foamed.  It was very unusual.

  

We had a great time with our last hurrah at the beach.  We have been busy, but feel refreshed and ready to start settling into the routine of school.

On the Horizon: the Vertical Horizon

  Jeff discovered that one of his favorite rock groups, Vertical Horizon was scheduled to play in Roosevelt Utah (population 6,000).  Upon further investigation, he also discovered that it was put on by the park and rec district and was free.  Since we happened to be in Utah that day, he made arrangements to go.We were hesitant right up until the end, it just seemed so bizarre that we weren't really sure if it was going to happen.  But it did!  We walked right up and sat on the second row.  Once they started playing, we walked up and stood right near the stage!  It was fantastic.  We love their music and it was so fun to hear them play it live.

  

The lead singer and songwriter, Matt Scannell, was very personable and told us stories about when he wrote the songs and sometimes about his inspiration.  It felt really close and personal.  We had a great time listening to the music and being there.  After the concert, we stayed to get autographs from the band.  What an experience for a first concert!

Californian Snowbirds

 One day while we were in Utah, my mother-in-law suggested we go to Snowbird, a Utah ski resort.  She said that they had many summertime activities for all ages.  So off we went.  It was so much fun!  First, we went on the alpine slide which snaked down the bunny hill through purple wildflowers. 

Then we tried the ropes course.  That was our favorite activity.  We wore a harness, then climbed up into a tall steel structure.  With the harness attached to a rail above our heads, we walked on across narrow planks and ropes fifteen feet above the ground, like a tightrope walker.  They had a mechanical bull, climbing wall, bungee trampoline, and monkey arms. 

After those activities, we rode the ski lift up the mountain to do some hiking.  Unfortunately, we were a little confused and when we arrived at the top, we discovered that we needed to hike up another 500 feet to arrive at our destination!  After that climb, we were done hiking for the day, but spent the day playing on all the other activities.  We came home exhausted and filled with memories.