We had a couple of back to back road trips for sports over the first couple of weeks in February. The first was to St George for Nora's(and Scott's, since he coaches) soccer tournament. The girls did well; they won 2 and tied one. They almost made it finals, but they needed to win the last game AND the shootout, and although they won the game, they lost the shootout. It was a fun weekend and I'm so grateful for our dear friends who always let them stay with in their home while we're in St George.
Whenever we travel, we try to find an LDS temple to visit -- we also do work in temples near us often...We had been going monthly for many years, but about a year ago, Scott and I made it a goal to go most weeks. We switch off what ordinance we're doing, so one week we'll do initiatory, another week endowment, and another week sealings. The kids go regularly with their youth group to do baptisms, but that's another thing we've recently decided to add into our normal routine, so that we can go as a family about once a month. While in St George, the Red Cliffs temple is about half a mile from where we stay, so we did baptisms one morning before a game. And a couple of Nora's soccer teammates came with; pretty neat to have your soccer coach be able to perform baptisms with his players.
Elisabeth, Annabelle and Jane stayed behind. Annabelle had her Sweethearts dance and she asked Peyton, Tayon's brother (tayson is Elisabeth's boyfriend in pocatello), so Elisabeth wanted to stay behind. Jane had some cheer things, so she stayed too.
Meanwhile, Charles is doing well in Africa. His companion is going home to Australia soon. Charles enjoyed his time with him.
The've had a lot of people interested in learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In areas where people live in more humble circumstances, and do have as many material things, they're also more open, teachable and ready to follow Christ. In more affluent areas, like in some areas in the USA and Europe, you see more people who feel like they're good on their own. They feel like they don't need God in their life; it might complicate their life. If they only knew! I guess you don't know what you're missing until you have it. But if they knew, they would want the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives; they would want his strength, and comfort, his healing and power to be in their lives through the good and the hard as we will undoubtedly experience it all.
We got home from St George on Sunday, unpacked, washed and repacked and then Tuesday after school, we took off for California to see Jane's cheer competition(staying the night in St George at our friends house again that night before finishing the drive Wednesday). Originally, Scott had a work conference there that same week, so he was going to fly (paid by his work) and we would drive and meet him there, but his conference got cancelled so he was able to drive with us. Jane flew with her cheer team on Wednesday (she stayed the night with Anisten, on the team, on Tuesday since we had already left). Scott's company has an office near where we stayed in Cali, so he still worked during the day, we would just drop him off, and then go play. We were able to visit 3 temple while we were there: Newport Beach (15 minutes away), Los Angeles (almost an hour), and Redlands temple.
Wednesday we got in town around 1pm and dropped Scott off at work. Then we checked into our hotel, changed and went to the Newport Beach temple.
Thursday we were able to spend the day in Disneyland (Jane went with her cheer team a couple of days later). It was Nora, Annabelle and Jane's first time doing Disney. I had gone when I was a child, and Elisabeth went with the cheer team several years ago. Since this was a last-month decision trip, I had told the girls that if they'd like to do Disney, I'd contribute $100/each to their ticket and then they'd need to come up with the rest (which varied on what they wanted to do. Annabelle only needed to pay $50 because she just wanted to do Disneyland and no Lightning pass. Nora and Elisabeth each had to pay $160 because they wanted the Lightning pass and they wanted to do a Park Hopper, so you do Disneyland and Disney Adventure park). It rained the entire day (glad we decided to buy Ponchos at Walmart the night before) so even though Annabelle and I didn't get fast passes, we still got on 8 or so rides in the 6 hours we were there; we both tend to get a little motion sick, so I wasn't planning to do that many, but we both took some meclizine and wore ear patches, and that seemed to help. Most of the rides we went on we could just walk right up and get on. We did have to wait 45 minutes for space mountain though, and that was the longest wait. Though after Space Mountain I was feeling done; that ride was a bit wild for my tummy. Our favorite might've been the newer Star Wars ride; although I also like Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Valentine's was Friday while we were in Cali. I sent a treat and note ahead with Jane for her to open, and then Valentine's morning I had love notes and Valentine's treats out for the family. After we dropped Scott off to work we went to a couple of temples mentioned above and did baptisms.
For dinner, I got the girls Cafe Rio and then I picked up Scott from work and we went to this African Restaurant where we saw they had Fufu. Turns out it's not a restaurant but a place where you can get take out. So we ordered a couple of things, including Fufu since that's Charles' favorite and then we ate it outside the building at a picnic table. It was gross. Well, the fufu was bland and a dough consistency (it's made from cassava), and whatever they served with it was not good; there were some spices I'd never tried before and that didn't taste good. This restaurant is Nigerian and Charles is in Ghana so it's not the same, and he always has his fufu with some sort of soup he dips it in which this restaurant didn't offer. After forcing down a few bites of this (because I was SO hungry and needed to eat something now), we got in the car and drove to a place that had several small food places side by side in this indoor market area. We got fish n chips, and then sticky mango rice and a boba for dessert (from 3 different vendors). It was so yummy! I was happy we decided to have this second meal because it made me happy to have yummy food on Valentine's Day :).
That night at 9pm, Jane had her first performance. We went and they did well and made it to the finals which was Saturday. Because of Jane's concussion back in November, she'd been out for a long time, and had just gotten the approval to practice again a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised they put her in all the stunts and everything, and I could tell during the performance she wasn't quite ready for it yet or healed all the way. I knew she was still getting headaches sometimes. During the performance she was more wobbly in the air and she looked off; like she was a little scared and uncertain and her face seemed a bit more pale. I was nervous for her as she performed and just hoped they wouldn't drop her. They didn't. But I decided then I would take her to see a concussion specialist once we were home.
Saturday we had to leave to make the drive back; since this was a last minute trip, I had already planned my gospel doctrine lesson and would need to teach Sunday morning at 9am. We also weren't sure of the cheer team schedule until about a week ago, and we were under the impression they would be performing Thursday and maybe Friday, not Friday and maybe Saturday. I said lots of prayers for her that weekend. The second day performance was okay, but she did fall out of her one-man stunt though luckily it was a soft landing on her feet. They had gone to Disneyland earlier that day which means a lot of time on their feet and I think that also played into her fall; as well as the fact that she went on several rides which also made her feel not great before the performance.
Saturday we drove home, but stopped in Vegas because Tayson's family was there for Peyton's soccer tournament. We watched his game and then got lunch before continuing on our way.
We were held up in Beaver for an hour or so because our car got a nail in the tire that we had to fix. We decided it would be a good time to eat dinner as well. We had a fun trip and enjoyed our time together.
