It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

On the way to Seminary on Monday morning in the dark, the announcer on the radio said something about snow down to the 1,000 foot level. It didn't really register with me until we heard a thud outside my classroom door (to the outside) and a student walked in laughing and brushing himself off. His friend had collected enough snow from his car to make a snowball and launch it at him. (Some of the kids live in the hills and had snow on their cars.) When I got home from Seminary, I took some pictures from my driveway of our nearby hills:Snow this low happens only once every 15 years or so in California, so it is really exciting to us. Later in the day I took this picture to show the blue sky and snow:Saturday night at our Ward Christmas Party, the Madrigal Choir from Mountain View High School had performed some beautiful Christmas music. Sunday evening we had gone up to Temple Hill in Oakland and heard a concert by the Blackhawk Choir that my sister-in-law, Nancy, is in. There were about 130 people in their choir and they sounded really great. My favorite number was a clever Jingle Bells arrangement to the music of the Nutcracker. All of this wonderful music combined with the dusting of snow has made it feel more like Christmas around here. I know that it is a stressful time of year for musicians, as my niece Lisa was bemoaning, but those of us who are listening and enjoying really appreciate all of the hard work that goes into the Christmas concerts. It gets the rest of us in the holiday mood.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a child's personality before they are born. The birthing process can be an indication of things to come. Some come into the world like gangbusters (what ARE gangbusters?) as if they can't wait to get started in life (Becca) or some so quickly and unobtrusively, you feel like you almost missed it (Allison).If you know Laura, it will be no surprise to learn that she came into this world at her own pace. She wouldn't be hurried. It didn't matter that with my previous two children (first births don't count!), I delivered them within 2 1/2 hours of getting to the hospital. This held true for the two births after Laura as well. So when we arrived at the hospital on November 7th around 8:00 am, Mark was in his suit, prepared to go on into the office in San Francisco after witnessing this 4th child's birth. However, Laura had a different agenda. She took her sweet time. The contractions spread out, so it wasn't a harder labor, just an inefficient labor. She waltzed into the world at 1:15 pm. I know that it irritates some of my other children, but Laura was a perfect baby. Her APGAR score was a 10. The nurse said she'd only seen one other 10, and that was a pediatrician's child. But more than that, she was an easy baby, an easy teenager, just an all around easy-going young woman. Her outlook on life is upbeat. She looks for the good in people and experiences. One year, when she was playing Little League Baseball, she went to tryouts by herself (it was at the school across the street from our house.) Tryouts consisted of them pitching three balls to you, hitting three high flies to you, and hitting three grounders to you. When she came home, this is the conversation we had: Me: How did tryouts go? Laura: Good. Me: Did you hit any of the pitches? Laura: No. Me: Did you catch any of the high flies? Laura: No. Me: Did you get any of the grounders? Laura: No.But she thought tryouts went well.... This makes Laura sound more unathletic than she really is. She's always up for trying something new. She played baseball, she was on the swim team, she played soccer, she took piano lessons, she took flute lessons, she took voice lessons (David thought she said she was taking BOY lessons), she did well in school. When Mark gave her a name and a blessing as an infant, he blessed her with a sense of humor. I was sort of surprised, I had never heard anyone do that before, and I remember thinking that she would need it in this family. I mean things were pretty chaotic with an 8, 5, and 3 year old besides her. But what I've come to realize is that yes, Laura has a good sense of humor (like the rest of my children), but with Laura it's more like BEING in good humor. When she was about 18 months old, I wrote in my journal: "Lots of people will tell me how good-natured and happy she seems to be - and she really is. Everything is a joke to her. I wonder what she'll be like when she's older."Interestingly enough, Laura was born a year and a day after my miscarriage. I felt like I had been pregnant an awfully long time and I had gone through morning sickness twice to get her. Was it worth the wait? I think so.

good (or bad) hair

*warning: some images in the post may be disturbing. Proceed with caution! I've always felt like Oprah and I share one thing in common: our hair. Obviously, her hair is a different color than mine, but I've had about as many different hairstyles, and I thought my hair had about the same texture and required the same amount of work. But seeing the movie Good Hair a couple of weeks ago changed my mind. I was amazed at what black women (and men) go through to have good hair. The chemicals they use to straighten their hair are so strong that they can burn your scalp. (I'm sure any straightener CAN burn your scalp, but these chemicals are much stronger.) The process of getting a "weave" is not only time consuming, but costly. Like $1,000. And these were not wealthy people. These were school teachers and day care providers. Anyway, it started me thinking about my "troublesome" hair and I decided I wasn't so bad off after all. I started out life with hair that was thick, manageable, and with just enough body to hold a curl. My mother did such a great job with my hair, that there were many pictures of me from the back.But somewhere about the time I finished 7th grade, my hair turned on me. I entered puberty and my hair changed to being coarse, wiry, and frizzy. I tried to pull off the popular "flip" hairstyle. Check out those bangs and cat-eye glasses! This is a reminder of how awkward junior high was.By the end of high school I had tried various things to make my hair straight. I tried ironing it. I tried a relaxer called "Curl Free" that was supposed to make my hair straight. It didn't. I toyed with trying the relaxer with the black girl on the box... I was sure my hair had more in common with hers. I settled for setting my hair on 3" diameter rollers while my hair was wet so that I could wind it tightly making it would as smooth as possible. This, however, required me to have my soft-bonnet hair dryer on for 3 hours so that it would dry. Twelve hours in rollers was not enough--it would still be wet in the morning, so I usually ended up going to bed with the hair dryer on and waking up in the night and turning it off. I'm sure that wasn't a fire hazard or anything. (Note: blow-dryers hadn't come on the scene yet, neither had straighteners.)Even though I lived in Ventura, close to the ocean, I disliked going to the beach because of what it would do to my hair. Hours of work could be undone just by going to school on a foggy day! Oh how I longed for swingy hair that would dry straight. When I got married, I decided I had to wear it short. The blow dryer had been invented, so that was a help..... but big hair can sometimes overpower the face! I've spent a greater part of my life fighting with my hair. Sometimes I've embraced the waviness and put gel on it, but I've never really liked it that way for a couple of reasons: 1. once you gel it you can't touch it 2. you have to gel it while it's still wet and since my hair takes forever to dry, it's usually wet all day. I hate having wet hair. 3. once you sleep on it, you have to wet it again to get it to look good, see #2Various appliances have been invented over the years to assist people with hair like mine, but it still takes time. A lot of time. A full 15 minutes to dry the hair until it looks like this: And then another 20-30 minutes to use the large barrel curling iron so that you look normal. When my children were young, I didn't have that much time to spend on my hair, so I usually wore it short. Or somewhat short.I occasionally tried wearing it long, sometimes with disastrous results! What was I thinking??I don't think you people with naturally straight hair know how good you have it. My mother-in-law used to tell me that I was so lucky to have curly hair. Uh, no, you mean frizzy hair? Lucky? So, you people with straight hair? Doesn't this make you happy for the hair you have? If it doesn't, go see the movie.

Alyce

My sister-in-law, Alyce, would have been 66 years old today. Hers is an easy birthday to remember, the day before Halloween. It's hard to believe that she lost her battle with lymphoma 20 years ago last August. We moved into a house just 4 doors down from her and her family in 1979 when Mark graduated from law school and we had just 2 children. It was our first experience living away from the cocoon of BYU where hundreds of other young, married couples struggled to make ends meet until they hit the big time. Since Alyce was 10 years older than me, she was the veteran who showed me the ropes. She had all the experience in areas that I lacked: motherhood, church callings, cooking, enrolling your child in school and soccer, savoring life. She was my first friend in the neighborhood/church/city and my best friend for those 10 years until her death. If my phone rang at 9:00 am, I knew it was Alyce, doing her dishes and needing someone to talk to while she did it. After my 'hello', her cheerful voice on the other end would exclaim, "Hi, there!" We would talk for about 20 minutes about this and that while we both cleaned up our kitchens (no cordless phones then!) Very often in the afternoon, I would take the kids and walk down to chat with her amid the hubbub which was the Rawlings family after school. She found humor in situations where I might have gotten upset. She understood that kids were, well, kids. Two years after we moved to the area, Mark and I began having a yearly Halloween party. The couples always came in very imaginative costumes. We had been having these parties for about 2 years, and on the third year I let everyone know, except Alyce, that we were going to have a surprise 40th birthday party for her. They should still wear their Halloween costume, but just make it into an aged person. So we had a gray-haired Raggedy Ann and Andy, cheerleaders with gray hair, aging hippies, etc. The theme for the party? We were having a funeral, with the words "Forty Can Be Fatal" on a banner. I was asked by some of the more sensitive party goers if Alyce would be offended. Hah! She'd love it. (And she did.) Alyce just thought it was my usual Halloween party. She and Richard came as a nun and priest. Perfect. We printed up programs that said 'In Memory Of Alyce' and Mark was the minister and gave the eulogy which was more like standup comedy. Phil Urie sang a song with words changed which we giggled through. Sharon Laguna and I had gone to a cemetery and were given old dried up flower arrangements from off of the graves. We had a coffin cake made with red-haired Alyce smiling inside: She thought it was hilarious. Notice her dead bouquet.We had a wonderful time, but looking back, how could we know that in 4 years she would be diagnosed with lymphoma and all too soon (2 years after that), we would be attending Alyce's real funeral? I have vivid memories of Alyce. Sitting on her front lawn in the cool of the evening after a hot summer day, serving up root beer floats to kids as they took a break from playing "Jail." Opening my front door and seeing her tear-streaked face with clumps of hair in her hands as the effects of chemo-therapy took its toll. Visiting her while she was bed-bound and her telling me how she wished she was well enough to just go to the grocery store, that would be a welcome change. Or how much she missed going to her children's soccer games. She taught me to relish the mundane and appreciate being out of doors relaxing instead of thinking I had to be accomplishing something every minute. Thanks, Alyce.

Crafty Baskets

I just finished making these little baskets and wanted to post the pictures, mainly so Bonnie can see what they look like. The plastic inserts are the bottom of a 1 gallon bottled water container, which I thought was so clever. (The pattern called for it, I'm not THAT clever.)Halloween

Fall

Christmas

You gotta be kidding

I walked into a department store in our mall today. They have Christmas decorations up. It's October, people. Can't Christmas wait at least until after my birthday? It's anybody's guess how long they've been up. I haven't been to the mall since August.

Big Jolt

Just a little while ago we were jolted by an earthquake. Actually, there was a little jolt and then a bigger one, which actually knocked a picture frame (with Donovan's picture in it!) off my shelf in my sewing room. We quickly turned on the radio expecting to hear the SF talk radio show taking calls from people about the quake and what it felt like at different points around the Bay Area. It was a timely quake, since we are coming up on the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake, aka The Pretty Big One (not to be confused with The Big One, 1906). Anyway, the only thing the radio talk show host said was that they had received a few calls from Pleasanton about an earthquake. Later, they mentioned that it was a 3.8 centered between Pleasanton and Sunol. I went on the USGS website and with the help of Google Earth saw where the epicenter was, probably less than 1.5 miles from our house! This on top of a freak rainstorm today that dumped almost 2 inches of rain and up to 50 mph winds! Nature gone crazy!

Flat and no flats

On Friday afternoon, Mark and I drove down to San Luis Obispo to participate in the L*ighthouse C*entury on Saturday. We had prepared our bodies and bikes, packed our clothes, helmets, gloves, extra bike tubes, and CO2 cartridges (instant air.) We were excited as the last time we tried a century together we got rained on and quit after 50 miles. Mark did the L*odi C*entury this summer in extreme heat so we were looking forward to this one. The Lighthouse is a fairly flat century with rolling hills that takes you on Highway 1 from Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, up the coast a little ways past San Simeon and Hearst Castle and then back to SLO. We had heard that it can be quite foggy the first half and that you don't see the ocean until after turning around when the fog lifts, but on Saturday as we drove from the motel to Cuesta College at 6:40 am, we were surprised that there wasn't any fog. There is a certain excitement as hundreds of riders park their cars and start unloading bikes and gear. Looking around, we realized that we were not the oldest people in the ride. I would estimate the average age to be around 40 years old. There were a total of 1600 riders in the event and there was a choice of a metric century (62 miles), flat century, or hilly century. We were off shortly after 7 am. There is no starting gun and people just start whenever, so their are no huge clumps of riders. Usually there are groups of 5 people or so that kind of stick together. Sometimes you can tag along after group and take advantage of drafting them, letting them pull you. Sometimes you realize that someone is drafting you and letting you pull them. We saw quite a few tandems and one guy riding a unicyle. I'm not sure how he could do the hills, especially the downhill with no brakes. He must have ridden the shorter route because we passed him twice. About an hour into the ride we hit some fog for about 1/2 hour, but soon it was gone and the views were absolutely gorgeous. The first rest stop was at mile 25 but we missed the turn for it, mainly because that was when we saw the unicyle and we weren't paying attention to the signs! Besides, we were riding down the main street of Cayucos, a quaint seaside town that was just too cute. It had a saloon! The second rest stop was at mile 42 and I was REALLY happy to see those porta-potties (how DO you spell that?) We grabbed some snacks, refilled our water bottles, and Mark took a picture with his Blackberry. I meant to bring my camera, but forgot!At this point we were averaging over 16 mph which we were really happy about. Just before the turn around point we ran into a headwind which slowed us down, but we were okay with it because we knew that once we turned around we would have the wind at our backs. The temperatures were in the high 60's, the sun was out, and the scenery unbeatable. The lunch stop was at mile 70 and the food was so delicious that I ate too much. There was a broccoli salad with red onions and raisins that I would burp and enjoy (?) the remaining 30 miles! We saw hundreds of elephant seals laying on the beach and a herd of zebras (!) at the bottom of the road to Hearst Castle. They hadn't been visible on the way up.I really don't like pictures of me in my bike clothes, but the scenery was so beautiful I just had to include this one too. I should have take a picture of Mark. He has skinnier legs. After lunch and before the rest stop at mile 85 we hit a head wind and that dropped our average speed. I was bummed because I had set a goal of averaging 16 mph for the whole 100 miles. But after the rest stop the wind must have shifted, because once again we were sailing along and realized that we were on an upgrade going 18 mph! We saw plenty of people changing flat tires and some SAG wagons with bikes on them taking people back to the start who had bagged the ride. We were very happy to complete the ride with no flat tires between us. We finished the ride reaching our goal of averaging 16 mph with a riding time of 6 hours 10 minutes, actual elapsed time was about 7 1/2 hours. We felt good, although we were tired of sitting on those little bike seats. We got in the car and drove the three hours home very content with our achievement.

business time*

*NOT associated with Flight of the Conchords! On Sunday, I was in the library at church preparing music for choir practice and one of the ladies in my ward asked me if I did embroidery for hire. This summer she had tried to call me to put something on an apron for her, but I was gone for two weeks, so she didn't ask me to do the project for her. We chatted about stuff I usually embroider on and I mentioned that I usually get my aprons from Williams-Sonoma and then pick off the tag so I can embroider the name at the top of the apron. She said, "Oh, you can get chef's aprons at the Business Costco, but only in black and white, and they're very inexpensive." I asked about dinner napkins and she said that they had lots of restaurant stuff. I decided to check out this new resource. I had looked at aprons and restaurant-quality napkins online, but wasn't sure of the quality, so I never ordered anything. I had also tried to find decent napkins at various discount stores, but never was satisfied with the selection. I love Costco, but I'd forgotten about the Business Costco. As I walked through the door, my steps slowed so that I could take it all in. It was then I realized I needed more than just napkins and aprons. I needed new cookie sheets, at $3.99. I swear I used to get them from Smart and Final for $7.50. I neeeded silicone baking liners to fit said cookie sheets, $11.99, at Williams-Sonoma they are $25. I needed a pack of silicone pot holders, 4/$14.29, I'm saving two for a gift! Aprons were 2/$6, at Williams-Sonoma they're $19 each. Napkins were 12/$12, I can monogram to my heart's content. I even got a Table Bell for $2.49, because who doesn't need one? The 17-year old thinks it's great fun to bang on it and yell "can I get some service?" but it's really for games at Seminary. As I unloaded all of my treasures into my car, I realized that I had forgotten to buy eggs. I hate it when I forget things. But that just means I get to go to my regular Costco later this week. They have frozen yogurt at that one.

the last (fill in the blank)

This year will be filled with *lasts*. The previous post was about one of those. But I have to make note of a couple of others. This week marked the last Back to School night we will attend. Six children times 13 years of school equals 78 Back to School nights. Of course, sometimes there were as many as 3 children attending the same school so that number isn't entirely accurate, but you get the idea. I don't think I will miss that ritual, but I could be wrong. Of course, I wasn't entirely mature about this one either. David's English class is called "Literature and Social Justice." His teacher likes to have people open up about their feelings. David had told us about her. When someone tells about some experience, she responds with, "Thank you for sharing that, it was really powerful." (or something like that-- always using the word "powerful.") It really bugs David. He even texted his dad during English one day, complaining of her overuse of the word. So when she began her overview of the course at Back to School Night, and used the word powerful to describe one of the books they'll be reading this year, I couldn't resist. I started counting. And in the next 12 minutes, she used the word powerful 6 times. It kind of loses its power. The other major last event this month is the senior picture. I have a wall in my family room with all my kids' pictures. Each year I would swap out their old school picture for their current one. Until their senior picture, and then that one just stayed, making me believe that they were all still in high school and still mine. I know that isn't really true, but it makes me feel better. And now I will have a matched set. Quite amazing, really, as it has been 16 years in the making. Almost powerful. (I know I've posted the younger picture before, but I couldn't resist the comparison. It's one of my all time favorite pictures. Thanks, Yvette)

Forgetting

Just before David left the house for his last first-day-of-school (seniors rule-woohoo!), he asked me if I was going to take a first-day-of-school picture. I had sort of forgotten about it in the morning preparations (Mom, do you have a notebook I could take to school? Oh, yeah, I guess I need a pencil, too.) but I was only too happy to be reminded. Sometimes this sixth child of mine gets the short end of the stick when it comes to mothering. I tend to forget to do the little rituals that were so prevalent with my earlier children. So here he is in his last first-day-of-school photo (I WON'T be following him to college.)After he left, I reflected that for the last 28 years I had had children leaving the house excitedly anticipating their first day of school and this was going to be my last. It was kind of a sad thought... and then the phone rang. It was David. It was obvious that he had arrived at school, I could hear screeching and yelling as a whole campus of high school kids converged. The sound over the phone was deafening. "Mom, I forgot my schedule! It's on my bedroom floor. Could you get it and read off my subjects and classroom numbers?" Ummm.... yeah. How old are you? I attribute my forgetfulness to age, but perhaps he's inherited it. So I jumped on my bike and met up with 5 other ladies and rode 48 miles. To forget my irritation.

Orlando - Part 2

The last two days in Orlando were spent at Sea World and the Magic Kingdom. Although Emaline's birthday was the day we would be at Magic Kingdom, Allison had ordered a cake a few days ahead so that we could celebrate Emaline's and Mark's birthday (earlier in the month) while Nancy and Jeff were still in Orlando with us.

I'm sure Mark loved having Cinderella on his birthday cake!

Sea World is one of my favorite theme parks. I absolutely love watching the dolphins and killer whales do their tricks. Besides those two shows, we also saw a sea lion show and The Amazing Pet Show which was, well, amazing. I didn't know you could train cats to do tricks. I mean, I know they are smart enough, but I thought they were too stuck up to do anything on command. In the pet show there were dogs, cats, mice, birds, and a pig. I'm sure I left something out. Along with the shows there were aquariums with sharks, walrus', polar bears, penguins, manta rays, and assorted fish and an octopus. And some roller coasters. I don't know how I got talked into going on Kracken, but as they strapped me in, I was like, "this is going to go upside down, isn't it?" and Laura responded, "uh, yeah.....7 times." It was then I felt like swearing. Kracken's top speed is 65 mph with an almost vertical drop of 144 ft. I had my eyes closed most of the time trying to make the 2 minutes and 7 inversions go as fast as possible without becoming completely nauseated. Every time I tried to open my eyes, all I could see was the track ahead twisting onto its side and that was scarier than just keeping my eyes closed. After it was over the kids kept marvelling on how smooth the ride was, the smoothest roller coaster they had been on. I don't remember whether it was smooth or not. I opted out of the other roller coaster, Manta. Around 5:00 pm we were deciding that it was almost time to leave the park, but maybe those that wanted to ride the roller coasters one more time should do that. It was announced that the rides were shutting down because of lightning. Just then the heavens opened up and the rain began. I have never seen it rain so hard and it did so for 35-40 minutes. We huddled under and roof and watched as people scurried by completely drenched. I always thought those movies where people were in a rainstorm for 2 minutes and were soaked through were such an exaggeration, but now I know different. The water on the walkways were soon 2-3 inches deep. Lightning flashed and thunder cracked so loudly and so quickly that we knew it was really close. Finally after about 40 minutes we ran for the car, but didn't get too wet because by that time the rain was just normal rain. It was kind of nice not to be so hot and sweaty!

The Magic Kingdom was magical indeed.

Becca, David, and Laura

Emaline got to wear a button that said it was her birthday and all the workers wished her happy birthday as we passed by or got on and off rides. Mark had arranged lunch at Cinderella's Table in the castle. This was a huge smash, even for Donovan. I mean, we knew the girls would love it, but who knew Donovan would be so smitten? When we walked in, there was a chance for pictures with Cinderella. The look on Donovan's face when she knelt down and hugged him and then kissed his cheek was priceless.

Emaline, Cinderella, Donovan, Ainsleigh

We were ushered upstairs to the dining area, where one by one, Aurora, Belle, Snow White, and Jasmine came by our table to greet everyone. No one was too old to get a picture with a princess! Laura's favorite princess was always Aurora. She used to make me call her Aurora.

Beauty and the Beast?

The food was really very good, and everyone got wands or swords, too! Becca requested a sword instead of a wand. Hmmm......We did all of the usual rides, but were disappointed that Space Mountain was closed for repairs. Around 4:30 pm we returned to the resort so the kids (and adults!) could take a nap and returned for the evening. It was so much cooler! We saw the light parade and the fireworks, did a few more rides and bought souvenirs. We were really glad to get to bed around midnight. Our family reunion was a smashing success and we were all sad to part company for our 5 different states. All of the kids were so good to be dragged all over but I have to say that Gemma was a champ for being so young. She fell asleep wherever and was cheerful as can be.

Orlando - Part 1

Our entire family plus Mark's sister, Nancy, came from New York, North Carolina, Colorado, and California to spend a week in Orlando. Mark and I are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary and what better way to celebrate than to join with the people we love most for some good times. Orlando in August was not our first choice, and it is very hot and humid, but the fun we are having together far outweighs the discomfort. In planning for this week, I had to put some reins on Mark and remind him that we couldn't hit a theme park EVERY day, we had small children to consider (one 7 year old, two 4 year olds, one 15 month old) and besides that, the cost would be prohibitive. He was able to get some discounts by searching online. We arrived Saturday evening, sent out for pizza, and then Allison pulled out the envelope. THE envelope. Earlier in the week she had had an ultrasound and closed her eyes when it came to the part of discovering the sex of the baby, then had the technician put the results in a sealed envelope so that we could all have the joy and excitement of hearing what the newest addition to our family would be (due date: January 5.) They had Emaline open the envelope and had coached her that B would mean boy and G would mean girl. They helped her to find the word.... "girl" and we all cheered. Except Emaline. She burst into tears and wailed that she wanted a boy baby! (Note: she has since got over it and cheerfully tells everyone she is having a sister.) Anyway, we all thought her reaction was hilarious and we are thrilled to have another girl in the family.We traded our timeshare weeks in Kauai for three 3-bedroom units at the Marriott Grande Vista. We are just one mile from Sea World and about a 20 minute drive from Disney. Here is a picture of the outside of the Grande Vista with one of our lovely red mini-vans out in front. Here are pictures of the living room/dining room/kitchen area. We also have a screened in balcony that would be a wonderful place to sit and take in the view of the lake, but it is way to hot and humid. The weather has been in the low 90s with the humidity about 90%. Here is a picture of the master bedroom.We went to Animal Kingdom the first day here and we couldn't believe how sweaty we got. My hair was frizzing up almost immediately. The rest of the week I had to just not care how I looked! I think my favorite part of Animal Kingdom is the safari. I love the giraffes as they walk along so gracefully, practically close enough that you could reach out and touch them from the truck/bus thing they have you riding in. The grandkids loved all of the animals. They did not love so much the scary dinosaur ride we went on. Emaline had her head ducked down almost in my lap the whole time. She usually seems like such a bold, unafraid little girl, but this ride was too much for her! Here we are with our 3-D Bug's Life glasses.In the evening we went to dinner at Medieval Times and the kids really loved it. At one point during the program, Ainsleigh, who is usually very mild mannered, was shouting along with the rest of us for our green knight, and Sarah realized that Ainsleigh was shouting, "Kill him! Kill him!" David showing off his knight prowess: Here is Ainsleigh with the MC:The next day while Mark, Jeff, Laura, Rebecca, David, and Dave Whitley went to Islands of Adventures/Universal Studios to see how many times they could be upside down on the big roller coasters. (25) Allison, Emaline, and Nancy hung out at the pools here at the resort. The Hills and I drove about 45 minutes east to Cocoa Beach. I took a few pictures of Donovan and Ainsleigh playing in the water. This man wandered into my picture of Donovan. He was pretty representative of about 50% of the people at the beach. It made me feel much better about myself in a swimsuit!The following day, Mark, Nancy and I went to Epcot while the rest of the kids went to Blizzard Beach and went on the water slides, after an early morning round of golf by the menfolk. Nancy and Jeff flew home the next day and we hung out here at the resort at the pools and went to a nearby outlet mall. Surprisingly, Mark was quite enamored with the mall and made some purchases. One of them was a $120 tie from Barney's of New York for which he paid $30.