Coronado and Tijuana

To take advantage of the holiday, Spence and I decided to head down to San Diego (I had never been) and soak up some beach time. He suggested we check out Coronado Island because it's GORGEOUS! It really was. I could barely believe how beautiful it was as we drove over the big bridge, and as we admired the cliffs and ocean view and enjoyed the sandy beach once we settled in at the beach.


Later that afternoon we traveled a little farther south, and hit Tijuana, the major border town that has some great souvenir and gift shops. Spencer spoiled me and I came home with a new kitchen dish and some earrings. The shopkeepers were sure passionate about selling us something! Spence's Spanish came in handy when it came to bartering time. It was so fun and relaxing to enjoy the beach and do a little shopping today! :)

Northwest Folklife

Sorry to do two posts in a row, but I am behind after all :)

I just had to say that Folklife, the music festival that happens every year on Memorial Day weekend in Seattle, is awesome! There is free admission, and basically different folk music and dance groups of all different ethnicities convene in Seattle center to showcase their talents. There are also tons of booths selling everything imaginable, from delicious food to artwork to folksy clothes. I went with my friends Zoe and Lauren today, and we saw Scottish bagpipers, some banjo players, African marimba players, Indian Kahtak dancers, Reggae bands, and a whole variety of street musicians and performers. It was amazing! I love seeing all the different types of music and dance out there, not to mention all the crazy sorts of people who attend this festival! Sorry these pictures really aren't that great, one of them is showing the bagpipers and the other is showing an old man, who is the one in the sparkly dress thing, dancing with scarves... (??)

Seeing old friends :)

Last night, Mom and I invited Adrianna Bernal and Maggie Brown over for dinner. They were, of course, good friends of mine in the Mercer Island ward. Although it's been a while since we were all as close as we once were, it was awesome to see them again! They both go to UW now, and all of us are considering health careers (medicine or nursing) so it was really cool to have that in common with them. We found a lot to talk about and we relived a lot of fun memories. I think you can all agree that there's something extra special about meeting up with old friends again. I'm really glad Mom encouraged me in inviting them and that she could make such a delicious dinner for all of us!

Softball

So recently I have participated in a softball league and I have to admit that it's a lot of fun. It's both relaxed but very intense at the same time because you sit around and crack jokes with teammated and people from the other team but at the same time both teams try very hard to win so it's kinda perfect a chilaxed intensity that I really like. Our team is currently in second place with the top four teams making it to the playoffs. Our defense is currently ranked second best in the league but we gotta get the runs and batting average up because we're kinda hurting in that department. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes. I won't be able to make it to the game tomorrow because it's Grandma's 90th birthday party but hopefully we will stay on pace to making the playoffs.

two Dr Olivers?

I realise that there is only one hope left for another doctor in the family and I think we all know I'm talking about wee Woozie. I doesn't bode well that we have kept hearing about how Grannie has failed to get that long sought after engineer amongst her own grandkids and has had to settle for a "grandson-in-law" as consolation (although I suppose Peter and Hugo could still have a good shot at it). But after seeing how interested little Oliver has been in the human body, who knows maybe there could be two Dr Olivers at some point in the future. A while back we figure he had seen a show on TV or something because he came to Char saying Mommy I have bones all over my body, you have bones and dado and Ben have bones and he explained a bit about what he learned about bones. I think he even impressed Gramps over the weekend with some of the parts of the body and bones that he knew but I thought it was pretty intriguing the other day when he came up to me, hoping to get retribution for Ben had done and said, "Dado, Ben grabbed my neck vertebrae." So maybe give him a bit more time and he'll be on his way to joining Gramps and perhaps Woozie?

The Waltons

The Waltons was a TV show which aired in the 1970's and ran for almost a decade. Set in the 1930's, the drama depicts the struggles of an American family living through the depression. At the end of the first episode of the first season John Boy states: "Those were lean years and for many Americans a harsh and bitter time. On Walton's mountain we were sustained with poems and gingerbread and laughter." I love the simple goodness of their lives and adore the idea of their loving, close family determined to live their lives with integrity, honesty and fairness. Yes, you have to suffer through some bad acting. Yes, you have to sit through some big time cheesiness and at times boring/slow plot development. Yes, it is worth enduring all of that for the gems that are to be found in many an episode.

(I must advise though, once Grandma has a stroke in both real life and in the show and then is for some reason brought back onto the show - it does become almost intolerable to sit through the scenes where they are trying their best to include her character but all that happens is that you have to sit there for way too long listening to Grandma trying to grunt out basic vocabulary. I have NO idea what they were thinking there.)

Now

One of the great temptations of our lives is to delay making tough decisions or to think they will be easier in the future. I know from my own experience that difficult decisions only get more difficult as time goes on. The two great gifts Heavenly Father gives to us in mortality are agency and time. If we push everything into the future, we are not using our time in the present in the best way.

I like this quote from President Eyring (quoting Pres. Kimball). "We know from our own experience that President Spencer W. Kimball was right when he wrote, “One of the most serious human defects in all ages is procrastination,” and then he defined it: “an unwillingness to accept personal responsibility now” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 48; emphasis in original). And so Satan works on both our desire to think we have no cause to repent and our desire to push anything unpleasant into the future."

I know all of us will be happier and more effective if we use our time wisely now and let the future take care of itself.

Love to all,
Gramps