Sequoia National Park

We had really wanted to go camping and see the sequoias over Labor Day but like I had posted earlier, we didn't get our act together in time to reserve a spot. Last weekend, we took a chance and headed up for a quick one night camping getaway. We didn't really have a campsite in mind, but there are a ton of them as you head north into the forest. We had three requirements in order for us to stop and put up camp.

1. Shade
2. cooler temperatures (by preferably 10 degrees)
3. campfire allowed

We were kind of worried at first because along the Kern River and at lower elevations all the campsites had 'no open fire' signs out. We just kept going up and were super lucky to find the perfect campsite! It's called Redwood Meadows and is right across the highway (literally, just a few steps) from the trail of 100 Giants! We got there at about 3:30pm and quickly set up camp. The kids kept busy by talking on their cell phones (rocks and pieces of wood) to each other around the site. We were then able to take a quick hike through the Trail of 100 Giants before we started cooking dinner. The trees were amazing! They were so huge, and hard to imagine how they could possibly be so big!

We had taken all these great photos of the kids and us next to the trees with Cory's cell phone and NOT ONE of them turned out. Something was wrong with his camera app or something. So we have ZERO pictures of our trip. However, lucky you, I created an artistic rendering of the trip.

Here are the kids next to three Sequoias that have grown together.

Cory and Me next to one of the 'Giants'.

*picture stolen from google

Our family in front of the tree. From L to R: Cory,  Me, Carter, Clay and Vivi

The kids had a great time camping. It was the first time we've gone as a family since Carter broke his head. And it was the first time Vivi had ever been camping. We even took the dog (although she didn't make it into any of the pictures, obviously.
We had "Schmoes" around the fire before bed and it sent everyone into a tizzy because no one could fall asleep for another 2 hours or so. They were just all so excited. Of course, they woke up at first sunlight and after breakfast, we packed up and went home.
It was a pretty nice getaway, and we're definitely going back soon!

Cops

They LOVE me. I mean, they just can't seem to get enough! Pull me over for no reason? Sure! Pull me over for going 3 over? Why not?! How about because my gas tank is open? Absolutely. I must give off some irresistible cop pheromone. If I am driving within a 3 miles radius of a squad car, it is GOING TO PULL ME OVER.

Any of you that have been reading my blog for any length of time remember when this happened. But, sadly my friends, this is not the only moving violation in my history, or even that year. Actually, after my license was suspended in May of 2010, I got another speeding ticket (for 7 over, mind you) in Palmdale right before TPS graduation (7 months later). Thank God it wasn't on base, because I'm pretty sure they would have sent me to base jail.

Luckily, we moved to Florida shortly thereafter  and I had a 'clean slate'! No worries though, as I'm driving through Mississippi to visit family, I got a nice speeding ticket there too (for going 6 over). I also got pulled over twice in FL. One because my gas tank was open, and once because my decal for my Texas registration was expired. Nevermind I had fully valid FL registration and just had forgotten to take the TX sticker off. I can be proud to say I DID NOT get an actual ticket in FL!

On Monday I got pulled over right in front of Carter's school after I had picked him up. And they did something they've never done before, they gave me a warning! I was so relieved, because I was sure that when they pulled up who I was that there were probably sirens and flashing lights and their computer exploded from all my 'violations'. And that I was going to base jail. Great, Cory will be super happy getting a phone call from security forces telling him that he needs to bail his wife out of jail.

I actually was completely shocked that they gave me a warning because technically I was speeding, and the insurance card I was carrying was expired. Yay. me. 

 I do not speed more or anymore often than other people (including Cory). I am never the one speeding through traffic, passing other cars. In fact it drives Cory crazy that I hang out in the right lane behind trucks quite often. I get passed by OTHER cars more often than not. But as soon as my speedometer reads any more that 3 miles over the limit, an alarm must go off inside all the squad cars in the area and I get pulled over.  I get pulled over for following traffic. And I am not the only person who doesn't print out their USAA insurance card as soon as the last one expires. In fact, now that I think of it, Cory is a perfect example. We probably drive about the same speed and have the same forgetful habits when it comes to our insurance card. But he has NEVER been pulled over since I've known him. This proves that I am not a delinquent but purely UNLUCKY. Cops always find me, and they always find a reason to pull me over. 

In college I was pulled over in Louisiana and questioned about my drug use and where I was headed (Note: my drug use was/is: none) But it was everything I could do to convince the officer of that. Sorry officer, but my story about returning from Christmas break back to an all women's university really is true! I got 3 speeding tickets in the ONE year I attended college. One was legit, and I deserved a ticket. The other two were for less than 7 miles over the speed limit.

No one can say I haven't contributed to CA's debt crisis. I'm probably the only one keeping this state afloat!

Labor Day in Long Beach

We had wanted to go camping in the Sequoias for Labor Day, but were total slackers and didn't reserve a campsite in time. We were afraid of trying to get a first come first serve site since Carter still had school on Friday. The last thing we wanted was to spend all week getting ready to camp, drive 6 hours up to the mountains and find out there wasn't any space left. We promised we'd reserve our spot for NEXT Labor Day and then we headed down to Long Beach for the long weekend.
Cory had been down there earlier this month and thought it'd be a great little getaway.

A Spider Crab! Eek.

Petting the sharks

All the kids got to help in a little sea life skit

Al the Lorikeets had been spooked before we went in. They wouldn't come down. Boo.

Cotton Candy Ice Cream

Yum!

We rode the ferris wheel

We took a harbor cruise around Long Beach after the Aquarium. It turned out to be a pretty warm day. The breeze from the boat was great though!

Long Beach

 We went to an arcade on the second day. The kids all had a good time winning 1,000 tickets and cashing them in 5 at a time.

Racing Motorcycles.

After the arcade, we surprised the boys with a trip to Medieval Times. We had been wanting to take Carter for awhile since he is so into sword fighting and knights. They had a blast. Although it was quite ironic that the boys weren't sure about the yelling and eating with their hands while on a normal day, it's all they want to do. Ugh. Of course.

Viv made a happy plate.

Mmmm spare ribs

Our view from our room

Carter loves comfy hotel beds

Long Beach Convention Center

The Harbor

Time for a smoothie!

Look How Much He's Grown!

Carter on his first day of Kindergarten Aug. 2012

Carter on his first day of preschool Aug. 2011

Carter on his first day of school at MCH Jan. 2011

Carter's spring pictures April 2010

Carter on his first day of preschool ever! Jan. 2010

Carter's First Day of Kindergarten

Wow, it seems like we've been waiting for 2012 for a long time. When he was an infant, I remember thinking 2012, the year he would start school, was so far away. Yet now that it's here, I can't believe it! Carter goes to the Elementary school on base here and his teacher is Mrs. Berglund. He is very excited and ready to start Kindergarten!

We didn't get to accompany them into the classroom, so I didn't get the anticipated 'Carter next to his cubby' picture. Parents drop the kids off at the playground, as early as 7:30, close to the class and the kiddos leave their backpacks next to their classroom number that is painted on the blacktop. He can then play until the first bell rings (7:45) and then he lines up with his teacher at the number. In the afternoon, I have to walk to a group of trees inside the gate for them to 'release' him (at 11:50). Daddy even accompanied us this morning to drop Carter off.

Ready to Go!

Showing off his Star Wars Backpack and Lunch box

Vivi was convinced she was going to school too.

A big day, posing with Dad.

With Mom

Here's where they line up before class, then the teacher takes them to class in the building you see behind. Their teacher is the lady in the magenta shirt at the front of the line.

Carter Riding His Bike....Finally!

Some of you know the lengths we have gone to get Carter to try his bike without training wheels. It has been the thorn in our side for months now. Last spring we took a trip with some friends to a beach house and took his training wheels off. Unlike our house in FL there was a lot of flat space with no traffic, so it was perfect for him to practice. He did really well and got going and everything. Problem was he wrecked, right into a corvette. At first instinct, I was worried about the corvette and some kind of ridiculous angry neighbor. However, both Carter and the car were unharmed. It wasn't a particularly bad wreck. I don't think he was even bleeding. But from that point on he decided that he wasn't going to ride bikes anymore. We tried encouraging, bribing, and even ignoring the fact that he wouldn't ride his bike. He tried to teach Clay to ride without training wheels in hopes that it would push Carter to do it. After that weekend, we told him that he was old enough to ride without training wheels and that we would not be putting them back on. So....his bike sat and collected dust for weeks at a time. We made him try about once a month which ended up in screaming and crying from Cory, him, and me. He was determined to make it a miserable experience for all. He refused to actually try. Instead, during those 'practice' sessions he whined and complained about how he couldn't do it until we were all tired and sent him to his room for whining and crying. Fast forward to our move to CA. I was SURE he would be begging to learn to ride once we moved here. There are tons of kids and they all ride bikes without training wheels. (even the 3 year olds!). Surely seeing a 3 year old ride a bike without training wheels is a good motivator!? Carter pretended not to notice. He would still play with all the kids, but instead of riding his bike, he would run or ride some other ride on toy. Both Cory and I were getting extremely frustrated that he wouldn't give it an honest effort. We started to obsess about it. He WILL LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE! We talked about it and came up with a plan. We told Carter the next day. "Carter, you're not allowed to turn 6 until you can ride a bike without training wheels." "Why?" "Do you know anyone who is six who rides with training wheels?" "Um, no," "Do you know anyone who is FIVE who rides with training wheels?" "No..." "Well, then you were probably lucky to get to turn 5, then." "Yeah..." "That's just the way of the universe. You just can't turn 6 if you still ride with training wheels. You just...can't." "No presents, or cake or anything?" "Nope." And 10 minutes later, this happened.

We knew he could do it. When you're 5 and a half, you have the agility and balance to ride a bike. He just needed something to motivate him. Apparently, wanting to turn 6 will do it.

School

Yesterday, we had kind of a crazy day.

When we moved here, we were less than thrilled about putting Carter in the elementary school here on base. Now some may say or think, "Geez, a DoDs school at Edwards is probably great! Tons of smart pilots, engineers and civilians work there. Some of the cream of the crop!" However, 'tis not the case.
The school is not a DoD school, it is a public school, therefore any joe schmoe can attend. Not that I am for denying anyone an education. But our surrounding area is less than sketchy out here, therefore we seem to bring in some of the dregs of humanity. So, if you work on base, whether you work as a Test Pilot or you flip burgers at the burger king, or you clean the floors at the shopette, your child can attend school on base. Which is the case in most residential areas, if you lived close to a school, you go to that school regardless of your parent's occupation. Makes sense, right? But, the problem lies in several places. Like I mentioned earlier, the surrounding area (from where all the civilian or contract workers come from) is pretty low income, high poverty, and has high drug/crime rates. Having a public school on base allows the drug/crime problem to come onto base.
But wait! Security forces nips that in the butt, right? Nope, SF has NO JURISDICTION on the school, because it is a public school. For instance, to make a 'drug raid' they have to announce it first, and then the county comes in to perform the raid. This allows everyone enough time to stash their 'stash' in plenty of time.
Also, the SF don't check the inside of every kids pocket that come onto base for school everyday. Sure, every now and then they perform a random check at the gate (where they do have jurisdiction), but that hardly seems to puts a dent in the problem.
This is mostly a problem for junior high and high school obviously, but the fact that it is happening under everyone's noses right down the road from the elementary school is disturbing. When there's big behavior/drug/crime problems at the high school and junior high, that means a lot of those older kids have younger siblings at the elementary school. While these littler ones might not have drugs in their pockets, a lot of times they have bad attitudes, bad behavior or are having inappropriate conversations with your children during recess. All of the school/families are connected, if it affects one of the schools, the other schools feel the trickle down as well.
Other problems with the school on base is that they do not have art, or music, or SCIENCE. They pay the teachers very poorly and the kids only go to school from 8ish to 1:30ish (depending on the grade) to cut down on what they have to pay teachers.  Carter will actually go everyday from 7:50 to 11:50. This is not an Edwards issue, it is a CA public school issue. They cut corners for the budget every place they can, and it's evident.
Compound those issues with the fact that we're all 20 miles from the closest town and there aren't any other good options as alternatives. All the other public schools 'in town' are worse than the Edwards one. Sure, we could fork over the money for private school. But add 40 minutes of gas two times a day on top of tuition and it starts getting outrageous.
Sooo, back to "we weren't thrilled about sending Carter".
When we arrived, a friend of mine had some great news. She had basically convinced their private school teacher (from last year) to come onto base and teach Kindergarten and 1st grade. Her and several friends had carpooled and taken their kids off base to a church for Kindergarten. However, the church stops at Kindergarten and they would have all had to enroll at the elementary school on base. The teacher and everyone seemed to be on board.  It would be a small class, 10 kids, and we were going to hold it at the chapel. My friend, along with the teacher, had put in hours of leg work recruiting kids, calculating costs, getting approval from the chapel, school calendars, etc. Cory and I were so excited that Carter was going to get to be a part of this great opportunity. Everything I had heard from the other parents about the teacher was nothing less than spectacular. Yay! We held some informal meetings, paid for our supplies (They were going to use the ABecka curriculum) and were set to start on Sept 4th.

Yesterday, all of the sudden, news came down that we were not allowed to use the chapel. We were devastated. We don't know why or how the problem arose, because we had already asked the chaplain's permission. His daughter was even going to be in the class! But JAG gave us a call and said, no way. We couldn't run a business out of the chapel. We're not sure if someone caught wind of what we were doing and told on us? Not that we were trying to be sneaky, but we had no idea what we were trying to do would have been a problem. No one we asked had seemed to think it was a problem, and how JAG came to questioning it, is beyond us.We would have to pay a good extra amount to use a services building, and no one had a reliable house to offer. Without a location, we just...couldn't make it work. To add to all the confusion and sudden craziness yesterday, almost everyone in the group had unenrolled their children from the base elementary school, and the Verizon cell tower was down, so no one had phone service. Because of that, several people were in the dark about the whole situation until the evening. Luckily, I had not actually un-enrolled Carter yet. I had actually tried to call the school yesterday morning to un-enroll him before we knew anything was wrong, and I couldn't get service.
Several of us moms spent yesterday in a panic, trying to come up with something to make it work, and we hit a roadblock at every corner. The use of the chapel was the key to making the whole thing work, the foundation. Without it, the whole thing just crumbled at our feet.

So today I took Carter to Kindergarten orientation and he will start school on Monday on base. I am still upset for all the moms that were hoping for this to work out. But I guess better now than in three weeks, right?
We very briefly met the teacher and filled out some paperwork. We learned the drop-off, pickup rules (um...there isn't drop off. I have to walk him in and out.) and what to bring the first day. There will be an open house later this month to discuss curriculum. I am going to be positive about our situation, because I really feel like God has his hand on Carter, I know we are disappointed, but I know there is a reason. I just hope that he wasn't trying to tell me to homeschool......