The Great Thing About Living in SoCal...

(besides traffic and taxes, of course) is the fact that we get visitors on their way to or from Disneyland.

Last week we had these:

(Jeff's sister Susan and family from Idaho)

And this week we had these:

(Jeff's brother Brad and family)

In between, we all met at Disneyland! That's also a benefit. When friends and relatives come to visit Disneyland, it gives us an excuse to pick up and go. Who doesn't love Disneyland?

A train full of cousins headed for big thunda!

Catchin' flies

Is anyone else claustrophobic?

Peacock boys making a splash.

Boys, boys wherever you look.

This one just because I love it. Bryce imparting his special brand of wisdom to youngest cousin Quade. Isn't he the cutest thing? No one can resist those dimples.

Back at the hacienda--braving the cold pool due to weeks of cloudy weather.

Less Pomp More Circumstance

With clouds threatening rain, we kissed goodbye to 12 years at Santa Clarita Elementary School (it was a family affair) on Friday, June 5th. Yeah, now I was crying. Sobbing actually. It's all good, I just do that with change. One small step for Bryce, one huge step for the Peacocks.

2 smart aleck-y brothers with much to find funny.

Grandma and Grandpa made the outing--first one after mom's knee replacement. One benefit is that she/we got EXCELLENT parking!

Bryce the orator. Here are some excerpts from his speech:

"I learned some mad skills while I was in elementary school. You know, like tether ball skills, hockey skills, and mask making skills. .. I think it’s safe to say, if I hadn’t gone to elementary school, I would be, basically…UNskilled."

"This is the place in every good promotion speech where you quote someone famous. Here’s my quote: “The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time” said Abraham Lincoln. This says to me that experiences don’t come all at one time but a little piece each day. So, stop crying Mom! I’ll be right across the street. In fact, the junior high is even closer to home! Instead of recess, we’ll have “brunch”, doesn’t that sound smarter and more sophisticated? We’ll text, not talk. We’ll get our exercise going from class to class. We’re reaching that stage…teens. I’m sorry, it had to be said eventually."

"So now that I am older, and not three years old anymore, I’m ready to leave Santa Clarita. I’m ready to get more responsibility, and of course, get that cell phone. But even when we become teenagers and start ignoring you, just remember that little boy who wanted to go to school more than anything in the world is still in there somewhere."

Bryce was named Student of the Year for his class. Way to go!

I also got an award for contributions to the school. However, all the pictures showed way too much of my backside in a very unflattering way, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I love this part. They coach the kids to turn and smile to the camera when they shake hands so that proud parents can capture the moment. You can tell where we were sitting, behind him to his left. It's not too bad in this picture, but...

this one's getting to be a stretch, and...

this one requires even more contortion and actually held up the name calling for a moment. But, we got the shot!

Celebrating with the peeps.

The sun made it out!

With the principals.

Now that we're leaving elementary school, I've compiled my lists. I don't know about the boys, but this is what leaving elementary school means to me.

Things I'll Miss:

1. Hearing "Hello Mrs. Peacock!" in unison from the class when I enter.
2. Teaching art (which I know nothing about, but I can read...).
3. Knowing exactly what my child is doing at all times of the day.
4. Feeling like I'm a vital part of the school community.
5. Spelling Bees.
6. Impersonating great women in history: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Coco Chanel, Sally Ride, Pauline Cushman.
7. Parent-teacher conferences.
8. Fabulous people--administrators, office staff, teachers, parents, KIDS.

Things I Won't Miss:

1. Making lunches, lunch boxes, etc.
2. Chaperoning field trips.
3. Parent politics. (this should be #1)
4. School carnivals.
5. Gift catalogs.
6. The boxes of projects lining the walls in my office (still got 2 to finish up, though!)
7. That parking lot!

Definitely a year of change for all of us.

Pomp and Circumstance

Saugus High School graduated 607 seniors on June 3, 2009 at the stadium at College of the Canyons. Amazingly, they did it in 1 hour and 16 minutes and yes, they did say every graduate's full name! AND--that's even allowing for the chase, capture, de-masking and handcuffing of one mostly naked Valencia High School grad (which only served to spice up the evening, we must say. A dad behind us offered to post his bail) In fact, the whole event was so orderly I have to say I didn't even shed a tear (although I have broken into brief sobbing jags at random times the last couple of weeks...I'm sure August will be awful.) I have gained a heightened awareness, though, that the last two years of high school literally fly by and it makes me want to hug Tyler (to his chagrin).

Anyway, here's the chronicle of events.

If you look closely, you'll see the nearly imperceptible nod of the head in acknowledgement of our cheering.

Ah...the mixing of the hats.

Our graduate in full regalia. (Against his will, I wanted to get 1 picture with the whole outfit, but note the mortarboard is crooked and the tassle hangs off the back. Oh well).

Bear hug from the pops.

That's my boy!

Amidst the chaos.

The Justins of the Offensive Line.

With Tim...we should collect a tax deduction for the amount of food this kid has eaten at our house, and Bryce will miss having him around to trash talk to.

A cute boy should have cute girls around...Ashley and Heather.

With Desi--off to play football for Air Force. We know he's going to be famous and we can say we knew him when.

Mark, Mario, Jake & Justin--1/3 of the Frosh & JV basketball teams. Mark is off to UCI--a fellow Anteater! Mario has been a constant presence over the last four years. Jake will be President someday, I have no doubt. Great young men with bright futures.

OK, now I'm crying.

That Explains Why There's No Bread in the House

Or, much of anything else, for that matter.

Justin has discovered club sandwiches--you know, where there's three slices of bread. Well, not to be outdone, Bryce has invented the Mondo Sandwich...

Basically, bread-turkey, mayo, lettuce-bread-turkey, mayo, lettuce-bread-turkey, mayo, lettuce-bread. Justin told him it really didn't count because it was basically two sandwiches with an extra layer of stuff in between. To really qualify, each layer should be unique.

It doesn't look like he cares. *sigh*

Battle of the Sexes

My friend just sent me this picture of Tyler and it reminded me of this fun/chaotic youth activity we had a few weeks ago (thanks Judy for the pic!). Every time we have some competition boys vs. girls, the girls get slaughtered and let me tell you, we're sick of it. So, the YW (young women) were in charge of the combined activity for the month of May and this is what we planned:

1. Mental Challenge: Jeopardy. This was no ordinary Jeopardy game, get a load out of these categories: "Twilight", "Disney Princesses", "Chick Flicks", and "Personal Progress." Girls won (however, it was not quite the landslide we'd imagined...why oh why did I berate my sons into watching Twilight with me?)

2. Physical Challenge: Yoga poses. Surprise! girls won this round too. (they boys did have Jake Gardner, however, who brought the heat. Thank goodness for Shea who is a human pretzel).

3. Relay Race. We pulled out all the stops on this one. Each runner had to wear high heels, hug 3 teammates and then complete a task. The tasks included braiding hair, texting a portion of the YW theme, painting nails, and frosting cupcakes. They then had to hug again and pass the heels on to the next runner. Hence, the reason my offensive lineman is wearing lovely pink wedges in the above picture. If only you could have seen him "run" in them! (I had to put the little quotation marks in because it was more like bow legged skating than running). Game, set, match for the girls. We didn't even have to go to the hula hoop tie breaker.

We had the biggest turnout for this activity and the girls LOVED planning all the ways they could torture the boys!!

Now, you may think we stacked the deck unfairly and fed into female stereotypes, to which I say...

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You bet your sweet Jonas Brothers we did, baby! It's worth the payback I'm sure is in store for us in June.

Graduation Precursors

Classes are done. College plans are underway. It's all done except for tossing the cap in the air. It's been a busy few weeks as it all winds down. Earlier in the month we attended the senior recognition dinner for our stake (LDS youth in our area) where there was the dreaded (in Justin's mind anyway) mother-son dance...

Gotta love that pained expression on his face! He was sure they picked the longest song possible.

I was feeling misty anyway, but I totally lost it when they recognized Trevor Matthews posthumously. Trevor died from cancer a little over two years ago and he would have graduated this year as well. We have known and loved his family for 12 years and he impacted all who knew him and many who didn't. We miss him.

Some friends stay with you throughout your life. We met the Hoskins family when we lived in Lakewood. We've always felt a kinship--our anniversaries are a day and a year apart and the first two kids were born within weeks of each other. We finally convinced them to follow us to Santa Clarita several years ago and Jeff and Leonard work together at Spectrolab. Our oldest sons were only four when they met and I'm sure they will also be lifelong friends.

Here is their Kindergarten graduation picture:

Here is a recent picture of them at the Senior Recognition Dinner:

Gosh, how times have changed. Jordon's even taller than Justin now!

Wait a minute...

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Here's the real story!

Jordon's graduation is tonight--Congratulations!

Clearly, I'm feeling very nostalgic. All of my recent posts include Now and Then pictures. I blame Dionne. Ever since she posted that retrospective on hair in the '80s I've been trying to replicate her brilliance. (Sorry, she's got a private blog so you might not be able to use that link...)

A Knee, a hip and some gums….

Have they finally lost it you ask? (Well actually, we never had it to begin with, but that’s a story for another day.) But this story is about body parts. Women’s body parts to boot! In this world of strange coincidence, isn’t it odd that Grandmas Joyce and Nancy as well as Lisa (not a grandma) would all have surgery within 48 hours of each other this week. Joyce, the hip, in Salt Lake City is doing marvelously and is back home getting ready to dance any day now. Nancy, the knee, is also home feeling stronger every day and will be leaping on the horse from here on out. Lisa, the gums, is also bouncing back quickly and should be back to her usual zesty, colorful vocabulary by the weekend. And as for we strong, silent, supportive, subservient men, I am also please to be able to report that Bruce, George and Jeff all are able to sit up and take nourishment after the stressful events of these past days. Whew.