12-3-07 Right after the T-day holiday, I had to get ready for a conference in Orlando where I was speaking at the Medical Fitness Assoc. conference on, guess what? Exergaming! ;-) While there, I was able to visit with some friends from college that I hadn't seen in over 20 years! I also worked on a project for my academy alma mater, Andrews Acad., with a PE teacher from there, John Reichart. We're looking at putting in a new fitness center in the mezzanine in the gym, so he came down to look at all the equipment in the trade show.
Guess who we would run into but another AA alum, Daron Zimmerman? He was known as one of the fastest students, ever, at AA. Fortunately, he attended my presentation and I had him do my Xavix Dash demo, which he did very well at. (Darron is on the left, John on the right).
One of the keynote speakers was Dr. Dot Richards, the Olympic gold medalist in softball. She was a very motivational speaker and also is the Vice Chair for the President's Challenge.
Speaking of challenges, one of the new exergames unveiled at the tradeshow was the Neos. They were giving away a Nano to the highest score every hour! Fortunately, after a few tries, I was able to win a Nano, being presented here to me by some Neos VIP. Of course, since Summer and I already have Nanos, guess who's getting this in her stocking??? (And it's the video Nano, too!)
I left the conference on Fri. afternoon to spend some time with friends before leaving Sat. night. The first friend I met up with was Cletus George. He looked exactly the same as the last time I saw him back at Andrews University in '88! We had a good time, albeit short, catching up.
After visiting with Cletus, my trusty GPS directed me to Tisha and Dennis Aguila's place. Tisha's sister, Tiffany, also came over for supper and then after everyone went to bed, we stayed up talking and catching up on over 10 year's worth of stuff till 3:00 AM! We could've kept on going but I was starting to zone out.
Tisha and Jenna. "Mom, why are you playing with my hair?"
Is this what they mean when , "You're in the dog house."? No, they don't punish Jenna and Jordan this way.
My hosts before I left--the Aguila family: Tisha, Dennis (psst! hoy!), Jordan, and Jenna. Uncle Elmo says, "Thanks for letting me stay in your pink Hello Kitty room!" Since Summer's room is also a shrine to Hello Kitty, I felt right at home.
Saturday AM, I was able to sqeeze in a visit to my cuz (2nd cousin) Eric Cadiente, Lori, and his 2 boys. It was great catching up because like the others, I hadn't seen him since the 80's. And their oldest is in his 20's. Yikes! I last saw him as an 1 year old infant at a friend's funeral. It was great reliving our college days, especially telling his boys how bad an influence his dad was! LOL! My memory must be going because Eric had to fill in the missing details from our "cruise" in Ferdie's red 928....I can't believe we did that! LOL!
After visiting with the Cadiente's, I zipped over to church to catch the sermon and afterwards, met Dan Tambunan and his family.
After church, we (along with a good number of the Forest Lake Church) ended up at Sweet Tomatos, the other name for Souplantation! Again, I felt right at home.
I flew back later that afternoon, and got back to CA around 11 Pm that night. The very next day, we had a swim meet and of course, afterwards, where do we have to go? Yup! Souplantation! Here's our shot with the swimmers. Nothing like Souplantation to satisfy your ravenous appetite after all that swimming!
12-19-07: Summer's School of International Ballet had it's Winter Fantasy Recital in the fellowship hall of our church. It was a packed house of almost 150 people. To see more pictures, click on the picture of the girl playing the piano: 
After going through a very tight security checkpoint, we couldn't take any pictures of the actually exhibits, so here are just a couple more shots we were able to take.
Afterwards, we had to zip back up to LA so we could get the girls back in bed so they would be well-rested for their last day of racing.
One of the things Marina and Summer have in common is that they both love FOOD! (I asked Marian what she wanted for Xmas and she said, "FOOD!") Amazingly, for someone who loves food so much, she had never eaten at Souplantation, so we just had to take her there for lunch after their first day of swimming on Friday. Here we are with the Sabangan sisters, getting ready to replenish glycogen stores!
Surrounded by delicious, healthy food, Marina thought she had died and gone to heaven!
Here's what swimmers do when they're not racing--having fun in the water! The girls are enjoying the jacuzzi at the hotel where the team stayed at.
The team enjoyed going out to eat in the evenings--this was an interesting place because it had peanuts all over the place, and you were encouraged to throw the shells on the floor! Unfortunately, Summer is allergic to peanuts, so we had to created a "peanut-free zone" around her, so the kids came to visit her in her "bubble". 
Congrats to all the AA Champ swimmers!
The Knowlton train with Jake powering the rear of the caboose.
The goal was to raise $2500 this year, and so far, we've raised almost $4,000! Thanks to all those who sponsored me. On behalf of the kids, I think you!
Maria, one of our Admin. Assistants, with her son, Sebastian. He's going to be a future baseball player, he's got quite the arm!
Drew had us bring $3 so we could play this dice game called "Left Center Right". It was really fun and guess who won the pot? Meg! As you can see, she was very excited to win the pot.
Here's the gang for our group shot.
There's that crazy shepard again, with his "black sheep" Gaby. (Next year, he said he wants to sing a solo--are you reading this , Music Director Kimbo???) And who's that crazy filipino shepard in the background??? Maybe he can do a solo next year as well.
Shepard boy Josh fuels up for....
...his solo! Great job, Josh!
Conchita helps get Natalie ready.
Going over the program with Natalie. She was going to take over the video while my part was up. 
One of Joe and Mary's real girls, Carly, who is trying to frown, but is there such a thing as a frowning angel??? (Summer loves taking pictures of Carly, as you can see).
Jenny did a great job as the "girl in the stable".
Kim conducting the Ladie's Chorus. They sang like angels! (I told Summer to take various angels of the singing, so she did!)
The little cheribum kid's choir...
"We're not exactly every woman's dream!" (Ok, maybe one woman's dream...;-x) "See, I can sing just as well as that filipino shepard...where's my microphone?"
Chloe (daughter of Joe and Mary) does a great job on her solo, as did Bailey and Julia.
Mephi, the husband of cousin Gladden, was also involved in the program. He's a strong singer!
Must run in the family because their youngest, Joelle, did a great job singing a solo!
After the show, many group shots were taken to remember this day by. Here are some of the women in red : Conchita, Florence, Vivian (aka Vashti), and Keri (aka Arti).
