Sneak preview of Carmen Slide Show 2

12-12-09: This is a sneak preview of the slide show for Pastor Carmen's farewell party later tonight (Sat PM). Enjoy!

Bike-a-thon

12-6-09: The Azure Hills Church sponsored it's annual Christmas is for kids bike-a-thon to benefit kids of the families served by our food bank. Funds raised would go towards gifts for these kids.

Jerry and Beth Bernatos, directors of the food bank, helped to coordinate the event, while Jan Michaelis and Tom Haglund organized and led out in the bike ride itself. There were 3 groups: 50-mile, 25-mile, and a 10-mile Family group (led by yours truly ;-).

It was cold and overcast, but it wasn't raining and the sun did peek out a bit. We rode on the bike path that runs from the mountains all the way to Huntington Beach, so we didn't have to deal with traffic--nice!!!

Check out the pictures and see how fun the ride was!



For more captions in Facebook, click HERE!

Davy's first off-road hike!

11-21-09: This afternoon, the Azure Hills Church's Pathfinder's club did a 5-mile hike in the hills of Loma Linda. This was also Davy's first time to go walking on the dirt roads. He seemed to enjoy it more since there were no big scary cars out there, and ended up walking most of the 5 miles.

It was a gorgeous day for a hike, in the low 60's, clear skies, and great company. There were other dogs out there as well besides Davy and Roxy, so they weren't alone.

Here are some pixs from our hike. Enjoy!

Flash to the past!

11-10-09: After 34 years, I returned to the days of my youth, the youth that was pre-MI. Where Kim and I spend most of our early years, and Chris was just a baby.

8222 Colfax St., in a suburb of Philadelphia. Being here for a conference in downtown Philly, I took some time to go visit our former home. After finding the directions from my hotel on Google maps, it showed me how I could get there by public transit (wanted to get more "virtual space miles" for our trip to the moon!).

So after a 20 min. train ride, I got off the at the Holmesburg Station and looked for a taxi. Nada! Fortunately, I had written the directions down for this part of the trip so I could see if the taxi driver was going the right way. Now I used it to start walking, though I wasn't exactly sure how far it was! Well it turned out to be almost 3 miles there, and after asking for directions a couple of times (to make sure I was heading in the right direction for the next street), I arrived! None of it looked familiar till I actually got to Colfax St.

Below are some pictures of this little journey back in time. And check out the little surprise I ran into!

On my walk there, I saw Kim opened up a food market very close to our former home! Why hasn't she told us this yet? A little secret side income stream that Cor doesn't know about???
After 3 miles of walking, wondering when I'd get there, I finally saw the Colfax sign! This is the very corner that Kim and I would wait for our school bus to GPJA where we went to school for our first 5 grades.
Looking down the hill from the corner is where our former house is.
Walking down the sidewalk, getting close to the spot where I got beat up by Patrick. ;-)
There it is! It actually looks nicer than I remember it. Must've been fixed up.

Looking up the street from the house.
A picture of me just to show that I was really here! LOL!
On my way back, I saw this man working in his garage. I stopped to ask him if he knew who lived there, and we got to talking. His name is Frank Crocco, a former cement contractor, and he's lived here since 1958--52 years! He moved in when they were first built! I told him that we used to live here 34 years ago and he then remembered my parents and me! Pretty wild. We talked for awhile, told him what happened to us after we moved, and he told me who was still in the neighborhood and who had left. He remembered Patrick and his brothers across the street. Pretty neat!
After saying good bye to Mr. Crucco, I started back up the street and saw this man, Mr. Frank Esposito, coming out of his house with his dog. I stopped to pet the dog, and we got to talking. I told him what I was just visiting and that I used to live at 8222 and before I told him who I was, he said, "You're Ernie!" My mouth dropped open, I couldn't believe that he remembered my name! He couldn't figure out how he remembered my name, he just did. After we chatted for a bit, we parted ways and I started on my long walk back to the train station (though it seemed quicker this time since I knew where I was going now). What a blast to the past!

More Davy Firsts!

9-6-09: Have been updating our FB account more often, but here's a little something! Davy had more firsts...espcially his first walk outside in public! Check it out at this FB photo page.

Dog play

7-5-09: You'd think that after a hard run with a mountain biker in the hills, they'd be tired! But no, here they are! They definitely are 1 year olds, full of energy!

Nabi, the retriever, belongs to the Choi family, and we're dog sitting for them.

Piano recital

Hmmm, for some reason, it didn't upload, so let me try again...

Piano recital, then mtn. bike ride

7-4-09: A day after turning 12, Summer tries something she has never done before: riding in the dirt!

After playing in a piano recital, the sun was setting and Keri wanted to give the dogs their evening run, so I decided to run with them and Summer to ride her mtn. bike for the first time in the hills where we ride and hike.

It was actually already sunset when we started, so we knew we were pressed for time. By the time we got to the top, it was getting dark (as you'll see in the video), and Summer was scared of the downhill, the speed, and the sand, so she ran down while Keri rode a little of the first part, but then it was too dark for her, too, so I got to ride down--yeah!! That was much better than running down with a dog pulling you to go faster. Roxy and I waited for them at points down the hill, back to the park.

Nice first outing--she did really strong on the flats and uphills, with little help from me and only getting off to hike-a-bike twice!



You can send her a comment to: summeralyssa@gmail.com ;-)

BTW, here's her piano piece she played just prior to this mtn. bike ride (great idea...the little kids played first while we sang, then we went thru line for the potluck food--filipino food!, and then we got to eat while the older kids played their pieces. So it went by really fast!)

First video of downhill run with Roxy!

6-13-09: First video of Roxy running downhill with her friend, Nabi, and owner Pastor John.

MaMiMe 2009 is completed!

5-25-09: We just finished up another MaMiMe event and it went over very well! Check out the pixs as we honored our moms and kids a bit late. ;-)

BTW, some in our party did NOT want any video of our performance posted....so I'm honoring their wishes. If you REALLY wanted to see the performances, e-mail me directly and we can figure something out. ;-)

Thanks to the Makowskis for opening up their house for the annual 1-day event for the moms.

Enjoy!

Calvary09: Behind the scenes

5-9-09: Last night, we had our Calvary cast party and showed the following video clip, as well as the DVD for performance #3 (Sabbath, 2nd service). If you weren't able to make it, enjoy!

For this "Behind the scenes" video, I would like to thank Pastor Carmon for videoing Jesus and his disciples outside, and for Natalie and Jenny for doing all the "interviews" at the end of the video. Great job, girls!

Foxy Roxy's 1st visitors

3-25-09 Foxy Roxy had her first visitors, the Choi family! Soon, we'll have to introduce her to their other family member, Nobi. ;-)

Nathaniel says, "Hey Roxy, wanna meet my doggie, Nobi?"

Roxy seemed pretty calm around all the kids.

She's home!

3-24-09 We welcomed our newest addition today after I picked her up at the vet, where she was spayed this AM. Check out the pixs as she checks out her new home and neighborhood. BTW, the vet techs thought she was part shephard part lab, not chow. Her tongue is definitely pink! LOL!

We're still deciding on a name, but "Foxy Roxy" is the leader right now...we're seeing how it fits her. She does look like a fox in the sun!

Nice to have a dog back in the house...just didn't seem the right.

New dog!

3-24-09: Last Sun., we visited and shelter and found this 1 year old half chow half lab female dog there and fell in love with her. She passed all of the Dog Whisperer's tests for a shelter dog, so we adopted her!

Picking her up today at 4 PM from the vet where she's getting some of her shots, fixed, and chipped, so stay tune for more pixs and vid clips! No name yet...holding off till we have her a few days to see what fits.

3-21-09 Evening piano recital

Summer and her cousins, Jake and Josh, had a piano recital after the hike, so they quickly cleaned up and changed. After playing, they also received their awards, including their trophies for playing in the Inland Empire Piano Festival and getting honors in CM.

Summer also was one of 8 of Helen's students who earned Convention honors as well. Helen said that 5% of the 250,000 piano students in CA who do CM earn Convention honors, so that was a nice honor. (We can't go to play in Convention since it's up in Northern CA.)

They all did a great job tonight!

3-21-09 Another busy Saturday afternoon!

The weather was gorgeous today, again, so we decided to take advantage of it and go for a hike in the hills of Loma Linda after church today. While there, we had an unexpected surprise of running into the kid's gymnastic teacher from Camp Mivoden last summer, Emily! They happened to see her in the park from afar but were too shy to go up and make sure, so I went up to check and sure enough, it was her! They had a good time chatting and doing a pyramid. (She's down here from WWU for her brother's wedding.)

Busy weekend!

3-15-09 Here I thought it was going to be a calm weekend, but no such luck! LOL! OK, it was a blast, and here are the pixs as proof.

Saturday Sabbath, we taught Sabbath School Juniors, had a potluck/meeting for our Outreach Committee, Easter practice in afternoon, and b-day celebration in evening, including a suspended King of Ping tournament.

Sunday started early, around 7:30 AM, with a hike up Blue Mountain with about 500 other people. Then rushed back down, met some people at XRTZ at noon, then zoomed over to Summer's Honor's piano recital in the afternoon.

Whew! What better way to spend the weekend with family and friends, worshipping and having fun together.

Ready to start the week now. ;-) Hope ya'll had a great weekend, too!

Saturday in pictures:


Sunday in pictures:

RST takes 1st place in Red/White Championship!

3-8-09: Our swim team, Redlands Swim Team (RST), hosted the Red/White Championship for the Easter Section which we belong to. Almost 900 swimmers converged on our 2 pools over this weekend.

Out of all the teams there, RST took 1st place with almost 2,000 points! Congrats to all the swimmers, parents, volunteers, and coaches for making this meet a success!

Summer, Melissa, & Michelle hanging out between their events.


The girls holding RST's 1st place trophy!


The traditional post-meet glycogen replenishing trip to Souplantation...

Pathfinders make meal @ Ronnie's house

3-7-09: The Pathfinders, led by Directors Mike and Ellen, organized the Pathfinders into 2 groups: 1 made spaghetti at the Ronald McDonald House, while the other group made salad and cupcakes at the church. The church group then brought their food over to the Ronald McD's house for the families to enjoy. (The Ronald McD's house is special housing for families who have kids in the Children's Hosp. across from the street.)

They all had a great time cooking and playing afterwards in the backyard! Great community service outreach activity! All the kids did great helping to cook the meal.

Sorry, I didn't have any pictures from the church--I was with the "house group".

Sabbath afternoon hike

2-28-09: It's a gorgeous winter day in Loma Linda, CA, and the kids and dogs want to go out and run around in nature, so off we went to the local park to hike in the hills. A great way to spend the Sabbath afternoon with family and friends.

We ended back at the park and sang some songs with our featured guitar players, "3 Shades of Heaven", and then after sunset, headed to Souplantation for dinner! Nice end to the Sabbath.

Sat. night craziness!

2-21-09: After Easter play practice, the kids wanted to get together, so we had a "short" get together (some of the kids are going tubing tomorrow with Adventurers, while others have a swim meet!).

Here are some of the crazy stuff that we did at the Makowskis after sundown worship. These kids have endless energy!

Pathfinders hit the slopes!

2-15-09: The Azure Hills Pathfinders hit the slopes of Snow Summit for a day of skiing and snowboarding. Although a bit crowded because it was a holiday weekend, and because we were in between storms, the snow, weather, and most of all, the friends were great! Check out the videoclip. Sorry I didn't get everyone in there (like the Choi family), and we're glad that Moriah, who had a couple of crashes on her first run and spent time with first aid and the ER, is fine.

Newest all-girl trio!

2-14-09: Watch out Dixie Chicks, you have another all-girl trio coming out of Azure Hills! Check out this video clip of Hannah (recorder), Gaby (trumpet), and Chloe (violin) jam as they practice for their debut in church in a couple of weeks.

AU Alum get-together

2-8-09 Braving cold drizzle, about 100 SoCal AU Alum gathered together at the Spaghetti Factory in Riverside to catch up on the news from AU. It was great to see our friends from AU--Alumni Director Tami, Recruiter Chris (not pictured), VP Faehner, and President Andreason.

Great meal and great fellowship!

IE Piano Competition

2-8-09: Summer, her cousins Josh and Jake, and some swim teammates, all played in the Inland Empire Piano Festival. They played before 2 judges and awards were given. While she didn't win any awards, she did very well and we were all proud of her. It's very high pressure, and a great experience, sort of like swimming in a competition when everyone is watching and you're being judged!

Congrats to Jake and Josh for getting "honorable mention" in the duet division. You can see a clip of their piece here. I haven't converted Summer's solo and duet yet, but will upload it here when I do.

Dee celebrates his 50-something b-day!

2-7-09: Dee "The Sultan of Slam" Elias celebrated his 50-something b-day by inviting a few close families out for his fave treat, Cherry on Top yogurt. It was very yummy and a new way to get yogurt--we can see why it's his fave!

While the adults had a nice time chatting in the warm yogurt parlor, I had the good fortune of bringing all the kids outside in the cold drizzly rain to play games (or they would've torn the inside apart! LOL!)

We had fun playing all kinds of games, and fortunately, no one ran off and got lost. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the security guy asking us not to play on the lamp post--I did ask if he had handcuffs and would he handcuff one of the kids, but he just smiled and walked away.

New fence for future dogs

1-28-09: In order to get new dogs, we had to replace our broken fence (Ozzy was too old to try and get out of the backyard). Thanks to our 3 neighbors sharing the cost and AAA home insurance, we were able to get a vinyl fence! No more staining and sealing--yeah!!!

Pathfinder Gamenight!

1-24-09 What fun we had at Pathfinder Game Night! After a short vespers, we made cookies and played games! Directors Mike and Ellen are doing a great job with our Pathfinders.

1st trip to snow in '09

1-20-09: Rasheed, Mike, Steve, and I took the AM off to head up to Snow Summit for some ski/snowboard time. It was gorgeous, as you can see! Check out Steve's jump on the video clip...he's young!

Sydney & Sophia visit their SoCal cousins!

1-18-09: Our visit visit with Sophia Taylor, the newest cousin. And Sydney is growing so much!

Pizza night at Choi's

1-17-09 Sat. night pizza at the Choi's! Whole wheat thin crust Boboli crust...mmmm!!! Knowlton clan came over after their b-ball games. A chillaxn evening playing Up-and-Down the River (where the Rockets won...can't believe the Ninjas lost!). Will Nanci allow a ping pong table in the living room? Yeah, right! Can't forget when Nanci almost came into the bathroom to help me "clean up"!!! Wish I had an "oculcam" to capture the expression on her face when I opened the bathroom door. Priceless!

1st 2009 Party!

1-5-09 Because so many friends were gone over the holidays, we didn't have our get-together till tonight! Thx to the Elias family for hosting our first get-together of the new year. Besides the purple kangaroo gift exchange, the finals of the King of Ping tournament was held...see who won that trophy! ;-) Special visitor from MI, Uncle Ben, the ping pong master, and his son, Ben Jr.

Ozzy, 1992-2009

1-2-09: The new year went downhill quickly with the passing of our 17-year old first dependent, Ozzy, who we had for 14 years. It was quite emotional for the family, especially Summer, who has known Ozzy all her life. We've had so many great memories with him, and look forward to seeing him in heaven with us, as he was family. We're working on a slideshow of his life, so stay tuned!

Here are his final days with us...may Ozzy boy rest in peace.

Welcome 2009!

1-1-09 We start off the 2009 with our annual New Year's Day sunrise hike! Folks from Azure Hills church and Beaver Medical Group gathered together at Hulda Crooks Park to do a short hike and hear some words of inspiration from Pastor John Choi. Check out the pixs!