Azure Hills Church Christmas Program

12-15-07 This past Saturday, we had our annual church Xmas program. It's organized by Music Director Kim Knowlton (yes, the one I call "Kimbo" because I'm her elder) and Pastor Alex. Despite some a particularly "weak" shepard soloist (the first one), the program went very well.

When I wasn't playing shepard, I shot video so Summer was the main photographer. She shot over 630 pictures during both services! Thanks goodness for digital photography. You'll see some of her shots here, as well as more in her own blog.

We had to be at the church early, so Summer was able to get a lot of crazy candids before the 1st service.

Who's that crazy shepard in the background? That's none other than Rasheed! (the former lead guitarist for Germany's renowned Iron Cross band and now pro cyclist and part-time cardiologist practicing under the name of Thomas).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.
The "stars" of the show were Mary and Joe (aka Holly and Dee Elias). Holly sang great and Dee looked very "josephly". Joe was thinking, "Hmm, Mary is really getting into her part here with the baby...does that mean she wants another child now??? I guess having 4 girls would be ok...but that sure is a lot of weddings to pay for...hmmmm...I'd better slow down on my car collection and start pulling a lot more teeth!"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".
Lots of great music, organized by Kimbo (seen here in front of Keri and Conchita).
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...
"It's cold out tonight, in this God-forsaken place, and we're stuck here with a thousand sheep...." this was my 1st...and LAST public solo!"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).

Orlando trip

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!

T-day vacation!

11-25-07 During the Thanksgiving holiday, quite a few things happened. Here are just a few shots from this break.

Summer and Josh and a piano performance class--not exactly a recital but you're playing in front of parents and kids in your class. They did well!Grandpa and Grandma Knowlton just came into town for a cruise the whole Knowlton clan was taking for T-day vacation. Javan was loving the attention from Grandma Gisela! She gives great back rubs, huh Javan?

Another thing our church did over the T-day break was to do an "Extreme House Makeover" for one of our church members who has been ill for almost a year. He was coming home for T-day so we wanted to get his house all spruced up for him.

Diane leaves some nice "graffiti" for Don on his wall.
The pastors also got into the act. Here is Pastor Carmen showing how to do some fine edging with a brush.
During the holidays, a good friend, Conchita, had her sister visiting so we all went out to Summer's fave restaurant: Souplantation! Here she is with Natalie (back) and her cousin, Mady.The day after T-day, we had our family get-together at Keri's parents home. Here, Summer is showing Auntie Diane her floor plan for her "dream house". It's huge!After the Knowltons got back from their cruise, we spent the afternoon over at Joyce and Aaron's place. Summer is here with cousins Malia and Jake.
Here are the Knowlton boys, Malia, and cousin Summer.

Summer's annual photoshoot

12-8-07: Every year, Summer gets to play model and endure our ordering her around in various poses and locations for our annual Christmas card photoshoot. Last year had all the family, so this year, we just featured Summer.

The location was a very nice spot up in Cherry Valley. A friend got married there just before T-day and we knew we had to come back for this shoot. Enjoy!

Here are the 3 shots that made the card...



...and here are the shots that DIDN'T make the cut!

YEC member Ferdie moves on

11-26-07: One of our charter YEC (Young Entrepenuer's Club) members, Ferdie, was leaving ESRI and taking another position so we went out to eat for our last YEC lunch meeting in who knows how long. Hopefully, we can still keep in touch and see each other now and then. We've known each other since birth, so one of my longest running friends. We wish him well in his new job!

DSHN candids

11-13-07: These are just some shots and video clips from the Desert Sierra Health Network that I belong to. Not really connected to my family life, but it was the easiest place to post these, so enjoy!


Our fearless leaders led us in an invigorating exercising routine.
PA expert Cinthia shows us how it's done, in a suit, no less!
Choose the correct answer to complete this sentence:

Rodney Taylor is ...
A. ...sleeping because he watches Leno
B. ...admiring the fresco painting on the ceiling
C. ...doing neck stretches
D. ...is lulled to sleep by Eddie's voice
Check out these 2 video clips of these DSHN members, Erin and Pam. They show us how to groove to the music!!! Pam would've looked really good in her baby blue boxing outfit while busting this move.

Claire turns 5!

Nov. 10, 2007: Claire Elias has been celebrating her b-day for the last week, but she wanted to celebrate it one more time with her "girl friends", so we gathered at the Elias home to help her celebrate. Here are the girls pointing to the b-day celebrant!

Thomas "Rasheed" can't wait to dig into the food!Holly "Do I look like Martha" Elias displays her baklava, the first time she's ever made it! It was so flaky and yummy...it was hard to believe that this was a fat-free, sugar-free, calorie-free baklava.
If you want, you can check out more pictures on Claire's b-day at Summer's blog, http://summyspics.blogspot.com/, as soon as we update it!

Alicia & Jon get hitched!

Nov. 3, 2007: It was a big day for Alicia and Jon! We know Alicia because she is Summer's Jazz teacher and she also works at the XRtainment Zone.
Some of the teachers from the School of International Ballet. The lady at the far right end is Candace Carbajal, Summer's tap teacher.
Here are some candids from the wedding....
Kim made the cake , which featured a cool "sheet" effect with the icing. (I can't remember the technical name for this effect!). Here , Kim and Keri pose with her creation.Many were impressed by the cake. Kim is explaining how she made the icing. The guy in the suit was particularly interested--he's a cousin of Alicia's and is currently attending culinary school and specializes in baked goods.

The happy newlyweds are off on their honeymoon, and we hope to see them after Thanksgiving. Congrats to Alicia and Jon!

Swim meet in Temecula

Nov. 4, 2007: Had another swim meet, hosted by Team Inland Valley Gold Aquatics. At this meet, Summer qualified for another event for the upcoming Dec. AA meet. The Redlands Swim Team (RST) dominated at this meet, taking the top spots in almost all the events! Summer did well at this meet, getting three 1sts, a 2nd, and a 3rd place in her events.

RST had so many swimmers that we fielded 3 10&under girls freestyle relay teams! You can see Summer in the front row. The teams were all pretty even in strength, and took the top 4 spots. (Summer's team took 1st out of 7 teams).

The girls love to hang out away from the pool as well. A fave post-meet place to re-fuel is Souplantation. All the girls crammed into this booth here, while the moms sat another booth and I sat with the only 2 other guys (brothers of one of the girl swimmers).

So ends another successful meet. On to the next meet in a couple of weeks!