Escape from Alcatraz...Westra Family Update
Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 8:23 PM
Hello family!
We hope you've all been enjoying a long weekend! We returned to life as usual, only to have a 3 day weekend right off the bat! Some of our friends actually started school on Wednesday or Thursday, then had the 3 day weekend...crazy school districts!
All 3 kids started back to school on Monday. Both girls were excited to see their friends and it was so nice to get back into a routine. Our routine has changed, though...Calder now has preschool from 11:30 to 3, which has kind of thrown my mornings off a little! I'm still trying to figure out how to make this work. It's just for a few months, though. They only offer morning kindergarten at our school. Calder spent the morning asking if it was time to go to school yet...we had some good talks about how to read the clock. After school Adria had her mandolin lesson. Shane had a release at work Monday night, so he worked late. The girls worked hard to get their homework done so they could make a welcome home book for him...you'd think he had been gone for several days instead just working late one night!
On Tuesday I went to the YMCA near Shane's office. I got a membership there so I can attend fitness classes while Calder is at school. They have classes available at lunchtime, so it works perfectly with my schedule. It took some time to get all joined up, so I just used one of the machines and then attended a yoga class. Rella likes that Calder's class gets out at the same time that she does now...she just meets me by his classroom and helps pick him up, then we all walk home together. It was really rainy on Tuesday...rain was pouring down almost all day and the strong winds made it look like it was raining sideways! Rella had dance class right after school. She really loves her dance classes and has a lot of fun friends in her class. It's such an encouraging environment...then she comes home and dances all around the house. I had a YW presidency meeting in the evening. I texted the YW president to see if I could run a load of laundry in her washing machine during the meeting, since our washing machine was still out of order. She very kindly said yes, so I hauled a load of laundry with me to her house. I just ran it through the washing machine, then brought it home to dry.
On Wednesday morning, tragedy struck in the kids' bathroom...Adria accidentally dropped her phone on the tile floor and the screen totally shattered. She was devastated. The phone still worked fine, but the screen was demolished. I found a place to replace the screen, but Adria had to pay for it, which almost completely wiped out her savings. I dropped the phone off at the repair place after I went to the gym (BodyPump class is awesome) and they had it done around 5. Calder had swimming lessons...he continues to make progress and is getting better and better at putting his face in the water. His teacher assures me that once he is comfortable putting his face in the water he will make faster progress. Shane had a work dinner on Wednesday night (with his former bosses and the leadership team), so I took Calder with me to YW. Rella had Activity Days (all about nutrition). At YW Adria learned about cross stitch and started a little project.
Thursday was my cycling day at the gym...it's been a long time since I went to a cycling class! The bikes were a little different than I am used to, so that took some figuring out, but it was a good workout once I got going. Thursdays are always our busy days...Rella has dance, then ukulele, so it's always a bit of a squeeze to get things done. I really needed to go to the store, so I tried to squeeze that in between dance and uke, but we ended up being late to our lesson. Further proof that my schedule is out of whack! Ukulele is fun...our teacher pulled out a song for us to play and we could actually sight-read it pretty well since we knew all of the chords. Rella has actually started doing ukulele at school during music class, so she's been extra excited about uke lessons. There was also some excitement in Rella's classroom...she told me to expect an email from the teacher or the principal, but also not to be worried because she wasn't involved. In fact, Rella wasn't even sure what had happened! She asked me to please tell her what had happened since they weren't allowed to discuss it at school! Sure enough, later in the evening I got an email from the principal. One of the boys in Rella's class had done something inappropriate during science class. The email led to a good discussion with both girls on how to handle these types of situations, though they probably thought it was a super awkward conversation.
Friday was declared to be a family holiday known as "Laundry Day!" Okay, not really. But the new washing machine was delivered, so we were finally able to tackle the piles of laundry! Our landlord picked out a Samsung front loader...it's pretty nice so far, but doesn't spin the clothes quite as much as the whirlpool did. There is an "extra spin" setting that we will be trying, though. Adria was taken out to ice cream by the Activity Day leaders for completing her Faith in God requirements. Rella was jealous and campaigned heavily for me to take her and Calder out for ice cream, but I held my ground and Calder suggested the compromise of going to the park instead. He's been really engaged in what is going on with the whole family lately. It's been really cute! He makes suggestions and contributes to conversations...it's a cool development. Anyway, Calder, Rella, and I went to the "purple park" while Adria was gone. We got home just after Adria did. Shane came home a little later than usual, then he and I went to one of our favorite local restaurants (Apple Fritter) for our date. We also went to Barnes and Noble so I could look at a book that I was thinking of getting for my photography trip this coming week. After we got home, the girls wanted to watch the first episode of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" on Netflix. This is a new production and it is really quite well done. We haven't read the books, so we can't say how it compares to them, but it's a fun series to watch as a family so far. There are a lot of familiar actors in it (Neil Patrick Harris, Joan Cusack, Colbie Smolders, and others). Even Calder watched it. He'd probably prefer to watch something else, but he was interested enough that he watched it with us.
We had thought that Saturday would be a more laid back day with time to sleep in a little, but late Friday night Shane received an email telling him it was our turn to help clean the church. A little more notice would have been nice! So Saturday morning, Shane took Adria over to the church to help clean. There was a good turn out, so it didn't take them as long as it could have. Rella had basketball at 10, so I took her to that after they got home. She had practice at 10 and a game at 11. Her team lost, but made a valiant effort. She had a Girl Scout function at the high school at 1, so we had packed her a lunch to eat in between basketball and girls scouts. We met some of her friends to eat lunch and had a nice time chatting with them. This was the Girl Scouts "Cookie Rally" to get the younger girls excited about selling cookies. Speaking of which, I found out that friends and family can order cookies from Rella online and have them shipped directly to you...just mentioning that...if anyone is interested. Anyhoo--Rella had a fun time. In the evening we just ate dinner and watched episode 2 of "Unfortunate Events."
Sunday...we had our normal church meetings. Adria has been enjoying being in Sunday School. Her teacher is Brother Cunningham, who is a fun and cool teacher. Her class is really big though, so it will be split in the next week or so. After church we rushed home and put a picnic lunch together, then drove to Portola Valley to meet some of our friends from church for a picnic. The weather was nice, especially if we were in the sunshine. The kids brought scooters and rollerblades and there was a fun game of soccer, too. It was a lot of fun. We had a game night in the evening, just playing Apples to Apples as a family.
Today was a day that Adria has been looking forward to for a long time...we finally went to Alcatraz! We headed to the city this morning and parked in a lot along the embarcadero. We boarded the ferry and headed over to the island at 11 am. It's a short boat ride out to the island and the water was pretty calm today, so it was a pleasant little trip. We got off the ferry and listened to the rules of the park (Alcatraz is a National Park), then started exploring! We walked around the west side of the island to the stairs that would take us up to the cell house. In the cell house there is an audio tour. Each visitor is given a pair of headphones and a device that looks like a walkie talkie. You press play and the tour directs you through the cell house and tells you what happened where and what life was like for the prisoners and guards of the prison. One thing I learned was that the families of the guards and wardens actually lived on the island, too! They lived in apartments on the south end of the island (the opposite side of the island from the cell house). The children would all board a boat in the morning and ride over to the city for school, then catch a boat back in the afternoon. If there was a problem (an escape attempt or prisoner rebellion), the children wouldn't be able to go to school or back to the island until things were back under control. What an interesting way to grow up! We were actually able to meet a woman who had grown up there...she's written several books about Alcatraz. Her father was an assistant warden. She was signing books in the bookstore. Adria bought one of her books and we were able to chat with her for a little while and look at photos from her childhood. It was a beautiful day to be there! Lots of sunshine, no wind, and temps in the 50's...it was really nice! After our Alcatraz trip, we found a little pizza place in the city for lunch, then went to Ghirardelli Square for a chocolate run. We had planned to go to the slide park, but by the time we finished at Ghirardelli, it was a little too late. We headed home instead so the girls could finish up homework. Shane's been working on a few little fix-it projects around the house, so he ran to Home Depot and then the grocery store while Adria worked on her essay.
Later this week I am headed out to Kansas for a photography retreat...one of the ladies in my photography group owns a house that she rents out for this type of thing, so we are all meeting there this time. It will mostly be learning from each other instead of having guest speakers, which is great...I love to learn from my friends! Shane will be holding down the fort and trying to get his work done at the same time. I really appreciate him taking care of things here so I can do this once a year.
That's all for this time...have a great week!
Shane, Alicia, Adria, Rella (buy cookies), and Calder
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