Sent: 05/7/2017 From Alicia
Subject: The Wild West Coast Westra Update 5/7/17 Sun, 7 May 2017 22:36:35 -0700
Hello family!
It's been a wild week
here...everyone is healthy and doing well, though, so no complaints!
Monday, May 1st: Calder had speech,
which really challenges him. Moving all those mouth muscles and teaching them
what to do is hard work! Our speech therapist is very persistent, but also
knows when to back off. We feel very blessed to be working with her. After
speech we went to Cocoa Club at my friend Abby's house. There were lots of
ladies from the ward there, and many of them brought kids along. Calder played
with some of the younger kids in the play kitchen and then with tools. We
didn't stay too long, because we needed to get him to school. At school he goes
to the T-K (transitional kindergarten) class a couple times a week, which he's
really been enjoying. He says it is more fun than preschool. We've actually
seen some good progress from his time spent in T-K. He seems to be much more
interested in what other kids are doing and wants to play and participate more.
The afternoon was normal: Mandolin lesson and FaceTime with our friends.
Tuesday, May 2nd: Adria was
given the opportunity to babysit for a family in our ward in the evening. They
just live here in Redwood Shores and she didn't have much homework, so she went
for it. Things went well until bedtime, when one of the boys (they have 3 boys
ages 8, 6, and 5) hit his nose on his bed and had a bloody nose. Adria hasn't
ever had a nosebleed, so she wasn't sure what to do...so she texted us for
instructions. She managed to get the nosebleed under control, then cleaned the
areas of the carpet that were affected. The parents got home later than
expected (though I wasn't surprised, since they had gone to a work event in the
city) so it was a little bit of a late night for her.
Wednesday, May 3rd: Happy
birthday Shane! Shane took the day off of work. He slept in a little bit, then
went mountain biking at Water Dog Lake Park in San Carlos. It was a little bit
harder trail than he expected, but he enjoyed it. In the afternoon he took a
nap, then we all went out to dinner before Adria and I went to Young Women's
(capture the flag) and Rella went to activity days (astronomy).
Thursday, May 4th: Adria
started a babysitting course that she is taking with one of her friends after
school. Her friend's mom picked them up from school and took them straight to
the class, then I told Adria that I would pick them up after the class got out,
but warned her that I would be late since Rella and I get out of uke lesson at
the same time. Everything went well until uke lesson rolled around and I could
not find a parking spot! Calder had come with me to the lesson, so we dropped
Rella off and drove around looking for a parking spot. We finally found one and
I made it to the lesson around 6:15. Right after I sat down, I got a text from
Adria. "We are done and waiting out front." They had gotten out 15
minutes early! I wrote her back, telling her to just wait for me. When we
headed out from our lesson I texted her again to let her now we were on our
way. She was very anxious, asking how long it would take and asking me to hurry
as fast as I could. I honestly wondered if one of them was sick or hurt or something!
I finally got to the community center where the class was being held and the
girls were nowhere to be seen! I checked the location and found that the class
had been at another building just down the street. We picked them up and found
out why they'd been so anxious to be picked up...their teacher had been worried
about them waiting for me. Well, she is the one who let them out early! Next
week I will juggle the schedule differently. Rella is getting quite good at
ukulele! I'm going to have to practice harder to catch up to her. Shane had a
release at work, so was home a little on the late side, but made it home before
the rest of us.
Friday, May 5th: Pretty normal
day. There was MultiCultural night at the elementary school. Adria didn't want
to go (being a "cool middle schooler" and all), so Rella and I went
while Shane stayed home with the other two kids. There were displays from lots
of different countries and a program with dances and musical numbers from
different places around the world. Our school is really diverse, with families
from all over the world. It was really crowded and a little long...it was good
that Calder stayed home. After we got home we watched an episode of
"Jeeves and Wooster" as a family...the girls have really been
enjoying it and it is fun watching it with them.
Saturday, May 6th: Shane
headed out a little early to play soccer with some of the men from the ward.
He's really enjoyed doing that. He got home just before I needed to leave for a
photo shoot...I'm building my headshot portfolio and have asked a few friends
to be models, so this was for one of them. The photos turned out well. When I
got home, Adria's friend Nour was here (she's the one A is taking the
babysitting class with) and the girls were all eager to go to the dollar store
to get stuff for their class, so I took them all (Rella included) over to the
dollar store. They stocked up their bags, and Adria was asked to do another
babysitting job for a different family in our ward, so it was just in time!
Adria headed out to babysit. I had another shoot in the late afternoon for a
handbell choir in the outskirts of the city, so I did that. It was fun...one of
the ladies from our ward is in the choir and arranged for me to come take the
photos. After I got home, we waited a bit to see if Adria would get home before
Shane and I went out on a date. Nope. So we left Rella in charge of Calder and
went to have dinner and run to the grocery store (so glamorous!) Adria got home
while we were at dinner, so she was able to supervise Rella.
Today we had church...and that
was it! It was nice to have a day with a lot of downtime! Shane and I both took
naps and the kids played nicely with legos. We had a good dinner, then played
games as a family until bedtime.
This week will be another busy
one. Shane has a day trip to LA on Wednesday and Adria has a few things going
on. Busy busy! Adria is giving her first talk in church next Sunday if anyone
wants to come listen! ;)
Love you all!
Shane, Alicia, Adria, Rella, and
Calder
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