December 9, 2007

It's Dan's birthday and the first thing on the list is Church! Tristan is performing with his class and he is so excited. The most excited in fact of the entire group. See, they have big screens on each side of the stage and so he could not contain himself so it seemed when he saw his face on "TV." Here's a couple of video clips of him as well. What a character! After church we headed out for some Sushi......one of Dan's favorites. We traveled about 1/2 an hour. It was so fabulous. We all enjoyed the rare treat.

Holiday Season

Wow, it's really flying by. Fall is just in fast forward. Thanksgiving came and went and it has just gotten busier. We had a lot of fun at some recent community events. We attended a Veterans Day parade and had a really good time seeing all the military planes/tanks/trucks and of course the bands that played. GO NAVY! (hehe) Our resident veteran unfortunately had to work at the event since the BIG boss was speaking. It was quite chilly as well so we had to huddle up. What was so great is that while we were waiting for the parade to get to us (we were at the tail end of the route) the children bypassed language barriers and had a lot of fun with some children next to us. It was great! The children could not speak the same language but had a great time playing with the ball we brought and enjoying each other's company. It's in moments like those that I am so proud and wow, what a lesson, right?

We also had a great time welcoming Santa to town at our town center. There was music and fun and SNOW! Ok, man made perhaps, but that didn't make any difference to the kids. Santa came in on a fire engine and even shook Tristan's hand. He was just thrilled. In the picture Santa's head is cut off a bit but check out Bugga's face! He is just beside himself. Awww...

Christmas is coming..................

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a great Thanksgiving Day. We made reservations at Black Angus for 1130AM and had a wonderful Turkey Meal with all the trimmings. It really was a treat to not be in the kitchen this year. Our kitchen at the townhome is so small it would have been a real feat to prepare such a big meal. Especially since we like ALL the trimmings! Anyway, it was a beautiful day as well. The sun was out and their was a slight chill in the air. Definately a Fall feeling. Afterwards we headed home and watched some movies and played games all day. It was great to be together. Unfortunately Dan had to return to work on Friday.

Halloween Time

It's Halloween time again! This is always a fun time for us. This year Danny's friend Deon was able to join us for the fun. We started the evening with getting some dinner out then headed on our hike for some candy. By looking at the candy you would think we hit a whole neighborhood when actually we only went on 4 streets. Short streets in fact. People out here are very serious with their candy. It's amazing. Sammie was a web witch, Tristan was a pooh bear, Danny was a crypt keeper. VERY SCARY! Dan was a jailbird.........hmmmm. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. As you can see, the kids made out like bandits!

Sammie's Birthday!

It's Sammie's Birthday celebration! We celebrated at Buca Di Beppo italian restaurant. Very Yummy! Then the children got to go Build a Bear workshop and get a very special toy to take home with them. Here they are with their picks. Sammie got "Lovely" the bear, Tristan got "Cubby Cubby Bear" and Danny got "Bob-A-Ghoul" the ghost. Yes, they did make up those names themselves. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

Just a sweet picture of our babies at our townhome.

This is the Canyon Country, CA fire that came near our house. These pictures were taken from our parking lot! Pretty scary!

Time is Just Passing By...

Good Day!

It's been awhile. It seems 'time is just passing by.' We are already about to greet October. What happened to September? The kids have been in school now since mid-August and are about to have a fall break already. They are off of school all next week. I think it's a great schedule. It's the same school schedule we had in Hawai'i. It's a modified year 'round schedule. The kids start school mid-August, then have a fall break in October (1 week), a christmas break in Dec/Jan (3 weeks), and a spring break in March (1 week). Then they get out of school in June. They still have a good 2 months off in the summer as well. It works out really well for the family that likes to vacation at different times of the year and really breaks the year up for the kids.

It has been really busy for us. Danny and Sammie are both busy with after school activities. They've been participating in basketball (Danny) and Cheer (Sammie). They've really been enjoying that. They all attend Sunday school and have just begun AWANA at church for two hours on Wednesday nights. AWANA is a national kids club in which they learn more about the bible, memorizing verses, have bible story time, play games, fellowship with other kids their age, snack time, healthy competitions, and can earn rewards for their efforts. I (Sofie) am a teacher for the little ones, age 4-5. It will continue for the whole school year! I have also joined a women's bible study at church on Tuesday mornings. We are doing Beth Moore's 'Jesus the one and only.' Tristan enjoys a great children's time during the study as well. After the study we head to the library for his preschool hour there. He really loves all the time he gets to spend with his friends.

Daniel, Buggy, and I took a day while Danny and Sammie were in school and went down to the Santa Monica Pier. I've always wanted to check that out. So many times you see it in Movies and Tv shows so that was a real treat.

We had a great time a few weeks ago at the Boys and Girls club national "Kids Day." The kids got to ride some rides and we enjoyed music and activities that they had. It's such a great program. They do this every year in most cities and the entire thing is sponsored by the B&G club. They even provided food and snacks to everyone there! What fun!

My birthday was last week and Dan took the kids and I down to the Universal Studios City Walk. That was a lot of fun. God blessed us with such a beautiful cool and rainy day! For those of you that know me you know that was the perfect birthday present for me. I have been waiting for it to rain since we arrived. This was the first day in 3 months! And the temps were down in the 50's which was such a relief from the 90's to 100's that it's been in early September. We checked out all the stores and ate at Bubba Gumps. Then we headed back to Santa Clarita and stopped in at Dippin' Dots for some ice cream. We finished out the night at home having snacks and watching some of our favorite shows on TV. It was a really nice day.

Dan is really liking his job. He has been so busy though. The Col. needed a special creative project done to start the new fiscal year and Dan was the perfect guy for the job. He had to create a mystery with all kinds of clues and had to write a 12 Act manuscript with 10 characters or so. This was really challenging for him which is great! He's very creative but he's used to writing stories in a basic format. He's never really had to write a 'play.' They are currently working on filming some of it and recording their voices for some of it. What fun!

October brings some fun fall activities. I will be heading out to a women's retreat with the church. I'm looking forward to that. I might even get to experience a zip line! How exciting. The kids of course have their break and they are looking forward to their Harvest Festival at school as well as Sammie's birthday and Halloween along with our ongoing activities!

That's all for now. Later!

***C***

WE DID IT!

Well,we did it! We ventured out on the real highway for the first time since we arrived. As you know Dan went to Ft.Worth for his reserves last weekend and flew back late Sunday night/early Monday morning. Just after midnight actually. Well, we had previously decided that Dan would just hang out at the USO at LAX until the first Metro Monday morning since we weren't really sure about the highways and how far it was and that it was so late. But after looking up how to get there, and knowing that it should not be to busy on a late Sunday night, I decided to surprise him! It was actually a pretty easy trip and it took between 35-40 minutes or so. The only real difficulty was when we actually got to the airport and had to figure out where to go and where to park. The airport was extremely busy for 1130PM. Anyway, I'm sure that if we went in the light of day that things would be rather different timewise and trafficwise but for my first attempt it was good! We found Dan ok, and then he drove back.

The kids started school yesterday and everything went smoothly. The teachers seem nice and they said they liked them, and I met the principal as well and she was very inviting as well. Right now, I have a pretty good impression of the school so hopefully my first impression will be correct.

We are going to head over to the naval base again this weekend to do some shopping and see a movie (Evan Almighty) and maybe get some chick fil A! It'll be a fun time.
I guess at some point we will have to try another beach. Hopefully it won't be as cold next time. The temps here in the valley have been over 100 all week! (104,103)

Dan's job seems to still be going well. He keeps very busy. The boss took vacation to Oahu, HI this week! Lucky him. We sure hope to take some time to get over there while we are here. We all really want to do that. Visit some old haunts.

The kids and I visited Northpark community chuch again, and all went well. I am going to a women's social this evening and the kids may start AWANA on Wednesdays starting in September. I haven't signed them up yet, but plan to on Sunday. I will also volunteer for this program as well. It is a big committment, since it runs the whole school year!

Well, that's all for now.

***C***

IT'S A SHAKIN' AROUND HERE!

Wow! We had an earthquake here a couple of nights ago! I couldn't believe it. I was watching TV because I could not sleep. It was about 1AM and all of a sudden the whole house literally shook for about 5-10 seconds. It was very scary. I didn't know what was going on at first, then realized. When it was over I woke Dan who slept right through it and told him what happened. The kids also slept right through it. After looking it up, I found out it was a 4.5 which is pretty big. I looked out the window and a lot of people were coming out of their homes talking about what had just happened. AT 1AM! Anyway, It was an experience that I really hope does not happen very often.

As for everything else, we are all doing fine. Dan took off for Ft. Worth today for his Navy reserves. His plan is to try and drill out here somewhere, so we shall see. The kids are now registered for school which actually starts this Thursday. They will be going to Leona Cox Community Elementary School. They will be going to the same school still since Elementary goes up to 6th grade out here. That will make it easier on me as well, since I will be taking them to and from school everyday. It costs for the school bus transportation out here which is a bummer. Anyway, that's really all right now.

***C***

Our Household Goods Have Arrived!

Well, we finally received our household goods last Friday! Dan was thankfully off from work, so he did most of the work to receive the goods. I went to apply for my CA drivers license. I then came home and got the kids and we went to the mall so that we would be out of the movers way. Unbelievably, we got everything into the apartment. Yes, there is one room that we can not get into, but we got it all in! It's been great the last few days to sleep in a bed and to have a fridge in the house!

Saturday we mainly just stayed home and rested. We did go to the pool for a bit in the afternoon which was refreshing. The kids could swim all day I think.

Yesterday we had a lot of fun. We headed back over to Oxnard, CA where the Navy base is and went to the Salsa Festival that the city was having. Along the way we could not resist the fruit stands! Wow, those oranges are so sweet! It was fun! (after we found a parking spot anyway) We heard some music and tried a few salsa's. Ate some food and checked out the kid's corner and the vendors. After that we headed to the base to catch the Pirates of the Caribbean's new movie! We had a good time.

We visited a new church as well. The kids and I like it pretty well...at least on first impressions so I guess we will try it out.

That's all for now.

***C***

Getting Moved In!

Well, it's been quite a few weeks. After a week in the hotel we are in our townhouse , but we are far from settled. We are still waiting on notification that our household goods have arrived, so it's a bit chaotic. We finally got the stove/gas turned on after a few days of being in the house which helped greatly food wise, although we are still living out of a cooler which is a bit rough. We are sleeping on a couple of air mattresses. It's really not too bad, but I know we will all be thankful once the beds come.

On the plus side Dan finished his first week of work successfully. The kids and I even met him downtown L.A. on Friday afternoon to see his work and check out his surroundings! We had a very eventful train and subway trip down there. It took us about an three and a half hours to finally reach his office. Missed a few trains and made a few wrong turns, but made it safely. We now know how to do it though, so future trips should be better. It was nice to see his office and meet a few of his coworkers as well. We walked around the financial district but did not really see to much that was interesting to us with the exception of the Staples Center. The kids took a picture in front of it with a statue of Magic Johnson. We got a bite to eat and headed for the subway and then to Union Station to catch a train back home. We found a mercado just outside union station so we ventured over to check it out. We listened to some live music for a bit then wandered in and out of the street vendors and had a great time looking at all of their goods...especially the really fun clothes! We bought a few mexican candies and then headed for the train.

Saturday, we decided to head west and see what we could find. We drove about half an hour and came upon a bunch of fresh fruit/nut/jerky stands. We stopped and got some fresh cherries, apple chips and some honey sticks. It was so great. We wanted pretty much everything they had to offer, but maybe next time we head that direction. The strawberries were so beautiful in color. I assume that this will be a very welcomed tradition whenever we head that direction! Anyway, we drove another 20 minutes or so and arrived in Oxnard, CA and found the Chick Fil A that we wanted to eat at. There is not a Chick Fil A near us, and Buggy (Tristan) was so excited to see it. This of course is his favorite place to eat! Unfortuneatly there was no play place there but he really didn't seem to mind once he saw that he could trade in his kids meal book for a "big" ice cream on a cone. (we had already gotten the book previously) Later you will have to ask us why we call this Chick fil A our "cow" Chick fil A. We had a great time and kept laughing and laughing....you know the kind of laughing where you start to cry! We will always remember "the cow!" Anyway, after that we found the naval base that's there and checked out all that they have to offer. Including free movies at the theatre for military! (this is very important since if we wanted to go to a regular movie out here we'd be looking at about $50 for all of us to go to one movie) Then we headed to the commisary to get some dry goods. After that we decided to see if we could find a state beach. We found one a few minutes later, but unfortunately it was after six and the fog was rolling in. We got out of the car to check it out and quickly got back in after looking at the beach for maybe a minute. IT WAS SO COLD! It was probably in the 60's! Next time we will have to go in the heat of the day I guess. I couldn't believe at the end of July, I wanted a coat at the coast in CA! Anyway, we had a full day and had a lot of fun. We headed back to Santa Clarita then and watched a movie at the house.

Today was a day at home. Just watched movies and played games and took care of some business. This week we have more activities at the library to attend. Last week the kids attended a really great informative musical presentation with live music and games. It was really fun! This week they are going to have a show with live animals and games. It should be a lot of fun. We also might check out the local aquatic center. I've heard that the kids really love it around here.

We have determined which school the kids will be going to but have not registered them as of yet. We will be doing that early August. School begins mid-August for them so they only have about 3 more weeks. We are going to check out a community church this Sunday. I have done some research and looks to be something that we will like and pretty active so we shall see.

I guess that's all the news for now. Signing out.

***C***

Places We've Seen!

Waikiki (Honolulu)

Mighty Mo and the Arizona Memorial (Pearl Harbor, HI)

Haunauma Bay (Honolulu)

Blowhole (Honolulu)

Buckingham Palace (London)

London Bridge!

Big Ben (London)

New Blog!

Well, this is very exciting. We are trying out a new way of communication! The Calderon Family does not stay to long in one place so maybe this will help family and friends keep up with us a little better. We will try to post often and also put up pictures when we can. We believe there is an area where you can comment on things as well. This will be a lot of fun!

Well, we are on the move once again after having a short "layover" here in San Antonio from Greenville, Texas on our way out to California. Daniel has accepted a position with the Army Civil Service in Los Angeles, CA. He will be doing Public Affairs for the Army Corps of Engineers. (http://www.spl.usace.army.mil/cms/index.php) He will be doing a variety of duties. He will serve as editor of their District In-house publication, as well as handle command programs, and serve as the community relations point of contact for the district just to name a few. We are all very excited about the move are are ready to start the next chapter in our "Calderon Adventure!" Dan's in Australia now serving with the Navy Reserve for another week. Once he returns the plan is to leave around July 5th, so we can get there in time for his start date July 9th.

The summer has been really fun so far. Before Daniel left for Australia we had a great time at Sea World San Antonio. The kids really loved the water park and seeing Shamu! Of course the rides weren't too shabby either. The children also have been going to Vacation Bible School on Wednesday nights. They are really enjoying the crafts and songs and lessons they are learning. I know that they will be sad to leave that behind. We also got to enjoy a day at Landa Park in New Braunfels with the church. We had a picnic and spent a lot of time in the water that day as well. We've been spending a lot of time with family especially the children's cousins. We also spend a lot of time at the library doing activities and checking out books. The children are all doing a couple of Reading Clubs.

That's all for now.
**C**