There has been SO much going on! Fortunately, someone woke me up when September ended.
Did I mention that the roses we planted for Valentine's day have been blooming? Dad takes special care of them :)
In order to plan out our hectic months, and to make sure everyone gets where they need to go, we hold a weekly Family Council. We start every meeting by saying "Number 2!" which stands for "this is going to be a really busy week". And at the finish, Dad says "Number 1!" which means "Go to bed Fred!" (Just a little insight to our family jokes...)
One of the big events we celebrated recently was Eliza's 21st birthday!!!! Now, some 21 year-olds might celebrate by drinking alcohol, but not Eliza!! Grandma Houghton, Aunt Mary, Aunt Brenda, and Uncle Matt all went to the temple with Eliza, and then went out to dinner for Cuban food (Cuban because the area of Florida Eliza is going to includes a lot of Cuban immigrants).
This is a picture of the Oakland temple and the view behind it- San Francisco Bay and Oakland.
On the weekend of Eliza's birthday, we also watched a lot of General Conference!! For those reading this who are not LDS, twice a year, in April and in October, a world-wide conference takes place in Salt Lake City. During the conference we hear talks given by the leaders of our church- prophets and apostles of the Jesus Christ- and we hear lots of music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and youth and area choirs. The speakers give us divinely inspired counsel on subjects that vary from enduring trials by faith to how we should protect and teach children.
This is President Thomas S. Monson, the leader of our church. He tells pretty awesome stories :)
The church leaders also make important announcements about changes in the church. One of the announcements (which seriously impacts our family) in this last conference was that the age that young adults can go on missions has been changed for boys from 19 to 18, and for girls from 21 to 19. When we heard this, we teenagers looked like the young man in the picture above. Woah. Life plan altered.
Dad helpfully charted the timing of our missions and schooling above. It is sure to be exciting! (E=Eliza, L=Luke, etc.)
Anyway, we celebrated Eliza's birthday with friends and family, with a surprise birthday party which included decorating cupcakes, a Florida-trivia game, and a chick-flick.
On Sunday, Levi, Tess, and Marta performed in the local Bach Festival, with Marta and Tess playing in a quartet with Ruby and Josie Personius. We were SO happy that Grandma could come watch!
This was the only picture we had of our favorite General Conference activity- crocheting and knitting. While listening to 8 hours of conference we find it helpful to do this so we don't fall asleep or get rowdy :D.
Also this last week Tess and Marta participated/performed in the Sonora High homecoming. They(we) have picked up the Houghton tradition and are both playing tubas in the Golden Regiment Band- the Most Awesome Band in the Universe.
Marta and Tess are also both participating in water polo, and both attended tournaments this weekend. Tess' team placed 11th out of 47, and Marta's (my) team placed 12th out of 47ish!
This is my awesome water polo team. It was rather cold at our tournament, with the wind blowing, and the cement was particularly warm, so we all took naps on it. (P.S. I'm at the left end.)
The other REALLY COOL thing about my water polo tournament this weekend was that Brenda Villa was there!!! The lady in the middle with the jacket that says USA. Yeah, she's an Olympic gold medalist who has played on the last 3 USA Olympic Women's Water Polo teams. AND we played the team she coaches and we BEAT them! How cool is that?
AND my cousin got married!!!!! This was Amy Hobbs, and is now Amy Clark. I missed the wedding, but Mom and Eliza made it out there and are still having a marvelous time with family. Fun Fact: Mom and Aunt Greta (Amy's mom and Mom's sister) stayed up until 4:00 a.m. on the morning of the wedding to finish sewing Amy's gorgeous wedding dress.
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This picture is a little blurry, but Eliza and cousins worked on food for the reception, and had a grand time doing set-up for it.
More roses.
In the mean time, Luke is doing well at BYU and is excelling in his super-hard Chem. class. He took the "hardest test he's ever had to take" last week and low and behold, he scored the highest score in his 90-member class. We miss Lukey...
Anyway, I hope that brings things up to speed.
Dad and Levi did not get mentioned much in this post, but they are just as busy with work, swimming, and supporting every one else.
Love,
Marta
