Everything's Okay! Because we were on Vacation!

This past week has been very exciting for us. To begin with, Sunday was Fathers' Day. Marta gave her farewell talk in Church and we spent the afternoon/evening playing games and eating homemade ice cream.

On Tuesday, we headed down to Manteca with our Uncle Matt, where Marta was set apart as a full-time missionary! After that, we were able to meet up with our aunt, Greta, and cousin, Maren, for dinner and ice cream.

To hear about Hermana Houghton's adventures, see her blog!

Early on Wednesday morning (and I mean 4 a.m. early), we took Marta to the Sacramento Airport and said our goodbyes. After she got through security and gave us a final wave goodbye, we went back to the cars and started the long drive to Sandy, Utah, where we were expected to start the 2015 Houghton Family Reunion! By 6, we joined the various parties going on and jumped into the reunion, which we decided to theme after this video about vacations. Our go-to excuse was that "Everything's okay, because we're on vacation!"

Here's the picture version of the reunion.

Thursday: We went to Snowbird and played for a day on the various rides. It was great!

Thursday: Somehow, we even managed to take a picture at the top of the
mountain after getting off of a crowded tram! Left to right: Luke, Levi, Tess
(me), Dad, Eliza, and Mom.

Friday: Grandma took us through the Salt Lake Cemetery to see the graves of
people from Church history and our great grandparents. This picture is of her
mother's (my great grandmother's) grave after we decorated it with flowers.

Friday Night: We attended a pre-wedding dinner and had a blast!
Left to right: Dad, Mom, Tess (me), and Dad's sister, Mary.

Saturday: Cory (the Honorary Junior Uncle) was sealed to Jessica
(who is now the Honorary Junior Aunt) in the Draper Utah Temple.
We finished the reunion that night with a beautiful reception and cleanup.

This morning we all went our separate ways (most of us through desert), but we
can't wait for our next big get together!

To finish up, here's what's going on:

• Levi and Dad are going to spend this week fending off grizzly bears as they hike through Wyoming and Montana with Dad's brother, Uncle Jack.
• Mom is going to spend a week relaxing and taking a true vacation.
• Eliza is working at her internship for MaritzCX.
• Luke is being an EFY counselor in Texas for a few weeks.
• Marta is in the Mexico City MTC, learning Spanish and getting ready to share the gospel!
• Last, but not least, I (Tess) am at home, working as a lifeguard.

Until next time,

Tess

Bike Adventure Wrap-Up

We Made It!

First a note to the potentially concerned follower: Due to a lack of wifi or mobile network at all of the campgrounds after Monday night, we were unable to make daily reports as planned. So, here's the final story now.

On Tuesday morning, everyone woke up with a significant amount of pain in knees, legs, necks, posteriors, ankles, etc. We have gotten into the habit of jokingly referring to padded biker shorts as "diapers." Those who did not wear their diapers on Monday, quickly came to the realization of the value of a padded posterior upon recounting the bikes on Tuesday morning. Others who did wear their diapers on Monday quickly discovered that diapers really aren’t for them. Enough said about that.

So, on Tuesday, we did the Eureka to Humboldt Redwood State Park leg. It involved some beautiful scenery through California Redwood groves including the famous Avenue of the Giants.

The rig.

About halfway along the Avenue of the Giants is where we stopped to camp at a state park campground.

All the kids and Jerry then went for a swim in the remarkably warm Eel River.

We went for a walk on a 0.5 mile nature trail across from the campground we were in and Jerry helped us take a lovely family picture, complete with bad color coordination and matching! :)

Levi, Jerry, and Dad were the only ones who did all seventy-ish miles of Tuesday. Everyone else was too damaged from Monday.

On Wednesday morning, we got a decently early start and all the boys headed out early for the first leg and the girls took some time in our trusty sag wagon. Wednesday was a big climb day- lots of hills. Eventually, the girls all got on bikes and enjoyed tearing down some really big hills on winding, steep roads. Tess even earned a reputation with Jerry of being a bomber jet speeding down the biggest hill.

This picture isn't actually from Wednesday, but it is of Levi, our speedy, fearless, front-of-the-pack-the-whole-time leader. We love this kid, who wants "to be in assisted living by the time [he's] 30" (Levi after a long day of biking, as Marta helped him finish his dinner).

We ended the day at MacKerricher State Park and we got to go on a walk near the campsite on the beach and see the colony of harbour seals there. It was pretty cool. Everyone was exhausted after a long day of biking though and we all decided that bed sounded pretty good very shortly after dessert.

Thursday was a nice day. (*Note, we had near perfect weather the entire trip). Biking down Highway 1 was gorgeous! The tough ones made it out all the way from MacKerricher to the small town of Gualala. We then all got in the car and went back to camp at the Manchester Beach KOA. We had already had lunch and set up camp there. Each night, different family members had responsibilities for meals. Thursday was the British classic Toad-in-a-hole which turned out a bit differently in a Dutch oven when made by Luke, Mom, and Tess than it would have been if made by a proper British person. It was delicious anyway, which may have been due to our almost-starving state.

Thursday morning was gorgeous!

Friday, we started in Gualala and the hard-core, most committed people (Levi and Jerry) made it out all the way to Point Reyes. Everyone else did portions as per usual.

Ready for some action! Dad: "I've got this." Levi: "No. I am too cool for this picture." Marta: "I just ate a handful of Red Vines! I have so much energy! Let's go!"

In Gualala getting ready to go!

We realized that the campsite we'd selected for Friday night was only a few miles past Gualala and so attempted to get a different spot at another campground. Luckily, the rangers were helpful and we managed to find a spot at Bodega Dunes near Bodega Bay despite the sign saying “Campsite FULL” in multiple places near the entrance.

On Saturday morning we woke up early to head out to Point Reyes and then from there in bikes to the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of us at this point had major pain all over our lower bodies as though we had been biking all week- isn’t that curious. So the final leg began. Levi led the pack as usual. It was a bit dicey getting through the North Bay suburbs. There were thousands of intense looking bikers mostly going the opposite direction to us (we later discovered that their was a bike parade in one of the towns we were riding through). Also, navigating in a city with a trail of seven bikers is a bit more complicated than with a small group in a long coastal highway with little traffic. Levi commented that though all the bikes we saw were decked out with nice gear, he was definitely faster than them going up the hills.

Miraculously, we made it to Sausalito where Dad joined us after parking the sag wagon (we first recognized him by him extremely squeaky brakes). He had tried to be sneaky but was instead rather squeaky. Pun intended.

We made It across the bridge despite strong, cold winds and the fact that the whole ride across and back was combination of a duck and weave maneuver through the flocks of tourists on rental mountain bikes taking selfies while blocking the path and going really slowly on the one hand and playing chicken with the real bikers who, like us were trying to pass them. Quite an experience in itself.

So, we took some pictures and raced to the car to head back to Soulsbyville (of course stopping at In-N-Out on the way).

Some additional tidbits:

• The theme song for the entire trip (or at least the chorus everyone had in their heads and were singing) was "Cows With Guns" from a YouTube video of the same name.
• Jerry said it was the best camp food he'd ever had. Props to our amazing mom!
• Levi and Jerry finished the entire trip. Others took various amounts of time in the sag wagon. "The only thing harder than riding a bike is getting back on a bike when your bum is sore and you've been in the sag wagon." -Marta
• No major injuries or bike issues needed to be addressed. Just a couple of flats and some scrapes. Oh, and Tess tried to feature her finger into the Dutch oven pizza using the cheese grater but it didn't really work.
• Jerry is a beast. He finished at 68 and Levi at 15. Oldest and youngest.
• Our ingenious homemade bike rack was awesome.
• Some of us have some really interesting tan lines. For example, Dad has brown mesh pattern and an oval on each hand along with a well-defined color-change line on his wrist. For real.

• Watch out for Peloton Busters. They are deadly.

One more thing: each person and bike had a special name. Big Diz (Jerry) rode Lil' Diz, Mountain Mama rode the Brain, Bad Dad rode Ol' Blue, Elkazina (Eliza) rode the Patriot, Lucky Duck (Luke) rode the White Rocket, Max (Marta) rode the Red Giant, Tessalon (Tess) rode Turley, and Yoci (I have no idea where that name came from, but that's Levi) rode the Dark Knight. Oh, and our 15-passenger van is Babe the Big Blue Ox. Yeah, we're pretty cool.

Babe and her twin.

This post was mostly written by Luke, but edited (a lot) and finished by Tess. We hope you like hearing about our crazy adventures, and in case you were worried, this is not the last one. On our way home from San Francisco we started brainstorming ideas for next year...

Your Favorite Adventuring Family,
The Houghtons from the Mountains
#houghtonsinthemountains #werooc

We Made it But We're Dead-Day One

"We Made It But We're Dead!"-Marta

Oregon to San Francisco Day One

Today the Houghton Family plus Jerry Disney crew woke up at 5am in tents at the Eureka KOA and got in babe quickly to head up to the Oregon Border. The whole waking up/driving to the border thing took a bit longer than planned so we got there late.

Today was the longest day by miles and one of the tougher ones on climb-101 miles and 4500 feet of climb. (Each day is broken into segments with checkpoints were we meet up with Babe "The Sag Wagon" and can swap out and take a ride in the car if they want). Levi, Luke, and Jerry completed all the segments. From a self-reporting survey, Dad did about 70 miles, Marta did 65, Tess did 60, Mom did 51.45, and Eliza did 40. Tess impressed everyone by completing over 4 times as many miles as she's done in any day before. Eliza's accomplishment was that it was her first time ever riding a road bike. Marta's greatest success was defeating the biggest hill of the day between Crescent City and Klamath. Levi is very happy to have completed his first century ride as am I. The two of us got back to camp at about the same time. Levi was first into the campground and I was the first to our campsite.

After everyone got back to camp, we did some tidying and all took much needed showers. It felt so good. Then we headed out you eat at an old fashioned Lumberjack all-you-can-eat place called the Samoa cookhouse in Samoa, near Eureka. We ate A Lot of classic lumberjack food and it was quite the experience. As we got in the car afterward, we all proceeded to name all of the parts off our bodies that hurt. Needless to say, there were quite a few.

Here are some pictures from throughout the day. They're in reverse order. We came across Paul Bunion and his Ox, Babe in gargantuan form. Babe the big blue ox is the namesake for our trusty blue fifteen passenger van.

The big redwoods and the coastline were beautiful. We are so blessed to be able to go on this trip.

- Luke

Here's the Houghton Family Memorial Day Tribute whipped together by the young 4 youngest Houghtons out here in Soulsbyville. Don't stop after the first verse as we've sung all three verses of the Star Spangled Banner. We love music. Thank you to all who have sacrificed for our wonderful country!

You can Listen here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxXmEMTuNLJcVG9WZVdkWmozTFk/view?usp=sharing

#werooc

In preparation for our Oregon to San Francisco Biking Adventure, we're going to be creating and using the hashtag #werooc

For those who may not know, werooc stands for:
WE aRe Out Of Control

It's been a family thing for a long time. Enjoy and look forward to future posts regarding the biking adventure.

Spring Break So Far

For Spring Break this year, we decided to go to the beach- a warm beach. So we did. In fact, we went to two! Huntington Beach got two days (but no pictures) and Laguna Beach got one day (with a few pictures). I got to go boogie boarding for the first time and had a blast! Levi wasn't as excited because he had done it before, but he still went with me a few times. Even without boogie boards the ocean was awesome! Despite getting pummeled a few times before learning how to dive under the waves, I still spent at least 4 hours frolicking in the perfect-temperature water.

Laguna Beach on a lovely Monday afternoon.

 However, Houghtons never go on vacation and do only one thing! We also played tennis a few times and attempted a few bike rides (Dad and Levi did manage to get in a couple of rides and even tried to drag me through one of them- much to my chagrin. Mom was much more willing.) Of course, we got in some good naps, a March Madness basketball game or two, and even some shopping and food!

On Wednesday, Dad hopped on a plane to go to work and the rest of us packed up the van and headed home. In an effort to teach us some culture, Mom took Levi and I to the J. Paul Getty Museum. It was huge, and we all wished we had more time to explore- it was interesting enough that we even remembered to take some pictures!

Levi and I were tired, but we had a blast anyway!

There were these huge tree structures made of rebar- and I just couldn't help myself, because, to me,
it looked like they were preparing to build a huge, concrete tree!

Like I said, we all had fun, so we all had enough smiles for the camera.

 Although you can't see him in any of the pictures, Dad did come with us and really loved not being bombarded by allergies while we were away- that was probably the highlight of his trip. Anyway- I hope your Spring Break is as great as ours has been!

Tess

Houghton Adventures 2013-14

20451 Charlotte Court, Soulsbyville, CA  95372 * (209) 536-9231 * werooc@gmail.com

We’re hoping to get this “Christmas Letter” wrapped up before Valentines. . .as we missed the 2013 edition.  It’s been an exciting couple of years since our last update, filled with comings and goings amid droughts and wildfires:

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Levi (14½), is in high school!  He looks the part, as he’s been racing to catch up in height to his brother.  He has survived the transition to 5:55 a.m. seminary and he revels in vigorous gym/water polo/swim/bicycle workouts.  Levi is our only child who has ever conscientiously put himself to bed every night—guess he needs the sleep to keep up with all that growing and exercising.  He’s doing a great job in academics, plays the trumpet in the Golden Regiment band, and is Mark’s most diligent hiking and biking buddy. Levi dreads being the only child at home next year, and is looking to adopt a brother.  Please call with prospects. 

Tess (17) completed an independent study AP Calculus course last year as a junior, which attracted attention from a number of colleges.  After graduation this year, she plans to join her siblings at BYU, but much to her father’s chagrin, is not committing to a math-oriented major.  Since our last report, Tess has conquered her fear of slipping off Half Dome, worked as a lifeguard for two summers, played her first professional violin gig, served as student body Treasurer, and won the family mile swim.  She is our most faithful contributor to the Houghton family blog, for which we owe much thanks, as we wouldn’t be able to remember what happened without her posts.

Marta (19) is a sophomore majoring in Recreation Management at BYU.  Always a mother hen, she’s found the perfect way to acquire experience in her major by nurturing and guiding 48 freshmen as a Resident Assistant at school.  She also relishes beating the boys in her racquetball class and baking cookies often.  Marta’s big news is that she will be serving an eighteen month mission for our church in Mexico City, beginning in June.  She’s thinking it might be a good idea to start brushing up on her Spanish!

Luke (almost 21) is serving in the England Birmingham mission.  He currently lives in Wales and loves the foreign-ness and beauty of that area.  He has enjoyed interactions with people from all over the world and the opportunity to share his belief in Christ and His gospel.  He’ll be returning home in April to sunny days (quite a contrast between drought stricken California and England!) reconnecting with family, and hopefully a job. He will attend BYU in the fall, and we’re interested to see if he continues in  the Chemical Engineering studies he began before his mission. 

Eliza (23) completed her mission working with Spanish-speaking people in the Florida Fort Lauderdale area, in May.  After attending a cross-country family reunion and joining Team Houghton for the  Trans-Tahoe Relay swim in July, she spent the last half of the summer working for (and charming) Denise’s parents in Wisconsin and taking pre-requisites for her studies in Business Management.  She returned to BYU in September, and has been polishing her language skills by living in the “Spanish House.”  She might finally have found the right major, as she loves accounting and finance and she’s already secured a summer internship.

Mark (getting gray) is closing in on his second year as Bishop of our LDS congregation, which (much to the kids’ relief) has slowed the rate of retaining wall construction at home.  Despite his grueling commute to the valley for work, he is committed to fitting in several (short) swim sessions a week and he’s taken up bike riding again (though he can’t quite keep up with Levi on the up-hills). Mark lives to plan and execute adventures, and this was a Tahoe year, with our family swim across the lake and a week-long bike and hike around it with the teenage boys from church

Denise (young as ever) teaches early morning seminary classes, has discovered that serving as home-base support for missionaries and college students is as involved as having them at home, and somehow is still surprised that people want to be fed almost every night!  This Christmas she ran a “heritage sewing and candy-making school” for the kids, hoping to make up for previous years’ negligence in teaching vital homemaking skills. Denise swims most days of the week but still comes in dead last in family aquatic events.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

As we head into this new year, we are grateful for God’s blessings, for opportunities to learn and to serve, and for friendship with good people, near and far, who share their love and example and support.    

Love,  The Houghtons               

For updates on Luke and his mission in England visit: elderlukehoughton.blogspot.com

Excuses, Excuses.

I won't make any right now, because I think it wise to save my creativity for a later date. Besides, I recently had to read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and it was full of pitiful, pathetic, pansies for characters- making constant excuses for bad choices is all that Dr. Frankenstein and his monster did. Let's just say that I have been audibly growling in English lately.

October and November were full of school and water polo. Thanksgiving was a party in Utah with family and friends all around, but we failed to take any pictures- whoops! December was...not that long ago. We kept up family traditions and even made sure Luke got into some of the pictures- matching shirt and all!

Not really, but we were pretty sneaky, don't ya' think? We did get to Skype with him, however, and hear all about Wales (his latest area) and missionary work. Mom's parents (my grandparents) came, and between the eight of us, we had a jolly holiday season. In fact, we even fit in a round of disk golf (Dad's new favorite family activity/sport since we found a course ten minutes away).

As far as January has gone, Levi is doing his utmost to avoid swimming- except, instead of breaking a leg, he broke his wrist. To be honest, Levi has been very sad that I am having an opportunity to catch up to him before he does the mile swim and can't wait to get back in the water. Luckily, it was just a "green break," so he only had to wear a cast for 3 weeks. The bad news is that he managed to tweak a muscle in his shoulder just a few days before he got his wrist back, so he is still stuck on dry land while I get faster by the day.

Eliza likes her new major and might actually stick with it this time!

Mom is working on this crazy intense quilt and obviously enjoys having a project to work on, even if it is tedious to cut and sew and iron and trim and rip and re-sew and re-iron and re-trim.

Marta is waiting on her mission call, which was supposed to come today, but didn't. All I can say is that if she is called state-side, then she will most likely be in Minnesota.

I don't like writing essays- especially research papers. Luckily, everybody else in my family is really good at putting ideas into normal, cohesive, comprehensible sentences while I thoroughly beat around the bush to get my idea across. I just did it again. Anyway, they are lifesavers (especially Marta and Mom) for the math-oriented senior who is just trying to make it through January.

That's really all I have to say right now. Life is good.

- Tess