Spring Break and More!

For Spring Break we headed north to Seattle and Victoria, BC (CANADA!), and Portland.

Grandma Houghton bravely joined our entourage.  

Luke and Grandma getting some zzz's here, hope someone was awake!!

It was a long drive in "Babe, the Big Blue Ox" (or Box, as Levi used to say).  However, as we drove, we got to see beautiful Oregon/Washington landscapes, such as Mt. Shasta, which was stunning, especially on the way home.  As we drove, we were also able to listen to some of General Conference, thanks to modern technology!

We stopped to visit the Portland LDS Temple on the way up.

This is where Marta wants to be married.

It IS beautiful, and has her favorite periwinkle flowers as landscape.

And a fountain.

It's a Houghton thing to take pictures with every sign that bears our name!
Eliza and Grandma in back row, Mark, Marta, Tess, Luke, and Levi in foreground.

We discovered many exciting things in Seattle.
Houghton Beach Park was one of them.

Tess and Mark stretching.

We also saw the Chittendom Locks, in Ballard, WA (right outside Seattle)

Levi, Luke, Marta, Eliza, Tess, Mark, and Denise all hiding among
these nifty sculptures near the salmon ladders

A pretty fine "being together day!"

Levi vanquished the "Fremont Bridge Troll"--but only after the troll squashed a VW bug in his left hand.  

The VW bug was one of only a few Tess wasn't the first to "call" on the journey!

Tess, Levi, Eliza, Mark, Denise and Luke on the hill near Gasworks park

We got a great view of Seattle from Gasworks park, where the breeze was stiff and the kites were flying.

We toured the Boeing factory, which was HUGE, and almost too enormous to fathom.

(There were seven production bays, each 1/3 of a mile long that could hold several jumbo jets!)

We got to see the new 787 in production--really just assembly, as most parts are made elsewhere 

and shipped in on the "Dreamlifter."  This is a stock photo, as no cameras were allowed.  

Looks like a toy, right?  But it wasn't!

L->R Denise, Marta, Tess, Luke, Levi, Riley, Allie, Shannon, Bill, and Eliza

Our gracious and witty hosts in Seattle--the Lows, survived the invasion of the Houghton Hordes!  Luke, Marta, and Tess got to attend early morning seminary (on vacation) with Riley.  

Shannon and Allie joined us for the next stage of our journey.

Denise's cousin Bill kept us laughing.  

Accommodations were comfy and food was delicious.  Thank you Lows!

From Seattle, we ventured north, to Canada.

.

We took two ferries: 

1. From south Vancouver to Schwartz Bay (on Vancouver Island).

2. From Victoria to Port Angeles, WA oisonous trolls are deadly t 

Both carried ten in our party and Babe.

Those who stayed on deck enjoyed this view of the boat wake, and sightings of a pod of porpoises

Eliza wired in.

Some chose to "surf" on the ferry.

And some truly studious members of our party did their Physics homework.  

Way to go Luke!

Grandma braved the cold to enjoy the breeze and make friends on deck.

Tess and Mark also enjoyed the breeze.

Denise, Levi, and Allie checked out the maps and played "table basketball" with a quarter.

We stayed in the Strathcona hotel, but did a walk-through of the landmark Empress hotel in Victoria!

Mostly, we walked around town in Victoria, and tried Canadian Slurpees and candy and Fudgeos.  

We also enjoyed the excellent Royal BC Museum.

We made it back across the border, despite Mark's expired passport. . .and headed homeward.

On the way through Portland again, Grandma saved us from Voodoo Donuts (one specialty pictured at upper left) with a delicious breakfast at Mother's Bistro in Portland.   We also stopped briefly at the famous Portland Rose Garden, however, it was too early in the season for roses to be blooming. 

After arriving back in Soulsbyville in the wee hours of Saturday morning, we slept, did laundry, washed cars, and prepared for Easter Sunday with grocery shopping, egg dyeing, and talk and lesson preparation.

And now we're back to reality.

We will try to update some of our pre-spring break activities in the coming week.  

You really do need to see pictures of the wood we've been cutting up.  

However, the poison oak is pretty much healed up, so we won't post pictures of that!

Photography by Marta.  Dialogue by Denise.  Editing by Tess.  Some stock photos.  

Wood Chopping and Vacationing

This is Marta writing, and unfortunately I was not in attendance at the major family activities this weekend, so I'm going to tell you about the vacationing I did, and then someone else can tell you about whatever manual labor they were doing at home, while I was at the beach!!  This weekend I had the opportunity to go to a swim meet invitational in San Luis Obispo, commonly known as SLO.  For those non-Californianers, SLO is the city adjacent to Pismo Beach along the Southern coast of California.

 Anyway, my swim team took 8 girls and 8 boys down to hang out at Pismo, and see the city on Friday, and then attend the swim meet, made up entirely of relays, on Saturday.  It's a long drive, but we do it every year and it's a blast!

These are 7 other girls (and me) who came along, we had a grand time together!!

So we played, we swam, we ate, and we had deep conversations in the car.  That's what I did, now you can hear about what the REST of the Houghtons spent their time doing:

Swim

Houghtons after Mile Swim,
Marta and Dad in the back,
Tess and Mom in the middle,
and Levi in the front.

We completed our annual mile-swim this weekend in dazzling warm weather.  Standings are not surprising:

• Marta whupped us all.
• Tess came in a very respectable second.
• Mark was third.  
• Eliza (who decided after watching everyone else on Friday that she'd swim on Saturday--even though she hasn't been swimming for months/years) came in fourth--guess that marathon training is working.  
• Levi came flying in at fifth.  
• And Denise was last--but only 9 seconds slower than her best time.  
• Luke didn't compete as he's not signed up with the appropriate organizations and he would have probably been beaten again by Marta (so maybe that means Denise didn't come in last). . .   

Luke, Marta, and Tess all competed in their first high school swim meet of the year.  Tess had three personal best times.  Luke did better than he'd hoped after taking a year off swimming.  Marta kept on swimming.  All came home tired and wind/sun burnt.

To finish out Saturday, those of us not at the high school swim meet decided to make it a triathlon, "Houghton-style":  Swim, dig, bike.  We filled in behind about half of the infamous "Drag-Un" wall.

Snow forecast for this week.  Guess we'd better crank up the wood stove!

Denise

Completing the Drag-un Wall and Other Adventures

In the absence of any of the regular bloggers, I have been "selected" (aka Marta is reading the Hunger Games again) to write this post. As you might have noticed from the title, the draggin' (DRAG-un) wall is finally complete (estimated 200 ft long) from the beginning of the concrete driveway to a little beyond the wood shed.  The naming of this wall came from two things.  First of all, it is not at all straight, and it curves around like a dragon.  Secondly, we were all draggin' our you-know-what's to build it, as Mom so nicely put it.

The Drag-un Wall Complete
Runs beyond the wood shed (in the far distance)

The morning started in full force after we ascertained our ancient, garage-sale cement mixer would indeed support us on the venture.  

"Marta the Mixer"
(Her arms were sore by Sunday)

"Tess the Tamper" (tamped the wall to eliminate bubbles)
"Eliza the Emptier" (Emptied the cement into the wall)

"Levi the Leveller"

"Mom the Mason" (she placed bottom and top blocks)

The trusty bronco--with the help of Eliza, made two trips for extra concrete!

"Dad the Dumper" (also helped empty the concrete mix into the blocks)

Here, the wall is all finished and most of our mess cleaned up--before dusk.  But get out the wheelbarrows and sifting screen--we now need to fill behind the walls then plant some beautiful plants and install watering systems!  Projects for President's day and beyond. . .

Other news for the week:


Luke received news that he has been admitted to BYU Provo for Fall 2012!  On top of that, he pulled off his Senior Project--an orientation day for incoming freshman at the high school.  You may not have noticed Luke in our wall pictures--he came home from judging history fair projects in time to help clean up.  What timing!

Eliza's foot (hopefully) healed up enough for her to get back to work--but there is still no definitive diagnosis.
Levi's basketball season ended and he's SO excited (imagine these last two words with dripping sarcasm) to be back in the pool.
Marta was sick and stayed home for two days reading and sleeping.
Tess, on the other hand, made it to school every day and has been having many adventures finding rides to school from seminary and missing and making up swim practice minutes.
Mark got to swim--thrice!
Last but not least, Denise, as usual, sat around with her feet up eating bonbons--not really.

Happy President's Day
Luke (but mostly Denise)

The Work Goes On

Update on Project Draggin' Wall: 

 We started Saturday morning, laying down mortar and the first layer of blocks.

The Cement mixer made it through Saturday, but let's just say, we don't think the it is going to last much longer... (estimated manufacturing date = 1915 according to Luke)

We had 3 piles of blocks, and then 1 cement pile.  I must say the stacks looked rather daunting when we started.

Luke and Dad worked on laying down the mortar while Tess and Marta placed (some) bricks...

I swear, we picked the coldest days of the year to work!  It was 70 degrees and sunny on Friday, but on Saturday it couldn't have gotten above 50... and we were in a cloud... (for those of you reading this who live in colder climates, yes, we are California wimps)

We discovered that our Draggin' wall had a just a few bends and curves, so we had to adjust by cutting cement blocks with the saw (note: the smell of cement blocks being cut by a saw is awful)

When we finished laying most of the bricks down, we began to fill the wall in with cement and rebar (fun stuff)

The cement mixer was kept busy, and jobs varied from water-fetcher, to wheelbarrow-mover, to wall-filler, to cement-tamper, etc.  Everyone was doing something!

Here's Mom working on QC (Quality Control) with the top of the wall

We had to wrap things up to attend various meetings, basketball games, and church dances but this is what the wall currently looks like!  Mom and Dad plan to plant a garden behind it in the Spring, and hopefully we can convince some ivy to cover up the uglier rocks on the hillside! The work continues!

Along other lines, on the 4th, we hosted a Sadie's Dance dinner, and had 23 people over for an evening of food and fun before they headed off to dance!  Marta, Tess, and Eliza hung out at home rather than attend such juvenile gatherings.  Hmph!  :)

Also, on Friday the 10th, we hosted the Priesthood preview for the eleven year-olds at our church.  The boys enjoy Just Dance on the Wii just as much as the girls do!








Other News:

• Luke, Marta, and Tess began high school swim season on Monday, and are preparing to whoop Dad at the 1650 swim (a mile), although he allegedly is going to beat them...
• Levi's wrapping up his basketball season, and got to attend a Sacramento King's game with Dad
• It has finally snowed here, so we know it must be winter after all!
• Eliza got eye plugs and Marta got contacts
• Eliza is continuing to prepare for her marathon in March and has been doing up to 11 mile runs as of late; the rest of the family is convinced that Mom and Dad dropped her on her head too much as a baby.
• Mom, Tess, Marta, and Dad are embarking on a no-sweets-or-junk-food-for-a-month adventure which, for the record, is a lot harder than it should be...

It's life as usual.

Thanks for reading,

Marta

P.S.  Tess was the photographer for all the pictures except the one she is in

Retaining Walls, Road Trips, and Other Dangerous Adventures

Does this look like a concrete crew to you?
Marta, Luke, Eliza, Dad, and Levi--Tess is photographer
Mom is probably somewhere eating bonbons with her feet up.

The last few weeks have gone by sooo fast.  I can't believe we're almost done with our fourth week back at school and work.  We have had some interesting new developments in the Houghton household.

See Eliza in the hard hat?  Doesn't she look like an industrious worker?

Eliza came home in December, and is here to stay for this semester at least.  She's preparing to serve an eighteen month mission for the LDS church, hopefully in the coming year.  In order to prepare, Eliza came home to work for the next few months.  Fortunately, she has been successful in finding a job--putting together boxes in a warehouse in Lathrop, CA.  Dad is happy to have a commuting buddy, and Eliza is happy to have a job!

 Yes, it is an "unsightly rock wall.
Tess, Eliza, and Levi slaving away

Mom and Dad concluded that after a year of doing almost no big projects on the house, it was time to start up again.  So, we began excavation, and moved our shed in the front of our house, in  order to pour concrete for the base of a retaining wall.  For those of you who haven't seen our house before, we are built on top of a volcanic-ly created ridge.  In order to build our house, we had to blast an "L" shaped portion of volcanic mud-rock out of the hill.  The vertical side of the "L" is rather unsightly ( in my opinion) and so, we are covering it up, and keeping the "mud-rock" from eroding into our driveway.  Anyway, over the course of two or three separate Saturdays, and vacation days, we set up forms and leveled areas in preparation for the concrete pour.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we spent 12 hours finishing forms, and pouring concrete.  The funny part, is that it happened to be the first really cold day we've had in weeks, and so, of course, we had to worry about the concrete freezing.  Fortunately, the new portions of our driveway and retaining wall did not entirely freeze, and so they are not, "Ugly as sin" as Dad said they would have been, had they frozen.  We hope to finish by adding concrete blocks to the top, in the next couple of weeks.  We will post pictures, when we're done.  Right now, the bare rebar (impalers as we call them) and concrete look a little bit dull.

The first exit in Montana.
This is where we
chained up!

On the 19th, Mom received a call telling us that our Great Aunt Margaret had passed away that afternoon. Aunt Margaret was a pretty awesome woman, and Mom knew her better than most of her other aunts.  So, Mom decided to take Marta and Tess and go to the funeral and see all of our relatives who live in Canada, where the funeral was going to be.  ROAD TRIP!!!  Mom, Marta, and Tess left about 18 hours after the call was recieved.  Now, the first real storm of the year was finally headed into town and we were driving, so Mom was not completely sure that it would be safe to travel in the inclement weather, and if we couldn't go, there were two options.  1) Mom flies to Canada or 2) Everybody stays home and Mom misses the funeral services.  Both the girls were completely prepared for disappointment (being told that they were not going to go to Canada), and, so, they were VERY excited when Mom showed up during the school rally to take them to Canada!  After quick stops at Grocery Outlet and the Public Library, our journey began.  By the time we finally got out of town, it was about 1 o'clock, and we were supposed to get all the way to Utah (a twelve hour drive) in order to pick up Mom's sister.  Oh, and Dad told us not to drive at night and we were racing a storm across the Sierras.  Luckily, we got out of the mountains before the falling rain was able to turn into snow, and after that, it was smooth driving across Nevada and a little bit of Utah.  During this first leg of the journey, we read the book Ender's Game (by Orson Scott Card, whom we are VERY distantly related to) out loud.  After the prescribed twelve hours of driving and the added hour due to time change, we finally arrived in Utah in the very wee hours of the morning, and then managed about 3 hours of sleep before we left at 6:45 a.m.  Then we left to head north toward Great Falls, Montana to meet with Mom's parents and yet another sister.  We only had to put the chains on once!  We met Mom's group by 8 p.m. and then finally went for our final destination--Canada.  Which was pretty much AMAZING!!!

Other news:





Luke has finished his college and scholarship applications.  Now for the waiting game. . .and finishing up his senior project (putting on a freshman orientation program at the high school).

Besides basketball, Levi participates
in crazy hair day at school.

Levi has been playing basketball on two different teams and has discovered that he truly enjoys the sport!  The new driveway addition gives us almost a half court for practicing.  Levi's excited to be going to see "Jimmer" play with the Sacramento Kings this weekend.





 Dad's busily working to schedule and get reservations for his hike of the John Muir trail.  He plans to hike the entire 230 miles this summer to celebrate his 50th birthday.  This weekend he hopes to find some boots at REI to support the venture.

We still do manage to find some time to play--here is the crew on the Wii playing "Just Dance 3."

Anyway, lots of other stuff is happening here at the house!  Life's been CRAZY so hopefully when it slows down, we'll post more!!!

Marta, Tess and Mom