Spread Out!

Settling in for bed last night, it struck me that we were experiencing a Houghton Family milestone!  Less than two years ago, we were continuing, as we have pretty much since we began our family, all together in one place.  Last night, Mark and I were, possibly for the first time since having a child, without children in the house overnight.  Not only that, but not one of our children was within 500 miles of another child!

Here's a report of their where- and what- abouts today!




Eliza--Fort Lauderhill, Florida--enjoying the last months of her Spanish-speaking mission which will draw to a close on May 29!

















Luke--Gloucester, England--celebrating his birthday in a week and closing in on his 11th month as a missionary.


















Marta--Provo, Utah--facing down the last month of school and finals of her Freshman year at BYU















Tess--Park Ridge, New Jersey--as a high school Junior, enjoying a 5-day tour of the NYC area with her American Federation of Students pals.













Levi--Disney Ranch, Tuolumne, California--attending a friend's overnight birthday party and wrapping up his eighth grade year.  But before that. . .coming home to chop wood and mow the lawn this morning!










As for Mark and Denise, we slept in and are having a lazy morning.  But soon, it will be good to have at least one of our brood home today.  We're not quite ready to be empty nesters. Besides, it's time to pick up the pace and get to the tasks the weekend requires!

Denise

Productive Ways to Procrastinate

Everybody (well, almost everybody) has had an experience where they were given an assignment (or two, or three, or a hundred) and just couldn't bring themselves to do it. That happens to me fairly often. On the occasional day, I can make myself sit down and do it right away, but most days, that is not the case. Let me show you.

• Spend some time talking to your family! It is always good to know what your siblings are doing all the time in that place called COLLEGE or ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, and telling all your stresses to your parents is a great way to let it out.You may also find that your family has lots of friendly or sarcastic advice for you.
• Find something to take a picture of and take lots of pictures, and then edit them. That can take as much time as you want it to!

• Organize your closet (or any awfully messy space you have)- who would stop you?

   

• Start pounding out the latest song you have been trying to learn (this is Levi's favorite).

 CAUTION: May make other, more studious, people a tad bit angry...

• Do other, less intimidating, easier homework.

• Research something you have never heard of- preferably an animal or carnivorous plant. For example, I bet you've never seen this before! This animal is called a pika. It lives at really high elevations and is a pretty tough critter. Pikachu was derived from it, which is why this one looks like- guess who- Pikachu!

• Bake a yummy something. Preferably something like...this! Yes, this is a cake, done by the Cake Boss). Did I mention that it is taller than me? It is.

• Do the dishes. Nobody else wants to do it; your mother will love you more than any of her other children, and you will have clean dishes to eat off of the next day.  On a side note, the less people there are at home, the more time it takes to do dishes because there are less people to help.

As you can see, I have plenty of ways to avoid homework when I want to. Don't worry, I still get the assignment done eventually, but you have to admit it- these temporary alternatives (you still have to do it sometime) are all pretty great!

Your Favorite Procrastinator, Tess

Siblings are Super Cool, and so are Family Traditions

In the case that you are an only child, I am sincerely sorry. Having siblings is so much fun! Yeah, sometimes they make a lot of noise and try to get on your nerves, but they are just some of the best people to hang out with! My siblings are particularly cool, because when we all get together, we can be super silly- just ask Mom and Dad, they'll tell you. Right now, with just Levi and I at home, there's not as much silliness, but...when Mom and Dad leave us for too long, we still have the occasional fun. :)

Notice that it isn't me with whipped cream on my face- that's Levi.

Basically, Levi, well, let's just say he could be my brother- oh wait, he is! Isn't that quite the coinkidink!

So, every year, we have a family competition. Since we are all swimmers, we compete via the pool. Also, our family isn't really a sprinter-type family, so we like to do a distance race. 500 yards? Nah, that's not long enough and that would be a guaranteed win for me (Tess). 1000 yards? Well, that is not really a commonly done race, so we'll veto that as well. How about a mile? Yes! A swimmer's mile (at least where we live) is 1650 yards or meters. The two missionaries couldn't compete this year, and Mom opted out due to some back/neck problems from last September, but the rest of us have done or will do it. Dad swam it on the 25th and went a 24:29- which was a solid improvement for him. I swam it on the 31st and went a 21:58, which is...well, let's just leave it at that. Levi swam it on the 1st and went a 22:40, which is super good for him, and last but not least, Marta is going to swim it sometime this week and will then let me know so that I can let you know.

Tess

Winter Break Pictures

At Yosemite...

The view outside of Mom and Dad's window yesterday morning. :)

This was the view off of our front porch.

The new Bay Bridge.

Playing Basketball for FHE!

The Merced River.

Happy Hippie, Healthy, Hardy Houghtons

I already mentioned that we were having a family reunion over Thanksgiving break. It was super fun, and I took lots of pictures, but Mom told me to slow down on the pictures (it takes forever for them to load on here), so I won't put all of them up.

The Reunion was in Santa Cruz, right next to the Boardwalk.

We had beautiful weather the whole time we were there!

From where we were staying, you could hear the sea lions all day and night.

Did I mention that the whole area was absolutely beautiful?

3 of the "Fabulous Four."

Marta even came to see us!

So, I was told that our family has taken pictures at this train place before, but we did it again this year!

This was the t-shirt design for the reunion.

Each family had a different kind of tie-dye.

This was ours.

Levi and I make great elves, don't you think?

We even went golfing (my first time)!

And of course, it was Thanksgiving, so much time was devoted to cooking delicious food.

We held a pie-making contest between all the boys and each participant got a chef's hat.

We spent some time at the beach and one cousin brought a 12-foot beach ball!

And everybody after all the fun, ready to head home!

Needless to say, we had loads of fun together and look forward to our next reunion in 2015!

-Tess

Giving Thanks

One of the best ways to celebrate Thanksgiving is with family around! So, this year, we are going to have a family reunion (on Dad's side) during Thanksgiving week. Now, we have lots to be thankful for, so I'm going to put some pictures of some things that we are especially thankful for (I know, that's kind of the same thing as I did in the last post, but most of those pictures were from the internet. This time they'll be from us!).

Mom and Dad. They've been married for 23 years as of yesterday!

Water Polo.

Sunsets.

What we were doing last Thanksgiving.

Families can be together forever!

Fresh CA Fruit!

Eggs. I can say that now that Luke is gone for a while.

 Bountiful Harvests (not our's, but we appreciate them anyhow).

You should see this sometime. It's amazing!

Family Goofballs!

Fresh Flowers (these actually are from our garden).

Our two missionaries!

Good- no,  GREAT- food.

Fun-to-take-pictures-with architecture.

Road Trips! 

Backpacking in the Mountians. 

If you go to an amusement park with me, you must ride the swings. It is not an option.

 Whenever we get a chance to do the hang-out-the-windows thing, we do it.

What can I say? We're water people.

 

 Smiles and Toothpaste and Teeth!

Even though it is rough at times, we love to learn!

Mmmmmm...

 Holding small children is wonderful. You know.

Opportunities to be creative don't come too often.

Oh, Disney. These are two of my favorite characters!

We have this amazing violin (and piano for Levi) teacher for many, many years. She's amazing.

Clean humor is very important to us.

 The Ocean! Natural beauty is everywhere, not only at home!

Taking naps on top of big rocks. (Warning: Sunburns happen fast on top of rocks...)

That's just an itty-bitty glimpse of the things we appreciate in this huge, beautiful world around us.

Remember to have an attitude of gratitude, this week especially.

- Tess