Confusion at Concord Royale

So, the picture above is not actually of me or of anyone I know, for that matter. However, since there wasn't a camera in my car this morning to capture my look of horror, it's the best I could do to re-create the moment. Let me take you back and give you the blow-by-blow that led up to my moment of terrified realization.

First, there's an older couple that just moved into our ward. Now, I say older because I don't actually know their ages and it's probably best that I don't guess their ages just so I eliminate offending any readers of this blog that might actually be older than the aforementioned couple. Since they just moved in, they really don't know anyone else in the ward. In fact, before this morning, I'd only met the husband once and hadn't met the wife at all. This fact will become important as I continue the story.

We had Stake Conference this morning near the Oakland temple and Jen had to be there early. Since this couple just moved in, I offered to pick them up and take them there. Jen previously talked with the daughter of the couple and made arrangements for me to pick them up around 8:45 this morning. I called about 8:43 to let them know I was leaving my home but they didn't answer.

When I arrived at Concord Royale (the assisted living facility they just moved into) and got out of the car, an older gentleman in a wheelchair waved to me and started coming down the ramp. I said, "Owen?" and he nodded. I then managed to get him into the front seat of our minivan and put his wheelchair in the back. As we pulled out, I said "You're wife isn't coming?" and he said "No, she's not feeling real well this morning." He also says, "Sorry, I was just getting my tie on when you called. I don't move around as easily these days." "No problem, I'm glad I found you" I confidently reply.

We continued to drive down Clayton Road and I figured I'd better make some small talk so I asked him how he likes Concord Royale. He said it was a real nice place and that he'd been there for about a year. That didn't sound right, but you know how old people can sometimes be with their facts so I brushed it aside.

I asked him if he'd been to the temple in Oakland before and he said he didn't really remember Oakland much. Sounded reasonable. Then, I happened to glance over at him and noticed he was wearing a name tag. Only problem is -- the name tag said Len Ackerley. Now, I'm getting more nervous but I couldn't quite remember Owen's last name and I figured -- Owen, Len, that's pretty close. So, I asked him what his daughter's name is. He said Jo Ackerley and then proceeded to tell me all about how Jo kept her maiden name even after she got married. I really have no idea what he said after that because I knew for a fact that Owen's daughter's name is Phyllis. This is about the time when my face very closely resembled the picture at the beginning of the post.

OK, so I kidnapped a 93 year-old man this morning. There. I said it. Although, kidnapped seems a little strong -- besides, let's be honest, Len was no kid. So, what do I do at that point? Last thing I want to do is frighten a 93 year-old into having a heart attack in my van. How am I going to explain that one? So, I nonchalantly flip a U-turn, hoping he won't notice the panicked look on my face.

My mind is racing a million miles a minute at this point. Finally, I say: "So, Len, where were you headed this morning?" To which he replies: "1st Presbyterian Church." I casually add: "By chance, do you remember where that is, Len?" His completely unhelpful response: "I'll know it when I see it, but I'm not real good with directions these days."

So, I take him back to Concord Royale and see a man in the parking lot looking very worried. I then let Len know there may have been a little mix-up and I'm pretty sure the man in the parking lot is the one who was supposed to take him to church this morning. Sure enough, I get out and the man says, "Is that Len?" "Sure is" I reply. Just so the guy doesn't think I'm a nutcase, I explain the bizarre circumstances and he laughs. "That's alright" he says. "This is my first time picking Len up so I've never met him but when I asked inside, they said he already left."

So far, we haven't heard from the police. Another few days and I figure I'm in the clear. Fortunately, we were able to track down Owen, his wife, and his daughter after Stake Conference (yes, they made it). When we saw his daughter, she looked very familiar. It turns out she was sitting on the bench when I first got out of the car at Concord Royale. Owen and his wife were sitting next to her but were behind some bushes so I couldn't see them when I got there. His daughter (who isn't a member of our church) figured she'd made a mistake so she went home, changed clothes, and took them to Stake Conference. I guess all's well that ends well. I hope she liked it. :-)

The Romer Families (and one Burr Family)

BJ and Chrystal with their kids:

Nathan, Maddie, Kaylie and Danny
Kevin and Kellie with
Abby and Sam (and soon to be baby #3)

Drew and Tina

with Christopher (and soon to be baby #2)

Trav and Jen

with Parker, Conner and Calissa

Somehow we missed a picture of Grandma and Grandpa!

Busy and Fun Spring Break

Spring Break 2010 was tons of fun and crazy busy! Trav and Parker were in Utah for Conference weekend and were gone for Easter so it was just Conner, Calissa and I at home. Quiet, right? Well, not quite! All three of my brothers, their wives and children came to visit! What a fun time we had. BJ and family arrived on Friday night and we were able to go to Chrystal's mom's house on Saturday for Danny's 1st birthday party. We visited, ate yummy food, the kids played in the jumpy house, Danny opened presents and we visited some more. Then, we headed back home and Kevin and family arrived. We enjoyed a dinner with them and then I came home to do some cooking for Easter dinner.

We woke up on Easter morning and enjoyed our homemade cinnamon rolls (a Conference Sunday tradition) and then went to my parent's house for an Easter Egg Hunt with all the cousins (minus Parker).

After the amazing egg hunt in the backyard with 9 cousins, we enjoyed a yummy dinner with everyone. We enjoyed watching Conference in the afternoon and a no fuss dinner that evening when everyone came back.

Monday, we went to see "How to Train Your Dragon." I must admit that I had heard nothing about this movie and wasn't so sure about it, but it was a great movie with a great message! I was pleasantly surprised! We all went out to lunch and then hung out the rest of the day. Abby was going to spend the night at our house, but got a little scared, so Calissa decided to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's with her instead. After getting home and getting a call that Calissa needed her blanket and taking it over to her and then getting another call to come back and get her because she was scared, I was not in the best of moods by the time that I ended up at home for the final time! :) Travis and Parker returned home on Monday night and we were very excited that they made it home safe and had such a wonderful time!

Tuesday, Travis went to work for the day and I did laundry and took a few meals to a couple of families in the ward who had just had babies. Calissa and I also got to go have Manicures and Pedicures with Grandma, Aunt Kellie and Abby. Then, the women went to lunch at Lettuce in Walnut Creek. Then, I can't remember what we did on Tuesday night! Boy, my memory is going fast!

Wednesday, we got our car washed and detailed (it definitely needed it after being ridden in by 6 teenage boys! Calissa got in on Tuesday morning and said, "This is disgusting!" I couldn't have agreed more!) and Trav and the kids got their hair cut. Then, we got packed and headed off to Pismo Beach. We met everyone at In n Out Burger in Gilroy and then were on the road again. Pismo was beautiful!! It was 70+ degrees and clear! We enjoyed playing on the beach after we checked into our hotel.

Chrystal's beautiful artwork! A wave washed it out shortly after we finished taking pictures of it!
Note to self - when we go to Pismo in June, make sure the kids change into their swimsuits before we head down to the beach for 'just a few minutes.' They ALWAYS end up getting wet! Here is BJ with the girls - splashing in the freezing cold water!
Hanging out on the beach.


Wednesday night half of the group headed to the Melodrama to see "Lumberjacks in Love," while the rest of us swam in the pool and watched Danny and Kaylie.

Thursday morning Drew, Kevin and Travis went golfing in Morro Bay. They said the weather was beautiful and it was a gorgeous course! We woke up to a beautiful day with no fog (which is rare for Pismo). I got up and went running on the beach and then those that were left went down to the beach to play in the sand and water.

Brothers - Parker and Conner

Cousins - Abby, Calissa and Maddie
There were 10 cousins in all. My kids are all older than the others.
(There were 7 kids between the ages of 1 and 6.)


Sister-in-laws (or Sisters-in-law?)
Chrystal, Kellie, Tina and me

Parker got buried in the sand by his cousins. They thought it was great and Parker was a good sport. We started to take a picture and Christopher (the one with the yellow shovel) decided as we were counting that on three, he should hit Parker in the head with the shovel. I know we shouldn't have laughed, but laugh we did! Poor Parker!

Here is Parker climbing a rock on the beach. He didn't want to come down. Although I guess I can't blame him since he had been hit in the head by Christopher! :)

BJ, Chrystal and their kids (Nathan, Maddie, Kaylie and Danny) had to head back home to Arizona on Thursday. We had a great time with them and are so glad that they got to come!

Thursday evening, the rest of us went to the Melodrama. "Lumberjacks in Love" was a fabulously funny musical! We all had a great time and are excited to go see another show in June! Check out this link: http://www.americanmelodrama.com/

Friday, we woke up to the fog, but it was still beautiful. We walked on the beach again, played in the ocean and swam in the pool before we needed to head back to Concord.

Sam-O with dirt on his nose!

Our hotel up on the cliffs. We just have to go down 100 or so stairs to the beach. (Or, walk down the street a few blocks and go down those stairs since the tide was in so far in the mornings).

One last time at the beach looking for shells!

There were hundreds of ladybugs on the beach this trip. You had to consciously watch where you walked or you would step on some. Although my dad stepped on a couple even though he was watching! The waves would come in and then the ladybugs would get picked up by the water and then deposit them back in the sand. It was a little strange, but at least it was ladybugs and not another kind of bug! You'd look down and see them climbing up your legs! I picked up my bag to head back up the stairs and had more than 8 on my bag! Weird!

Saturday, we were back to baseball games and real life ... more laundry, homework and getting ready for school to start again. Abby's 5th birthday was on Saturday also, so Calissa spent the day celebrating with Abby at Pixieland and playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We were able to join everyone for one last dinner and milkshakes at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

It was great fun to be together, but we were exhausted to start the busy week!

Not Your Typical Easter

Parker and I had an unusual, yet amazing Easter weekend. Twelve boys (between 12 and 17 years old) and four adults from church drove to Utah to watch General Conference live. For those who may not be aware, our Church has General Conference every 6 months when our prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak. This happens in Utah, but is broadcast throughout the world on TV, radio, and the internet.

Our experience began early Friday morning when we all met at our church in Concord and then took off in 3 vans. My van had 6 boys plus myself -- I think it was popular because of the DVD player (I have no other good explanation why our van would be packed while the others had only 3 boys each).

The trip was fairly uneventful until we reached Winnemucca, Nevada where we decided to stop for lunch. We had a cooler with lunch meat and other sandwich fixings, but the question was where to stop since it was about 36 degrees outside with snow flurries. After meandering around the town and seeing the finer sites of Winnemucca (don't bother including the town on your must-see vacation list), we looked up the LDS church in town and decided at least we could hang out in the parking lot to eat. Once we got there, there were two cars in the parking lot (some people were there to perform maintenance) so we were able to go inside and eat lunch in comfort. This was the first of several mini-miracles along the way that demonstrated we were being watched over with care.

We eventually made it to Utah, where we ate dinner at Wendy's and then split up to the two houses where we were staying over the weekend. We didn't arrive until about 10:30 pm, but our hosts were incredibly gracious, especially for people we had never met personally.

We got up about 6:30 am and then drove to Salt Lake for the first session of Conference. The picture below shows our group getting ready to watch this session.


Since we didn't have tickets for the second session, we watched it in the tabernacle (where the sessions used to occur before the conference center was built several years ago). Here's a picture from the tabernacle -- I was amazed at how small the building was compared to the conference center.

In-between the first two sessions, we went back to the parking garage and ate sandwiches, as shown in the picture below. Those people in cars leaving the parking garage gave us an assortment of looks -- which I interpreted to be either "Interesting, a conference tailgate party", "There's a motley crew" or "Hey, why didn't we think of that?"

Here's a view of the conference center from the outside. If you look closely, you can see the streams of people leaving the conference center after the second session. We were short a few tickets for the 3rd (priesthood) session, so a couple of the adult leaders started asking around and were able to round up enough tickets for everyone in our party.

Priesthood session was amazing -- I especially liked the talk by Elder Rasband who shared an experience of how missionaries are called to different parts of the earth. It was such a testimony that each call is made through specific inspiration from our Heavenly Father. I knew this was the case with my own missionary call, but this solidified my testimony that all calls are received this way.

We had pizza that night at the in-laws of one of our adult leaders and then, once again, got back late to our host family and went to bed "relatively" quickly.

We drove back to Salt Lake early the next morning and parked close to the conference center -- see below for a view from the parking lot.

We had 15 tickets for the session, so we were one short. After we got out of the car, one of our leaders walked over to another car that had just parked and asked if they, by chance, might have an extra ticket. They responded, "Actually, yes, we happen to have one extra ticket." Of course, this wasn't by chance and they didn't "happen" to have one extra ticket. We were being watched over once again by the One who wanted even more than us to have this trip go well. Here's a picture of all of us preparing to watch "Music & the Spoken Word" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir right before this session of conference.

When the choir sang "He is Risen" during this session, I couldn't help but think what an amazing Easter experience we were having.

We only had two tickets for the final conference session so most of the group went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building to watch this session. Parker and I were the lucky ones who were able to see our 4th live session. Below is a picture from our great seats for this session. As with each of the sessions, it was an amazing feeling when the prophet walked in and everyone stood in silence until he had taken his seat. Just to show our prophet has a sense of humor, he started to sit and then stopped and pointed with a smile at a few people in the front row that sat down prematurely.

Here's the view looking backwards from these same seats. The conference center is truly a magnificent building to behold.

Our Bishop had a friend who lives in Murray (close to Salt Lake) that was kind enough to feed our group dinner that evening. We had a great time visiting with their family and then, if our trip hadn't already been amazing enough, David Archuleta from American Idol stopped by the house (he's a friend of their family). We convinced him to sing for us (after the boys and then the adults sang for him) and he sang the most incredible version of "How Great Thou Art" that I'd ever heard. However, the testimony he shared with the group was even more amazing than his song. He talked about how he knows the Lord has been using him to share the gospel and despite all the fame he has been given, he's willing to give it all up and serve a mission if that's what the Lord wants him to do. Quite the contrast to the typical music star in the world today. Here's David with Parker (he took the time to take individual pictures with anyone who wanted one).

Here's a picture of the whole group with David.

Monday morning, we had yet another treat when Elder Christensen (from the quorum of the seventy) and his wife met us for breakfast and spent about an hour and a half with our group. Elder Christensen grew up in Concord and played football at both Concord High School and BYU and he was able to share his thoughts and feelings with the boys about decisions they will be making in their lives. Here's a picture of the whole group with Elder & Sister Christensen. It was the perfect final touch to a weekend that couldn't possibly have gone any better.

My only concern for the trip home was the significant snow that was forecast all day Monday across Nevada and in the Sierras. I know prayers for our safe return were offered by myself and many family members back home. While we had a few snow flurries during the day, I was amazed as I drove. It seemed there were constantly massive dark clouds on our left and on our right all day long with a break in the clouds consistently ahead of us. Each time we started to drive toward the dark clouds, the road turned towards the break in the clouds. Several times throughout the drive, I felt the strong impression that He who controls all things and who showed his power to calm the seas when He was on the earth was watching over us. It amazed me that 3 vans with 16 of His children were enough to alter the weather just enough to ensure our safe return.

As I mentioned, this wasn't your typical Easter for Parker and I with Easter egg hunts, candy, and family. However, it was an incredible weekend neither I nor Parker nor any of those on our trip will soon forget. Though I knew it before, I was reminded once again that Heavenly Father is real and that Jesus Christ is indeed risen and, most of all, that they care enough about each one of us to provide tender mercies and mini-miracles (as if miracles can be labeled mini) if we are open to receive and recognize them.

Baseball and Open House and Church Meetings, Oh My!!

Well, it was one of those days yesterday when all elements combined for a perfect storm! We had two baseball games (at different fields of course), Open House for Conner and Calissa, and the Relief Society Birthday Dinner all at the same time. Now, we are good, but not that good! No way that we could get to all of those places. It was supposed to rain yesterday, which would have made the remaining activities do-able, but no such luck! Lucky for us that Grandma and Grandpa were available to go to Open House with Calissa! (Which when I asked Grandma, she said, "Again?" - This seems to happen every year for Open House. She was happy to go though.)

After Travis & Conner freezing at their baseball game and Parker and I freezing at his baseball game (which I had to keep score), we picked up Calissa and attempted to warm up once we got home. It was not baseball weather last night. It was windy, 46 degrees and raining by the time we got in the car when the game got called due to darkness and rain. Even though Parker's team was batting and it was the bottom of the 6th inning and we were down by 2 with 1 person on and one out, we decided we'd rather be warm, then suffer through the end of the game and possibly win. (Well, I felt that way and probably most of the parents ... not sure how the boys felt about it!)

Grandma took some pictures at Open House and I got to sneak in today to get a peak.

Calissa in front of some writing that she did.

Sofia and Calissa

Calissa's diorama on Amelia Earhart.

Conner's spring poetry and artwork.

His dragon and Mission report on his desk.