The Ryans

Kaitlin earned a 1st place trophy in one of her Irish dance competitions today! She has been practicing very hard, and steadily improving, and she “brought it” today. I laugh at the phrase, but do believe that it is quite a skill to carry over what you’ve accomplished in practice into a different context that is competitive and stressful. Because the entire competition of hundreds of kids is broken out both by age and skill level and type of dance, each kid competes in 6-8 different dances against about 15 kids on average. Once they place, they move up to the next skill level for just that one dance and within their age group. So it is kind of complicated. Anyway, today she competed in 6, earned 3rd place medals in 3 and 1st place in 1.

Later, she was hosting a stuffed animal dog party on the patio.

Last week, we had the touching event of watching “Cornelius” and “Lora Lynn,” released back into the ocean. Cornelius was our Browie Troop’s adopted sea lion that has been convalescing for several months at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. The troop earned money selling nuts/magazines and adopted him for $150. Then, when he (and his best buddy Lora Lynn) were healthy enough the center planned his release.

love Becky

We started off Kaitlin’s vacation week with painting her room. She had fun helping, at least for a short time.

We had a great time at Snow Valley. We skied for one day, with Kaitlin in ski school for the morning portion. In the afternoon, we stayed together on the easy slopes while Kaitlin showed us how her ski instructor showed her to go over the rollers (little hills). Here is the video: (coming soon) video it is pretty funny that she doesn’t quite have enough momentum to get over the fourth roller, and actually slides backwards…for the record, by the end of the day she went fast enough to make it over all four rollers without stopping (so did I). The kids are required to wear sunglasses…one of the ski lift operators kept calling Kaitlin “Hollywood.” Though exhausted, we really enjoyed it. Due to a scheduling error, we were upgraded to a “spa room” which Kaitlin and I took advantage of after a day of skiing. The area is full of kitschy carved wooden bears, so of course the lodge we stayed at had a carved bear which Kaitlin had to duplicate its wink for the picture. The next day we went tubing for a couple hours before heading back down the mountain. Here is the tubing video: (coming soon)

We had a wonderful Christmas break this year. Matt’s parents came to visit, as well as my grandmother Jo. We took advantage of the fact that we had four generations from both sides of the family and took some fantastic family portraits overlooking the beach. Santa was good to us this year! Kaitlin seemed to have a theme of an older room and received a bean bag and flower beads to hang in her doorway. We went on a handful of hikes, both with Mike & Judy when they were here, and then again with just the three of us. When we visited Whiting Ranch we took the trail to the red rocks area which was stunning and followed a fun, meandering trail. The highlight was when we came accross five dear that were as close as 6-7 feet away from us. We spent about 15 minutes watching them eat. They seemed only slightly interested in us and not too scared. We actually continued on our hike, leaving them to their dinner. We also visited the Wild Animal Park. Another highlight was going to see the musical Mary Poppins with my Mom. We barely got there in time thanks to Matt navigating us throught the rainy-day sig alerts via phone. It was fabulous and well-enjoyed by all three of us girls. Followed by dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

We were thrust into the school routine again and with that came weekly rehearsals for the Top of the World Elementary Talent Show. Kaitlin did her Irish dancing. Most kids sang or danced to pop songs, a handful had a serious talent which they clearly pursue outside of the yearly talent show. The night of the performance was like (I imagine) a Jonas Brothers concert to be…lots of screaming pre-teens! Kaitlin did great. We were proud of her for being so brave to dance alone in front of so many people. At the Irish dance competitions, there are multiple dancers dancing at the same time, and, everyone in the room is familiar…this of course was quite different. The crowd was very positive and energized for every performer, so they cheered on Kaitlin too.

Kaitlin and her best friend Ella hosted a lemonade stand. They raised $24 total for their school’s charity to the Wheelchair Mission. That was before the money that Matt & I, and my parents, added! It was quite a success even in the middle of January!

Enjoyed a very nice, long, hike with Mike & Tracy last weekend. Went through the newly opened Dana Point headlands trail, down the Strand trail, and while Matt & Kaitlin rode up the furnicular (look it up) the rest of us climbed the stairs up…and then back the same way.

We have some girl scout stuff going on. Cookie sales, beach clean-up (unless we’re rained out tomorrow) and the Daddy/Daughter dance (disco this year, lucky Matt!)

Looking forward to our day of skiing in a couple weeks during K’s ski week. This year, I WON’T be sledding!

Work is good, work is busy. Matt’s work is good, Matt’s work is busy. Enough said.

Becky

The Ryan Family—Christmas 2009

I am so proud of Matt. He launched his own business at the beginning of this year, and except for the mess downstairs when he works from home, it has been a positive experience.  He consults for a handful of customers while developing and selling his own products online at www.ryanmechatronics.com And while we aren’t going to retire on those sales, new customers have been generated thru the website.  His focus is a little less on weapons nowadays, more on general robotics and unmanned vehicles.  It makes me happy to hear that he is enjoying the challenge on the technical front as well as on the business development front, and that he is glad he made the move.

I continue to do grant proposal writing for non-profit groups in the area. My job is fulfilling because I truly believe in the work that my clients are undertaking, and I feel strongly that they are worthy recipients of any funding that I can help secure for their missions. I still volunteer in Kaitlin’s classroom, but my biggest volunteer role is being Kaitlin’s brownie troop leader; I think I learn as much from the girls as I hope they do from the troop experience.

In February we went to the local mountains for a ski trip and were happy that Kaitlin’s skills developed to the point where she could do some novice runs with us. The sledding was fun until I took a hard fall…perhaps sledding is best left to the kids! This summer we visited Santa Barbara where we spent time with Kaitlin’s great-grandma Jo, as well as going on a really neat hike to some caves eroded by wind. Later in the summer, we went to Palm Springs. We rode the cable tram to the top of the mountains for a fantastic hike and view of the desert floor (not to mention temperate weather compared to valley). We visited the desert zoo and spent a lot of time in the pool and lounging.

We look forward to 2010, and wish you and your family all the best in the New Year.

Merry Christmas,

The Ryan Family:  Kaitlin, Becky, Matt, and Indy-dog

Before I do the Christmas letter post, I thought I should get up to date. We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving at my parent’s house and enjoyed visiting with my Grandma. Last week, Kaitlin had a special treat in going to Sea World with Grandma & Grandpa while Matt & I celebrated his birthday with a nice dinner out. We also got lots of Christmas shopping done away from curious little girls!

Kaitlin has been spending a lot of time riding her bike with the neighbor girls, all of whom finally have bikes albeit of varying sizes (they’re all growing so fast!). So most afternoons there are 4-5 girls riding circles and off the curbs in our cul-de-sac.

I’m still enjoying the garden, but its a bit slow right now. The broccoli and spinach and peas are growing kind of slowly, so harvesting is a long ways off still. Work has kept me busy and one of my clients, a community health clinic, just got a very significant (just shy of $200,000) from a proposal that I found and wrote for them… this grant award will prevent them from turning away needy clients, which they were about to do come January though they have never had to do so in their 40 year history. I feel really good about that. I’ve been doing lots of girl scout stuff too.

We had Kaitlin’s conference at school and her report card and teacher comments were glowing–we are so proud of her! AND, she finally mastered the monkey bars! She has really enjoyed science this year, which so far has consisted of geology, soil composition, composting. They do some pretty neat hands-on stuff at the school, I’m really impressed. Kaitlin will be doing Irish dance in her school talent show in January.

Now…holiday preparations:)

Well, despite the fact that Kaitlin still had the flu and only about 25 kids came by (??), it was a good Halloween.  Kaitlin got 69 pieces of candy (she had to count and sort them according to type for school :))

It’s been 5 days of flu.  Low grade fever, but she gets big tired at about 3.  We hope she can get better tomorrow and get back to school Tuesday.

Becky and K had matching witch costumes (complete with gray hair and painted nails).  I skipped the Elvis thing and went for the lazy “cowboy with a skeleton head”.

Even Becky hasn’t seen this one yet, she was busy making up K:

dancingskeletoncowboy

Here is what our house looked like (it was much cooler at night, but harder to video):

halloweenscene

Halloween pictures coming…but we dressed him up one more time and made him fly after treats

Indy flying after food...

Halloween is approaching, and even though I knew I’d get razzed by Becky (and that the dog wouldn’t likely do it), I had to spend the $15 on the costume.  He’s getting old, he didn’t mind that much

Matt

Indy as Krypto #1On the lookoutHard Day Saving People

On the lookout

Hard Day Saving People

Kaitlin started second grade today! She had a lot to say when she got home about the desk arrangement (clusters of 4-6 desks), her being chosen to be “buddy” to a girl who was new to the school, getting a popsicle, the behavior chart that incorporates levels of a coral reef, an apparent math evaluation test, the books her teacher read, etc. When I asked what her favorite thing was that happened, she said “everything.”  And, after dinner she drew a picture of her desk cluster and her teacher to give to Mrs. Davidson tomorrow. So, I would say that it was a very positive day! I drove her this morning and she took the bus home. Tomorrow, she’ll begin the bus both ways!

For those of you wondering…she did not watch President Obama’s speech today at school. After reading the text online though, I would have wholly supported it as it was truly about staying in school and working hard.

Tomorrow is the real test, as Kaitlin was adamant about having a good 2nd day of 2nd grade (3rd day of 3rd grade, etc.) after Grandma told her to have a good “1st day” as if it meant she was a 1st grader. She loves to be specific!!!

love Becky

We kept it simple for our family vacation this summer and drove out to Palm Springs. An affordable summer getaway, as it is close to 120 degrees! Easily tolerated if you go up the tram to the mountain elevation (and 30 degrees cooler), or, go in the pool. The aerial tram is pretty amazing, in about ten minutes you go from around 2600 ft elevation at the base station to around 8500 ft elevation. During the ride, you quickly see the parking lot and city of Palm Springs receding, and can observe the whole valley from the mountaintop viewing patio. When we got to the top, we went on a hike that was 4 miles roundtrip and took us all the way to 8900 ft elevation. We had our picnic lunch at the halfway mark and went back down the tram to ice cream and the hotel pool.  Here are pictures from the tram ride, viewing platform and hike:

The next morning, we went to the Living Desert zoo. By going early, not only did we squeeze in 1 1/2 hours before it was unbearably hot, but we also got to watch the animals eat breakfast. They gave the foxes and bobcats food frozen in ice cubes, which they actively played with. The highlight was when Matt and a couple other people spotted the mountain lion tail, but couldn’t quite see the rest of him until it suddenly pounced at the floor-to-ceiling window inches from them! The two ladies kind of yelled, and Matt jumped back too. Then the mountain lion just ate some grass. We also fed giraffes and walked in the adjacent, full sun exposure, desert area to the San Andreas earthquake fault exhibit. By then it was 100 degrees and Matt gave K. his hat to wear (bad mom, not only did I encourage a walk in the blazing sun, but I let my 7 year old do it with no hat and flip-flops…she survived). Then back to the hotel for more swimming!

We had a great time relaxing together. Matt even visited the casino and paid for 1/2 the trip winning at poker! It was a nice top off to an already wonderful summer!