Days Two through Four

Facebook won't load. What the crap.

We just discovered that we can add videos, not that we have any videos to add . . .but perhaps we will. Soon. Ish.

So we last left our adventurerererers in sunny and verdant California with iDebbie's supremely awesome family (ie absurdly cute cousins and the excellent chef, Mother Henderson, and her uncle and new aunt who's name does not mean bug). They had encountered mysterious shadows and awkward cows. Since then, we have run into rope swings, rocky beaches, pretty temples and eight singing men.

Thus we begin our highlight montage/sketch:

Friday: iDebbie and iSarah took the adorable and awesome and adventurous cousins on a walk to the infamous rope swing and attacking tree, two of their favorite hideouts. As a sidenote, the attacking tree, as far as we can tell, is not a relative of the whomping willow. For one, it's not alliterative, and for another, it doesn't actually move to attack you. The rope swing, however, provided oodles of entertainment once iSarah stopped being a scared little girl and managed to convince myself that I wasn't going to fall off the rope. It was a near thing, though. There was much lazing about and swinging about and climbing about in a tree that resembles a giraffe. Pictures will come later. Or maybe now, if you're lucky. Cousin Cameron also engaged in much exploring, branch breaking, bridge building, and various other activities that are a testament to his teen boyhood.

Following our adventures outside, iDebbie and iSarah took a trip to Berkeley to meet iDebbie's nerdy (and therefore cool) friends and to see the UC Men's Octet, which is Berkeley's equivalent to BYU's Vocal Point. iSarah was the only white person in the attending group, which was a new and unusual experience. But Asian people are cool, so it doesn't matter. iSarah is, after all, the "cool one." The Octet was pretty sweet (as far as Octets go. Vocal Point has nine members, so numerically, they're superior). Berkeley has a lot of trees, though none of them are shaped like giraffes, which has nothing to do with male vocalists, but has everything to do with the picture on the left. It (that is Berkeley) also had a lot of bearded men, which Provo and Utah in general seems to lack.

When we came back from Berkeley, Mother Henderson had prepared a most delicious meal of hamburgers and oven fries. *Schlurp x6*

Saturday: To go in not chronological order (but the order we recalled the day in): We went to iDebbie's hometown of Hercules where we drove around a lot, frolicked like deer on open plains in her backyard, and went to the seaside. Also, we planned out at least thirteen different options for an epic reunion next summer/winter when the menfolk/Matt come back. Earlier in the day, we watched the Princess and the Frog with the adorable and awesome cousins. I think at one point in the movie, all four of us had our legs under the awesome heated table (that's right . . . a heated table. It's Japanese and I can't spell what it's really called . . .or even remember what it's really called). There were a lot of feet under there (eight, in fact) and it was a good thing the man with the knife had not taken up residence under the table at this point in time. Or else he would have had a lot of feet in his face. We went adventuring with the adorable and awesome cousins again, back to the rope swing where we picked up an assortment of trash for Cousin Skylar's homework assignment and Cousin Cameron busied himself making a bridge, stepping in a creek, and climbing up bits of trees that none of us had ever dared to climb before. And by none of us, I mean Debbie, because iSarah had never really been to the tree before and had only managed to scrounge up enough courage to swing the rope swing the day before. Climbing unclimbable bits of trees had not yet occured to me.

That night we went to a tasty dinner at the Danville Stake Center in celebration of

iDebbie has just informed me that I did not talk about the seaside. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find out what we were celebrating (it wasn't how awesome I am, or what a good speller I am. I know you're all surprised). In the afternoon, we went to Hercules/the seaside. We explored Debbie's old house (or at least the wild and rugged backyard), gazed longingly at hills we wanted to traverse, and drove around the tree streets and the bird streets of Hercules. We even saw Chris's house (sort of). iSarah meant to wave, but I didn't. I'm waving now in my mind. That should be sufficient. We then took what was meant to be a 15 minute trek to the spot of beach in Hercules that most people living there probably don't even know exist. You'll recall that we suggested a trip to the seaside in our last post...and the beauty of vacation is that such suggestions can actually come to fruition. iDebbie could not quite remember how to get to the sandy part of beach, so instead we took a scenic walk along a trail until we found an open gate to enter (right beside a sign on the fence that said "no crossing"...but the gate was wide open, and there were people on the other side), crossed the railroad tracks, and made our way down a rocky and slippery and green and kelp-covered patch of shoreline. It wasn't quite like fording a river, but it was beside the ocean and smelled of freshness and salt and peace. There is nothing quite like the smell of the ocean. We scoped out a few nice flat rocks that, if mowed so as to remove the slimy kelp clinging to them, would make perfect platforms for picnics. We also noted the ideal expanse of grass in the nearby park that would make for an excellent frisbee playing field, and therefore decided that the next time we have at least 13 friends around we definitely want to road trip back for a tour of the land of warmth and glory. And did we mention the shining, shimmering, splendid bay view? We took pictures of it, yes we did...but you'll have to take our word for it because they're stuck on iSarah's phone. Just picture it. Hint: Think "beautiful" and "grand" and you're on your way there.

Back to the dinner celebration. It was in celebration of --now I'm just really tempted to stall and make you all wait to find out what the celebration was about and why we where there and what sort of foods we ate and why Debbie couldn't really enjoy any of the food and who we sat across from and whether or not iSarah could fit her mouth around the cups used to hold the beverages and if anyone cool was there, like someone famous or a GA, which is Mormon for famous person, or if anyone had an epilleptic fit or if there were loads of old people or if there was live music or if there was dead music and now I've got you all worked up and wondering about EVERYTHING you don't even remember what you were supposed to be wondering about in the first place, which is the celebration, by the way, I'd hate for you to get stalled and forget all about it, but I think you probably already have, which is why I just reminded you and yes, I do refuse to use a period and instead am really enjoying rambling on and on and on and on which is what iSarah does best, which is why iDebbie enjoyed iSarah's Relief Society lessons so much last year because no one would ever tell me to shut up during my own lesson and all of a sudden I would be talking about my future epic progeny instead of, you know, the gospel and such. Anyway, the celebration. We were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ward in Danville, which is now the stake in Danville. The menu was as follows: tasty salad with delicious dressing, strawberries and pecans (though they may have been walnuts), followed by pork chops with rice bits and steamed carrots, followed by bread pudding, some of which was smothered in almonds and some which were not. iDebbie is, of course, allergic to pecans (and walnuts) and carrots and almonds and the waiters/servers gave her the most almondy scoop of bread pudding, so she didn't enjoy it all that much. iSarah did, though, and I ate Debbie's carrots. *Schlurp x1* There was live music, and a "history of the Church in Danville" musical, and no general authority, though there were some people by the name of Kimball bopping about. We ended up sitting across from a woman called Linda Adams, which was coincidental for two reasons. One: Linda Adams happens to be the name of the mother of one Matthew Gregory Adams (currently known as Elder Adams) though this woman was not the Linda Adams of Matthew Gregory Adams. Two: she's a published author. She writes LDS lit (which is a dodgy genre at best, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that her writing is not dodgy in the least) and she told the two of us all about writing and how taking business classes for self-promotion and entrepenuership will help us along our journey to publishing success. It was all very helpful and she was very friendly. We're now all friends on facebook (after she accidentally typed Debbie's name as her status instead of in the search bar. Oops. We both liked the status once we friended her).

Sunday: To sum it up, it went like this: Church (awesome). Basking (even more awesome and five hours long and still no sunburns on the albino sheTalley!). Dinner (possibly even more awesome). Piano playing and singing (MIRACULOUS, seeing as sheTalley came and joined iDebbie on the piano bench and started singing along before iDebbie even opened her mouth...and then proceeded to pick the next couple of hymns to sing). (sheHenderson's note of miraculous has everything to do with the fact that I was singing and nothing to do with the way I sounded, which was definitely sub par to the normal group of people who sing around the piano with her). Oakland temple grounds/visitor's center (easily the most awesome event of the day/evening. I swear, Debbie knows every other sister missionary up there--and even all those Spanish speaking men who are not sister missionaries *obviously* so Emma Tan is going to need to ask everyone there if they know Debbie, because chances are they do. Also, there was awesome Book of Mormon artwork and other good spiritual type things.)

Thus we see the epic adventures of iDebbie and iSarah continue. Next stop:London (well, back to Hercules and then London, which is the whole reason for this blog, which we haven't even talked about yet).

Kiss kiss.

The end.

P.S. iDebbie doesn't particularly approve of the "kiss kiss" bit...after all, it's even worse than noncommital interdigitation.

P.P.S it's not noncommital if I'm commiting to something. So there.