Spring 2009

Spring has flown past - here are our highlights. Charlotte played her second year of softball and still enjoys being the clown. Here is one of her more serious hits...
And a rare moment when she is watching the ball while playing third base...

We stayed in Los Angeles for Spring Break - taking advantage of some of the local fun. One day we went to the tunnel in Griffith Park that served as the entrance to "The Batcave" in the 1960's TV series...


Also in Griffith Park was a railroad museum, complete with one of those tiny trains. I'm not sure why I jammed my boney body into it, but here we are, digging the tiny train ride...

The highlight of Spring Break for the girls was our day-long trip to Disneyland. Here are the girls on the parking-lot tram...

Charlotte & Dan on Dumbo...
Dan getting a preview of Savannah's driving skills on AuTopia (notice I'm biting my lip)

Charlotte modeling the latest convertible in ToonTown...

Like their mother, the girls love the simplicity of Tom Sawyer's Island...

Cotton-candy has been in Disneyland longer than Space Mountain and it still generates more smiles...

CCK getting a dose of "It's a Small World" - I hope the song gets stuck in your head the way it is still stuck in mine!

Remember the fresh faces on the parking lot tram ride to start the day? Here is the tram-cam photo on the way back to the car. Savannah grew some Pooh ears...

We zipped down to San Diego for Easter. Here are the girls hunting for their eggs at Margie & Van's home...

How 'bout these good looking eggs??

Mid-April and Charlotte turns 9-years-old. She was more than a little excited about her gift from Aunt Linda...

Once a month all school year Savannah participated in "Cotillion" a program to teach kids manners and dance steps. The entire family is invited to the finale. Here is SBK dancing with a young man...

And here she is dancing with an old man....

"Funny but what if" department: One day CCK wanted to warm some cookies, so she put them in the oven and set it for several minutes. The problem is - it was the microwave oven! I smelled the smoke from the backyard and this is what I found...(mmm!)

The girls all dolled-up for Mother's Day - I'm one lucky man!

Dan & Charlotte goofing around at one of Savannah's hula performances...

SBK doing a Tahitian number at the Northridge Ho'olaulea...

and in San Dimas...
Charlotte & her friend Maggie share some shave ice at another ho'olaulea...Next up: we take a camping trip down the Central Coast of California! until then, Aloha!

Mammoth Ski Trip 2009

We took a 3-day weekend and went to Mammoth Mountain. The weather cooperated with 3 feet of snow while we were there. Here is a shot of nearby Laurel Mountain from the highway...

Everyone, even Charlotte's doll, was ready for the snow...

The skiing was great! Here is Lesli going thru the trees off Chair 25 - one of our favorite runs...
We rented a very nice condo. There was a spacious family room with a great fireplace, lots of light and plenty of games. Here are the girls playing cards in their PJs...
Tucked away in a corner were built-in bunk beds...
And here's the view from the balcony...
Savannah is modeling the latest in combo ski-wear and pajamas...
The condo was right on the shuttle line to Canyon Lodge. Here are Lesli, Charlotte and Savannah waiting for the bus...
The girls took a lesson and this is their class breaking up at the end of the day...
Apres-ski, Kendall-style...
On the last day we skipped the slopes and took some sleds out to the scenic highway. We found a quiet glade and enjoyed the snow. Here's Savannah on our do-it-yourself luge run...

It looks like CCK is swimming in this virgin snow...

Charlotte on the luge run...

All-in-all, a fun trip - just ask Savannah!

Holiday Greetings 2008

The California Kendalls will remember 2008 like a cheesy amusement park: a good time punctuated by some moments of terror and periods of joy.

After years of prattling about our wonderful vacations, the bubble burst in 2008. All our vacations sucked. Well, maybe that’s too strong, but here are some examples – Lesli and Charlotte missed the flight to Hawai'i (don't ask). Once there, Dan used his face to catch his surfboard (not recommended) and had a doctor glue him back together...

Trivial matters aside, we are a healthy and happy bunch. At age eleven, Savannah's transition from elementary to middle school has been big for her. Princess parties have been replaced by dances. Fortunately she's the same quiet, sweet girl who sings in choir, plays soccer and swims like no one I've ever seen. She's still crazy about horses and went to two horse camps this summer. At recess last spring she cracked open her chin in a collision with a classmate, requiring 3 stitches (ouch!).

Charlotte got braces! The big news is how gracefully she handles them –even seems to enjoy them! At 8 years old she is in third grade, getting letter-grades for the first time, and meeting the high standards set by her sister. Her soccer team started as the ‘leftover kids’ - an oddball collection of asthmatics, miniatures and novices, but they rallied and finished the season with a 5-game win streak. Charlotte dances after dinner. It isn't a style recognized by the fine arts community. If you can imagine Snoopy dancing on a floor of ball-bearings while experiencing a full-body heave, you're starting to get the picture.

Lesli is finding more free time now that the girls are in school. She is co-writing a script for the TV show Monk that she hopes to sell. She enjoys her beach workout class and recently added beach yoga to her week. When she's not coercing the girls into doing homework, she plans our home repairs – this year we replaced a window & sliding glass door, painted the exterior of the home and polished the abused marble flooring. During the summer she single-handedly painted Savannah's room.

Dan found a fun new Thursday basketball game to complement his Saturday game. He still enjoys watching rocket launches from the backyard and is perfecting the art of watching sports on TV. He’s learning yoga and the girls relish the comic relief. On the job-front, Dan would be CEO if mediocrity were a virtue (grin!). But he is home for dinner most nights and rarely misses a hula show, soccer game, teacher meeting or birthday - and that's a big deal to him. Next year he's volunteered to be an assistant coach for Charlotte's softball team. His biggest moment of 2008 was watching Savannah catch a wave at Waikiki.

We enjoyed short jaunts like a wintertime visit to the geothermal village California Hot Springs, and a pre-Thanksgiving tour of Death Valley where the 200 foot sand dunes were perfect for jumping, rolling, running, and falling. Perhaps the most fun we had was our spring break in Atlanta with Dan's family. We went to a Braves game, played cards, visited the Martin Luther King Memorial, fished, toured Stone Mountain & the Coca Cola museum and just generally laughed until beverages came out of our noses. We finished our Georgia vacation with a brief trip to Savannah (the city, not the daughter). In keeping with our "year of bad trips", on the return flight, Lesli and the girls got stuck in Atlanta for two nights (not too bad since they stayed with family and got to buy new underwear!).

At Thanksgiving, we participated in a feed-the-hungry fun-run. Although Charlotte was in bed with a cold, Sydney (now 10) filled in admirably and was quite fetching in her bandanna. This marked Syd’s complete recovery from surgery earlier in the year to remove a cancerous tumor.

We're excited to spend Festivus at home with visits from Aunt Julie, niece Whitney and Lesli's folks. We wish you unbridled good health, laughter that hurts your ribs, and hours upon hours of time with the people you love.

With love from Dan, Lesli, Savannah & Charlotte!