He is Risen

He is Risen indeed!!

Turning 7

Turning 7. How did it happen so fast? We are so grateful to have been given this little ray of sunshine.
We had a great weekend of celebration for Josiah's birthday. After a party at school with the most adorable bunny cupcakes ever, we celebrated with a Waltner family dinner (no April Fools!). Then the preparations for the Badger Pass Spring Fest began. Our ski bunny lost best ski dummy by just a few votes to RTD2. Josiah and Adalie both raced in the obstacle course and the slalom races. Even Daddy participated in the Old Man's Race. We watched the pond skimming, ate cake, sang happy birthday and enjoyed our families.
Thank you to everyone who travelled far and wide to celebrate with us. We are grateful for you.
(Josiah 7yrs, Piper 6yrs, Ashlyn 5yrs, Adalie 4yrs, Elias 2yrs, Freney 1yr)

Exactly

Hi mommy&daddy,

i am a litle sad that i am tirning 7. but, i am glad that i get to exspolr a hole new life.
i love you a lot! I am4 ft. 1/2 in. see you wen i am 7! HEE HEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOTS OF LOVE,
josieroo!!!!!!!!

(a message from our Miss Josiah just before going to bed on her last day to be 6 years old for the rest of her life....... I couldn't have said it any better myself! She certainly is a girl after my own heart!)

Artwork by none other than our sweet Adie Bear!!

Ski Team

This winter we decided to have Josiah participate with the Yosemite Winter Club Ski Team at Badger Pass. But what we didn't know, is that we would be hooked!! Adalie desperately wanted to be part of the team also, but rules are you have to be able to load and unload the chairlift by yourself. And seeing as the chairs, most of the time, only come up to her back and she has to be lifted on, it was a no go for Adalie. The up side of that, it was fun to give her all our attentions while Josiah was training with her team.

Josiah skied most every Saturday with the team and improved leaps and bounds each week. In a few short weeks, she was skiing faster and harder. Seth and I could barely catch her. She seemed to have no fear, but even tough falls didn't slow her down. She had caught the downhill bug!

With her new found talents, she got invited to participate in the last race of the season hosted at Badger Pass. We accepted and joined the whirlwind of racing! We learned how to slip a race course, how the flow of the races run, which way to travel around the poles, and that icy snow is alot more fun for racing than slushy.

The first day of racing, Josiah missed a gate on her very first run and was DQed. However, she skied well on both her races that day. What we didn't know, was that a DQ on 1 race was a DQ for the day and that meant she was not in medal contention. Boy was she disappointed that first night as we watched all the medal winners, knowing she had skied hard enough and fast enough to at least be in the running. But, we encouraged her to focus on the next day's races and we hoped she would catch all her gates.

Her 1st run of the last day's races was not super fast, but it was clean which kept her in the game. She wanted a medal so badly!! We caught up with Daddy for some lunch. He had been a gate judge on the lower course and warned us to listen closely because many kids had DQed on this last race. Now mind you, the racers don't get to run the race course at all before they are timed and judged and each of the 4 courses they race are a little different. They get to "slip" the course, which is basically just taking a good look at it and visualizing your strategy. So I knew that she would have to understand the course in order to not miss a gate and DQ. She took one slip with a big group of racers. It was hard to hear and she seemed confused on the lower half of the course. So, I caught up with 1 of her coaches and told him she was still foggy on the lower half. He suggested they hurry over to the course and see if they could slip it 1 more time before it closed for racing. Just as we got to the top I heard one of the judges holler "keep #435 up here she is the 3rd racer!" I shoved her off the start hill with her coach for that coveted last slip and hollered back " she is already on the course with her coach!" whew... I had bought us 1 more look.

It was the last race and she was lined up, ready to go on the start hill. Talking with her coach and singing "take me down to the paradise city", she was ready and having fun. I watched her push up to the timer arm, put her poles in front and ready herself. Then she pushed off, the race had begun. I could only see the top of the course. She looked strong, but the trouble sections were towards the bottom. I waited.... then I heard "racer #435 cleared" and knew she had done it!!

Meanwhile, Adalie was chomping at the bit. We knew some of the younger siblings were going to be doing the "post runs" (unofficial races). Unfortunately, we had been told by 1 of the more conservative coaches that 5years old was sort of the unwritten rule in racing. So Adalie would have to wait another year. But after the first set of races on Saturday, the head coach invited Adalie to ski with the other 5 year olds in the next post run. She was ecstatic!! But since we had not found out until late in the day, she didn't have a racing bib. So she was titled "no number racer".

Now mind you that start hill is steep! One day in practice, in a very un-Adalie like manner, Adalie backed off the start hill and started down below. But when asked for her 1st post run if she wanted to start on the start hill or below it, she didn't hesitate in climbing the start hill, tucking right up next to the timing arm and pushing her poles in, ready to race. And she was awesome! At the end of her race, Seth and I met Adalie at the finish line excited to give her high fives, when the head racing judge walks toward us. He asks, "is this your kid?" Oh no, she has no number on, she is only 4 and we are busted.... wrong! After we finally claimed her, he pointed a serious finger at Seth and said "you need to get this girl in some serious racing now!"

The next morning Josiah's coach met us at the lodge with a racing bib just for Adalie. Apparently she had proved herself worthy of a number. And boy she couldn't be more excited about that!! By the end of the weekend, she had successfully whooped all the 5year olds in her class..... unofficially of course!!

SO Josiah had run both her races clean, but would it be enough? We didn't have time to check the score boards before the awards ceremony began. We quickly learned that 6 year olds don't medal. They are pushed into the 7-8year old class. We were beginning to lose hope. Her class was called. 10th place, 9th place, 8th place..... I thought to myself, "oh no, she had wanted this so badly, she had put all her heart into it... but she won't be medaling..." Then we heard, "And 7th place goes to Yosemite Winter Club Racer JOSIE WALTNER!" Oh how our hearts lept for joy!! She had done it!! She stood up with that medal around her neck and a smile from ear to ear!!

All said and done, the girls had a great season, a great weekend of racing and both received an invitation to join the travelling team!! OH BOY.......

Hard Lessons

Today I was amazed once again at the wisdom of my children.

Josiah came home and began telling us the very sad story of 3 children in her class who were caught stealing treats from their teacher. In response, these children were punished accordingly. However, the entire class would suffer for the poor choices of these 3. All treats were taken away from the entire class until the 3 culprits could once again prove themselves trustworthy.

At first I was shocked and then quickly very saddened by the choices of these kids. Then confusion set in. "Wait a minute" I thankfully thought to MYSELF ...."Why would she take away treats from the whole class, why not just from the 3? That's not fair!" And it was then that I gleaned some wisdom from a 6 year old.

Josiah continued by saying, in her very matter of a fact voice, that, "even though this treatment didn't seem fair, it was a good time for us to learn that life is not fair. There will be many times in our lives when a few people spoil it for everyone. And at least I am getting use to life now, because when you are an adult, the rules are hard!"

I say to you..... wisdom.

Words of Wisdom

Mommy: "Adalie, Mommy has poison oak and it itches sooooo bad. Can you make it go away?"

Adalie: "No. But God can. It just might take Him a few days to get to it!"

Adalie: "Mommy, I would really like to get Josiah a present for her birthday."

Mommy: "Oh, that sound nice Adalie, where would you like to go to find this special present?"

Adalie: "At the birthday store..... HELLLLLOOOOO!"

I love love love the things that they say!!

Sick Days

When the girls were babies, I use to hate hate hate when they were sick. It made my heart so sad to have them down and out. But now, I've discovered that the recovery days are actually alot of fun. They are the perfect excuse to step away from the busyness of life for a few days. To close the doors and turn off the ringers, to have a legitimate excuse to say "no" to anything and everything without any guilt. To snuggle down together while the world spins outside our doors. Its like taking the off-ramp off the freeway for a few days. We get to catch up on all the crafts, projects, cleaning, movies and books that have been shelved for another day. While I should probably be learning that we need more down time, it's just not our style.... there is simply too much fun to be had. So I will just enjoy our recovery days when they come along for the respite they deliver!

This time it was Mommy's turn to be the patient. And boy oh boy do I have some attentive nurses. They brought me tea and apples, checked on me every ten minutes, gave me sweet get-well notes and beautiful hand picked flowers. It made my heart sing to have such sweetness poured out on me by my little ones!!