The Cardon Academy

The Cardon (all girls) Academy (also known by Haylie as the ACIS -- or Awesome Cardon Intelligent School) is officially open for education! Our specialty is second and third grade, and preschool.

This week we learned what our names mean.

Haylie - Hero

Katie - Pure Beauty

Audra - Noble Strength

Cardon - One Who Likes to Sing

Our first science experiment. Salt water vs. plain water in the egg float.

School room. The upstairs of our house is just a huge 2nd master bedroom. It's great for a school room. It has a nice storage closet and full bathroom too!

One week down....like 32 to go :)

Five Weeks on the Road

The beginning of our five weeks on the road (well, actually, it was the air and road) didn't exactly go as planned. Hurricane Alex was forecast to pay South Texas a visit on the day we were due to fly out (all of us together, mind you). We had to make some quick decisions. We decided that the girls and I would fly out to Las Vegas while Trevor stayed behind to hold down the fort at the nursing facility. I wasn't super excited about the idea, but I was even less excited about missing the first (and possible last) Borgquist Family Reunion.

So, off the girls and I went, leaving Trevor with a boarded up house and large supply of drinking water. After flying from Harlingen, to Houston, the girls and I made it to Las Vegas. We arrived at 8 pm, 10 pm TX time. We were all a bit tired, but flying there was the easy part. The hard part was going to be trying to figure out a way to haul 12 large pieces of luggage, one mildly angry and very exhausted 3 year-old (whose car seat I had left in Texas) and 2 dinner-deprived children with me to the car rental place. We made it, no thanks to the unfriendly people in Las Vegas.

In the car and off we went to find dinner on the strip. Not a good idea. Anyway, we fed our faces and got checked into our trashy room at the Excalibur (there is a reason that the rooms are only $29/night). After I got everyone settled, I realized I had left my phone in the now-valet-parked car. Uggg. It was as if I was trying to orchestrate some large scale humanitarian service project to get the unfriendly Excalibur workers to just bring me my phone, so I ended up going to get it myself...while leaving 3 sleeping children in the hotel room with a note that said,

I had to go get my phone in the car.

If you are reading this, I will be right back.

Don't call anyone. Especially not 9-1-1.

Love, Mom

No one woke up. I sat in my hotel room fighting a nervous breakdown while working until the wee hours of the morning on homework, until finally I came to my senses and realized that if there ever was a time to ask for an extension, surely running from a hurricane was it. Extension granted. Sleep.

The next morning we woke up and enjoyed some quality time at the pool and water slide. After getting ourselves organized for the day, we met up with my Mom and cousin who were driving through Vegas on their way to the family reunion. I've never been so happy to see two familiar faces.

Unfortunately, all 184 pictures from the beginning of my trip were accidentally deleted. Maybe it's a blessing. Now I don't have to relive those 24 hours.

Off to Boulder, Utah we went where we met up with 76 (was that the final count?) of Granny and Gramp's 93offspring. It was a fantastic time! The best part was the Hurricane Alex blew on by and Trevor was able to meet up with us a few days later.

Now that you've either read or scrolled through all of that, here are a few picture highlights:

Trevor and Audra hiking

My sister cousins. These are the girls who were my make-shift sisters growing up.

Lf to Rt: Stephanie, Katie and Lindsay (Flake girls); me; Erika, Kirsten, Megan (Borgquist girls)

The Whole Crew


Parley and Belva's Children (minus my sweet Aunt Lynette who had last minute back surgery)
Lt to Rt (and youngest to oldest): Dori, Jan (my Mom), Steve, Susan,
a spot for Lynette, and Belva


Fourth of July

After a great couple of days in Boulder, we were off to Mapleton, Utah to meet up with Trevor's family. Trevor's sister, Anona and her family were in town from Michigan. We only get to see them every couple of years, so we were all extra happy this year!

Rafting down the Provo River



Trevor's parents and all the grandchildren

After a couple of days together (five, to be exact) Trevor had to fly back to Texas. Boo-hoo!

Trevor's brother, Tavin, is always such a good Uncle to our girls. He is always especially helpful when the girls and I are visiting without our Daddy. In the following case, he was the fill-in Daddy to nine of his nieces and nephews. Such a good sport!

View from the top of the Conference Center

After a great week with the Cardons, we hitched a ride with Merrilee (who happened to be driving back from SLC) to good old Plumas Lake. The kids were all as good as gold and we had a great road trip.

Back in the PL we spent lots of time chilling with our PL family. The kids just played and played. My sisters there were so sweet and accommodating. My kids all seemed to crash in random places every night, and they were so happy to be with their PL cousins.

Daddy Leinweber taking Audra on a go-cart ride

While were there, the 8 year-old girls got their ears pierced together. I will spare you the story about how during the 20 minutes we were in the mall doing this, 3 of the children randomly threw up.

Good-bye PL. Hello Mom and Dad. The girls and I rented a car and drove to my parent's house. We enjoyed some peaceful days hanging at Mission Viejo Lake (did I really not take any pictures of that?!?!) just chilling.

Balboa Island Ferry

Balboa Pier

To top off the month, we drove back to Camarillo to visit our sweet friends there. A special shout out to my Dad who drove us the three and a half hours that should have only taken two. The girls were less than thrilled to spend this time in bumper-to-bumper traffic, jammed into the car like sardines (we still have 12 suit cases and this time were are driving in a little Lexus). At the end of the trip my Dad says, "I am sure glad we didn't bring any guns with us." Puzzled, I asked why. "We would have killed at least one of the kids, and now that we are here, we would have regretted it!" Classic from my Dad! If you know him, you get it!

Beach day at Carpenteria.

And that, my friends, took a really long time to blog about. Almost as long as the trip.

South Padre Island and Port Isabel Lighthouse

The girls and I had a fan-tabulous day at the beach yesterday. We enjoyed 80 degree water and perfect waves for us to play in. Audra isn't scared of the waves at all! We put a little floaty on her and went out past where the waves broke. We played in the dinglehoppers (those are the wavy waves before the brake, for those of you who aren't my cousin Katie and don't know what dinglehoppers are) for a very long time! One of the best things was that we found a beach that we can drive right on to. It was so great to not have to haul millions of pounds of crud into the beach for the day. This way we were able to just park and unload right there...a wonderful thing for a mom with kids and no man!

There are so many seashells! The girls brought home buckets and buckets of them. They've been bought, sold and bartered between the sisters. At this point, Haylie says she has 272.

On the way there (pictures are out of order) we stopped at the Port Isabel Lighthouse. Haylie went there on a field trip and the other girls have been begging to climb up the 94 stairs ever since (thank you to Haylie for counting).

From the very tippy top!

Here's to many more wonderful summer days in Texas!

Sleeping on the Tramp

Last night we slept (hardly) on the trampoline with the kids. There are a couple of things that one ought to be warned about when contemplating spending a night on the trampoline in Southern Texas:

1. The Mosquitoes are like nothing you've ever seen before. Go ahead and bathe in Off before leaving the house. Even then, have plenty of anti-itch cream in the house for the morning.

2. The humidity here is incredible. Be prepared to wonder if you peed on yourself in the night when we wake up. You will be that wet. That's if you actually make it to the morning. If you don't, just be ready to spend an entire day doing wash because everything you brought outside will be wet and (soon) mildew-y.

We ended up having a good time, even though it wasn't quite like being in Cali. I think we may try round two in California this summer.

The girls really enjoyed hearing my story of when I was a girl. I was sleeping on the trampoline with my cousins, Katie and Stephanie (Lindsay, I can't remember if you were there....forgive me if you were). We were probably around 10 or 11. Their neighbors had a balcony on the second story of the house, which we had perfect view of. Well, as we were laying there, the man neighbor, whom we'll call "Joe" to protect his identity, came out on the balcony to get a little fresh air.....NAKED!! It was quite traumatizing!

Haylie, Katie and Trevor (under a pink blanket). Trevor was less than thrilled about the idea of sleeping on the tramp, and the mosquitoes loved him from the minute we stepped outside.

Honor Roll

Haylie and Mrs. Escobar - 2nd grade

Katie and Mrs. Rios - 1st grade

Both Haylie and Katie made the honor roll at their new school. Considering they've actually only attended school for half the year (because of all our moves), we are super proud of them!