Day-trip to LA

My childhood neighbor and surrogate Grandpa, Ken Pike, passed away last weekend after a battle with Alzheimers, so off to LA I went to pay my respects on Wednesday. McKenzie joined me, and we picked up my brother, Mark at LAX who flew in from Tacoma. We took a quick walk down memory lane and took Kenz to Calabasas High School, where I attended 9th-11th and played softball and was a cheerleader. We tried to stop at Blinkies... Wayne's & my favorite little donut shop to treat ourselves to after seminary on Fridays. Why don't I carry cash???? Cash only...my scrounged-up changed only equaled less than a buck...who accepts only cash anymore anyway? I'll have to savor the giant bearclaw and glazed yumminess next time around. Stony Brook AKA The Cottage (our old landscaping business & shop) just doesn't look the same...all overgrown and unkempt--can't even see the great charm from the street. What a shame we let that property on Ventura Blvd slip away.

We saw so many people we hadn't seen in 15 or so years...my favorites were all the Pikes, of course. Sister Pike looked the same as she did 17 years ago when we moved away from Calabasas. It's always good to see my mom's BF, Christie...I used to idolize her when I was a little girl--I always wanted to grow up and adopt her 'giving attitude. ' It was so nice to hear great memories and stories of Brother Pike, as told by six of their 7 children. My other favorite person to visit with was our childhood babysitter, Brooke Bateman & his darling wife. (Brooke is obviously a 'he'). I told him I used to have a little 10-year-old crush on him and that one morning after he babysat us I found a note on the end table that said "Sheyla is weird." I'm sure it was prompted by me trying to be a bit of a show-off, for him, of course. I knew it was a note he'd scribbled because he spelled my name wrong and my brothers would have spelled it right if they had written it. I explained to Brooke how he broke my heart that day! He tried to tell me my brothers had set him up...he was sure of it. It was fun to jump down memory lane and renew acquaintances with many of my parents' peers from back in the day.

Growing up in the Woodland Hills 2nd ward, Barry Martin issued a challenge for all the kids to memorize the Thirteen Articles of Faith. Each person who successfully memorized them were rewarded with a whole 1 lb. bag of m&m's. Back then, that was just the greatest reward a kid could dream of! Each Sunday, he'd have m&m's just in his pocket and we could take a handful if we were good little girls and boys, or when we'd pass off one Article of Faith. So when Mark and I saw Barry Martin at the funeral, Mark slyly reached into his pocket and we all had a good laugh. Ah, memories. Maybe that's why we've had our children memorize the Articles of Faith at such a young age....minus the m&m's. That would be a great ward tradition to start up here in San Marcos!

Mark and I had a great time showing Kenzie Lupin Hill Elementary School. If the parking lot had not been full of cars (meaning there were teachers in that school somewhere), McKenzie would have been hoisted up the flagpole just like we all were back-in-the-day. It was our favorite thing to do---play at the school during the summers and pull the flag pole rope out of it's locked container, and hoist each other up the pole with the flag hook looped on a belt loop. We'd swing each other around and around way up high, like we were flying. I think we broke it a few times and I'm sure Matthew was the one to catch air the most. hmmmm...maybe, just maybe, that's where my desire to paraglide stemmed from? Kenzie could have been a lucky flying girl that day--and I'm sure she would have loved every minute of it just like we did.

We were able to see how the current owners remodeled and expanded the inside of our childhood home in Calabasas. They did a great job. It's very cluttered and the owner apparently knows nothing about decorating and color, but the layout is so much better. Lots of memories there, but a lot smaller than I remember it-how did we all fit?! This picture shows the beginning part of the big field adjacent to our house. Mark was hoping to find a stray spoon (yes, from mom's silverware) from his days of diggin' in the field! The slide show is for the benefit of my siblings, parents, or anyone who knew what it used to look like. The old neighborhood...so many memories with the big 'ole treehouse, talypo stories, coyote sightings, swimming at the Muir's and Erickson's, sleeping outside on the tramp, pulling endless weeds on that massive hill every summer...and the list just goes on and on. We tried to see the inside of Gma Williams old house, but no one was home, so window peeking had to suffice. And, of course, a trip to LA wouldn't be complete without a Tito's stop & In-N-Out for the benefit of Mark who misses his HS lunch runs through the drive-thru.

Thanks, Mark, for the fun day in LA...despite the circumstances that brought us there!