Clifford Chronicles

Christmas 2015 

2015 was definitely a great year for the Cliffords. If I had to sum it up - 2015 was one big vacation. 2 cruises to the Mexican Riviera, RV trip to San Francisco and Monterrey, Lake Powell with family on an amazing house boat, Emily's trip to Cheerleading Nationals (more on that later), Orlando Florida for Christmas and of course the amusement parks. We even decided to do Halloween at Disneyland this year! But we also have been having a year long stay-cation because we got our Pool and backyard completed. 


Click for Year-in-Review Slideshow

Andrew - 9, 4th grader. #All-Star 

Andrew is in 4th Grade at San Elijo Elementary. Last year, he ran for student council as a 3rd grader and was elected Historian (was the only 3rd grader to be elected to anything). This year he ran for Secretary and ran an aggressive campaign with plenty of mudslinging and nasty debates about recess activities and getting ice cream to flow out of the drinking fountains, but in the end he was victorious.  He is now in scouts and got to go to his first scout camp, and got 3rd place in his first pinewood derby, has done 2 rainwater regatta races (had a cool Darth Vader boat).

Andrew is a beach bum and decided that this is the year he wanted to learn to surf. He got a cool blue surfboard and he's been tearing it up! He also wanted to do Junior Lifeguards, which is a 2 week adventure at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. He really became a strong swimmer and loves the ocean.

Athletically, Andrew All-Star Clifford had a solid year. He was chosen to represent his school at the district track meet and ran the first leg in the 4 x 100 meter relay race. He played basketball in the winter and was on a great team that went deep into the playoffs. Andrew also decided to play flag football. He played running back and receiver and had such a great year. I had to pay him a lot of money for scoring so many touchdowns! Andrew made the All Star Soccer Team not only last year but this year too. He's the starting center striker on the all star team and scored the most goals in the league.  

Andrew also is getting some refinement to buttress his physicality on the pitch by taking his first year of piano. He's basically a modern day Mozart and he crushed his first recital by tickling the ivory to incredibly passionate and moving arrangement of Frosty the Snowman. The audience was indeed blessed. Turns out Andrew has another passion, fishing. Andrew's uncle Kirk got him "hooked" on fishing. Andrew would stand for hours and work the fly rod and catch fish during our week in Lake Powell. I'm not exactly a fisherman since all I catch is bad luck so I'm sending Andrew to Kirk's house to get his fishing itch scratched! 

Emily - 14, Freshman at San Marcos High School, "Wear the crown, be the crown, you 'are' the crown!"

Miss Congeniality, move over cuz there's a new queen in town. Emily entered her first pageant and won as the youngest contestant in the field. She's currently serving (and I mean serving) as Miss Teen Vista and Greater San Diego Jr Miss. Being Miss Teen Vista isn't just all parties and fancy dinners (although there are plenty of those), Emily now understands service. She's put in well over a few hundred hours of service at homeless centers, serving veterans, doing open house events for local businesses, and lots of parades. She is really enjoying the opportunity to make a difference.  

Emily graduated from 8th grade this spring and she was chosen as the History Student of the Year by the faculty. It's quite an honor to be singled out for her academic achievement. She is now a Freshman in high school and is on the JV Cheer team. She balances her cheerleading schedule with early morning seminary that starts at 6:15am each morning.

Emily was also on a competition cheer squad at the prestigious CA All-Stars gym. She was awarded the MVP of her White Gold Cheer Team. She also got the chance to go to many cheer competitions and won each and every event. As the icing on the cake, her team was invited to go to Nationals in Orlando, Florida, which is televised on ESPN. Emily and her team won the National Title!!!! It was such a thrill and a fulfilling win that represented so many hours of hard work.

Other Highlights: Fulfilled her dream of seeing the Phantom of the Opera in L.A. (you need to see her room to appreciate the significance of seeing Phantom, her first year at EFY in Santa Barbara, and she went to girls camp. It's been a big year for Emily!!!

Kate - 17, Junior at San Marcos High School, drama, drama, drama....

Kate decided that she wanted to do drama class, drama club and drama plays. She is currently the drama club secretary! She announced to the family that she was going to try out for the fall play, "While the Lights Were Out". The next thing we know she got one of the lead parts and played "Unidentified Blond" (aka "UB"). UB was a character who lost her memory and as the curtain opened and the lights came on, Kate was standing over a dead body holding a bloody dagger (see attached photo). It was awesome! In her first play she crushed it, smashed it, and threw it pinned it to the mat! She not only got to hold a bloody knife but also had her first on stage kiss at the end of the play! (wait for it... "Gasp!") Don't worry, she is a professional and it's all about the art! This spring she's in the musical, “Suessical the Musical". It'll be awesome. She also has an acting agent who discovered her at an acting showcase and will be working on some events this year.

She balances her acting with being on a Varsity Cheerleader and her team took first at all of their competitions last season. She also had the privilege of being inducted as member of the National Honor Society. That's right, brains and looks! She's the total package. 

Some of the other highlights: fulfilled her dream of tricking or treating at Disneyland finally came true this year, drives Emily to early morning seminary, girls camp, receiving her patriarchal blessing, got to attend "the Marvel experience" in San Diego and of course went to every action movie in 2015. So to recap: Smart, beautiful and loves action movies... Is she the perfect girl or what?

Michele - 30+ "Full-time cheer mom, taxi service, parade coordinator, young women counselor, photographer, and Pump, Spin and Zumba class groupie

Michele is the Varsity Cheer Team Mom (Kate's team) at San Marcos High School. She is very busy helping plan events and hosting parties at our house (hence why Hector has to go to the chiropractor all the time). These skills dovetail into her other full time job as Emily's personal assistant and pageant parade expert. She goes to all the events (sometimes 2 and 3 events a week) with Emily, who is Miss Teen Vista as you all know. 

This year she's been in more parades and events that she's been to her whole life! This also bleeds into her love of the camera. She's the unofficial photographer for Miss Vista and high school cheer and elementary school yearbook ,and ... (you get the point). The pageant girls surprised her with this "Mamarazzi" hat. 

She got to travel with Emily to Texas and Florida with Emily's CA all-star competition cheer team and of course took thousands of pictures. If that's not enough, she also serves as Young Women 1st Counselor in San Elijo Hills Ward and is going on 9 years working at San Diego Temple.


I used to think Michele's gym classes were for the ladies and a man can't get a good work out. So Michele lured me into one of her classes (that happened to combine 1 hour of spin class with 1 hour of body pump). I went into the classes thinking I was too awesome for such weak baby exercises. I left the classes after passing out several times and crying like a baby. It was soooo hard. Michele is so tough. The only difference between abs of Michele and abs of steel is the abs of steel finally gives out! She drags me to spin and body pump classes until I have to make up excuses like, "I can't feel my arms" or "Can I take a break and go and surf for 2 hours?" It's hard work and she is crushing it.

Michele and went on girl's cruise with a bunch of her wild friends and sang songs at the piano bar until all hours of the night. She even learned a few new songs along the way! Michele went to few more musicals and concerts that I did. She took the girls to see Phantom of the opera and Taylor Swift Concert at Petco Park. I got to wait outside in the car as the official concert transportation specialist.

Chad - 40+, Part-time everything this year. 

Part-time: surf instructor (call me "Crush"), assist coach "Bruiser" , photographer ("Swen"), gym rat (aka "Arnold"), landscaper (call me "Hector Montoya Velazquez Manual Clifford") , and concert groupie (can I be Garth Brooks for one day?)

I've been teaching Andrew to surf. Finally this year he wants to get in the water. I bought him a killer surfboard and wetsuit. He's been tearing it up. I also helped coach Andrew's flag football team. We had a great year and Andrew really had fun. I've been helping out Emily with her pageant commitments and I've been doing the photography and video work along with her personal transportation assistant. 


Michele and I hit the concert scene. The first 2 events were all Michele and we saw Shania Twain and Idina Menzel. I got to pick the last one... GARTH BROOKS! He was so amazing and we got all dressed up in our best city slicker cowboy clothes and partied with Garth. 

Turns out there is more surfing than just at the beach. I got to wake surf at Lake Powell. After 16 hour days of wake surfing for a week, I am totally hooked. It's a lot of fun, especially when you're on a house boat and loving the 85 degree water!

This year I finally got talked into Mani-Pedis with Michele. I'm hooked now. I even have my own discount card. Yeah, I'm beautiful. The real reason for the beauty make-overs is due to my landscaping efforts (rough hands). I decided that I am the best landscaper in the world and I can't seem to let anyone else do it. I have done the front and backyards at the house and I'm pretty happy with the results, Except, I've also somehow found the reason to go to a chiropractor quite a few times this year. Could be related?

I've spent some quality time in Moab, UT as I'm developing a town home project in the downtown area. I use downtown loosely since there are only a couple of stop lights in Moab. But that little town attracts upwards of 2.2M people a year. Everyone loves Moab!! (Shameless plug) Go see for yourself at www.entradaatmoab.com! I'll throw in a banana split for free if you buy a townhome!

Snowball -  5 years old bishon, and still as cute as ever….loves her mommy Michele and second mommy Kate. She could care less about daddy. No respect I tell you, no respect!

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and an equally happy New Years. We are ready for 2016!!!

Love, the Cliffords