California was the second week of November. We are such a wonderful time, we learned some lessons. Previous years it worked better to let the kids sleep all night while I drove. The drive comes at the end of my 7 days on, it is a dangerous and ultra miserable day/night/day for me. This year Mason woke and couldn't sleep, He just cried his little eyes out all through Nevada. It was a miserable drive, then we played at Disneyland several hours after arriving in California, we were ALL grumpy, all tired, all miserable. The one lucky/nice thing that happened our first day there-----we ran into my cousins from Bakersfield. I haven't seen them in at least 5 years, we just happened to run into them. We were waiting for dinner at Rainforest Cafe, I looked up and saw Jimmy, Traci and little Jasey.....it was so cool!!!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It is all about fun, there are no real expectations that, if not kept, will disappoint anybody. I don't have to buy gifts for anybody, I don't have to prepare tons of food, I don't have to feel hurt that nobody remembers me, etc. My kids didn't have to try hard to learn to love this day. Mason responds, "we are getting more candy today, OK." I don't have to beg, yell, and ask 3 or 20 times to get ready to leave the house. I can ask only once, get your trick or treat bag and lets go!!!! We have had 4 halloween parties this year, when I was a kid you pulled a costume together using tape, fake blood, DI clothing and a pillow case the day of halloween-------------and halloween only lasted a single day. Now halloween really lasts the full month of October, at least in our family it does. It is a great time to get stressed out adults to let their hair down, knock down a few, and just have fun. I guess I have decided that life is really good, I am happy, we are healthy, and our dentist will be busy!!!

We haven't been able to do much this summer, I worked the entire month of July and then work every other weekend. I have one friend from high school that I still talk to, have something in common with, like, and see now and then. Her son was having his mission farewell, so we took the opportunity to drive down to Saint George to a little family fun. It has been slightly cool in Salt Lake and we have been missing swimming in the pool. We stayed in the Super 8 hotel which wasn't 'super' but at least it had a pool. The kids could have cared less that there were dead cockroaches on the walkways, they just saw the blue water. We also went hiking and playing on the red rocks. They had so much fun but scared the tar out of me. I have never experienced fear like that, they would get so close to the edges and I just kept fearing the worst. Mat didn't help by repetitively pretending to throw them over the edge. All in all, we had a great weekend!!!!!!!

Melia's first day of school.  She was so nervous, she had a frightened look on her face.  It was even more gut wrenching because she was trying to be so brave.  It wouldn't have been hard for me if she was excited.  But when I walked out the door and I saw the little quivver of her lip I felt like I was abandoning her.  As a parent you want to take away all of their pain, but you can't.  It is as painful for me as it is for her.  I was nervous for the entire 3 hours, waiting to pick her up.  She reported that she was nervous for a whole 5-10 minutes, until they finished introductions and the teacher had them all in the palm of her hand.  I hope each and every day Melia finds joy in learning!!!!!!

4th of July weekend.  We have tried to give the kids a holiday weekend even though I'm working every single day, all day.  We went for a bike ride Friday night, did the Pepperwood Parade Saturday, then they swam for several hours, now we are heading out to do fire works.    These are the greatest days-----I want to always remember how I feel right now.  We are all healthy, happy, and full of sunlight.  We have wonderful friends, wonderful family, and 2 annoying dogs who we love but are making us crazy.  More pictures to follow.

So far this spring we have loved having warm weather, beautiful blue skies, bright sunny days, and trees and flowers in bloom.

We spent about 5 hours at the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving point, it was slightly overcast and extremely humid for Utah. It was cool when we started so I forgot all about sunscreen----I had jackets for all of us. However, by about noon it was 75 degrees and about 85% humidity (I guess). We were all sweating and by the end of the day, all sunburned. The flowers were beautiful and hopefully got one or two pictures worth sharing.

We had a fun Easter Holiday. Melia had an Easter Egg Hunt with her best friends, Kate Wing and Allison Sweney. Mason and Allison's little brother Becket got to lay too. They decorated eggs, hunted eggs outside, and ate way too much Candy.

Happy New Year!!!!!  We have a wonderful bunch of family and friends.  Whoever said there isn't diversity in Utah hasn't checked out our parties.  We are usually the minority.  We had a wonderful snowy few days that deposited a bunch of the white stuff for us to take advantage of.  It could only have been better if the kids were not so grumpy and tired from our New Year's Eve Party the night before.  Life is GOOD!!!!