Trip Report, Day 2

Sunday morning we got up earlier than we wanted to (but right when Seth wanted to), went to IHOP for breakfast (highly recommend the Banana Bread French toast), waited too long for our food, ran out of there to make it to church and sat through the Christmas cantata of the Tropicana Ward (a performance, to be sure). After sacrament meeting, we were on the road again. A relatively uneventful drive (listening to the Tennis Shoes among the Nephites series) got us to Anaheim by mid afternoon, where we checked into the hotel (right across the street from Disneyland--if you look closely you can see the park entrance and Space Mountain in the background).
Once we got settled in and put on our shorts, we walked over to Downtown Disney, where we spent the evening ogling souvenirs and enjoying the fabulous(!) weather. We just beat the dinner crowds at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Express (pretty good cajun food).

We spent a LONG time in the following stores: World of Disney, where we contemplated every possible Disneyland souvenir, Build-a-Bear Workshop, with some exclusive Disney wares, and the LEGO store, where they have (among other cool stuff) this really cool video screen that scans the box in your hand and shows the item built and in action on top of the box (see Space Shuttle, below).

After hitting the shops (and buying nothing--yet), we poked our heads into the Disneyland hotel, enjoyed the Christmas decorations in the area, then headed back to the hotel to get some rest for the following day, when we'd head down to LEGOLAND!

California Trip Report, Day 1 ('bout time!)

I've had all these great ideas for blogging about the trip, but my time and energy have never coincided to actually blog. I have time; let's see how long the energy lasts...

Day 1, Denver to Las Vegas
We left home about 5:30 am, got 10 minutes down the road to the interstate where a bungee cord snapped and we lost the stroller. I parked on the shoulder, played Human Frogger in the pre-dawn hours, picked up the pieces and we continued on our merry way. We assessed the damage at a rest area on I-70 and bid adieu to the stroller (it was on its last legs, anyway---an exciting demise, to be sure). I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to the Georgetown, CO sanitation workers for filling the entire rest area trash can with our stroller.

We then continued westward over Vail Pass, where whiteout conditions had us driving pretty darn slow for a while. Once we got past the town of Vail (where ski traffic was backed up a LONG way at the off ramp), the roads and the weather cleared and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way to Las Vegas. In Eagle, CO we discovered that Burger King makes great croissanwiches and nasty everything else for breakfast. Highlights of the rest of the drive included the cool rock formations west of Green River, the 80 mph speed limit on I-15 in southern Utah and the canyons of northwestern Arizona. The kids enjoyed spotting the St. George temple from the Interstate ("wow, it's OLD!") and loved the twilight skyline of Las Vegas.After we checked in at the Excalibur Hotel, we went to Greenberg's deli in the basement of New York New York (sandwiches to die for), tooled around the strip a small bit, found it to be largely pornographic and spent the rest of the evening in the relatively safe, four-story M&M's store.

Merry Christmas...

...from the Happiest Place on Earth!

Autumn Time

One of the great things about our front yard is our big beautiful maple tree that shades our house in the summer and provides loads of leaves for hours of entertainment. Seth loved hiding his blanket in the pile of leaves and then jumping into it (maybe it made the pile softer?) I wonder how jumping into a pile of prickly, dry leaves full of bugs (and who knows what else) ever became fun...but it certainly is to my children.


And one of my personal favorites shows Seth practicing his leaf levitation skills. I never knew he had it in him. What a kid.

Love

Tucking my sweet little boy into bed, I tell him softly, "I love you Seth!" He smiles, strokes my cheek with his little hand and says "I love you too......but, I love David the most!"
Stinker.

Big Changes

Part of me wants to start this blog by singing the song from Toy Story "Strange things are happening to me....straaaange thangs." While our blog has been silent many changes have been happening to our family. The biggest one:

Yes, you are reading the name correctly. That is our very own Devin, or as our girls affectionately call him, "Bishop Daddy." He is stepping into the calling with grace and appropriate humbleness. Many ward friends mentioned "they saw this coming" other responses have been "congratulations" (not sure what for) and "condolences". My personal favorite, directed to me, was "welcome to single life." It actually hasn't been too bad. As a High Councilor he was gone all day on Sundays as he counseled the Denver 4th Ward (a Spanish speaking unit in our stake). Not much has changed as far as a time commitment there. Although, if I needed him home, he always had the option to not attend the 4th Ward. It hit me one Sunday as we celebrated Sarah's Birthday with family, without Devin--but expecting him late--that this really was going to be different. Then there are the couple of days a week where he might not get home until after 11 pm. I love watching him speak, teach, and lead. There is just a glow about him that is different than before. He has many wonderful gifts that have enabled him to begin this position quite impressively.

Each week he has a new "favorite thing about being the bishop". One week it was presiding at a baptism, another week it was speaking at the YW Night of Excellence. Today he said the best thing about being bishop today was awarding a young woman her "Young Woman in Excellence Award." I'm sure there will be many more favorites, especially as our children "come of age" in various capacities: baptism for Hannah and Seth, priesthood advancements for David and maybe even a mission farewell, primary graduation to Young Womens for Sarah (is that really next year???).....strange things are happening to me (er...us).

Changes for David
High School.
So much emotion, expectation, stress, and fun is packed into those two words. All of which David has experienced. I am happy to say that it is MUCH better than Middle School ever was. The biggest experience we wanted him to try was Marching Band. He wasn't too thrilled about it and as we got into the practice season we weren't too thrilled about the schedule. Now, we all agree it was a good experience and he might even go as far as saying it was....fun. His marching band even made it to state competition! It was the first time in 10 years the band was able to make it that far. And this year, most of the band was Freshman.

Seth and I met Devin's mom (aka: Grammy) in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy Stadium to watch part of the competition.
It was very cold! Grammy even treated us to some hot cocoa at Burger King. It was a...mix-it-yourself...type of hot cocoa.

David declares that seminary is "the best part of the day." And he shows it by getting himself up in the morning at 5 am. This is quite an accomplishment for him since he never before has been able to wake up to an alarm. I have been amazed. He also has been able to stay on top of his heavy academic load which consists of mostly honor classes and an AP class (I still wonder why college classes offered to freshmen in High School?). His latest accomplishment in scouts after achieving the rank of "Life Scout" was to qualify for the "Shot Gun Shooting" merit badge. He had never used a shot gun before and yet he was able to hit 29 out of 50 clay pigeons.

My little boy is growing up. Time really has gone faster than I ever imagined. How can I slow down the clock?

Stating the obvious

I ain't bloggin'.