I went up to Utah this past weekend for my nephew's baptism. My siblings were all together for the first time in about a year. It was a fun weekend and a nice break from "normal" life. I left Thursday morning and drove up with my parents. I left Damon in charge of the kids.>
My little sister threw a party for all the September birthdays in the family on Friday night. There are a lot of them. We had a great dinner and as always a yummy dessert.
My little sister threw a party for all the September birthdays in the family on Friday night. There are a lot of them. We had a great dinner and as always a yummy dessert.
Saturday morning my older sister and I decided to hike Y Mountain. I haven't done that since 1997 when I hike it with Damon. We had so much fun doing it. It was such a beautiful fall morning. It wasn't cool, but a crisp fall day. You could smell fall in the air. This is a picture of campus from the parking lot. After our hike we walked around campus and the bookstore and got all our favorite treats. Good memories.
My nephew was born September 11, 2002. We were driving around the neighborhood and it took me a minute to realize why all the houses in this one neighborhood had their flags out. It was blocks of them. It almost brought tears to my eyes as I remembered the events of Sept. 11, 2001. It was nice to see so many flags up. It was nice that my nephew was baptized this day to create more good memories.
Damon survived without me, as I knew he would, but the kids were all very happy to see me when I walked in the door. It's nice to get away, but even nicer to get home.
Summer is officially over! I always wonder where the time went. We did not to anything to crazy this year, but we managed to have a little bit of fun.
The kids enjoyed the waves, water and sand. We saw dolphins and lots of pelicans. We had a great time and when it was time to leave Jen's car didn't want to go. About an hour later and a AAA visit the surburban made it back. Jen and Damon stayed at the beach and waited for the car to be fixed. I piled 11 people in my 7 passenger van, all seat belted by the way, and got them to my house. It was quite the experience.
We had our special back to school dinner Monday night. It was yummy lasagna. We set personal goals for the school year and a family goal. We did this last year as well. Our family goal this year is Carpe diem. Yes it means seize the day, but for us it is more like making each moment count, living each day to the fullest, getting the most out of life. We will see how it goes. Lily was so excited all day saying, "It's our special dinner tonight", or "I can' wait for special dinner". It was really cute. 
Monday after an hour of piano we headed off to Mission Bay and went to Belmont Park. We had never been there or to Mission Beach and enjoyed them both. We had unlimited ride bracelets and could go on ride after ride after ride. Mom had to be done after a while on some of the rides. It was such a fun and nice setting. We really do live in quite a unique and fun place. We stopped by this place called the WaveHouse where they have a continuous wave that people can surf on. We also spent some time on the beach.
Tuesday was spent working most of the day. I have to have some sort of way to pay for all this fun. Luckily for everyone it is my last day of work for a week. YEA!! The kids played outside with the neighbors and that night we went to pack meeting for cub scouts. Adam earned his Bobcat. Yea! They also got to launch water rockets. They were all in to that. Lily's flew the highest.
Wednesday we had a very lazy morning which was really nice. I could get used to not working at all. Noah had a Safety Patrol meeting at school today and after that we headed up to Escondido to Lawrence Welk Resort. We went with our friends, the Fellars, and played in the pool and the waterslide for a couple of hours. Then we BBQed hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a way fun afternoon.
Thursday found us at the dentist office at 8am. That was way early for us. Everyone did well except Lily. She has a cavity. Poor girl. She was doing so well. I got reprimanded for not flossing better. She has to go back in Sept 13th. After that we came home and got ready for some fun. We picked up our neighbor, had to stop by school to drop off some paperwork and them we headed towards Boomer's! We did a round of miniature golf, rode the bumper boats, where all the kids decided to gang up on me and soaked me. We spent some time in the arcade and then headed to In N Out for lunch. We were all pretty tired after that, but I think we all managed to have a little fun. 
Friday we had a bit of a lazy morning. We headed to the ice skating rink around 10:30am only to find out that it wasn't open to the public that day. So we went over to the rink in La Jolla and had a lot of fun there. Lily cried most of the time, but really she figured out skating pretty quick. Noah took a while to warm up to it, but managed to not land on his head this time. Adam picked it up and just had fun. I was sweating my brains out and ended up taking off my hat, jacket and scarf. I think it was all the extra support I had to give out. We had lunch at the food court and then got back home in time for Kindergarten Orientation. Lily was able to meet some of her classmates. We came back later that afternoon for class postings. The boys both got the teachers they wanted and I finally was able to put my mind at ease. Damon got home and said he wanted pizza so we ordered some and spent a nice quiet evening together.
Saturday we did a couple of chores and played outside with the neighbors and then drove up to Redlands. We spent the afternoon/evening at Mortensen Manor as well as Aunt Kathy's. We love swimming in the pool and hanging out with all our cousins.
Sunday was relaxing at home until church and then relaxing after church. We made a really yummy dinner with BBQ chicken, potatoes, grilled veggies and rolls. Noah made cookies for dessert.
I still can't believe summer is almost over! One more day!
Paris May 2010
