Cameron's and Melissa's broadcast

Christmas Photos finally!

2012-02-09T16:34:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! I realize I am nearly 2 months late but I lost my camera and just found it today. We had a great Christmas! Here is a picture of it before the girls came upstairs. Stacey, Tony and Grandma came to visit and we all had a great time with each other.

Annika knew which one was her presents from Santa and was very excited to get in and try out all the buttons.

Ali loved her Santa presents which included new bedding and new snow pants both with different colored dots all over them!

Ashling got a marble race game, a robot hand and ticket to ride. She loves that game and is pretty good at playing it.

All Annika asked for was a pink dress that spins. This is the dress! She loves it and has worn it each and every Sunday since Christmas.

New Years Resolutions

2012-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

We have a couple New Year's Day traditions. They go like this... we take down the Christmas tree and then fill out our time capsule so we have something to read when we set up the tree next year. Sometimes we watch old family videos.

We wrote some goals for this year.

They go like this:

Brown Family financial Goals:
Pay off our explorer
Pay off my student loan
Save XXXX for a rainy day
Buy a New Mattress for Cameron and Melissa's bed (it is way past time.)

Brown Family Fitness Goals
We have a family goal to run more and participate in a 5 K race
Ali wants to run a mile in 8:30
Ashling wants to learn to do the splits
I want to run a mile in 8 minutes
Cameron wants to run in the mornings before work for 15 or 20 minutes
We want to go on a family back packing trip.
Melissa wants to take some ski lessons

Brown Family Spiritual goals
We want to read the Book of Mormon as a family
Go to the temple monthly
Ali wants to read the Book of Mormon all the way through on her own

Brown Family education goals
Cameron wants to pass the seismic part of the PE exam and get PE liscense
Ali wants to get better at science and get a 4.0
Melissa wants to read one classical book on my kindle for every fun book
Ashling wants to read lots of chapter books

Annika has goals too. Her most important is becoming potty trained and also learning all her ABC's and how to write them. She is going to work on cutting too and also hiking by herself.

Kids and Santa

2011-12-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the kids and Santa. They got to see Santa at our ward Christmas party. It was fun! Annika likes Santa and goes right up to him to tell him what she wants for Christmas! She wants a big kitchen and a pink dress. We will see how Santa does with that.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

I made Ashling and Annika's costumes. After spending a fortune on material I was blessed to have the exact costume given to me for free for Ali! How wonderful was that?

The kids met their friends at Grandma Sue's house and they went around their neighborhood. I stayed home and off my foot which is apparently broken although I have not been to a specialist yet to see what they will do about it. They even got to go through a pretty good haunted house.

First Win!

2011-10-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ali is on the team called the Crush. I am the team parent. We have had a pretty difficult season and had not had one goal in about 5 or 6 games. We lost every game except the last one where we tied. As parents we just wanted the kids to finally score a goal to make them happy. This game was with the other Running Springs team. We were pretty evenly matched and we seemed to be doing a little better. The girls kept getting it down by the goal and scoring only to have it called off-sides. Cameron was getting pretty emotional and the ref told our coach to control her side-line. We were all upset for all the calls that we felt were wrong. Finally the other team scored and we were all sure that was an off-sides call too.

In the second half Ali played forward. She had told me all day that today was the day she would score a goal. She kept getting it down there and getting it close but missing the shot. Finally she broke away and dribbled it down the field and shot. The goaly tried to get the shot but it rolled out of her arms and right into the goal!

We celebrated a little too much but it was great to finally score a goal! We figure it was because Grandma Sue and Papa were home from their mission and came to see the game!

The rest of the 3rd quarter they tried but did not actually get another goal in. I was worried the score would once again be tied. But in the 4th quarter while Ali sat out her friend, Isabella, scored a goal! The whistle finally blew and the crush had finally won their first game! The kids were so excited!

Here is a picture of Ali, Louise and Isabella in front of their sign! Louise scored a goal too but it was called off-sides so her goal did not count.

2011-10-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach last Wednesday as a family. The kids had a minimum day so Cameron took a few hours of work off. It was supposed to be at least 84 degrees and it was warm. I love Corona Del Mar because the waves are always very predictable. That gives my kids a lot of confidence and all three of them spent some time out in the waves. Cameron helped them to enjoy body boarding and the kids loved it! Annika just enjoyed holding tightly on to daddy out in the waves.

I enjoyed a quick, frigid swim and also enjoyed reading my book since the kids were so involved with Daddy. It was a great afternoon!

Field trip to the Apple Orchards

2011-10-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

I went with Ashling's class to the apple orchards. It was really fun to spend the day with just Ashling. We bought an apple pie to take home with us and then spent the afternoon shopping together and getting a slushy. I love one on one time with my children and they always behave like little angels when I take them by themselves.

broken wrist

2011-10-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the park one day like I do every Tuesday when Ali is at piano lessons. This time when I called them to come Ashling fell off the monkey bars and landed on her wrist. She started crying and I felt like it was probably broken. I loaded her in to the car and went to pick up Ali at piano. At home I iced it and she complained whenever it was touched. I wasn't sure what I should do since I had all the kids and didn't want to end up sitting in urgent care with all of them.

Eventually I had someone else look at it and she was convinced it probably wasn't broken because Ashling would move it all around for her. Fast forward to Friday and she fell on it at school as she was getting on the bus and was crying quite a bit. Now I knew it was for sure broken. We went to urgent care where they confirmed that it was broken and Ashling had to wait labor day weekend before she could get a cast.

She chose a pretty blue cast and only had to have it on for 3 weeks. She is fine now but missed the first 3 soccer games.

Labor Day Happenings

2011-09-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

We didn't do much on Saturday or Sunday for the weekend. We were simply too tired. We visited the urgent care, cleaned the garage and worked on a few other projects. We also had desert with friends but we didn't go anywhere besides church. So Monday we decided to do something. Due to Ashling's broken arm, swimming, the beach and several other ideas were thrown out. Finally we decided to go to big bear for lunch and to ride the ski lift. When we got to big bear it was pouring rain. We went to a ski shop sale and imagined how much fun it would be to go skiing... soon. Then we bought lunch and it was still raining hard. After lunch the rain slowed down and so we decided to go up.
I can't believe how different snow summit is from Snow Valley. Snow valley has hardly any trees but snow summit was covered. It is also much more green over there and feels more like you are deep in the mountains. I loved all the green and the nice cool, fall day. Annika loved riding the big swings.
At the top of Snow Summit they have a beautiful lodge and we went and hid in there for a while because it was raining once again. I begged Cameron to bring me back in the winter to ski but some of the beauty of the place was that there were only a few others there and I am sure that the winter crowds will diminish that immensely.

After riding up we decided it would be fun to hike down. The trail was pretty steep and hard to hike down and the kids didn't seem to like it much. At one point we were hiking down a steep black diamond slope by accident but eventually we found the right path. The wildflowers were beautiful and it was a fun day overall.

Our grass yard

2011-08-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Cameron and I have wanted grass for a long time. It finally hit how important grass was to me one day last June. We were laying down in the shady grass on a hot day and I realized how nice it would be to have grass in our backyard. We decided to get our yard ready for grass by the end of the summer. It involved a lot of work. Our yard was sloped quite a bit and we wanted a flat area for grass. Cameron decided to try to start digging with a shovel. There really isn't a way to get a tractor back in our yard anyways. I thought it was a little crazy but after watching him do it several times I started to see some progress. Eventually I even helped a little.

Cameron created a nice level pad even with a concrete patio already in our backyard. There were lots of obstacles like a concrete wall with rebar, a lot of huge roots and some big holes where animals had once lived.

Cameron used the wheel barrow that he found for free at the dump to help him out with moving all the dirt.
The ground was very hard in some places and he used a pick axe until he broke it!

Finally after working many nights after work it was time to actually order the sod. Chalon and girls helped by picking up the big pallet of sod and coming up to help us install it. Chalon, Denali, Torrey, Ali and I unloaded the sod and brought it down to the patio while Cameron started installing it. We worked pretty quickly and were able to unload in less than an hour on the hottest day of the summer.

The square in the back is for the sandbox that we will buy sand for soon.

As the sod was brought down Whitney and Ashling helped by laying it out close to where it would be laid for Cameron.

After the sod was finished the girls rested on the semi-completed lawn.

Here is a picture of Sierra and Annika laying on top of her while they rested on the grass. Sierra really seems to enjoy the grass but since she is so sick there is nothing more for her to do than just lay there.

The grass did not completely finish the job and we will be doing some more work to get the yard the way we want it this fall and then lay a little more sod next spring.

This is how the final product looks. Don't you love our green beautiful yard? I do. Thanks to Cameron for all his hard work in getting it done!

First Day of School

2011-08-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well now my house is back to being quiet. No one has tattled on anyone yet this morning and I am doing my laundry from our trip in peace. Here are some pictures of the girls in their back to school attire.

This is the school mascot with the kids.
Ashling was in for a surprise when she got to school. Her Mrs. Allen was actually a Mr. Allen. She was a little apprehensive but I think he will make a good teacher. She is wearing a bus tag because she will be going home on the bus. (Yes I am so excited about this.)

Ali has Mrs. Olsen. She was busy and I didn't get a chance to take a picture with her teacher and her. Hopefully the girls will like their teachers. We will see.....

A Camping we will go!

2011-08-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

We decided we needed to go to the Sierras again before school started. I researched the best area to go and decided to go and stay at Mammoth Lakes campgrounds. I decided that Coldwater campground made the best choice since creek noise would drown out all the other annoying campers. We left early Thursday morning.

We arrived at Coldwater Creek campground around 12:00 noon. Most of the camping places were taken but a campground host told us where to go and we found an excellent campsite. We set up camp and found that it was very warm in the sun even at 8900 feet. After setting up we decided to go to town and get a few things we had left at home and to check out the visitors center. After the visitors center we went on a short hike to the top of Panarama Dome where we could see all around Mammoth in all directions. The hike was short and everyone enjoyed it. It was very windy at the top though and I am glad it was a warm afternoon when we were there.

We came back to camp and cooked kabobs and noodles for dinner along with grapes. After dinner we got on our bikes and rode around Lake Mary. The bike ride was fun and there were only a couple places where Ashling had to walk because the hills were too steep for her. We ended the night with marshmellows and graham crackers. (I somehow forgot the chocolate at home.)

Our plan Friday was to hike to Crystal Crag Lake. It was 1.75 miles up hill one way. The kids did great! We arrived at the lake by 10:00 am. Cameron wanted to fish and so did the girls. I don't really like to fish or to sit and watch. Cameron suggested I might like hiking the rest of the way to Mammoth Crest (another 1.5 miles each way.). I really wanted to but was a little afraid. All the people on the trail convinced me it would probably be safe to go alone so I left. I enjoyed a quick hike to the top with sections where I ran. The view from the top was beatiful and it made me want to continue up to some of the mountains. Instead I ran back to the lake arriving at the lake in a little under an hour from the time I left.

This is Lake George where the hike starts.

Along the way we found patches of snow like this one that we had to hike through.

Crystal Crag Lake

This is a picture of us at the end of the hike.

The only family picture on the trip.

After our hike we went back to camp to grab a few things. Then we decided to go on the June Lakes scenic loop. It was a beautiful loop and the waterfall was amazing. We stopped at a Lake and Cameron once again wanted to fish. I hate fishing and was trying to decide what I was going to do when I noticed they rented kayaks. I rented a two seater and let the girls take turns paddling around the lake. I wish I knew a little more about how to paddle but we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the experience. Ali and Ashling learned to help a little and I learned that even if it is windy putting a child in the back to steer is not the best idea. When I was in the back I felt much more in control of where the kayak was going. Annika had a small turn but did not really like the boat and so I took her back to shore quickly. After I got tired Cameron had a turn with Ali. He seemed to enjoy it too.

On Saturday morning it was very cold. Annika woke up really early and Cameron took her to the car to watch a movie. I was going to try and sleep but there was a run I wanted to do and so I got up and went on a run. It was so beautiful to run around Lake Mary and I loved the nice cool weather.

Later we decided to ride to town on the paved trail. It was a steep downhill ride. Ali and Cameron with Annika in the trailer loved it and went very fast the whole way. They stopped several times to wait for Ashling and I. Ashling was cautious where there were cars and then she rode down the hill quickly on the paved trail. I found out that just like skiing, I only like so much speed and then it is enough. I was the slowest one down the whole trail and couldn't imagine going any faster than I was riding.

We went shopping around the Mammoth Village and then rode a bus with bike racks back to our campsite. It was really fun and I enjoyed being about to use their free public transportation. Back at camp we ate lunch and then prepared to go to Whitmore pool.

We are a family that loves swimming and so I make it a goal to go swimming at least once on every vacation whether it is in the winter or summer. This time the pool was a little too cold and it was much to windy. Ali, Ashling and Cameron had fun in the big pool and Annika swam around in the little pool with me. It was still fun but not quite the place I had imagined it would be. Next time we will probably not go there. The shower after was nice but it was just a big group shower and there wasn't a very good place to change. I like Keogh hot springs near Bishop much better and will probably just pay for a shower at the Lake Mary Marina if we want one.

After our swim and showers we decided to do a little 4 wheeling up a canyon. The canyon beat us and due to the fact that my explorer is very needed in our family we chose not to go up the very pot hole filled road near the top of the canyon. It was still fun and it allowed Annika to take a much needed nap.

We went out to dinner and then did a little shopping waiting until it was almost dark to go back to camp. It was very cold back at camp and a little windy and so we sent the kids to the tent. By the time we were ready for bed it was dark and still colder so we helped everyone get ready for bed.

Sunday we had a nice big breakfast and slowly began to pack up camp. We dressed in our church clothes and headed to church which we thought started at 10:00. It ends up we were wrong by an hour and that church started at 11:00. It didn't work with our schedule because we had to be out of our campsite by 12:00 pm so we ended up not going after getting all ready. Next time when I drive past the church I will look at what time is actually on the door and not only look at the website.

Our drive home made us realize that we were ready for the kids to start school and that next time we hope to go somewhere without the kids. Really it was a great vacation and we hope to go back to Mammoth Lakes many years in a row!

Hi

2011-08-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

Hi it has been a long time since I posted. Not sure why. We have been up to plenty of things during that time to keep me busy.

We have decided to put grass in our backyard. Our yard is huge but it lacks much in the way of actual landscaping. Cameron had the idea and I thought he was crazy to levelout an area by shovel and pick axe. He has moved nearly a hundred wheel barrels of dirt to level out a 800 sq foot area around a patio we already had. I have helped a little bit. It hurts my back and I am a big whiner. I find that whenever I do help I feel very proud of the dirt I move though so maybe I should finish it off with him this weekend. We are hoping to have grass in soon! The level area has already helped our yard be more user friendly because now the kids actually have a place to kick the soccer ball back and forth to each other and just in time for soccer season.

We have been swimming. Our family has a pass to Cal State San Bernardino and we have used it regularly. Ali took swim lessons and really improved her strokes. She is looking pretty expert at swimming and has used her skills in lakes and the ocean. Ashling spent three weeks at my sister's house in Arizona with Stacey and Grandma. She swam every day there and learned to really do a free style stroke right although she thinks she can only swim with her goggles and panics when they are off.

Annika is by far the most amazing swimming story. She started out the summer clinging to me and not interested in doing anything by herself. I thought I would die from her choking me while holding on so tight. Now she is just about swimming. She can float on her back for 10 seconds which we call "princess pillow." She also can swim under water quite well. She does not come all the way up to take a breath but I think she will get that in the next couple weeks. She does swim right under the surface but she likes being under the water so much that she doesn't come up until she is to me or to the wall. She also learned to run and jump in the 10 foot pool and swim to the surface. She likes practicing diving and loves to be under the water. She blows bubbles and laughs about it. I am pretty impressed that she is swimming so well for a 2 1/2 year old.

I have spent a lot of time this summer running. I have really enjoyed it. When my mom was still here I went up Keller Peak Road each day and found a lot of trails and roads off of it. I really enjoyed running with my dog and just spending time in the mountains. I can't believe how lucky we are to live up here where it is so beautiful. After my mom left I have spent a lot of time running in our neighborhood which I feel is a big accomplishment. Our neighborhood is full of very steep hills and a lot of steep up and down. I have a loop that I run 5 or so laps around that makes about 3.8 miles. I just bought a new pair of running shoes and ran with them for the first time today. I hope to break a lot personal records in the next couple months.

Our dog has been sick since the beginning of July. I think she is finally healing but not quite enough to run. We thought she would die several times but somehow she pulled through. This has been very stressful for us especially trying to decide how much to spend on vet bills. Her only symptoms seemed to be a high fever and a lack of energy. We are pretty sure she ended up with a tick disease and now will be treating with tick medicine regularly. (We never found a tick but she could have got one and then it dropped off without us knowing.) I am really glad she seems to be getting better because she is a great dog and we would really miss her.

We went on a big vacation to Provo, Denver and Martin's Cove right after school got out. If I ever get pictures from Sue I will blog about that too but without pictures it isn't very much fun. It was a fun trip but it was too much in too short of a time and I don't know if I will ever try to pack that much into a vacation again.

Now I have made all the appointments to get the kids ready for back to school. They have new clothes, new backpacks, their teeth are cleaned, and Ali has new glasses. We are planning on one more camping trip and then it will be 4th grade for Ali and 1st grade for Ashling. I am looking forward to no more kindergarten!

Last Day! Chileno Beach again

2011-06-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

We got up and went to get Dad, Natalya, Amanda and Stacey so we could go to Chileno Beach again. We got there in time to get a great place on the beach. We enjoyed swimming and snorkeling for a few hours before we needed to get ready to return to the airport. Here are some of our snorkeling pictures. There seemed to be really interesting colored fish and it was so clear today.

Amanda does karate and was showing us some moves on the beach.

After the beach we ate tacos at our favorite taco shack and then we left everyone at the hotel. We went back to the house, loaded the car and drove to the airport. I was disappointed that the trip was over but we did have a lot of fun!

Happy 9th Birthday Ali!

2011-05-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today is Ali's 9th birthday. The sun is shining and the air is finally warm. She is smiling and happy too! The day reminds me of the day she was born that was also sunny and warm. I am grateful for my oldest daughter and can't believe how big and beautiful she is getting. Happy 9th birthday Ali!

Thursday May 12, 2011

2011-05-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

I liked paddle boarding so much that I wanted to do it again. So Cameron and I woke up with enough time to head down to the beach early in the morning. We rented a paddle board (just one this time) as early as we could. The water is so calm in the morning before all the boats and wind makes it choppy. It was much easier to paddle board and once I got out of the waves I was able to stand right up.

After paddle boarding for about 25 minutes I was tired. The time before I fell so often I didn't get tired. So I let Cameron have a turn. He did much better too!

A good view of the beach!

After paddle boarding we met Stacey and Amanda at the hotel. We planned to go shopping for a little while to finish seeing all the stores. I love trying to see what the best price is for something. I got my mom a nice mexico dress and we bought the girls anklets. We also bought a hammock for our yard. When we got tired we found a place advertising 3 tacos for 45 pesos. It seemed like a great deal. We got tacos along with guacamole, rice, beans and chips. We also got to try mole which has cocoa in it but is a salsa type dip. I really liked it.

This is a replica of the biggest marlin ever caught! It is quite a fish and Cameron was quite impressed. They had to cut it into three pieces to put it in the boat.
After walking around in the sun we decided to head back to the pool. Amanda really wanted a big water fight and we tried to appease her. It is hard to have siblings that are so much older than you but we tried to be kids for a little while. Cameron was the best at the water fight.

After swimming we went back up to the hotel and hung out until dad got home. We also checked the internet. All week dad had not caught one fish that counted for the tournament. He was feeling pretty sad about it. But when we checked the computer team Just Keep Fishing had caught one marlin. It is amazing what one little fish can do for the morale of the team. When dad got back he was so happy and ready to go out and celebrate. He was still excited about the fish he caught at 9:00 in the morning. We watched the video and then got ready to go out to eat.

We went out to eat at a place called Maro's shrimp house. It was the best place we ate at all week. The food was amazing and it was the only place that completely filled up. It was fun to feel like we were celebrating and Dad was glad that he didn't have to move in order to save face.

The food was once again amazing. I can honestly say I like sea food now! And I wish for another lobster right now.

Chileno Beach Wednesday May 11, 2011

2011-05-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

We planned to go to Chileno Beach because it looked beautiful from the road and we heard it was a great place to snorkel. We are very glad that we went. This beach is a public beach and the Mexican government wants to make sure it is pristine. It was very different from the other beaches because no one tried to sell us anything the whole time we were there. It made it very relaxing. It must be illegal or I am sure they would all try. There were a lot of palm trees and a perfect board walk down to the sand.

The water was so clear and it looked amazing!
Another amazing part about the beach was all the palapas that we could sit under. We were there fairly early and so we grabbed one but we had to walk a ways down the beach to find one that was unoccupied. I wish the California Beaches did this because the shelf was very nice for hanging things we wanted out of the sand.

The beach had areas especially designated for snorkeling and since we were unsure of where to go we decided this must be the best area. We got on our snorkel gear and headed into the water armed with bread to help us see the fish. They were everywhere and you got bombarded by fish begging for the bread as soon as we went underwater. It scared Stacey and she didn't want to do it anymore so she gave me all her bread too. The snorkeling was fun and we saw lots of tropical looking fish. We ended up swimming around the rocks and going to another beach. Stacey really wanted sea glass and so she spent a long time looking around for it. We found out it is hard to find on their beaches because there are people who spend all day being paid to pick up any trash. They gave us the sea glass and also some small shells for my girls.
We snorkeled back around seeing big fish and also a huge shell that Cameron wanted to dive for but it was too deep to get.
We enjoyed sitting under the palapa and ate some snacks we brought with us.

Then Stacey wanted to get more sea glass and so we walked over to the other side of the beach and looked for more sea glass. We also saw a million crabs on the rocks but no star fish? Do starfish only exist in colder water?

It was hot and I love to swim so we went out in the water again.

Here is the pirate ship that doesn't even use its sails bringing people in to snorkel and scuba dive.
After we were tired of the beach we went back to our house to shower and clean up. We were disappointed to find out that we had missed going to see Amanda swim with the dolphins. When we were cleaned up we went shopping for awhile. It was hot and I didn't really appreciate the shopping experience too much because we were looking all over for a silver store that I couldn't find. Stacey liked to ask each and every retailer what something cost, then negotiate a much cheaper price, and then finally decide she didn't want it. One store owner threw a hammock she decided not to buy at Cameron and said, "Fine you can have it for free." Cameron really enjoyed everyone thinking that he had two wives the whole time.

Finally we found a store that had the silver starfish necklace that I wanted for a good price and so we bought it. We headed back to the hotel and met Stacey who had walked back. Natalya and Amanda were there and we waited for Dad to get back. We ended up going to the Shrimp Factory for dinner after deciding that the giggling Marlin was just too expensive. The Shrimp Factory was okay but still pricey for what we got. The favorite was the bacon and cheese stuffed shrimp that were a heart attack waiting to happen. I loved the coconut shrimp and sauce just like the outback only fresher. I now love sea food!

Tuesday May 10, 2011

2011-05-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we decided to go to Medano Beach. We picked up Natalya, Stacey and Amanda at their hotel and then drove back to the beach. Stacey rented an umbrella because she was a little tired of the sun all day and I started negotiating a deal for paddle boarding. The beach had the best sand and was so nice and flat. We started out swimming and I found someone who would rent us paddle boards for the price I wanted. At first Natalya and Amanda were quite worried about the water but soon they acted like they had been to the beach all the time.
I have never been paddle boarding before but it looked like fun and I wanted to try. After two minutes of broken English instruction we went out on the paddle boards. Obviously we didn't really know what we were doing. To add to that there were tons of jet skis and boats coming in and out and a very still wind. It took us awhile to get the hang of it but I loved it anyways.
First we tried on their knees.
Eventually we learned how to stand up and went back forth between paddle boarding on our knees and standing up. I really enjoyed it.
Amanda enjoyed playing the water and the sand while we were paddle boarding.
We got hungry and decided to walk down the beach to the Office which is a famous Cabo place to eat. We walked all the way down there and it kept getting louder and more obnoxious as we went. I do not need the party crowd and was happy that by staying a little ways out I could stay away from the party places and enjoy my peace and quiet. We finally got to the office and decided to look at a menu before sitting down to eat. 3 Tacos cost 240 pesos, roughly 20 dollars. This seemed outrageous to us and so we started walking back the way we had come. After a while we walked into another restaurant. 3 tacos were 130 pesos roughly 12.50 or so. We decided to keep walking. We got back to the restaurant right by our umbrella and 3 tacos were 850 pesos or about 8 dollars. We ate there. It was nice to eat under the umbrellas in the sand. Stacey and I shared a hamburger because we were a little tired of Mexican food for a few minutes. I thought it was wonderful.
After the beach we dropped Natalya off and then went to buy some stuff for dinner. Amanda came back to our house with us. We bought stuff to make mango salsa and qesadillas for dinner as we were a little tired of buying food. We bought some kind of mexican cheese that had a name something like barfar cheese. We kept calling it barf cheese and making Amanda laugh. We enjoyed an afternoon just messing around and being lazy. We came back to the hotel around 8:00 but Dad and Natalya weren't back from their dinner so we decided to go down to the beach and look at the waves.

The waves were very big and we enjoyed looking at them. When we got back to the hotel room we found out that dad had not caught any fish. He had fun getting free food at Captain Tony's for dinner and had fun when they hung up his tee shirts at the restaurant.

Monday May 09, 2011

2011-05-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Monday morning began very early. We met at the Finestera at 5:30 am and had a quick brunch. We were under the impression that we had to be on the Oceania Boat by 6:00 am and so we walked down to the dock and got on in the dark. This boat was the one to take us out to the shot gun start for the tournament and it also took on a tour of lands end.

Then the boat left the dock without picking up anyone. We were a little confused and wondered if we would be the only ones on the boat. It ended up taking us through the harbor to pick up everyone else who didn't have to wake up quite so early and who got to load in the day light.
This is a picture of the pirate ship they had that goes out and takes people scuba diving for lots of money to the same beach we drove to and snorkeled at for free.

We had an armed escort because the Mayor of Cabo and the Governor of the state were both on the boat.
Here are all the fishing boats ready to start but still sitting in the water. Everything was still.
These guys had little flare guns and had a false start but then they were finally able to pull the triggers. Never depend on them to protect you in a real gun fight.
Here are the boats after the shot gun start.

On our way back in there was an entire pod of 200 plus dolphins. We got to see them for about 20 minutes or so.
Here is the arch at lands end.
We had planned to go to Cabo Pulmo. But we were on the boat longer than expected and then found out that everyone was not completely ready for the long trip. By the time we all got ready it was after 10:00 am and we decided we didn't have time to go that far. Instead we decided to go to Bahia Santa Maria. It is a beautiful cove with snorkeling on one side. We spend a few hours there until our feet hurt, our eyes stung with salt water and we were water logged. I love the feeling of staying in the ocean until I am actually sick of the water. Apparently we didn't get an snorkeling pictures here. Not sure what happened because we did take some.
We went back to our room and showered and took naps outside under the shade. We also saw the iguana. Then we headed back to the Finestera to see how Dad did and see if they all wanted to go to dinner.
Dad caught 5 tuna but none of them were big enough for the tournament. They kept one (22 pounds, the others went to the captain of the boat) and brought it to eat. We went to Captain Tony's because Dad didn't want to walk far. We had them cook it up along with some other meals. We were a little annoyed that they told us we would need other food too because the tuna was more than enough for all of us (9 people.)

What a perfect beach day!

Sunday May 08, 2011

2011-05-20T00:29:00.000-07:00

The first thing we did Sunday Morning was eat our muffins outside on the roof. It was so relaxing. Then we got ready and went to church. I loved going to church down there. I felt the spirit speaking to me strongly when the words couldn't and can honestly say it was a very spiritual experience for me.

After that we met everyone at the Finestera. The reason that we went to Cabo was because my dad was in the IGF World Championship fishing tournament for Marlin. We just went to support and enjoy a vacation. They handed out things to the fishermen and had a casting contest. Team Just Keep Fishing was in the top for awhile but someone caught the marlin twice.

This is the waterfall they had at the finestera. This is Team Just Keep Fishing!
We then proceeded to spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon in the pool. We went swimming. It took the three sisters plus Holly to take down my brother, David, but we did manage to dunk him. We enjoyed nachos at the pool side bar and then decided to walk down to the

This is a picture of Cameron in his reef safe shirt. Team Just Keep Fishing was sponsored by Reef Safe sun screen and they gave us all tee shirts and lots of sun screen. We loved the sun screen and after sun care products and it was nice knowing that the products weren't hurting the fish either.

This is a picture of the yacht that I am going to buy to come back to Cabo with next year.
We decided to go back to our room for a nap because a nap is always nice on vacation. Later we met Stacey for dinner. Team Just Keep Fishing had a nice dinner to go to but it was too upscale (expensive) for our simple tastes and we decided to sample more of Cabo's finest establishments. We were supposed to meet Samantha, Holly, Lauren and Trevor at the Crazy Lobster. We had promised the guy we would come and eat there last night. When we got there they weren't there and we waited eventually deciding just to eat. Little did we know that they were at the Crazy Lobster eating and that there were two at the city.

We enjoyed more shrimp and lobster. Do you notice a theme here? I liked it once again but did not especially think it was the best place we ate at all week. We did enjoy some funny Mexican t.v. that was like Star Search with little kids dancing and singing.
This is a picture of us checking out the catamaran that I want to go along with the yacht. It was pretty all lit up.

The only thing that Mexico is lacking is desserts. There are not even any on the menu. When we got back to the Finestera Amanda had a million little desserts she had snuck out of the buffet they had to try. They helped our need for sweets.

Cabo San Lucas

2011-05-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

I have been home from Cabo San Lucas for almost a week but my heart is still there. I think I will be returning. There is something to be said for going to a different country, eating their food, fumbling while speaking their language and enjoying the beautiful settings they had. We got an early start Saturday morning at 4:30 am when our alarm went off. I did not mind because we were going on vacation. We left gray, foggy skies behind on a plane that left on time bound for a party place. Going to a party location makes the plane a lot more fun than usual.

We got to the rental car location quickly and without too much problems. The locals like to try and get you to go to their timeshare location but we just plowed through them and got our rental car. Soon we were on the road. We chose to take the toll road which does not go through San Jose Del Cabo which was a great decision. Our drive to Cabo was along the coastal shore and we saw tons of beautiful beaches as we were driving.

We stopped at Costco for lunch and for a few things we needed, mainly water and muffins for breakfast. Then we found our house we were staying at. The house is in El Tezal. Eat me Lures

gave the room to my dad as a prize for winning one of his fishing tournaments and he gave it to us since he chose to stay elsewhere. I was very impressed with the location and the place.
We could see the ocean quite well from the roof top area and enjoyed waking up each morning to eat our muffins on the roof with the gentle breeze. We could also see how many cruise ships were going to be in port each day.

Cameron and I enjoyed a nap to recover from our plane ride and then went to the Finestera to meet My Dad, Natalya, Stacey, and Amanda. We planned to go to a place called the Shrimp House but could not find it and finally gave up. We instead ended up at a little place called the Pescador. In Cabo all the restaurants are open and there is no air conditioning. At first this bugged me a little and I thought it hot but by the time we came home I found the load noise and cold air conditioning of our restaurants to be much more annoying.

We ordered shrimp, lobster and fish to share between Cameron, Stacey and I. I am not a fan of sea food but since that is what there is in Cabo I decided to be a brave partaker. I was amazed by how good everything was. I loved it all! I can not imagine what made me not love seafood. Maybe it was the way they brought the shrimp right to the restaurant same day?

This is Cameron's, "What happens in Cabo, Stays in Cabo" face. It is a virgin drink.
Here we are outside the little restaurant.
We enjoyed our walk home around the harbor and saw the biggest catamoran pull into port. The weather was perfect!

This is the view from one side of my dad's hotel. He stayed right near the port and we enjoyed his views each day and we met for dinner.

Just looking at the pictures makes me miss Cabo. I think I need to be planning a vacation to go back soon! I hope my dad wins to go down there again!

Trip to Phoenix part 2

2011-03-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we decided to get up and go on a hike by White Tanks. We also had to go buy Cameron a suit for the job interview he had on Tuesday. My girls decided they would stay home with Grandma instead of hiking so we were all able to ride in the Explorer together. We had fun driving over to the mall and then looked for a suit for about an hour. Everyone else shopped at the other stores while we were looking.

The we went hiking. I love the different cactus's around here. they are beautiful!

David was the only one who tried to climb the slippery rocks to see the corner where the water fall comes down. There was no water falling down the waterfall because there had been no rain but there was a couple deep pools of water up there.

After our hike we went out to eat and enjoyed each other. It has been a long time since we were all together for any reason.

Our Trip to Phoenix Part 1

2011-03-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

David and his girl friend, Samantha, flew to Stacey's house in Phoenix for his birthday. We decided to go out there too so we could see them. The first day we were all together was Friday. We started out by playing settlers of Cataan and then went to the mall to shop. (I was the one who really needed to get out of the house due to the closed roads keeping me home most of the time.) We also went to REI.

At around 5:00pm we met Tony, who had to work, at the Rustler's Rooste. This is a restaurant on the hills south of phoenix. The view is pretty good of the city and the food is western. The main attraction is a slide that you can ride down to the dining area. We all chose to ride the slide. The kids of course loved this. The food was pretty good but pricey too. It wouldn't be my regular place to go but it was fun for a celebration dinner. We celebrated David's 26th birthday.

One of the interesting things they have on the menu is rattlesnake. Stacey and Tony ordered that and we all tried some of the rattlesnake. It takes just like chicken.

The girls enjoyed getting balloons and shirley temple drinks. They also enjoyed the dancing to live band after dinner. I don't know that we were supposed to do that but why have a live band and not have dancing?

The Living Desert

2011-03-23T10:28:00.001-07:00

I went on Ali's field trip to the Living Desert with her last week. We were told we could not bring any siblings. I felt that this was very annoying but Ali really wanted me to come and so I found separate people to watch both of my children and made arrangements to carpool the two hours to the Living Desert. (We are not allowed to ride the bus with our children.) We had to drop off Annika, get gas, and get some subway for lunch before we headed out there. We met the bus getting there at the same time as us even though we left at the same time and I had to make so many stops.

This is the picture of my group of girls.
The girls ran from one exhibit to the next one. I could hardly keep up. I have never gone to the zoo with 8 and 9 year olds and I learned that they have a lot of energy. I was a little worried about not getting my daily workout but after the day I was exhausted and felt like I had run the 3 miles I try to do regularly.

It was very hot out there. We are used to it being in the 40's and 50's with occasional 30's mixed in there. It was 94 degrees. That caused the kids to need lots of water and to complain about sweating. You would think they had never felt such temperatures. (Wait in our mountains it hardly ever gets above 90 degrees so many they haven't.)

We found the butterfly exhibit and the girls were fascinated with the butterflies. It was by far the hit of the day.
Ali loved the butterflies the most and tried to see how many she could get on her fingers much to the dismay of the zoo people. I loved to watch all the butterflies flying around and smell the beautiful flowers.
After the butterflies we found the coolest park. It was perfect for a zoo.
The cactus slide was fun.
Ali got ate by a snake.
Ali fell down and had to find a bandaid to put on her skinned knee. (This was the third time the same knee got hurt. We ended up at the merry go round. At first the kids were saying that this was a childish thing to do and that they didn't want to go on the merry go round. I could tell they really wanted to go though and were just trying to sound cool.

I advised that perhaps acting childish was a good idea since they were only 8 and would probably have to adults for a very long time. They might as well enjoy being kids. It was funny how they all pulled 2 dollars out of their wallets and and paid for a ride on the merry go round. I am glad they were not too old to do it!
The last thing we did was watch a show. It was the best animal show I have seen in a really long time. (I have been to the zoo and wild animal park and their shows were not nearly as well organized or interesting.)
I took Ali and my friend took her son home with us. They were a little disappointed because we didn't give them 15 dollars to spend on silly zoo stuff like a lot of parents had done. My friend's son looked so sad and I have never seen him that way. I still didn't want to spend the money at the zoo but I offered icy drinks as consolation if he promised to smile the rest of the way home. It worked and he was happy until we got home.

skiing

2011-03-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Just like every year we have done a lot of skiing this winter. These are the only two pictures I have taken of the events. I guess we are pretty bad at taking pictures. Our kids are pretty good skiers. Ali can ski down the black diamonds when she wants to and regularly goes off of little jumps. She can ski in control and likes to ski with her friends every time. I have taken one of her friend's up skiing a lot and they have spent a lot of time going off and skiing one or two runs before checking in. She loves the independence.

Ashling is good at skiing too. She is fast and has learned this year to also be in control. She makes her own choices on when to turn and can ski down anything. Since she is littler than Ali she tends to get tired a little faster and she doesn't really go off any jumps with the intent to get air. She would be happy skiing down the green runs but usually she ends up skiing on the blues with the family. Her favorite trail is bubble gum which is a narrow road that goes through the trees. I don't know what is so special about this trail but most kids love it. Maybe it is the name.

I have enjoyed skiing this year with my only complaint being that the snow gets icy too quickly with all our warm days. Otherwise it has been great. I have learned to ski much faster but still slow down whenever I am uncomfortable with the conditions. I have added a couple blacks to what I like to ski but still go down them pretty slowly. At least I feel that as a skier I can go down anything I choose to do even if it is not graceful at all.

Stake Conference

2011-03-21T07:38:00.001-07:00

We had Stake Conference this weekend. I was happy to go. Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the 12 was there. The talks during the adult session were great. I felt the Spirit confirm to me that the church is true. I felt the spirit confirm to me that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I felt the spirit confirm to me that the Law of Tithing is a true principal. I felt the spirit confirm to me that I should try harder to show love to my Children and my Husband. I enjoyed feeling the spirit and being enriched and blessed by the talks. I also shook an apostle's hand and knew that he was an apostle of God.

On Sunday we were given a new Stake President. He is someone I know well and I know that he is a good man. I also felt the spirit confirm to me that he was supposed to be our Stake President and that he should be leading us for the next 10 years or so. The testimonies were humble and they were all prepared to do their work set forth for them. I enjoyed the talks once again and especially enjoyed the talk by Elder Christofferson. He presented the easiest way to live which is to live by the gospel's teachings. He also left an incredible blessing upon the San Bernardino Stake. He blessed us that we might all have food in our house, enough for us and a little more. I didn't know that apostles did this but I was amazed by this blessing. Our Stake struggles with 20% unemployment and some very poor areas. I am grateful to know that there will be food in my house to eat and a little more no matter what happens.

Brown Happenings

2011-03-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

Cameron started his new job last week. He likes it. He has been playing basketball with the elders quorum and working his way slowly into his new calling. Melissa has been trying to ski as much as possible despite the poor snow conditions this year and begrudgingly cleaned the house at least a hundred times only to have it be dirty two minutes later. Ali has been trying to win her reading contest by reading all the time, likes to play settlers of Cataan (she wins often,) and skied down the face of slide peak (black diamond) with two feet of powder earlier this week. Ashling has been sick all week with a high fever but I think she is finally on the mend. She has been reading quite well and doing great in school too. She is getting pretty good at skiing too and he latest accomplishment has been to get on and off the lift on her own with her poles. It only backfired only when she fell right before getting on and ended up on the chair behind me. Then she forgot to get off at the right minute and jumped off only to fall and lose her skis. Annika has been pretty cute as usually. She loves Dora and will watch it all day. When she isn't watching it she complains that swiper is going to swipe her baby, her fa fa (pacifier,) or something else she wants. She likes to sing and sings her abc's, little einstein songs, the "We did it" song and twinkle little star. We are all having a pretty good winter and just wishing for highway 330 to be fixed so we can go down the hill a little more.

He is employed! (the long version)

2011-02-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I felt like I should begin looking for a teaching job. I resisted. I need to stay at home with my children. They need me. I don't feel like I can be a good mom unless I am there for them each morning, available when they need their homework they left at home, available when their tummy hurts or when they just really need a ski day break from school. I continued to resist until the impression was so strong that I couldn't resist it.

I looked for a teaching job. First I looked in Utah and found the perfect job. I imagined teaching there and what it would be like to do again what I went to school for. I imagined how it would feel to plan important high school history lessons and be praised for my teaching skills. I imagined talking to teens instead of toddlers all day long. And I really wanted to do it. But it didn't feel right because I am a mom right now and the timing is all wrong. I couldn't actually apply and I didn't feel like I needed to.

Next I looked in California. Based on some research it would be much easier for me to begin teaching again here so I looked for a job. I found several but I couldn't apply for them. It didn't feel right. I wouldn't want to leave my children all day yet. I can't turn over their care to anyone else. As I was looking I found a position that I thought Cameron might want to apply for. Something about the requirements made me think of him. The job didn't say Civil Engineer. The position was asking for someone with landscape architecture, architecture, or related background. It asked for someone with administrative experience. He didn't have any but I left the position up for him and when he got home we read it together.

It's funny because I felt like I needed to apply for jobs so strongly that I finally began looking but once I saw that job I never looked at Ed Join again. I never felt the need even though we still didn't have a job and we weren't sure this position was one Cameron could every qualify for. If I hadn't been looking we never would have found the position because it was not posted on any of the regular places we looked for work. I know that was an answer to my prayers.

Cameron felt that he really didn't qualify and I pretty much agreed with him. That was supposed to be the end of it. But I couldn't stop thinking about it and I brought it up with a friend over dinner. Our principal friend encouraged Cameron that he should apply for the position. He made Cameron sound perfect for the job and so Cameron had the energy to apply.

Two full days later Cameron completed the long application. He dropped the application off after a monthly visit to the temple and we waited. We figured that nothing would come of it. Fast forward to the 11th. Just before 5:00 pm in Arizona Cameron received a call asking him to come into an interview at 8:00 am on Tuesday. We were shocked to even get an interview for the position and Cameron's mind began turning.

Our weekend plans changed a little as we realized that Cameron needed a suit to interview in. We needed to buy the suit Saturday and get it tailored same day. It all worked out and the manager of Men's Warehouse was great working with us. In fact we got two suits for the price of one. Cameron researched and talked to different people trying to learn as much as possible about the position.

Monday he spend the entire day preparing for the interview. He worked harder for that interview than I thought was possible. He talked to several people his dad set him up with and learned what he could about what he would be doing if accepted for the position. (His dad was a principal in a nearby school district for many years and these people love him so much they were happy to help his son even though it was a no work day for them) Then that evening his dad spent his time practice interviewing his son and preparing him. I am grateful that he was willing to suspend his Valentine's Day plans to help us and I know that it helped.)

Cameron first had to write a mock memo and then they called him in for a panel of 6 interview. He said it went as well as he could do and now we would just have to wait and see. We didn't have to wait long when he got a call that afternoon for a 2nd interview the next morning.

The first interview was amazing to get but getting a second meant that he was the closest he had been to a job in 5 months. I asked everyone I knew to pray and I spent the night fasting and praying. I don't think I really believed that anyone could pray all night for anything before this. But I did. I know that many other people did the same thing for us. I could feel the prayers and I know that Cameron could too.

Cameron said that the second interview went well and he did the best he could. We just had to wait. They called later that day to say they were going to check his professional references. All day I felt worried and needed to pray and felt the need to plead for the job if it was Heavenly Father's will. I really wanted to know Heavenly Father's will. When my fast was finished, I felt peace and I knew that everything had been done to procure the job. I just felt peace and was positive that everything would work out the right way. I didn't worry anymore. We had to wait one more day and then Cameron got the call. He was offered the job!

It is funny to see things from hindsight. It is 20 20. It is easy to see the lessons we needed to learn that Heavenly Father helped us to learn. It is easy to see his hand in it all. It is easy to see that while we didn't have a job we were being taken care of and that everything was perfectly within his control. It is easy to see the ways we were loved and sheltered from the full effects of unemployment. It is easy to see that we would have never found this perfect job without Cameron being unemployed. It is easy to see that we never would have had the faith necessary for fasting and prayer to work without the struggles we went through. I am grateful for this experience which was not easy to go through but which produced results that could not have come in any other way. I hope that I can continue to keep the lessons in my heart and continue to feel the way I feel.

Some scriptures that have been in my reading recently are Jacob 2:17-19.

Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. But before you seek for riches, seek ye first the kingdom of God. And after you have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good- to clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.

I think that we first had to seek Christ fully before we could be ready to have a job.

I also like Mosiah 2:22

And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

I am very grateful for what I believe to be a miracle. Cameron obtained a job that I feel he is qualified for but that without the Lord's influence and blessing he could have never obtained. I am grateful that we can begin a new chapter in our lives which I am sure will also not be easy but that will be worth it at the end also.

Allowance

2011-02-09T08:34:00.001-08:00

The girls get an allowance each week. I pay them so that they can very easily pay tithing and put 10% into savings right away. I pay them on Sunday morning to make it easier. I really like the method we use for allowance lately. I also really like the kids having to hold their own money and be responsible for it.

Last Saturday we went shopping at Target. Ever since we got the Wii our favorite place to visit is the Wii game aisle. The girls were discussing buying games and they decided they would really like to buy mario kart. It was funny to see them sit down between the aisle (where it wasn't too busy) and lay all their change and dollars out to count what they had. I liked that Ali could easily do this and she knew exactly how much she needed to buy it. When it was all said and done they were a dollar short.

I really just wanted to give them a dollar but for me giving an allowance isn't about them having money but it is more about them learning to handle the money they have. They simply didn't have enough. I explained that we never borrow money. Ali tried to negotiate us giving next week's allowance a day early but I didn't allow that either. I explained that in the real world checks never come early but they often show up late for no apparent reason. I also explained that we should make sure this was the cheapest price for mario kart around so that we didn't spend more outside. So they didn't buy the mario kart.

I guess we will see if they still want to buy it this week. They haven't said much. Isn't that just like an impluse buy? The next day you really don't need the item anymore. And if that is the case save your money for something that is important.

I also never buy anything for them if they don't have their allowance with them. They are responsible for bringing it and holding on to it. I also don't pay them their allowance if they don't have their wallets. Hopefully my kids can learn from their allowance financial skills that will last into adulthood.

Lessons Learned

2011-02-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

I really want Cameron to have a new job. I yearn for a job and each time he applies for a job I imagine what it would be like to have the job. I imagine him going to it and what he would be doing and whether he would like it or not. I imagine the paycheck. I imagine what I would do with the paycheck. I imagine where we would live. (He has applied to jobs in all sorts of different states.) I imagine what we would do there. I think of the ways I could use the money in a better way than we used it before based on what I have learned while waiting for a job.

Waiting for a job to come along has been tiring. Cameron was called as Elder's Quorum President yesterday. That is the 3rd Stake Calling in a six month period. He has accepted all them because we need blessings (and because he was asked to do it). I spoke with a friend and said there is only one blessing that I want. Cameron to find a job to support us. We talked about the lessons learned and what I still may need to learn now.

I have learned a really important lesson about money. Don't spend as much as you have ever. In the past 5 months of unemployment I have learned that saving 10% of your money is very important because you never know when you might need it and you might as well take care of yourselves first. We accomplished a very important landmark in our savings account yesterday.

I have learned to pay my tithing religiously. I have always paid it but now it is the first thing out of the account and I feel proud to hand over the money I feel I can't live without. I also have learned to pay a fast offering. The fast offering is more for us than it is for anyone who might need it.

I have learned to attend the temple. I have made it a goal to go monthly and to enjoy being there. I appreciate the learning and growing I can do there. I appreciate the chance to learn with my husband.

I have learned to pray.

I have learned that Heavenly Father can provide for you even when you think it might be impossible. I have learned that blessings can come in many different ways.

I have learned that unemployment checks come whenever they want. On time, two weeks late, or not at all. You just have to accept that fact and deal with it. Even when our checks are very late we have never gone hungry.

I have learned that lots of people care and help out in all sorts of little ways. (Cameron has found fences to build, rooms to paint, and other things to build to help out.) Thanks to our ward members for helping out.

I have learned that there are a lot of worse things out there than being unemployed. I am grateful for our mostly healthy bodies, for the chance we have to be together as a family. I am thankful for my trials and glad that I am not experiencing anyone else's trials right now.

I guess the lesson I still need to learn is to be completely happy with what I have. Or to be happy despite what I don't have. I still want more. I am not sure how to force myself to learn this lesson. I want what we don't have and I think I should want it since if I don't we would be accepting a life of living off unemployment. I guess the lesson to learn is to really want something but be content to wait until the Lord sees fit to give it to you. I hope I can learn this lesson soon.

Trip to Joshua Tree

2011-02-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to Joshua tree in January for the day to go climbing. It was Conner's birthday. He is a 16 year old from our ward and he likes to climb so his parents asked Cameron and our branch president who is also an avid climber to help with his party. I tagged along with the kids.

We set up three routes next to each other and some of the guys climbed a 4th route in the afternoon. I loved the day spent at Joshua Tree and still admit that it is my favorite place to go climbing. Most of us climbed at least once and I made it to the top! I won't tell you how soar I was afterwards because that would spoil the accomplishment. I will tell you that I am no longer scared to sport rock climb and that seems like an amazing accomplishment since at one time I regularly cried while on the rocks. I hope to climb a lot more in the future.

Annika spent the day rolling around in the sandy dirt. She loved every minute. She was pretty hard to watch but a lot easier than she would have been at most places you can rock climb at.
This is the 5.10A that Cameron climbed at the end of the day. He managed to get all the way to the top but it was a little harder than in days past when he was always climbing. I guess we will have to go out more often to climb.

Ashling spent the day convincing all the boys to lift her to the top of this rock or help her get up somewhere she couldn't quite make on her own. Thank goodness she is cute and nearly every boy was willing to do whatever she asked. She was pretty good at getting up most rocks on her own too. She climbed all the way to the top of the rock we were on the back way and felt accomplished enough with that.
Ali climbed to the top of the rocks on her own. She also played with the boys her age who were there and threw a football a lot. She convinced Sierra, her dog, to climb all the rocks with her.
Cameron did not like setting up the climb for the 5.10 and he didn't like rappelling off the top either. It was a sketchy thing but he did it anyways without any problems. Good job Cameron!
We ended our evening at taco bell and then drove home the back way to Running Springs. It was interesting to drive through the barren Johnson Valley and think that they are just a short ways from metro LA but everything is so rural out there.

After the rain came snow...

2011-02-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

It rained for so long but then at the end of the rain it finally started snowing. Once the road was covered we dressed for snow and went for a walk. We were so excited to get out because in the rain you really can't go outside but with snow you can go out as long as you are dressed right. We went on a walk to check out the overflowing dam. We loved the walk and the girls loved the rain. The only bad side was all the water everywhere caused the girls to get wet inside their boots and then they were freezing.

It Rained and Rained...

2011-02-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

We had quite the rainstorm right after school got out for winter break. It rained for 8 days straight with hardly any breaks. Cameron measured the rain and in 8 days we received 34 inches of rain. The last part of the storm was quite intense and there were mudslides everywhere. Our highway washed away and will be closed for what they say will be 1 -2 years. In addition parts of highland were covered in 3 - 4 feet of mud and houses were completely destroyed. It is amazing what mother nature can destroy in a day and how long it takes us to rebuild it!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! I love Christmas morning and how magical it is. It was even more magical this year when despite our poor economic conditions there was so much under the tree! I thank all the Santa Clauses who came to our rescue. We loved having Stacey, Tony and my mom here and they brought a whole Christmas with them. I think that they gifts being so excessive at Christmas help to remind me of how amazing the gift of Jesus Christ is to us. I am thankful that because of Christ we can return to live with Heavenly Father again.

Ashling got this coat from Santa Clause. Doesn't she look cute in it.

Every time Annika opened new clothes she wanted to try them on right then and there. I think it makes her a lot of fun to buy things for!

Christmas Program

2010-12-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Ali and Ashling were in their Christmas program at school. It was fun to go and watch it. Ali was a shoveler and sang a song about shoveling snow with her dad. I love the song and will have to get the lyrics to put up if I ever get the chance. It explains living in our mountains perfectly. The poor dad is shoveling with his daughter all evening and she keeps wanting to do something fun in the snow but he has so much snow to shovel he just says no. In the morning they wake up again and the snow is 4 feet deep. I love going to see the kids perform! Ashling's class sang rudolph and jingle bells.

Ward Christmas Party

2010-12-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Our ward Christmas party is quite fun. We eat and then we have a family talent show. Anyone in the family can share a talent. This year Ali played the piano and played silent night with the top and bottom hand. We were really proud of her learning to play it so well and it sounded great! We also enjoyed seeing santa clause at the end of the night!

Ali lately

2010-12-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

It is strange to me to have such an old child. She is treading somewhere between a child and a tween where sometimes she wants makeup and jewelry and sometimes she is content to play Barbies. She loves soccer and wants to play it any time. She is learning how to play the game better each year and at times she is quite aggressive. She also likes to play goalie and is excited whenever she manages to stop a ball.

Ali loves to sing and sings all the time. She has had lots of compliments on her singing and we are considering getting voice lessons because she seems to enjoy it so much. Ali also is learning to play the piano and to read some music. I hope we can teach her to play more in the next year. For our Christmas Ward Party she is going to play silent night for the talent show. She has been working hard at that.

Ali has her own pet. I gave her Sierra, our family dog. She had been wanting her own dog and I didn't want a new dog so I gave her our family dog. She moved the kennel down to her room as well as the dog bed. Now Sierra sleeps on her bed on Ali's bed. She loves having the dog to herself. She also takes the dog for short walks in our neighborhood, feeds her and brushes her. I think Sierra is happy with the arrangement too since she seems to love sleeping in Ali's room.

Ali does well academically and talks too much in class just like some other people I know. She is reading Harry Potter as well as many other books right now. She likes to play games and we have been playing Settlers of Cataan with her a lot lately. She is quite good and even creamed Cameron and I once. Last night she almost won but due to inexperience I moved in ahead of her at the last second.

It is fun to have an 81/2 year old and I love Ali!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-12-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

Ashling started Thanksgiving off right by having a Thanksgiving feast at school. She enjoyed a turkey, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, muffins, sweet potatoes and apple juice. Some of the kids dressed up as indians and some dressed up as pilgrims. They made all their place mats and decorations. It was a great activity for school. She learned all about the traditions of Thanksgiving and came home ready to talk about it all.

We had a good thanksgiving with Cameron's family this year. We had more food than we could possibly eat and the kids enjoyed playing lots and lots of board games. On Friday we went skiing in the morning as a family. Cameron and Annika watched while the girls and I skied. I am amazed by how good they are at skiing and it was really fun to ski with them. We played the game red light, green light where they tried to go as fast as they could and then stop as soon as I said red light. They really loved that game and it helped them work on stopping. Ali also went off some small jumps and caught air twice and fell once.

After skiing we went down the hill to a field and played a big family soccer game. It was a lot of fun and somehow the girls managed to win despite the fact that all the quality players were on the boys team. Thanks boys for letting us win. We then played more games at Chalon's house until it was late and time to go home.

Saturday we cleaned and organized our house and then Sunday we decorated for Christmas. It was a great weekend and the only thing missing was some Black Friday shopping. We will have to go next year!

Annika at 22 months

2010-12-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

I haven't written anything about Annika for a long time and she is so funny, cute and mischievous right now that I must write about her. Annika wakes up at the exact same time each morning no matter how much sleep she got the night before. Putting her to bed later doesn't seem to change anything as we found out over Thanksgiving break when she just kept waking up early even though we wanted to sleep in. When she wakes up she immediately yells, "Ashlin Ashlin Ashlin What!" She wants Ashling to wake up and say What to her. Then she might get desperate and yell for Ali or Daddy or sometimes Mommy. (I am very unlikely to be the one that gets her out of bed in the morning so she isn't interested in me.)

Annika is discovering her love of clothes. She wants to pick out what to wear in the morning although most of what she picks out is actually pajamas. Her favorite clothes are a pair of thermals that are 2 sizes too big that Mandie gave us. She loves to wear these clothes and tries to get you to put them on all day. She also loves shoes and practices putting them on and taking them off all day.

Annika loves her pacifier or as she calls it her "pa fa." But due to the concern of 50 million viewers telling me how her teeth are going to be ruined and how awful I am for allowing this pacifier I have taken it away from her at all but bed time and nap time. This is what she has decided to do instead. Obviously she is not slow to think of new ideas to solve problems. Now she is sucking her fingers and I find myself wanting to give her the pacifier again all the time so she won't get in the habit of sucking on fingers. It is much harder to break.
Annika is happy and loves to make people laugh. She is also compassionate and after pulling hair or kicking me she will say, "sorry momma" if I expressed that it hurt me. She loves to give hugs and the older girls have started fake crying just to get Annika to give them a hug. She says hi and bye to everyone and calls people older people grandma or grandpa. I think this is an especially good idea since they melt and she gets the smiles and attention that she wants.
Annika loves to sing and dance. If there is music on she is responding to it. She dances in the shopping cart, dances in the mall, dances in restaurants and of course dances at home. She loves to sing itsy, bitsy spider, old mc donald had a farm, and twinkle, twinkle, little star. Annika really likes it when her daddy sings her this song while he takes her outside to look at the stars.
Annika recently realized that there is a big world outside of the car. She looks out the windows with such interest. Her favorite things to see are the moon, the lights and down the hill. She says, "I see it. Moont. I see it. Light. I see it. Look Momma, Look. I see it" I don't think she knows exactly what she seems when looking down the hill at the distant city and lights but it is beautiful and she notices it. I like how she says things and wish she would stay this age forever.
Among the troubling aspects of Annika's development is that she has learned that coloring is her favorite activity. She grabs a pencil, crayon, or marker and sets to work making my walls look beautiful with her artwork. I have spent a long time scrubing walls and I am nowhere near done cleaning off her artwork. I have taken all the crayons away from everyone and put them up high. Then when Annika wants to color we put her on a stool she can't get down from and then give her the crayons. The problem isn't totally fixed but hopefully in a couple weeks she will understand where she should draw. I hope time out works for her!
We love having Annika in our family and it is amazing to see what a unique personality she can be when we already have two wonderful girls.

Utah trip day 2,3, and part of 4.

2010-11-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we went to church with Jeff and Mandie. It rained while we were walking to church. After church we went on a hike to rock canyon and drove by our old house. Someone was parking on the lawn and it made us mad because we spent a long time making that lawn really nice. We enjoyed our hike and right when we were getting back it started raining again! We enjoyed late night conversations with Mandie and Jeff.

Monday Cameron looked for jobs while the kids and I visited with Ina and her kids. It was fun to see how big they all were. The best part was that the kids all played together nicely which they hadn't done when we lived there. Monday night we went to Wade and Melissa's house and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and playing outside while it got dark. The weather was wonderful while we were there!

On Tuesday we decided to go on a walk to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. We didn't get there until about 10:00 am but the sun still wasn't in the canyon and the air was very chilly. We all wore our coats the entire time! It was beautiful! It is amazing how something that you did all the time can seem so normal but later when you haven't seen it in a while it can seem so beautiful.

Our Trip to Utah part one

2010-11-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

I know it has been over a month but I am finally blogging about our trip to Utah. We went to Utah in an effort to help Cameron find a job there. We are thinking about moving there if the right job came along and Cameron went up to network with some companies he thinks would be good choices. We stayed with Jeff and Mandie at their house. It was a lot of fun. We pulled our trailer up there and took a load of stuff to a woman who paid for our gas to get there. After Cameron dropped that stuff off in downtown we decided to go to Temple Square with the kids. We had a great time there. We looked at the Temple, fountains, and visited the visitors center. The kids loved to see all the church history things that they had heard about in church. My favorite thing was the replica of the inside of the Salt Lake Temple. I have never actually been inside for a session but only for marriages. This made me really want to come back soon and go through again.

After walking around the visitors center and around the temple we were really hungry. We rode Trax down to the Gateway mall. The kids loved riding on a train and it was free to ride in the downtown area! When I realized Tucanos was there I convinced everyone that we had to eat there at least once while we were in Utah. So we went in for a late lunch. I love eating at the restaurant and it will be forever my absolute favorite. We ate ourselves to a five pound heavier weight while inside but it was worth it. The kids also seemed to love it. I was surprised too because their free kids rate made it cheaper for us to eat there than it would have been to eat at Carls Junior!

After Tucanos we waddled back to Trax and took it back to the Church History Museum. I loved showing the kids all the church history stuff as we walked around the museum. It was really fun. I love how in Salt Lake we could do all that stuff and the only thing we paid for was our lunch!

A Fall Hike

2010-11-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

Cameron took the girls on a fall hike a couple weeks ago. I didn't come because I went down the hill and did all my errands. It was nice to have to opportunity to do them without the kids. I thought the pictures were cool so I wanted to post them.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

For Halloween we went to our ward's trunk or treat on Saturday night. The Primary was in charge and so I got to go early and set up. We enjoyed chili and corn bread and then we went outside in the cold and fog to trunk or treat. My older girls went around on their own and we just had to take Annika around. Annika loved watching the people put candy in her pumpkin. She was very excited to get home and get to look at it all. The girls were disappointed that Halloween was on a Sunday and so we didn't do any actual trick or treating. I was glad because it was pretty cold Sunday night too!

Gratitude #3

2010-10-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

Today I am grateful for the fall weather. I have had a fire burning all day and I am toasty warm. The fog has been blowing by my windows all day and the ground is soggy. I just decorated for Halloween and Ali is setting the table "fancy" in anticipation for the missionaries coming for dinner. There is home made chili in the crock pot and corn bread in the oven. I found my ipod and we are listening to music. The kids made a witch craft and they are taped up to our window as part of our decorations. I enjoyed having Cameron home for lunch and making his food and then eating it with him.

I am also grateful for cell phones that have free long distance to my favorite people. I love long phone conversations that make me happy. I can't imagine living without it and I am grateful.

Gratitude #2

2010-10-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am really trying to think of those things I should be grateful for. Today it is my children I am grateful for. I had parent teacher conference today for both of my girls. I arranged to attend alone sans any children which really made it a mommy's day out even if it was only for an hour. I love the feeling of not having to buckle anyone in and just getting in the car and going.

I attended Ashling's classroom first. Ashling knows all her sounds and recognizes all her letters. She won't be tested again in kindergarten she is that good . And she can count to twelve but missed 13 and went straight to 14. (I guess she is a littler superstitious.) She is socially doing all the things she should be and she loves school. She is a pleasure to have in the classroom. I liked my appointment with Kindergarten.

Next I went to 3rd grade. Ali has a new job today and is in-charge of getting the door and any errands the teacher has. Ali's desk was clean and nothing was in it that shouldn't be. I was told that Ali is reading on a 4th grade 7th month reading level. She is good at math and quite smart at spelling. She is learning cursive well and she likes school. The only concern we have is that she slow down a little.

I am grateful for kids that are smart and who love school. I am grateful that they are not getting in trouble and that parent-teacher conference could be a good experience. I am grateful that my kids can be getting a good education and that their teachers are both so wonderful. I am grateful.

Gratitude

2010-10-03T12:46:00.001-07:00

I haven't been very thankful for much lately. Instead I have been thinking of all the ways I want things I don't have. I guess that President Monson's talk about Gratitude was heard by my mind and I will try to involve my heart in it sometime soon. It was probably meant for me.

I know I should be grateful for a lot.

My 3 healthy children

Living in the mountains

The rain that poured on us yesterday

The ways we have found to support ourselves without a full-time job

The internet

T.V. shows that distract me

Pictures my children love to make me

Ali's soccer games

It is going to be cold this week!

Apples that I can pick

What are you grateful for?

It's Broken

2010-10-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

Monday morning Ashling came upstairs and claimed she had kicked the wall and her foot hurt. This was while we were getting everyone ready and so I just kissed her forehead and pretty much ignored her. (She was not crying but just whining a little.) Emily also told me that Ashling had jumped off her bed but I assumed she meant the lower bunk bed and wasn't that worried since this was mostly tattle-telling and I really don't like that. I forgot about it will all the other things going on. Ashling went about her morning and didn't say much until we were in the car where she told me it hurt again. I was dropping them off at school and so I still didn't look closely and she was still not very upset.

In the afternoon she came home from school still whining a little about the foot. At this point I looked at it and then had Cameron come and look. It was swollen and looked painful. I decided to call the doctor and make the appointment. I didn't really think it was broken but I already had an appointment for Annika and so I just decided to make one for Ashling too.

By Tuesday morning Ashling wasn't complaining much and I was sure we were taking her to the doctor for no reason. After sitting in the dentist office for 1 hour we went to our doctor's appointment. We waited in the waiting room for quite a while and the doctor came in. I voiced my concerns that probably nothing was wrong and then we watched her walk. She did fine until she was asked to walk on her toes and she couldn't. We took her to get an x-ray. When he looked at the X-ray he at first thought it was fine and then saw the three small breaks on her three smallest toe bones down in the foot. Everyone was surprised that it was broken when she was so easily walking on it. The doctor didn't splint it but just referred her to the specialist for Thursday.

Thursday we went to the ortho doctor. It was a nightmare. We waited for 3 1/2 hours to get her cast. They tried to find a boot small enough for her so she didn't need a cast but there were no boots that small. We were the last ones out of the office. The only consolation was that they cut the cast right after putting it on so that we can take it off when we are done. They did this so that we don't have to pay for the cast to be removed since our insurance ended on Thursday. It was the only nice thing about it.

Ashling is now running with her cast on. She still has not let it slow her down. Her only complaint is that the cast is sweaty.

status

2010-09-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since Cameron was unemployed. I thought I would write a little about it. Cameron has applied for quite a few jobs and each day we try and find more jobs to apply for on-line. We have learned though that it is the worst way to look for jobs. I guess the only good way to find a job in this economy is through networking. So If you know anyone looking for a civil engineer with four years experience please refer Cameron to them.

He has been told he is over-qualified as well as under-qualified. Several people have told him they wished they could hire him. He has applied for government as well as private jobs. He has applied for jobs doing exactly what he was doing as well as other jobs that are very different from what he was doing.

We learned that one job Cameron applied for had 375 applicants. That means there are at least 375 engineers looking for work in the inland empire. That is crazy! We are looking for work anywhere in the west and have even thought about moving to New Zealand where there is a demand for civil engineers after the big earthquake.

We still have not received any word for the unemployment office. We are assuming we will get unemployment but I guess we will see. I guess that is another reason for having savings since it takes quite a few weeks for unemployment to kick in especially in California.

Cameron has managed to keep himself very busy applying for jobs and doing lots of service projects and other projects for friends and family. Hopefully sometime soon someone will want to hire him.

The Meadow

2010-09-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

We went hiking today. It goes like this... I ask Annika if she wants to go on a walk. She says, "shoes, walk, raera." She wants us to know what she needs for the walk and in what order. Annika is very insistent that we don't forget Sierra if we are going for a walk. She enjoys getting into the backpack carrier and wants to make sure she has her "pa fa." She jabbered non-stop the entire time. I am not sure what she said but she kept saying it over and over again. She was concerned if I ever got more than 15 feet away and then would say, "ma ma". (I am not carrying a backpack so I get to feel cool sometimes and take more of a lead over Cameron. I am also sure that in a few more hikes Cameron will be used to it and then he will out pace me like he usually does.)

We hiked up hill towards the "Little Green Valley." We were completely unsure of what this might be but there was a trail head and so we decided to try it out. We weren't even sure we would make it to the destination. I like to get a workout in the morning but I don't want it to take all day. I usually give it half an hour up or so and then allow the rest for making it back down. I really enjoyed this trail because the path was steep but doable and I could keep up my quick pace I use when I know we will only be going up for a half hour.

After a while we started hiking into the burn area from the 2007 fire. I was disappointed to see the trees disappear and hike through the ugly burned and cut down logs where the trail was mixed with too much ash. I don't like to go through those areas.

We were out of it sooner than I expected though and right when I was sure we had taken the wrong trail. The sign did not seem to offer confidence as to which way we should go. The meadow was amazing. I have never seen something like this in our mountains. I am pretty sure every part of it burned during the fire because there were marks of fire all around it. Even in areas not burned by fire, everything right now is dry and yellow. There hasn't been rain in about 4 months. But this meadow was completely green. The grass was very vibrant and about three feet long. It was so long it was falling all over itself. The meadow was almost at the top of the hills and there wasn't anything else above the meadow. We were mystified as to where the water source was from the meadow. We still are.

I like hiking each morning. It is a little peace from the outside world.

Laid Off

2010-09-19T16:53:00.001-07:00

I remember posting last fall in October about the depression and things feeling bad. We managed to get by that hard time with some conservation and getting rid of some things. The past year hasn't been so bad. I didn't buy the kids school clothes for the first year ever but I managed to buy some new shoes for each one. I didn't buy a new bike for Ashling even though she needs one but I managed to talk the guy at the thrift store down to 6 dollars for a used one. We still haven't bought new tubes for it but hopefully we will soon. I learned to turn off the lights as I walked around the house. My electric bill went down a lot just for that. In fact on Wednesday I was looking forward to our paycheck because I knew how to spend the money and with my babysitting job I thought maybe I would go shopping for some winter clothes for the girls.

Cameron came home that night with the news that he is no longer employed at Webb.

I guess the Depression is not over. He had about 10 applications out already after the few slow weeks of work. He filled out about 10 more applications on Thursday and Friday. Only 2 are in our area... the rest are throughout the west. The worst part of the Depression is this... even with all those applications out we don't know if we will get a job. Even with all the applications he may find we don't know if he will find a job.

We have a lot of decisions to make... should we move away from our house... even without a job. Should we stay in our house and raid our 401K? It is hard to know what to do when you don't know how long to be prepared for.

Ashling

2010-09-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

School is in its 3rd week.

I am missing Ashling.

I am not sure why I can't seem to find my balance with her in kindergarten.

I think it has something to do with her built in friend that I babysit.

They play after school and I hardly see her.

I am not even sure what I miss.

I can't remember a time without her around.

I know I was a mom before she was born but somehow I hardly remember.

I remember taking her hiking alone.

I miss her sitting on my lap for some Mommy time.

I miss her asking me to read her a story for the 15th time.

There is no one to help me put the clothes in the washer or help fold them in the dryer.

There is no one to tell me some funny story, (Annika does not really talk much yet.)

I miss her asking to make a treat and then helping me make it.

I miss her deciding we need to go to the store and remembering to buy the strawberry jam.

I miss her playing with her sister. She was in preschool before but I find I am missing her more than I should. I am glad she is in school because she loves it but I am still lost without her.

Home school looks better all the time.

What Ashling and Annika did...

2010-09-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

While Ali was at Grandma Sue's and we were backpacking, Ashling and Annika went to see Aunt Stacey, Tony and Grandma Bonnie. We met them in a Kmart parking lot right about closing time in Blythe California. I think it was above 90 degrees still in the dark. I was very worried about what Annika might do and what she might feel when I left her with nearly strangers and buckled her in the other car.

In preparation I let her help pack her suitcase and explained the whole thing to her. She would be going to Stacey's and Grandma's. We then clapped our hands and she clapped her hands and acted like she was going to a party. (This is not far off from the truth because they are so much more fun than me anyways.) I kept talking about it and she seemed at least mildly alarmed which let me know that she was understanding it. As we drove the car across the barren desert I kept reminding her that she would be going and that then she would come back and that it would be really fun.

In the parking lot that night she was a little hesitant and watched Ashling bursting with excitement for her own adventure. Then she decided that it would be fun too. She started saying, "Stacey, Stacey" over and over and let Stacey pick her up. I took the girls inside to use the restroom and she stayed with Stacey. Later I buckled her in the other car and she said, "Bye, Bye" and gave me a kiss. She was sure that she was going off on a grand adventure. I cried for a little while as we drove back towards our house.

The girls had a great week. They played with Stacey and Grandma, watched tv, swam a little, went shopping and just enjoyed being spoiled. Stacey invented great games for them like having them mop the tile, wipe up things and probably other slave chores that I am unaware of... (it was fun.) They never cried or cared that we were gone. On Saturday afternoon they came home excited to see us and ready to tell about their grand adventure in Arizona. Stacey said they were pretty easy the whole time except for one messy diaper....

What Ali did while we were gone

2010-09-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

Ali stayed with Grandma Sue and Pa Pa while we went backpacking. She got to do many things. Before we were even to Bishop Grandpa had taken her to ride her bike around Children's Forest. She got to stay at her cousins while they had a meeting on Sunday. On Monday they took Ali and her friend, Louise, to the beach. They totally spoiled them letting them ride the boogie boards, getting them hot dogs and slurpies for lunch and then Mc Donalds for dinner. The girls played together well and really enjoyed themselves.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Grandma Sue and Pa Pa go to the Bishop's Storehouse where they are Service Missionaries. Ali got to go with them and help serve. She loved it! In fact she would rather go there than to school. She helped get orders ready for people who live far away and have to have their food orders shipped to them. She enjoyed herself the entire time and kept busy.

Ali also found time to go to Louise's, go to a friend's birthday party and make chocolate chip cookies. On Friday she had Louise over again and they enjoyed playing together in the backyard with water bottles as squirt guns.

We picked Ali up early Saturday morning and took her out to breakfast with us as a great way to end the vacation.

A change in the weather

2010-08-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

The temperature at the beginning of the week was hot. I couldn't even imagine how we were going to handle going to bed early, waking early, and going to school with the temperature on condusive to swimming. I was nervous about the schedule, nervous to babysit my new little girl, nervous about waking early and just sad to see the kids go.

Now the air is cool and it seems like it is getting dark so much earlier. We wore sweaters to church today and put on jeans and sweatshirts after church. We might have to turn on the heater tonight. We have begun to look forward to fall. I think my fall decorations will come out tomorrow. I think school is going to go well. Ali has the teacher I wanted and now Ashling does too. I guess belonging to a community for awhile tends to help you get the teachers you like.

Our routine is working. Emily arrives early at 6:00 am. She watches a movie while I run. The kids get up at 6:30 by Daddy and clean their room and make their bed. Their clothes are chosen the night before so there are no fights or complaints in the morning. They even find their socks before bed. We do hair and then once ready assend the stairs for breakfast. The girls pack their lunches with a little help. (One snack, one main item, one fruit, one treat, one drink, one water bottle.) When I drop them off Annika and I have 3 1/2 hours to ourselves. We clean, play, walk, and enjoy our time together. Ashling and Emily get picked up after lunch and they play for 1 1/2 and then read with me. I pick Ali up and take Emily home. Another snack, playtime, soccer, homework, chores, and preparing dinner take up the afternoon. Then we eat, shower, and get in bed. I think I can handle it.... The best part is the 2 1/2 hours Cameron and I have together before we go to bed.

I think it is good that we have such a good routine for the week down. Our Sunday routine just got harder. Cameron was called to be ward clerk. I am sure he will do great but I will miss sitting with him in church. I will miss him coming home after church. Hopefully we can figure out a new routine to help.

I feel adjusted to fall and excited for the routine, for the predictability, for the fast pace. I can't wait to see the leaves change and for the first snow to fall.

Happy 11 Years!

2010-08-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Today is our 11 year anniversary. I guess we are getting old. I proved it by watching our wedding video with our kids for the first time. I looked at the pictures and saw people who look a lot younger (and thinner.) It was fun to watch the video with the kids and let them see a little of our wedding. I found a card at the store with the song we danced to at our wedding and gave it to Cameron.

I like being married 11 years. It seems like a long time and yet we are still happy together. I love ya Cameron!

In Memory

2010-08-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

Vira Putnam was my great-grandmother. I miss her. A lot. Still. Even 6 years after she died. I miss the stories she would tell me as I sat next to her on the love seat in Vera's house right where we were touching and I held her hand. I miss the way she smiled. I miss the way she played with all the little kids and the way she played with me when I was little. I miss the way she made me feel included in everything even when no one else did. I miss going to her house which isn't ours anymore. I miss looking in the closet for things to play with and looking at the new quilts she had made since last time I was there. I miss her pickles. I miss setting the table with her special tablecloths. I miss sitting on her front porch and looking at the yard. I miss stump creek. I miss watching her embroider another butterfly. I miss reading with her the same story over and over again. I miss the tents she made me while she quilted above and the way she played big bad wolf with me. I miss the letters and phone calls. I miss seeing her.

It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have nightmares. I will dream that Grandma is still alive and that I forgot to go see her. Then I get to watch her die all over again. You would think that it is okay for someone to die when they get old and I know she is in a better place but I still miss my Grandma.

1st Day of School

2010-08-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

School starting is such an interesting thing. We have all been waiting for it with various degrees of enthusiasm. My enthusiasm is pretty much at zero. This year I will have two kids in school and be picking up a kindergartner half way through the day. I also will be taking kids to soccer and to dance class. The way I see it I will be in my car most of the day. I am glad my seat is comfortable.

None the less the day has come and the kids can't wait. Here is Ashling. She never looks at the camera!
This is the face of true excitement. She really can't wait for school to start.
Annika is excited but she just doesn't know why!
Ali is a little more reserved and grown up now that she is in the 3rd grade. She got a color changing shirt from Grandma and was excited to wear it. It was much too hot for jeans so she just wore shorts.

I was very excited that Ali got Mrs. Strebel. She is in our branch and I have been hoping that Ali would get her for a teacher ever since she was born. All the LDS kids are in Mrs. Strebel's class this year. It will be nice to have so many good kids in class. Besides the LDS kids there are a lot of other kids who are good friends of Ali's and kids that I like. I am excited for Ali to have such a good class.

Kindergarten did not really start today. The kids all came and got their name tags and took a tour of the classrooms. They do not know who their teachers are for a week. I guess the teachers need to observe the kids first and then they will decide. It was a mess and I highly recommend a different way of doing things.

the cast of characters

2010-08-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

We recently went on a 60 mile backpacking trip. I will get around to blogging and showing all the picture from that but school started today, my house isn't that clean, and I also started babysitting this week so it will have to wait for more time. Today I thought I would add some notes about the people we met while out backpacking. They were quite a crowd.

While hiking up Bishop Pass I was surprised to see a woman jogging alone with her giant dog. By the end of our trip I was surprised to see any woman actually with a man. Apparently when you are hiking along the John Muir trail and you are a woman you hike alone. We met many women who were all alone going 250 miles. All I could think of were reasons this may not be the best plan.

We saw two old men hiking up the same trail they had gone down the night before. One had such a large belly in front. He said he was on a day hike but we couldn't understand why they were hiking up when they should be hiking down. I hope they eventually found their way?

We met a woman hiking in a skirt (yes she was hiking alone.)

We saw another woman hiking in flip flops, tee shirt and shorts. (This was near Muir Pass in the evening. The trail consists of about 8-10 miles of above tree line hiking among the rocks and snow and she was in flip flops.)

We saw "captain underpants." A little boy was hiking down the trail with his dad in only his underwear.

Naked man laid down amongst his wife, daughter and son-in-law with nothing on at all.

The John Muir Trail hikers have their own club which you do not belong to if you are hiking less than 15 miles a day. We wonder how they can possibly enjoy anything when hiking that much.

We saw another man hiking down Muir pass with only a fanny pack on... I wonder what his plan was?

There were several who were out hiking in jeans. (Jeans are not suitable for backpacking unless the year is 1970. We have better fabric these days.)

I'll add to the list as I remember...

Back to School Family Home Evening

2010-08-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

I made the kids their favorite dinner, brauts and baked beans and then milkshakes for dessert. We got the kids all showered and gave them new pajamas to wear and then had our lesson. We sang, " I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ."

Our theme for the school year is Matthew 5 14-16.

Ye are the light of the World. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We encouraged our kids to act so that those who don't know Christ but know them will want to know Christ because of how they behave. We talked about being nice to everyone and not talking mean about anyone.

Then Cameron gave each of us a back to school blessing. Annika even took a turn and sat still with her arms folded for her blessing.

We ended the evening tucking each girl in bed. I hope that they will be good this year and be a good influence on all that they come in contact with.

South Lake To North Lake Trip Report Day 6

2010-08-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

The last day was Friday. It was supposed to be Saturday but I was too dirty, too tired, had too many blisters and craved a shower and a steak that bad. Cameron couldn't imagine eating another dehydrated meal after breakfast and I suggested that we could hike all the way out. I even woke him up early so that we could get ready to go. We dragged a little with packing and didn't even leave until around 8:30 am.

The first part of the trail was pretty easy. The trail went through more trees with more wildflowers everywhere. I have never seen so many wildflowers anywhere. Right after we started hiking we came to a creek crossing. At each creek crossing the trail builders have placed bigger rocks across the water that you can jump from one to another on. They are not always flat and sometimes it seems like one might have rolled away in high water. Sometimes they use down trees too. This river crossing had 5 parts. I kept thinking we were done but we weren't. It is very difficult for me to cross and I always lose my balance. I ended up with one foot in the creek that barely got wet. (I love my salamon gtx shoes they are the best.)

The whole way to Piute Pass was pretty easy. It was uphill but it wasn't too steep. If you look to the back of this picture you can see the Piute Pass between the mountains.
We made it up to the top of the pass by 12:00 pm. It was the easiest pass I have ever hiked to the top of. It was easy because you could see where the top was and there were no surprises like extra hills to hike over. We ate a small lunch on the top of the pass in the wind. Finally the wind was too strong and we left to start the hike down.

Right away I realized that the other side was not the same kind of hike. It was like one long staircase from top to the bottom with lots and lots of steps carved out of the steep cliff. If you have ever hiked down from Mount Whitney this trail was similar but not as long. The going was tough, it was hot and the trail was cruel to my feet. I really wanted to stop and curl up next to the lake but the thoughts of putting on flip flops and taking a shower kept me going.

We ended our hike around 3:00 at the North Lake Campground. We did not have our car here and had to find a ride to South Lake which is about a 14 mile drive in a car. The second people we asked were willing to take us. I am very thankful for the man who let our dirty, smelly bodies get in his nice truck. He gave us a ride to South Lake. We changed clothes and headed down to the same restaurant we had gone to on the way in for dinner! We ended our hike with Prime Rib, milkshakes, shrimp skewers and brownie sundaes. I am glad that I hiked 60.5 miles but hope to have a few less blisters next time!

South Lake To North Lake Trip Report Day 5

2010-08-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

The plan for the day was to hike down to Blaney Hot Springs and the Muir Trail Ranch to check our email. It sounded like a great plan from home but once we started hiking it was not so great. It was so hot we couldn't imagine getting in a hot springs. We hiked really quickly and I even ran a little of the trail. It was nice to hike without our backpacks on and eventually we made it down to Blaney Meadows.
What we didn't realize was that the hot springs were across the San Joaquin River and we didn't bring our water shoes. We couldn't imagine actually wanting to get in hot water in the heat of the day anyways. It was very far across and very rocky and I didn't think crossing without shoes or getting our shoes wet and then having to hike in wet shoes. So we didn't go. It was the whole reason I planned this trip but when we actually got to the point of going we decided not to.

While down by the river deciding we met a very interesting "family." There were about 8-10 teens and one older couple. All the teens had various body piercings and seemed to be the exact same age. They were very hippy in appearance and attitude. I wonder if they were foster children or if this couple somehow managed to have so many teens that were the same age? This family was getting kicked out of their campsite because they had camped too close to the river.

We then went to Muir Trail Ranch. It is a ranch that has guests come in and stay for a week giving them a rustic setting for their family reunion or whatever. It was very rustic. There were horses and horse droppings everywhere. The people who ran it were quite interesting. But they had the internet and allowed us to pay 10 dollars to check our email. I just wanted to make sure the kids were okay and this allowed me to so I was grateful.

On the hike back to our camp Cameron's toe hurt quite a bit. He didn't know what was wrong but it was bothering him. It was hot and the 3 miles seemed quite a long ways. We were happy to get back to camp and spent a long time just soaking our toes.

Cameron then suggested that we might want to hike up Piute Canyon a ways tonight when it was cool as opposed to in the morning. The map suggested that the trail was quite steep in the beginning and we were a little worried about how that might be in the sun. I didn't want to at first but his idea was a good one and so I decided to go with it.

We waited until the sun was off the canyon. We first ate dinner and then packed up camp. We started hiking at about 5:30 pm. The trail was very steep. The trail maker seemed to have an aversion for switchbacks and mostly the trail was just straight up. Some of the steps were almost impossible to do with a backpack on and I felt like I might as well be rock climbing. It was very hard work and we hiked slowly up the trail. I was very grateful to be hiking in the cool evening as opposed to the warm morning. There were occasional stretches that went downhill and some switchbacks as we went higher up that started to save us. I had a goal in mind that I wanted to get to Hutchinson Meadow by dark. It was a lofty goal and I wasn't sure we would make it.

We passed one campsite without water and another creek without a campsite. There didn't seem to be any good campsites. The mosquitoes were really bad too and so we just kept hiking. The trail flattened and we were in some trees with lots of flowers as undergrowth. We started looking for a campsite but there didn't seem to be any sites around. We kept hiking as it got dark and eventually made it to a campsite just as it was fully dark.

The campsite seemed perfect. It had water close by, wood for a fire and a nice flat place for the tent. Right as we got settled and all unpacked we realized there was a distinct smell around. We didn't know what it was and headed out to pump water for our chocolate pudding mix. We ran right into a dead horse. Now I knew what the smell was. I couldn't stomach the idea, nearly lost my dinner and made Cameron move our camp. We ended up carrying our tent between us with our backpacks on about 200 yards upstream and upwind of the dead horse. I want to thank whoever felt the best thing to do would be leave their dead horse in the middle of a campsite for giving me that smell and experience. Our total mileage for the day was 6 miles without backpacks and 5 miles with backpacks on.

South Lake To North Lake Trip Report Day 4

2010-08-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

We decided that after camping at Evolution lake we would hike down the entire Evolution Valley and along to San Joquin River to end up at the trail junction with Piute Pass in one day. The mileage was about 12 miles.

Here is the view looking down on the evolution valley

Here is a picture of Colby Meadows. Isn't it beautiful. We would have loved to camp here except for one problem. The mosquitoes were terrible! They would have ruined all the fun!

We saw well over 30 waterfalls. I guess this one warranted a picture or the camera was out!

We had to cross the Evolution Creek without a bridge. It was a wet crossing. We took off our shoes and started across the 100 feet of river using our poles to brace us. The water was about knee deep. On the other side as I was putting my shoes on I heard something and looked up expecting to see a person walking up. Instead it was three deer. There was a mother deer, a young buck who was probably last year's child and a baby. They allowed us to watch them for quite awhile while they enjoyed eating the grass and plants by the river.
After crossing Evolution creek the river plunged down quite a ways through an amazing narrow gorge. We didn't get the best pictures of it because we were too busy trying to enjoy the view. This was my favorite part of the entire trip. That gorge is more amazing than anything we saw along the way. In some places the pools were so deep and the waterfalls were amazing. Cameron kept hiking off the trail to look but I guess he didn't get many pictures.

We hiked down the side of a cliff again as we dropped along with the creek. We could hear it but couldn't really see it very often. It was very hot and dry on the edge without very many trees except some very, very large Juniper trees. I didn't know they could grow so big.

After we were about 2/3 of the way down we met two men hiking up the trail. They thought they were half way up the steep part and we had to let them know that they were no way near that.

We we hit that way floor we could see up Goddard Canyon quite well. We both thought it looked beautiful and we want to go on another trip that goes up there.
Evolution Creek joined the San Joaquin River and it was quite a bit of river. It was amazing to think that this is only one of the forks of the river because there is at least another one up by Mammoth that we played in last fall. The trail was mostly along the river now which plunged though another gorge like area. It was very beautiful.

We found a very nice camp right next to the San Joaquin River. It had a fire ring with logs, granite slabs going out into the river and lots of shade. Cameron and I took a nice shower with heated water and then washed almost all our clothing. Here is the tree we found to dry our stuff on.

The aftermath of the quick bear attack- good thing for bear spray!

Or not.... Cameron came back from gathering firewood with this wound. He had been collecting firewood from the top of a dead tree when he slipped and fell about 8 feet. I am glad that this injury was all that happened to him.

South Lake To North Lake Trip Report Day 3

2010-08-17T01:50:00.000-07:00

Our plans had to change for day 3 since we didn't get as far as we wanted on Day 2. Our revised plan included going to Evolution Lake which was up and over Muir Pass and down about 6 miles on the other side. The whole day was 10 miles of hiking.

We woke up pretty early again and got going by 7:40 a.m. Breakfast included another Breakfast skillet. (It didn't taste quite as good but was just fine overall.) The hike was beautiful in the early morning cool air. It quickly warmed up as the sun hit us and we trudged along up the benches looking for the lakes. At one point Cameron and I took our packs off and cooled off on the granite that was still cool from the night. The mosquitoes were pretty bad in certain places and we applied quite a bit of deet to combat them.

The lakes had many crossings and each time I got a little more confident. Cameron danced across the rocks looking like he was a ballet dancer. I felt like I was slipping each time.

This is the view looking back down the Le Conte Canyon we had come from.

This is Helen Lake that we had wanted to camp at. After this lake we passed a large group of backpackers with 3 llamas who were heading down into Le Conte Canyon. There were about 10-15 teenagers and a 5 year old and 3 year old. There were only 1-2 older people and I am not sure who the parents of these kids were but everyone we talked to said they were all cousins. The three year old was riding a llama, still in her pajamas, and she was barefoot. They were all moving quickly but I was happy to not have my little ones with me as these seemed very out of place on the high mountain pass.

Here we are at the top of Muir Pass. They built a very nice rock hut in the 1930's to protect people against storms. Today you are allowed to camp in it only when there is a storm.

If you look out at those lakes the other side of Muir pass involved hiking in the alpine environment in the sun for the entire six miles to evolution lake. The only plants growing were no taller than the sole of my shoe. It was quite a barren place.

We arrived at Evolution Lake and found our spot among the crowded campgrounds. Our spot was high on the bench above the lake. We were able to find our own spot and didn't feel too crowded. We went swimming in the lake and Cameron nearly got hypothermia after he got out. He left his clothes on while swimming and then after did not take them off. The wind was blowing hard and cold and he just kept sitting there. Eventually I convinced him that he should get dressed by leaving myself to get dressed. At least he followed.

After we were clean and so were our clothes, Cameron prepared to go fishing. We wanted to have fish for dinner so he was highly motivated. I prepared to read for the afternoon. The wind blew so hard that afternoon that they tent stakes came out and the tent started to blow away. I put rocks on the stakes and then stayed in the tent so that it wouldn't blow away. Cameron caught lots of tiny 8 inch fish but couldn't catch any big fish. We decided to eat one of our dehydrated meals instead of fish since the fish were so small.

This is Evolution Lake in the Twilight

Another picture of Evolution Lake

South Lake To North Lake Trip Report Day 2

2010-08-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

Our plan for day 2 was to hike down into the Le Conte Canyon and then hike to Helen Lake which was near the Muir Pass. It was quite a lofty plan! (We actually made it down the Le Conte Canyon and to a little above Big Pete Meadow right below the 10,000 feet sign.)

We woke up early and prepared our breakfast that consisted of a Breakfast skillet of eggs, hashbrowns, peppers and sausage in dehydrated form. It tasted pretty good the first day. We were able to quickly load our packs and were on the trail by 7:30 am. We dropped off of dusy basin and hiked along the edge of the cliff that dropped into Le Conte Canyon quickly. It was a rough trail with steep downhill steps and lots of water running everywhere. I was a little concerned I might slip and end up in the river at the bottom.

The waterfalls coming out of Dusy Basin were amazing. The water cascaded for about 2 thousand feet down the granite walls. Some of the time it looked like waterfalls.

Here is a picture of where we will be going soon...

Here the water just flowed down the granite and made me think of a giant waterslide. It looked like great fun but I was a little afraid of the landing and I didn't try it.

We finally dropped into Little Pete Meadows. It was beautiful down there and quite warm. We felt like we had been hiking for awhile and soon found a nice place by the river to take a break. We went swimming (Cameron swam and I quickly got in and out.) and then washed our clothes on the granite rocks. We washed up and then Cameron went fishing and I curled up and read away the afternoon. (This part felt like a dream vacation reading by the river with no kids to interrupt me.)

After several hours Cameron thought we should start hiking again. He was convinced that the breeze was blowing and that it would be much cooler hiking. It was about 3:30 when we started hiking. I never felt very good when we started hiking and the long hike in the morning, plus the elevation caused me to feel terrible for the couple of miles we hiked. We hiked above Big Pete Meadow which was amazing and then started climbing up some benches towards Muir Pass. I finally put my foot down around 6:00 where we found a great camping spot just below 10,000 feet. We were able to have a nice fire and the river was close by.

Here is a picture of our camping spot. At camp I laid down on the rock and didn't get up for almost an hour. I am impressed with myself though because I never actually got Heat exhaustion and was able to work through the feeling of being too hot. We ended up hiking about 6-7 miles that day which made our shortest hiking day.

South Lake To North Lake Trip Report Day 1

2010-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

We planned a 60.5 mile backpacking trip to the Sierras to travel along the John Muir Trail, go over 3 mountain passes and descend into two major canyons in the Sierras. Here is my favorite picture from day 1 of the beautiful scenery we experienced!

Cameron and I slept in our car at the trailhead on Saturday night. You are not allowed to do this but it didn't stop us. We wanted to sleep up at elevation and we did not have a permit to hike in and we were too late anyways. The sleep inside the escape was not good. I couldn't wait for morning to come. When we saw the first light we were ready.

We ate excellent blue berry muffins from Vons and poured our bottled water from our car into our water bottles and we were ready to go. We were the first ones on the trail that morning!

This is South Lake where the trail starts.

Here is the first meadow we came to that morning.

I highly recommend the South Lake Trailhead from Bishop as an excellent day hike to some beautiful lakes. In all the times I have been there I never hiked in but I will be taking the kids back to fully explore the trails. The trail is not too steep and the scenery is amazing!

There are the lakes looking down on them!

I was pretty impressed because we managed to stay in front of the crowd except for two trail runners who did not have backpacks. We both were feeling good and enjoyed the hike. It was nice to have packed lightly as our backpacks felt pretty good.

When we started up the actual pass area we came to an area that warned of falling rocks. We were told to hurry through this area so we did.

The top of the pass is all just rock. There is nothing else anywhere around. It is like this for all passes.

We had to hike on a few snow field patches. Ali does not believe this is really snow.

Are you convinced?

We got to the top in a good time as the first backpackers up there from South Lake! I felt pretty good! Here is a picture going in to Dusy Basin.

We finally came across a nice meadow with good water to filter. The meadow was filled with wildflowers! It was a beautiful site! I liked looking at the Palisades and Cameron was in complete awe of it all!

We continued hiking down to the bottom of Dusy Basin. The hike was pretty easy going for down hill. We were enjoying the views and soon came to the lake furthest down in Dusy Basin. We did not like the camping options so we hiked all the way to the drop off. We crossed the creek and found a nice shady place for our tent.

We took a nice nap and enjoyed the cool mountain air. Cameron woke up with a high altitude headache and quickly took an excederin. He quickly learned that we should not take medicine on an empty stomach and ended up being sick for a couple hours. Later when he was feeling better he went fishing for awhile and I read.

It was a nice relaxing way to end a backpacking day!

This is a picture looking down at Le Conte Canyon where we were headed the next day

Our date with Ashling

2010-08-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went on a date with Ashling. Cameron had a furlough day and so he got to come along too. We decided to hike down to deep creek by a trail that was about 2 - 2 1/2 miles each way. It was an interesting trail. A lot of deep creek drainage was burned by the fire is 2007 and they are doing a lot of burned tree logging down there. The road that we hiked on for the first mile was very dusty, ashy and otherwise full of very loose dirt that ended up in our hair, shoes and shorts.

The way varied from deep full growth forest, to completely burned out areas with only green underbrush. We obviously appreciated the tree covered areas. It was interesting how in some places the forest had made a come back from the fire and in others there was just nothing left to come back. Fire is sure an amazing way to completely change the landscape.

On our hike we held Ashling's hand, interviewed her about her favorites (she loves pink, Ariel, hiking with Mommy and Daddy, M&M's, hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly, polly pockets and swimming.) and just paid a lot of individual attention to her.

I was stunk or bit by a bee or something for excitement and it hurt!

At last we made it to the river.

I think that it was a lot of fun to take one of our kids out without the others and I recommend it to everyone as a good idea.

The magic hat

2010-08-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Annika is now 18 months old! She has quite a lot of personality! She loves many things including a snow hat that she puts on her head herself and her pacifier. I have never had a pacifier baby but I am very reluctant to give it up because when she doesn't have it she tends to whine and be really clingy.

She loves outside and says a lot of words including copying most of what you are saying when she is in the right mood. I ask her who is my baby and she says, "I baby". That is my favorite. She is very cuddly and cute to hold and enjoys giving hugs to everyone. She likes to play with people, balls, her dog, and whatever toys she can "steal" that are her sister's toys.

Annika weighed 24 pounds and was 34 inches tall. She is in the 50% for weight and the 95% for height.

Fasting and Praying

2010-08-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Fasting. Praying. Fasting. Worrying. Fasting. Praying. Worrying.

Tired of waiting. Tired of wanting. Tired of Wondering. What should I do? Should I go back to work? What type of work? Full or Part time work? I do not want to leave my baby or find her care in another's arms.

Worrying. Worrying. Worrying. What should I do? Wondering if I am just being selfish or stubborn.

Finally an Answer came.

Not quite the answer I wanted.... (a large raise for my husband) but at least a quick way to alleviate the worrying. I will now be babysitting one 5 year old to go along with mine.

Fasting and Praying does work and I am happy to be staying home with my babies for a while longer!

Rock climbing

2010-07-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

We have been rock climbing a few times this summer and I finally took a few pictures. It has been fun to just go in the evenings when it is cool outside but warm in our house. I am happy to report that I have climbed to the top of each route I have tried and even done a few "hard" moves. My best move was on this climb when I pulled myself up using mostly arm strength I didn't know I had. I also had to mantle a few moves and learned a lot about balancing. I also took my first fall this month where I actually tried something and then fell. There was no danger involved and the rope caught me right when I fell. It wasn't scary at all and I think that everyone should have to fall on the rope so they know how it feels.

The girls have also been learning, very slowly, how to rock climb. The worst is when they will not properly come down the rock and Cameron has to climb up to help them come down. Here I am at the top of the route! Hurray I made it! It was hard and worth the effort.

We brought the pack and play which made everyone but Annika much happier!
Here is Ali trying rock climbing with actual rock climbing shoes. Thanks to nice friends for lending their kids rock climbing shoes. I guess if we keep this up we will have to get our own!

The Biggest Lodgepole Pine Tree

2010-07-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

On Sunday after church we needed to get out of the hot house. It was just too warm so we had visions of driving around in our nice cold air conditioned car. We decided to drive up to Big Bear and go see the tallest Lodgepole Pine Tree in the world. It is up off some dirt road in Big Bear. I had never been to the area and I loved it! It was my favorite area in our mountains and I can't wait to go back and hike around again.

This is a picture of Mount San Gorgonio that we hiked to the top of last year. I really like the view of it because most of the time it is hidden and hard to get good pictures of this mountain.

It was quite a green meadow that we hiked to in order to get to the tallest tree.
Here is the little creek we hiked along which made everything better!

Here is a picture of the tallest tree trunk. It is tall but not super impressive like the redwoods and sequoia trees are. It is just the tallest because these trees do not grow super tall.

Annika loves to hike and didn't hardly ever want to be picked up. It was only 1/2 mile each way but she did most of it on her own!

What do you do in the summer time?

2010-07-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Our life for the past few weeks has included about as much swimming as I can schedule in. To me summer means swimming daily. It is a little bit difficult to do here because there are hardly any public venues where I can pay to take the kids swimming. The two public venues I do know about have strict rules which include no floaties... my favorite floatational device for kids who do not know how to swim on their own. Instead I have been begging, bribing, and otherwise ingratiating myself with hosts who can allow us to swim at their places. During this time Ali has been in Arizona easily swimming in my sister's pool.

This past weekend we went to pick up Ali at Stacey's. It was a 115 degrees when we arrived to pick her up. We headed straight to the pool after unloading our car of everything that might melt inside it. We then lived in the pool most of the entire weekend.
Ali is getting pretty good at diving. She loves swimming and is pretty much an expert at it.

Annika wanted to try her had at the diving board. She enjoyed it as long as someone held her hand when she jumped.
This is Stacey's little boy... and Annika. He is sure he is not a dog since they give him people food, let him sit on the couch and take him in the shower with them when he needs a bath.
Annika has learned how to use the floaties quite well. She now can jump off things and keep her head from going under the water. She kicks her legs and paddles to where she wants to be.
This summer Ashling has become pretty good at swimming. At the beginning of the summer she had forgotten how to swim but on the trip she swam across the whole 39 feet of pool!

I guess this picture is so cute I put it in twice (on accident) and now I can't remove it!

The Camping Trip that wasn't to Big Pine

2010-07-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

We wanted to go on a camping trip to Big Pine Canyon in the Sierras. Cameron got off work at about half way through the day and by 3:00 pm we were on our way. We made it to the canyon in good time after a brief stop to play at the park and eat dinner. As we drove up the canyon we hardly saw another soul and we were convinced that we would get a camping spot. I loved the first campground and really wanted a spot there but it was full. We drove to all the camping spots and there was nowhere to camp at all. So we abandoned our home of camping in Big Pine Canyon.

We next drove a little further up the road to Bishop Canyon. We looked through most of the campgrounds and the only spots we could find were in sage brush. I didn't want to camp in sage brush and so we kept looking. We finally found a spot at the Sabrina Campground that was up pretty high. By this time it was nearly dark and we set up the tent in the dark.

Our friends were about two hours behind us and so Cameron had to go back down the canyon to call them and tell them where we were camping. I was worried that they might wake up the kids setting up camp so late but they have the most quiet, polite kids who knew to be quiet.

We went to bed and it seemed cool but not really that cold. In the morning we were surprised to wake up to ice in the water bottles and frost everywhere. We all took turns walking down to this place where the water was flowing like a water fall. The water was so high from snow melt off. Then we decided to walk down to the water fall together.

The kids enjoyed the campsite where there were rocks and secret paths through the aspen trees.
The first day we fished around Lake Sabrina, visited North Lake and took a trip down to Kmart to get what we had forgotten. Our family also went swimming at the hot springs. (I decided that there will be swimming at each and every vacation I take from now on.) Then we came home and had hamburgers for dinner.

The second day we went fishing alone South Fork canyon (at least the guys did) and then Jessica, Annika and I came back and took naps while the others fished at South Lake. Here is a picture of us relaxing around camp in the shade. It was very cold at night and the sun made it very hot in the day. What a harsh environment.

We filled our tub up with water in the morning and let it sit in the sun all day long. Then we added a couple pots of boiling water and had a nice bathtub to get the kids clean. I really enjoyed the bath too!
We took Sierra with us and she was good at just relaxing around camp.
After dinner we set up a movie for the kids so they wouldn't get too dirty after they were cleaned up.
This is our view from our campground. Nice isn't it?
Our friends bought massive marshmellows to roast. The things were about three times the normal size. I will never buy again because when you are eating them they get everywhere but it was really fun!
On the third day our friends had to go home and we went for a long drive to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest. It is up a very lonely road on the other side of the valley from the Sierras. This is a picture of Temple crag that Cameron climbed last year from up in those mountains. It also has Mount Sill and North Palisade (which he also climbed a while ago.)
About 20 of the miles were on a rough dirt road through what looked like tundra. We drove up to 12,000 or 13,000 feet at the top of the road.

Here is our only picture of a tree and only the one in the background is alive. These trees are about 2-4 thousand years old.
After our long drive we stopped and went swimming again. We enjoyed getting clean and watching our girls. Ashling is getting to be very good at swimming. Annika is learning to swim with floaties on too. We decided against fireworks because it was too late for Annika and too hard to find a good spot so we had smores with kit kats and went to bed. (I know it was a little un-American but still fun.)

Monday we woke up early and packed up our camp quickly. We enjoyed a quick breakfast and then headed up to do some more fishing. The fishing didn't go well because nothing was biting except mosquitos. Annika and I enjoyed a nice walk after liberally applying cancer causing deet all over. We ate lunch by the river on picnic benches and then drove home. It was fun camping trip. The best part was the swimming!
This is the deer we saw right by the highway. It was fun to get a good long look at it.

An Ode to the ketchup covered taco

2010-06-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

I know that I am not the only one who does this. I know of at least 4 other people in the world who do this and one is not family. But I love ketchup on my tacos. It goes perfectly and tastes wonderfully. I can add more spices to the meat, add more green salsa and then drown it in ketchup. I know most of you think I am disgusting and there was a period of time when I felt a little ashamed about this habit of mine, but now I am proclaiming it to the world. (One of things I like about being 30 is that I no longer care what others think, don't need to impress anyone and am comfortable in my own shoes.) I love ketchup covered tacos. Yes they are not authentic from Mexico but I like that they are authentic from Wyoming where some of my blood is from too.

I want you to try one... go ahead. No one ever takes me up on the challenge but you will like it if you do. Corn tortilla, hamburger, cheese, lettuce, tomato, green salsa and ketchup on top. Try it, try it, I dare you!

Ali

2010-06-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

This summer Ali wanted to go and spend it with Grandma, Stacey and Tony. She left soon after school was out. We met Stacey in Blyth and she is visiting for a while during the summer. She is having fun swimming, watching tv, running on the treadmill, going to dinner with Stacey and Tony, working on art projects, visiting the library and doing whatever else she wants. We miss her but are glad she can be having fun there.

Annika at 17 months

2010-06-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

Annika is now 17 months old. She runs everywhere and is pretty sure she knows everything there is to know in the world. She likes going outside, loves the park and when she sees it she gets so excited (even if we are really only going to the post office.) Now she climbs to the top of the big slide and goes down on her own as if she were a pro.

Annika is my daughter. She loves water which she calls, "Awa." She loves to play in the hose or splash in the bathtub. She likes to drink water and enjoys the beach and the way the water grab at her legs. She likes the pool and the way the water envelopes her body. She likes to kick in the water, splash on top of the water and even blow some bubbles in the water. She is learning to swim quite quickly in our pseudo-summer. (It still has hardly reaches 70 degrees but it feels warm enough to us.)

Annika is learning to talk quickly. Her vocabulary has expanded and doubled and then doubled again. She is getting to the point where she will try and say a lot of single words. Her new favorite word is "down." She says this word clearly enough that anyone who is listening understands that she does not want you to hold her. She also says "up" when she wants to be picked up. I think it is interesting that she understands this opposite so well.

Annika loves to give the biggest best hugs in the world. She will curl her little body all around you and hold tight. She waits and keeps the hug for longer than most others. Her hugs are the best. The other night for Father's Day she gave Pa Pa a hug and held on tight. She didn't want to get down from his arms even when it was time to go. She just kept giving his love. ( I wouldn't doubt if he has a new favorite granddaughter.)

The world is exciting for this 17 month old and she can't get enough of it. We are very happy to enjoy watching her.