Santa Barbara

My Uncle Brian and Bj on the pier

We all took a walk on the beach together, here's

my mom strolling along, ahead of the pack.

So, I was cold at the beach, I'm from Tucson,

what do you expect?

I was so amazed that these crazy guys were

out there surfing.  Didn't they know it was 

cold?  Freezing?

Here's Bj and Mom finding Geocaches together.

So, we went to Santa Barbara this weekend.  I had a family foundation meeting, and it was really fun to meet all together, and enjoy the beach.    Each year we have a meeting where those on the board get together.  It is really great to see my aunts and uncles and a few of my cousins.  We had a great time together visiting the fun places in Santa Barbara, enjoying the beach, and listening to, arguing with, and learning from each other.  We spent Friday on the beach, looking for cache's, and enjoying the scenery.  There was this huge Yacht, and we all had to take a look.  Then on Saturday we spent the day in Solvang, and enjoyed the Dutch culture and food.  My aunt has a house there, so it was fun to have an insiders knowledge of all the fun things there.   We were lucky enough to find a fun ward to go to on Sunday, and Bj and I were surprised to find there were young couple able to afford living in Santa Barbara.  We spent the rest of that day enjoying the art that was strewn along the beach front.    We both enjoyed our time in Santa Barbara, but we weren't sad to come home.  We love our little ones and we were both missing spending time with them, and their fun little ways.

The weather there was beautiful, and I know it was even more wonderful for those coming from colder climates.  I felt a little jealous of all the oxygen in the air, it was so green, and the smell in the air was so clean and fresh, and I must say a little less desert smelling.  Every time I go to CA, I think maybe I want to move there.  The weather there is more temperate, and I think, "this wouldn't be so bad." But, then I realize I can't even afford to own a cardboard box. Isn't that the joy of vacations? Thinking, "maybe I could live here," or "I can't wait to get home," or "I never knew this was so wonderful." Then on the flight home I realize that happiness comes from being with the ones I love, so right now, Arizona holds my heart.

reading level

Movie Reviews

After reading my friends blog, I thought I would see what my reading level was. High School....now that's not so bad. I am no genious, I have seriously lost some brain cells going through what we all lovingly call motherhood, so if I am at "High School" I say congrats to me. So, I challenge you three people who visit my blog to see what your reading level is....I am sure it will give you a little laugh.

What I saw?

So, my sweet husband told me I should treat this as a sort of journal. And, that I should remember to put down my thoughts about how I have seen the hand of God in my life today. So, as I was thinking about this, I reflected on the joy that is in life. I am so grateful that I have funny friends. People that bring me to tears with their humor. I love to read, to listen to, and to watch humorous things. I have realized in my old age, that I don't really like anything that isn't funny. I mean really, what is the point? I get enough drama out of my own life, I need to surround myself with all things funny, just to take my mind off my day to day grind (which, of course, is a wonderful grind...but still, I love to laugh at myself, and others if they will let me). So, that is it. I am grateful for funny friends, funny movies, and quirky lines in movies I can quote over and over to myself and others. Right now I am loving to quote the movie Waitress....seriously, I love making up my own pies. like..."don't want to ask for no directions pie", or "can't they fix that pothole pie," or "monkey in the middle pie," etc... etc.... So, what is your pie?

Madeline Did It!

After much persuading, and very little results, I finally convinced Madeline that she needed to learn how to ride her bike. She has been feeling a little frustrated about it lately because all her friends can ride a bike, and her little brother Mitchell can too....but has she wanted to try? NO! So, I finally decided (after seeing her feel sad about not being able to ride around the neighborhood with her friends), that learning how to ride a bike is not an option (like I had decided earlier). So, I told Madeline that learning how to ride a bike is just like reading, sometimes we don't want to learn to do it, but we have to. It is just one of those life skills that everyone needs to know. She cried, whined, etc..... but I really felt like it was the best thing for her. So, I took her out on the basketball court today, got on my handy dandy rollerblades, and I acted like her training wheels. She wasn't too happy about it, but we worked on it. Then, she saw me biff it on my rollerblades, and laughed her guts out, now we were having fun. So, we tried again, and laughed as she was dragging me around. Finally, she let me let go of her, and yep, she can do it. I fear she has inherited some traits from her mother, but she thinks she should be perfect at it, even though she just learned. Oh well, hopefully, we can get past that. But, I am so proud of her, it only took her about 30 minutes to figure it out. Pretty great! She was also pretty brilliant at starting by herself, she thought she was a failure, but she got it on her second try. I am so happy for her, and I hope we can get her out biking again on Monday. I am hopeful that these little accomplishments every now and then, will give her the confidence to keep trying new things.