Happy Birthday, Dear Brian

We celebrated at My folk's house for Brian's Birthday. It was decorated beautifully for fall and we enjoyed a wonderful spread of Mexican food. I'm glad I have such great  hosts for parents. The cake wake great too. It was funny, Brian just closed the candle with the lid rather than blowing it out. We tell Brian all the time about his brilliance and myriad of great ideas and I hope he knows he is admired and loved. He helped my parents find a GFI outlet that had blown, and he had assembled organization shelves in their garage much to their enjoyment. What a blessing it is to me to be able to visit with my parents and my family. It was getting to be difficult to go to L.A. and leave half the family here for the visiting time. Spence does well at my folks house, all the children do. Celia and Joseph love the Aloha room with cable T.V. in there as we don't have it at home.

The boys made faces in the pictures of course and we all had a great time. My uploading of pictures on here has an error. I have to figure that out and get the pictures on here soon. I'm hoping for a lovely birthday for Brian.

Changes and Gratefulness

Emmy is doing great at her second week of college life. I'm so glad for the friends that have reached out to her over there and the general friendly demeanor at BYUI. She has met many new people and enjoys her classes. Sounds fun to me. We are acclimating well to the family dynamic shift. Celia loves her own room and we are getting into routines with school and tutoring. She has been blooming so much with her new school, teachers and what is required of her. Pollyanna is an Awesome book according to her and She is getting quite the vocabulary going so far.She is pretty happy earning shopkins and earning an Animal Jam(video game) membership once again.

Joseph will most likely change school this week. Who doesn't love a chance to restart High School freshman year over with new friends and teachers. I have high hopes that he will do great and be happy at the same school as his sister. We have enjoyed time with the grandparents. We went over there for chili, brownies and a movie last night. With so much change going on, I'm glad they are in town and it is wonderful to visit with them.  Recent changes include schools, tutors, Emmy moving out, changing banks, responsibilities in the home and much more. I feel blessed and happy to have such a great husband and family. I'm grateful for the gospel and the order and routine worship in the church requires. I'm grateful for my home as some have lost their in a forest fire this month. I'm grateful for opportunities to serve even if it is just to my family.

We had a plumber come last week, the shower wouldn't turn off and we had a little bit of water damage, but it was resolved quickly. There always seems to be hiccups in life an unexpected events, but an eternal perspective keeps things more interesting and bearable. I'm excited for general conference coming up and for all the activities that come with a child in high school. Also, Brian's birthday and the holidays are around the corner. Emmy wants to come home and visit and we can have an early Thanksgiving with her. It will be good. We sure love her and like having her around. I cannot believe it, but I love BYUI's three track system.  We can have a break from Emmy being away from college to be at home with us. I'm excited to be able to go to Hawaii later this year , for the first time. I hope to feel the Ohana there and to visit with my sister, her family and see the beautiful sites around where she lives.  I danced Hawaiian and Tahitian for 9 years and we attended many luaus in Hawaiian garb, but now I can be official an learn about the culture while being there! It will be weird being warm in the winter while there, but it is the last day of summer today and it was way into the high 90's. Fall will come and we will be enjoying the season soon. I'm lookin forward to that change!

Time is barreling forward.

We are transitioning! In order to facilitate a change in rooms we cleaned the garage and emptied out storage bucket for Emmy to put her belongings in. I can't believe she leaves for college in two weeks. I know  we need to keep moving forward with packing her up, but I admit it seems like only yesterday she was running around playing at home with me all day. Celia has moved into Emmy's room an will inherit it. That means Joseph gets his own room. His room is coming together and looking spacious and somewhat organized. It will be so nice for him as he meets the challenges and demands of seminary and High School. Emmy has been helping with he carpool to take Joseph  and another boy in our ward (RJ) to seminary. I need her to, Celia has started school at John Adams Academy and driving her to and from has been okay, but a little exhausting.

Celia has had a great couple days of school. She learned a lot, met new friends and did her homework without asking. I hope we keep up this positivity with her in her new school. Spencer has been a little under the weather with migraines and hasn't been eating very much. He is looking more mature though and thinning out. Yesterday, he had a lot of energy compared to others days and we were happy to have more time with him in the family room and on rides instead of him laying in his room with dark shaded curtains.

We are a little tired from carpooling from to and from school an Joseph forgetting his bus pass. I deliver it to Joseph and through it to his lap from my car window which entertained the neighbor kid. We've had great times talking an shopping and packing Emmy up. Family time has been a relief from stressors. Date night Bri and I went to dinner and visited my folks. I'm excited for Bunco tonight and some girls night out time. It sure is a change from summer to fall and free time to routines in school. I hope we adjust well and enjoy each season in life.

Anniversary

I love all the simple moments with my hubby. Talking, snuggling, driving around. He had to work of course and most of the family was at school, but the girls and I had fun. We went to play in the sand and enjoyed hanging out by the river. I played with Emmy's hair, we walked in the water holding hands to Emmy's music, and Celia let her imagination run wild making art in the sand. She wanted me to take a picture of it every two seconds. My kindle only has a front camera so it was hard to capture. I enjoy going to places we have visited before with my girls. They are such reminiscers. We stopped by Grocery outlet on the way out of The Pocket(a town near the river) and Celia told me how it was the best store in the world. She must have heard me talk it up a bit. We picked up school supplies for Joe and some comfort items for a friend post surgery.

 By the time we got home the boys were getting home from school and we had tutoring for Celia. We have had such a change up in workers lately. I suppose we are adjusting well, but it is difficult every time to let someone into or home and family life to help with  our children's special needs. We went on a community out to Stiebers, a neat candy store at the fountains. Celia and Spence loved the cotton candy and I loved seeing them so full of smiles an giggles.

Finally the time came for Brian and I to celebrate. We went to Folsom to Il Forno Classico. They have the best bread and dip ever. I love the hint of artichoke heart taste in the oil. Brian suggested a spring salad for me and it turned out to be amazing tasting. His ability to know what I like is such a benefit to me and our marriage. I love the anniversary ring he picked out for me an the great shelving unit for our room. He is a great gift giver. We were able to walk around the temple grounds after dinner. It was lovely out at sunset. I feel blessed to have such a beautiful, spiritual, peaceful and green place nearby. We saw a few turkeys and we scared one. He flew over a fence and we saw his beautiful feathers all showing. Brian found a turkey feather for me later on our walk and gave it to me, I kept it. It is so soft an beautiful. Too bad that is my favorite meat to eat, I'm torn a little liking both part of the fowl.

After the temple grounds we went to my folks house and they had a lovely red velvet cake for us. Emmy and Joseph came from their activities and celebrated with us as well. I love having family in town and feeling the love and support of each other. Evening prayer topped of a wonderful day. I hope to treasure these memories and feelings in my

heart as time moves quickly once again.

Birthday blessings

I should have know that my birthday would be great, but I wasn't sure. I was beginning to think all had forgotten it. At my age it isn't the end of the world, but unusual for my family. Brian gave me my present early and pulled one out he has been reserving from Papa and Rah Rah. It cheered me right up. Then we went for a car ride and ran some errands with the family. Emmy was at youth conference, but she would have like going to the mall with us. We ate yummy food at the food court and shopped at stores we liked and tried out the massage chairs. I was pleased to see how well Spencer did there.

 On Saturday we went shopping for a cake, I really wanted one that was light and fluffy and wouldn't give me a sugar rush headache. We found a great one at a wonderful bakery that was highly recommended. We visited my folks and went swimming. Emmy and Joseph and I went to the movies to see Pixels, a pretty funny and weird Adam Sandler movie. We had In N Out and I felt like we had already celebrated quite well.

On Sunday we went to church. I wanted Celia to wear a new dress someone in our ward had given her and it was red and  full of sparkle. I had gotten a new red skirt while in Utah so we made a all wear red theme of it. Sacrament meeting was wonderful and I enjoyed primary. They sang Happy Birthday to me while having me dress up in over sized sunglasses and a funny floppy lime green hat. I was pretty pleased with the day so far. After church we went to my folks and had a lovely time in the backyard eating dinner and dessert.The air quality was bad from fires, but the delta breeze picked up and it was so nice outside talking about family history and being together. My back was bothering me a little, but all as so wonderful I didn't think much of it. It was a perfect Birthday weekend. On Monday, I pulled my back doing laundry. One year older than boom, things change dramatically. I still tried to make the most of it. The girls and I went to the chiropractor then shopped with the grandparents and went out to lunch at the good Costco that has a nice nature reserve to visit right behind the building. I feel blessed my children have been helping out as I've been in pain.  Brian took the kids to a ward family home evening while I rested and Spencer ended up not making it to sleep until the wee hours of the morning.. Father of the year right there. There are blessing in all situations and I feel grateful for my family and love and usual health I enjoy.

Cabin Time and The Road Home

My battery was dead and we finally were able to get me a charger in Alamosa on the last day. After traveling around so much we decided to hang around at the cabin. Walt, Gloria, and Kendra came for a lovely visit. The kids did archery and BB guns and we relaxed on the porch. it was beautiful and touching to see the milky way galaxy. There are so many more starts in the sky than we can see here in California on any given night. I wanted to get a few family pictures. That doesn't always go over well, but I  was pleased the family tried for a minute or two at least.:) With Emmy going off to college soon I wanted to have some pictures and time together.

We drove home to California through Utah. It is not our usual way, but with my parents in town we have no reason or desire to come home through Los Angeles. I loved passing by Moab and the red rocks in the area of Zion's nation park. We stopped at one arch an got out for a little.  Visit Lance and Dawn again was nice. We watch  as the boys played football, Emmy joined in this time, and we talked together. The first time around Lance smoked some yummy meat and we had s'mores. It is so nice to have family there to stop, visit, and stay with. It was very enjoyable. I loved that Taylor and Celia played in the backyard together for hours in their fort/playground area.  We liked passing through Utah and seeing temple and peeking for Andrew and tasting the best donuts around from P market. Most importantly we are making great family memories. and I'm glad I can document it at least in part her for my memory.