Arriving to FL

We left Cali on Tuesday the  8th and arrived to FL on Wednesday, very early in the AM.  My parents were so thrilled to see the kids.  My dad hadn't met Mayita, and he was overjoyed to see her.  He thought she was adorable.  

I took a day to try to adjust the kids to the new time and  place.  They did okay, although Mayita wakes up every night about twice per night wanting to nurse.  She knows I'm in the same room with her and she won't go to back to sleep unless I nurse her.  I've tried giving her her binky, no way, she won't have it. She'll spit back out and cry until I nurse her...and she'll only nurse for like 2 minutes, if that.  What a stinker!

This picture was taken the day after we arrived.  She's so comfortable with her "Lito." 

After some adjustments, it was time to work.  Our tennants from our house moved out and we had to get the house ready for the new tennants to move in.  While my mom took care of the kids during the day, my family helped me fix up the house.  Our last tennant painted the walls, but were left unfinished.  Even though it's now just a rental house, I couldn't stand seeing the crappy paint job.  Other stuff was also fixed on the house.  We were lucky to have the old tennants move out at the beginning of the summer, since a lot of people move in the summer time, it was easy to find new tennatns. I just hope these guys are good as my old tennant and will take care of the house, and won't be too much trouble.  We'll see.  

Catching Up

Okay, so life has been kind of busy for us in the past few weeks.  Since we're still waiting to hear back from several companies for Newel's work, we decided it was time to leave Stanford.  We sold/threw out a lot of our stuff.  The remainder items we packed them and placed them in storage.  I decided to go to FL and visit my family and take care of some tennant business.  I've been here for almost three weeks, and in a few days we're flying to UT to stay with family, while we wait to find out where we're going...hopefully, we'll know really soon...although I've been saying that for the last 7-8months...this is definately a great time to be in school, not looking for a job, with the way the economy is doing.  

Newel is currently in UT, waiting for us to get there.  He's a lonely man right now, missing us like crazy, while we're having fun in FL with the family. 

We're doing well, even if the economy is not so well, and we don't have a permanent address, for now.  We have our health, we have each other, and that's what matters.  

Life is full of trials, and if you don't have trials, you don't grow.  Well, I think we're doing a lot of growing, and I feel like we're taking it easy, positive, and peacefully.  Once we know where life is taking us, I'll post it.  In the meantime, life goes on, we enjoy every day, almost every moment, and can't wait to see which path Heavenly Father is going to guide us to.  I'm a firm believer that He is with us and is guiding us to where we're supposed to be in life.  He knows us better than we know ourselves and knows what we can handle.  

Now, I'm going to make an attempt to post the last couple of weeks.  

Independence Day!

It's been a while since I've blogged.  Part of me hasn't felt like  blogging, and we've been busy.  

For the sake of keeping things in chronological order, I'm starting where I left off...Independence Day. 

Our day started with an Independence Day breakfast at church...we had fruits, bacon, and french toast...ha, ha.  

There was also a little show where we sang patriotic songs and heard quotes about America, and why it's such a wonderful land.  It was pretty good.  I think we would have enjoyed a lot more if we would have eaten first.  As some of you know me, my life revolves around food. 

After the event we enjoyed a somewhat lazy mid-afternoon, along with some packing.

Later in the afternoon, we invited some of our friends over for a little b-b-que.  Of course we had some yummy burgers, hot dogs,yummy side dishes, along with homemade ice cream as dessert.  We had a wonderful time. 

The guys sat around discussing politics among other things.

Maya also discovered dolls (that's Sally, our friend's favorite doll),  and the best part was poking the doll's eyes, fun.

After the b-b-que, the boys drove over to Redwood City to see the fireworks.  I stayed home with Maya and relaxed.  Arden was so tired from the day's event, he didn't want to climb the stairs...he just crashed on the first step.

A Day at the Ballpark

Thursday afternoon, the boys went out. Rory, Dane, Arden, and Newel, took the train to SF to watch the Giants play.

As you can see the boys are very excited as they wait for the train...but, they don't like how noisy it is.

Arden was very happy to have a fun companion with him.
After arriving to SF, they had a late, cheesy lunch.

And then relieved himself in the bathroom.

The boys got their tickets, passed through security, and hooray, they were inside the stadium, ready to enjoy a day at the ball park.

The seats were nosebleed seats, but the view was awesome.

Father and son having a great time together.

In the spirit of funny/silly pictures, here are some funny/silly ones Arden and Dane posed for...as a matter of fact the creativity credit goes to them.
I don't know what they're doing...but, it looks fun.

Ahh, the slide. Arden remembers the slide from a game we went to last year...what a wonderful memory.

Yep, these boys are silly.

Redwoods and Route 1

California...so much to do. I think a person could live here for thirty years and still not see all of California. We've tried doing as much as possible in the 20 months we've lived here, and yet there's so much we haven't seen just in the area that we live in.

On Tuesday around noon, we packed our lunches, got in our car, and took the back roads through the hills, a beautiful, winding drive...I was getting a bit car sick...but survived. On our way, we got a bit lost, but we were not in a rush to be somewhere at a specific time. We ended up at our final destination, first...the Redwoods Big Basin. It was nice. Yeah, we've been to Muir Woods, so seeing these super tall trees at a different location wasn't as exciting as the first time we saw them. However, the really fun part was for Arden. He really liked climbing the trees. He really is a Jaguar! The trees in Muir Woods, you're not allowed to climb them. May be you're not supposed to climb these ones either???

Anyways, it was really relaxing. After the woods we drove through some more back roads to Route 1. We had not driven through this part of Route 1 before so it was pretty exciting.

We made several stops at different places. We really enjoyed looking at the wind/kite surfers in the water. That looks like a pretty fun sport.

Another stop we made was at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Not a very glamorous photo, but I loved the scenery in the back...Newel was getting Mayita to take a nap.

The lighthouse was closed, but we still enjoyed looking at it, looking at dead sea creatures, playing on the beach, and the rocks.

He looks so handsome.

We made other stops along the coast and taking in the scenery. I just love it. I love how the weather can be so unpredictable. It can be sunny and suddenly it becomes windy and foggy.

Our final stop was dinner at Half Moon Bay and then off to the beach to play.

We had a really fun time. The children were wonderful and the best part is that we were together, having a wonderful time.

Sunday Dinner

Playing a really fun game of duck, duck, goose.

Last Sunday, our friends the Lloyds invited us to their home for dinner. It was three families, the Lloyds, the Nings, and us. It was a lot of fun. The kids ate outside in the children's picnic table, while the adults had a somewhat relaxed dinner at the adult table. I say somewhat relaxed, since, children being children, will argue with each other, want their food cut in pieces, or wasn't the correct sippy cup, etc. So, some interruption is inevitable. Interruptions and all, we had a wonderful time. It was our friend Andrew's birthday. So the dinner turned into a birthday party for Andrew. The children were very excited to have cake and ice cream. Life is a big party, right?

As our time here is coming to an end, I've been thinking about the friendships we've made. I feel so lucky to have known such wonderful people as the Lloyds and the Nings. They're smart, nice, real, unpretentious. I love them a lot and I'm going to miss them. I hope in the years to come, we will remain in contact.

Thank you for your wonderful friendship.