First Day of School

This is a big school year at our house. Aaron started high school, it's hard for me to believe, but it's true. Like his sisters, he is in student council. This year, Todd decided he would take Aaron to seminary, so they leave the house at 6:45 a.m. It is quite different to have a boy in high school instead of girls. Aaron gets up when his alarm goes off, gets ready, and is on time every day to seminary. Yes, it is very, very different. 

The girls were nice enough to send me a picture of them on their first day of school. They had many years of sitting on the stairs for first day of school photos, and must have known how much I would want a picture of their first day.

Birthday 2012

I have turned 42. In spite of my age, I had a great birthday. I got to go out to a nice dinner, eat pie and open presents, what more could I ask for? I got a special package from the girls. I love Willow Tree statues and they sent me the one for learning, since I am a college student now. I also got the "forget me not" statue from my mother-in-law. I was excited to get two new statues! My girls also sent each of us an Aggie t-shirt. I loved all my presents!

  Hmmm...duct tape??

College Life

The girls are enjoying college. They stay very busy. Ariel has been applying for grad school and is preparing to graduate with her bachelor's degree in May. Megan has adjusted well to living on her own. Here are a few recent pictures of them.

We miss the girls!!!

Summer School Is Over

Aaron and I both had summer school, it was pretty intense. He was taking Algebra and I was doing Biology. I told Aaron, IF and when we finished our classes, and IF we survived, we would take a little trip together. 

My brother was working in LA so we decided to go visit him for the week. He told us the accommodations wouldn't be good. He said it would be like camping, except we would have a flushing toilet. He said, "This won't be like a Motel 6, it will be like a Motel 4." Well, all that talk was so enticing  so we went to stay with him.

 Aaron and I spent a lot of time at the beach, we risked our lives every time we had to drive anywhere. LA is by far the worst place I have ever driven. In spite of that, we had a great time and every night we came back to the "suite" (that's what I kept calling the place, Stephen wasn't sure why) we watched the Olympics and ate junk food.

 

 We enjoyed a roller coaster ride and carnival games at the Santa Monica Pier

 We went to the original "muscle beach" it was the best place to "people watch." We saw the guy from the Hanes commercial swinging on the rings. He was crazy, but a lot of fun to watch.

 Aaron spent several hours building a sand castle.

 He didn't like the finished product too much, but I thought it was awesome.

We had to check out Venice Beach. It was a scary place and we couldn't wait to leave. There was muscle beach there too (which was just an outdoor Gold's Gym.) There were some interesting guys trying to impress the public with their work-out skills, we weren't impressed. 

 My favorite part of the trip was visiting the DW Drum Factory in Oxnard, California. Even though the tour was full, Todd arranged  for us to see the showroom. Aaron was able to play a lot of the fancy drum kits on the floor, it was awesome!

We had a great week. The beach is one of my very favorite places, and just what I needed after such a stressful semester. We were sorry Todd and the girls couldn't be with us.