Like Father...

Like Son

This June we also said goodbye to Uncle Joel. Jared's brother Joel has been called to serve a mission in the Czech Republic Prague mission. We are so excited for Joel and this new adventure that he has gone on. He has been in the Czech Republic for about a month now and he has grown so much. Even though we miss him very much (especially me on movie nights) we are really happy to have Joel serving a mission. We Love you Joel!

Guess Who's 6 now!







This June we celebrated Miyah's birthday with a Luau. We had a fun party with some friends from the neighborhood there. We had a limbo contest and played some games. A fun time was had by all. Especially the birthday girl.

I know I have not blogged for forever. So much has happened for us these last few months that I will just give you some highlights. For Spring Break the kids and I went to California to see Jared and we spent 2 days at Disneyland. It was so much fun. I seriously love Disneyland. It was really fun this time because our kids are a little older so they enjoyed it more. Shanes favorite ride was Indiana Jones, I think we rode it 3 times.

We had the blue and gold banquet last Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun. Grandma and Grandpa came with us. We decorated cakes and ate fried chicken and salads.

At the banquet Shane recieved his Bobcat badge and a gold arrow point. It has been fun for me to help Shane earn his badges. I don't really know a lot about scouts but we are having lots of fun

So we got our pictures taken last week. We had our friend Jilynn take them and she did a fantastic job. Thanks Jilynn.

So seriously I am a slacker. (I hope you are happy now Jillyn!) Well things here have been pretty crazy since I last blogged. Jared has been very busy with clinicals. He has about 375 cases so far which is pretty awesome considering he has only been doing clinicals since September. Miyah is in Kindergarten and doing very well. She is really reading well and learning a lot. Shane is also doing really well in school. Jared and I were able to go back to St.Helena California where we used to live back in November. We spent the weekend there doing all the stuff we loved to do while we lived there. We went to San Francisco and spent some time in Napa. We ate at the Red Hen Cantina and Guini's (Junies). We were also able to go to our old Branch and visit with all of our friends there. It was fun to see the old place. Shane turned 8 this December so on December 20th he was baptised. We had a special baptism just for Shane so that Jared could baptise him. Our family and friends were there. It was a very fun day. He has also had a blast going to cubscouts. We also had a very nice Christmas and New Years.

So when I said that I would blog more often than Jared did obviously I was lying. Summer is finally here and we have been having lots of fun. Before school got out and in between Jared's semesters our family went down to Zion's National Park. It was a really fun trip. We stayed in a hotel in Mesquite that had a pool and bowling alley that the kids really enjoyed. That is the first time that I had ever been to Zions and it was really beautiful. We hiked around on a few trails and had a really good mini vacation. We also went and visited our old friends Mike and Katrina Wood. They are just as hilarious as ever. It was fun to see them.
Jared has been going to school this whole summer. He will probably go to school right up till he starts clinical rotations.( Loads of fun let me tell you ) The kids started swimming lessons last week. They are taking them up at Westminster. Miyah is in a class with about 5 other kids. She is doing really well. She has been a little afraid of the water this year so this class has been good for her. Shane's class didn't have any other kids sign up so he is getting private lessons. He gets braver every time, it's fun to watch them.
Mostly this summer we have been hanging around our place. We are finally starting to make more friends here and we have all the neighborhood kids over about every night. It gets kind of crazy but you know I love that stuff.
We had a fun visit with our friends Lisa and Luke Morgan from California. It was fun to hang out with them and catch up on all the goings on of our old branch.
We have been living here in Utah for 1 year now. It's crazy how fast the time is going. Miyah turned 5 last month and is very eager to start kindergarten. She asks me every other day when school starts. It's hard for me to believe I will have two kids in school this year. We hope you are all having a good summer. I will post more soon.

Hello Friends!
I finally had Jared show me how to work this blog so hopefully it will be updated a little more frequently now.
Things here in Utah are pretty crazy. Jared is very busy with school. He pretty much spends all of his time studying and studying some more. In a few weeks he will be done with his second semester with only 5 more semesters to go. I just keep saying you can do anything for a few years. He is doing well. I don't mean to brag (ok maybe a little) but Jared is one smart dude.

Shane and Miyah are also doing well in school. Shane is learning a lot and his reading has improved about 100%. Miyah loves preschool. She is very artistic and she loves to sing. If she doesn't know the words to a song she just makes them up as she goes. (kind of like Jared).

I am also doing well. I know this is hard to believe because I look so youthful but I am turning 30 this week. I am officially one of the old ladies in my ward.

We hope you are all having a great spring.

Hello from Utah!
No more bragging about how warm we are while the rest of you freeze. Now we are bundled up in parkas while our neighbors are wearing shorts here in Utah. Our family moved here from St. Helena, CA in July. We now reside in Lehi. Nice Mormon sounding town. And there are a lot of them here. Like anything, this brings its own benefits and problems. I do miss being the token Mormon at work, etc. Now I am the token 49er fan. Shane and I started school in August. Miyah started preschool on Friday. We are all enjoying it getting into our respective routines. We did have a lot of fun this summer. We have been to Lagoon (sort of like 6 flags). We camped and played up at Bear Lake. We got to see the fall leaves up in the mountains at Snow Bird ski resort. Now we are trying to find ways to have fun that is cheap. I quit my job to better focus on School. It is not easy and I actually have to work my butt off to do well. Thankfully, I have a good wife who understands my neuroses and loves and supports me. I am going to teach her how to do this blog, so it actually gets updated more than once every 4 months.

Feels Like spring!
I know I have slacked off and not blogged anything for months. I will try and do better. We are almost done with February. Hurray! Actually, this year has been pretty nice. No flooding. Not even a lot of rain. The mustard fields are spectacular. We had to stop after church and take a photo. Who knows, maybe this will be the last year we live here. For now, we are just enjoying life. I thank God every day for my beautiful family, my job, and for my health. Who could ask for more.
 

Happy Halloween! Our's was really fun this year. Shane got to march in the Kindergarten parade. Miyah got to participate too. We went trick or treating in the richy rich neighborhood in St. Helena. The weather has been great this fall. We have been doing a lot of playing outside. We took the dog and went hiking in Los Pasados forest above our house, and climbed the giant boulders. Now we are preparing for a fun Thanksgiving at Disneyland!

Spelunking in the Napa Valley?

Yep, Shane and I explored a small cave only 1/4 mile from our house. As you can see, Shane wasn't too thrilled about being underground. Sometimes an active immagination can be a bad thing. But, we got to see some of the less obvious local wildlife, including a tiny bat, and some not so tiny bannanna slugs. The highlight was Shane's comment to Heather when we got home. He told her, "Dad got stuck coming out of the cave, because he was too fat. Troy had to pull him out!" Thanks Shane.

It's been a while since we've posted anything. We've had a busy summer. We have taken a lot of trips. We went to Utah for the 4th of July. We went to the parade and the Elliott family reunion. Shane and I went with the boys on the Thompson father-son camp out. Then in August, we visited Heather's family in Idaho. We did some camping and got to see some of our old friends. We attended our niece Toni's wedding. The end of August was the open house for the Sacramento Temple. We drove there with our branch. It was beautiful. Now we are in school mode. Shane started Kindergarten at St. Helena Primary School. He loves it. Last , but not least, we are joined by a new member of the family. We bought a cute chocolate lab puppy named Sophia. She is a sweet little girl. All in all, it was a great summer, though we are glad to be staying home for a while.

We recently Celebrated Miyah's 3'd Birthday! She had a little party with a butterfly cake and lots of presents. She received a lot of frilly, pink, and pastel dresses; and barbies of course. Thanks to everyone for all the fun gifts.

On Monday night, the Giants played the Astros here in San Francisco. Some friends of ours in the branch had a couple of extra tickets, so Shane and I got to go. AT&T park is amazing. We had a surprising good view from the upper deck. After the 3d inning, we moved to closer seats. We watched the guys in kayaks paddling around the bay behind center field. Shane got to slide down a big slide inside the giant coke bottle in left field. It was a lot of fun. Who knew baseball wasn't really that boring after all. Too bad Barry Bonds didn't play. Like him or hate him, it would be cool to see him hit a homer.

Howdy President! That was the sign on the fence at Shane's School this week. President Bush stayed in the Meadowwood Resort here in St. Helena this weekend. I guess they closed off the whole town and demonstrators clogged the streets. The pres went mountain biking at my favorite trail in the Las Posadas State Forest up the hill in Angwin. Small world huh?

Rats! Back in October, we had a family of rats living in our attic. They had a hole to the roof and would come out at night. That was fine, until during a storm, one fell down into the vent over our stove. We called the maintenance guy to come take care of it. Before it was said and done, they pulled two out of the vent, but not before one had started to decompose. The really fun part was the maggots that fell through the vent and onto the stove and kitchen floor. Yummy! Part of the charm of living in the woods. Well, tonight I heard the sound of squealing in the vent again. Joy! Guess I will call and have the guys come over again. I am not about to reach in there myself. Squeak squeak!

8 Years baby! We still got it!