The holidays have come and gone. We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids are the perfect age to be old enough to anticipate Christmas morning and young enough to anticipate what Santa will bring. Christmas truly is magical with kids around. The boys got lots of LEGO sets and Emily got a Barbie dollhouse. Now it is January and we are waiting for some warmer weather. It will be nice to send the kids outside in the backyard to play someday soon.

Disneyland Vacation

We spent a week in October in Southern California. We spent four days at Disneyland, one day at Legoland, and one day at Huntington Beach. We drove in our van and the drive actually went really well. We stayed in the Hampton Inn in Anaheim and Nana and Papa Dachenhausen drove from Penn Valley to spend the week with us there. It was a LOT of fun. We were on the go most of the time and crashed in our hotel room at night. The kids had fun on all of the rides and so did mom and dad. We hope to go back soon!!

Ryan has started the 3rd grade at Altara Elementary and Luke is in 1st grade. Emily is in her first year of pre-school. She goes two mornings each work for two hours each time. She loves being with her friends at school. She is also taking a dance class once a week. Emily loves to get in her ballet clothes and go to class. Ryan started Fall soccor and Luke started Flag-football. Between the two of them, we have four games each week until mid-October. We will be busy until then. Phil has started his last year of his MBA at Westminster, so everyone is back in school . . . except for me. No desire there.

We have had a busy summer. Yesterday we went to Draper Days parade. I ran in the 5k before the parade. Phil and I went to lunch and we left the kids with a babysitter. The weekend before we went to the Draper Days rodeo. That was a lot of fun. The kids had swimming lessons for a week in June. That was a lot of fun. For the 4th of July we went up to Island Park, Idaho. We took the fishing fishing on Grandpa's boat and four-wheeling. The kids always have lots of fun up there. The weather was a little rainy and cool, but very enjoyable. We have also spent the summer doing some home repairs -- sprinkler lines, a leaky window, broken water softener and those clogged cold water lines. The kids start school in five weeks. I have to admit, I am a little excited.

Emily's Un-Birthday

Emily's birthday is July 25 . . . she is one of the last birthday's in the calendar year in my family. We have already celebrated Ryan's, Luke's, mine, Grandma's, Aunt Brooke's, and a few cousin's birthdays in the last few months. Emily can tell you her birthday is in July, and wants "July" to be "today." Every other day she asks, "When is it going to be my party day?" I do feel bad for her. She is only two and July is still a ways off, so we put a candle in a large Costco cupcake today and the two of us sang "Happy Birthday" to Emily . . . after that she wanted some balloons and a present. So much for the appeasement.

So, it's been a long time . . .

Okay, so I have committed to post more that once a year. I am going to commit to this blog because I am not a good journal writer, and this will help me to keep a journal for my posterity. I will right more later, because Luke and Emily are in the shower and I think I hear water running down the hallway . . .

4th of July

We have enjoyed a nice 4th of July weekend in Island Park, Idaho with Grandma and Grandpa Murray. Ryan and Luke and Emily have enjoyed riding around on the 4-wheelers with Dad and Grandpa. We all enjoyed floating down the river at Mack's Inn on Saturday and went to Lakeside Lodge to watch fireworks on the 4th of July. The boys thought that the rireworks were awesome and wanted to get as close as possible to where they were being launched. The mosquitos weren't too bad, which was nice. We enjoyed good food and daily naps (nice for mom) along with the 4-wheeling and explorations in the woods. We love it in Idaho and can't wait to come back soon.