Busy, Fun, and Life

I'm sorry I haven't kept this up. Mostly it's because I suck. :) So anyway -- let's see. My husband enlisted in the army. He is going to be a Combat Engineer. Which I'm sure involves a lot more than what anyone is telling me. And I think I am ok with no one telling me. He is supposed to leave on October 27th. Maybe. They just called him yesterday wanting him to leave sometime in August. Hmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's what he wants and there are a lot of great benefits. But....it's my husband going away. As much as he might frustrate me from time to time - he is my husband and I love him. *sigh*

Also - we moved. We moved out of our tiny little apartment in the midvale ghetto to my grandparents house in Holladay. It's 3 times the size. You can walk around and not trip over each other. The kids can go down in the basement, play their drums, games, whatever and they have all the room they need. And best of all -- I have no attached neighbors to yell at, or to yell at me. It's awesome. It took some work, but it's nice.

We went to California last weekend to visit Aaron's friend and his family. That was wonderful!! We had bought the tickets last year to visit his sister fr Christmas but were unable to go. The airline reminded me that the tickets had to be used by August or they were going to expire. (non-refundable and all that jazz)So we decided to go to San Jose. We flew in Friday morning. It was the kids first flight and they thought it was pretty cool. His friend Jen took us back to her house where we were staying to drop off our stuff and have some lunch - then she took us and her friend Chris to San Francisco.

San Francisco was amazing. Driving in it with Aaron at the wheel was scary. Kind of like being on a roller coaster. There were a couple of streets I swear we were vertical. Once while we were halfway through an intersection - an ambulance was coming the other way. As soon as they saw us they blasted their horn and lights and Aaron almost had a heart attack. I think they did it on purpose and laughed. I would have. :)


We went to Pier 39 and wandered. It was great. Their was a street performer guy Josh liked. We went and saw the sea lions, who oddly enough seemed like a group of noisy, snorting, grumpy old men. But the babies were sure cute. They were all laid out on the wood blocks like a giant harvest. Watching one of the ones swimming around climb back up on one while stepping on a bunch of other sea lions was kind of fun. Then we went and wandered through China town. That was fun.
I have this terrible attraction to cute useless things, so all these knick knack stores of course suck me in. There were awesome carvings and pretty little glass bottles and bone boxes and little figurines. Of course, there was a whole shelf in each store of figurines we had to steer the kids away from as they were old oriental people in every sexual position possible (and some I don't think were). I thought it was hilarious but still...not so much for Curtis and Josh.
We bought steamed pork buns and they were awesome! Give you heartburn for sure but still....yum! There were dragons on every single lamp post! Every one! How cool is that? Outside of one store there was a box of shoes that had all been stained in some way - new with tags on but stained. A couple kids made off with the boxes and took all but one pair. Jen's friend Chris picked them up and walked the next couple of blocks saying "Hey free shoes. Size nine - brand new." It was funny - then he stuck them in a fence.

Day two of our vacation was pretty relaxed. We went to a skydiving place where Jen helps out at packing parachute's and jumping when she can. We watched the planes and jumpers. We watched them practice poses on a wheeled table to show the newbies how to hold themselves and watched them pack chutes. They let us climb in the plane and jump out just so we could say we did. And Four feet to the ground is the only way I'm jumping out of that sucker. Josh was very disappointed to learn he was not big enough to skydive. They got a little bored and managed to find a video game machine in the corner. Then we just went and relaxed at Aaron's family's house. Curtis was being a brat and not letting me take pictures of him. Ick!

Day three was at the beach!! It was Curtis's birthday and we promised him bikini's. We wen to Santa Cruz. It was like Lagoon and a beach!! We played in the sand, buried Josh, and tried to body surf. We all biffed it pretty good, but it was fun. I just didn't expect the water to be so cold! Holy Crap! It was awesome! Curtis even smiled! Then we went to another beach about 20 minutes north. There was alomst no one there. It was foggy and breezy and chilly but it was so much fun! Jen said it was a clothing optional beach but I don't know if I beleive her. It was so pretty with these rocks that jutted out and the waves crashing over them. They tried to climb them a couple times but the waves were too high, Every time I tried to write happy birthday in the sand it kept washing away. It was awesome. I know I keep saying that but really..... I wish I could go back. I loved it. It was relaxing - no one argued. We needed it. I only had one complaint. Well two. We needed more time there. And we spent more on parking than anything else. But I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat!