Since we haven't had enough coming and going this summer, I drove to California with the kids last Monday to visit old friends, family, and enjoy some southern California fun. (Brandon joined us on Wednesday night and we're driving home together this coming Monday.) I just noticed that the post below includes 4th of July pictures, which means--as usual--that I'm about a month behind with no sign of catching up. I think I'm going to do nothing but sleep and blog during the first week of school. Oh, wait! I still have a pre-school age child . . .
Because you can never get enough pictures of a natural disaster, here's the initial big cloud before it started to disperse in the wind:
It was mesmerizing to watch the planes and helicopters dumping fire retardant and water on the fire:
Check out the circle of ash around this house that sits up high on the mountain. Those firefighters are serious heroes:
After the fire settled down:
Believe it or not, we've seen some hot spots still smoking near the top of the mountain as recently as last week--that's over 2 weeks after the fire was supposedly out!
Full moon that night:
The next day was the 4th of July and Brandon's birthday, but as has happened SO many times in our married life, his birthday got kind of squished into the sidelines. Med school programs run July to July, so many of our moves and his busiest work times have landed on his birthday in the past (he's frequently been on call for his birthday) and this year was no exception! While he wasn't on call and we are obviously not in a medical training program, we were just coming off a really crazy move and as a result his birthday got a little neglected. Poor Brandon! Luckily, he's not the one who feels awful about it (he doesn't like a big fuss being made about his birthday), but we did at least manage to get him some sushi for lunch:
The BYU Bookstore is one of Brandon's favorite places, so I planned to give him an hour or two in there by himself while the rest of us went bowling, but guess what? Closed on the 4th! Luckily, the bowling was still open:
Nice form, Andrew!
Brandon looks like he's about to lose his dentures:
My dad was being a real ham the whole day:
Love this little sequence of pictures:
Kate does NOT like bowling, and spent the entire time drawing in her little notebook:
We don't bowl very often, so we had some pretty phenomenal form going on. Will and Andrew BOTH managed to drop balls on the lane so hard that they bounced and went over onto the NEXT lane!
That night was one of the main reasons my parents were in town (other than the baptism and the joy of unexpectedly experiencing our moving fiasco with us)--Beach Boys in concert at The Stadium of Fire:
American Idol winner, Scott McCreary, was the opening act:
Rachael was really into the licorice:
The main event. Hard to believe those guys are in their 70's--they put on a great show! So fun to hear all those songs from my childhood live in concert with my Mom and Dad. Wished I had had a video rolling of their faces during the concert:
That's all folks! Heading out to Santa Monica beach today to
"fly a kite" with the family . . .
I finally remembered to look up your blog to see if you found a house! You did! What a wild spring and summer you've had though. I hope you're all settling in.
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