Things I Love About LA

Since we arrived here in LA (yep, that's what we like to call it -- LA) I've been thinking about the things that I really like about living here.

• The mountains and all the trees.
• How it clouds up, cools off, and rains (or tries to) every afternoon in the summer.
• How quiet it is. The birds in the backyard sound really loud (and so do my kids).
• Really nice people.
• All the great free family community events.
• 9:00 church (and it never changes since we're the only ward in our building)

Here's an aerial pic of Los Alamos. The lab is on the left and we live on the very northern mesa (on the right).

A little fishin'

Last week while at the Judi Family Reunion in Clear Creek we went fishing at Electric Lake. The lake and surrounding areas are really pretty and the kids had fun going in Grandpa's boat.

Grandpa caught two fish! Jack was pretty fascinated by them.

Jack wanted to touch the water, but his arms were a little too short.

Isn't Moving Fun?

Well, we made it to Los Alamos. We are pretty much unpacked and getting settled. It sure is nice to have a house with more space! We have lots of projects to work on (like the yard, etc.). I've spent the last two days since we got here painting the family room. I'll post pictures when I finish.

Here are a few moving pictures. The first two are of the kids taking a nap in our empty house in Salt Lake while I cleaned.

Kate and Jack helping Dave put together the toy shelf in our new house.

Great Friends!

Well, we are finally halfway done with our move. The really hard part is over (packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye to great friends and family) and now we just have to wait a few more days before we drive to NM and unpack.

We've just spent 5 days in Clear Creek at the "Judi Family Reunion." It was fun and relaxing and nice to be in the mountains and with family. I'll post pictures later. I was just checking my email and checking up on everyone's blogs and it's beginning to hit me how much I'm going to miss all my great friends in Salt Lake. We only lived there 9 months, but there are so many great ladies that I grew really close to and will miss so much!

Thanks to all of you for watching my kids (and offering to watch them, but not being able to because Kate had the stomach flu and a fever while I was packing so the kids stayed home)! And for offering to help pack and clean. Thanks to sweet Suzi for making me a great 6 CD music mix (I've already listened to 5 of the CDs already)! The list goes on and on! I will miss all of you so much (and I'll miss running with you too)! So, keep on blogging and emailing and I'll be okay.

Last week my friends threw a surprise-pizza-picnic-farewell party for me which was really sweet of them! Here are a few pics from it. The rest of my pics are on my computer which is packed away in the trailer somewhere. (Here's a little sidenote: all of our stuff fit in our trailer! It's a miracle! We didn't have to leave anything behind.)



I wish I had more pictures of all of my friends and there cute kids handy, but I'll have to post more later. Here is a pic of Kate and Jack with my great friend, Liz's kids, Astin and Fiona. They came over and had one last running-threw-the-sprinkler-playdate together before we left. Anyway...I'm really glad that my kids are healthy now and our stuff all fit and we're all packed and ready to go to our next adventure in our lives. I'm really glad that we have great friends in New Mexico waiting for us. That makes the whole moving process easier. But as I sit here at Dave's parent's house blogging away I'm missing all of my friends and my family already. So, everyone start planning your next trip to New Mexico!

Health Issues?

Okay, so I think I've taken Jack to the doctor five or six times in the last month and a half. I just took him on Tuesday to the Kidscare -- I was sure he had an ear infection because he's had a runny nose FOREVER and he had a fever. The doctor couldn't find anything, but I felt a little better. But Jack has had a fever pretty much constantly since Monday night (except this morning when I took him to the doctor). Anyway...Our pediatrician finally took pity on me (maybe because he was on-call last night and I called him at 2 am because Jack's fever was 103.5) and gave Jack a prescription to treat a sinus infection. Hopefully it will clear everything up and he'll get back to normal (and hopefully his fever bug goes away soon too). He wants to be held all the time and I need to get packing!

Doesn't he look sick? Okay, so this is today after his motrin started working. He really wanted his picture taken.

Kate got some nice mosquito bites at my parent's house the other day. She wanted me to take a picture of her "owie." Notice the nice bite on her forehead and another swollen one on her nose.
Anyone know what kind of flowers these are? They are planted on our porch and just started blooming yesterday.

One Last Trip

The kids and I took one last trip to my parent's house yesterday and came back today. It's the last time we'll be down there for a while. It was a fun and quick trip. We'll miss being close to go stay with Grandma and Grandpa whenever we want.

Jack loves Grandpa's horse swing!

The baby lambs have grown a bit since our visit last month.
Jack, Kate, and Emmy
Kate loves Ginger (the horse)!
Jack doesn't love Ginger. He loves to be held.
Kate going for a ride.

Jack opted to water the flowers instead of going on a horse ride.

A future rodeo queen maybe?

This morning we went to the Fairview Museums. This was one of my favorite exhibits in the musuem growing up (Cinderella at the ball). Kate liked it too.

Carousel Fun?

The kids and I went to the zoo on Friday to try out the new carousel. Jack however, wasn't a fan. He was petrified. He was holding on the bar and my arm really tight. Halfway through the ride I decided that he wasn't going to enjoy it so I held him. Kate on the other hand, loved it! We went back yesterday with Dave so Kate could ride it again. Jack just watched that time.
You can't go to the zoo without posing for a picture on these tigers.
The baby giraffe is growing up! He was born in Nov. right before we bought our zoo pass.
Last night we watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and I loved it! I thought it was really cute and the kids enjoyed it too.

Bikes

Dave got a new bike last week, so we've been going on some fun family bike rides. We bought this bike trailer two years ago, but only had one bike. So one of us would take the kids on rides in it. I've really enjoyed riding a bike! It's been a long time since I've ridden a lot, but it is pretty fun (and I've forgotten how fast you can get somewhere).

Taken when Kate was 2 and when the bike trailer was a little less faded.

Good Times

Yesterday I met two of my friends, Emily and Kristy, at a park for a picnic. We hadn't been together for a long time. We were all in the same ward a few years ago. It was fun to see them and their cute kids. The kids all played really well together, but from the looking at the picture that we took before we loaded them in our cars to leave, it probably doesn't look like it.

Clear Creek

This weekend we went to Clear Creek to help Vaughn get the house ready for the upcoming "Judi" reunion. Dave and Vaughn worked in the yard and cleared stuff out of the house while I tackled cleaning windows and walls (I stopped cleaning the walls after a while since it made them look worse since the house is so old -- 100+ years).

"Cheese!" Jack wanted me to take his picture so he could look at it. He's been a little monkey lately. All he says pretty much is "mine." "My ball. My car." Etc. Etc. Tonight I was singing him "I am a Child of God" and he said, "No, my dear. No, my way!" Great! I hope this "mine" stage ends soon!

Checking out the new fire hydrant shed.

Jack was freaking out while I took this picture. The cement next to the big door was chipped and Jack was a little nervous about walking near it or stepping over it.Playing in Grandpa's truck. My kids can pretend to drive for hours!We were going to go fishing, but it was snowing in the morning and too windy in the afternoon. We ate our lunch in the boat on the trailer instead.

We've had this slide for a few years, but the kids enjoyed it more at Clear Creek. We're donating it to Grandma and Grandpa J since we'll have a big slide in our new backyard. Hooray!

Here's a little side note: Dave gets an award for finding my contact, again! He's amazing! I dropped it in the car on our drive down to Clear Creek. I don't know how he found it. I thought I was going to have to wear glasses for the rest of my life. I can't lose another contact again. It's a little too stressful.