Believe It or Not

Believe it or not, but Blogger hates me. For some reason the internet disconnects each and every time I upload a photo and it won't let me rearrange my photos. So get ready for a very random, hopefully brief, update.

Believe it or not, but we are alive and mostly well. There have been times in the past 2 months where each one of us wondered if we would live to see the next sunrise, but alas we pulled through.

Believe it or not, but we finally went on a family vacation to see our good friends in sunny California.


On our last day (see there is no order to this madness) we visited the Mormon Battalion visitor center. It was incredible. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip...and the whole trip was fun! It's not what you think with a visitor center. It was super interactive and so well done. I would recommend it to everyone! In the photo on the right Jaxon is panning for gold...which he got to keep!


We spent time on the beach...mostly taking family photos, but we did let the kids play in the water when we were done. Ryker is seen walking away. Anyone surprised he didn't like the water? Yeah, me either. Jaxon, Kyle, and Marie, however, loved every minute of it!

In Old Town San Diego we went to lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant. A man came by and made balloon animals/swords/hats/whatever your heart desired. He favored us with a dinosaur and a sword. For a small tip he sure made two little boys happy!

We took the boys to Sea World and it was everything we had hoped for. It was so much fun to see the boys so excited. They loved it!

We loved our vacation, we loved seeing our friends (make sure you move somewhere fun again so we can make this a regular thing, hint hint!) and we had a fabulous time! And I think it's safe to say that I would be more than happy to live in Southern California in November. It was heavenly! And oh, so depressing to drive home in a snow storm :(

Believe it or not, but one day in October we woke up and decided to drive to Denver that day... with our two kids! So, we rented a car and made the trek. Shortly after arriving in Denver we test drove, negotiated over, and bought a new family car. About 12 hours after arriving in Denver (after a good night's sleep thanks to the very generous Swapp's) we made the drive home in, believe it or not, a mini van! I never thought I would own a mini van, and I certainly never thought I would love it. But I do....on both accounts. Oh, and heated seats are now a necessity!

Believe it or not, but way back in September we strongly encouraged Jaxon to take a ride in a helicopter. Since this was apparently a family outing (I would have been fine staying on the ground) Brian's dad and I also went along for the ride. It's not my first, nor will it probably be my last. Brian has a sort of, oh, I don't know, obsession with things that fly!

So, even though Jaxon begged, pleaded, and cried not to go on the helicopter, before we were done he was laughing and smiling and wanted to do it again. And as Brian often says "The sky is blue, the clouds are white. I'm the dad and I'm always right." He was definitely right about this!

Believe it or not, but we did actually celebrate Halloween this year. It was fun. We dressed up. Ryker was a monkey (a very uncooperative monkey at first...hense no pictures at our house) and Jaxon was a Ninja. I was a....weird nerdy person with really cool hair!

Oh, and I even stepped it up a notch (seriously...so surprised) and tried to make a super fun Halloween meal. Even the pancakes got in on the dressing up action! It was lots of fun (I didn't take any pictures of our dinner....little mummies, bug salad, fingers 'n dip, etc.) and I plan on doing it every year.

And believe it or not, but this very random (and long over due) post is finally over.