Floida/Mission reunion

Curtis served his mission in Tallahassee, Florida a few years back (1991-1993). His buddies from his mission decided to have a reunion there when BYU and Florida State played Football against each other on September 18th. Since Curtis actually lived and worked right there at Florida State and he LOVES BYU football it was a great excuse to go back. I would have loved to have gone with him, but I can't bear to travel anywhere with Trey right now. We didn't really want to leave Trey or the kids with anyone and be all the way across the country. We decided Dax would be his travel buddy.

We sent them off with a Florida Farewell. My mom used to make Alligator bread. I was so happy to have gotten the directions and recipe from Marilyn M. a few months back. I finally had an excuse to make it. This gator turned out a little on the fat side. I needed a longer pan to make him long and lean. Maybe next time. He was still tasty with southern BBQ. The kids liked him too.

First, they flew into Pensacola, FL where I hear it has beautiful WHITE sandy beaches. Dax was impressed with how white the beaches were. I have heard the beaches described as sugar or flour. Curtis was sad when the gulf oil spill was going on a few months back and at one point they thought the oil would hit those beaches. Luckily it didn't, they are still beautiful.

There was one point early in the trip when Dax thought it would a miserable trip since he left his Nintendo Dsi and games in the car. Ughh. That boy's life revolves around video games. They would be doing a lot of traveling in the car so he really wanted his games. I overnighted the games, he had them the next day, and now life was good again.

Dax at a Shark museum.

Dax getting eaten by an Alligator

King Dax getting spoiled rotten by Dad. I would never do this. I'm too cheap and mean.

I can not get this picture to go in the right direction. Dax and Curtis holding a wicked young Alligator. His mouth is taped shut, but they said it whipped its tail around and even for a small one had some strength. Nothing to mess with. I want to know who get's to put the tape on that mouth and take it off???

Dax driving a go-cart. Once again spoiled rotten

The next night they were at Panama City Beach. This is Dax on the Balcony of the Hotel.


Game DAY

BYU lost, but we won't talk about that. They still had a great time.
After the game, Curtis and Dax headed over to the Waffle House which was right next to their hotel, but still about 7 miles from the stadium. They sat down to eat and who was at the table next to them??? Legendary BYU coach LaVelle Edwards. If I wasn't married to Curtis I would have no clue who this man was. So random that they would run into him. LaVelle and his wife were at the game, but at this point they were nowhere near the stadium, crazy that they happened to run into them where they did. He was very nice and took a picture with them, then after they ate Curtis had a minute to chat with him. If I were ever to run into LaVelle Edwards I would want Curtis to be there because he knows every stat and every bit of trivia about this team and coach.

Curtis, Lavelle Edwards and Dax

Dax at Wacolla Springs. You can see a big Manatee in the water behind him. I think those are the ugliest fish.
Dax and Uncle Herman at Wacolla Springs. They met up with Herman who is in the Air Force in Panama City, FL

Swim Lessons

Trey Started Swim lessons today. We knew we had to get him going on this since we have the pool in the backyard. The net that we use as our pool barrier for the last 7 years is on its last legs, hopefully, we will get him swimming before it snaps. He does love to swim and play in the water.

Today was his first lesson and he loved it. I knew he would, none of my boys have ever been afraid of the water or swimming. He laughed, and splashed and couldn't wait to get in the water before his lesson started. He is the first kid that I actually got in the water for the lesson. Dax and Derek took swim lessons at a different place and they didn't require me to be in the water with them.

When I came home and told everyone about the swim lesson, Dax and Derek were so proud of him. Derek asked, "did you take pictures?" I thought that was cute because they were so proud of their baby brother. Unfortunately, I was in the water with him, so no pictures.

Kids Today

We have realized that with DVR we have created a monster. We can record shows, pause them go back, and watch the funny parts over and over and over. The monster is that the kids don't understand that we just can't always make a show appear on TV whenever we want, although it seems that way most of the time.

 There has been this TV show that Derek keeps seeing commercials for and he wants to watch it, but when he goes back through his "kid channels" he can never find it. So I did a search through the DVR and it said this show, Sonic X, only comes on Saturday mornings, and it was on one of the networks, WB, that showed other shows besides kid shows(no Disney, Nick, or Cartoon network, etc). I set it up to record, of course, we didn't find this show until the day after it already aired, so we have to wait almost a week to watch it. He doesn't understand why I can't just make it appear on TV. 

 Every day Derek asks me if the show was on. I tell him "no," Today he came to me and he said "every time I go to the channel that you told me it was on, there are only adult shows on the channel and they never have any kid shows, I don't think it's the right channel for Sonic X". I laughed and told him when I was a kid that is how TV was. We only watched cartoons on Saturday mornings and there were no "kid channels" with "kid shows" He asked me what kind of shows I watched so I told him the Flintstones, Jetsons, Smurfs, etc. Then he said "I don't like those shows" he knows that because he has watched them on Boomerang, another kid channel. I told him that's all there was to watch there were not really kid shows like Hanna Montana, Zach and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc. and we only had about maybe 10 channels, not 250. He couldn't believe that I didn't have the Disney channel or any other of his "kid channels" and then he said, "why were they so mean?". Hahahahahah-laugh out loud. I didn't realize what a conspiracy it was to be mean to us kids, it was just the way it was. Spoiled rotten brats that we are raising.

Grandparents Day

Grandpa "Papa" Lund with Dax and Derek, September 9, 2010

Today is Grandparents Day. This week the kid's school had a day to invite Grandparents into the school. When they first brought home the flyer, I didn't think anything of it because my Dad is the closest Grandparent in Flagstaff and he is usually busy during the week doing his work at NAU. Dax said he still wanted to invite Papa so he called him up and invited him. Surprisingly Papa made arrangements to come down for this. 

 He went to Dax's class first, which was during his reading class, He came home very impressed. They just showed them the work that they were doing. Dax wrote a story about a Pirate ship turning to legos. (Maybe our recent trip inspired him) Papa thought it was a great story. Then he showed him a power point presentation he had done on Rabies. They had just read the story "Old Yeller" and then learned about rabies. This could not have been more appropriate since my dad loves dogs so he thought it was a great thing for them to learn about. Then he went back after lunch to check out Derek's class. He was very impressed with what the first graders were doing on the computer. They are both good students and doing well in school, so it was nice for them to have a chance to show off Hancock Elementary, an A+ school, and the work they do. I think Papa was pleasantly surprised. We were glad he made the effort to come down.

San Diego

After a year of planning, preparing, passing tests, and multiple trips to San Diego. Curtis officially has a Real Estate office and apartment established in San Diego, CA as of August 1. Jumping through California's hoops to get licensed ended up being more difficult than originally anticipated but he and James Wilson played their games and both are finally licensed there. 

 We are excited to see the opportunity there. At this stage in the game, things are going well. Curtis had been spending a lot of time out in San Diego and wanted the family to join him and see the work that had progressed there. Labor Day weekend was coming up and James Wilson would be going back to AZ so we would have the apartment to ourselves. The timing was good so we headed out

Derek being King for a day with Dad

Curtis and my favorite part of Legoland are the cities they have created from Legos. They are amazing, and they have such detail. All from Legos. Washington DC even had a black president and family in the motorcade

Derek in front of Mini Las Vegas

Trey couldn't stand not playing in the water. When he saw his brothers playing in it he went in fully clothed. We didn't try too hard to stop him since we had a change of clothes. Then he had to warm up, the water and outside temp was a lot cooler than Phoenix.

Dax looking a Sea Life they loved the aquarium. Dax is such a scientist and loved looking at all the sea life in the aquarium. I don't know where the brainiac gets all his knowledge. He was looking at an exhibit of some fish and it was saying that it was the largest fish. Dax said "no it's not, the Megaladon (whatever that is) is the largest fish", then he went on explaining to us what the Megaladon was. We went around the corner and there was a display talking about the Megaladon saying almost exactly what Dax had said. Too smart for me.

The beach as the sun was setting. Too much fun, and too much sun that day.

Dax and Derek with Lego people, giving them "knuckles"

The first few days were a quick little trip with Derek and Curtis alone. Curtis would soon be taking Dax on a trip to Florida by himself, so to be fair Derek went a few days ahead (missed school) and got to be King for the day with dad (Because Dad spoils them way more on vacation than I ever would). 

 We spent a few days at Legoland. First Curtis and Derek went a day ahead and checked it out. We had gone to Legoland a few years ago with Dax and Derek when Derek was about 2. We were not impressed, and I didn't think we would ever go back. Dax and Derek both love legos, but at the time there was very little for a 2-year-old to do there. I thought it felt very sterile with everything being made out of legos, especially things that should be living and breathing like wildlife and nature. Swans, fish, and corn made out of legos seemed so lifeless, and cold It did not have the magical feel of Disneyland.

 We thought it seemed disorganized and was not run well. Our kids would have had just as much fun in the lego store, we didn't even last the entire day we were so frustrated. Anyway, Curtis and Derek checked it out a day ahead. Legoland had added a few more things (like a water park, and aquarium) we knew what to expect and we had a great time. We had a great time at Legoland, the beach, and exploring the areas where Curtis is now working. It's nice to have a little apartment there. So much nicer for the family than a hotel room. We anticipate good things to come of it.