As I uploaded all these photos I realized how much fun stuff our family does, but also how lopsided a representation it is of a life to show only the photos of the highlights. If I would have taken pictures of the dish-washing and homework-trudging and tantrum-calming and patience-losing, it would be a more homely picture but a more accurate one. Let alone if I could have taken pictures of my mental landscape - my brain would not have been saying "cheese." But here is what I took photos of during October. There have been challenges, but there have also been many many happy moments! It's lovely for me to take a moment to gather and post them.
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Back to School night: a sample of Sophie's work. She wrote about playing with her cousins in Utah. |
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Lucy cutting onions. She loves to cook and loves to be goofy (and I love her to do both of those). |
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Lindsay with Baby Cousin at his 1st birthday party at the pumpkin patch, and Great-grandpa (Opa). |
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Cousins driving tractors at the pumpkin patch |
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More cousin time |
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I remember Lindsay at this pumpkin patch when she was just a tiny little toddler |
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Best buddies Sophie and Stone, choreographing a song and dance in the garage! |
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The Kellers drove down(!!!!!) to stay with us and go to Disneyland. We were so happy. Every moment with them was so joyful, I still feel a glow when I think of it. We are so excited to be reunited with these guys. |
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Stone got chosen to do the Jedi Training Academy!!!! |
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Lucy begged for months to start playing the trumpet. It seems a little harder than she thought it would be, but that girl is persistent!! |
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Family party welcoming Jessica and Edgar from Holland - Aunt Maryorie made this awesome Rice Krispy Treat skull |
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Lucy always accepts her daddy's rock-climbing challenges in the pool |
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Cousins on the tramp |
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Cousins in the hot tub |
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Cousins at the Halloween party - wow, we had a lot of cousin time in October! Awesome! |
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Visiting Northern California for a long weekend - on the first day we went to our favorite Children's Museum in the world - the San Jose Discovery Museum. The kids and I were sad when we saw the sign that prohibited kids older than 4 from entering one of their favorite parts that they used to go to when they were little. I can't believe I don't have anyone young enough to go! |
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What do I love about this? Everything. English, Spanish and Vietnamese directions. Garbage, Recyclables and Compost recepticles. We love you, Bay Area!! |
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Our Ward Halloween Party dance |
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Olé!! |
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One of my favorite moments: showing up to the Smiths to pick up Lucy and Sophie, and Stone seeing 12-year-old Will mowing the lawn and saying "I want to help you!" And Will says "Ok, come on Stone!" This is the village I want to raise my kids with daily at school and play dates and weekly at church. It is home to us. |
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Look closely, because you'll never see Erik wearing anything like that ever again. :) The National Western Rodeo was in San Francisco, so our friends organized a big group of families the weekend we happened to be in town!! Everyone dressed up and whooped and hollered for the buckin' broncos and American-flag-unitard-clad acrobats (Sophie says she now knows what she wants to be when she grows up). |
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Does anyone else feel like once a year is way too often to scrape the guts our of pumpkins? We did this out of pure love for our children. I hate those stringy wet gobs of glop. But they love the tradition so much. Sweet kids. |
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Fun Monday Family Night, music playing in the garage as we scraped and carved |
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The kids had a couple of days of school off, so we took them to San Diego for a family Staycation. Stone had been begging to go to Legoland since we moved down here, so this was the day!! |
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Next day: San Diego Zoo Safari park! |
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Amazing. |
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And tiring. |
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Last activity: the Cheetah run!! |
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The beach on Coronado Island |
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Playing on the sand "dunes" - look at that joy. |
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Family mini-golf. The kids' ages is SO FUN - my parents call this "the sweet spot" in a family where they're old enough to be independent and do fun stuff together; young enough to not be fighting their parents yet. This spot is sweet indeed. |
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A visit to the Mormon Battalion |
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What an amazing presentation! Probably the best exhibit of its kind I've ever seen, anywhere. |
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Our ancestors traveled across the plains in wagons like this. I wonder if Sophie and Stone look like any of them. |
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The Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. Sophie LOVES dinosaurs |
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And Lindsay does not!! |
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My run this morning. I usually don't bring my phone with me, but I'm so glad I did this morning so I could capture this glorious sunrise over the hills. |
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These hills have brought me peace and solace during our year here. I have missed the ferns and redwoods - they speak to my soul, but I'm also fond of these desert hills.
Next.... selling the house and finding somewhere to live in Los Altos! The kids are still excited....
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