Michael and Peggy Taylor Family: 2008

A Visit To Tennessee

Heidi at the Memphis Zoo, we were looking at Polar Bears, Black Bears and Bald Eagles when we found this canoe...

Ben standing by the Mississippi River. Big barges were running the river while we were there, Heidi was rolling down the grassy levi and I was looking for bugs under rocks. Very fun!

Our schedule has been jam packed and the girls have been super stars!! There is alot of energy in the house at all times!!

Ben and Shauna are the best, patient, loving and able to keep up with everyone and everything. Gramma is struggling a little bit, she's pooped by bedtime...(which is about 6pm!)

We had a pretty busy week last week. Harrison and Mikey had their first crosscountry meet against Paradise and Oroville Highschools. Harrison was smoked by some girl athlete from Oroville...she pretty much smoked everyone, but he came in fourth place overall in his age group. Mikey...well he was very happy to get over the mountain twice, he had to run 3.1 miles and came in all sweaty filled with memories about why he hasn't run crosscountry in two years...because it's tough!

I've been raising two very fun turkeys and Gordon is doing the turkey thing now...isn't he pretty. I love when his face turns all colors. Well, this weekend Gordon and Earlene decided to go traveling I guess. We haven't seen or heard from them in a couple of days. Hopefully they are happy, but I have a hunch they may have be in our neighbor's dog's stomach!!

I went to Mono Lake Basin this weekend with my CSUChico Plant Geography class. The sights were beautiful and I really had fun identifying Conifers, Grasses, and Flowers. The highlight of the trip was seeing salt grass in the morning. It grows in the salt flats right next to Mono Lake, it can't tolerate the salt so when the plant sucks up the moisture it pushes the salt out of its' stomatas making the plant glisten and sparkle in the sunlight. That was amazing to me! We found a Mormon Tea plant too, and that is the oddest looking plant I've ever seen...why the pioneers decided to make tea with it is a mystery to me...so I'm going to do a little research about that.

Well..that's it for one week!

Hot, Windy Labor Day Activity

In honor of Labor Day, we kayaked. We figured that would be a good way to work our muscles, work our arms and work up an appetite! It was pretty fun, but the wind was blowing so hard sometimes that the kayaks wouldn't even move in the water and we would be pushed backwards. There were little white caps about 18 inches high that would break over the front of the boat and kept us pleasantly cool. The only people that really got soaked were Harrison and Danielle, they decided to tempt the king of water fights (your father) and lost. Of course their little raft was blowing all over the place as well, they were doomed from the very first challenging sentence..."Bring it!"

Shauna Tagged Me!

I'm ready to play blogger tag:

My 3 joys
1. My huge, wonderful family; all 13 of them!
2. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with all the bells and whistles that come along with that.
3. Having good health and being free to do so many things.

My 3 fears:
1. Getting old, having a stroke and needing someone to take care of me.
2. Speaking to strange people in large groups and trying to look like I like it.
3. Getting food stuck in my teeth and not knowing it.

My 3 current goals:
1. Get my bachler's degree in Biology from CSUChico.
2. Becoming a good teacher.
3. Getting to see Daisy in Tennessee.

My current obsessions:
1. Getting straight A's.
2. Learning plant species in CA, and invertebrates in CA rivers, lakes and streams.
3. Finding an affordable plane ticket to see Daisy in Tennessee.

And 3 Random facts:
1. I floss my teeth once a day because I hate plaque between my teeth.
2. Some of my best friends are only 20 years old. ( They attend CSUChico with me)
3. I'm so bored by housework that sometimes I sweep dirt under rugs, stuff clothes in drawers without folding them, I wait until gross black and red fungus is growing in the shower and I never mop until my shoes stick to the kitchen floor.

No one really reads our blog, but if they do I tag: BEN and JEREMY

Your comments:

Aloooha!

We had the opportunity to visit Elissa and David in Laie, Oahu. David is going to school at BYU there and Elissa is there to support him in all his studies and extra-curricular activities, such as snorkling, spear fishing, surfing, tanning, belly boarding, shopping, etc. It was so great seeing Elissa and being able to spend a whole week with them, talking to them everyday and seeing what they do on this far away island.

We loved being there even though it was humid and the temperature never varied, it was always about 85 degrees night or day. Being able to swim in the ocean and be warm was so nice and swimming in the ocean with a snorkle, goggles and fins was akin to swimming in the hugest aquarium imaginable.

This was an experience that we will treasure forever!