Hawaii

So after 9 years of marriage, Scott and I finally went on a honeymoon. Sure we went on plenty of climbing, camping, and biking trips during our first 3 years, then we had Mercedes, 3 years of chemo and now Aspen, but we've never gone on an actual trip anywhere together. Scott had to go to Honolulu for work so I met him there a few days later. My wonderful parents flew in from Alaska to keep the girls while we were gone (Grandma and Grandpa are so fun Mercedes was a bit sad we came home).

The night I got there we were awakened at 4 am by howling winds and torrents of rain. The next morning there were power outages, downed trees, flooding, cable out, roads closed and record waves on the north shore. It just kept on raining, but we still had fun just being together. We snorkeled in Hanauma Bay - in the rain, went to a magic show, ate in the rotating restaurant at "The Top of Waikiki", exlpored Waikiki's fabulous shopping, visited the Polynesian Cultural Center, drove to Kailua to kayak and then had to turn around because of the weather. Our last day we woke up to sunshine and beautiful weather and we made the most of it. We hiked to Manoa Falls in the morning, drove back to Kailua and kayaked to the Mokolua Islands. It was so gorgeous. Just after we pulled the kayak on shore it started sprinkling again. We decided to drive up to the North Shore just to see it, but by the time we go there it was dark and we had to head back to the airport. We had the 11pm flight (2am Utah time) and arrived in Utah at 9am.

We had such a great time without the girls, but we sure missed them and were glad to come home.

Give Thanks

Things I am Thankful for:
- My life. I no longer take for granted the privilege of moving and breathing. Besides, I haven't eaten enough key lime pie with Mercedes yet.
- Mercedes. I love that she loves kindergarten, her sister, and dolphins. Obsession? Her teacher, Miss Allen deemed it passion; which makes the dolphin craze more purposeful. Who knows, maybe she'll become a marine biologist. She feels life deeply. She cries when she's happy and when she's sad.
- Aspen. She is a miracle. My Dr.'s said we couldn't have more children and she just warms our hearts and makes us laugh daily. She's a little mini Scott crawling around wreaking havoc wherever she goes - sounds like Scott doesn't it.
- Scott. He loves his girls and we love him. What else matters? He does keep me outfitted in nice jeans and shoes. I'd still be wearing stuff from college.
- My Parents and Sisters. I couldn't have hand picked a better group of people to have fun with and get me through those tough spots in life. Those simple times on the ranch seem more appealing now that the world is more complicated.

To summarize, I'm grateful for the wonderful people in my life that make each day beautiful.

Little Mozart

Aspen loves to pound on the piano. She and Mercedes will sit together and make their own beautiful music.

Halloween

If you know Mercedes very well you know she is absolutely OBSESSED with dolphins. Even in journal time at school all she writes about it dolphins. Today she had me spell the word 'frisky' for her to put in her little book about dolphins. So luckily I found a dolphin costume on Ebay; it's a little too big so she's planning on wearing it next year. Of course Aspen could be nothing else but a little pink piggy. It just suits her.

Aspen is Mobile

So Aspen officially started crawling yesterday. We all just keep putting interesting things in front of her to get her going, especially paper and books. She more motivated to crawl when she's without clothes thus only the diaper in the video. I'm so thrilled because I didn't get to see Mercedes learn to crawl. Scott has built some custom gates for the top and bottom of the stairs out of some really cool 3form material called fossil leaf - our stairs are really wide. Now we have to really pay attention whats left laying around which will be really hard with Mercedes; she leaves little piles of stuff everywhere she goes; eg. leaves, rocks, carrot buddies (carrots from the garden that are too small to eat), pictures she's colored, food - piles everywhere. Crawling is fun but adds a little more complication to keeping order in life. Hopefully her new skill will keep her occupied and happy and less evening fussies. We just love her to pieces!

California Fires

I know that I, and I'm sure many of us, watch the news and see these fires and the devastation they cause to people, their homes and belongings. We watch and think 'How terrible' and then go on with the rest of our day because really, are we in any imminent danger?

Look at this picture. It was taken by my friend Linn who lives in the neighborhood we just moved from in Mission Viejo. This was where we used to call home, and where part of us still wishes we could still be. This really could be us; or any of us for that matter and I have to spend just a moment on self-introspection; when did I become so apathetic to the possible and probable catastrophes of this day? When was the last time I updated our 72 hour kits? Aspen doesn't even have one yet.

I was humbled by this picture because it did hit so close to home and this blog is to help remind me to work on my physical as well as spiritual preparedness.

Park City

This last weekend Scott had the sales conference for 3form in Park City at the Canyons Resort. Mercedes just happened to have Fall Break from school so we were able to go up and hang out (go to the outlets of course). It was Aspens first time in a pool and her little legs just wouldn't stop. Mercedes is a fish and could've stayed in the pool all day. We miss having the pool just around the corner like we did in CA. When it was time to go Mercedes cried, and cried, and continued to break down into tears the rest of the day because she didn't want to leave. She even said in family prayer that night "Please help me not to be sad about leaving Park City." She's such a sweet girl.