Aunt Vicki's Wedding

We had the incredible opportunity to drive up to Northern California last week to attend Jeremiah's Aunt's wedding. We did so many things in 6 days. We stayed at my brother and sister-in-law's in San Jose on the way up and eat some great Indian food (Butter Chicken is awesome). Then we drove up to Humboldt State Park and drove The Avenue of the Giants and camped at Burlington Campground among the gigantic Redwoods. If you have never done this, I highly recommend it. Boston was a true camper and looked like he was raised by a pack of wolves after he helped dad with the fire and roasting marshmallows. That boy does not mind getting dirty or wandering off in the pitch black of night.

We then drove down (very windy and long drive down the highway 1) to Gualala. Jeremiah's Aunt Vicki owns a massage studio and her now husband helps run a pizza parlor. They are the neatest couple and we love spending time with them. We stayed at a cabin with 14 other family members and the rest of the family camped. It was great getting to know some of the family better. The wedding was situated on a cliff meadow overlooking the ocean and was Hawaiian style with a Native American Ceremony and a groovy 70's/ hula hooping dance reception outside. The wedding started with the sounds from an Australian Didgeridoo and a gong from Bali Indonesia as well as a conch shell horn. It was very diverse and very fun. We especially loved the Hula Hoops and I met a interesting Gypsy girl from Canada. She's the one that set her Hula Hoop on fire. Boston was so funny when we were hanging out at the massage parlor doing wedding preparations. There is a laundromat next door and some guys were cleaning it and brought some music. They were playing Mexican rap and some other rap pretty loud with the door open. Boston starts dancing outside the door, the guys see Boston and startdancing inside the door and about 5 family members start dancing in the parking lot in front the of buildings. It was a full on house party off the hizzy.

After the wedding and good-byes (so sad we all had to go home) we drove down and went to Fisherman's wharf in San Fransisco. I had been there when I was little and remember the seals, but didn't remember how commercial it was. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. I've been to a couple of piers in Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, and Monterey and those are so cute and quaint. They have rows of chowder shops and local stores that you can taste test different chowders. There is quite a bit more atmosphere at those piers and less I-can-go-to-the-mall-and-see-the-same-stores like Fisherman's Wharf. It was still fun and Boston made friends with the information booth guy (Kirk Douglas- I'm pretty sure that was his real name). Kirk bought Boston a toy trolley car. Kirk kept telling us that Boston had tons of personality and should be in movies. That would be fun and interesting.



Boston and Kirk

Songs For Darfur and the debut of Possibilities H2O

I wanted to share with you our amazing weekend and the debut of Possibilities H2O. We had the opportunity to attend and participate in an event called "Songs For Darfur" on Saturday in Topanga Canyon, north of Los Angeles. Jeremiah has become friends with the co-founder of the organization "Stop Genocide Now" and was invited to sell Possibilites H2O at the event that they coordinated. We gave 100% of the profits ($1.25 of the $2.00 that we charged) and were able to raise about $1,000 and had very promising and exciting feed back about the water. "All proceeds will go towards building a secondary school in the refugee camp, Kounoungo in Chad. A secondary school may actually save lives by preventing young children from venturing back into Darfur in search of educational possibilities, where they are at risk of being killed or recruited as child soldiers. It will give them hope, education and the real potential to affect their own destiny. The genocide in Darfur has taken the lives of an estimated 400,000 people, and more than 2.5 million are displaced and in grave danger of more violence and starvation." The Sudanese government’s Arab militia raiders, known as janjaweed are the groups responsible for this atrocity.









It was incredible to be surrounded by people with a common cause. The music was festive and exuberant and the speakers were powerful and poignant. Some of them victims of the janajaweed who were orphaned when their family and friends were brutally slain. What an experience to hear their stories.

I'm so grateful for being able to be apart of this and for Jeremiah (I'm married to the most fantastic, amazing, incredible, etc. man alive) and what he's created in our lives and for our family. It's amazing to be able to focus on helping other people and it helps us realize that our own struggles are nothing compared to what some people deal with in this life. The difficulties that we have faced with the mortgage crisis have become more of a blessing because we are able to put more attention on the things that matter more to us. Thanks to my mom who flew out to watch Boston so we could be away the entire day- I know that she's the one thanking us for giving her a reason to come out and have some one on one with him. And thanks to Boston for being the happiest little boy I know.

http://www.possibilitiesh2o.com/

http://www.songsfordarfur.org

http://stopgenocidenow.org

http://www.invisiblechildren.com

San Diego Zoo

My mom treated Boston and I to a day at the San Diego Zoo (all of our first times there). I loved how big it was and that it felt like being in a jungle everywhere you went. We did the bus tour, the skyfari, the petting zoo and a LOT of walking. Boston was more interested in all the other little boys and girls than he was in the animals. A lot of the animals were sleeping and the one's that weren't were camouflaged with their environment, so it was difficult for Boston to see them. He did seem to like the animals he did see moving around.


The goats at the petting zoo.



Nana got Boston a caricature. When I came home to show Miah, he said "It looks like a blonde little girl sitting in tree". We've been told what a cute little girl we have on occassion, which I can't figure out because he is all boy, but I guess this drawing confirms those comments.



Ok, so I swore that I'd never show these pics or admit that I would do this at my age (I dressed my brothers up when I was young), but after the "girl" comments I had to have proof that he just doesn't look like one. Even in a bikini, he looks like a boy- it's just looks a bit awkward. I know what you're thinking "that is just wrong". It is, that's my point. These pics will be fun to show Boston's future girlfriends when he is older!!!



How cute is this?

BYU vs. UCLA

Jeremiah's family (avid BYU fans) came in from St. George to attend the BYU vs. UCLA game. They got in late Friday night and left right after the game on Saturday night. Talk about a fast trip (Miah's parent's stayed an extra day). Even though they lost, the game was a lot of fun- especially the second half. This was my first time to the Rose Bowl and to a BYU game.

It was fun seeing the diversity in the fans. We had to park on the golf course and walk quite a way to the stadium. On the way we witnessed UCLA tailgators (mostly college students drinking) jeering at every BYU fans walking by. For those of you that are familiar with BYU, a lot of the fans are made up of young families (there were quite a few newborns and young kids there- true fans and troopers). So we saw this young family made up of a mom, dad, a teenage daughter and boy around 12 yrs old walk down the path and being booed and told that it was a long way back to Provo. It made me laugh because I could see the boy and the parent's chuckling. I love that!!!! Smile and find joy in the face of adversity and opposition!

Disneyland and Buzz

Disneyland is so fun with the kids (except for the waiting in line). We went this last weekend with the hubbies and couldn't have had more fun (especially since it wasn't busy or more than a 5 min wait on most rides).


Kalli and Boston.




If you notice the score you'll see that I kicked Miah's butt. But I just have to let you know that I kind of cheated. The ride stopped for a couple of minutes and I just so happened to be in front of a diamond target and took advantage of the time. Most people didn't realize you could just sit there and shoot over and over and increase your score. So is it cheating or is it being smart???? You're right, I'm smart! Hee hee.

Me at 5 months pregnant. I have a pic of my whole body (belly and all) but I look like a whale, so I'll spare you that image.

This ride is sentimental to me because when I was pregnant (before I knew Boston was a boy) I didn't want to call him/fetus the usual names (peanut, bug, bean etc.) so I called him Buzz Lightyear. Good thing he wasn't a girl. I had just gotten a season pass and the ride was fairly new, then found out I was pregnant.

Beautiful blog header

As you have noticed I have an a new header that I think is amazing. My friend Debbie made it for me and I just wanted to tell her how much I appreciate and LOVE it. She knows me so well and knows my style and is amazingly creative. I'm so blessed to have the friends that I do and have her as my friend. I hope that I'm as good a friend to her as she is to me!!!

The musical belly button

Miah taught Boston that when you push on his belly button that he makes a noise (Pilsbury dough boy style). So here he is at the beach passing on this very amazing ability to his best girl friends (Emi and Kalli). Emi volunteered to be his subject (she was the only one with belly button exposed) while he so carefully taught Kalli the art of belly button noise (though no noise was ever produce because only mommy and daddy really know how to do that).



"Here Kalli, let me show you how it's done. Just put your finger here and push. Hmmm, that's weird, it makes a noise when I do it to daddy. Oh well".




"Very good. With a little more practice you'll be a professional like me."



"My work here is done."


I want to add a side note that Miah also showed Boston that if you push his nipples like buttons, it makes a funny noise too. He tried it on mommy several times and kept pulling up my shirt to do it. I would just distract him to my belly button and thought nothing of it until our friend Beth came over and the first thing he did was. . . well, you can imagine (he didn't even bother trying to pull up her shirt). So, we quickly taught Boston that only the belly button works.

Merbaby

So, it only took one week and Boston seeing an older kid (he thinks he's 5 and loves hanging with older kids) with floaties before he turned into a fish. He will jump off the edge of the pool into the water (whether or not someone is there to catch him) so I was really glad when he finally let me put floaties on him. He will kick and swim his away across the pool!!! What a BIG BOY!!!

DRESS UP!!!!!

There's nothing like using office supplies to accessorize. Why didn't we think of this earlier?



TOGA PARTY!!! Boston wanted to wear my skirt- he pulled it off while I was wearing it, fortunately we were in the privacy of our house and not some public place as he was pulling my skirt down. Thanks for being considerate little man.



Kali and Boston thought it was a much better look to wear shoe covers as hats instead of on your feet. I think they were right. (Don't worry, they were clean).


Boston wanted to wear my shoes and walked around the house and neighborhood like it was perfectly normal.

Estes Park, CO and Meditation

Miah and I went on a trip last week to Estes Park, Colorado and did a 6 day meditation retreat. Besides being out in nature and staying on the edge of The Rocky Mountain National Park the week was amazing. I was a little hesitant to go because I had no idea what it was going to be like, but I didn't want to leave. It was a mindfulness and meditation retreat put on by Buddhist Monks from Vietnam.They talked about how practicing the teachings of mindfulness actually strengthened your own beliefs, whether that be Christianity, Judaism, etc. I learned a lot about the Buddhist beliefs that I didn't know and have a compassionate heart toward them and what they are achieving in this world. We practiced being in silence from 9pm to noon the next day (for 6 days) and ate all our meals in silence to practice being completely present and in gratitude to what you were doing (eating, walking, breathing). - Can you believe that I was able to be quiet for that LONG? - They wanted us to do one thing at a time to really appreciate being able to do that thing and thank God for our breaths, legs to walk, food, etc. and not be distracted by conversation and other things that normally distract us. When you eat in mindfulness you really pay attention to what you are putting in your body and how fast you eat. You are also appreciate more where the food came from and that have such easy access to food where people in other parts of the world go starving. You also pay attention to how much you eat and eat until satisfied and in moderation so that you aren't wasteful or greedy. It was neat to be so grateful for our bodies and that it is a gift from God and to pay attention to how we take care of that gift. It was a vegetarian diet, which was fun. We did meditation walks to appreciate our bodies movements and nature and watched the sunrise. They also taught tolerance, acceptance and compassion for all of God's children, our brothers and sisters. I really liked it and wish more people could experience that.

The picture of the big white building is the Stanley Hotel. That is where the "The Shining" was filmed. CREEPY! It was built in the early 1900's. There's lots of history to this town.

Boston stayed with his Granny and Papa in St. George, UT and had a blast with his cousins and grandparents. He also made sure that Granny got to experience his little attitude. Everytime she would ask him to say "granny" he would look at her and slowly say "papa". Little stinker bun!!~