Santa Cruz

 After church on Sunday I headed out on my own to explore Santa Cruz.  It was about 45 minutes away and a beautiful drive up through the hills and down to the beach.  I parked the car near Cliff Hills drive and got out to walk.

 After walking up and down the beach and visiting a beautiful cliff surrounded beach for a while I headed down to see the boardwalk at Santa Cruz.  I only drove up and down the street and saw all the rides and food stands there.  It looked like an amazing theme park right there on the ocean. 

I headed north a little bit and found a place to park the car and make sure I got to see the sun set.  It was breathtaking!  The sun went down so quickly and the colors were amazing!  After watching the sun set I drove all the way up Highway 1 and watched the night sky go dark.  Very quickly after getting out of Santa Cruz the terrain turned in to fertile farm land.  It was amazing. 

This day and drive in a beautiful park of the world was a great Sunday activity for me.  I loved seeing the beautiful creations and playground of the world.

Visiting Alcatrez

 

On Saturday, I picked up Austin and Paul and headed into San Fransisco to explore the city and visit Alcatrez.  We experienced lovely city traffic, parked the car on the Fisherman's Wharf, and walked down the pier to the Alcatrez ferry.

 Seeing the city of San Francisco from the ferry was beautiful.  The city sky scrapers go right up to the water and go on for miles.  It really is a bill city!

Once we arrived on the island we learned a lot about Alcatrez.  We walked up from the dock to the industrial buildings and up through the prison yard grounds.  Then we picked up the audio headsets to take the tour through the cell block.  It was fascinating!  The tour went through some of the famous prisoners, like Al Cappone, and infamous prison escapes.

There were 2 prisoners who escaped through the air vent in their cell.  They used several spoons over a long period of time to expand the hole behind the vent big enough for them to crawl out.  One night they crawled out the hole, up through the mechanics space in the wall to the roof, and then into the water.  They are presumed dead...or living somewhere in Mexico??!!

We also learned about the history of the island, from military fortress, to maximum security prison, to Indian occupation, to musuem and bird reserve.  Fascinating!

Alcatrez is now a national park and the tours are conducted with help from the coast guard.  It is a great place to visit and we learned a lot touring it that day!!

Homecoming 2013

 

Austin invited Megan to go to Homecoming for his senior year.  They are good friends and they had a great time with a huge group of 12 couples.  During the day they had an "Amazing Race" activity that had them doing tasks all over the valley in teams of 4 and trying to finish first.  Basically a scavenger/activity hunt for hours.  It was really fun.  Then they were able to get some frozen yogurt and take their dates home to get ready for the evening dinner and dance.

 

 

 We are so grateful that one of Austin's good friend's dad is a professional photographer and so we've been able to get amazing pictures for a few of the dances.  He takes pictures of each of the couples, the whole group, and then the guys and the girls all together.  It's really fun, especially being a mother of the boy who goes and picks up his date, so otherwise I wouldn't be able to see them at all!

Austin has such an amazing group of friends and I'm so happy to see him enjoying his senior year so much.  There may be a lot of stressful things and decisions, but they also know how to have fun!  It's the perfect balance!

How does this happern?

 

17 years ago, this amazing kid came into my life.  We've learned so much in these past 17 years.  Austin has made me smile and cry with happy tears, he has frustrated me and made me stretch and grow, he has amazed me with his brilliance and charm, he has annoyed me with his carefree and laid back attitude, he has melted my heart with his kindness and gentleness.  He is a HUGE part of who I am.  

A few days before his birthday he was able to take 6 friends to a Real Salt Lake soccer game.  They came early to celebrate with a great pizza party and a lot of noise.  I think they had a great time.

On Austin's actual birthday we celebrated in the evening...Austin is not a morning person and we were waiting on a few Amazon deliveries anyways, so it worked out just great. 

 Later that night we had cake and ice cream with some family members.  He was touched by our rendition of Happy Birthday and was able to blow out all 17 candles in one breath (and a little through the nose at the end).

He had a great birthday and received some amazing presents from loved ones.  Thank you to all his family and friends that made his birthday so special.  I am trying to forget the fact that Austin pointed out to me that this is his last birthday at home.  We shall see...

New Carpet

 After we had some water damage in the back room, the landlord agreed to replace the carpet in that room.  I got a bid and the next thing I knew they were coming to replace the carpet in two hours.  I had to move all the books off of 3 bookshelves and clean off the desk.  Luckily, my boys got home with 30 minutes to spare and were able to move out the bookshelves, couch, and desk before the carpet installers arrived.  I'm glad they were such good helpers.

Shooting

 

On Labor day, Dave and some other family and kids went shooting in the west desert of Utah.  They had a great time shooting clay pigeons and having competitions along the way.  Kim and Mayce were able to learn to shoot and Mayce even hit a pigeon!

Evan loves having his shotgun that he got for his birthday.  He begs Dave to take him shooting and just took the first part of his hunter safety course to be able to go hunting.  It looks fun!

Donut Falls Hike

 

With Grandma in town we headed up the canyon for an afternoon hike to Donut Falls.  It's was a nice afternoon and everyone did very well.  Once we arrived at the falls, some of us went rock climbing all the way to the top.  Others stayed at the bottom and played in the rocks and trees there.

All in all we had a great afternoon and enjoyed the canyon and each other!