Just Another Day in Paradise

FINALLY, my last post.

2010-11-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

It is so past time for the Berkeley blog to be done! I have really put this off, mostly I think because I just haven't been ready to move on, but also because I don't want to risk crying all over my computer. But here it is, our final goodbye to grad school:

First I miss my friends a lot! And who wouldn't? They came and packed my whole apartment in one big afternoon and then took me to dinner. And I only had one meltdown! I dearly love these girls! We have had a lot of fun over the years. They are the best girlfriends you could ask for and I can guarantee you I never would have made it through grad school without them. Lots moved before me which I always hated . But honestly, it's so much harder to be the one that moved and left it all behind. :(

I only have a few pictures (I was too busy going crazy and crying, darn it!) But I just want my friends to know how much I love and miss them, you know who you are!

Jen... my very first ever Berkeley friend. The one who got me through the first two years... she ditched us for a job in Idaho, but she came back in the end. :) A truly incredible and very special person.

Jenn, Jena, and Tristen packed my whole kitchen!

Melissa working way harder on kids' toys than she should have. ;)
I adore Marianna, but I wasn't the only one... she gave Cali a cute doll when Will was born and Cali quickly named her "Marianna". Well, now I get to think about Mar every day because Cali does everything with Marianna!

While we packed, Dan took the kids out to parks along with some other friends.

And off to dinner at Macaroni Grill. I look like a teenage boy that had been packing all day. I seriously should have cleaned myself up and at least put my wig on! ;) Britney and Jeni, so nice of both these pregnant girls to come up.

Jen and Jenn :)

Mar and Melissa.

The next day (the day before we left) was Valentine's Day and we spent it at church saying goodbye and giving our talks... the nerve! Here is our awesome church:

Possibly not appropriate, but we all know you can do anything in the Berkeley Ward... here is a picture of the Jr. Primary (can't really see my kids... Doman was tired laying on the floor and Max is turned around.)

The day before we left in front of the apartment.

The day after we got to Berkeley. Look at how much smaller the palm trees are. I'm holding baby Doman here.

Then as is tradition of the Berkeley Ward, a little open house for families when they move. Saddest day ever. Here are pictures saying goodbye to everyone(well, only the few I have pictures of):

Oh yeah, Dan had friends too, just not much by way of pictures...

Afterward we went home and packed to leave the next morning... honestly we would have not made it out without Marianna's help... she pretty much packed the whole van.

The morning we left, saying goodbye to the bay's fog!

The scenic drive home... we will miss you California,
but we're back to our Utah roots(which you can follow on my new blog hopefully) from here on out!

Okay, seriously, it's time to come back.

2010-10-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

First a confession... I desperately wanted to stay caught up blogging. In fact, I even have a bunch of drafts ready to be posted, but every time I try to add pictures at the end, I just feel sick and sad inside. I am now realizing just how traumatized I am from our grad school experience!

We are so happy to have gotten a job, and even happier that we're back home in Utah. But a huge part of our life together was spent at Berkeley. I didn't ever imagine I would think of it as our home. We miss it way more than we thought we would. Even though we went through a really tough part of life there, we also balanced that out with tons of fun and neat experiences. Most of all we met the most amazing and wonderful people that have truly changed our lives.

So, here I go blogging again. And things might sound a little off because I'm not going to go back and try and fix up my drafts into the present tense. I'm just going to add some pictures and post them as-is. And just to warn anyone reading, this is going to be a way boring blog of catch up for probably a long time until the Berkeley blog is ready to print. So check back in a few weeks (or months) and maybe I will be updating the Briggs family in the present day. But don't hold your breath!

Max's Birthday - part 1

2010-06-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

We ended up moving very quickly in the end and Max was crushed that we were going to move before his birthday, so we had a little party for him right before we left... literally. It was only two days before we moved and it was really crazy because it was the same day we packed the house, but we're glad we did it. Max has had really GREAT friends the whole time we were here.

Max wanted a United States party which was interesting because quite a few of the kids aren't from the U.S. Anyway, Dan made a huge treasure hunt for the kids going all over the village to different "states" on their map. I loved this because it was a great way to say goodbye to our beloved village. We miss you village!

There are two parks in the village... this one we called "the sand park."

Here is "the path" :) I didn't like it or go there much because of the spiders... the boys on the other hand loved it for, of course, the spiders.

Reading the next clue...

Right outside of "the path"

We called this place "the stairs"... notice them in the background, hence the name.

The other park was known as "Matthew's park" One of Max's friend's apartment was close to the park and that became the way of deciphering which park we were going to... it stuck.

My friend Jen and our babes.

Back at the house, Max with his cake that of course the amazing Jen made for me:

Max saying goodbye to a few of his friends:

Max really misses his friend Kian. I wish I had known what great friends at school they had become. Max was growing out his hair for quite a while to be like Kian. And they send each other letters and talk to each other on the phone. Kian keeps saying that he is going to come visit. They are pretty cute.

Max and Noor:

Max and Alex:

Nathan couldn't come so he said goodbye the night before:

The crew getting ready for presents:

Goodbye Berkeley :(

2010-06-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is getting pathetic! I really need to catch up or it will NEVER happen. We have been here in my parent's basement (twice as big as our apartment, so don't go feeling sorry for us) for almost 4 months. I can't believe it! And I definitely can't complain. My parents have been so amazingly generous! My mom cleans, cooks, babysits, and takes kids to and from school. My dad has never even mentioned how messy and loud we all are. They've been champs. Meanwhile, our house is practically ready for closing. A couple things they have to fix (bummer) but then it will be all ready for us. That gives me a couple short weeks to catch up this blog, right?!!!

First, it's finally time to say goodbye to Berkeley. Partly I've put off posting because it is so dang hard for me. Who knew I'd be so sad leaving crazy Berkeley. Seriously... who knew?!! Honestly, those 5 1/2 years have been the hardest, longest years of my life. No, it did not go by fast!! But if I could do it again... I would. I think Berkeley really isn't for everyone, and I used to consider myself one of those people. But it is such a unique, interesting, and beautiful place. Mostly I made the best friends in the whole world. I will treasure all the memories we made and probably miss it forever.

Bear with me as I take a stroll down memory lane. It was a super crazy time having a new baby, then Dan miraculously finding a job, and then getting ready to move, but we made the most of our last weeks. Mostly that consisted of going to all our favorite parks and museums... here they are:

Aquatic Park. One of my favorites (I'll probably say that with all the parks). Too bad I don't have a pic here of the cool wood structure.

Watching the trains... next to the cool wood structure, the best thing about the park.

Max's 1st grade class. Love Michelle!

One last bow night with the girls.

One of the many "rock parks." This one is Indian Rock I think.

The Berkeley Marina:

Berkeley Parks at their finest. Berkeley Adventure land playground. Pretty awesome.
Max going down the zipline. I'm pretty sure you have to sign something about not holding anyone accountable for your kids getting hurt. ;)

Last Primary activity... me with the presidency, but missing our awesome president. :(

Max's class... next to Nathan then Oliver.

Lincoln's class... I see Ike, Sammy girl, Jack, Claire's head and Harmony.

Last trip to the Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science.

Arlington Park in El Cerrito:

Pretty fancy pedestrian crossing right over I-80 in Berkeley.

Huge statue on each side of the bridge.

Going to see Yo-Yo Ma in SF

Date night in the city with two other couples... we should have done this more!

This makes me laugh... I don't know who looks better in my wig ;)
Beth and Grandma Briggs visit. This is out at our village park.

Doman's class:

Daddy reading a bedtime story. :)

Memorial Park:

Can't remember the name of this one... a cool regional park up in the hills behind Chabot Science Center...

Going across the Golden Gate Bridge for the last time.

Golden Gate Park. Way cool park that was completely re-done while we were living there.

We took the whole day to drive along the coast and here we are a little cold at Half Moon Bay. There are a bunch of sea lions behind us if you look close.

Judy and Larry brought us tons of apple boxes and until I was ready to use them the kids built forts with them in their room... they each had their own little "house".

The beloved "planet museum" (Chabot Space and Science Center)

Well that huge lot of pictures about sums up our last weeks. We wish we had more time in the end. Dan loved taking the kids to the many Regional Parks in the area. There are lots of other neat museums, fun "rock" parks, and gorgeous parks. I love the Berkeley Rose Garden. We made many trips to the Oakland Zoo. The list is endless... we miss you Berkeley!

People do the craziest things in Berkeley...

2010-05-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

...and now I'm no exception. I just had to do something really wild in Berkeley before we left. I've always wanted to do it and what better time since I was ready to go short anyway. Plus there are some huge perks, hear me out:

1- no washing, drying, straightening, styling, or fixing ever!
2- time to be out the door in a hurry? grab a hat and I'm outta here!
3-need to look normal/cute/like I did my "hair"? grab my wig ;)
4- save money with no haircuts, shampoo, products, etc.

So in short, save time and money... who doesn't want that?! Guys are so lucky! But I think I may have just started a big wave in hair fashion... come on, you know you want to. ;)

Update December:

2010-05-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly. It's been a crazy few months, but I refuse to just leave them behind... I WILL get all caught up. I want to make sure I finish up this grad-school blog so that I can get it printed out... what a treasured thing it will be for us! So this isn't really going to be an update, more of a catch up! Here's a start.

Dec. 1st (yes, I'm that behind)... Lincoln's Birthday!

Four years old, I can't believe it! Lincoln is still the same cute, funny, and happy kid. I love his great sense of humor and I love how much he loves to laugh and just be silly. He is a riot to have conversations with and he's always good for a big hug. He's turned out to be such a fun little kid and we love him.

So mostly the same, but here is what's changed for Lincoln this year. He was a Sunbeam and adored Sis. Lesli. He started preschool and liked being there, but would always rather stay home and take a nap (I don't blame him.:) He got potty-trained! We had three kids in diapers for 2 straight years, oh my. So glad that's over.

He still loves elephants. His grandpa gave him one 3 years ago and he has slept with it ever since.

Getting ready to take his cupcakes to preschool.
We picked up all his cute friends from preschool one day to celebrate his birthday. These are the cutest kids! We miss them!

His cake request: A Lincoln cake. It cracks me up, but he loved it.

Ike trying to pick Lincoln up. ;)

Another request was of course to go to Chuck E. Cheese.

Christmas 2009:

We stayed here in Albany this year because Dan had so much work to do. But we had a really nice relaxing time spending our last Christmas in California.

I can't believe we'd never been to San Francisco at Christmas, but it makes sense since we spend much of our time in Utah at the holidays. Well, I don't think we were missing much. I was pretty disappointed, plus people in the city were so rude to our little family that it didn't help. Maybe we were missing something??? Anyway, we still had fun!

Union Square, Doman and Cali.

Yes, that's Max in the stroller because he forgot his shoes and it was raining. Nice.

Macy's windows:

We do always go up to the Oakland Temple to see the lights. I wish my camera could catch just half of how pretty it is. Can you tell how windy it was?

And in four years we've never been around for the school parties. Here's my little farewell to Franklin. Such a cute preschool. The kids sang songs, had one of their famous pot-luck lunches, and finally there's always a pinata.

Christmas Eve:

Waiting in the hallway Christmas morning...

Christmas=Wii. Kids=very happy.
Baby Will's first Christmas and the kids opening presents for him.

Dan's Birthday:

This is the big one for Dan... he's 30! And boy does he have a lot to show for his thirty years! A bunch of cute little kids that adore him, and a very hard earned Ph.D (well, almost).

The cute baby:

Will at 2 months. Still an absolute perfect baby... great eater and sleeper. Love him to death.

It's about time to blog again!

2010-04-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a pathetically long time since I've done any blogging and of course lots has been going on, but for anyone wondering, yes, we are alive and we're doing great. Here is just a small start at trying to get updated.

First, the biggest news is that Dan is completely done with grad school. This is his advisor signing his final dissertation. No one knows how monumental that feels for us. Dan had been working at his new job while still editing his draft and boy was it stressful! He has worked so hard and we are both happy to say we survived!

Second, this is the little house on the way. It's not huge, but three times bigger than our apartment is going to feel gigantic! We can't wait until it is finished and we can start our new life here in Utah.

Well, that's a very brief update for now. Next I'm going to start getting our blog all caught up from the past several months. Yikes!

More pictures of Will

2009-12-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

Will is now 6 weeks old and sweet as ever. We feel very, very lucky to have such a content baby since we're well aware this isn't always the case. He still sleeps a whole lot and I hope that lasts even a little bit longer! None of the kids have lost their fascination with the baby so we still spend a lot of our time taking turns holding him.

Here he is the day of his blessing at 5 weeks old. And of course all the kids holding him.

Whenever Cali isn't sleeping in her crib, Will gets to take his naps here. And it is his favorite place! Whenever he is tired I just go lay him in the crib and he puts himself to sleep. After having really crabby newborns, this is crazy to us! We both remember pacing all over the apartment with Lincoln and Cali just begging them to go to sleep. Hopefully I'm not jinxing Will's good habits!

Our last Berkeley Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that this is our sixth Thanksgiving on our own. My amazing friend Britney invited us to their great house down in San Jose for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun and the food was all incredible. This Thanksgiving I thought of two huge things I am very grateful for. First, getting a job in Utah, and second, the lifelong friends we've made in Berkeley. Brit and her family are definitely one of them. Thanks for the wonderful day, Brit!

Here are the girls... all pregnant, might I add. I gotta admit I was feeling a little leftout. ;)
(Rachel, Ela, me, and Brit)

Brit did up a fancy adult table, and then the kids had their own table next to us. My kids came and ate one at a time... they never wanted to stop playing!

We had a really relaxing day since the kids basically stayed on the tramp the whole time. I think it will be the first thing we buy when we get a yard!

This is Brit's mom with Will. I just love this sweet lady!
Here we are before heading back to Berkeley. You can tell by Max's and Lincoln's faces that they were definitely done with their big day.

Will's first month

2009-12-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

This has been a pretty busy month so I have not posted near as much as I should in honor of this sweet baby. He has been absolutely perfect and we have all loved every minute with him. He's a great sleeper and a great eater and you can't ask for more than that in a newborn! He is a month old, and only the past couple of days has he started to cry more and want to be held, so we've been pretty lucky.

Here are some pictures of him when he is one and two weeks old.

First of all, my mom came and spent a week with us to help with the baby. She flew here straight from Hawaii where she was tending grandkids and I couldn't believe how much energy she still had for my intense little clan. She cleaned, entertained the kids, took them and picked them up from school, got up in the morning with Cali (super early, might I add), and she took the kids on all kinds of adventures. All while I got to stay home and recover with just the sweet baby. :) We were very sad when she had to leave... but she was heading straight to Alaska to help my little sister with her brand new baby! I think she was gone from home for a straight month. Thanks Mom! You're definitely one in a million!

Thought we better get a picture of Will's bed... he sleeps on the couch all bundled up every night.

And of course I don't need to say how much the kids love him. All they want to do is hold the baby any chance they get. Max is definitely a natural with him and has been so helpful to me.

Cali is little less natural but she adores this little baby and always wants to just squeeze him out of pure delight.

BIG NEWS!

2009-11-28T16:18:00.000-08:00

It's official... Dan got a job!!! And as if that isn't exciting enough, the job is in UTAH ... Clearfield, in fact, which is right where we're from. He will be a Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman. There's really no way to express how happy we are about this... words just won't do. We feel like it really is a miracle! The less exciting part of it-- Dan trying to work 80 hours a week to finish up while I'm still adjusting to life as a mother of five! They want him to start in January, but it will probably be closer to March when his dissertation will be done, so we'll see. I can't believe how sad I'm going to be to leave this crazy place! This has been our home for more than five years and we're all really going to miss it. But we are so thrilled to be moving back home where our family is. Just wanted to share the happy news!

New Moon!

2009-11-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

These girls' nights mean even more lately when I know I won't have too many more. :( We of course all went to New Moon opening night and it was so fun. I really liked the movie, but don't take my word for it, I'm super easy to please. :)

Here are the gals...

Waiting in the line:

The best vampire face I could come up with:

In the theatre with our funny teeth:)

Will's baby announcement

2009-11-19T23:18:00.000-08:00

The picture is Will at one week old. Thanks Dan for making the cute baby announcement for me.

Halloween part II

2009-11-19T22:48:00.001-08:00

Is it too late for Halloween pictures? Obviously I was tied up at the hospital all day, but of course the kids got to go trick or treating! After my friend held down the fort with the kids all day (thanks Kelli!), Dan went home and took the kids to a Halloween potluck dinner in the village and out for trick or treating. Here they are:

Dan says their favorite part was handing out the candy when they got home. Max would run out and try to recruit trick-or-treaters. Here's the little video Dan took of the kids for me to watch. :)

Will's home!

2009-11-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

We all made it home and are doing great! I'd been so nervous about this labor being too fast to get to the hospital. And I was especially preparing myself for the fact that I wouldn't be getting an epidural. But things couldn't have gone better! My water broke which was awesome because it gave us time to get to the hospital before I was even having regular contractions. Once we got to the hospital, they got us all settled checking in, giving me the IV, putting in my epidural, and voila... two hours later Will came out in just one push. It was heavenly. :)

Having Will in the NICU helped balance out how easy delivery was. :( We really should be getting used to this, but the NICU is such a pain. I hate it. I couldn't hold or feed Will for a couple days which was so sad. His platelets wouldn't stabilize so they had to keep poking him and giving him IVIG treatments. They're still trying to figure out why our babies have this problem, but basically something about my antibodies kill my babies' blood platelets and then my antibodies stay in his blood and keep at it. Hopefully by next time we'll have some preventative treatment to do during pregnancy to avoid this again. Luckily he's just fine now and we're so happy to be home.

Finally, thank you, thank you, thank you to all my dear friends who helped make this so nice for us. We've never needed or gotten so much help. People slept over, took care of the kids, brought dinner, and it was all just amazing. Dan was able to spend lots of time with me and Will at the hospital and I am SO grateful. And today my mom is coming! We feel very blessed to have gotten so much help with this baby.

Okay, so here are a few more pictures!

The very proud Dad.

Love Dr. Schleuning! She delivered Cali and now Will and she's awesome. She didn't even have time to change from her street clothes... she just threw on some gloves and caught the baby just in time. Love her!

Loved our labor and delivery nurse, Nora... she was hilarious!

And then to the NICU for a platelet transfusion. So many tubes and wires! This time they were able to hook up everything through his umbilical cord, so no IV!

My first time getting to hold Will while he was in the NICU... and my good friend Jen, his first visitor. :)

We made it home and everyone finally got to hold Will for the first time. They all adore him of course!

We got a little costume for him just in case he was born before Halloween. We couldn't put it on him while he was in the NICU, but since he was born on Halloween, we just had to get a picture. His yawn kind of looks like a little roar. :)

Baby Will is in the house!

2009-10-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

It happened. Our baby was born on Halloween, early this morning. Karen's water broke while we were watching Monk, at 8:45 p.m. Friday night. We hurried as fast as we all could, but the little guy didn't make it out in time. Happy Halloween, baby Will!

Name: Will James Briggs
Weight: 8 lb 5 oz
Length: 21 inches
Time of arrival: 2:10 a.m., October 31, 2009

Will has three great namesakes to look up to. He is named after two of his great-grandfathers, William Halls and Wilmer Barlow, and after his Grandpa James Barlow.

We were hoping for better news, but we were not surprised that Will was born with a critically low blood platelet count. So he is stuck in the NICU for now, and hopefully the platelet transfusion goes well. We'll post an update with more pictures later.

Here are a few pics. Does my girl even look like she's in labor?

No baby yet...

2009-10-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

I went the Dr. again today, and we're not going to get induced (for now, at least.) I hope we can wait one more week for when my mom can come. Now we just need to get past Halloween!

Sweet Cali Anne

2009-10-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Today just might be the last day that sweet Cali is my baby... kind of bittersweet. She has definitely been a spoiled little girl at our house for the past two years. I hope she does okay with the new baby!

Hooray for FALL!

2009-10-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

You know the feeling you have right before you have a baby that your life is pretty much going to end? I know it's not really that way, but the past couple weeks I've felt like I had to do everything on my to-do list for the rest of the year. That must be the reason for my sudden blog burst this weekend... cramming before the baby.

Anyway, today was the first time it really felt like Fall for me... warmer than the brisk ones I grew up with in Utah, but still, the Fall feeling all the same. It started with watching Game Day LIVE from Provo... very cool. Then we headed off to the Village for our our pumpkins, free pumpkin pie, then back home for carving. The house still smells like pumpkins! I wish the lovely day didn't end with watching us get a big loss from TCU. :(

They're back... TAINTED LOVE!

2009-10-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

The greatest 80's Coverband was in San Fran this week and it was Kelly's birthday request to go. :) I'm so pathetic that I can't miss just one night of fun with the girls, even when I'm 9 months pregnant and it means a whole lot of pain and contractions. This was my last night to party with the girls pre-baby so I couldn't say no!

Somehow I didn't realize at the time how embarrassing my aerobics outfit really was, but oh well, we all had a blast! Happy Birthday Kell!

Here is my fun carload getting ready to go. Once again, I have to thank these fun girls for keeping me young! I'd never do it without them!!!

Here are the rest of the girls at the club... we really outdid ourselves! I think we look even more awesome than last time. :)

Halloween Part I

2009-10-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

I knew Halloween would be a busy time this year, but things couldn't have been easier... all the kids just picked whatever they wanted to be from our overflowing costume/dress-up box.

Here are some pictures of our great ward Halloween Party. I don't know how useful I'll be next week, so I'm glad I got a head start with some pictures of them in their costumes.

First, Max as Jango Fett and Doman as Darth Vador going to a Halloween Birthday Party. :)

Max and Lincoln trying to convince us that a police officer and Superman can be scary... no dice. ;)

Amazing friends

2009-10-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Last week some of my cute friends took me out for dessert at my favorite place in Berkeley... Au Coquelet... divine chocolate is what I think it means in french... just kidding, I of course don't know. This isn't everyone, but I just love my friends. I've said it many times, but I could not survive my time here at Berkeley without the amazing friends I've had. They're going to take care of everything when my babe comes next week, and we obviously couldn't do it without them. Thanks girls! You all know who you are, and you're the best!

To be induced or to not be induced...

2009-10-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

...that has definitely been the question of the week! With pressure from my doctor (and the baby for the matter!) we are most likely going to go ahead and be induced Monday night! Our little guy could be here in just a few more days!!!

The homestretch...

2009-10-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hooray!!! We finally made it to October and my due date is just a couple weeks away! :) This pregnancy has gone by fast, but it hasn't made it any more tolerable. You'd think that pregnancy should start to get easier with each one, but it's quite the opposite. Each pregnancy seems to be ten times worse than the last one... so not fair. I'm just dying to be able to breathe and walk again! Oh, and eat food! ...and sleep! Enough complaining. Let's just say it's been a rough one and we're so glad these are the final weeks!

So my doctor who will never induce me thinks that because of my "precipitous" labor with Cali(less than 3 hours), it'd be a good idea to induce this one a little early to be safe. Oh how I'd love that! I could be induced next week! Needless to say, me and the babe are set on waiting until November when my momma can be here. My friends are SO sweet, but I just hate the idea of making them take care of 4 extra kids!

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't put any pictures of me and the belly on our blog... what kind of scrapbook is that?! Well, maybe it's because it doesn't seem that exciting to see me sporting my yoga pants and t-shirts with greasy hair and no makeup. But every once in a while there's a girls' night out or church thing... plus I guess I always try to look decent for church.

So, here's the picture we took today. :)

September Update

2009-10-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here I am getting blog-behind again. School starting should have given us more free time, right? But so far things have just been as busy as ever. First, getting used to all the schedules and arranging carpools so that I wasn't making 6 trips to school each day. I'm very glad that has settled down! Then all four kids went through a round of a weird flu bug one at a time.

Max's school anxiety started to set in a little bit, but he's done really great with it and seems to be enjoying school. Doman missed a week of school because of a poor injury he had to heal from. It's also been a nightmare working with the school to accommodate his disability. And ever since Lincoln got sick and missed school he has hated going back. So we're debating just pulling him out altogether. Anyway, our days are crazy and packed, which I love, but definitely not the down time I was planning on with school starting.

Otherwise... the month of September was quite uneventful. All the boys did go to the ward camp out together again this year and had so much fun. I'm sure they were glad that Cali and I didn't spoil their trip... we would have been very high maintenance.

Here's a couple pics of that: