Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all doing well and staying cool! Summer is well underway here in Temecula, with temperatures in the 90’s everyday. But we have such a good breeze where we live and our house is so well-insulated that we still haven’t had to turn on our air conditioning! We think that is pretty impressive for the end of June.
Since our last update in February we’ve had a graduation and 3 different vacations. Vacation #1 was sort of a vacation… I guess. The end of April I volunteered to drive the kids up to Utah to my parents’ house for a week so that Brent could have some peace and quiet to finish up all his big school projects. Yes, crazy I know, I made a 10 hour drive alone with a 3.5 year old and 1.5 year old boy. But surprisingly it really wasn’t that bad. We made a few stops along the way and made it one piece. I was able to hoot and holler for my brother Ted’s BYU graduation and my bro-in-law Jeff’s graduation as well. It was fun visiting with college friends and hitting the old haunts around Provo. The boys were treated to rides in Grandpa’s hot rod, a trip to the dinosaur museum, and extremely large quantities of chocolate milk and ice cream sundaes. The trip was a success because by the time we got home Brent was pretty much done with school.
That’s right, Brent received his MBA in May and made it official by walking in the big ceremony down at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. I was surprised how proud and emotional I was when I heard that dumb music start to play! I think it felt almost like a family accomplishment, instead of just Brent’s. It was pretty cool to be there with his family and watch him get one of those spiffy hoods placed over his gown. To celebrate we went out for lunch with the fam, and then the next day I surprised Brent with Vacation #2.
My mom was good enough to stay with the kids while we headed for a 3 night stay at a wonderfully cheap and really nice hotel in Las Vegas. We did a lot of reading, swimming, going to movies, eating out, shopping, and even got to Red Rock Canyon for a day of hiking.
Two weeks later and it’s time for Vacation #3. Our annual camping trip to Yosemite National Park with the Cox Family. As usual, we had a great time getting dirty, pigging out, and giving ourselves blisters *(hiking is always my favorite part)*. This year I was especially awed by the beauty of Yosemite… If you’ve never been, you have to go! There is really nothing like it. The views of the valley are just spectacular. There really is a special spirit about the place… As we drove into the valley this year it was early in the morning and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir happened to be playing. I thought, man this music is so appropriate! What a beautiful world we have to live in.
Which brings us to the present. The long days with the kids are filled with swimming, sprinklers, bike riding, movie watching, beach going, story reading, painting, and pretending. Mom and Dad try to get out every now and then for a date, but babysitters are expensive these days – so probably not as often as we’d like. Every once in a while friends or family will come to stay for a visit which is always a treat. We wish more of you would!
As usual, you can check out our website for lots of pictures, updated regularly. *(Cox family – there are 7 pages of Yosemite pics…)* You’ll notice that we’ve changed the site around a bit. For those of you who are into blogging or at least reading other peoples’ blogs, I’m going to try to start actually using the one we’ve had set up for years. So please, bookmark our page and come visit often. I need to know I have readers – please leave comments!
Leave a Reply