This year we spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Newport Beach, CA. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle and just relax a little. If you can call driving for 11 hours in a van with 3 kids relaxing...just kidding Naava, it was a blast to be able to spend more time with my niece and nephews. We stayed at my dads place down there which is amazing. We even helped him install a new light fixture that looks like a giant version of a normal lamp, pretty sweet. While there we spent a lot of time playing frisbee on the beach, freq
uent trips to the hot tub and various excursions. Aria and I even watched a boat burning one night, never a dull moment. We had a great time sea kayaking around the bay and balboa island. The entire time dad was just pointing out various sailboats along the way that he one day dreams of having, I hope he does too. We even brought out the laser sailboat one day and dad taught us all the ins and outs of sailing. It was a crash course in sailing, more of a literal crash course for tyler and lochlan as they almost tipped the boat and had to wait out in the bay holding on to a bigger ship while da
d rowed out to save them. Ha Ha Ty. It was fun to finally learn and do what dad has told us about for so many years, but never until now taught us how to do it. Aria, lauren and I even went for some nice jogging along the boardwalk. We also took the beach cruisers out for a nice ride along the beach. There is something so relaxing and meditative about being by the sea and watching the waves and seeing the sunsets. Our Thanksgiving dinners all came pre-cooked and in 2 big cardboard boxes...Nothing like take out Thanksgiving dinner. On Friday dad rented a little duffy boat to take
us on a cruise around balbao island and the other small islands in the bay. It was fun to see all the cool houses and nice boats around us. Dad had recently tried a new frozen yogurt shop called tuti fruti and was thouroughly convinced it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Needless to say we made a nightly stop there...sometime twice daily. The trip was all in all very nice and a great way to spend the holiday. Cant wait for my next excuse to leave my troubles behind and get away.
This picture pretty much sums up our summer. We bought a triplex in may located near 9th & 9th in salt lake city. We love the neighborhood, the house, the yard and not so much the 3 months we've spent fixing it up. Its a nice old building built in 1892 which means lots of things that need to be done to maintain it. we have put in a huge organic garden, a stone patio, and we decided to live in the worst unit of all 3 and fix it up while we live there. It has been lots of work but now that we are nearing completion it has been well worth the work. I've included a couple pictures of the work in progress. Other than that we havent been doing much this summer but working and trying to stay sane. Aria just started a new position at olympus high shool as a math teacher. She teaches all upper level classes and has already loved being at a high school where the students actually listen when she teaches. We also bought a sweet vespa a couple months ago which has been so fun to get around town on. It gets great gas mileage and makes any errand an adventure.
The part that sucks is the day aria went out to ride it down to get her motorcycle license, it was gone. Someone stole it during the night right in front of our house. That kinda bummed us out and made me want to kill someone but hey, such is life. The cool thing is that the guys who stole it were obviously not the brighest bunch and tried to sell it to a motorcylce shop a couple days later. The guy at the shop knew it was stolen at first glance and called the cops. Good news is we got it back, bad news is they did so much damage they have to practically rebuild the thing. All in all its been a fun summer with many changes in our lives. Hopefully by next summer ill have posted something new on our blog so make sure to check back every 6 months or so.
