Mount Soledad

Here we are at the top of Mount Soledad where we could see San Diego in 360. The Pacific Ocean to the west; downtown San Diego and Mexico to the south; rolling hills and greenery to the east; and a half-dozen hot air balloons and the LDS temple to the north. Very cool!

Eliot and Mitchell are getting ready for church. I thought both boys looked very handsome in their shirts and ties.

Baseball Game

Madison at the Padres game Mitchell's first baseball game hot dog Needless to say, he really enjoyed it
So $43.50 later, we had some great pictures and some ketchup stains. What ever happened to 4 hot dogs for a dollar. That is what I remember my dad paying when he used to buy me hot dogs.

More Pictures

Madison and her basket of strawberries. (I am surprised that any ended up in the basket since there were so many that were eaten) Madison the cowgirl
Mitchell's first pony ride

Here is Mitchell blowing out his first birthday candle.Mitchell going after one of his baseball cupcakes

Mitchell's birthday

This last week was full of fun. Mitchell turned one on Wednesday. Angie took him and Madison and several of Madison friends to go strawberry picking. They went on pony rides, went on blowie jump ups, and ate way more strawberries then ended up in the baskets. Mitchell had strawberry juice everywhere on everyone's clothing. I came home from work early and we opened up some presents, had pizza, and sang to Mitchell. Mitchell was exhausted and I am sure had a very upset stomach given all the strawberries, pizza, and chocolate cake. (ok, so we could have had a more balanced diet that day)

On Saturday, we had a small gathering of people at the park for Mitchell. It was a sports theme. Angie had decided to make cupcakes. Worried that they might just taste ok, she decided to kick it up a notch and purchased the cupcake doctor cookbook with dozens of cupcake recipes. She made pineapple banana smoothie cupcakes, and white chocolate white on white cupcakes. We decorated them all to look like baseballs and basketballs. They were tasty and disappeared fast. We had a good time and it was fun to celebrate Mitchell. He is an adorable little guy. I am going to upload several pictures. I thought about including some video, but that just might have to wait.

Here are a couple of pictures of our kids. I am sure that I will post many many more.

Starting Out

I know that people think I have been dragging my feet when it comes to starting a blog and that may be true. I am not sure that I am ready to commit to a blog especially one through Blogger. You see I am non-committal by nature and have been since I was I was young. I don't want to committ to regular posting or to a program that I am not 100 percent sold on. I also am not sure why people would want to see my dirty laundry or any laundry that I might post. Do I really want to invite the world to view my thoughts and feelings? Do they care? There are so many fascinating things to learn and read that it seems like time could be better spent on any number of things. I have several siblings who have started blogs and their posts by and large have been deep and thought-provoking. I am not sure that any of my posts are going to stack up. For weightier matters, I will link to their posts and you can get your philosophical fill everyday. I have really enjoyed reading their blogs and seeing pictures of them and their kids.

To stay connected with my siblings and family is a good enough reason to blog. I think another big reason may be just to chronical my children with pictures and or videos largely for personal use. I may in fact try and make this private if possible so only selected invitees can view my blog if they care to. Not long ago, I read several letters that my mom and dad had written to my Grandparents while they were volunteering for the LDS church that talked about my siblings and me when we were young. It was fun to read about their descriptions of us at such a young age and how their characterization would be largely the same if they were to write about us now. Maybe, I should just be better about writing in a journal.

Today, my daughter was drawing a picture at church with a black pen and a blank white piece of paper. When she was done, I asked her if it was a labyrinth, and she said "no dad, it's a spider web". (It really looked like a spider web) I was thinking Madison is so grown up and insightful. I wondered if she had started coloring with the web as the end goal or if she just drew and then decided what it was afterwards. I was hoping that it was the latter and not the former. I thought that I wish I could live my life without thinking about the end goal so much and just live my life and then sit back and reflect. A minute after Madison told me it was a Spider Web, she looked up at me and said "It's a girl Spider-web Dad". I laughed out loud. She later got up with all of Primary and sang (stuck her finger in her mouth) some Mother songs in front of the congregation. She looked beautiful.

Mitchell is fast approaching his first birthday. We can't take him anywhere without turning heads and getting multiple comments from people about how cute he is. He has a permagrin on his face and now has four teeth. (two up top and two on bottom). He is very sturdy and can stand on his own and can take a few steps on his own, but has chosen to crawl over walk thus far. I do think that his walking is only a few weeks out.

Wow, for not being so energized about blogging this is sure a long post. I am still not committed.