General Update

For all you "How I Met Your Mother" fans who read this blog (which is probably just Tara and I), you should be saluting each other by the title of "General Update." For the rest of you, if you receive said salute, just know you're missing out on a really funny show.

So big news in the Jones household...it's almost Halloween and there's still no snow!!! I talked to my parents today and was notified that there was snow with 50 mph wind gusts in the weather forecast for Rexburg. Not sure about the rest of you, but I have a pretty good idea of what my own personal Purgatory would look like were I to opt out of the whole Plan of Salvation deal. Sorry, Rexburg.

In other news, we had parent/teacher conference two weeks ago. Turns out that both Ian and Aaron know how to read and write. The real shocker is that Ian is extremely well behaved, except for when he's talking too much. (No, I did not mix up the names of my boys.) Aaron is also well-behaved, he just likes to lolly-gag (which, I believe, is the technical and scientific term for "too much like your father"). They're both doing well and have enjoyed the first few months of school. Plenty of new friends, teachers are nice and boys even get to see each other at recess sometimes.

Everything is pretty quiet at the moment. I'm still working (and surfing), though I wish I were doing more of each (that darned learning curve). Tara has found a fun group of mommies here in Newbury Park, most of whom are in our ward. Most days are spent watching extra kids or dropping ours off. Melina's even starting to adjust to it a little. Slowly but surely we're nudging her towards that big 1-year jump-off point where we start to retain our personal space a little more. (Not much, mind you, but every little bit seems like a county mile at this point.)

Below are some pictures I took of Melina being herself, which is to say, just as crazy as the rest of my kids.

Here's a quick summary of how our summer looked. Lots of fun. Best part is the boys can now practice YEAR ROUND!!!! (I think Tara's pretty excited at the prospect of sending them outside year round without worry of Child Services. *KIDDING*) Also, this video was on my phone (which started a 48-hour death march yesterday - we now have limited time together, necessitating getting all the videos and pics off of it). So I can't vouch for the quality. But the videos go up, none the less. And I think they're missing audio because of the conversion.

As a side note, they have both started taking my skateboard out, luging down the hill skeleton-style, so they can practice their pop-ups on the move. I'd grab a vid of that, but it would probably TKO my phone.

And for those keeping score, that's Brad - 2, picture-taking-devices - 0. I'm doing my best Ray Bradbury impression on digital media for the good of humanity. (Bragging rights to the first one to get the literary reference.)

First Day Of School

So today was kind of momentous: first day at the new school, and Ian started kindergarten. We're a little anxious about Ian and how he'll handle sitting in class all day without hitting anyone. We're also dreading the call home about an "accident" and a change of clothes. We'll see how it goes. But Tara's pretty excited to be home all morning long with just the girls.

The other kids in the picture are a family in our ward that we've become friends with. They walked out of their house as we were walking past and their little girl Patricia is in Ian's class. He seemed pretty excited to already know someone on the first day of school. We saw several other

families from church that live in the area (not all in our ward), which was kind of fun. California isn't considered one of those conservative-values states, so it's nice walking into a new school seeing people of similar values there. While I'm sure there are families of other faiths with similar values (NP is pretty conservative itself), I just haven't met any of them yet - good thing we've got Boosters (PTA) as a chance to get to know them! (Yes, Tara's already signed "us" up for some class activities and "fun"-draisers.)

California Cars

We were driving to Callie's a few weeks back and we pulled up behind one of the local cruisers in our neighborhood...a bright yellow Lotus Elise. Not sure why you would adorn such a nice car with such a horrible spoiler, but I guess money's not an issue if you own a Lotus.

And in case any of you are wondering, I'm WAAAAAAAAY out of my tax bracket here. This picture was taken while driving either my 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan or my 1996 Civic, both of which are paid off and still run. Seriously, I was pretty happy in my previous post about how excited I was to get a used surfboard on craigslist. But at least I can take my kids on a surfboard, right?

(BTW...Aaron stood up the other day on the Anderson at Mondos. He's pretty excited to get out and try it again. Pretty soon he'll be joining us on those family dawn patrols when everyone's in town. Maybe he can join Brayden and Owen on the Jr Jones Pro Circuit.)

My new board!

So I wasn't planning on buying a new surfboard AT ALL this year. Yeah, I had hoped, but it was more wishful thinking. And then, this nice girl named Kirsten down in West Hollywood decided to deliver me Christmas early at a PHENOMENAL price. Gotta love Craigslist.

For those interested, it's a 9' 6" pintail, knifey rails and a nice little rocker in the nose allowing for late take-offs. The board turns super smooth and is pretty fast. The color is a lot prettier than the picture - it's a really light green, almost a mint cream color. And Dad, yes you can try it out but you'll buy me a new one if you ding it.

BTW...this picture was taken with my camera phone. Until Tara picks a new camera, that's all we'll be posting for the next little bit.

So, you may have noticed...no pictures in awhile. That's because Brad broke my camera...again. I'm kind of having withdrawals without it. I'm afraid if I don't actually document what we're doing we must not be doing anything. Well, that's not really true.

We did make it to Silverstrand and I'm not a huge fan. Part of it may be that I didn't like the whole trek with the kids by myself. Parking was limited, the walk was pretty far, and the beach break scared me with the kids. Needless to say, we didn't stay long.

At the beginning of August, I went to Indiana with just my girls. I had so much fun with my sisters and my nieces. I can't believe Taylor's going to college! Despite the humidity, I loved being there and talking to my sisters, hanging out with my grown up nieces, and eating from Sara's lovely garden! I'm sure a few more weeks and Melina would've let me put her down:P I'm pretty sure my boys enjoyed a break from mommy, a dodgers game, and just hanging out with their laid back daddy. Thanks mom for taking a picture!

We also went to Zuma a couple weeks ago. It's always great to see Uncle Chris and Aunt Lu, and Kristen and Josh were there, and Justin, and Gabby, and their new baby Liam, and Chels and Dave were in town, and Callie amazingly brought her clan all on her own and my brother and his wife even showed up. I'm finding here in California someone is always in town. It's great because it gives us an excuse to get together.

Honestly, although I love discovering new things here, I can't wait until school starts. I'm counting down the days until I can go grocery shopping during the day without 4 kids. It is exhausting to go to a store and have to say no and stop touching things and please stay next to me that many times. School starts late here date-wise (to me)-not until Sept 1. Also, time-wise, early 8:15 am! No more 9am school. I hope I can get ready early enough:) I'm excited and nervous for Ian to be in school for 5 hours. That's a big difference from 2 1/2 hrs two days a week. The first few weeks may be rough.

Hopefully, I will have pictures again someday... or else Melina will be one of those last children who say their parents never took pictures by the time they got to her...

The Adventure Continues...

So a couple of weeks ago my sister and brother were in town so we headed to the Getty Museum. It was cool and great hanging out with the fam, but not really a kid place. They did have a small kids area plus an amazing rolling hill, but the security guard kept having to come tell me to keep my kids away from the water. What can I say we love fountains. Plus, we have discovered the Janns Mall Fountains which you can run through-not quite as spectacular as Gateway's fountains (SLC), but pretty good!

My mom took us to the Sylmar Wildlife Learning Center last week and the kids had a blast. The macaws said hello to us, we were introduced to Walter the porcupine (who modeled for Over the Hedge), and the kids touched four year old tortoises which were smaller than our hands and pretty cute actually. Overall, fun trip and we all learned something:)

Still on my list of things to do before the kids go back to school are:

Temescal Gateway Park, and Bennet Honey Farm

Stay tuned for more adventures.