special moment between species

This video blew me away. Joshua actually got to interact with the killer whales in an intimate gesture that was amazing to watch.

San Diego

Every year we say we are going to take a nice family trip while Michael is in his off season, and this year we actually followed trough. I believe this is the first trip ofits kind for our faamily - we went without any extended family members. It was just us. I'm pretty sure it's the first time that has happended! Anyway, we had a blast. We spent two whole days in Sea World, which allowed us to see every little star fish and barnicle. We were able to feed the dolphins and the sea lions. It was so amazing! The dolphins were my favorite part. We saw all the shows, and even got drenched by some whales.

Our hotel was right on the bay and I was able to go jogging along the bay in the mornings. We visited the beach a few times where Joshua and Michael loved the ocean waves, and Andrew ran from them screaming for his life.

We also found time to visit a historic lighthouse, visit Torrey Pines golf course, and stop for a while at the San Diego Temple.

The kids got sick on the drive home, which was a vomity-on-the-car-upholstry nightmare, but all a part of the adventure! We stopped over in Las Vegas for the night and enjoyed a half day seeing sights on the strip. We even lost Michael for a while, but thanks to a mini-miracle we found eachother again. The weather was beautiful the entire time which was such a nice break from Cache Valley winter!

Heber train ride

Michael just put into words perfectly the way I have felt about blogging lately- "We've been too busy doing bloggable stuff to actually take any time to blog! things have slowed down a little now though, so we are really playing catch-up.

Grandpa Jaussi and Grandma Jan treated the Jaussi's and Barlows to a ride on the Heber Valley Rail Road on New Year's eve. Carlie also had a birthday that day, thus the sombrero picture. (We love you Carlie! ) The train ride was a wonderful adventure. The scenery was beautiful and we were able to move between cars. We even spent some time in the open car behind the engine. The conductor fit the part perfectly and was very friendly. The kids had a great time being together and enjoying the novelty ofit, and the adults enjoyed watching them and actually having some time to chat. We all spent the night at Dads and celebrated New Years together. It is so nice to spend time with my family.

Christmas Morning 2008

Santa was good to us this year. Maybe a little too good....it took us til almost noon just to open all of our presesnts! Joshua got Spike the Ultimate Dinosaur,which he has been asking Santa for since August. He loves that remote control dino! Andrew got some fun puzzles and games, and a great dump truck. Santa brought me those fabulous fuzzy slippers I've been wanting for a while now. And Michael got three new tarantulas. We also were thrilled to open our gift from the Barlows - a popcorn machine for our theater! We had a lovely ham dinner in the afternoon, as is tradition, and enjoyed our day of revelry!

Christmas pageant 2008

The tradition lives on... "Hey! Unto you a child is born!" Our anual Christmas Eve pageant was as entertaining as ever. Andrew made a very interesting wise man, and our shepherd was as cute as a button. Nothing sets the spirit of the Christmas story like a stuffed bear for a Christ child and a Burger King hat for a crown!

Joshua's 6th Birthday

Happy 6th birthday, Joshua!!
Okay, so it was over a month ago....we've been a little behind in documenting our news. Joshua had a wonderful birthday. His class threw him a party and he got lots of fun presents from his friends and family. We had planned to go to Chucky Cheese with the Scanlons to celebrate, but Joshua got sick the night before his birthday, and the weather wa also a little sketchy. We ended up having a last-minute party at home, inviting one of Joshuas favorite friends from the neighborhood. My baby is turning into a little man so quickly. It's amiracle to watch.

Torrey Pines

We've been given a hard time lately about being behind on our blog. Since I (Mike) have gotten the most pressure from Trevor, I've deciding to finally break down and try the blogosphere. for those of you who don't know, Torrey Pines was the location of last year's U.S. Open in professional golf. Tiger won it, basically on one leg. The final round he was wincing on almost every shot because of a bad knee. He was having a hard time even walking, let alone play golf. After he won the tournament he went in for surgery and hasn't been back since. It was very exciting to watch, to say the least. Torrey Pines is in the San Diego area so we just had to go see the historic site (it is also the location for many other big time tournaments including next weeks' Buick Open-- watch it, we were there).