Grampa's Fixes

On a Sunday about a week ago, Daniel and I decided to take Grampa for a drive. He needed to get out after a weekend of being cooped up inside. We drove through some scenic canyons to the ocean, and on the way back, Grampa got onto a fix ... a counting fix. (He often becomes fixated on something, and then he repeats over and over whatever it is that he's fixated on. One time, he was fixated on us all being friends. He even toasted us being friends over some cranberry juice. This one was really funny!)

He started counting, starting at 1 and going to 100. Then he would start over at 1. At times, he would get distracted by something, and I thought for sure he would lose track. "34, 35, 36 ... Boy, look at those mountains! They're beeeeaaaautiful!" Then, "...37, 38, 39..." It was incredible! He rarely skipped a beat!

Some Fun Pics!

Going through Gpa's stuff, we found this. Sweet, huh?

Daniel and Gpa at the ocean

Leslie and Gpa at the ocean

On Daniel's birthday. We drove around Beverly Hills, feeling very Californian

Leslie and Gpa on Daniel's birthday, after singing to Daniel

These blocks are the toys we give to Gpa to keep him amused and occupied

This is Daniel's latest creation. Lovely, isn't it? Truthfully, we all play with them.

I'm Not Going There!

While we are staying at Grandpa's house, we are helping to clean up the house. And it's quite an adventure.

Today, I tackled the Master Bathroom. I HATE cleaning the bathroom. It's the one chore that I really hate doing. But, it was needed. And my mum taught me how to clean the bathroom right: clean off the counters, wash the mirrors, scrub the tub, the works. When cleaning the toilet, you must clean around the base of the toilet and all around it.

But as I was going to clean the base, I found this:

What IS that?!?! Let's zero in on it!

Ew. Ew. Ew. EW!!!! No.  My mommy taught me right, but this is where I draw the line.  I love you, Grandpa, but THIS is where I draw the line!

And this is how I felt:

PS: lest you get the wrong idea, my Grandpa has a really nice place. Big house, 1 acre,  the best of everything. But, it just ... needs a little TLC. But, there are a few things I won't deal with.

Moving to Calif. and a New Job!

We are now in California living at Leslie's Grandpa Bowen's house; with him and Leslie's Uncle Gary in Woodland Hills. I started my new Job at King, King, Alleman, & Jensen as a Staff Accountant. I'll be working in Burbank. It's a little exciting to be starting a career.


Leslie said we had to take a first day of work picture.

Part of the reason we are living with Grandpa Bowen is to help take care of him. Leslie's grandpa has Alzheimer's so he doesn't remember more than a few seconds. He's not sure who we are, but we love spending time with him. We try to keep him entertained and he keeps us laughing. He does have his moments and it does take a lot of work and patience, but he's a charming man, and is fun to live with.


On our way to California we decided to stop at the Manti Temple for a session. It's a beautiful temple and I have a beautiful wife!

Fun Summer Update

We are really behind on our blog so we'll just have to do a quick update of what's happened.

We spent most of our summer in Medford, OR with Leslie's family. We had a lot of fun except I spent way too much time studying for the CPA exam. It's a four part test and I've taken two of the tests and will be taking the third this Friday. Leslie went to girls camp as a cabin leader and had a blast. I think she enjoyed acting like a teenage girl without all the drama.

We went to Seattle with the Fernandez family to visit Mark and Julie's family and to go sight seeing, but we forgot to steal pictures from the family camera so we don't have any.

We drove back to Utah in July for the Holbrook Family reunion in Park City. We had a blast there. It was good to have so much of our family together. We spent our time hiking, swimming, playing games, and mountain biking.

I had a hard time deciding on what pictures to go with so I just added a ton.


This was a fun family picture. We had everybody, but Zak and Hillary.



This burger was a little big for me.


Our nephews Riley and Damon. Damon has a fat lip because although he is only 6 years old he went mountain biking earlier that day with Michael and I. He was doing great and had already gone down the trail a few times when he wrecked and scraped up his face. But don't worry he was back on his bike later that week doing the trails again. A couple days later he even rode off the trail over a ledge into a stream. He's such a good trooper and loves to mountain bike, and for 6 he's good.
Our cute nephew, Brixton.


I found a new hobby, Mountain Biking! I went with Michael and Damon one day and had so much fun I took Leslie and Emily another day. Later I went on a long bike ride by myself and had tons of fun. We biked at the Canyons Ski resort, so we rode the lifts up and bike back down.


We had lots of fun with our nephew Riley. He wanted to spend every minute he could in the pool.


Brixton and I; we love this picture.


Emily on the trails!

Leslie on the trails too!



We love our family!



Jon Henderson invited us to a Bee's Baseball game. Again, we had a blast.

Hiking with Michael and Damon in the Uinta Mountains

New hair/beard styles

I know our blog may not be quite as entertaining because we don't have so many super cute baby pictures or funny toddler/baby stories (seems like everyone else that has a blog has cute babies), but we have some great pictures of us.

Leslie has always wanted a blue streak in her hair. I've always thought it was a wild idea, but she went through with it this past week. She also wanted a haircut like Hillary Duff so she got that too. I think she is super beautiful!!

The blue streak turned out really cool!


And her hair is beautiful too!

I haven't been shaving as much now that I've graduated from BYU. Since I don't normally have to be anywhere each day, because I study most days, I don't have as much motivation to shave. Oh, and I've grown it out because Leslie likes the facial hair.

This next picture is two weeks worth of growth.


We decided to have fun with it so I gradually shaved off parts to see what it would look like. What do you think?? Should I grow it back like one of the following???


Cool, huh?

The next picture of Leslie is there just because I think she looks super beautiful.


Leslie's mom is an amazing seamstress/quilter and she used to make a lot of clothes. A few weeks ago she pulled out some of the old clothes she had made and Leslie tried on a few outfits. Doesn't she look great?


One of the big events this summer has been taking care of Leslie's Grandpa Bowen. He's now 95 years old and has alzheimer's/dementia so he requires 24/7 supervision and care. We had the opportunity of spending a lot of time taking care of him while he was here. He kept us entertained and busy since he doesn't remember more than 10 seconds most of the time. Following is a picture of us with him.



I've been studying and taking the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam since just after school got out. The exam covers four test and they recommend studying 100 - 200 hours per test. So it will take at least this summer for me to study and pass all the exams. I've already taken one, but still have 3 to go.

Update

So. Life has been busy the last month (a nice change, for me at least). Here's what's been happening:

At the end of April, Daniel graduated from BYU with a Master's Degree in Accounting:

The Graduate!

Shaking Hands with the Dean!

At the beginning of May, Daniel and I moved all of our stuff to Southern California, and spent a few days looking for a place to live:

We didn't decide on anything definite on apartments; but we figure we still have some time.

Then, we came to Medford. We are spending the summer here with my family and we're really excited about it!

And, hopefully, from now on, we'll be better about updating our blog! One can only hope...