Happy 14th Birthday Emily!
Ice cream at Marianne's in Santa Cruz

Funny Faces

Two hot studs...

Sammy, Heather, and Em

Surfin' dude

Cool Cat Had

Bathing Beauty

Camping at new Brighton Beach

Over Memorial weekend our family went to New Brighton Beach State Park. This has been an annual event for members, and past members, of our stake for the past15 for more years. Sierra, Jeremy, and Matt used to go with friends or by themselves, pitching a tent on someones campsite and scrounging for food. We decided to go last year and we plan to make it a family tradition. Everyone was with us, plus two of Emily's friends, Samantha and Heather. All totaled we had 19 people and 6 tents on our campsite. It was a little bit chilly the first two days but warmed up so we had a nice beach day. We went to the boardwalk on Friday and the tide pools on Sunday. We took our bikes and had fun biking, and skate boarding around the park. It was a great way to relax, enjoy nature and spend time with our family.

Our visit with Matt and Niole

Our trip to Washington would not have been complete without a tour of the Capitol. thanks to Trevor's sister we took a great tour with an intern from the office of Rep. Flake of Arizona. Thanks Nicki!

One special event we went to was the "Blessing of the Fleet". This happens every year when the Navy blesses and pours water from the "Seven Sea's" into the fountains at the Navy Memorial.

Remember the Maine! This is the anchor from the Battleship Maine. We took many trips into Washington DC. On our last day we visited the Arlington National Cemetary. Below is the SeaBee Monument. Matt's favorite.

Our first day into Washington Matt insisted that we take a bike tour of the National Monuments. It was very cold and very crowded so we, Nicole and I, tried to talk him out of it. Needless to say, Matt stayed true to his decision and off we went. Dave and Nicole shared stroller duty with Lydia. She was too young for the trailer. It turned out to be a fun adventure and a great way to see DC. The only problem we had was getting around all the people walking. I tried to make a move around some pedestrians and ended up flipping over my bike. Yes it was embarrassing, but I was OK

Road trip with Matt

Matt and Buffalo Bill

Matt is standing in front of the Tabernacle in Council Bluffs where Brigham Young was confirmed as the new Prophet of the church.
Matt's favorite museum was the Browning Gun Shop and house.

I found this monument with the words of my ancestor Newel Knight as he was leaving Nauvoo. He said "... here we halted and took a farewell view of our delightful city....We also beheld our beautiful temple rearing its lofty tower towards the heavens... My heart did swell within me."

Looking out the window of the Masonic Hall across the City of Nauvoo
Carthage Jail

Last December Matt and I drove across the country together. Matt and Nicole were moving to California, Maryland. Since Nicole was 7 months pregannt and Lucas was 17 months old they wanted to fly and Matt needed a travel buddy, aka Mom. We had a fun time driving and stopping at sites along the way. On Monday we arrived at Grandma Rita's house in Prove were she had a wonderful chicken chile soup ready for us. The next morning a friend of Matt's invited us for breakfast. Then we were on our way. It took us until Wednesday night to arrive in Nauvoo. We spent Thursday trying to see everything we could in one day. The highlight was our temple session in the beautiful Nauvoo temple. The next morning we drove to Carthage Jail and on to Indianapolis. That's were I flew home and Matt and one more day to get to his new home in Maryland. I am so glad I went on this trip with Matt. It was great to spend time just with him.

Park City, Utah

In August Dave, Emily and I went to Utah for Elizabeth's wedding. Before arriving in Provo for the festivities we decided to make a short trip to Park City. We spent a fun day taking in the sites at the Olympic village. The zip ride was billed as the longest in the United States. I was a little chicken to strap into the harness and fly down the mountain, but when an older gentleman showed up to do it with his granddaughter I thought I'd better try it our or regret it. It was a breeze. Not scary at all. Then we rode the luge down a large metal slide. That was really fun because you could speed up or slow down as you liked it. As we traveled around the mountain towards Prove we stopped to see Aunt Judy and Uncle Dick and had a nice visit with them. Then we went into Midway and played shuttleboard at the Homestead.

Newport, Rhode Island

OCS Graduation

This is my first attempt to create a family blog, so please be patient. On August 28th Dave, Emily and I traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to witness Matt's graduation from the Naval Officer Candidate School. What a great time we had seeing Matt's transformation into a Naval Officer. We attended several events including a Hi Mom dinner at the Newport Yacht Club, a change in command ceremony, the graduation ceremony and even a 5AM run with the candidates. It was fun to see their marine drill sergeant put them "on their face" with push-ups, sit-ups and bear crawls. Grandpa Doug and Betty drove all the way from Rochester to join us and support Matt. Thanks so much for coming! Matt is continuing with his training to work as a civil engineer. Soon he and Nicole and Lukas will be in Maryland, where they will stay for the next two years.