San Diego.

What more can I say? Isn't this beautiful? My aunt and uncle have this amazing condo on the beach in San Diego. I went there as a child and remember thinking it was magical. As the years have passed, I have forgotten how magical it really is. The last time I went there, I was a teenager. I will say, it's been about 17 years, and it's still just as magical. This time I got to take my sweet little boys. Well, my parents drove there with them. I joined them a few days later and spent a day and a half there. We played on the beach, we walked to P&G (or P&B) store and got souvenirs. We even got panhandled by members of greenpeace. It was lovely.

(I'm omitting the fact that my mom and dad left a light on in the car and the battery died, and I had to pay $60 to get from the airport to the condo...but even with that mentioned...nothing could have ruined the trip for me!)

Robert couldn't get off of work, but I had enough fun for both of us!

It was so fun to stand in the ocean and jump into the waves with my little guys. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant and played in the condo while we listened to the sound of the ocean outside of the screen door.

Before going to San Diego, I had been scheduled to work until 4am. I luckily got off at 1:30 am and got home by 2:30. This allowed me nearly 4 hours of sleep before I headed to the airport to catch my flight.

Tuesday morning my body did not allow me to wake before 9:30 am....10:30 am Utah time. Luckily my dad got the car working and we headed out to see some more sites. We stopped at a local grocery store and bought some snacks for the kids, then we went to Old Town.

On our way to old town, I had a very traumatic experience. Jonah is just learning to go potty on the toilet. He really is doing well. So, we're sitting in the car driving when he announces "I have to poop." Being at a public park, my dad pulls up to the public restrooms and I get out to take Jonah in there. As we approach the building, I see a San Diego City vehicle with a giant pressure washer on the back. One of the worker hands me a roll of toilet paper and says "Good Luck." I laughed because I thought that he meant "Good Luck wrangling your little one."
As I entered the restrooms, I saw a sight of horror. ***WARNING GROSSNESS TO FOLLOW**** There was poop smeared all over a good portion of the floors and walls. My first thought was "HOW ON EARTH DID THAT COME FROM ONE PERSON" I know, gross...
anyways, Jonah looked around and then looked up and said "My poop is gone, lets go find papa"

I couldn't really blame him. There's nothing on this earth that could have made me use those facilities, I was happy Jonah felt the same way.

After our bathroom park adventure, we went to old town and visited the shops, took pictures in an old covered wagon and had lunch at some Coyote restaurant which was really good.

After that we headed to the airport and luckily made our flight home as well. The kids did great the whole flight home. Jonah didn't realize that the plane was taking him from the beach to Utah. When the plane was making its final descent into SLC, Jonah said "I go to the beach now?" I told him that we are done with the beach for now, and that we don't have a beach in Utah. That is the only time in the whole flight that either kid cried. I figure that's pretty good, especially since it's proof that he had a wonderful time while there.

Ok, so it's official. The story I wrote about my dad is being featured in the book
"Life Lessons from Father's of Faith," and will be published by Covenant Communications (a Deseret Book imprint) it's due out on October 1 and there will be a special about many of the fathers in the book between episodes of General Conference. Many famous fathers including general authorities and famous utahns like the Osmonds and Larry H Miller will be included, as well as my dad!

What Makes a Good Daddy.

Recently I was asked to contribute to a book that is coming out about lessons learned from LDS dads. While it was an honor to be asked to contribute, it says little about my writing abilities and lots about the kind of daddy that I have. Really, he's amazing. I'm still not sure if my story has been selected, but the book is being published by an imprint of Deseret Book and is coming out in a couple of months. I'll keep you posted on that end...but I've been thinking about how lucky I am to have the kind of dad that I do. Yesterday, I was frustrated with my ex husband because of his lack of involvement with the kids. Until this last month...since Christmas, he'd seen them for 3 visits. that's it. Then I talked to Layton and explained that Jonah didn't know that he was his dad. I asked if he would just sign over rights to the kids. He said he would never do that. I told him in a nut shell that just because he doesn't sign a paper giving up his rights, every time he flakes out on a visit or just doesn't see them, it's giving up his rights. I told him that just because he's their biological father, it doesn't mean that he'll have a relationship with them and if he doesn't make the effort....later on they won't either. Also my dad, who again is the best dad ever...and an ever better grandpa told Layton's parents. He told them that he wasn't being a good dad and that he wanted them to know that he knew that.
After that he started making some effort. Even so, it's been about 6 hours in 4 weeks, and that's the most he's seen them in about 8 months.
It's sad and frustrating to me. But there's not much I can do.
My dad has totally stepped up. He has taken them camping (on many many camp trips) They've gong to see fireworks and parades.
It's back to school time and both of them are going to be going to school. Logan will be in Kindergarten and Jonah will be in preschool. Over the past several months I've spent over $400 getting them ready for school. That's fine, they're pretty much ready. They've got their little jeans and spiderman shirts and superhero book bags etc. Well. I forgot about shoes. I decided that I would ask Layton to help buy one of the boys his shoes for school. I forget sometimes that Logan hears EVERYTHING. He was playing downstairs when I called to talk to Layton. Obviously, he wouldn't do it. I told him pretty frankly that was fine, that I would buy them because it is important to me that they look their best. I got off the phone and was just so frustrated with the whole situation that I started to cry. Logan had quietly crept into the other room and came up to me and said "Momma, don't cry. You're my best momma." I laughed and hugged him and told him that I was ok. Logan has these little moments of wisdom sometimes. He looked at me and said "Mom, my dad Layton lets me down a lot, but guess what? Even when he does I have my grandpa and he's always there. and if grandpa wasn't there, heavenly father is, and so I'm ok."
Thank Heavens for Grandpa and Heavenly father, and a five year old who is wise enough to understand that.