Long overdue update....

It has been a very long time since my last post and my world has been turned upside down and backwards since my last post.

We took a family trip to the Oregon coast where the boys indulged in a Licorce Shake(shudder). The wrongness of this particular treat is astounding.

We got to watch men and women in kilts run a 1K race down the beach in Newport, OR as part of the Celtic Festival that they hold every year.

We got bored one night and flat ironed Liams hair, just to see what it would look like.

 We took another trip to the Oregon Coast in the fall and had a great time.

We attended the God and Country festival, where I fully annoyed my children by forcing them to get their pictures taken.

Both boys competed in the Dirty Dash. Liam competed in the spring in Eugene, OR., while Dallas did the fall run in Boise, ID.

We had a going away party for Dallas

We took pride in watching our oldest son be sworn into the United States Army.

Liam took Bow lessons.

James finally got me to a BSU game. It only took him 16 years.

Liam got his braces off:

  

and he turned 16!

Dallas graduated Basic Training out of Ft. Benning, GA.

Due to health issues, Gpa Melvin had to move closer to me so we bought these two houses side by side and became neighbors.

The blue one is ours and the yellow one is Melvins.

Gpa Melvin had Hip replacement surgery and went into rehab for a short while.

Co-Op came to an end, but our schooling continues.

And that has been our life for the last year. Well, at least an abreviated version of our life.

We look forward to what is going to come at us!

End of Year....

The year is coming to an end and all I can think is: Where did it go? I noticed that every year that I age, the year seems to fly by faster. Somehow that doesn't seem very fair. Shouldn't it slow down a little so that I can savor this time with the kids more? Shouldn't there be a rule somewhere.  I am getting ready to send my oldest son out into the world. I am praying that his father and I have given him a good enough foundation that he'll flourish. My youngest son is looking forward with a combination of anticipation and dread at the thought of being the only kid home. No one to share the chores with....


Grandpa Melvin is doing great. He's been keeping busy building things and doing things with his church and friends. At 87, he is more active than a lot of teenagers now days. Up before dawn, and hardly slows down till bed. 

The kids lately have gotten hooked on "The Big Bang Theory". The humor in the show is so great. It makes me look forward to teaching Physics to Liam when the time comes. 

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Happy Birthday Dallas!

My baby turned 17 last Friday! I can't believe that 17 years have already gone by, it seems like just yesterday that he blessed my life with his presence.

Dallas at 6 months

From the moment that Dallas entered the world, I knew that life would never be the same. Through the years, we have had some truly wonderful memories made and I look forward to more in the future.

Up till now, it has been a great ride. On Sunday, we decided to give Dallas a ride of his own. We gave him the gift of Skydiving for his birthday. He LOVED it!

Dallas at terminal Velocity!

School is back in session!

Life in the Taylor household is back up an running for another school year. Yuck!Yea!

 The boys are looking forward to another year of Co-Op with equal parts joy and apprehension. This year, I think, might be Dallas's last year in school, and Liam is a 9th grader this year. Neither are looking forward to their upcoming subjects. Liam is dreading Government and 20th Century History

and British Literature classes based on the reading alone. He is looking forward to his science class though.

 We are working on writing and composition and Algebra 1 at home and will be taking Farsi as a family for the Language classes.

Dallas is playing Flag Football again for the CHAMP Falcons. He too will be taking 20th Century History, Government, Physical Science and Farsi, but he is also taking Algebra 2 and Biology 2 (Anatomy) at home. He has a full year ahead. He is the one that wanted to graduate early though.

Wish us luck.

Wrapping up a great summer!

We spent the first week of August in San Diego. I have always wanted to visit and see the sights, but I wanted the kids to be big enough to thoroughly enjoy it. It was a 17 hour drive and it went quicker than I thought possible. The Sierra Nevada mountains still had remnants of snow on them and the lakes were beautiful.
After getting there and finding our hotel, we were up bright and early the next day. The kids watch Man vs. Food on the Food Network and wanted to try a few restaurants they had seen on the show. So, our first breakfast was here:

Dallas hamming it up.

Dallas and Liam in front of the Broken Yolk restaurant.

 After a wonderful breakfast, we then Headed toward the USS Midway to take the tour and check out the sights.

This was an awesome tour and I would love to do it again when I had time to listen to everything on the audio tour. The boys loved seeing all of the planes and other aircraft that were on board.

My Men!

I loved this statue.

The boys in the fight simulator.

When we were done with the USS Midway, we headed for the famous San Diego Zoo. How can I put this and not upset a ton of people..... I hated the Zoo. The lines were atrocious, the animals are in tiny viewing areas and the prices were outrageous. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Instead, skip the San Diego Zoo, and go visit the San Diego Safari Park.  It Rocked!

After the disappointment of the zoo, lets just say the boys were not too excited to visit the Safari Park. They quickly changed their minds. We had a great time walking and seeing all of the wildlife. We spent almost 7 hours here. The prices of food here was awful, but the animals more than made up for that.

Sunburned from the day before, I now don the infamous floppy hat.

The boys got a kick out of this baby elephant.

After the Safari Park, we had some time to kill before going back to the hotel, so we headed to Belmont Park.

We had a great time riding rides, checking out the beach and all the little shops on the boardwalk.
  The next day we went to Sea World.

We had so much fun the first 3 days down there, we took the 4th day off and let the kids sleep and play in the hotel pool. We went to Phil's BBQ for lunch/dinner.

This was, I think, the best BBQ I have ever had. I even had ribs. Anyone that knows me, knows that I hate Ribs, these were really good.
The our last day in southern California, we drove up to Anaheim to go to Knott's Berry Farm.

Got Dallas and Liam in the second car on the left, first row of seats.

Aw... Mom.. Not another picture.

We left Knott's Berry Farm and headed north. After a five hour stop in the middle of nowhere Nevada, we made it home the next day. 
We have tons left to do this month and school starts next month officially. Lord, grant me the strength to pull it all together.
Dallas, I and a friend of ours ran the Funnel Cake stand at the "Van's Warped Tour" last night and boy did "my kids" get an education. People watching at an event like this never gets boring.

James is out of town most of next week for work and I am going to buckle down and get the rest of my kids school nailed down. (I hope)