Michael was not waiting for anyone or anything when it came to turning 16.  It was the moment he had been dreaming of for the last 15.9 years and he wanted to make sure we quit dilly dallying. 

It has been a good week for Michael.  He sweet talked his dad into checking him out of school on his birthday to pay an important visit to the DMV.  I’m not sure how sweetly he actually had to talk because Ty has been in charge of getting Michael to school each morning across town.  For someone who never cared enough to get to school on time his entire high school career, it has been an ironic twist that he has a son who likes to get to school twenty minutes early each day and he is the person who has to get him there.

So it’s pretty safe to say there was probably more emotion in this moment when Michael left the house to drive himself to guitar than there was when he went off to kindergarten.  Sixteen is sweet indeed!

I am under orders to blog.  Immediately.  That requires time, which I don’t have, and blogging material that is acceptable to share with the unsuspecting public.  I wish that Ty would start singing along to “Grease” again or pull out his riveting book on how to avoid a heart attack.  After months of trying to invent a new email address and a family website name, he has turned his attention to finding a hobby.  He has decided he needs something to do besides writing in his super secret private blog/journal and waiting for NASCAR to start it’s 10 month season.  

All the hobbies he has stopped to consider are exceptionally expensive – restoring old cars, doing triple gun competitions, car racing, and flying just aren’t going to happen in the here & now.  I’ve done my best to persuade him to start doing a hobby he doesn’t like with an attitude that he could learn to like it.  They were good options like learning to play a musical instrument, becoming artistic, starting a collection, or learning to cook something that was edible.  It was all too much too soon.  I may have quashed the hobby hunt because it’s been a few days and he hasn’t brought it up which is unusual for Ty.

I guess for now he will stick to the usual habits of passing on his wit and wisdom to the children, making sure the tivo has enough free space for his shows, doing hourly patrols of the pantry to see if anything new has appeared and mastering all 1057 levels of his latest fave game on his phone.  Right.  I’m off to save him from himself or retirement will not be the joy he is imagining it to be.

It really doesn’t seem fair that the Holidays are already over!  I’ve posted some vacation pictures in the Picture Album and already miss being there.  Tomorrow starts three weeks of Michael’s dress rehersals and play performances and Danielle’s indoor soccer season. 

Before I know it Chris will have taken all the girls out on a date who have suddenly decided they can’t go two years without seeing him.  He has been inundated with offers and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to sleep a wink before March 10th when he puts on his tag and goes to the MTC.  Good thing we caught up on sleep while we were away!  Enjoy the pictures.

Shortly after Chris turned 19 today, he opened his mission call.  It was such an exciting moment that I thought we would share.

We have left the snow and cold winter weather far behind us to spend some family time frollicking on the beach.  Some of us are a little more carefree on the beach than others.  Danielle informed us that the sand was alright but she wasn’t so sure about the water.  Apparently the water had fish in it and that was so not okay.  But once she found out that fish migrate, like birds, to warmer climates in the winter the water was suddenly just fine.  I really have no idea what this guy is doing.

Then she strolled along the beach with Ty and became concerned about the sand.

Why does it have holes?!?  Thanks to Ty she was terrified that she was walking on little beasties that live under the sand.  Then she & I took a stroll and once she found out that they were just little air pockets created by the waves, we were good to go until she saw this…

Which I assured her was just a little sand stick and off we went to frollick with the others.