I love Fall!!!

You know how you want to do stuff and visit places, but you never make the time to do it? I know my nieces and nephews aren't like that because I read their blogs and they are always doing fun things and going all over. I guess I have too much of my dad in me that thinks "we don't have time and we don't have money" so we don't do anything and life is passing us by. I am getting pretty sick of that! It's coming to my realization that my kids are growing up FAST! Anita will be in college in TWO years! Cody will be on his mission in a little over THREE years! I want to take time and make it stop for a little while so I can enjoy my family all being together because I know it will never be this way again. Things have been really hard the last few months and, if nothing else, I've learned that if you wait until the kids are older, you have extra money, you have extra time, you have more energy, etc. to live your life the way you want to....you'll be wasting your whole life!

I love fall colors. I love the crispness of the air (I HATE being hot!). I just love Fall (and Spring too!). Normally, I want to drive up through the mountains and look at all the fall colors, just for the fun of it. Of course, we never do. Well, yesterday we had to drive to South Summit (Oakley, east of Kamas) for Faha and Pasi's football games. I had been dreading the drive ever since I found out at the beginning of the season that the boys had games there. By the way, it's only an hour drive (or maybe a little less). We had to drive farther than that just to go from Ramah to Gallup for heaven's sake! Another reason I was dreading it was because Lincoln couldn't go with us because he had to finish up his Scout leader training with an overnight campout in Lehi. So it was just me and the boys. It turned out to be so much fun! The boys and I talked, listened to music, and enjoyed seeing all the gorgeous fall colors the whole drive up and back. They both won their games, so it wasn't even a wasted trip! I just wish I could have stopped and taken pictures of everything because it was so pretty. What a great day to spend time with my boys and listen to their thoughts and ideas and joke around with them. FUN! We made a memory.

So for all of you parents with young children or soon to be parents, ENJOY the journey! Enjoy when your kids are little, have fun with them. I am so proud of my kids and they way they are, but every once in awhile I wish I could turn back time and have a day with them when they were little again. I wish I could hear Anita say, "Sing happy songs." and watch Cody wear his little white construction hat that he NEVER took off (even for church) with his spatula sword shoved down the front of his pants, strutting around the house. Or see Faha's double dimple smile and him trying so hard to keep up with Anita and Cody. You think you will be forever changing diapers and never get an uninterupted night's sleep, but before you know it they are all grown up. And they have more grown up problems that you can't soothe away and solve for them. So, we are changing how we do things around here. We are going to have some fun and enjoy being together more. Just wish we had been doing it all along!