Road trip

Seriously, how do I slow down time? I am almost out of November with another 2 weeks of work that I wanted done during this month. If I didn't need sleep things would progress much faster. I noticed the calendar has been relatively empty this month, but we have been plenty busy.

Two Sundays ago we took an impromptu trip up north to be with my Uncle Ben and Aunt Heather and their family for the day. Uncle Ben was called to be the Stake President the day before, so we left at 6:30 that morning to make the drive up for the 10 AM meeting. Just FYI

for some, being Stake President in our church is a volunteer calling where that person and his two counselors preside over many smaller congregations, or wards. It was fun to hear about Ben and Heather's experiences over the past whirlwind 24 hours. We even learned that one of Ben's counselors is the brother of a long-time friend of Dave's family here in the Bay Area. It truly is a small world and we are all connected to each other. We were happy to see Great-

Grandma Payne again too. She flew out super last minute from Utah to be there for the Sunday

fun. She is an amazing traveler at over 80 years old, and it's always wonderful to catch up with all she is doing and how the family is too. I am so glad we went. Sadly, I have felt that we don't

get together with Ben and Heather as often as we should. They are the closest family on my Mom's side, and I haven't seen them in ages. Thanks for letting us drop in on your big day Ben!

My kids are awesome, too. They sat in the car the three hour drive up and we literally parked the car and went straight into church to sit for a two hour meeting. I was so impressed with their good behavior. The Teddy Grahams and Smarties had something to do with the Littles being good. ;) They certainly earned some fun time and needed to run around afterward, so we headed to Ben and Heather's house for lunch and down time.

They have a beautiful home complete with a pomegranate orchard in the front yard.

It was all I could do to keep the boys out of the orchard because they had their nice Sunday clothes on.

I wouldn't mind having enough land to need a tractor in the back yard one day.

It is so beautiful and peaceful up there.

I couldn't resist taking some family pictures near the trees even though the sun was already down. We will get the chance again because we are going there for Thanksgiving which the kids are really excited about. Jessie was pleased as punch to see her 2nd cousin Brennah again. Sweet Brennah was a gracious hostess to all the kids. She showed them where the fun stuff was and played with Syd for awhile outside when Jessie was unavailable.

We ate a delicious meal, played the piano, tested the air hockey and pool table, kids played while a movie ran in the background, we visited and then it was back in the car to head home. I was supposed to drive home, but it didn't take my tired eyes long to feel like I was floating instead of driving on the road. Dave got a cat nap before lunch so he didn't mind too much that he had to drive home. Next time we do that drive in one day it would be best if both of us didn't get to bed at 2 AM the night before.

Thanks for having us B & H! We will see you for Thanksgiving. :)