Neglecting the Blog

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog, and really it's social media that's to blame.  With Facebook and the ease of updating everyone with just a click of a button on my phone, it's easier to just use social media, than to spend the time necessary to write a blog post.  It's probably a sad commentary on how instant gratification drives our lives today, but it's also a necessary evil when you're trying to catch up to a 10 year old who's got her fingers in every pot.

Although it's now officially Fall in the Bay Area, it certainly doesn't feel like it.  We've had record breaking hot temperatures here almost all through out September and October, and making us wish that the real Autumn will show up soon.  Along with Fall, of course is the return to school and Lauren entered school this year as a 5th grader.  As it's her second year in private school, we did promise her that she could take up an instrument, and she's chosen to join her school band as an oboe player.  This takes up a lot of time, along with Chinese school, and horse riding lessons that she's doing on Sunday mornings, and something's had to give.

Lauren's decided to drop Girl Scouts, something we're not too happy about, but her friendships with the girls at her previous school has begun to wane, and she's really more interested in her friends at her current school.  She's also signed up for Track and Field at her new school, but that activity hasn't started yet, thankfully.

We've had a very busy end to summer including a trip to Montana for a family reunion, including attending a rodeo in Montana, visiting Glacier Park, and seeing the homestead where Lauris grew up.  We also took our camper on a trip up to the coast of Northern California and visited Fort Bragg and Mendocino county.  It was nice and cool up there, a great respite from the summer heat in the Bay Area, and Lauren started on a sea glass collection from Sea Glass Beach.

I had a couple of minor work trips to Las Vegas and Washington D.C., the latter of which gave me the chance to visit the MLK memorial, something I hadn't done yet.

Mid-Autumn festival (also known as August Moon Festival) meant a gathering of the family in our favorite Chinese restaurant, China Stix,  And we went as a family to see the musical version of Lion King, and Lauris and I went to see the Book of Mormon, and Lauren and I saw Matilda the Musical.  Lots more musicals on the agenda for this year coming up as well. We also slipped in a pre-season Sharks game, the final SF Giants ball game of the season, a Billy Joel concert at AT&T park, and the Idina Menzel concert at Concord Pavilion.

So we're definitely keeping busy, and have a lot more activities planned for the rest of this year.