Rule #38

I have a rule book. You may not realize it, but you do too. So what is a rule book? A rule book is a book full of dreams. What are these dreams? They are the rules that everyone would live by if you were King/Queen. Well I've already told you about some of my rules:

1. Pinky Rings aren't allowed.

2. Boys wearing Chacos on campus is banned.

There are so many others, but today I want to tell you about Rule #38 - Old Men aren't allowed to be ornery. They just aren't. I know this is quite a weird rule to have, but I have it. A lot of my teachers in my business major are older men who have already had their professions. Some of my teachers have been the sweetest guys. One of my teachers always wore a bow tie and sweater vest and called himself an "Old Geyser." It was so cute. Then there was my guitar teacher who always wore his cowboy boots and bolo ties and told stories about "Back in the day..."

Unfortunately I have had some ornery old men teachers. They constantly complain about my generation (which I have to be honest, they have some points....), they are bitter, and sometimes they even swear! Apparently I have a bad sense of humor because I don't think it's funny and everyone else thinks it's hilarious. I have this one teacher this semester and I'm going crazy. For one thing he has a pinky ring and he always puts his head on his hands so then I can't even look at him while he teaches. The first day of school he pulled out a cell phone and said, "You want to know how I feel about cell phones?" Then he chucked it against the wall as hard as he could. It fell apart and as he was putting it back together he said he bought that phone just for that demonstration. Nice one ornery old man. Nice one.

I guess it just makes me sad to see old people unhappy and bitter. So what are old men supposed to be like? They're supposed to be happy because of the awesome life they've led. They're supposed to smell like "peppermint and pipe tobacco" (I hope someone gets that quote), be loving towards everyone, find cute ways to fit their testimony into conversations, and make funny little jokes.

An example of the perfect old man would be this guy:

Isn't that Matthew Cuthbert? Appears to be. Anyways, I love Matthew. He is just so sweet. You want to know another example of the perfect old man? My Grandpa Dayton. My Grandpa was the sweetest man. He would just sit there and smile listening to conversations. He would find ways to tease you, but in a nice loving way. I never visited with him without him bearing his testimony about something. He was just awesome.

So come on old men, why can't you all be Matthew Cuthberts or Grandpa Daytons?

California Trip

A few weeks a go I went out to California and visited the Waldrons (My sister Sara's family) and Benjy. It was so much fun! We did some great things from watching Sword in the Stone once the kids were asleep to telling Christopher stories for hours to walks along the beach to just hanging out around the house. It was so fun to see their cute house and they were so nice to take me all around to do fun things. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Chris scored some AMAZING tickets for the Angels game from his work. I'm so glad I got to come along for this. It was a great game and we were SO close.

Christopher loved the game! (Except for when the fireworks went off...)

The next day we went and visited some of the Kings! We loved playing in the pool and enjoying a delicious lunch. Brooklyn and Anna had the same precious swimsuit from Aunt Margaret.

Isn't she adorable?

Brooklyn loved this swing and fell asleep in it quickly. Christopher ate most of his lunch in it. The drives to and from Kings were full of Christopher saying, "Please tell story about..." It's official, I'm a terrible story teller. Luckily he didn't seem to mind.

Brooklyn hanging out at the beach. The rest of us loved jumping waves and the kids loved playing with the sand. Benjy even learned how to catch a few waves from the expert Chris.

Christopher and Brooklyn are so sweet with each other. They already have this cute relationship.

I love this picture. So much.

The last night there Chris took us on a tour around the harbor. It was so much fun, and such a perfect end to a wonderful time. Thanks Waldrons for a perfect trip!

The next day Benjy and I drove all the way home to Utah. (Technically he drove since the truck is stick, and I still lack stick shifting talent.) We even stopped in St George for a while to see Heidemans and that was SO great. Benjy loved the drive. He had this smile the whole way back because he was that happy to be with me:

Many people have asked me what we did on the drive to pass time. I don't really know how we filled up those 12 hours, but time flew. Maybe because there was a lot of this going on: