A new year, and already a blog slacker!!

I know I have been negligent in the blogging arena, but you will see why.

I have decided to play catch up on this blog entry, so you will get a little of this and a little of that. First, I realized I did not blog about Garek and his new glasses! The day after Christmas we needed to do a follow up appointment for Gavin so we decided to schedule one for Garek as well. Needless to say, he also needs to wear glasses. As Garek says, ALL the boys in our family need to wear glasses! He looks like a little PoinDexter (cute and smart), let me know if you agree...

Over Christmas break, Matt and I took some actually time off of work as we even avoided computers! It has taken me awhile to get back into my old blog stalking habits!

On January 5, we all started back to normal school schedules. It always seems that the week after break is hectic, and incredibly tiring. Luckily I did not have to start classes again until the 10th! On January 10, the Denfeld Dobos came down for a visit! Matt and Jake worked on smoking a roast on the grill, while Jody and I went down to Hobby Lobby (great place for scrapbook items). On the 11th we had a staff (and families) get together at my house, and since Jody is now on staff with me, they also came down for that reason. Garek and Kaleb are hilarious together...they are the best of friends and fight all at the same time...oh to be 3 and 5!!

The week of January 12, you all know was bitterly cold...school was released early on Monday due to snow and there was a late start on Tuesday due to the snow...but Matt and I escaped! I had to do some consulting work in CA, and since it has been a goal to travel alone and also to have Matt see what I do in CA, he came with. Our fiend Cathy was kind enough to offer to work from our house in an effort to keep the boys on their schedule, and then they went to Grammy's house for the weekend. Of course things did not go as planned...

IN MN:

On Wednesday Matt and I were leaving for the airport and Cathy had come down Tuesday evening so she could get the low down on kid and animal care. In the early AM on Wed Garek awoke with a fever. After some Tylenol he seemed better, Cathy had the medical cards etc, and we left. Gavin was scheduled to come home early on Wednesday due to a scheduled early release day for teacher work time. SO Cathy was prepared for the fact that her afternoon would be invaded by boys home from school. It was also REALLY cold! Garek was sleepy and resting most of the day. In the evening there was a call that there would be no school on Thursday...lucky Cathy!

Thursday I received a phone call from Cathy that there was no heat in the house! YIKES! So Matt and I found a repair person to call using the Internet (we are in CA remember), Our friend Jonathan brought over a couple of space heaters and the boys snuggled into our bed watching cartoons. Luckily it was a small fix by the repair man, but it was in the 50s for a few hours (in the house). Everything was back to "normal." There was then a call that school would be two hours late the following morning...

Friday Cathy was able to get Gavin off to school after the 2 hour late start, and then Garek hung out at home, still coughing. They were packing up to go to Grammy's that afternoon and did. Cathy was likely relieved to give up the kid sitting duty to Grammy...now it is Grammy's turn to deal with two boys, one coughing , and it way too cold to go outside!

Apparently the weekend at Grammy's went well, although Garek's coughing continued. Gavin said they had fun at Grammy's and she even let them play in the toy aisle at Target! By the time we got back on Sunday the temperatures were back up into the 20's!

IN CA:

Wednesday Matt and I spent most of our time traveling. We flew into LAX and then drove up to the area I work in (about 3.5 hours). We stopped at an In and Out Burger Place for Matt to try it...he agreed they are pretty yummy. When we got to the place I usually stay when I work with this set of schools, Matt was impressed with the co-housing site. For those of you unfamiliar with co-housing, it is similar to having town homes, but they are each unique, not always connected, they own their own land, and they have a common house in which they host gatherings and activities. They also have a couple of guest rooms in their common house. Usually we stay there, but they were painting, so we stayed with some of the teachers from the school I work at...they are very generous people!!

Thursday I was up bright and early to check in with my own students (the 2 hour difference helps in this case). Good thing I was up, so that Matt and I could start working on that furnace issue! Matt went with me to San Luis Obispo and Orcutt. I worked with the schools and Matt wondered around, checking the towns out, and generally enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Did I mention they were having a heat wave while we were there? It was between 70-85 the whole time we were there, cooling off at night a bit. That evening we met with another consultant for dinner (near the beach), and I also did work in the evening.

Friday after checking in with students, I needed to go to Solvang, and Matt found a golf course. He loved golfing in January!!! After my meetings with the teachers and schools, we finally were able to "vacation." For dinner we went to a sushi restaurant, and then we went to hang out and watch a movie at the place we were staying. (The teachers we were staying with earlier in the week needed to go to Fresno, but they offered us their house for the weekend...they are so wonderful!!!)

Saturday we played tourist. We drove about an hour north to the Hearst Castle. The couple of pictures I have attached do not do it justice, needless to say it was pretty cool. Then we went to the Paso Robles area to find a vineyard. There were dozens!!!! We tried a few out for wine tasting, and have included a picture of one of them. Some of them are fancy looking, others look like poll buildings with a parking lot for visitors. It is pretty neat to see so many in such a small area. We did not bring any bottles back, as we did not check luggage and would not have been able to bring the liquid through security :)

The first winery we stopped at:

Sunday we woke up at 5 AM CA time and drive back down to LA to fly out. We arrived back in MN in the evening and went to collect the boys from Grammy's. It was nice being away for a short while and it was also great to be back together as a family!