Girl Time!

You ever have those days when you feel like something should be written, but don't feel like writing? Well, that's today. So enjoy the pictures and movie. The pictures show the first customer of Ellie's beauty salon (notice the tongue is out), and the movie is all about Sadie's talking and playing with the girls.

JAMES

Sadie Talking from Mark Moyle on Vimeo.

Presidents Day Adventures!

For this President’s Day Weekend we got to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Paul and April. It was great. We had a second Christmas…the kids were in heaven. Also on Saturday, Mark and Paul took in the waves before the whole family went down to tour the Midway. This is a retired aircraft carrier. It was huge, and amazingly Avery walked the whole way. Avery loved the airplanes, and Ellie loved making a smashed penny souvenir. Unfortunately, Paul and April had to leave on Sunday. 

For President’s Day we took off to visit a new museum….it was closed for Presidents Day. Instead we ended up at the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve. It was great fun. We went on a scavenger hunt, and Ellie found all but one.  Avery loved to run free as soon as tore off her shoes, and Sadie loved to just hang out with Jenn. Enjoy the pics.

JAMES

Days of Service And History!

These past few weeks have been awesome! Mark's paper has been accepted! So now life will slow down for a little bit, and we are taking advantage of it! The last few weekends have been super fun.

First, for Martin Luther King, Junior Day our church and a few other denominations from around San Diego get together and clean Balboa Park. Balboa Park is a 1.9 square mile park that is a central feature of San Diego. While there people remove non-native weeds, plant new shrubs/trees, and pick up trash. We were able to plant our own shrub, and picked up a ton of litter. Also, our family was showcased on the news....check us out by putting this link in your browser and watching the movie.

http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/01/20/san-diegans-observe-mlk-day-by-serving/#axzz2sCbt6vq3

Then, the next weekend we headed down to Old Town San Diego and went to the annual Mormon Battalion Celebration. We cooked biscuits on sticks over coals, Ellie signed up to join the battalion, we sewed hearts, road in wagons and handcarts, watched traditional spanish dancers, and met up with a ton of friends. We got to chat with our friends the Andrews which we haven't seen in way to long, and also found out that a couple from Mark's old ward are now directors of the Mormon Battalion. It was a great day. Enjoy the photos.

Happy Trails,

JAMES

The new year has begun...

I have recently been informed that the upkeep of my blog is unacceptable. So, here I am trying to make it up to everyone. I have made a new years resolution that I will write at least once a month. But, you have probably heard that only 8% of resolutions are successful. Conversely, I heard that 70% of all statistics are wrong/made up. So we will see how this goes...

Anyway, the last few weeks were paradise! We got to spend Christmas with Jenn's family and then a couple of days with Mark's family. Followed by a 14 hour journey back to San Diego. We loved our time at both places, and were very sad to have to return back to the "real" world. We got to spend time with our families, friends, and even a concerned police officer (see below). We went sledding, swimming, tried to cram our family into an airplane bathroom, saw Ender's Game, bought about a million new clothes for 25 cents, played games till all hours of the night, re-watched most of Sherlock Holmes, blessed Sadie Adele Moyle, and most importantly spent time pondering on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Here are two quick funny stories that happened while traveling to and from our families. Jenn and the three girls left about a week before Mark. They all flew from San Diego to Boise. During one of the flights Ellie needed to use the restroom, but she was to scared to go alone. So...Jenn had to try to cram all four of them into the stall. She stood in the doorway with Sadie while Avery and Ellie were crammed in the restroom. Such fun on the airplane.

The other story involves Mark and a nice police officer. About a year ago a construction company took over the road to our apartments from 7am to 4pm everyday. They close down the road at 7 and reopen it at 4, but for some reason they have blocked off the left turn lane all the time. Just about everyone I know still turns left, but just does it from the lane next to the blocked lane. After our long 14 hour car ride we were turing left at that light, and Mark notice a car in the other lane. As a joke he said it was probably a police officer. Well...the joke came true and the police officer followed us into our apartments, flipped on his lights, and pulled us over. Luck for us Sadie was screaming in the background, and he decided to give us a warning instead of a $250 ticket. What a relief. So for any of you who want to turn there don't.

Finally, I know I above I said that only 8% of resolutions are kept, but maybe that means you should set 10 goals and accomplish one of them. One of my favorite quotes about goals comes from Alice and Wonderland:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where –" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

If we don't set goals we are just like Alice, we will arrive somewhere eventually, but it may not be where we wanted to end up. So just take a second, set a few goals and maybe some of us will end up in the 8%.

Best,

J.A.M.E.S (Can you figure out why I ended this way?)

P.S. Don't forget to watch the awesome movie I added to the bottom.