James Dodge

We’re taking off this morning to start our vacation this year. The kids have the week off from school, and I took the week off from work also. We are leaving this morning @ 7:00 AM and driving all over in California. I am going to write in this blog each day telling about what we did and publish it with some of our pictures throughout the week. To start the day, we are going to be driving to Yosemite National Park. None of us have been there before (at least that we can remember – I may have been there as a kid) so this will be a lot of fun. We stayed in a town called Mariposa – about an hour outside the park. There are a lot of cool sights in the park – lots of waterfalls! We had a blast here.

Well, we started soccer practice again today. I’m helping Elena again this season – we have 3 teams we are coaching. A 5-6 year old team, a 7-9 year old team, and a 10-12 year old team. Tyler and Troy are on the oldest team, Briana and Peyton are on the middle team, and we don’t have any kids on the youngest team – Elena volunteered to coach that team since there were no other volunteers. I am posting this to let everyone know about the website we have started for the teams. If you want to check out how they are doing, go to www.nlvorangecrushers.com We have password protected it, so the username you have to type in is orangecrushers and the password is coachelena. Hope you enjoy it!!

Jeff turned 19 today and we celebrated by having everyone over for dinner. Jeff got several different things including some stuff to help him with his poker game (he needs all the help he can get) and a new iPod touch. He also found out that he has a job opportunity at a company his Aunt Mandy manages up in Washington state. So he is going to be heading up there in the next week to see how he likes things in the great Northwest. I’ll post again later with more details!

OK, so my photoshop skills need some work – but hey, it’s not bad for my first effort. Happy Birthday Rob!!!!!! Hope you had a great day – we were all thinking of you!!

Tyler and Briana finished out their soccer seasons today. Briana’s team won their final game 3-1 and Tyler’s team barely lost 5-4. Both games were really good, and after they were finished, we went over to Elena’s house for the end of the season party. We won a lot of games this season, lost a couple, almost got into a big fight during one game (long story), but overall had a great time!! We’re looking forward to the spring and the next season!!

Today was Tyler’s birthday and we celebrated by going to Macayo’s and having dinner followed by fried ice cream. He turned 12 today, and last week he had his interview with the Bishop – we will be ordaining him as a Deacon. We are having his party Saturday night for everyone to come over and have pizza. We’re very proud of him!! Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

Just thought I’d post the fact that the newest SOCOM was released a few weeks ago for the PS3. I bought it the second day it came out, but haven’t had much time to play it!! I’ve played against Jim, but have yet to play against Rob. We’re still trying to get together to play last year’s Tiger Woods!! Jason – it looks like it’s time to get the PS3!!

Well, Halloween has come and gone – Briana dressed up like Hannah Montana and Tyler dressed up like a pirate. Check out the photo album to see a few different pictures of the day. We started in the morning by carving pumpkins, then we went to Kurt & Elena’s to decorate cookies, eat chili dogs and go trick-or-treating. It was a lot of fun!! Check back here later – I’m trying to find a picture of Rob in his costume; I heard that he was going to dress up like mankini from The Soup. As soon as I find a picture, I’ll make sure to post it!!