I will Survive!!!

Just have a few minutes to write. I am sitting on our hotel bed in the lovely Aneheim. I can see Disneyland right outside my window. It is wonderful. We went to Huntington beach today and it was great although when we got home I found sand in places I never thought it could venture. It was great. The boys just had so much fun. We actually got a picture of all of the boys buried in the sand. Yes, even Colton. We just sat him up and actually when we pulled him out he cried because he loved being in it. He was covered completely in the sand.

Life has been absolutely crazy the past week. We went up to Grandma Smith's funeral and that was great...well as great as a funeral can be...but hello, she was 103 and wanted to die so bad, so it wasn't like your normal funeral, it was mostly a happy day because we know she is happy. Well, Sunday we drove all night and got to Phoenix around 9:00. I really would have liked to turn around and come home because the "motel" that the EFY program had us staying in was beyond belief. I have never in my life been so scared in my life. I will just summarize by what I saw just outside my "motel" door: A homeless person going through my trash...right outside my door, prositutes....using the room right below us, a man being arrested...right outside my door, a drug deal going down,..right outside my door, two drunk men, naked,...okay, topless hanging over our balcony....two doors down,..more naked men barbequing in the parking lot,..right outside my door, a domestic arugment...beating is a better description..right outside my door, and may more interesting occurances happening right outside my door. To top it off one of the counselors at EFY was kind enough to share with us his story. You see about four months ago he decided that he would go out and take a walk. It was about 9:00 at night and he lived just a few block from hotel, supposevly in a little nicer area that what we were in and he said a car approached him and he thought they were stopping for directions until he noticed the back door open and a gun. At that point he started to run and was shot in the leg...yes he was shot. Just a nice looking guy. He ran to the neighbors house and rather than taking a chance with the door being locked he rolled under the truck in the drive way and proceeded to call the police. He then heard the car speed off. The officers later told him that he was so lucky because they found the empty shell on the ground and than another round on the ground. They think after that first shot that the gun got jammed. We even got to see the pictures of his leg. Crazy. We were lucky enough during the day to go and swim at some of our friends house who live in Mesa. It was a thirty minute drive each way but it was worth it. We are so thankful to the Lathams for being so nice to us. We really had a nice time when we were spending the time at EFY. Greg of course did amazing and the kids adored him. It was so nice because on Friday it was my birthday and he had told the kids without me knowing that it was my birthday and how wonderful they would be to write me a note, so on Friday I went to listen to his talk in the morning and all of the kids and counselors brought me birthday cards and notes. It was so much fun and they sang to me before Greg gave his talk. I of course, being me, actually loved the attention. It was also nice to have Greg's brother Jeff here and his wife Kerri. We have had so much fun together and the party has just started because we are going to be in Disneyland for the next three days. Yeah. We also got to spend the weekend with Greg's uncle Fred. It was so much fun to be with him and so nice to be in his beautiful home...especially after living in the hood for a week. Ahhh, vacation is nice.

Well, I better rest these beautiful eyes of mine j/k, because the kids won't care if I am tired tomorrow...hello we are in Disneyland!!!! I will write more when I get home!!!