Garden

We spent another month fighting the weeds, gophers and donkeys from destroying our yard. I have resorted to chemicals to kill some the bermuda grass trying to take back my planting area. I keep digging up bermuda grass and if there is even a small chunk of rooting material left behind, it sprouts and spreads all over again. I am losing the fight. The gophers continue to make tunnels disrupting my watering wells and helping the spread of weed grass and no matter what barricades we put up, the donkeys seem desperate to get into our yard to ravage and destroy everything in sight. We don't understand it as lots of neighbors have some of our same plants out in the open and the donkeys leave them mostly unmolested. Sometimes they will go in the neighbors yards to nibble on the grass, poop or roll around on their lawns but I don't see major damage to their areas. Maybe I am not looking close enough but somehow I don't think so.

This month, they got back into our yard and destroyed half my dwarf orange tree once again. It has been something like three years since I have been able to get any fruit from it. It is just hanging on to dear life and then recovering enough to start growing and fruiting again until the donkeys come in to destroy it once again. This time they even got into our back yard and destroyed my dwarf lemon tree. It doesn't want the fruit, it just eats the leaves and tears the branches off by the mouthful and everything that comes with it. Now my lemon tree looks like someone took a couple of swipes with a weed wacker to it. It nimbled on several other trees and plants, including my roses, but my lemon and orange tree took the biggest hit. Of course, it left big holes in the softened soil from the recent rains everywhere and piles of poop I now have to shovel, both in the yard and my driveway.

In addition, it pulled down and broke my bird seed feeder in my driveway! I think it attempted to pull down the suet feeder in my front lawn as well, but was unable to do anything more than stretch the line it is hung from. The bird seed feeder is a lot more delicate. Plus the birds had just found it and was flying around wondering where there seed was, scrounging around on the floor picking up the bits that were left scattered on my driveway.

The damned donkeys act like we are the only source of food in the area for miles and are determined to come in when in fact, we are surrounded by houses everywhere, most of which, are not gated and some idiots even invite them in by leaving out, or even hand feeding them, carrots, pumpkins and put out buckets of water for them. One even went out and got a watering trough for them!!! A few neighbors have had to put up gates around their property. Others have put up the flimsiest of barricades. I can't even believe that those work for them because it certainly wouldn't work for us! Others seem to just get left alone for whatever reason and other's couldn't care less about their yard anyway. They have destroyed many mail boxes as they use them as scratching posts.

Anyway, I digress...I mostly wanted to post about the birds and the success (and failures) of some of our feeding stations.

The suet feeder is the only one that doesn't seem to be working. I'm not sure why yet. Maybe I have to try some different suet or move it. I need to have it re-hung anyway since the donkey stretched out the line and it is now hanging too low.

We also put up a second hummingbird feeder, hoping that the Anna's Hummingbird that protects it will be less aggressive if there is more food available...it hasn't. Now we hope it will tire him out trying to protect both so that it will give the other hummingbirds a chance to sneak in and get drinks. There is a fairly aggressive Costa's Hummingbird that is always contending with him. Personally, the Allen's Hummingbirds are our favorites. They are just beautiful and seem less aggressive but are not around as much. I'm not sure if they hang out elsewhere most of the time or if they are repelled by the other two factions!

I really like the new spot for the second hummingbird feeder though. It lends itself to much better pictures. 

The background is much nicer than the side of the garage or my ugly kitchen window. Most of the birds are still pretty skittish around us though. They will fly away as soon as we walk out the door. It will take quite some time for them to come back to the feeders afterwards. We have to be out there for quite a while before they do and we still have to be somewhat stealthy to get pictures of them. The hummingbirds are actually the boldest. They will fly away if you are actively moving into their area but after they get used to you, they will fly down to take drinks even if you are standing somewhat close to the feeder still. 

I want to get a few more bird friendly plants but am a little reluctant to put any more into my garden when the donkey's can still get in and destroy everything if we aren't extra vigilant. You can go out and chase them off during the day if you notice them, but they sneak in in the dead of night sometimes so not much can be done in that case. They have woken me up many times as the stomp around on my driveway or garden. We need to come up with a better moveable barricade. Right now, we are parking our cars across our driveway and putting up our trash cans in order to deter them. We have the fence that Christian put up a few months ago still to block off our garden from the driveway, but they have still been able to find the weaknesses to get in here and there.

Newport Coast

My family hasn't gotten together all at the same time for a while, they were trying to get us all to go on a vacation together but it's hard to coordinate with everyone's schedule. Then, earlier this year, my brother had his stroke and wasn't able to do much. After months of physical therapy and everything, nothing much has helped. My sister decided to get a timeshare nearby so we could "get away" a bit and spend some time together. She was going to get her usual Palm Springs resort over the summer while the girls were still in town but no one seemed that interested or had the time to drive out there to be stuck in some condo like place in that kind of heat. She tried to find a place near the beach but they were all booked up until now.

She got the place for a week but no one was really able to go for that long. Everyone is back to work and only had the weekend. She headed over early with my mom and they hung out there themselves, taking walks on the beach and seeing the tide pools. Tommy was in and out and had to fly back briefly to work. When he came back, he picked up my brother and niece who took Friday off to enjoy a little more time there. Christian and I headed over late that evening after Christian got off work. He was too exhausted to go earlier, so he took a nap after work and we had dinner before heading over as well. 

The place sits above Crystal Cove. They have trams that take guests down to the beach there or Laguna Beach on and off all day. My mom took Norman and Lauren down to the beach I guess briefly on Friday. Then, Tommy and Wendy taught Lauren how to play pickle ball.

Christian and I got up early and walked down to Crystal Cove by ourselves to go birding. There was a surprising amount of people already at the beach and really, all over the streets. It was not exactly quiet or relaxing. We didn't make it very far down the beach. We took our time taking pictures and videos of whatever birds we could find.

The little sanderlings are always the neatest but they dart around so much it is difficult to get a good picture of them. There were a ton of brown pelicans and they were the easiest to take pictures of because they are big, abundant and move a lot slower compared to the smaller birds. The most interesting bird we got was actually just a Heerman's Gull. It came down and was flailing around in the waves and totally got bodied by the waves several times before making it out. He was very unsteady afterwards. We didn't know if he was old and dying or hurt from the crashing around in the waves or just drunk. It eventually recovered at least somewhat but it was very dramatic watching him. 

Eventually, we decided to head back to see what everyone else was planning to do for the day but on our way back, we ran into a hawk flying around and we chased down several smaller birds in the chaparral. 

By the time we got back, Tommy had left again to see his mother and meet up with his sister. Everyone else was up and had gotten breakfast. We made a few plans and headed out again after lunch. We took the tram back down to the other side of Crystal cove. Christian wasn't feeling that well and stayed behind.

It was just as well that he didn't not come with us because the tram takes you to the most crowded part of the beach, where all the shops and restaurants are. It was crowded and there were not a lot of birds. We only spent an hour or so there before heading back to meet with Christian and to take the tram to Laguna Beach. Our niece wanted to go to some of the museums there. My mom was tired and stayed at the resort. My brother went with Lauren and the rest of us went down to the beach. It was even more crowded here. Not sure if it was just because it was later in the day or if the beach is always more crowded. There were as many people milling around as when I went to the beach over the summer with the girls.

We took some pictures of all the Brown Pelican's and Brandt's Cormorants on Pelican or Bird Rock and the tide pools. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the resort. We were pretty tired and hungry. We planned to celebrate Christian's birthday that evening even though his birthday is technically not until the next day. Christopher drove out to join us just for the evening. Christopher, Tommy and his sister took the opportunity to play pickle ball at the facilities while we worked on dinner. I had baked a simple portable cake on Friday before we came. I brought some extra caramel to drizzle over it and some candles but no matches. No one had a lighter so we did without. Christopher decided to decorate the cake a bit but I think the caramel was a little too thick to flow well. He ended up writing "HBD" and drew some stick birds flying in the air. It was hilarious because you can barely tell what anything was. Since the caramel was somewhat thick, he tried to make a caramel candle but it fell and turned into something more akin to a caramel turd. The important thing was that the cake tasted good!

After dinner, some of us went for a walk. Wendy took us for a tour of the facilities there. We went to the gym and attempted to play ping pong! Christopher left to go back home. Wendy's place really isn't that far and he opted to drive back to get a better night's sleep in his own bed. Which was a wise choice as the place was packed and kept way too hot.

The next morning, Christian and I got up early once again and headed back out to the beach but we never made it. We got distracted chasing little birds on the grounds. We also kind of bush wacked our way onto the golf course. Luckily, no one was really out playing. We did run into one of the grounds keepers but he was friendly and didn't seem to mind us being there.

All-in-all, we got 10 "lifers" over this weekend. We are racking up quite a list since we started a couple of months ago when I got my big zoom lens. We did count a few of the birds we've taken pictures of and can identify in our picture catalogue. Some birders will even count birds they can hear and not see, as long as they can identify them. We've decided to count only the ones that we are able to capture on camera and catalogue. They don't have to be great pictures, but they do need to be recognizable! Afterwards, we still hope to get better pictures of them all when we find them as we are photographers first and foremost.

Since it was getting late, we decided we had better hurry back to help pack up and clean up as we were supposed to check out soon. Even though Christopher took some things home for them, they still had more stuff than they could fit in their one car because Tommy picked up Norman and Lauren up separately with their luggage. We were really only allowed two cars in total at the resort and since it was all booked up, we had to both park on the other end of the resort in the parking garage. Tommy had offered to take everyone out to lunch for Christian's birthday to a Hong Kong style cafe that we had talked about the evening before. So we put most of the luggage in our vehicle and met them back at Wendy's house. Luckily, Christopher was still there and able to then join us for lunch. Collin also joined us at the restaurant. The restaurant was super crowded but the food was pretty good.

Afterwards, we went back to Wendy's to hangout for a little bit more. Christopher gifted Christian a wireless microphone for his birthday. He had seen some of Christian's neat videos and thought that it might be useful. You can connect it to your camera or phone. Christian got to play with it a little as Christopher gave us a little example of his matcha tasting thing he does. Christian recorded him doing it.

We ended up polishing off the rest of the cake before heading back home.

I had a few token presents for Christian but we are mostly saving and waiting for what he really wants, which is a new mirrorless camera. The one he wants was just announced last week and will ship later this month!

October

 Upon reflecting on what we've been doing this month, I decided that I would show it in pictures...

As you can see, we've been spending all our free time taking pictures. Besides the Big Morongo trip, we haven't really gone anywhere. All these pictures are from the yard around our house and does not even show all the species of plants and animals we have viewed or taken pictures of here. They are merely some of my favorites from this past month.

We have set up a little watering hole/bird bath out front for the birds. I cleaned up the planter area next to our driveway a bit. I pulled out the weeds and put in some ground cover to try out. It is frustrating though because I can't seem to get rid of the bermuda grass that keeps invading and trying to take over the area. Hopefully the new ground cover will eventually help control that once it gets established but I will probably have to get a little more once I am sure that it just won't die on us. It seems to be holding up okay so far, although the snails did a number on one of them. We put in a little feeding station for ground feeders (birds) and some sticks that they might want to, hopefully, use to perch on. The other frustrating thing is the gophers that keep making tunnels through the area. Sometimes my watering wells will collapse because the tunnels are too close to the top soil in that area. Also, the roots of the bermuda grass seems to use it as a highway to re-spread back through the planting area. Every few days, you can see new grass coming up and you can dig it up and follow a line of roots following the tunnels. Christian has tried to set traps but they have thus far been able to circumvent them.

Christian has also been trying to tame the trees around the property, especially the pomegranate. We keep hacking it to bits in the hopes of getting rid of it once and for all, but by the time we fill up the green trash can and wait for it to be emptied and have time to continue our work, it has grown back by quite a bit. The upside is that I was still able to harvest enough pomegranates to make a batch of jelly this month. 

Christian is also putting in a hedge on the side of our house where the donkeys keep trying to sneak in. The originally lined our driveway with some fencing in order to keep them out but now they are going around the cars parked on the street, crossing the neighbors yard and stepping down into ours in order to reek havoc in our yard. Why?! All I know is that it keeps nearly destroying our dwarf orange tree. I don't think we've been able to get oranges for at least four years because of them. I thought we had our yard protected this time but it managed to get in several times now to poop in our yard, eat some grass and destroy my orange tree once again. We even put up some cinder blocks on the lowest part of the yard that we believe it has been crossing over to get in. It knocked it over once getting in and out of there still so Christian has put more blocks to raise it up some more to deter them. And now we have expensive baby shrubs that we are trying to raise up to be a nicer and more permanent solution, we have to reinforce the cinder blocks so that they don't know the cinder blocks over again and smash our baby shrubs.

Shortly after we did that, I went out one morning to water and found the donkeys in our driveway, munching on the Mexican feather grass on the side of the driveway that sticks out of the fence. I chased them away and found a lone donkey in our neighbors yard, looking in mournfully at our temporary, make-shift barricade that it hadn't found a way yet to circumvent. It eventually walked back out to the street to join the donkeys I chased away into one of the other neighbors yards which is more accessible to them.

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve

This month, Christian and I decided to check out the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve as it is not too far away and is supposed to be a popular migration stop for birds. It is on the way to Joshua Tree, but tucked away in the little town. When we arrived, we were a bit skeptical because there were quite a few cars in the parking lot and camp area.

As we walked in though, you can tell the place is kept fairly nice. The area was beautiful but we were still a little wary of what we would find going in as we heard a lot of noise of machinery or a loud vehicle in the distance. Christian got a neutral density polarizer for his camera and wanted to try it out for his videos.

They have a little nature center just inside of the preserve. There isn't a whole lot in the office but outside of it has an area set up to feed and attract the birds and animals. It was actually quite nice and inspired us to maybe incorporate a few things in our own yard. We immediately started spotting various birds in the surrounding area.

While we have taken pictures of various birds over the years, we are mainly just enthusiastic photographers, not birders so when some of the other birders there were asking us questions or talking amongst themselves, we had no idea what they were talking about for the most part. We are obviously aware of some of the popular birds we've run into over the years, we didn't know about some of the not so common birds that have not been so easy to spot while we were out hiking, like the Tanagers, Towhees or Thrashers. We know a quail when we see it but is it a Gambel's Quail or a California Quail?

I've been taking pictures of birds a lot lately. First, when I went out to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve with Caitlyn this summer because she also loved to take pictures of birds. A few years ago, we attempted to take her to the Salton Sea for this purpose, but it was in the middle of summer and the water line was very low and was very disapppointed with what we found there. Once Christian got me my new insane zoom lens for my birthday, the excitement for bird photography was renewed and multiplied.

In an effort to learn more, we talked to the people at the nature center about whether they had a field guide for birds in our area. They did not really have anything that specifically targeted our area and they suggested an app called Merlin or eBird. Looking into all this made us fall into the rabbit hole of "birding." 

It was vey relaxing and even somewhat therapeutic to sit there watching the antics of the little birds around us. I was jealous that big groups of hummingbirds seem to be able to coexist together at the nature center. They didn't have any crazy, super territorial hummingbirds which guarded the feeder and chased all the rest away constantly like I have here at home.

However, there was a Cooper's Hawk that flew into the area every 20 or 30 minutes and all the little birds would scatter and hide. The second time that one flew in, we finally dragged ourselves away to explore more of the canyon trails.

A couple of the trails were closed off because of damage from heavy rainfall earlier this year but the trails are slated to be fixed by the end of the year. The canyon was fairly well maintained and kept pretty clean. When we got farther down the trails, it was pretty peaceful. We didn't have the whole place to ourselves or anything. People were still wandering about on the trails here and there but it wasn't too bad. It is definitely worth returning here. In fact, by the time we whipped back around to the nature center, we were already making plans to return in another month or so when the cottonwood trees changed into their fall colors!

And as we continue down the rabbit hole of birding, after all the new pictures of birds we've collected, we ended up starting a "life list" to help us keep track of what we've captured. We got a handful of "lifers" and our life list is steadily growing.

A Plethora of Pictures

We spent the rest of the month playing around with, testing and practicing with my new lens. In order to get good and reliable shots, there is definitely more to it than just putting it on and taking pictures.

First, we decided to expand our little database of flora and fauna around our home and neighborhood to the university. We actually wanted to go to the botanic gardens. We haven't been there for many years. However, when we got there, we found that it is no longer even open on the weekends! Instead of just turning around and going home, we figured that maybe we would take a look around campus, since we were already there.

We still found plenty to take pictures of on campus. We were lucky that the students are not yet back in session so the campus wasn't too crowded. We were going to wrap it up and head home for lunch after visiting the silk floss trees but got stuck there for quite a while taking pictures of all the little humming birds and butterflies.

The next weekend, we decided to see what it was like at Fairmount Park. There is a man made lake there with lots of aquatic birds but the park has a serious problem with homeless people, especially after they kicked them out of White Park downtown. And yes, they still have a lot of homeless people there and it didn't smell that great with lots of trash and crap everywhere, but there were still lots of people out taking walks, fishing, on the playground, etc. There is also still a lot of birds there, although, I did hear that there was a problem last year with a lot of ducks dying or getting sick from some kind of algae problem. 

There were lots of opportunities for pictures but as it got later in the day, it got more crowded and annoying and it got really hazy, so the pictures were not as good and clear, so we called it a day and came home for lunch and so we can download our pictures and see how they came out.

On my actual birthday, Christian took me out to Diamond Valley Lake out in Menifee. It is supposed to be a good place to see birds. The place had a lot of potential, but was ultimately a bit disappointing overall. The place is huge and is quite nice, but there were a lot of problems with the place. First, they charge for everything, we thought they would just charge for using the boat dock but they also charge for just walking out on their trail. 

The shoreline was just littered with trash. There were not really that many birds around. What birds there were, were chased away by fishermen in boats. I don't know why they launch their boats out into the lake, only to drift around the shoreline relatively close to the launch. We had to walk quite a ways down the trail to get any amount of peace. The people on the trail were also loud and annoying.

 We did manage to get some great shots, but I don't know if we will ever return.

We like a lot of the little birds but they are hard to find and usually quite fast. It is easier to get pictures of the bigger birds in flight. We only found four different kinds of waterfowl. The most prolific of which, was the Coots. There were a few Grebes here and there.

And once in a while you would see a Cormorant and Egret here and there but many were too far away to capture. The Cormorants were hard to spot as they swam like submarines with only their neck and head bobbing around!

We did manage to capture a couple of them though. I was especially excited about the Egret as we saw him catch a fairly big fish for his supper but I had a hard time getting my camera to stay focused on him. It went out of focus just as he dived down to get a fish and then when he flew across the lake for a better place to have his meal, I had problems finding him in my viewfinder and focusing on him as well. I did manage to catch him on his return flight to fish again.

All in all, it was a pretty successful outing, although, not exactly pleasant. It did get a bit more peaceful if you hiked quite far out and also later in the day (when it was getting too hot to be out) some of the fisherman left and it became a bit nicer but we were hot and tired by this time too.

We are trying to decide what are next outing will be, but at the end of the season and it being so hot and dry everywhere, our options are limited. But meanwhile, besides my hummingbird friends, there are still plenty in our own front yard to take pictures of if you are patient and watchful.

Thank you, husband for the awesome new lens!

Hello Friends!

After the somewhat disappointing results of my pictures from the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, I went back to doing some additional tests in my driveway. The lens proves that it is still sharp as a tack while hand held. The only blur I get is if I did not use a fast enough shutter speed to capture my fast little friends or the depth of field was too shallow.

Some of the above pictures may look similar to ones I've taken before, but there is definitely way more detail and sharpness in these. 

The pictures below are my favorite hummingbird pictures of all time, so far. I got a little hummingbird in our oak tree. A much more pleasant backdrop than the artificial feeder in front of my ugly window. It isn't necessarily my favorite hummingbird, but definitely my favorite overall picture of a hummingbird. 

This, unfortunately, is enemy number one.

He's so mean! He frustrates me to no end. He chases all the other hummingbirds away all the time, trying to claim the feeder as his own. I will get two other hummingbirds to feed at the same time when neither is him. The most I have seen is three, but it is rare and I have yet to capture it on my camera. More often than not, it's this little booger hogging it all up by himself. The other hummingbirds have to sneak in to get a sip or I have even seen a hummingbird come in to distract him and after he chases them off, another will swoop in for a drink. It's so sad.

September

September came way too quickly. It was time for the girls to start thinking about packing to return to school. They seriously dreaded it for more than one reason and put it off until the last minute. Christian spent every spare moment double checking to make sure that their cars are in good working order. Emily had to do one last oil change after all her commutes to her grandmother's house and work, shopping trips, and trips to the beach...which seemed pretty crazy since she changed it with her cousin shortly after starting her internship. She also had to change her transmission fluid as we know it got overheated on our one trip out to Pleasant Canyon.

Both of the girls also had to wash and wax their cars before heading back. We've been able to maintain the paint of our twenty year old cars if we do at least one good coat of wax on the cars once a year. There is significant damage if we don't get to it at least once a year. We probably had to do it at least twice a year before the new ceramic waxes.

Christian got me my birthday present early this year so that I can play with it while the kids were still in town. He got me a new zoom lens for my camera since I can't really use my old lenses with my new camera. He went a little nuts and got me a honkin' big lens! It is not very practical and very large and heavy. I wanted more of a range for my zoom lens but I don't think I ever considered this much of a long range!

I was thinking that he went a little overboard until I saw the images that came out of the camera. We walked around the neighborhood and took samples of the flora and fauna.

And wow, is it a game changer. It's like we've been using Temu lenses all these years! While my new lens is pretty fancy, it is still not an L lens so I don't even know what those would be like! I don't think we will ever be happy with a normal lens again...which is a bit of a problem, to be honest.

While Christian was a work, the girls and I took off on a quick trip back to the Bolsa Chica Ecological preserve for more pictures of birds with my fancy new lens. It was a bit of a disappointment really as there were not as many birds around as the first time Caitlyn and I came here. I also had some serious issues with motion sickness after tracking the birds in the electronic viewfinder. The slightest movement makes a big difference when using such long lenses. 

I still thought I got some pretty good shots and was excited to see them. We made it back home before Christian got back from work and was able to download them to surprise him with what we managed to get. The pictures were a bit disappointing, to say the least. If I got some of these shots last time, I would still be pretty happy with them, but the focus was a little off or soft on every single picture and I could not understand what the problem was since I took some in my driveway earlier that morning that was as sharp as a tack. 

I was especially excited to get pictures of the blue heron which we could only see as a speck in the distance last time. Christian made some changes to my auto focus settings to help but we think that the thing causing me the biggest problems was my use of a monopod that I was using to help "stabilize" my shots and help with the fatigue of holding the big heavy long lens. The pictures in my driveway and neighborhood were all taken while entirely hand held. The details should have been amazing, but they just were not.

But alas, playtime was over and the kids had to get ready to go in earnest now. It was so sad. They headed out on a Tuesday morning. They were very eager to get to their apartment as early as possible to claim one of the better situated rooms in the apartment. They were each getting private rooms for this last stretch of school. It would cost a little more but both of them wanted some space and when Emily returns, she won't be able to share with her sister anyway. With the nightmarish experiences she has had with bad roommates 

so far, she didn't want to share a room with anyone besides her sister. They stopped by Mesquite to visit with their Aunt Aron. She caught up with them over dinner, after which, they continued on the short distance to their cousin Austin's house where they planned to stay the night. Coincidentally, Austin and his family were actually going to be in San Diego during this time but he invited them to stay at their house anyway. That was super nice of them since their house is better situated for the girls' long drive to Rexburg. Aron is not that far away but 45 minutes makes a big difference over a 13 hour trip. St. George is a lot closer to us than Rexburg, so their second day of driving is always the worst.

They usually leave on or before the crack of dawn to get to Rexburg in time to check in to their rooms during the check in window. Because they were fighting for a decent room, they had to get there even earlier. So the plan was to get a decent night of sleep and leave at a more reasonable time on Wednesday and get to Rexburg before the sun goes down. They planned to unload one of the cars into the storage facility and car camp out in the dunes. That way they could get up in the morning to check in first thing in the morning. They tried to get the manager to let them check in early and pay for the extra day or days but the manager was unwilling to let them check in early, even though the apartment was basically empty already. All this was to basically avoid either of them from ending up in the dreaded room next to the kitchen because it is extra loud in there as people are banging away in the kitchen at all hours of the night and day.

I love the ability to track their progress as they go up. It really helps to know where they are. When they used to drive together, at least one of them can respond to a text and keep us somewhat updated but when they started driving separately, that made the information pretty scarce. Anyway, they were about 30 minutes or so outside of Provo when I was checking their progress and looking at the traffic ahead of them when I heard the news that Charlie Kirk had been shot. The UVU campus is just above Provo near the freeway where the girls would be traveling up. That was pretty stressful. So I frantically checked for updates on whether they caught the shooter, Charlie's condition and what nightmare the girls will have to drive through on their way back to school. The girls had actually pulled off to make a rest stop at a gas station when all this came about. By the time they got back on the road, the traffic accident in Provo mostly got cleared up and they drove through Orem without incident. Unfortunately, Charlie did not make it.

The next drama came when they arrived in Rexburg that evening to find that it was oddly quiet and empty. The girls double checked their schedule and found that in their hurry to make it up there in time to get a decent room, they got their dates wrong. Okay, Caitlyn was the one that apparently got the date wrong and Emily just went along with it. She thought she read that the check in day was on the 11th, but it was actually on the 12th. I thought it was weird and questioned them on it and they said that they checked and it was on the 11th, so we just proceeded with that in mind. So the long and the short of it was that they had a whole extra day in Rexburg with nothing to do and no where to stay. Basically, they spent the day homeless. Luckily, with all their camping experience, it wasn't such a big deal but they were kind of pissed about it and we were just worried and uncomfortable that they had no where to stay. They spent most of the day just hanging out on campus for the WiFi.

The next morning, they cleaned up, grabbed some breakfast at Maverik and headed into town. Luckily, they were running early and stopped by their apartment and found that it was open. They went in and claimed a room ahead of time. Shortly after, the rest of the roommates all showed up to claim a room as well. If they waited until the actual check in time or if they arrived in the afternoon as they normally have been doing, one of them would definitely have been stuck with the dreaded kitchen room. They were so relieved!

Anyway, they were better able to relax once they got their rooms situated and took their time with everything else. They had to move all their stuff from the storage facility, unpack everything, go shopping for the week, get their books and everything they needed to do on campus that weekend so that they would be ready for school on Monday morning. It turns out that they seem to have pretty good roommates this semester, for once...at least they all seem normal so far. So they spent some time getting to know their new roommates as well. I hope it works out well for them.

However, after the first day of school, Caitlyn wrote to us all upset because she doesn't feel prepared for the Web Services class she has to take. She has maintained a 4.0 gpa throughout her college career. She only has 18 units left before she graduates, and one of the remaining classes she needs to take requires knowledge that they didn't prepare her with! We were so pissed and flabbergasted, we didn't know what to tell her. This is actually the second time she had to drop this class. The first time she attempted to take it, the curriculum was seriously outdated. That is a big deal when you are dealing with software. She wrote to the department to complain and hopefully get them to look into it. Apparently, they did update the class this time but it heavily relies on knowledge of JavaScript which she feels that they barely touched on in her other classes. They used to have a class just on JavaScript, but got rid of it a little while ago.

She is so close to graduating and is so sick of school that she doesn't want to change her emphasis because it will require her to take a bunch of additional classes but how is she supposed to get through her remaining classes with this glaring hole in her knowledge?! After some discussion and contemplation, we referred her to some alternative sources. She is going to drop the class and teach HERSELF JavaScript so that she can continue and finish her requirements to graduate. We are so NOT happy with BYU-Idaho. She also is losing a lot of financial aid because she will not be going to school full time and she will have to probably now have three semesters of being at school part time instead of two semesters left in order to graduate. She had actually already planned not to be in school full time in her last semester as she will have to work on a senior project in order to graduate so she definitely doesn't want to cram everything in next semester in order to finish. The whole situation sucks and we are none too happy about it but at least she has a path forward now.

The bad news continues though as Christian's dad suffered another seizure. Actually, multiple seizures! He had a seizure at home, they called an ambulance, he had another on the way to the hospital and then a third  after arriving to the hospital. We can't seem to get any clear information from them as to why, since he is on anti-seizure medication. While at the hospital, they are again registering his irregular heartbeat and before he could be released again, he has another series of strokes.

He is now back at home, but we still haven't really gotten any real information about his health or condition.