Westmoreland Asays

My mother kindly flew to Oregon from Salt Lake City to stay with us for the week. It's been nearly two years since she and pa fled Western Eden for the hills and desert of Zion, although it doesn't seem that that much time has passed. So Meg and I took advantage and took a short roadtrip to Southern Oregon. Wednesday We left my mom with the boys in the morning; they knew and understood that we were leaving for a few days, but they didn't seem to mind. Our destination for the day was Ashland, with stops in Grants Pass for lunch (and where Meg discovered that she had left her wallet--and thus driver's license and temple recommend--at home) and Medford to kill time until we could check in at our hotel. Big flakes of snow were falling in the mountain passes, but fortunately they didn't interfere with our driving. We stayed in a room on the seventh floor at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel in the heart of Ashland. It's by far the tallest building in the city, and ...

Lately Edward has been declaring that he is going to college (although he is not sharing his list of potential schools). He puts on a little dudes backpack (which Aaron occasionally brings home from pre-school) and walks around speaking of his intentions. I think this act stems from an episode of Blue's Clues we own. We've previously caught him studying books on how to build wealth through real estate, but I guess his plans haven't panned out with the recent market slump. Kudos to you Edward for creating a back-up plan. In other random news, Aaron has developed a deep interest in the original Legend of Zelda game for the NES. He often calls me at the office to ask questions about how to find stuff and beat enemies, although his questions have died off since I bookmarked some sites on the Internet that provide screen-by-screen maps. He still calls but his conversations have changed to him spouting off everything he's learned, then he says good-bye and hangs up--without...