tales from a far-land

Aiden had a Pokemon themed birthday party this year.  All he wanted to do at the party was trade Pokemon cards and watch the newest Pokemon movie, Detective Pikachu.   Thus, that is what we did.  Being that his birthday is in August, we also told all of the attendees to throw in their swim suits, just in case.  For the first hour of the party, Aiden and his friends traded and discussed their Pokemon cards.  It was rather funny.  It was like their own version of the New York Stock Exchange.  They would go from person to person, huddle to huddle, negotiating for the card they really wanted.  I was so shocked that the bartering went on as long as it did.  After an hour or so, the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Aiden and enjoyed some brownies or cheesecake.  Yes, that is correct, cheesecake.  Aiden wanted cheesecake for his birthday cake.  Too funny! After the brownies and cake, the movie was started and some of the kids enjoy...

Aiden turned eight years old in this past August.  This year, we decided to do a couple of Aiden's favorite things on his birthday.  We spent a couple of hours playing games at Dave and Busters.  And for dinner, we dined out at Valle Luna.  It was a pretty special day. Aiden is becoming such a fun, yet challenging kid.  He acts like he is too old to hold my hand, but every once and awhile he will still snuggle with me on the couch when we watch a movie or a football game.   He is also becoming very independent and adventurous.  He will often want to do things that stretch my comfort zone farther than normal.  For example, when he decided that he was old enough to ride his bike to school by himself.   He likes to be the center of everyone's attention and have everyone play what he wants to play.  We are working on trying to remind him to compromise and that he should sometimes do the things that others want to do. ...

On August 15th, 2019, Selma and Stanley Price (GG & GP) celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary.  In honor of this occasion, some of their family decided to gather together for brunch on the Sunday following their momentous day.  Josh and I drove in with the kids on Friday night so that we could spend a little extra time with them.  Selma's daughter's families were also in attendance.  Dione, Katz and Becky were already visiting from Israel.  Lori and Richard came down from Camarillo on Saturday, so we were able to visit with them a little extra as well.  And Alisa, Gabriel and the kids came down from Calabasas on Sunday morning.  The weekend was full of love, laughter, a couple of rounds of Blackjack (Stan was a card shark that day!), good food, good wine and conversation poolside at the Ayers Hotel, and kids playing happily together.  It was a great way to commemorate twenty-six amazing years of marriage for two people that we absolutely a...

We did our own little photo shoot on the morning of school picture day.  I just cannot believe how "grown-up" my kids are becoming.  Wish I could stop time so they could stay "little" for a tad bit longer.  Enjoy! Madilyn Rae Aiden Price Siblings Madi and Sadie The "real" school photos

The NAHU Region 7 meeting was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this year in August.  As always, it was very educational and a ton of fun.  The agenda for the two days was packed full of information on how to run an effective chapter and industry specific issues.  I was honored to be one of the presenters this year on NAHU's legislative support that we give to the local chapters.  I also created a fun NAHU Jeopardy! game that we played on Thursday afternoon which was very spirited at times.  On Friday morning, we also enjoyed a great Medicare for All debate between Marcy Buckner, NAHU's vice president of government affairs, and Bernie Sanders aka Ray Magnuson.  Both sides did a great job showing the pros and cons of this highly promoted healthcare topic.  It was insightful and a very scary. Thursday evening, many of the attendees attended the planned social event.  It was at a steakhouse called Rio Chama.  The evening included dinner and live e...