Fred Leavitt: Happy New Years

I am having so much fun with my family here that I just can't find the time to write my blog. I know it is late but I'll give an update. The Monday after Christmas we all went to the Zoo. They had a special evening program called Jungle Bells. We relaxed most of the day and then headed to the Zoo in the late afternoon. When we got there I was a bit disappointed because all of the animals were in bed (do animals have beds?) and there wasn't much to see. After a while I realized that some of the really cool nocturnal animals that you don't normally see active in the day time were active at night. Things like Jackals and

rodents and such but the coolest were the lions. I don't know if I've ever seen a very active lion but they were sure frisky that night. It was actually quite fun walking around in the dark and it Evan was pretty excited to be motoring around in his electric wheel chair. He scared me to death on several occasions because there were some very steep hills and he was going VERY fast down some of the hills.

On Tuesday we headed for a local park that Lisa discovered in the newspaper or somewhere. When she first mentioned it I wasn't too excited about it but what a fun place it was.

Inside of Kitt Carson Park they have a small area that is surrounded by a wall and covered in mosaic tiles and stones, glass and other cool looking things. We spent hours there just taking pictures and climbing on things. Ben and Sharley had to work and that is a shame because I think Sharley being the artist would have loved the place. From there we headed to one of the better hamburger places you'll ever find called Chi Burger - Chi Burger. They have a list of about 200 toppings that you can put on your hamburger and if you order and finish one of their "One Pounders" they'll actually take your picture and post it on their wall.

I've never actually tried for that award but on this visit Brandon decided to go for it. The hamburger was the size of his head. He said the first third was very delicious, the second third was OK and the last third was miserable. He did finish it however. Better than the hamburger however are their milk shakes. You can order pretty much any flavor (or mixture of flavors) that you want and they're delicious. I ordered a banana, vanilla macadamian nut. They used macadamian nut flavor however rather than the real nuts so it was a bit of a dissappointment but still very good.

Wednesday was the wedding of Brandons best friend growing up. Brandon was in the bridal party. Lisa, Brandon, Serene and I went to the sealing in the morning and the entire family went to the reception that evening. It was a long but fun day. It is always fun to go weddings like this where you get to visit with people you don't get to see very often. They also had a dance so I got to swing dance with my girls. When I went to BYU one of the smartest things I did was audit dance classes. I loved to dance but I am not very good at it so I figured this would help me. At the Y they always have way more girls in the dance classes than they do girls so they are thrilled to let you audit the class just to get you there. By auditing it I didn't have to worry about homework or anything and besides all that, I figured it would be a fun way to meet girls. I took ballroom dancing and learned swing dancing along with the cha-cha, tango, latin hustle and others that I don't remember. It was a lot of fun and I became pretty good at swing dancing. I have since taught Lisa and all of my kids to swing dance and they've all exceeded my abilities (which isn't saying much)

so when we get the chance to swing dance the Leavitt's have fun. They only had one swing dance that night so Kira grabbed Brandon and Alycia grabbed me. Poor Sarah was left out but after the Bride and Groom left she made a special request of the DJ and Sarah and I danced on an empty dance floor. It was fun.

Thursday was New Years Eve. We took the family to Torrey Pines State Beach and hiked out tot he cliffs overlooking the ocean. This is a short but stunning hike. We've made the trip many times but on this trip we learned that about a hundred feet from the parking lot there is a little museum that we've never noticed before. It was very interesting. It used to be a restaurant but has been renovated. This is the first day that Ben and Sharley were able to join us. It is a real bummer that they had to work but we are all very grateful for Ben's good fortune in getting on with Wells Fargo. He is going to have some very good benefits working for them and some excellent experience that can go onto his resume. New Years was a bit of a bust. Kira, Justin, Alycia, Trevor and Alex went to the Young Adult dance.

Yes, I know that the married kids are supposed to be going to single adult activities but they had a ton of fun. They had much more than just a dance going on. It was in one of the museums in Balboa Park and they had laser tag and other stuff. Alex was a bit bummed because apparantly every single person there was pared off so there were slim pickings for the dances. Brandon and Serene were planning on celebrating their Third wedding anniversary with a dinner and a movie but Serene was sick so they postponed the celebrations. Ben and Sharley did go to dinner and a movie and Sarah went to the youth dance.

Sarah called me about eleven and came home early. She has been enjoying too much junk food over the holidays and her IBS had caught up to her. I went and brought her home early and she passed out on the couch. As for Lisa and I we were planning on babysitting the grandkids that night. I just ended up falling asleep on the couch and the New Years came with me completely unawares.

Happy New Years

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The new efficient traffic lights that use LED's save a lot of power but they're too efficient. The old traffic lights generated so much excess heat that they melted all of the snow and ice that would build up on them. The new ones get covered with snow and ice and cause a lot of traffic accidents.

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