Not your typical 4th of July post

Propaganda: Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

Over the past few months I have read quite a few books about Asia.  Asia has never been at the top of my list of places to learn about. (Except Afghanistan because while it is in Asia it doesn't bring the same image of Asia to mind as other places in Asia do.) The Middle East, America, Europe all good reads but I never got into Asia. A few months ago I saw the book "Nothing to Envy" a book about North Korea on Goodreads.  After I read that I found 2 books by an author I really enjoy, Lisa See, "Shanghai Girls" and "Dreams of Joy". I also read "Years of Red Dust."  It is beyond amazing to me what people will believe and who they will trust.  Often when I think of propaganda the first thing that comes to mind is the Nazi's but the Communist had amazing propaganda artists.  As I was reading these books I felt angry, depressed, shocked, sickened and grateful. I love reading historical fiction and my most favorite are books or magazine articles that talk about places that have been kept "secret" such as China or North Korea or at least it feels like they have been kept secret because I know so little about them.

There was a quote that stood out to me from "Dreams of Joy".  Joy is a Chinese-American raised in LA who went back  to China because she loved the idea of communism and working in the country with everyone helping each other. After she has been there a while she sees how horrific it really is.

"Later in school we often debated why Germans didn't revolt against their leadership and why Jews didn't fight harder for their lives.  Now I understand how that happened, because there have been no riots, protests or uprisings here either.  We're too weak, tired and scared to do those things.  We've been brainwashed with hunger, and people still believe in Chairman Mao and the Communist Party."

When I read the book about North Korea they gave examples of poeple who escaped from North Korea into South Korea and after being there they missed North Korea and wanted to go back.  It's so strange to me that people would want to go back to such a miserable lifestyle. How did they handle it?

I like to read the news and try to stay somewhat informed of what is going on but really you have to take things with a grain of salt. I just wonder what sources are truly talking about what is happening.  It seems unusual for both sides of a story to be presented and you can't print an article and give an entire history of the subject either. I just read this great ARTICLE in this months National Geographic (a source I like to think is reliable) about Baghdad in present day. I love learning about how places really are from someone who has just been there. This ARTICLE from last month was interesting too in a sad, disheartening, unbelievable sort of way (Mark has a subscription to the magazine)

My point (besides just telling you the books I have recently read) is that while I do not think that America is the only place I could live and be happy or that it is even the best place to live. I am still MOST definitely grateful and appreciative that I was born and raised here and have been given so many opportunities. Reading books like the above make me realize what I have been given. Mark and I truly hope (and plan) to live overseas again, there is just so much out there to see and experience.  But that doesn't mean we won't make the best of being here now and enjoying all the benefits of living in the United States.

Like I said "not your typical 4th of July post." I hope you enjoy the holiday weekend we plan to.

Yuba City

We ended our California adventure by spending some time in YC with my family.  We went to In N Out Burger (always), got frozen yogurt with friends, went to the super fun splash park, watched Jared play with his cousins and had a photo shoot with my Mom's good friend Peggy who I have known my whole life and who is the most generous person.

 Goggles might have been useful.

Jared LOVED it.  I wish we had a park like this here.  The ones here are all part of gyms though.  There is one about 20 minutes away but it doesn't have the pool of water.  We are going to go check it out tomorrow.

 Lyra and Jared were totally into getting their picture taken together.  Can't you tell?

We had a great time in California and are so glad we got to visit family.  It was a great trip.

Our last visit to Turlock CA (probably)

After our camping adventure we headed up to Turlock to spend a few days with some of Mark's family.  We went to pretty parks, visited family and friends and swam in the pool. Mark's mom recently sold her house and will be moving to Utah in the next week or so.  We are excited she will be so much closer to us but I bet it will be weird when we go to California again and don't go to Turlock.  I am glad we got to go one more time.  We helped his mom pack some boxes and then cleaned our Mark's old room.  He really didn't have that much stuff and did an excellent job throwing stuff away. Mark kindly let me help him decide "if he really needed to keep that " and we ended up only filling two boxes of stuff to keep.  Hooray for not getting more stuff! We read through some of his old letters from his mission and that was fun.
 While we were there we got to visit with 2 of Mark's sisters and their families.  We so appreicate them taking the time to come up and visit with us.  Jared loved playing with his cousins and they were so sweet to him.  We tried to get some pictures but these kids just wouldn't stay still.  It was a great visit.
Jared was a little unsure of swimming in the pool in the beginning but he got over it pretty quickly.

One of the days we were there Jared's cousin Aiden was laying in the chair and Jared walked over and climbed up and laid down with Adien it was so cute.  Then I ran to get the camera and this is what I got.

Again sadly blurry.  

Jared and Aiden became the best of friends while we were there.  Were so glad they all got to play together.

California Campin'

We had a great time on our trip out to California.  Jared was an all star on both flights.  Everyone sitting by us told us how great he did.  It was especially impressive how well he did on our flight back to Colorado as the flight was delayed for 2+ hours so we arrived home at 1:00 in the morning instead of 10:30.  Special thanks to our friends the Carroll's who waited at the airport forever to pick us up.

We started our vacation camping at New Brighton Beach near Santa Cruz.  We met up with my family and camped for two nights. It was great to see everybody.  We hadn't been home since December 2009 so it was really fun for Jared to hang out with his cousins.  The campsite was pretty, the weather great and Jared loved the Ocean. We also learned that camping with a 20 month old is kind of difficult.  At least if you are a 20 month old who is used to being on a nice routine.  We couldn't get Jared to take a nap for the life of us and he didn't fall asleep before 9:30 both nights, and coming from Colorado that is really 10:30.  I think he heard us tell him NO more times in those 2 days then we normally do in 2 weeks.  There was the fire-pit and then the road that went through the campground so I think he was frustrated he couldn't just go run around when he was outside.  I was sad that my family couldn't see the cute happy kid he really is but luckily once we got back to staying in houses he did great.

 

 

 

 Using the sand to warm up.

Capitola Beach

Playing in the sand with Lisa.

Capitola Beach with cousins Ian and Anya. 

Mark's sister Cathryn met us there so we could play at the beach together.

 Fieth side cousins

Lyra, Lisa, Cade, Jared and Cameron.

Cade and Cameron were so good with Jared,  It was fun to see them play together.

 All together now, All together now. 

It was great of everybody in the family to take the time to get together.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Today we took Jared to the zoo for the first time.  He LOVED it.  He loves reading books about animals and is really good at making animal noises. We went ahead and bought a season pass and plan on getting a lot of  use out of it. It was super fun to see Jared recognize animals that we had read stories about and get excited about seeing them.  He did a great job doing all his animal impressions.   The zoo is literally built into the mountain so its a really pretty location. It is also on the very West side of town which has all the large pretty homes with the fully grown trees.  A rarity on our side of town.  I miss trees!!

 A pair of monkeys

 We got to pet a baby wallaby. 

Jared loves to hop like a kangaroo but this was as close as we got to one.

My favorite animals were the Giraffes and the Otters.  I love otters they are so cute and happy.  It's amazing just how tall Giraffes are. I find them fascinating and apparently Jared does too. And remember how I talked about a frozen yogurt place opening near the zoo awhile back and how excited I was?  Well we remembered so we stopped and got some frozen yogurt on the way home, perfect. When we went to pay for our yogurt we asked when the other location, (the one 2.5  miles from our house) would be opening and they said mid June!  Score. It was a lovely morning.  

P.S. Isn't that first picture So adorable?  I ♥ it.