During our SD Trip...

...We got really cute pics of Caleb:


...James and Caleb met for the first time

...Caleb sang to James playing the guitar
This was so funny, I heard Caleb just singing along and as soon as my camera was out he stopped singing. I would put the camera away and he'd start singing again. This happened 3 times. The last time I caught this:

...We had a fun Labor Day at the Mellor house
Swimming was so fun! This was Caleb's second time in the pool and he enjoyed it. After swimming we had a BBQ for dinner. It was fun time with family.

Stephanie and Charlotte

...We got a 4 generation picture

...Caleb witnessed an alien abduction

...Derrick flew a plane!!!

For a very early Christmas present I gave Derrick 2 flying lessons. Derrick's dream has always been to fly. One day I got one of those value packs in the mail that had a coupon for learning to fly. At first I left it out on the table to show Derrick just for a laugh. But then later that day I thought, "Wait, that would actually be really cool." I talked to my dad, who helped my brothers get flying lessons, and he said the price on the coupon I had wasn't very good. He told me the flying club down there gave 2 lessons for less than the flying club up here gave for 1. So I called The Golden State Flying Club at Gillespie Field and set up two appointments for Derrick.

The day came to go flying and Derrick loved it. When he got back he said I could have gone up with him. I had no idea so the next day I made sure to go with him. The second time Derrick went flying he did a lot of the landing and I couldn't believe how smooth it was. Derrick must be a natural.

One really cool thing was that the San Diego temple is one of the main landmarks in flying. There aren't too many things marked but it is actually marked on the flying map as "Mormon temple." When the instructor told Derrick to make sure to turn between the temple and Mt. Soledad Derrick mentioned that he got married there. The instructor said, "I've heard that's hard to do." Derrick told him it wasn't, you just had to be a member of the LDS faith and be living the standards of the church.
Along with that, I really want to remember this cool incident Derrick's Aunt Mary told us when she was driving us back from the airport after our trip. She told us that in the late 70's everyone had to cut back on electricity. Street lights were turned off and large parking lots could only have half of the lights on. With all the conserving energy the government asked the church to please keep the lights on at the Oakland temple because it was also a flying landmark. Talk about symbolism.

The above video is Derrick turning off the plane his for his first flight. Below is Derrick with his flying instructor, Glenn, up in the air.

Here's me in the back.

...Caleb was patient through the airport and past his bedtime when we headed back home