Fall 2008 Halloween and Turkey Day · posted 5616 days ago
I can’t believe how behind I am on this site….well, actually I can with all that’s happened this past year but I’m trying to get all caught up!
A snack in the bath…such a time saver!
Driving to Denver to see Grandpa Dave.
A guy on the side of the road with a sign that said “Why Lie I Need a Beer”. We thought it was pretty funny.
What’s Denver without a trip to Casa Bonita?
Waiting to see Grandpa & keeping notes.
Meeting Joy’s clone of a boy, Talon! He’s so cute.
Love this picture of Brendin in my Grandma’s tree.
Our finished bedroom, I actually painted the room pale pink to match the original light fixture. I love the old details in this house, including the orig. door knobs.
Davin’s first day of Kindergarten at Kearns St Ann in SLC. He LOVES his ‘dress-up’ clothes.
Tearing apart our kitchen. Finding some horribly ugly linoleum, crazy plumbing and lack of proper wiring. Oh, and crumbling mortar. But at least the subfloor was good enough for tile.
This is to show how many layers of paint I took off of the built it phone nook. And right next to that we cut the doorway larger to put in an arch. We also put in two others and have one left to do.
Hallween 2008
Opening cards from Grandma Deb, Davin was really sick and said “Oh wow, beautiful card, tell her thanks” and then went back to resting.
A visit to Wheeler Farm for their Halloween festivities
Putting in the new cabinets, news sink and building a wine rack.
First snow of the year. I love the picture windows we have that look onto our unique grass ‘street’ of a front yard.
Refinishing the fireplace, getting all the paint off of the tiles with the help of Davin
Brendin demonstrating how his bug that he made pinches.
Thanksgiving Day pajama football. Dinner and dessert.
Driving Annie and Cordell downtown to see the Christmas tree at Temple Square.
Last Days in California-Trip to SLC-Move to TX-Move Back from TX · posted 5686 days ago
Thanks Aunt Tami for the good traveling toy!
A wine rack and McDonald’s happy meal box make great a costume.
Brendin eating a donut…rather cutely.
Date Night, we drove down by Big Sur for dinner.
At the Monterey County Fair
Congratulations to Jeremiah for doing very well at learning Mandarin and passing the proficiency test with flying colors. Here’s a picture of him at DLI Graduation and then dinner at a Chinese Restaurant.
Gilroy Gardens….one last time!
Enjoying some root beer floats
Yay, the moving truck is here…this is going to be SO MUCH FUN!
A bike tire actually kept Brendin entertained in the car for a long time.
The boys got to take turns riding in the Penske truck.
Davin’s school, we visited before we took off for Texas, thinking we would be back here in December.
Once we dropped our stuff off in storage in SLC we were driving down to TX with the Rendezvous and a Uhaul trailer and here we are…like 4 miles out of Moab, without gas and very little cell phone service. So me and the boys decided to go for about a 1 mile hike and look at lizard, buzzy and large beetle tracks.
Brendin was excited to be on Route 66!
Wahoo! We bought our house while on the road!
A stop at Four Corners
We found Mater! And the elusive Billy the Kid tombstone
Volcano and Ice Caves
Welcome to Texas!
We found an apartment and got all moved in! The boys were in racing position before we opened the door. The cats were equally excited!
But then when Jeremiah tried to go to class…they told him that he couldn’t go, they didn’t have confirmation of his security clearance. It actually was never started, despite Jeremiah started the paperwork for it 18 months ago. So….we had to break it to the boys that we had to leave this nice new apartment with a pool and move our stuff all the way back to Salt Lake City a pitiful 2 days after we arrived. We also had a major problem with our and arrived into San Angelo and the transmission went out. So we had to get a budget truck to haul our car back.
We at least got to spend the last night with our friends.
The boys were about as excited as I was when I found out moving trucks only seat three….oh the number of rules/laws we had to break to get back before Jeremiah got in trouble!
The hotel suite made the boys feel a little bit better.
And to add insult to injury the car dolly got a flat and we then realized how this tow tolly was not supposed to be towing a vehicle as heavy as ours. Whooops.
They actually slept quite a bit, I don’t think I slept a wink. Davin was wearing my sunglasses so he could watch the movie better.
We found a cool town, that was a lot like Deadwood/Lead and got some icecream and enjoyed the views. But the road that we had to drive on to get to Durango, was NOT fun in a big moving truck towing an extremely heavy car with switchbacks, S curves, 5 MPH turns, no guard rails….freaky!
Back in Salt Lake! Enjoying the sunset from our realtor/friends house who so kindly let us stay with her while we negotiated our already negotiated-to-close-months-away house and see if they’d be willing to close….tomorrow! We spent some time in one of our favorite parks in Salt Lake City.
At Build-a-Bear making a friend for Grandpa Dave to have in the hospital. When you push the bears hand the boys recorded “I love you Grandpa (from Davin) I love you Grandpa (Brendin)”. It’s pretty cute! Then we were at the post office mailing it off.
Since we bought a house with a fenced yard and have wanted a good mannered family dog we started going to the animal shelter to walk dogs and came across a Black and Tan Coonhound that was very quiet, friendly, didn’t bark, didn’t shed and played well with the boys. We hadn’t moved into our house yet so we couldn’t bring her ‘home’. We were actually surprised we found a dog this soon, we anticipated maybe months of looking for the right dog for our family. After visiting her a handfull of times and one time of thinking that she was adopted my someone else we had to get her. She’s been great! We named her Roxy after trying to think of something for about a month!
Catching up on Photos!! · posted 5722 days ago
At Asilomar Beach
The Chinese Lantern Festival on the water
Jellyfish at the Aquarium
At a park, spinning and getting misted to stay cool!
Playing some yard baseball
Washing taters in undies!
The Winchester Mansion was very cool!!
At the doctor, Brendin cheering for NO shots!
Wearing my heels
Cannery Row area, playing miniature golf
Reading & Trip back home. · posted 5745 days ago
None the less, we are incredibly proud of him and can’t believe that the first day we did hooked on phonics with him he could sound out words as if he’s been practicing without telling us!
Pictures will be coming soon…I promise…:o)
Ok, see I told you I’d get pictures up!
The boys of course, loved the flight to Denver.
Time to drive to ND.
Brendin helping Don set up a lawn game.
Floating around in the River.
Uncle Shaky thought he would be faster than Davin…for best results take off cowboy boots!
4th of July pictures. Davin thought it was pretty sweet. Brendin wanted to hang out in the car since some people across the River were shooting off really loud ones.
Don took the boys fishing off the dock. First they threw down some crackers (which I think it was made Brendin mad, he thinks that’s wasting good crackers!) then put the hook in the water and waiting to catch a whopper. And as Don would say “Those SOB’s put up a fight!”.
Thanks for the Birthday gifts Gma Deb and Gpa Don.
Hanging out and playin Chess with Buster. Oh yes, he knows how to play Chess…he knocks all the pieces off the bed and then he wins.
Tally, the sweetest doggy!
Three siblings (and one adoptee) trying to cause trouble!
Makeing shishkebobs-Don was the photographer with one of those new fandangled digital cameras!
Davin wanted a big juicy steak, yes that is what he asked Grandpa for!
The Dakota Zoo…also known as the wet mosquito zoo that day!
This guy thought Dede tasted good.
Two Kings at the Elks.
We had to go to Space Aliens twice while we were there.
Brendin was under the table while the huge alien visited our table…he was glad to see him leave.
Brendin’s Wall-E eyes.
Time to do some bowling! Davin beat all of us….but I was in a close 2nd.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA DEB!!!
The boys had to be like Grandpa Don and have a toothpick. We ate dinner at the Seven Seas for Mom’s birthday. Brendin fell asleep and Davin was super tired the whole time.
We got Grandma Deb a car with a cat, a card that farts and a DVD recorder…I think she liked them all!!
Mom, you can’t get any older, Dede just about lit something on fire this year.
A stop at Grandma Roline’s house.
Another stop in Lead to see Grandpa Dave, Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Susan.
A stop in the Land of Love to visit our great friend Annie who showed us around!
White House Farm in Denver.
And of course, what’s a trip to Denver without Casa Bonita?
Brendin was being the statue of liberty during the Puppet Show. Davin got to hit the Pinata and we got prime seats since it wasn’t busy so we got to see all of the shows and still keep our table. A little bit better than when we go on Turkey Day!
Hanging out with Grandma O, checking out her doll house, rock collection and playing with water balloons.
Time to fly back home and see Daddy!!!
I know I still have older pictures to put up and hopefully I’ll get the up before we move but we are planning a DITY (do it yourself) move so I probably won’t have much time. But in less than 2 months we will be in San Angelo TX and at Christmas time we’ll be back in Salt Lake City.
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Long Awaited Vacation Pics! · posted 5823 days ago
Before we left we threw a little surprise Birthday party for Jeremiah with our neighbors. He had an angel food cake and some creme brulee and a bonsai tree.
One of the first things we did was drive through a Redwood in Legget CA. This was the Chandelier Tree. We barely squeezed through and had to fold our mirrors in.
We checked out the fallen tree right next to the drive through tree.
Elk viewing. We explained to Brendin that some people like to use Elk horns as trophies. So he then told Aunt Tami that we saw some Elk and they were selling trophies.
The (very green) Smith River in the Jedediah Smith Redwood Forest.
Welcome to the state with the lamest sign….
There were lots of small shops selling wood gifts, this was a Burl wood art gallery and we found the Burly Gate and the boys found a Burly swing.
We then drove to Salem, OR to stay with my Aunt Tami. She used to live in SLC so Davin was really excited to see her! She took us to the Eoli Winery for the best brunch in the WORLD for Jeremiah’s Birthday!
The next day we headed North to Washington
We crossed the border and bought some Starbucks since WA is where it started. Jeremiah’s XL cup of coffee cup sprung a leak in the bottom of the cup and spilled all over the car…and his pants.
We took a detour on our way to Seattle and saw Mt St Helen’s and went to the base of Mt Rainier but couldn’t see it because it was so foggy/cloudy. But we did at least get to play in some snow.
The Seattle skyline
Downtown Seattle by a totem pole.
Eating at a restaurant on the pier.
Pike’s Market Hill Climb
This is Rachel the Pig, seriously!
Some guy catching a fish at that famous fish throwing market in Pike’s Market.
Chinatown in the International District in Seattle
The storm that we got to drive through..imagine that it rained in Seattle!
The next day we headed North some more! And we made it through the border and into Canada.
The Vancouver skyline, we didn’t really do much in Vancouver as Jeremiah was anxious to get to Whistler.
The drive up to Whistler was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever seen.
And here is Whistler!
The boys slept the whole way from Vancouver to Whistler.
The view from our hotel room, which was beautiful! Our room had a nice big flat panel TV, fireplace, kitchen & jacuzzi tub. We also went swimming in the outdoor heated pool which was the best pool ever!!
Hmmmm….how did the gum get IN your hair Davin?
Playing with some sweet Wikki Stix that the restaurant in the Whistler Village gave to the boys.
At a Canadian Brewery in Whistler.
Playing in some Canadian snow
The boys got a nice treat, some Gourmet Hot Chocolate!
More wikki stix!
The hot chocolate apparently put Brendin to sleep because he slept like this on the table for about 15 minutes.
A really neat playground in the Whistler Village made of wood.
The drive back to Vancouver…
Vancouver Bridge
We got lost and found a nice Welcome to Canada sign!
At the border there was a neat little zen garden type place that we took some pictures in.
Welcome to America!
Since it was cloudy the whole time we were in Seattle before we stopped at the Space Needle on our drive back. Boy was Davin glad we finally got to go. And we were glad that we FINALLY got to see Mt Rainier! It is BIG and beautiful.
No time to stop, but there’s the Capitol in Olympia.
We stayed the night on the river in Clatskanie on the border of WA & OR.
Next stop Astoria. Which had roads JUST like lead. We went to the tower but they were repairing the stairs in it so we didn’t get to walk up. But the view was nice from on top of the hill.
The bridge over to Washinton. We drove over it to get to a lighthouse on the SW tip of WA.
And old Army base we found S of Astoria.
So I didn’t really think I needed to head the barricaded road and I went around..I really wanted to see the shipwreck!
Then Jeremiah told me that they put the barricades there for a reason….but we still made it!
And there it is! Davin thought it was pretty sweet and said it must have been a pirate ship!
Time for an ice cream break!
We drove all this way in anticipation of the Kloochy Giant, the largest Sitka Spruce tree, almost 200 years old and over 200ft tall….only to find that in December record breaking winds took old Kloochy down. It was hit by lightning 50 some years ago and weakened the tree and that is where the tree broke. There is about 70ft of it still standing. It was still a grand site to see!
The Cape Meares Lighthouse, the shortest lighthouse in OR.
The really pretty lenses of the Cape Meares LH.
We bought a seagull kite and flew it on the beach in Lincoln City, the seagulls are the dots in the picture!
Jeremiah found a whoopie pie and was in heaven…until he realized he shouldn’t have ate it for breakfast!
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Yaquina Bay Lighthouse
We found a glass blowing gallery and got to watch a guy make a glass float. The boys were captivated!
Cape Blanco Lighthouse
A waterfall in the Sea Lion caves
The Sea Lion Caves were very cool. There were about 200 Sea Lions in the cave that day, we took an elevator a few hundred feet underground and got to watch the sea lions and they don’t even know you are there.
The Umpqua Lighthouse
A house…IN a tree.
A monster truck we found.
Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City, CA
And back to good ‘ol California. The Golden Gate Bridge..Where we didn’t have $5 cash (which there are no signs that say you need this) you get a $25 violation in the mail on top of the $5 fee. Nice.
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Happy Easter! · posted 5864 days ago
Watching the transmission fluid drain out
For a detailed account of what happened, click HERE to watch the video. (Annie, do ya see it now?!)
A nature walk on a trail by our house.
A trip to San Fran to check out Chinatown
In Children’s Place trying on some clothes.
Opening their Valentine’s Day Cards from G&G Pierce
Dress up time!
A visit to the aquarium, which a bus just ran into on Friday, luckily we weren’t visiting that day!!
I can’t look!
Spending a cold day on the beach!
Decorating Easter Eggs
Yum, easter Eggs!
YUCKY YOLK!!
Make Rice Crispie easter baskets
The Easter Egg hunt started out in the house with eggs in strange places.
We had a joint Egg hunt with our neighbors kids and they had tons of fun finding all 50 real and plastic eggs!
Brendin was helping Alana bring her basket back from the ‘flower field’ and he fell and dumped her basket over…he was sad…but the picture turned out really cute!
Brendin and his Easter Basket
Davin and his basket
Yay, it’s Hi Ho Cherry O!
Davin LOVES having dinners with lots of stuff!
My beautiful carrot cake!!!
Davin and Brendin ready to dive into the carrot cake they helped decorate. And it was GOOOOD cake, if I do say so myself!
Davin hasn’t tried to ride his bike but 3 or 4 time since we took the training wheels off. He drug out his bike and said he wanted his training wheels back on, we said no, so he asked for a push. I pushed him once, he fell. I pushed him a second time and off he went. He’s riding a bike like a pro and as if he has been a bike rider for a year! He loves to put black marks on the sidewalk, pop wheelies and see how fast he can go down our driveway.
Click to watch Brendin’s Dance pause Dance move.
Christmas 2007 Pictures · posted 5929 days ago
Holy cow what a crazy couple of months it’s been! After a couple of weeks in SD for Christmas we came back just in time for a New Years storm that took our power out for almost a week. Then not too long after our power came back on I got a call that my step Dad went into the hospital with chest pain. The next call was that they started angioplasty and the surgery was not going well and emergency bypass surgery was the next step. Family was told to come if they could since this was such a risky surgery. I couldn’t get a plane back that afternoon but flew out first thing in the morning. The surgery couldn’t be completed because of the massive heart attack he was having but they did get 3 bypasses done. Just Don getting through the surgery was a great hurdle and the next 72 hours were touch and go. I am so glad I was there to hold his hand and be there to help my Mom. It was nice that 6 of the 7 other kids were able to be there as well. I had fun catching up with all you guys, hopefully going back to ND for the 4th of July so that Don can spend time with us outside of the Hospital works out! Don came out of ICU faster than expected and surprised the nurses and doctors with how well he was doing. It took a while to get his heart rate down, it was above the 120s and needed to be in the 80’s I believe. They would normally shock the heart but there was a clog that could have came lose during the shock, go to his brain, cause a stroke and probably death. So it had to be done with medications. Don was antsy to get home and finally got there this weekend! He’s definitely sore and taking a shower is a major feat but Mom’s there holding down the fort, hiding his keys and making sure he doesn’t do too much too soon! At least his son is a sugeon so he can check up on him :) Get well soon Don! XOXO
Anyways, that’s why my Christmas pictures are even later getting up than I thought they would be. But here they are!
Writing a letter to Santa and putting out food for the reindeer….I know, strange combination but this is what Davin and Brendin picked out of the fridge.
Tim really liking the backpack we got Noah!
Playing Rockband
Christmas at Wally and Roberta’s
Playing candyland with some of the biggest cheaters in the world!
Yay! We drove all the way from CA to see some snow!
Kari Ann gave me some cuuuute shots!
We had brunch before we left town and Davin saw Roberta, ran up and grabbed her hand and walked with her to the restaurant!
Christmas morning was like a whirlwind and I have no idea who got the boys what.
I do know that Davin had the best idea. He wrapped a Pull-Up for Brendin and Brendin was ECSTATIC! Seriously!!
Uncle Dana looking…cute!
All THREE boys napping in the backseat on the way to Bowman.
Aunt Staceys House
Cousin Jett and Brendin
Santa/Uncle Gary telling the boys to stuff their pockets with candy…leftover Halloween candy…ahem Gary!
Scott opening the Gift Exchange gift from us….a wierd bird. But he liked him and managed to keep him!
Grandma Roline and the boys and the boys playing with some OLD playskool blocks (probably 40 year old blocks) and sitting in front of her fireplace.
Dinner at diamond lils.
We got Dad some super long noodles from Trader Joe’s, here’s Dede to demonstrate!
Christmas #5 was at Dad’s…and Davin got his guitar which he loves! He has some rocker in him. And Aunt De is his biggest fan.
Yay! I got a Woody doll!!!
We did some site seeing and went to the mammoth site. The boys loved it, especially Davin. I liked it too. I still can’t believe that you are really looking at Mammoth bones half dug up. We then went to Hot Springs and did some swimming. I was hoping it would be hotter….
Uncle Dana wowing Daving by curling a bone!
Davin loves the water but hates water in his face so hasn’t been that interested in swimming but loved this slide and decided he didn’t mind the water in his face so much afterall!
The boys looked in their stockings a few days after Christmas because of the hub-bub on Christmas morning.
Happy New Years!!
Davin took some pictures of my friend Mikala and her baby Jagger.
The Fam photo at Robertas.
Brendin, Noah and Davin found party hats and decided it was all of their birthdays and they were celebrating!
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Disneyland Pictures Finally! · posted 5941 days ago
Pretending to be sleeping…
Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney, I will never go here again! But it was worth a try!
Lego Land Store in Downtown Disney. Brendin in front of R2D2 and I think this was the first time he ever listened when I said ‘smile!’.
Big J in a stylish Goofy hat.
Peek!
The boys thought Mr Tiki needed some help picking his nose…
Fast asleep waiting for the morning when all their Disney dreams would come true!
Ship Ride
Brendin warming his hands by Mickey’s Fire
Minnie’s House
The boys, and everyone else, thought these were just statues of Woody and Jessie…until they started moving! They weren’t giving out autographs but Davin went up and asked and Woody signed his book.
The 2nd Ride we went out…Buzz Lightyear! It was very cool. You had laser guns and got points for shooting targets and it actually kept you score for you. And we caught Zurg!
Davin’s 1st Roller Coaster! It was a little spooky for him…it was completely dark like you were flying through space but he still
thought it was cool.
Hanging out at Chip ‘n Dale’s tree house in Toon Town.
Pluto liked the boys, especially beacuse they had a Pluto shaped Pen!
The train that goes around Disney.
It’s a Small World…but it was not a small ride! It was probably about 10 minutes long and had tons of stuff to look at. I can’t believe how much work they put into these rides.
Davin’s long awaited Pirates of the Carib. ride!
Bredin’s first coaster, the Matterhorn
Time for some Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream sandwiches!
Oh Donald, where are you? !
Goofy was a hard one to track down!
This was Grandpa’s first time at Disneyland and this was the first
ride we all went on! I can’t believe it had been about 15 years since I was there last! We plan on going again this Spring. And maybe again this Summer! :o)
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Winter Storm/No Power · posted 5943 days ago
I’ve been on the phone a ton and just about every time I call PG&E I get the same story that there is no record of our area having a power outage. Either that or they have no estimate of restore. So I just call several times a day and yesterday got a little fed up when I found out that part of the problem may have been that our property management company didn’t have the tree removed and PG&E won’t do tree work and won’t work around a down tree. So I called our management company and she assured me that they had just started working on it last night. So this morning I called PG&E and told them the tree was supposed to be removed last night so they could send someone out. About an hour later I got a call from a PG&E worker saying he was out there right now and estimated time of restore is 3pm today. WAHOO. I’m sure our cats hate us after two weeks without us there and a strange guy feeding them and then a week without us and power! I know the lady who has the tree on her house is VERY upset that it was taking Pinnacle this long to take the tree off her house and the whole neighborhood isn’t going to like hearing that that’s the reason why our power wasn’t being restored. At least they said they would help pay for hotels and our insurance company said part of our losses would be covered and PG&E is offering a small amount of money for people who lost power for a certain period of time.
The first picture is me standing at our front door looking onto the neighbors house. The others are front views where you can see the tree on their house and the power line smashed on the road with the wires hanging.
The bad news is they are predicting another storm for later today….right about the time they are supposed to get our new power pole up! Oh and Davin is so bored he came up with the grand idea that we should have a baby…for a pet because they like to play outside.
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FINALLY · posted 5967 days ago
Brendin, taking his costume on a test drive…
Strange guy at our mailbox.. :o)
At the Rhino’s costume soccer practice
Testing out our witch that yells for help because she smashed into our house.
Out trick or treating
At the Church Halloween Party
Jeremiah actually asking me what he supposed to do in this “Cake walk”. I can’t believe someone made it out of SD without ever doing or even seeing a cake walk! Needless to say he didn’t win a cake.
The focused Ninja in school
The last game of the season. In the 2nd picture Davin took a shot just as they were blowing the whistle and it so looked like it was going in but just barely missed. He still thought it was a pretty sweet shot!! I told him if the wind wouldn’t have been blowing it would have been a goal!
The end of the season pizza party
Davin’s award
Jeremiah’s picture that the whole soccer team signed. And all the parents signed a card and put in a gift certificate for us. We had a lot of fun coaching and had great parents and kids!
The medal that he got at the ceremony.
Brendin ran up to give him a kiss and a hug after he was presented with his medal and award!
Brendin called the soccer ceremony the Soccermony!
A day at the beach
Just a little dizzy there Dad!
Ooooooh a sanddollar!!
Trying on Mom’s glasses for size to keep the sun out of his eyes.
Brendin, so glad to see Mom after her trip to Vegas
Jeremiah thought he’d take on the unruly waves of the ocean on Thanksgiving. They weren’t very forgiving.
Maybe I can fix it?!
We found a frog by our back door in the courtyard so we adopted him over thanksgiving. We went and bought him a feast of crickets and named him “Court” of course!
Mmmm Turkey Day! I got to cook a huge turkey dinner for my Dad who flew out for the whole week. The boys had lots of fun with Gramps! The morning after Thanksgiving when I gave Brendin his breakfast he said he wanted 5 more bowls of food on the table! Thankfully Thanksgiving is only once a year and I don’t hae to cook that much food all the time!
Brendin at the Preschool Turkey Dinner Party
Davin thought the table and food looked just beautiful!
The raccoons got a bit of our leftovers!
I’m ready for LA!!
We decided to take Grandpa on a surprise trip to Disneyland! I’ll have pictures of that up soon!
Note: I have a ton of emails that come back undeliverable from my updates. If you could email me at jj@mollman.com with your latest email address if you are NOT getting the updates and would like to get them. Thanks! Happy December!!
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