SAN DIEGO

This summer we ended up treating our vacation a little differently. We had a trip planned to go to Utah as usual. I had a week off from work. However, the more we thought about it & the 3 days we would end up driving out of 7 & all the running around we had to do to visit everyone I started to get a little overwhelmed. We did some searching & found a great deal on a hotel in San Diego & just did it! It was only a couple of days, but well worth it!! Not to mention I had a couple of days to get things done & was able to save a couple of vacation days as well. Win, win all around. Except for all of the family we didn't get to visit. That was a bummer. I always love to go visit my Grandpa Carroll & I missed out on that this year. Hopefully, we can plan another trip in the fall.

Our hotel was the Hilton & we were on the 19th floor over looking the bay. Pretty sweet! The girls were out pretty quick both nights. Erik brought the cot & they took turns on the cot & bed. (Kylie digs her feet under people in her sleep, so she's not very fun to sleep with.) Part of our stay was a free breakfast. We just assumed it was the normal continental. Yet, we had to have vouchers & the value to each voucher was almost $25!! For breakfast! That's insane! We had a waiter serving us & our bill was $96 the first morning. We just had to pay the tip. It was a big breakfast buffet & Jay loved being served apple juice in a "champagne" glass as she called it. She thought she was fancy. Obviously, we don't get out much!

The first day we woke up & took Kylie to a follow up appt. on her wrist. As soon as that was done we were off! We were able to check in as soon as we got their & then decided to catch a ferry over to Coronado Island. We had a little bit of a jaunt to the ferry & then walked across the island to Coronado Beach. A lady at the hotel said it wasn't bad, but with kids & a short time span since it was already 5pm made it a little rough. We made it though & were able to spend about 30 min. at the beach. (We walked for about 40 min.) The girls loved playing in the waves with Erik & I was happy just being on the beach relaxing. At one pint they had dolphins swimming around them. Kylie was dying to swim with dolphins somewhere & she was able to for free. ;) They were playful that day jumping out of the water. It was awesome! Then, it was off to hurry back to catch our ferry.

The second day we headed to Sea World. Again, we totally lucked out finding a sweet deal on tickets! We walked by the Shamu show & they were filming a new video for the gift shops of the new show & wanted people to sign releases & sit in the splash zone. We did so, got our wrist bands & ended up being seated right in the front row. Needless to say, we walked away COMPLETELY SOAKED! I wish I would have worn board shorts & not denim shorts. Denim is very heavy to walk around in when they're wet. Lesson learned. At least it wasn't a cold day & we weren't freezing. We were able to hold some starfish. Erik's had only 4 "legs". I found one with 7. Pretty crazy! Jadyn wouldn't even touch them. Sea World is fun, but definitely not like Disneyland. Heehee

Our 3rd & last day :( we woke up, packed, checked out & drove over the bridge back to Coronado Island. The girls & Erik had a ball playing in the waves. At one point Erik had a seal swim right past him. He swam parallel with the beach for awhile slowly & a lifeguard truck was announcing to stay away from him because he could be sick & may get aggressive. Jadyn wanted to build a sand castle so badly & we were not well equipped for that. She made do with her hands & some sea shells. Next time, we'll know. As for Kylie - that bright blue cast cover was the best thing we ever could have bought. It was unsightly, but did it's job wonderfully! Nothing got in. My favorite part of the day was watching my girls walk back into the water hand in hand & then still holding hands as waves came & they would turn to face each other to jump them. So cute! I wish they were like that all of the time to each other.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. Going somewhere different, relaxing a little more, being at the beach & just being together as a family!

DISNEYLAND 2011

Disneyland is my favorite place on the planet. People think I'm joking when I say I could live their & be completely happy, but I'm not! I could!! One of these days I'll be rich enough that I'll be able to stay in Sleeping Beauty's castle for a week! Hey - a girl can dream right?! In fact, I tell Erik all the time that if I ever get to the point to do a Make a Wish event - I want to be Belle for a day. How awesome would that be?! There would be nothing cooler than watching little girls faces as they see Belle walk up first hand!

Anyway, enough of my crazy ramblings. We were lucky enough to go to Disneyland again in December. It's turned into a little tradition to go with our friends the Paez's from Vegas. This year the Linford's came, too! We left early on Wednesday morning the 1st, checked in & went straight over to Disneyland. No messing around for us!!

It was nice this year. Since our girls are older now - we didn't spend all of our time looking for characters. We even did rides we've never done before! Such as, the Storybook ride with miniature models of characters homes. That was a fun one to us! Slow paced, but crazy how they build those. Mr. Toad's home is in the collage below.

Day 3 - Friday - was the day the Paez's were able to meet us. Thanks to them we had quite the memorable experience most people don't have. Wendy, the mom, is obsessed with Mary Poppins. She has passed that love down to her daughter Jenny & now her 2 girls Lorelie & Payton. So much so that they had dresses to look just like Mary. They are bigger Disney fanatics than us, by far! And every time they go they look for Mary & take pictures with her. This time they made a book for Mary with all the pictures that was way cute! They knew when she would come out & we waited for her to come out. When She & Bert appeared they were floored to see two little girls dressed just like Mary. Then, Wendy presented her with the book & she started to tear up.

She was so touched that she took us on a little journey. She took us to meet a few princesses - cutting us to the front of the lines every time. In fact, there was a 60 min. wait to meet Rapunzel & she took us in the back way of the cottage & got us right in. It was crazy!! She had to leave for awhile & we were on our way with a plan to meet her again later. From their everywhere we went characters knew who those little girls were. Apparently, Mary had talked about them backstage to everyone. Mary said that she sees girls dressed up all the time, but never like her. These little girls made her day!

Mary does a show in front of the castle where they sing "Supercalafragalisteexpeallidocious" (something like that) & she told us where to go & pulled the girls into the show. Jay got to participate & was quite the ham. What amazed me was the time they spent with us. Especially just the walking around & talking with the girls. I love the photo on the bottom left of her & Jay talking & the one on the right with Lorelie in the air & everyone skipping. It was just too fun!!

Besides this - the Paez's are always a joy to be with! They are so good to our girls & our girls just adore all of them! We miss the a ton!

Unfortunately, this could be our last time for awhile. Since I went back to work I had to quit my Disney job. Therefore, no more free tickets every 6 months. SAD, SAD, DAY!! Because of this I took a million pictures of little details. I love, love, love the Haunted Mansion ride! Especially during Christmas time when it's The Nightmare Before Christmas. If I could, I would decorate like that ride. I would kill to have that carriage in my yard! (Minus the pumpkins.)

THANKSGIVING 2010

We headed up to my Mom's for Thanksgiving this year & had fun as always. It was a fun weekend spent with family. My Mom cooked up a little boutique with some other ladies in her community & got Allison & I involved as well. The first day we spent part of the time dressing up poor little Eli. Apparently, his mom has no aversion to dressing him up like a girl. She said it was to test that her headbands fit babies the way she hoped. Hmmm....

The day we planned to go home we woke up to 7" of snow! It was crazy!! The girls thought it was the best thing ever. It held us up a little from leaving since the roads weren't plowed. After a couple of hours Erik figured it was worth the risk of trying to make it down. All we had to do was make it down to the main freeway & he was sure we'd be fine. It worked just like he said.

We like to drive through Vegas & plan it that were their at either lunch or dinner time. This time it was lunch & we were able to stop at our favorite place - Fausto's. It's like Filiberto's - only good! Things aren't overly greasy & very tasty. The perfect end to our trip.

JOSH & JILL

I'm not sure how I missed this post in the scheme of things, but hey! Better late than never right? And it's not in chronological order - oh well!! Anyhoo, here's the story...

The beginning of August I went on a little trip to Colorado with my Dad & Mignon. It was a blast! My sister-in-law Jill got married & we were excited to go support her. It started with me being asked to create their invite. This one was the funnest one yet because she wanted it really girly with lots of fun things. Including birds! It was way fun for me to create & luckily they quite liked it. (At least, they told me they did & sent them out.) Here's the invite...
We flew up to Denver on Thursday the 5th & then drove down to Colorado Springs. Friday we spent the day just kind of hanging out, getting to know Josh & his family. {His mom is mine & Mignon's new best friend, by the way.} We took Elliot swimming at their hotel & then prepared for the "rehearsal dinner" that night. We went to an Italian restaurant & again just enjoyed the evening!

On Saturday we headed to the church building to set up for the wedding & reception. Mignon & I were sent to wash table clothes at a local laundromat. I'm sure you can imagine the fun that was. On a Saturday no less. ;) All in all the ceremony & reception turned out lovely. We have a little bit of a joke in the family about how my Dad will find someone he knows {even if in a round-a-bout way} no matter where he goes. Well, he even found someone at the reception. Didn't know him personally persay, but he went to Arcadia & they knew some common people. Hilarious! Can't take that man anywhere!
After the reception my parents & I took Elliot home & watched him so that Jill & Josh could have a little honeymoon. Unfortunately for them, it was only one night. I got a crash course on bolusing Elliot. I even woke up in the middle of the night to check his sugar while he was asleep & bolused him. He didn't even wake up. {Bolusing is telling his pump how much insulin he needs.} I was quite proud of myself that I could wake up to do so. I was so worried about it though that I didn't get much sleep. I just wanted him to be safe. Apparently, I bolused him too much because his sugar dropped later that day. He was ok, but I felt bad! We took Elliot to church & then came home to visit some more with Josh's family.

Later that day we drove back up to Denver to help take Josh's family to the airport. We stopped at a restaurant called Craves that has become Josh & Jill's favorite place to eat. It was very delicious hamburgers & we had a ball watching a guy make beautiful shakes. Seriously, they were works of art the way he presented them & they looked yummy!! We were too stuffed to try one. After we dropped off Josh's family we said bye to everyone. Even Josh, Jill & Elliot. We then headed to a hotel for the night in Denver. There was an amazing rainbow in the sky as we pulled into our hotel. The best picture of the trip came from this evening....
We were laughing at ourselves! All of us snuggled in a bed with our snacks. {Don't worry - there was 2 beds.} The next day we went to the movies & saw Salt. Then it was time to head to the airport & head home. It was such a fun trip & I loved being able to have a little trip with my parents by myself. Not to mention getting a chance to spend some time with Elliot, Jill & Josh. It was a great weekend. And I need to give my Dad & Mignon a HUGE thank you again for the funnest trip!! I love you guys!

VEGAS BABY!

After leaving St. George we headed to Vegas for a night to see some of our old friends. There are days when we REALLY miss Vegas. We miss our friends their dearly! We met my friend Jessica at Fashion Show Mall for lunch. We got their a little early & walked around. We went into the Vans store & they have a loft that has some Vans memorabilia. Kylie had to have her pic taken by the No Doubt Vans. She thought that was the coolest!

After lunch we went back to Jessica's to hang out & visit for a bit. Jessica has a daughter the same age as Kylie & they have been best friends since they were 6 months old. Kylie still considers Ana her best friend ever!


Jessica & I...

The best part about this photo is the New Kids buttons in the background. They are so Jessica! She was even published in a Teen Beat type magazine as a young teenager talking about how much she loved them. So classic!! {Don't kill me for writing that Jess - it's one of my favorite stories ever! ;)}

CONCERT ROCK

Another thing that has now become tradition while at my Mom's is going to Concert Rock. Just a rock formation the girls found down the road that fit their description of a performing stage perfectly. They usually spend a whole day planning out the event. Complete with invitations, programs & awards. Everyone has to perform some sort of "talent". Then, they judge on who has the best one.

Performances this year included....

**GRAMMY reciting the Young Woman's theme
**ERIK demonstrating some Chuck Norris moves on Kylie
**KYLIE performing on the saxazoo {a kuzoo that looks like a saxaphone she got in a kids meal} and...
**JADYN stealing the show with her silly jokes - ending with a choice karate chop that had us all in stitches!

I can't remember what I did, but that's probably a good thing!

On this trip we did a lot of driving. The saxazoo was a major annoyer in the car! Jadyn got her Groucho Marx glasses in her kids meal with some jokes on a card. She could deliver them well. We had a lot of fun trying on the glasses for some silly pictures.

Other random road trip pics included...

**A cloud that looked like a leaping elephant
**Erik's favorite MPH sign that shows 80 MPH
**A real sign that took a genius to order & an even smarter person to actually print it that way!

TARZAN

After being in Northern Utah we headed back down to my mom's outside of St. George. We were able to take the girls to Tuacahn again & it did not disappoint, as usual! This is one of our favorite things to do. If you ever have the chance to go - I highly recommend it! This year they had the rights to Disney's Tarzan & it was amazing. The girls loved every minute of it & they both said it was their favorite we've seen so far.

KHALA - Tarzan's "Mom"

TURK - Tarzan's best friend

TARZAN & JANE

I'm so sick that this picture is blurry! This same thing happened when Kylie had her picture take with Belle after Beauty & the Beast in this same spot. UGH!! Oh well - you get the gist of it.

The staging was tremendous. Turk stole the show - he was hilarious! They had monkeys swinging above the audience & all over the stage. Very entertaining! Loving Tuacahn so much may also have something to do with the frozen lemonades & the caramel nuggets. We look forward to those every year as well!

CACHE VALLEY CONT'D

We've been without internet for awhile & now we're back in business!! Now I can continue where I left off on our Utah jaunt over the summer. You know you're excited! ;) I forgot a couple of pics from my Cache Valley post, so here they are.

In the spirit of wanting/NEEDING certain things. {Primarily amazing chandeliers.} Here's another thing I want/NEED. This was directly in front of the opening gates of the Logan Temple. This house had the most amazing looking fence. Simple, yet it looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland. I loved it!!

Then, there was this lovely shot I took while driving out of the valley. We got hit with a storm & it was gorgeous!

Lastly, is my favorite pic of the day of my girls. Again, I wish I would have known that the Logan Temple was going to be a photo shoot worthy place. Maybe next year!

GRANDDAD & WALLIS'

This is my Granddad Carroll...

As I've said before he is an amazing man!! He can tell the most interesting, crazy stories. I could sit & listen to him all day. I always tell myself that I'm going to tape record him next time I'm there & I always forget. It makes me so mad! He has amazing stories of living in Japan, visiting China & Thailand, and sooo many more!

One story I do remember this time is one about Henry B. Eyring's dad. There's a book about him called The Mormon Scientist. It's my Granddad's favorite book. Eyring was his Professor in college & he worked closely with him his last two years of college. In fact, I finally asked what my Granddad's degree is actually in this time & it was in Physical Science. (The science of theories he said.) Eyring told my Granddad the following story....

He was at a conference of some sort with 15 of the most revered scientists. One of which was Albert Einstein. When they came out for a lunch break Eyring was approached by a reporter & asked if he believed in God. He quickly replied YES. The reporter was confused how a scientist could believe in God. The reporter asked if any of the other scientists believed in a higher being of some kind & Eyring replied, "I don't know, but I'll ask."

When he returned back into the room he asked the scientists if they believed in a God of some kind. Every single one of those highly decorated scientists believed in one. How about that? So much for scientists not being allowed to believe in God. I loved that story - so interesting to me! Even Einstein!

Everytime we go to his home we have a blast playing in his beautiful yard. The girls live to have tea parties in the front yard. They said it reminded them of something out of the new Alice in Wonderland this time. We had a fun game of hide n' seek & the girls had a blast watching their dad do cartwheels in the backyard! Yah - that was classic!!

Our friends the Wallis' live about 5 minutes from my Granddad. We always try to get together with them while we're here. We went to Kneader's for dinner & had fun hanging out in their front yard. We joked with the cars passing by that we were waiting for a parade to come through with our line of chairs. A couple of their neighbors even came back by & threw candy at us. It was histerical! {Their oldest was at Scout Camp, so we missed seeing Christian.}

CACHE VALLEY

The day after Josh & Sarah's wedding we drove out to Cache Valley. Erik & I have been getting into the whole family history thing & Erik was excited to check some things out in this area. His Dad's Great Grandpa (Headstone photo in the middle) was baptised in England & moved his family to the states. They ended out coming out West & were one of 7 families to settle Wellsville, Utah. He ran a freighting company out of Wellsville that included bringing people out West. The cemetery there has a lot of Erik's relatives - including his Grandpa.

After the cemetery we drove out to Logan. We looked all over for the house that Erik's mom grew up in to find out that it has been torn down. :( We took the girls to the Logan Temple & if I would have known it would be the best place EVER to take awesome photos I would have been better prepared on wardrobe. Oh well! It was still a lot of fun to take pictures. In fact, Kylie took the kissy photo of Erik & I. She told us she was going to have to take the photo with her eyes closed. After she took it she said, "That was wrong on sooo many levels!" Erik & I were dying! She's hilarious!

Now here's some details of the Logan Temple. Again, for a project I hope to get to some day! Like the chandalier in the last post - I NEED the lamppost in the bottom right photo! :)

UTAH....again

We ended up making two trips to Utah this summer. Long story short - we just did. On our second trip we went all the way up North. And I mean all the way, but more on that later. First, we headed to the Salt Lake area. Erik's cousin was married in the Salt Lake temple on Tuesday June 29th & they were gracious enough to invite to all the festivities.

We stayed at my Granddad Carroll's house. (He's one of the coolest men alive! He's always so welcoming to us.) Check out the bedhead on Kylie...

After getting ready it was off to the temple. We arrived early & were able to do a quick tour of the Convention Center. At least up to the roof which is our favorite part! Erik's younger cousin Nate watched the girls so that we could go into the sealing. Which, of course, was awesome! I am a horrible photographer though because I only got one photo of the couple & it's from far away when they first walked out. Shame on me! (Forget the typo on the date. I'm too lazy to fix it since I JUST noticed it!)

Here's some random close-ups of the temple. It's for a project I have in mind, but we'll see if I ever get to it. I still like to look at them. Also, maybe this is common knowledge & we all know I'm not the brightest. But, did you know that the big dipper is on the Salt Lake temple. That was news to me this trip.

After the luncheon we had some time to kill. Erik's Aunt Louise & Uncle Ron were so kind & bought us dessert at the Garden Room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Because of timing we were starving & it was hot outside, so that was wonderful! Then, we headed to the luncheon just down a few floors. It was a great luncheon with food & entertainment! Then, it was time to go & I found this AMAZING room as we were walking out of the building. The picture does not do it justice! Especially since it's dark & blurry, but you get the idea.

I want... no, I NEED that chandelier!! Remember that for Christmas everyone!

ZIONS

For this trip to St. George we were trying to think of something different to do. Since we generally enjoy hiking together Erik thought it would be fun to go to Zion's this year. Only thing was that he wanted to go with Rennie & the kids since she knows that place REALLY well. Luckily, it all worked out & we had a blast!

We ate lunch at a nearby park area before heading into Zion's. I love the picture of the kids hand in hand as we walk into the park! Not to mention the group picture of the kids & Creed's grump face! I love that kid!!

This is probably my favorite picture of the day because if you look at the bottom left corner you will see Creed on the ground. Not sure why, but this was hilarious to me when I found it!

You'll notice in this picture at the bottom is a picture of Rennie jumping a little stream with Memphis in tow. She was nuts & making me nervous. If you blow it up & look close - Memphis looks nervous, too. And then Carter's face in the photo with all the kids & their sticks is classic, too! He looks like he's about to karate chop everyone with his stick!

After all of our hiking we got some ice cream & it was delish. Thanks again Ren for the fun day!!

HIKING

As I've mentioned numerous times before - one of our favorite things to do while visiting my Mom & Alan is to go hiking in their backyard. This time we took Nui & found out that he is a bit of a wimp! Every time he found any piece of shade he would automatically lay down. Even while we were still walking. We ended up carrying him half the way because he was just too tired. Good thing he's little!



When we got back to the house he went straight for a bed & was down for the count!

CAMPING

On Thursday the 27th of May the girls got out of school for the summer! The next day, Friday, was Jadyn's party with her friends. Then, as we cleared out our house of her friends we left to go camping with the Linford's! Erik was beyond excited to go camping again. The girls were, too. I was a little apprehensive since the last time we went, in September, I froze to death. But, it should be warmer now, right? It was & we had a blast!

Erik brought his grate to cook his bratwurst & canned chili over the fire. I know - disgusting, but whatever! He was a happy man. The girls dug a little cave with Carson & Jace. Even though the boys had it already carved out from their father-n-son's outing the week before in the same spot. My girls thought they were cool though & they were pretty dirty. Much to my dismay!

We had fun listening to Darrin tell cop stories & the kids had fun playing catch & "baseball" Saturday morning. Kylie even showed off her mad camera skills when I found some pretty decent pictures of the kids in our tent that I didn't know about. Apparently, she even knows how to use the timer on my camera. Huh - who knew?

We even had some choice neighbors that decided to blare country music from their cars in the wee hours of the night for hours & talk REALLY loud. Erik, Chad & Darrin had a lot of fun setting off their car horns for a LONG time - over & over - to make them made in the morning. I was waiting for them to come attack us, but they really did deserve it!

Thanks again Chad & Shelley for inviting us to tag along! We had a lot of fun!!