Catchin' up

I am completely distraught about the fact that I've missed nearly six months of blogging.  There's no way I can go back and catch up, but for some reason I can't bring myself to start blogging again until I at least make an effort to record some of our adventures.  I decided to make a collage for each month that I've missed, write a few highlights, and call it good.

And then, I have set a resolution to do better. 

And with that, here is what the rest of our vacation looked like:

California Adventures, my brother's graduation from USC, Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, never-ending laundry, and last day of school water fight fun.

Chillaxin' at the Beach!

Oh, how I love the ocean!

On Tuesday, we spent the day relaxing at the beach house.

Well, the women and kids played at the beach.  The men went deep sea fishing.

My brother caught this scary lookin' fish.

I wasn't feeling well, thanks to one of my "gallbladderless attacks", so it was the 

perfect day to take it easy.

After the men returned from their fishing excursion, the whole family went to 

Ruby's Diner, on the pier, for "Linner". 

Watching for Dolphins

At sunset, we had family pictures taken on the beach.  I haven't gotten copies yet, but 

you can see we had a beautiful setting!

I realized through looking at the pictures how much my Dillon loves the beach!

It's been a couple weeks, but I should probably go check his ears for sand :o)

Disneyland!

On Monday morning, we were up bright and early and made it to Disneyland before they opened.

Ah, Disneyland.  We've missed you.

 Meeting Mickey.  

We're missing a few in this picture...some of us are afraid of mice, I guess.

We learned in a Disney trivia book that the lavender teacup spins the fastest,

so of course my boys, their cousin Sam, and Uncle Jon had to test it.

 Well, most most of my boys.  Dillon was perfectly happy in the orange teacup.

Justin loved meeting the characters this year, and gave Tigger a high five.

 Caleb and his cousin Josh were chosen to fight Darth Maul at the Jedi training academy.  His cousins Sam and Jacob got to fight Darth Vader. It was fun to have four different Padowans to cheer for.

Splash Mountain is still my favorite ride. Between these three pictures, you can find all of the original six.  Mom, Dad, Me, Tyler, Ben, and Charlotte.

 After playing hard all day, we went to the Downtown Disney District for dinner at Tortilla Jo's.  All the kids got balloons from a balloon artist.

 Brayden got this monkey in a banana tree, and my niece Alivia got Ariel!  Who woulda thunk you could make a mermaid out of balloons?

A huge thanks to Uncle Ben for collecting our tickets and running around to get fast passes throughout the day.  Because of him, we were able to do as much in one day as we got done in two days last summer.

California, here we come!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged!  Perhaps someday I'll go back and fill in the past two months, but if I don't post about this trip soon, I know I'll never catch up.

Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to spend a week in California with my entire family. We celebrated Mother's Day, my brother Ben's graduation, and my Dad's birthday while we were there. My dad rented us a house on Newport Beach and, despite the fact that we had 21 people sharing 2 bathrooms, it was an amazing time!

Here we are, acclimating and entering the wifi password into our devices.  First things first, you know.

We stayed in the beach house with the red umbrella.  Notice all the windows.  I absolutely LOVED waking up and opening those blinds every morning to watch the ocean waves while I had breakfast.

 The view from the back patio.  We were literally ON the beach.  The kids and their cousins were in heaven. The day we arrived (Saturday) was very crowded with people playing volleyball, surfers, and sailboats.  Every day for the rest of the week looked like this:

 I've had to vacuum sand out of my washing machine twice, but it was totally worth it. I love the ocean.

"Help, Mom! Quicksand!"

On Sunday morning we got up early and went to church in Ben and Carrie's ward. Not sure how, but amazingly we all made it to 9AM church on time.  I don't miss the California traffic.

 After a wonderful Mother's Day lunch at my brother's house, Grandpa took our boys to the Huntington Library gardens.  I'm sad that I missed this, but Todd and I weren't feeling well so we stayed behind to take a much needed nap.

Later that evening, we attended Ben's final recital at USC. The performance was wonderful, and for his encore number, he played a Mother's Day song from the Primary Songbook. What a Mother's Day gift!

Next up: Disneyland!

s"P"ring Break

Our sPring break is brought to you by the letter "P".

We had a Picnic at the Park

We Played Pickleball

(the kids took Pictures with my iPhone)

 We hit the Pool

~I don't have a Picture to Prove it, but we saw a Prophet when Elder Bednar 

walked behind our van while we were Picking up our Pizza for dinner~  

We got free Popcorn at the RV Resort Parade

After arriving in a shiny, black Honda Odyssey, the Grand Marshals sat on a leather couch under a tent.

 Grandma standing while they played "Anchors Aweigh"

The Bike Brigade

(or should I say the "trike troop"?)

What's a parade without a horse?

These water aerobics gals are wearing their suits over their clothes.  At one point during the 100 meter parade route, they got out of their golf cart, and showed us their exercise moves!

It turns out that people with gray hair throw good candy.  

Like chocolate. 

It was a very entertaining and fun parade if I do say so myself.

 I didn't get a picture, but we also Pulled a little Prank on Grandma for St. Patrick's Day.  While she was at church, we decorated her trailer with shamrocks, hearts, a rainbow wind sock, and a sign that said, "We are Lucky to have you for a Grandma!"

Today, the kids are back in school, and I am enjoying the Peace and quiet!

The beach

I don't usually go back and catch up on blog posts if I get behind, but I wanted to finish off our California vacation, since I hope to make a book someday and I know I'll go back to my blog for reference.

On our last day in CA we went to Crystal Cove (Newport Beach, I think). 

My brother and his family met up with us, so I had to get a picture...farmer tan and all.

 It had been awhile since he'd gotten a haircut, and I wanted to see who had the longest ponytail.  (I think HE won).

Todd and his siblings, aspiring to be like their mom. (I got the beach towel for free at Motherhood Maternity while I was pregnant).  My sis-in-law told me that the background scene here is painted on the walls in the Newport Beach temple.

My brothers wife tried to teach me and my sis-in-law, Becky, how to body surf.  Becky did pretty well, but I'm afraid if someone had been taping this, I'd be viral on youtube right now.  I did have fun trying, though!

I got "shat" upon.  Todd had the same thing happen to him at SeaWorld, not long after he told the boys he'd give them $10 if they got pooped on by a seagull.  I told him he didn't qualify for the $10, but changed my mind as soon as I joined the ranks :o)

Sea World

On the third day of our trip, we took a break from all things Disney and took a bus to Sea World.

This picture was taken at the end of the day.  If you look closely, you can see Dillon holding the boys' souvenir, a stuffed stingray.  

They named her Rachel (get it? Rachel Ray).

You may have noticed by now that my boys were dressed alike each day during our vacation.  

It made it easier to keep track of them, and luckily they didn't mind.  Grandma brought these shirts back from Hawaii for them.

You can't go to Sea World without seeing Shamu...

It's hard to see, but at the end of the Shamu show the large screens showed pics of the audience.  Dillon is on the top left.  That reminds me of something I forgot to mention in my Disneyland post.  In Star Tours, the ride shows a picture on the screen of someone from the audience who is the "rebel spy".  Dillon was chosen as the "rebel spy" on Star Tours.  I guess the camera loves cute little redheads...

Up close and personal with Shamu

I tried to get the whole fam to stand like a flamingo for a picture, but only my niece Sydney agreed to be a flamingo with me.  She broke her leg just a couple days after returning home from this vacation. I bet she wishes she could be a flamingo with me now!

 Here are the boys, Sydney, and Grandma watching the Sea Lion show...

It is hilarious.  This show is a "must see" if you ever go to Sea World.

Waiting in line with the fam...

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  

Crazy kiddo's wearing 3-D glasses while waiting to see the Sesame Street 4-D movie.

Touching starfish in a tide pool...

Justin got to meet his favorite furry monster...Elmo!  

Elmo and Zoe were excited that he had on an Elmo shirt that day.

Aw...loves from Elmo.

Brayden waving to me while riding Elmo's flying fish.

 I never miss a chance to get a picture of my redheads with their redheaded cousin, Amber.  

I love going places with her family because everyone thinks she belongs to me :o)