FIELD HOCKEY!

 Cali is officially a Field Hockey player!

Yesterday was her first game vs. the Warbels.  She is on Madison Team B.

 She thought she would only be playing defense, but they put her in as mid field and there she is getting the ball (in the black socks)-

 Go Mustangs!

 The best part, is that Chloe is on her team!!!

YOM's Christmas Present

Nana and Papa are very difficult to shop for at Christmas time.  They have all of us make wish lists on Amazon to help them with their shopping, but they do not have wish lists of their own (we need to work on that!).  So, this year I wracked by brain trying to figure out what to get them.  Jeremy was no help (as usual...).  Papa wanted a shovel, so we got him a shovel (boring!).  But he did love it!  And I had seen that "Peter and the Starcatcher" was playing in LA.....I couldn't remember if she had read the books or not.  So, I went ahead and got us tickets.  She likes going to plays and stuff.  She hadn't read the books, so I let her borrow mine and she read them over the break.  Friday night, we hopped into the van and braved the traffic to go see the show!  I was hoping we could eat at this cool restaurant near the theater, but the traffic was so bad, that wasn't going to happen.  But we were hungry!  So, we found a place called "Ocho" in downtown LA.  Its kind of like a Chipotle...but even better and with more menu items.  It was a perfect dinner spot and left us plenty of time to make it to the theater.

Dinner at the "Ocho"!

 It took us a little bit to find the theater, but once we found it, I "magically" got us in the parking garage (I snaked a bunch of people not paying attention...) and here we are-

 It was fun and different.  Not too much like the books, but not completely off either.  It was a "flight" type of play with all the cast in every scene and props used instead of huge set pieces.  It was geared more towards an adult audience.  It took us the first act to kind of get used to how the play was being done.  But the second half was very enjoyable.  I highly recommend it!  But for a more adult audience, like 13+.  Some of the references would be missed by small children, and all the parts are played by adults.

But it was a great night.  YOM really enjoyed it and that's what was important.  She needed a fun night out this week and I'm glad we could do that for her!  Love her so much!

Goodbye Papa Moss

See this sweet man?  His name is Alvin Moss.  He is Jeremy's Grandpa and Karen's Dad.  He said goodbye to this world one week ago.  He was 89 years old.  He lived a good life and his health had been declining the last few years.  We didn't get to see him very often.  He lived in Bakersfield.  He was always so sweet and kind to me.  He had a twinkle in his eye....

Cali and Gavin are the only ones who really remember him.  And their memories are good ones!  Gav remembers going to the Barber Shop and getting haircuts together and hanging out at the apartment.  Cali remembers an easter egg hunt Nana made for them in his apartment one Easter and all his cats.  Luke kind of remembers the last time we saw him on Grandma the White's Funeral Day.

We all know he is in a wonderful place with his family, but Nana misses her daddy very much.  Can't wait to see him again.

We Love You Papa!

Our Last Disneyland Ditch Day

 Yesterday was the last official day of our Annual Passes.  We have loved using them this past year.  We have made wonderful memories.  Gavin and Brody still had school off yesterday, so I kept the other 2 "home sick" and 4 of us headed up for the last time.  Gavin chose to stay home and be lazy all day, instead of joining us (party pooper!).  We got up there and knew it was going to be crazy crowded when the parking garage was already full at 9:45 AM.  I asked the kids if they still wanted to go, even if it was soooo crowded.  Cali wasn't thrilled, but the other 2 were determined to get this last day in.  So, we headed to the "nosebleed" parking lot (Woody) and hopped on the shuttle bus to brave the crowds!

It was a beautiful day!  I love that I get to use my pass as a photopass and get the Disney photo people to take nice pictures.  And instead of buying them, I pull them up on my ipad and take a screenshot!  So here's our last group photo...

The photopass lady told us to look surprised at Luke's hands and she would put a Tinkerbell there.  Well, that didn't exactly happen....

I still love the pic anyway!

We actually got in some favorite rides before lunch at Gepetto's-

 We had to do Small World with the Holiday decorations...

 We had a little time to kill before our Star Tours Fast Passes, so we hung out a little in Toon Town-

 Then we did our last Star Tours (to Tatooine and Naboo)-

 They were not happy that this would be their last time for a while...

 But we continued to enjoy our day!  Here's me & the boys on Winnie the Pooh, while Cali rode single-rider on Splash Mtn.-

 This kid was in the best mood all day!  He loves this place as much as I do!-  (and he wore that hat all day too!)

 We did a few things over at California Adventure...

And Cali's ride on Grizzly Rapids got ended too soon (broke down), but luckily she was at the end of it.  But lucky us- we got a fast pass to use on any ride!  So, we headed back to Disneyland and used it on Haunted Mansion.  We got in a couple more rides and then watched the new Mickey and the Magic Map show.  We hopped on the train and headed back to gate to end our day.  

We love this place!  We are so grateful we were able to enjoy it so much this year!  We hope we can afford to play here again soon!

Goodbye Disneyland!

She's a Beehive

The morning after we got home from our road trip, Cali opened the front door to find this- 

She was so excited to see that her fellow Beehives were excited to welcome her to their class!  She is so excited to be in Young Womens!  I'm kind of excited (ok A LOT) to be in there with her.

Road Trip - Utah New Year!

The Day after Christmas...

We woke up, packed up, loaded up the mini-van and hit the road around 10 AM for a trip to Westminster Colorado to visit MMRAS.  Yep!  We are crazy!  But, Ryan was getting baptized and we wanted to be there, so we made it happen.  We did so much, I am going to break this post up by day.  So here goes...

Day 1:

So happy and then about 10 minutes later...

 Yep!  About an hour and a half into the trip this happened-

ouch!

 We got rear-ended in Corona.  Woopee!  Not!  Actually, we were all ok and our awesome car handled it well.  It was pretty scary and luckily we were following the car in front of us at a safe distance.  The poor girl who hit us was not so lucky.  Her car was totaled (as you can see.)  She was so shaken up.  I spent more time consoling her than my own kids.  The CHP came and told us we were very lucky and that it was a good thing our trunk was so packed.  That's what took the brunt of the impact.  

 We weren't really sure what to do next.  We had to call the Insurance Agency and report the incident.  We had to take the car to a body shop and have it looked at to make sure it was safe to drive.  It was just cosmetic damage, and will cost a bunch, but it was safe to drive.  We stopped at Carrow's in Pomona for some lunch and had a family meeting to determine whether to continue on or go home.  The vote was split 3-3.  Then, Luke decided he wanted to keep going and broke the tie!  So off to Colorado we went, but we ended up staying in St. George that night, because we were beat!

Day 2:

St. George - Westminster

We all slept so well at the Best Western Abbey Inn (highly recommend).  We woke up feeling rested and not even sore, ready for a long drive to Colorado.  Here's Jer and Brody getting pumped for the day's travel-

Yes, that's underwear on Brody's head

 We made a quick stop at the beautiful St. George temple-

 And then we made a long stop at the Castle Valley viewpoint off of the I-70.

 I just pulled off, just to check it out and we were amazed at what we saw.  We hopped out and decided to get a closer look.  I have to admit, I am not a fan of hiking this close to cliffs.  The kids got very sick of me yelling at them to be careful and not to go off by themselves.  And Jeremy just ignored me and did whatever he wanted.

 It was lots of fun and no one died (yay!)  So glad we decided to stop and play!

 Unfortunately, it got dark before we entered Colorado.  So we missed all the beauty of the mountains.  But, luckily, we got to go through a few really cool tunnels!  I kept getting in trouble for not holding my breath!  But Jeremy always made it fun by honking the whole way through (beep beep!).

We made it safely to MMRAS' around 11 PM.  What a day!

Day 3:

Ryan's Baptism Day

The kids were so excited to wake up at their cousins' house.  They played all morning and then we all got ready and headed down to the church for the big day!  We all got to participate.  I played the piano, Cali led the music, Gavin gave the talk on Baptism, Nana gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, Papa and Jeremy gave the prayers, were the witnesses and helped with the Confirmation.  It was a small, yet special occasion.  I'm so glad we got to be there.

 

 To celebrate, we went to this yummy frozen custard place...

 And my buddy Ryan and I got Hot Chocolate Floats!  They were delicious!

 The rest of the day we just played and played and played-

 And then that night, IT SNOWED!!!

 My kids were so excited to see actual snow falling.  They ran out to play!

We sent all the little people downstairs to play and watched UFC the rest of the night.  I had no desire to watch, but totally got into it!  I wanted "Cupcake" to win the chick fight, but she lost to "Rowdy".  And I got to see Anderson Silva's shin bone snap in his match against Chris Weidman (gross!!!)

Day 4:

Sunday - Snow Day!

We woke up to this-

 It was beautiful and sooooo cooooold!  

 Here's Gav attempting to scrape the stuff off the car so that we can get to church.

 We made it to church and enjoyed sacrament meeting.  Then we came home and Luke and Brody got all bundled up and headed out to play in the snow!

 After lunch, we all got bundled up and headed up to El Dorado State Park for a little hike.  Mikey said it wouldn't be that cold (yeah right!)  It was freezing!  But it was so pretty!

 Not sure if you can see, but if you look closely, you'll see three crazy boys (Jer, Gav & Papa), hiking up that rocky crevice.  I asked them not to go...but they didn't listen.  They went all the way up!  I watched nervously from the bridge the whole time, waiting for one of them to fall, get injured or die.

 Luckily, they all made it down safely.  And they were pretty proud of themselves.  I'm just glad they are all alive.  After our hike, we headed into Boulder for some Hot Cocoa, before heading back home to catch the end of the 49er game (we won, barely).  I had to watch the game updates on my phone, because Mikey doesn't have cable.  It was nerve-racking!

Day 5:

Red Day!

Michael and Jeremy declared this day-Red Day.  We all had to wear the color red and do things that involved the color red.  So, we walked down the street to Red Robin for lunch.

 We wanted to drive up to Red Rocks to go for a hike, but all the boys wanted to do was stay home and play.

 So, the girls and the grown ups, made the trek up to Red Rocks-

 It was beautiful!

 After a lovely hike, we drove up to the amphitheater to see the cool venue and the amazing view-

 We came home and ended Red Day.  We got pizza and watched "Dumb and Dumber".  It was getting late and we were leaving the next day.  But these boys wouldn't stop playing....and Brody was so sad.  He didn't want to go...

Day 6:

So Long Colorado, Hello Utah!  Happy New Years Eve!

We got up, got packed and headed out, once we told everyone goodbye.  It wasn't that long of a drive to Salt Lake.  And we decided to head down to Temple Square to check out the lights!  I am so glad we did.  It was amazing!

 We walked around until we were numb.  Then we found a yummy place for dinner (The Blue Lemon), in the City Creek mall.  It was delicious!

 We had other plans, like going to the Zoo for their New Years Eve party, or to the Salt Palace for a Jumpy Extravaganza.  But the kids were tired and just wanted to get to our next destination.  We drove to Lehi and got to stay in Harry's Man Cave at the Harris'.  The kids made themselves at home-

We just relaxed, snacked, watched movies and then changed the channel just before midnight to see the ball drop.  Happy 2014!

 We celebrated with crackers and martinelli's-

 This little one didn't make it to midnight....Happy New Year Brody!

Day 7:

Japanese New Year 

Happy New Year Brody!  This kid loved all the snow.  He spent most of the morning stomping around in it.

 New Years Day was the best!  Harry and Stella totally spoiled us! Bree and Marsh and their kids came over and we had the yummiest french toast, eggs, sausage, bacon and banana bread feast!  Doesn't Harry look cute in his apron?

 Our kids just mesh so well.  They wasted no time getting re-acquainted and playing games.

 Stella is one of my most favorite people in the whole world.  Tiff wasn't feeling well, but Cash and Colby were able to celebrate New Years Day with us too.

 We had the best time with the Harris family and are so grateful for their hospitality when our original plan didn't work out.  We will definitely have to visit them again.  We also spent the morning trying to figure out what to do next.  Jeremy and Gavin just wanted to drive straight home.  But it was New Years Day.  I wanted to enjoy it AND watch the Rose Bowl.  So, I texted my cousins to see if they were watching the game.  I invited ourselves over to Jordan's to join them and to enjoy their Japanese New Year/Rose Bowl celebration!  And I am so glad we did!  We had a blast hanging out with everyone!

Then, to top it off, Kerrisa invited us to stay the night.  So we had ourselves a cousin sleepover...THE BEST!  I love my family and am so grateful for them and that they let me impose on them (hee hee!).

Day 8:

Bonus Day!

We thought we would be home by now, but we got a Bonus Day, which meant we could go see our favorite Sister Missionary - Becky Andrus!  We got to stop by her house on our way home.  It was so weird to see her in "normal" clothes.  Her family is AWESOME!  We loved having a short visit with them and it made Cali's day to be able to see her hero!

I wish there was some way we could adopt her...or marry her into the family???  Zac?  Or even Colby?  I'm working on it!  We said Goodbye to Andrus and hopped on the freeway for the long drive home.  We made it safely home and in good time.  What an amazing trip and start to the New Year!  I can't wait to have more adventures in 2014.  2013 has shown me how blessed we are...for our family, our faith, our friends!