San Diego New Year's trip

 After Christmas, we took a little trip to San Diego. Our friend Katrell suggested we visit Coronado beach and I'm glad we did. What a beautiful place! We also went to the San Diego Zoo and then drove up to Temecula to spend New Year's Eve with Matt and Alisha's family. Happy New Year!

new years 2013

My sweet Mom bought all this fun stuff for the kids to ring in the new year. 

They made so much noise and a blast doing it :)

Sunday Sledding

We had so much fun seeing my family and hanging out. The kids had a blast sledding with their cousins. It was below zero temperatures at night and single digit temps during the day. 

We are just not used to it being that cold! 

Thank you Mom and Dad for being awesome hosts and keeping the house nice and warm for us!

And the delicious home cooked meals made with love by Mom :)

 

The Rescuers

About a month ago,"The Rescuers" came out on DVD. Aaron and I have childhood memories of that movie, especially of Medusa. She was one scary Disney character.

Watching the movie again reminded me of The Rescuers game that my cousins and I used to play at my grandparent's house. I found this on Ebay and had to get it.

I'm wondering if any of my cousins remember this game too...

2012 Summer vacation part 2

After our hike, we drove to West Jordan to spend a day there. The kids and I spent most of the day hanging out with my bf Amanda and her kids. It was great to spend time with them, wish we could have stayed longer. :( 

I think the biggest challenge of any visit to Utah is trying to find time for all the people I want to see!

 On our way up to Bear Lake for our H family reunion, we passed through Ogden where Aaron grew up. The Burger Bar in Roy is an awesome institution! It was just as delicious as I remember. The only bummer was that I ate too many onion rings and didn't save room for a shake :)

Braden is thrilled to be at the Burger Bar :)

This was our 3rd year staying at this cabin. We love this place and the view is just beautiful! No fireworks on the 4th this year because of the fires :( 

craft time with the cousins!

Lexie and Paige :) 

Paige had so much fun being silly with Lexie :)

this group of boys are all 2 years apart. They have so much fun together...

I love how blue the water is...

 Aaron was walking back to shore from the boat and doing a silly dance for the kids :)

 brothers :)

 boats are just so much fun!

 This is one of my favorite pictures!! 

 taking a hike in the rain

 When Alisha said she got some pizzas, she wasn't kidding. They were massive! 28 inches I think. She also ordered a dessert pizza called "Nude Beach". Of course the kids had fun for the rest of the reunion making jokes about eating their Nude beach pizza :)

 The kids with our New Yorkers Heidi and Steve

 Kissing?! Yuck! :)

 After our fun-filled reunion, we traveled to Vernal to see my family.

We had a family dinner and a birthday party for Paige. After spending a night and saying good-bye to our kids, we traveled back to Salt Lake to hop on a plane for our anniversary trip to NYC!!

to be continued...

2012 summer vacation part 1

The first stop on our awesome summer vacation 2012 was Moab, Utah. We drove up and met my cousin Chassie and her family. I'm so glad we were able to meet up and share this experience with them.
We have wanted to stop and explore Canyonlands National Park and Arches for years! What a gorgeous area Moab is!
These are pictures from our day at Canyonlands:

 Mesa Arch

 

 Jr. Rangers!

 baby Oliver was such a good baby!

Island in the Sky

We got up early on Sunday and headed to Arches to hike up to the delicate arch

 It was about 50 degrees and the kids were cold! :)

 

 "Kids! Smile!"

 We had to get up early so we could fit this hike into our trip. It was so worth it to see the sunrise

We loved Arches!

From Moab we traveled up to West Jordan to stay with Grams and Gramps before heading to Bear Lake for our H family reunion

to be continued...

a current fave

 I made my mom a calendar for her birthday. This was one of the layouts.

I've started a layout with all of the cousins on the H side of the family...I need to get that one finished! :)

it's August and 70 degrees in AZ!

School starts on Monday! I'm excited for a new year and getting my kids back on a schedule. I feel like I've been playing catch-up since we got back from Utah. It is 70 degrees outside this morning! I love it! We're having a Primary swim party at my house this morning and the water will be just right.
Wes and Ricci had their baby boy last Friday. Brandt Wesley was born premature at 4lbs. 7 oz. He has Gastroschsis and is in the NICU at Primary Children's. He had surgery yesterday and is doing really well. I talked to Ricci yesterday and she was so happy because she got to hold him for the first time. It made me emotional just thinking about that. I'm still waiting for some pictures and will post them as soon as I get them. I'm blessed to be the auntie to 18 nieces and nephews and I love each and everyone of them to pieces :)

Tuesday

I've been meaning to post for a while...I'm finally getting around to it!
Wes and Ricci got married on the 4th at the beach in La Jolla. It was a really nice wedding and it was great to spend time with our families. Matt and Alisha let us stay with them and so the kids got to have a sleepover with their cousins. Thanks again Matt and Alisha! We needed to get pictures in our matching shirts for Grandma so Alisha took our pictures. She does such a great job.

For some reason, I'm having trouble posting some of the pictures I took at the wedding. These are the only ones that are working.


The kids are out of school this week for Fall Break. The weather here is so nice right now. We went to the park yesterday, just trying to entertain the kids.

Hang on to your hats folks...

because this will be a long post. I took around 300 pictures. Don't worry, I won't post them all. We had a great month in Utah. We did so many fun things and got to visit lots of family and friends. I'll edit some and post them on Flickr when I get around to it.

The kids at the lake in Vernal. My brother Wes has a boat and he pulls this thing behind it. It was a blast. Good thing we were on a lake because I think I may have peed because I was laughing so hard.

This was at our Hammond party at my sis-in-law Alisha's house in West Jordan. The grandkids broke a pinata.

They are all growing up so fast! There are 18 grandkids on Aaron's side...13 boys and 5 girls. This is Paige, Whitney and Jessica

On the way home...13 hour car ride...

This is Kaia. (my cousin Jamon's little girl) I told her to give me her Cowboy princess wave...love the belt buckle. Aaron took the kids camping and my parents and I went out to SL for a family reunion. We drove out on the wrong day! So we went to Temple Square and walked around.Heston and Aaron taking a ride on Dad's tractor. Wes finally proposed to his girlfriend Ricci (hence the Hallelujah cake). They're getting married in October.Ma with the kids. I had to include a picture of Bzzy, the cat who used one of his 9 lives while we were in Vernal. Dad and Heston at the Rodeo

I could not get this kid away from the tractorPaige lost her 1st tooth This is the green dinosaur that greets you as you come into Vernal. The city has started to dress him up for all occasions (he's got his rodeo duds on) Hearing my dad go on a rant about how "the tax payers money is being spent on dressing dinosaurs" or "pretty soon that dinosaur is going to spawn little fellers" is a hoot!







My hometownPaige and Hunter (Ricci's daughter)at the rodeo. The shirts are a little cheesy but you can get away with that at the rodeo.Braden and Gavin (Ricci's son) at the rodeo. This picture cracks me up! Braden's shirt says "8 seconds to glory". I hope I haven't scarred my child. Gavin's expression is priceless. Howdy Pardner! at the Rodeo