Girls Trip with Family

About a month ago, I had the chance to take a girls trip with my mom, 2 sisters, and sister-in-law.  My sister Denise did a nice blog write-up of our trip, which my other sister copied and posted on her blog to save time, and I was tempted to do the same, but decided I'd post my own thoughts on the trip.  (I did steal a lot of the pictures from her blog, though..... Thanks Denise!)

So, as I was saying, we decided to take our trip to Newport Beach.  Tammy and I flew into Ontario on Thursday, and my sister Denise picked us up.  The three of us went out and played some pool, and then decided to head over to Pinkberry.  I had heard of this yogurt shop before, and we don't have them here in Arizona, so I was excited to try it out.  I thought it was VERY yummy, and especially loved the fresh fruit on top!

After spending the night at Denise's house, we met up with my mom and sisters at the Newport Temple to do a session.  It is getting to be a kind of tradition that we go to the temple on our girl's trip, and I love it.  It's so nice being there with family I don't usually get to go with.
After the temple we headed to Pei Wei's for some lunch, and then went to the hotel to check in.  We spent a couple of hours relaxing and visiting and it was fun hanging out and talking.  (One thing girls do well is talk, right?)  Then we headed over to the Fashion Island Mall.  I had never been there before and it was HUGE!  It was fun to see all the fun shops.

It was pretty funny cuz we'd see a fun picture spot, ask some stranger to take a picture of all of us, and then throw 5 camera's in his/her face.  I'm sure they loved us.  (Towards the end, we did mellow out a little and decided to only use 2 or 3 camera's and just get the pics from one another.)  

After window shopping, we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for some dinner, then back to the hotel to sit in the jacuzzi.  

Then on Saturday we headed to one of my most favorite places in the world, the BEACH!!!!  I was so excited and it was a perfect day.  The weather was nice, the waves were good, and I caught the best boogie boarding wave of my life!  I was in heaven.  
The water was so warm.  It was nice to get in and not freeze to death.  I really could have stayed there all day.  After a couple of hours everyone else was ready to go.  I was NOT ready to go, but the majority won and we left.  Since I don't live by the beach anymore, I try and soak it up as much as I can when we go down to CA.  There is just something about laying on the beach with the sound of the waves crashing, and the sun shining, and the breeze blowing.  Someday I hope to live by the beach again!
After the beach we hit this BBQ place my sister said was yummy, and it really was.  It was kind of a hole in the wall, but the food was great!
That night we headed back over to Fashion Island and went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.  We noticed another Pinkberry Yogurt shop and my mom had never been, so we decided to go again.  (I was excited since I loved it so much!)  
The next morning, mom and Lori headed back home, and Tammy, Denise, and I headed back to Denise's house to get there for her kid's primary program at church.  After church I spent the afternoon relaxing, reading my book, and enjoying the time with my sisters.

Monday was more shopping, eating, and then flew home in the afternoon.

It was so much fun hanging with my mom and sisters.  I was so glad Lori was able to come, and hope next time we can get more of our Sister-in-laws there.  Where should we go in 2 years????

St. George Marathon

Wow, I'm really behind in blogging!  I've decided instead of trying to play catch-up, I'm going to just post the most recent, and then TRY and get back to the things I missed.  So, this past weekend I was able to run in the St. George marathon with my good friend Alice.  It was such an awesome experience and one I thought I'd NEVER want to do, but since I've been running so much this past year, I decided I'd do it.

Dave and I left the kids home with a sitter, and we got to go up together for the weekend.  It was fun having him there, and he was a great support!  
Here is Alice and I after the race.  We trained together the past 4 months, and it was so fun to run the race with her.  
I had never run with so many people.  There were 5600 people that ran, and it was such a fun atmosphere to be in!  I love this picture with all the people turning the corner.
Dave and Alice's husband Mike got on mountain bikes and met up with us along the course for the last 8 miles.  It was nice having them there cheering us on.  The last 6 miles were brutal!  My legs were so tired and sore, but it felt soooo good to run into the finish line!  It was such a sense of accomplishment.  For anyone reading this saying they could never do a marathon, that was me a year ago.  I actually never had a desire to do one, and said I never would.  I kind of put my name in the lottery secretly hoping I wouldn't get in, but once I did, I knew I had to do it.  I'm so glad I did.  Now that it's over people ask me, "So, would you do another one?"  And honestly, I thought I'd never say this either, but "Yes, I totally would!"

Lake Havasu and California Trip

Well, I'm really behind in blogging, so I'm going to try and play catch-up.  I think for tonight I will try and just blog about our California trip we took to visit my parents a few weeks ago.  We went the weekend before the 4th of July and drove to Lake Havasu to stay a few nights at Dave's parent's lake house.  We had a great time and always love spending time there with grandma and grandpa.

Dave had has surfboard with him since we were going to the beach in CA, so he decided to try and surf behind the boat.  It worked pretty well, and Dave enjoyed it.
I spent a lot of time on the Sea-Doo's driving kids around.  Usually there are lots of other people in our group with us that can help take the kids out, but this time it was just our little family with Grandma and Grandpa, so Dave and I had to do all the driving for the kids.  They loved getting lots of time on them, but after a while it got a little tiring for Dave and I.  
The kids love to knee board, but the knee board got left behind, so Dave let them use his surfboard to do it.  It worked pretty well, but took a big chunk out of the front of it from the rope.  (Luckily Dave repaired it.)  Tyler loved knee boarding.
Here are the girls chillin' on the boat.  It sure was hot there.  Good thing there was lots of water around us!!  You had to jump in the water quite often to stay cool.  (Not that you really ever felt cool.)

After the weekend, we headed to my parents house in Southern California.  We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and got to do lots of fun stuff.

Dave took the four oldest kids to a Dodger game.  They got there early for batting practice, and were able to catch 2 balls.  They were pretty excited about that.
After the game, they let the crowd go onto the field for a big fireworks show.  The kids enjoyed that!
Here they are with their balls.  Some former Dodger player signed them.  (Can't remember what his name was......)
Since one of my favorite things to do when I go visit my mom is go to Kohls shopping, Dave didn't want to just sit around the house with the kids, so he took them for a walk down to 7-11 and bought them slurpies.  They thought that was pretty cool.
I asked the girls what they wanted to do one day, and Jessica said she wanted to go down to Hollywood and see the famous "stars".  So we drove down there with my niece Amber.  We checked out all the strange people, and saw a statue of the worlds tallest man at the Guinness Book of World Records museum.  (We didn't go inside since they charge a fortune for those places!!)
It happened to be just a few days after Michael Jackson died, so we saw the stuff everyone had placed on Michael Jackson's star.  It was really crowded there, and people were taking lots of pictures.  (I used to be a HUGE fan when I was in 4th grade!)

Here we were in front of where the star was.  You can see all the people behind us lined up to see his "star".  
Then we crossed the street and ate at Baja Fresh.  While we were there, Elvis Presley and Marilynn Monroe were there eating.  (I've never seen so many hollywood impersonators as I did that day!!!)

It was fun having grandma spend the day with us!!
The day before the 4th of July we headed to the beach with my two sister's and my brother.  It was fun being there with all of them.  I especially enjoyed boogey boarding with them.  
I was such a wimp with the cold water.  I had to wear Dave's full wet suit I was so cold!  I've definitely acclimated to the hot Arizona weather.  I need my warm water!
Here I am with my 2 sisters.  I am so grateful for these 2 girls in my life!  I have the best sisters ever!
Here we all are chillin' on the beach.  One thing I miss about CA is the beach.  Good thing it's close enough we still get to go in the summers.
While we were there we got to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary.  (I think 42nd or 43rd, pretty crazy!)  We made this big fruit pizza.  It was yummy.  (Yes, I put all that fruit on there.  The blueberries were picked by us while we were there.  It was fun, but a little tedious.)  I am so grateful for my parents.  I'm who I am today because of them.  They are amazing!
Then, for the 4th of July, we headed down to the park by my parent's house for the traditional concert in the park, followed by fireworks.  The kids had a great time playing together.  
Jennaca and Kelsey......
And some of the cousins........
Dave and I.......(I was glad we took this picture.  We don't get very many of us anymore....)
And the last day we were there was a Sunday.  We had some time before church so I french braided my girls hair.  Well, all the nieces wanted it done, so I did theirs, too.  Then my sister's wanted in on the action, so I braided theirs, also.  
So, here were all the girls with their cute hair.  Too bad I couldn't do my own.  Oh, well.  Denise said she hadn't had her hair braided since high school.  It was like girls camp all over again! 

We had such a great visit with the family.  We were planning to drive back after church, but we were having so much fun and didn't want to go home, so we stayed an extra day.  Thanks mom and Dad for letting us come visit!  We always have such a great time there!

Tyler's 7th Birthday

Tyler celebrated his 7th birthday in May, and loved being the birthday boy for the day.

He started his day off opening presents.  
I can't believe how big our kids are getting.  I remember so well when Tyler was born, and how excited we were to have a boy.  And here he is turning 7 on me.  I keep telling him to stop growing but he just won't listen to me.
After opening presents, we headed over to the ice skating rink.  They were supposed to have their hockey clinic that day, but canceled it since it was a holiday weekend.  So they let all the families and friends come skate during that time, for FREE!!  So we took the family and a couple of Tyler's friends for some ice skating.
Kyle got to try it for his first time.  As long as he was holding the wall, or your hand, he was just fine.  
Since we didn't have to pay, we decided to let Kelsey try it, too.  The skates were a couple of sizes too big, but she sure loved it!  I was actually impressed with how well Kelsey did.  She thought she was so grown up out there, it was so cute.
I'm glad I thought to have this family picture taken out on the ice.  It was fun to be out there all together.  
After ice skating, I took Jessica, Ashley, Tyler, and his two friends over to the movies to see Night at the Museum 2.  It was a cute movie.  Then that evening Tyler got to go out to dinner with just his mom and dad.  (We take each of the kids out to dinner for their birthday's with just mom and dad.  They think it's pretty cool to get that one-on-one time with their parents.  Hopefully they think it's still cool as they get older......)

Tyler had a great birthday, and it was fun sharing the day with him.  Happy Birthday, Tyler.  We love you!!!

Tyler's Hockey Camp

During the month of May, we signed Tyler up for an ice hockey camp our friends told us about.  The best part was it was completely FREE!  They loaned out all the equipment, and for all the Saturdays in May they ran a clinic for the boys.  

It was quite fun to watch these boys out on the ice with all their gear on.  It was quite the production to get ready for ice hockey.  Here is Tyler with his buddies Jaden and Ben.  (Tyler is in red.)
His favorite day was the last Saturday when they set up the goals and let them have "free play".  They set out a bunch of pucks for the kids, and Tyler loved scoring goals.  (It wasn't too hard to do with all the pucks out there.)  The funny thing was he kept track of every single puck he hit into the goal.  The first thing he said when he saw me after he was done was "Mom, I scored 47 goals!!"  He was so excited.  
This kid sure loves to play.  We hope his love of sports continues, and we love to watch him try new things.  He thought the hockey was fun, but wasn't interested in pursuing it anymore.  (Good thing since I think it's a pretty expensive sport to play.)  Good job, Tyler!!

Father's and Sons Outing

Dave got to take the boys to the Father's and Son's camp out.  They of course had a great time, and were happy to have that special time with their dad.

One of their favorite things they got to do was to ride in the back of the Nelson's truck up to the water tower.
Once they got there, they were excited to go up to the top.
They thought it was pretty cool to be up so high.
These boys sure loved being together, and of course their dad loved it, too!

And while the boys were out, of course the girls had their tradition of going out to dinner together.  This year we chose Carrabbas, and it was yummy.  We finished off the night shopping, and then renting a movie.  We love this yearly tradition and can't wait to do it again next year!