Everyone needs a friend like this.

Over 6 years ago, I met a woman who was so easy to talk to. She was thoughtful, caring and we seemed have the same values. She still is all those things, but she doesn't live just a couple streets away anymore. I know that shouldn't put a damper on friendship, but we kinda lost touch after she moved to the other side of town (almost to CA(J.K.)). Well, I found her on Facebook recently and we finally got together for lunch and some serious chat time.

I just love the kind of friends that you can just pick up where you left off. We caught up on kids and husbands, jobs and interests, concerns and hopes. It's just great to know someone that awesome. Man, I really am spoiled!



Thanks Jami, for an incredible time. And almost 5 hours was still not enough!

We're all related.

While driving, my son and I were talking about different things when he tells me of a conversation between him and his best friend.

Friend: You know that we're all related to each other, right?

Hayden: Of course, ...because of Adam and Eve, ...duh!

Too funny!

Part 4: Utah

After a pretty good night's sleep, we packed up the van and left the hotel to head to Utah. Another six hours in the van was starting to wear on all of us, but we made it, just barely. John arrived to let us all know that his ear has been hurting for some time. He went to an urgent care and sure enough...swimmer's ear! We're all glad he got it taken care of pretty quickly though.

We relaxed with family that Thursday and just visited.

We got up early the next morning to head out to West Jordan, UT for the second to the last day of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was so awesome! We did our best to try to explain to the kids what they would see and the importance of it, I hope some of it sank in! It really is a beautiful temple. The celestial room was especially bright with the morning sun coming in! At the end we got to sit in one of the sealing rooms and just take it all in. The irony is that some great friends will be getting sealed there next month. Cool, huh?

Once again, we forgot the camera during the tour, but we drove up next to it after we were done.

We came home, played games with John's parents, brother and sister-in-law and the kids played with their cousins.

Then, John and I got ready to go to his 20-year High school reunion. We rode with John's good friend, Chris and his fiance, Janelle (the ones getting sealed next month), to the reunion. It was held in Salt Lake at the Grand America. All-in-all, it was pretty darn fun. Easy for me to say, though since I wasn't the one seeing people I haven't seen for 20 years. I knew a handful of people that John has kept in contact with, so I didn't feel left out. It seemed to go on for quite a while since we didn't leave until about 12:30 in the morning. Lots of people did some catching up and reminiscing.

Here's a capture of some of his graduating class of '89 from Alta High. John's up near the top row with his friend, Chris to the left.

They played some games, relived some good and bad, laughed at old photos, and had some pretty good food.

Saturday was much relaxed with family; another of John's brothers, Trevor and his new wife, Kayla drove up from Orem to spend the day.

Check out the kids getting into the tickle tackle with Trevor!

We drove over to an aquarium nearby and saw lots of cool things with all the kids. An octopus, a couple different kinds of sharks, got to pet some rays, and see some big tarantula.

Sidney got up close and personal with the rays.

We headed back home for games and then a barbeque. Some more games out on the lawn. We all tried to show our best bocce ball game.

I thought this was a nice capture of our bocce ball game, mid-throw and everything. Here they are from L-R; Brittany holding Xander, John's dad, Allen, Ryan's in mid-throw, John's mom, Pat, John, and then Trevor.

The cousins had fun watching videos and playing with each other. It's nice they can be instant friends when they are together.

The next day was Sunday, so we went to church, had a nice dinner and visited and played more games with the family. It's really nice to have these times together, they are some of my very favorite.

Later that night we headed south to Lindon, UT for a mini-reunion of sorts. Some people that John grew up with in high-school that really were a tight-knit group and they all just seemed to fall right back into step with each other. Four girls and 3 boys that some had crushes on and some didn't, but they all just were a great group of friends. John had brought a video that they made while they were extremely bored one late evening in high-school and it was a riot watching with them to see the old styles and how much they have or haven't changed. The evening was a blast! Most everyone was able to bring their spouse (or future spouse) and their children, so that everyone could meet and get acquainted. Then each person took a turn catching everbody up to date of what they had been up to since graduating. The kids seemed to have fun, and I know the adults had a blast recalling funny moments and teasing each other. It was great!

Here's the crew: Marcia, Stanton, Chris, John, Kristin, then in the front, Leanna, and Stacey. They are a pretty unique bunch!

Ok, we are nearing the end...hang in there!

Monday...we went to .....Lagoon! The kids almost didn't earn the trip, but they squeaked by and got to go at the last minute. It was very hot, but pretty fun.

There was a new ride added 2 years ago called Wicked and so we got on pretty soon after we arrived. At first, Hayden said he didn't like it, but after 2 more times and some distance, he liked it well enough

We are far away, but here we are just before getting on Wicked.

Here are Hayden and Sidney on the Dinosaur Drop.

Then John and Sidney are on the Rocket Blast Off......they both seemed to like it...afterward.

Probably because it was hot, but that seemed like the longest day on the trip up to that point. Little did I realized that 11 hours in the van the next to drive home would seem longer, much longer.

We traveled many miles, we saw many people and visited some very fun places and got to each some great food. That seems to be a pretty good vacation.

Christmas at Disneyland

If you love Christmas time and you love Disneyland you should really go to Disneyland during the Christmas season. It truly is magical. The lights, the music, all the decorations...it's just, well, the "merriest" place on earth.

Alright, so some great friends were going to be our guides at Disneyland because John and I haven't been in quite some time and this was the first time for our kids.

So, here's the typical entrance photo with all of us!

We all thought it would be a great idea to start with some easy rides to ease into the fun. That plan did not turn out so well with Hayden...he doesn't like rides that are in the dark and have loud noises coming at him, like Pinocchio, Toad's Adventure, Toontown.Can you see how Hayden has buried his face right into John and he's got his eyes closed tight and plugging his ears with his finger...crazy kid.

We thought that Hayden was really going to have a hard time spending 3 days at Disneyland if he didn't even look at any of the rides, until...we noticed that if the ride was outside, he was just fine.

He didn't seem to mind spinning us dizzy on the teacups!

So how did he do on the faster more exciting rides, you ask? Pretty darn good. We couldn't get him to open his eyes during the Space Mountain ride, but he loved that it went fast and he loved the music in it.

Here we're getting ready to go on Space Mountain. Hayden hasn't closed his eyes just yet.

The first day went great except for John's tired feet. We all loved the fireworks and the snow at the end of the show.

The second started off fabulously since we seemed to be the first ones on every ride for almost 2 hours. We hardly waited longer than a minute at most of the rides. Then once California Adventure opened up we headed over to hit all the fun rides there. Can I just say that I love quite a few rides there...a lot! When Sidney was 2 she fell in love with Monsters, Inc and so did I. To see a ride come to life in person was incredible.

Here she is standing in front of "Boo's" door at the entrance to the ride.

We had to try "Tower of Terror". We told Hayden and Sidney that they had to go on every ride at least once and if they didn't like it then they didn't have to ride it again. So everybody went on this first ride.

Here's the proof...if you look in the upper left corner you might be able to see Hayden clinging to my side. He DID NOT like the Tower of Terror, so he did not ride it again. BUT, on the other hand, my sweet daughter (whom I thought would be terrified) absolutely LOVED this ride. There were six of us that got right back in line to do it again.

We made our way around the park, got wet on Grizzly Rapids, and finally found the big roller coaster...California Screamin'. So, who do you think liked this ride? All of us except for our friends' youngest, and he actually never rode it. (We think he would have liked it if he actually would have ridden it.) The top of the list of favorite rides is Screamin'!!

Hayden is even smilin' in this picture! (Yes, we did take a picture of the display pictures when you get off the ride. I know...we're cheap!).

On the last day we again had few lines on the rides, mostly because of the rain or threat of rain that kept people away. We enjoyed repeating all our favorites. The highlight of the morning was the Jedi Training Academy. My kids are HUGE Star Wars fans and we knew that they would be picking kids from the audience to go up and be participants in the show. We got SO lucky!! Our friends son was the first to be chosen, then Sidney got picked 3rd. We were happy with that and since Hayden is our lucky one ...he got chosen as well! They put a Jedi robe over their clothes and then gave them a lightsaber. They teach them certain choreographed movements all together. THEN,... Storm Troopers and Darth Vader and Darth Maul show up! Each of the kids get to duel with either Darth Vader or Darth Maul. Sidney got to go up against Darth Maul. She was supposed to stay on her circle mat and go through her choreographed movement, but she came to take out Darth Maul and she went after him with her lightsaber! (You, go girl!!!!)

Then it came Hayden's turn to battle Darth Vader. He was up on the stage so we could seem him a little better. He did so awesome with his choreographed moves. Then, the host guy told Hayden he needed his help with the storm troopers. He asked Hayden to use his Jedi mind force and push them back with his hands. He pushed them back and it was so awesome!! He was the ONLY kid in that show that got to do that, we were so thrilled. It truly was the best part of that day for him. He beamed for quite some time after that! We even loved the pictures that the park took and bought them because we really wanted the kids to remember that event.

We got our fill of our favorite rides, and there were probably a few shows that we could have tried to catch and I know that there was a parade that we missed that our friend wanted to see, but we made a pretty good dent in our usable time. And we were exhausted at the end of each day to prove it.

We will definetely come back. I don't think I would have thought to go to Disneyland during Christmas time, but it was so neat. And the weather was really mild (I think we really lucked out!). So...who's coming with us to Disneyland, say in, 2 years maybe?

A Camping we did go..

So, camping is not a past-time yet in our household. We have been as a family a total of 2 times, including our trip this last weekend. Our great friends invited us to come join in their fun on the Rim. We agreed. We brought all the right camping gear and enough food to last a few more days longer. The first days weather could not have been better. Warm and sunny and cool at night once the sun went down. We made the traditional tin foil dinners and smores and everyone was having a blast. We slept the first night in our tent and the wind blew and howled something fierce. John had kind of a rough night, but the rest of us slept great! (Sorry, sweetie.) Our friends have a trailer, so of course they were just fine. The wind never seemed to let up for the whole day. We were determined not to let that stop us, so we pack up some fishing gear and headed for the lake. The fishing was only slightly successful with the catch being a crawdad (sp?) and a small trout. The kids rode bikes, played sardines (backwards hide & seek), and even shot a BB gun. Once the sun set on our second night, we scrambled for the indoors of the trailer. We enjoyed some fantastic food, some great games and then we manuevered the sleeping arrangements to fit our family of 4 into our friend's trailer. We are so grateful for the toasty night's sleep because it was around 19 degrees in the morning! Anyhow, fun was had by all and we might even consider going again!

First Day of School

The first day of school brings back memories of anxiety and nerves. I feel them for my children today. Here it is, not even the middle of August and I'm sending my children off to learn from someone else. I like their school. We've been lucky that, so far, their teachers have been good, some great. Hayden was fortunate this year to get the same teacher Sidney had when she was in 1st grade. I am ecstatic! Sidney's teacher seems very sweet and very interested in the kids. Cross our fingers that Sidney ends up liking her.


We have to have the traditional first day photos.


Does Sidney like pink, or what?


What? No bright yellow or camo for Hayden?


My cutie pie taking a self portrait on the ride to school.


Here they are, heading for their classes...now the rest of the year will jump to light speed right in front of my eyes. Hold on tight!

This first day was not as bitter as last year. We've gone through the motions before. Sidney was more than happy to start school again. I think Hayden may take a few days of convincing, we'll have to wait and see. For me, my list of things to get done is not that long, but then again I haven't finished completing the list. I do, however, have a stack of books that is calling my name and they are calling much louder than the TO Do List. I don't think I'll be too crushed that my kids are gone for the first little while. Besides, they get to reconnect with friends and play on the playground and check out stuff at the library and... Yeah, I'm pretty sure they won't miss me either.