It's What We Do.

Sunday, June 30, 2024

So Cal Retreat

Our little trip to Southern California turn into a 5 day vacation. We stopped by Tanya's house to lend her some blow up matresses for people coming to town. On Sunday, Joe and Emmy flew in from Utah and stayed with us in Manhatten Beach. We prepped El Pollo Loco for us and them and had a great time there. The area was surprisingly cute and nice! We walked the pier and saw all the shops and beautiful houses. Hermosa Beach was nice for a sunset walk as well. We visited Whiitter and had brunch at the orgoinal 1970's Lascari's. It was super yummy and Joe's order of calzonne was the yummiest plate there! We made out way down to Carlsbad to meet Tanya, Maddie and Addison by way of Laguna Beach and Dana Point. We had fun eating dinner with the group and seeing a gorgeous sunset. Tanya picked up Kieran earlier than 10pm which made it easier for all of us. On Monday, the group went to Disneyland. It was beautiful and hot and we did everything we wanted there. We even finally got into Rise of the Resistance and it was worth it. I was tired after walking 13 miles. I was in the park for 13 hours and saw 13 Disney characters. We made the best of it and had yummy slushes, Pretzels, a churro with marion berry jam to dip. We rode on all three mountains that were able to go on four boat rides and saw Fantasmic. Wonderful memories for sure. The last day Celia and I saw Newport and Brian joined with us and we went to Whitter, shopped and ate out at Taco Nazo that was so good and saw the sunset at Hunington beach and I loved it. It is so relaxing and the beach makes me happy. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to see our kids from Utah and enjoy family time.

Monday, June 17, 2024

Midway through the year already

June came so fast! We have been fixing things up around the house. I fixed a van blinker and Brian and I fixed a electrical panel and a GFI. We felt like quite the team youtubing how to be electricians and doing it ourselves. Bri replaced a toilet seat and cleaned the grill out from it last time we grilled, there was a fire in there and it neeeded it. So much steak is cooked on there. Our little pool filter is working well. We have fruit ripening liek crazy and the branches of he trees are leaning, but we are picking and trimming it as fast as we can. I hosted Father's day here. I was nice to get thogether again and have a meal. Celia, Bri, and I went and saw The Avett Brothers in concert at the same venue that Celia graduated in last month, It was a great concert and they sounded so good! I enjoyed the inside venue with seats and I'm glad we could have Brian's bands get into the line up of concerts!

Friday, May 31, 2024

End of school year finish line

It has been fun doing all the extra curricular activities with Celia near the end of school. celia kicked it into gear going to seminary and reading for attendance. She went to the temple with the ward andparticipated a lot! The grandparents came with us to Sea Quest and had a great time. Grandma didn't even like the snake stuffed andimals and I enjoyed feeding tortoiuse. Celia got a popsicle and fed the rays. They don't have teeth, but were aggresive getting that shrimp popsicle away from her! Celia finished well and got to go to senior activities and Prom with old friends. It was fun having all the kids from Utah come and celebrate Celia. Both sets of grandparents made it to the graduation ceremony and we had a grand time. We all went to Santa cruz, Salinas,and Monterey. It was beautiful and fun filled visit. Emmy went to a wedding of her friend's and had a lot of leftover food, so that was fun to try and finish while living out of a hotel. We made it to church and 17 mile drive and there were sooo many people visiting for Memmorial Day weekend, that we saw a lot of the sites from inside the van. It was still fun and a great time together. Mother's day was fun celebrating at my house. I'm glad we had so much time with the kids before they took off again. Can't wait to get together again in the end of June!

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

April in Utah

I spent many days in April In Utah. I love that our little family went to Visit Joseph for his birthday. We drove through the night which helped curb some winter weather, but we proved that we were young again and can have fun on only a few hours of sleep. Joe got a phone for his birthday and I loved seeing how excited he was about as it was a surprise to go and pick one out. I was surprised there was $200 difference between the two t-mobile stores for the same phone, but we weren't complaining. The kids and I went to a store nearby to check on getting a case and it snowed on us. I haven't had that experience in quite sometime, so it was a little magical. Cold, but magical. We had a great evening and enjoyed soo much brazillian BBQ and met up with Maddie and Kieran. They came back to the house and we played games toegther late into the night. It was greeat family time and we were making wonderful memories. Well, just a couple weeks later Celia and I were back in Utah with my sister and folks. We got to go to a wedding, see Kieran in concert, have more game nights and shoppoing fun. The weather was wild again and I did get hailed on going into Target, but over all spending time together was amazing. It is hard that half of my kids live so far away, but visiting them and them visiting us makes it all worth it. Celia had a great 18th birthday party at home then got to celebrate with everyone in Utah as well. Emmy decorated a Hello Kitty cake that turned out so good! They all know and love Celia so much, it makes me happy!