Final Day in CA- Justin Carson and Pacific Park

On our final full day in CA, we drove over to Dave's cousin Justin Carson's home in North Hollywood. It is the home where Barbara grew up as a child too. We spent a good hour there. The kids played great and it was fun to catch up with hi and his sweet kids.
In front of Grandma Barbie's former house!
While Dave went golfing with John Heath, the kids and I went to Pacific Park with cousin Jeana and her children. There were massive, mature trees for the kids to climb and they LOVE it! Here are some of my favorite shots!




We heard music and a truck pulled up! Ice Cream! This was a new experience for my kids and they loved it! Thanks, cousin Jeana, for the treats!
Alyssa had her 1st swing experience and loved it. She laughed and laughed! What a sweetie!

Alas, the end of our trip came! Dave was dead set on making it home in 12 hours so we were only allowed out of the van for potty runs. We even had to eat our "picnic" in the van in Cedar City!!!!! Anyway, we all arrived home...in 11 hours...and sick with colds. Thanks to Grandma Barbie for bringing us yummy chicken and potato soup and to Cheri for bringing us dinner on Sunday. I was so sick!

Viva Las Vegas, Baby!

Vegas----what a trip! Anyway you skin the cat, Vegas is just plain unpredictable! We began our journey to CA by spending 3 days with my brother, Brandon and his wife, Charlotte and their adorable daughters, Sydney and Sadie. Swimming, 3D movie, M&M Land, Casino fun and some good eats were some of our favorite memories. I love this picture of my hubby and kids!

Have you ever seen such chunky thighs look so great in a swimming suit?

Throwing Jaxson up so high! What a thrill!

Taylor felt like she was flying!

An hour of swimming even wore out the chunky monkey....

What a great time we all had!

Our family on the strip---not the most family-friendly environment but some fun things to see

M&M Land with the kids

Here are the kids picking out their M&Ms just before Dave saw how much they were going to cost per pound ($14.00) so they made them set down their treats and told them to grab $.50 packages. Even Charlotte commented how well-behaved they were about the disappointment in the store!

Here we are in the botanical gardens

Pretty as the flowers!

Taylor LOVED this place. The flowers smelled divine!

Sadie and Sydney- our sweet little girls!

Brothers and best friends in front of the flower frog

Tae Bug in front of the Lady Bug!

Coolest snail I've seen!

We had an awesome time on our stop in Vegas. Now off to California!

Chalk Drawings on the Driveway

I love it when my kids are creative! The other day, they rushed in to tell me about their drawings all over the driveway! When I saw what they had done, I laughed and laughed! So they decided to trace me----here is what they got!

Taylor drawing Austin. Too much fun!

July 4th, 2009

I have always loved the 4th of July for many reasons: great party for America, fireworks, great food, being with family or friends! As I've become older, I see it as all those things except that they are secondary to the fact that I can do all of those things because of the blessed land we live in! Therefore, I find myself pondering and giving prayers of thanks for the many, many individuals who have sacrificed so much for my freedoms and those of my children. I'm so grateful to them and their families for this precious gift!

My ward has a tradition of holding a pancake breakfast at 8:00am on the morning of July 4th. This year, they chose to have a kids parade where the kids threw the candy to the parents! Needless to say, the least amount of candy in the history of the ward was actually thrown but the kids had a ball! Here are some of our memories!

Dave and his parents (hopefully they will continue to join us in this tradition!)

Jaxson was ready for the parade!

Taylor and Austin in the "jeep car." Does anybody notice the nice neighbor pushing it? We forgot to charge the battery the night before and the jeep car hardly had any power! It has a hoot! Also, notice the decorating job done by my children! Our vehicle was the most poorly decorated yet the cutest since it was obvious our children did it without me!

Austin's best buddy, Parker!

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Lindsays for a family celebration. The food was yummy as always!

Grandma Barbie always makes the most fun cupcakes for the kids!

Poppie and his girl relaxing in the backyard

Grandma Barbie bought these balls for the kids to play with. The boys loved putting them in a basket and dumping them on other people's heads!

Sneaking up on Dave, who is obviously anticipating the big dump!

Dave and Jaxson, ready to retrieve a ball thrown over the fence on the neighbor's yard!

Here is a picture of my fruit pizza! Fun and Yum!