Trip to UTAH~ Dec 2011 ~

So for My Christmas present this year i told Brent that i wanted us to go to Logan Utah and stay with my sister. After much debate he agreed. ( I'm pretty sure he just figured it was a heck of a lot easier than shopping for me..) We haven't traveled at Christmas time since Ryan was a baby, it has a gotten a little harder since having older kids. It took some swift maneuvers to get all the presents transferred with out notice from small eyes. It was worth the long drive. We had a blast and were sad to leave. I wish all my family lived closer :( Here are the highlights of our trip.

To break up our 13 hour car trip a bit we decided to stay with our good friends in Cedar City where Brent and i went to school about 8 years ago. It was a great visit. Our kids got to play together and we even got a babysitter and went to a movie. Oh and while i did hair the husbands and kids got to go quad riding. A must in Utah. Haha

 Dave, Shelley, Me and Brent

After our visit in Cedar we met my sister and her hubby and kid at the Salt Lake city temple to view its beautiful lights. I could not believe how cold it was. My face actually hurt it was so cold. After the temple we met Brent's oldest sister for hot coco and cookies. Just perfect for that cold weather. It was nice to visit with her. We hadn't seen her in a long time.

We then drove up to Logan and settled in there. Here is some of our fun adventures while in Logan..

Christmas Eve

 Josh's cousins invited us all to go horse back riding. I haven't been since our honeymoon.And the kids have never been. I was a tons of fun. Although i think we all were a little sore for the next few days

Christmas Eve Night

We did our family tradition of opening one present and its ALWAYS pj's.

I love this tradition and so do the kids.

 Putting out the reindeer food

Good Night Everyone..

 Christmas Morning

 Ryan got a RC truck just like Dads

 Lacy got barbies and a play tent

 Their own camera's so they stop using mine :)

 And finally a wii. I think we are the last people on the planet to get one.. lol

 Church on Christmas Morning

 Skyping with our missionary brother

 And of course playing in the snow

 We actually had to drive to get to the snow. In the week that we were in Utah it snowed two times and just enough to put a little powder on the ground. Luckily we only drove about 20 min. The snow was so soft. We couldn't even make a snowball but perfect to eat. Yum yum!

 And of course we had to eat some yummy Ice cream at Charlies

And that was our trip to Utah fun and memorable. 

Ryan gets older

 Ryan turned 6 on December 1st. Its crazy how time fly's and how your kids are just all of a sudden older. Ryan has been wanting a friend party forever, so we decided this was the year and STAR WARS was the fun theme. He had his friends from church come over and there was a lot of them. 10 six years olds made quite a house full. We played some fun games..

 capture the death star

Jedi training obstacle course

and best of all fighting off Darth Vader!

We then had Ryan's favorite food of all time.. Pizza

Ryan had a blast opening presents and he got so many neat things, thanks friends :)

Then best of all.. THE CAKE

My friend made this cake for Ryan. It turned out so so good. All the kids loved it.

R2D2

The party was a great success. Ryan will hopefully remember this cause its not happening again for a long time!!

Summer of 2011

                    So this summer was so much fun that i had no time at all to blog...lol! Not really, I mean it was fun and all but the blogging world just got away from me this summer and then it's really hard to catch up. So here is our summer in a nut shell :) Enjoy the story!

                     

 

Ryan finished up baseball with a bang earning the game ball. He loved baseball and cant wait to start again in the spring.

We got rid of the bunny after it took a chunk out of Ryan's eyelid. The doctors at the ER said it was a first for them seeing a kid bit in the eye lid by a bunny!

We spent lots of time in the garden and it bore beautiful fruit. Lots of tomatoes and onions. Only a few bell peppers survived, but i learned a lot. We currently are growing sunflowers for the seeds and pumpkins. Cant wait!

We spent plenty of time at the beach with a lot of people we love. Here is Ryan with the Russell boys,

                                             Lacy and BFF Tessa

Bryce, Ryan, Logan and Lacy

My BF from high school came for a visit to Cali so we met her and her family at the beach. It was great fun to see old friends and have our kiddos play together. Nick tried to teach Ryan to boogie board but Ryan wasn't up for learning. Hopefully one day he tries it out.

We also spent lots of time in our yard playing. Of course water was usually involved:)

Speaking of Water, we were all up for taking advantage of our neighbors pool!

And of course, our 4th of July block party!

Brent( our neighbor) thinking he was going to hit a pinata! Sorry Brent this was an American holiday, haha

See, star brownies to prove it. Pechanga, which is right across the street, has the best fire works. We just set up our chairs outside our house and take it all in. No driving or crowds. Its the way to have the fourth.

Here are the chillins at our other 4th party( the one with out the fire works, but better food!)

What would summer be like without the ward camp out. This time we had lots of dirt and piles of horse you-know-what, but it was still a lot of fun. Bishop made awesome pancakes in the morning and the kids are at the perfect age for camping. We hardly saw them cause they were off with there friends the whole time.

Fun game i was in charge of helping with.

Brent and Mike won this contest. Its harder than it looks in a picture, but awesome to watch.

Well that was a quick preview of our summer. So sad its over, I love the laziness of summer days lounging out at the beach or pool. Already cant wait for next year.