What we've been up to:

My sister-n-law's grandpa owns a yacht in Huntington Harbor. He was nice enough to take us all for a little harbor cruise.

Zack helping navigate.

Colin and Bryant

Kade and McKena making use of the lounge chairs.

Loved seeing all the neat houses on the harbor. Some were pretty fancy.

Bigtime rollercoaster. Brett and Derik in front, Kade and Zack are behind.

Kade and his favorite, Lightning.

All the girls got matching hats.

Of course we have to pose with this guy.

John loves any and all vacations I make him go on.

I think this is called "Seal Rock" This is a little park where there is a look-out.

Nieces and McKena can't resist climbing all over the sculpture. My Mom and Gage in the background.

Kade insisted on having himself a picnic, and he did.

Most of the gang, the men and boys went to a LA Clippers game.

My sister-in-law's grandpa also has a house overlooking the ocean, this is his roof-top deck.

We spent a couple of days lounging by the pool. The weather was wonderful the entire time--10 degrees warmer than usual. Lindsay said it had been colder in Florida.

Kade and Campbelle enjoying the hot tub.

McKena, May, and Emma swimming.

Lots of pick-up games at the sports court.

We just got back from a week of vacation in sunny California with my entire family. We had a great time! The place we stayed was great and just right for a family reunion. There were lots of things to do on-site, as well as being next to the ocean and 20 minutes from Disneyland. We did a lot of sight-seeing, spent 3 days at Disneyland (always great), and spent some quality time together at the hotel playing games, swimming, visiting, etc. All of my family was able to be there for the week, so that was neat. Unfortunately, we had a bout with food poisoning on the last day (never great), but we'll try to forget that ever happened. Today we are back to school and work--sometimes reality is a hard thing! Thanks to all my family members for making the effort to come and to my parents for funding some of it!

Christmas

So all of the presents were opened and I was lounging around on the couch when I realized "I didn't take any pictures!" In order to preserve some memory of Christmas 2010 I took 1 picture of each kid, except as you can see Zack refused to pose. John did pose for me though, he got a treadmill. As we have no room in our house for a treadmill, its home is our front room. Nice, huh?

Painting

After
Before
I decided that I wanted to do something productive over Christmas break (this does not happen very often). After about 10 years living in this house some of the painting needs to be redone. Recently I had my stairwell painted to erase all dirty finger and hand prints, scratches from toys being driven, flown, or thrown down the stairs and just regular wear and tear. In January I am going to have my family room/kitchen repainted. It is nice to have a fresh coat of paint on things. Anyway, I took on painting my little half-bath because that seemed like a manageable project. I picked a dark plum/brown. It is hard to get a decent picture in such a small area but I tried--the pic looks a lot lighter than it does in real life.

TaVaci Concert

McKena participated in her first TaVaci Concert, she did a great job!

Christmastime

I love December! I love Christmas! I love Christmas parties! I love Christmas decorations! I love Christmas shopping! I love getting Christmas cards! I love Christmas treats! I love Christmas bonuses! There is just a lot to love about the month of December. I hope anyone reading this is enjoying their month as much as I am.

November???

Oh good grief, it has been a month since I've posted! I was talking to a friend last night and I realized how fast November went. When I tried to recollect what had gone on all I could think of was this: Colin got strep throat, McKena got strep throat, Colin got his tonsils removed, then we celebrated Thanksgiving. I suppose I could go into a little more detail like my parents were able to come down (even with the crazy weather) for Thanksgiving and we had a good visit with them. I decorated for Christmas. We got quite a bit of snow for November. Colin turned 11. I may or may not have pictures of some of these events but I will have to post them later. Until then, at least I got a post up. Happy busy December to all!

Fall Happenings

...not a whole lot, but I wanted to post a few pictures of Kade playing in the leaves. There are a lot more out there now just waiting to be raked. The weather has been so nice, but snow is in the forecast tomorrow so we'll see who I can convince to go out and do that job. It seems we are always having to rake in the freezing cold. I also wanted to post a picture of my new hair color--it's darker than I've ever gone before, absolutely no blond.

Yesterday we traveled to Tooele to see a niece be baptized. The food was good and the kids had a great time playing. We then did a little shopping and then headed back to Logan. We went to the USU volleyball game because they were playing Idaho and I have a cousin on Idaho's team. It was really fun to watch her and she did awesome.

Today at church someone told me that Christmas is in 48 days! Whoa, I haven't even hardly thought about it. I guess it's time to start getting serious. It's a good thing I am proficient at internet shopping!