Back To Cali - Winter 2010

On Christmas morning, right after we opened presents, we took off to California. We were looking forward to an amazing Christmas dinner Gary promised to have waiting for us. And boy was it amazing. It was actually beyond amazing. I had no idea he was such a good cook! We relaxed at Nani's with Gary and Christian and the next day we got to see Dave and his cute family as well. We opened more gifts and enjoyed spending time with Scott, Cashton and Mason.

The next day we headed to LA to visit Uncle Leon, and Dave and Kristin. While up there we stopped at the LA Temple. This temple has special meaning to us because Lee and I were sealed here. We have a great story about our sealing. If you'd like to hear it you can ask Lee. He sure loves to tell it and I guarantee you'll be slapping your knee. Anyway, back to the post. We had the kids all touch the temple walls and we talked about how one day they will get to go inside and how fabulous that day will be for them.

It was really nice to be able to spend some time with Lee's family. We miss them and since they never come up to visit us we don't see them very often. Ouch!

For the last half of the trip we went down to see Eric and Julie and the kids. I love love love how the kids play so well with each other...like time stands still when they're apart and picks right back up again when we visit. One of the fun things we did was go down to San Diego to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. While driving down I got to text back and forth with my other brother Ryan as him and Cheryl were having their baby. I felt sad that we missed it but it totally felt like we were there with all the texts and pictures going back and forth.

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For those of you who have not experienced the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, I highly recommend it. It was a super fun experience. I almost felt like we were really there. The interactive tour was very impressive. We even got to pan for gold.

Emma loved holding Troy. What a cutie he is!

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We stopped at the Old Spaghetti Factory for a yummy dinner and took a little detour on the way home to be able to see the San Diego Temple. This one also has special meaning to me because I received my endowment here. It also is by far the most beautiful of all temples, if you ask me.

There is a story behind this picture. In the morning, before any other kids were awake Gavin and Ella woke up and came down to watch TV. There was a huge sectional in a large family room but they chose to sit next to each other in the same chair. How cute is that?

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We also went to a park and fed ducks.

Ben keeps telling me how much he wants a baby brother. I want to cry every time he tells me this but that's a whole nother post. It was so good for him to be around Troy. I think he got his fix.

We also had some pretty wild entertainment thanks to the girls.

There was a really cute little duck with an awesome hairdo. The kids called it Albert Duckstein.


Eric and Julie have a really cute old fashioned candy store by their house. Of course we had to stop there and stock up.



We rang in the new year at their house by playing games and even making up our own...





And if you can believe it we all stayed up till midnight. Everyone but.....






Happy New Year!!!!!


Another successful trip to Cali was accomplished. We sure love our Cali trips, but there is nothing like comin home. Until next time...