"Hi!"

Teagan loves phones! He prefers the real ones over the toy ones, but he's happy as long as it has buttons. It's no wonder he sees it as such a novelty when his mom is talking on hers constantly! Here he is already learning to make conversation. I think we're in trouble. :)

Our California Adventure...

A few months before Jeremy and Jon were due to come home, we were trying to decide whether or not to go meet them in their respective countries, or save our money and take a family vacation instead. We decided on the latter. I did my homework and got online to find out when their fall breaks were. Conveniently enough (or so I thought), the University of Utah and SLCC were the same week. The only problem was that the U had the whole week off, and SLCC only had Monday and Tuesday off. I thought some days were better than none, so it all began to work out. It just so happened that Trenton's birthday also fell within the same week, which meant he got into Disneyland absolutely FREE! I started making all the plans.



We loved being there at Halloween time and seeing all the fun decorations. Contrary to what many believe though about October being the "off-season", it sure didn't seem like it! On Monday, we finally figured out that it was Columbus Day and many people must have had the day off school and/or work. It was very busy.


Jeremy being his goofy self. As a side note, after all my careful planning, SLCC changed their fall break to UEA weekend. Consequently, Jeremy missed a whole week of college. NOT good! He even had to stay in the hotel room one night and take an online test for his Psychology class. He did pretty well considering all the distractions.


Robyn and Brian decided to splurge on Thursday night (it was a little expensive) and go to California Adventure for the trick or treat party. She said it was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed it. Of course they brought back TONS of candy!


Hayden was, and is going to be a spider for Halloween. He has a "love-hate" relationship with spiders right now. He's obsessed and scared to death at the same time. Teagan was, and is going to be a Tiger....hence his nickname of "Teagan-Tiger".


It was Trenton's 16th birthday on Wednesday. He got in Disneyland free because of their promotion going on this year. Although it rained most of the morning, we were prepared with hoodies and ponchos and still had a good time. It sure beat the heat the next couple of days!


This is the button they gave him to wear throughout the day. Everytime a Disneyland employee saw him (which was A LOT), he was wished a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I think he enjoyed all the attention.


We chose to go to San Diego Zoo this year since we had never been, and we had done Sea World and Universal Studios a couple of years ago. We really enjoyed it although we didn't have enough time to spend as long as we would have liked. Our favorite was the gorillas and monkeys. I could have watched them all day! I only took one picture of the gorillas and it was on my phone and didn't turn out great, so...no pictures of them :(


Watching Hayden was the highlight of the trip! He had so much excitement for everything....except the scary rides. The first day we got there, we went on a lot of "adult" rides, which wasn't his favorite. He was a great sport though! We never did get him back on "Pirates of the Carribean".


A few of us went to see Tarzan's tree house while Robyn and Brian went on Indiana Jones. I had never been on it. It was nice to see some parts of Disneyland we hadn't seen before.



Hayden got his share of "his" rides the last couple of days we were there. We didn't want to leave him with a bad lasting impression of Disneyland.


Teagan loved the carousel much like Hayden did a couple of years ago when he was the same age. He also loved the Haunted Mansion because of the amazing Halloween decorations they've added. He was mesmerized with all the color and action on all the kids rides and the decorations throughout the park.


On Friday, Trevor, Jon, Jeremy, and Trenton all went to Six Flags to ride the "real" rides. The rest of us had no desire. Jeff and I decided to take Hayden to Disneyland for some alone time, while the rest of the group got ready for the day. It was fun to be with just him and go on what HE wanted to go on. We made it on several rides before it got too busy or hot.
We had a great time....spent lots of money.....and created lots of great memories! It's going to have to last us for awhile!!!

My baby is in high school!!

Okay, so Trenton would probably kill me for posting this, but oh well....he probably won't be looking on my blog anyway!

First day of high school. At least he was willing to have his picture taken!

Bonding with the boys...

My niece, Jenna got married on August 18th in the Salt Lake Temple. Jeremy and Jon were not invited to the actual ceremony because Jenna wasn't aware they were going to be home from their missions in time for the wedding. They decided to go to the temple grounds anyway, and were willing to watch Hayden and Teagan while the rest of us were in the temple. It made for some great "kodak" moments.



Hayden made the comment while playing around the pond that he wished he had brought his swimsuit!!

Funny girl!

Ali just LOVES Saturdays! The reason being is that she loves to go out with Jeff while he does the yardwork so she can wander the yard. She's very good to stick around and NEVER wanders off. She usually will position herself where she can still watch him, but be in some nice, cool shade. Most often she is found laying in the dirt among the flower beds.
Yesterday, Jeff happened to be out to the side of our yard trimming our vines along the fence. I went out to talk to Jeff and to see where she was. This is what I found.



Although she doesn't wander, she did take a little stroll to the park by herself, and found some shade under the pine tree. She had Jeff in sight, and was enjoying a "Saturday in the Park".

Girl's camp

Can I start out by saying that I just LOVE my church calling! I am over the MiaMaid's activities each week. Years ago I served as Y.W. President and although I enjoyed that calling, it was obviously a lot more work! Now, I get to enjoy the girls and just have fun with them.
Jeff and I had the chance to go to camp for a couple of days this past week. We only went a couple of the days since we both had jobs to get back to. It was enough time though, since I'm not a true camper and froze to death during the night.


All of the leaders that went to camp...


Leaders and the girls...


This is one group of girls outside their tent, including my niece Meranda who is second from the left. It was fun having her there. We missed Savannah because for some reason, she thinks she's TOO OLD!


These were our Priesthood leaders hard at work! It's a horrible job, but someone has to do it! This is our Bishop on the left, and Gary and Jeff on the right. Before the Bishop came up on Wednesday, Gary and Jeff would take off to do various things. Gary kept asking Jeff if he wanted to "ride" or drive". Since Jeff hasn't had much experience driving four wheelers, he kept saying "I'll just ride". I finally told Gary "MAKE HIM DRIVE!". I wanted him to get the experience and get a taste of how fun it would be to actually own them!


I had this picture taken and I'm going to send it to Jon and Jeremy and say..."Look what we bought!" Do you think they'll believe me? Don't think so!


Some of the girls with our camp shirt on that said "Got Heart?". Our theme was the Wizard of Oz and our ward were the Tin-men.


Jeff feeling pretty powerful...


Some of the girls chillin in the afternoon...


After a two mile hike up the mountain and feeling exhausted, I had just sat down to rest when some of the girls wanted to go play "four-square" on the new cement pad underneath the pavillion that is being built. I obliged since I hadn't played since the 6th grade.


Before we knew it, we had quite the crowd wanting to play with us.


I even made it to the "serving square". I quickly learned that this game is serious stuff and you don't play nice! I became aggressive and competitive and had a blast!
Of course, I'm glad to be home where I can be warm and clean, but I enjoyed being with the girls and the other leaders. It was also fun to have Jeff there with me. He's never been to girls camp, but has had his fair share of scout camps! He soon became aware that girls are much more organized, and they like to do a lot of singing and crafts! He was such a good sport!

A breathtaking sight...

After a wicked rain and thunderstorm earlier this evening, came a beautiful rainbow in the sky. It was gorgeous. Jeff had just left to take Trenton down to Provo for another game when he called me on his cell phone telling me to go outside and see it. A few minutes later, he called AGAIN and said how amazing it looked from the freeway and how brilliant the colors were.



I hope everyone had a chance to see it...the pictures really don't do it justice.