CA Trip part 3- The Finale

The last part of our CA trip was in Lake Arrowhead. It is so beautiful there. It is up in the mountains near San Bernandino County. My uncle's friend has a cabin and we stay there every year now. It fits all of us......barely. I love it though!! It is fun to swim, kayak, play board games/cards and eat good food. I don't care where we are as long as I'm with family. Good times!

Group photo before we left the lake on Sunday. We were missing some that were out running errands though.

Jonah loved to kayak.

My brother Andy. Sweet shades.

It was very bright outside:)

My brother Jay is a good uncle. Niece's Julie and Taylor.

Melinda with Tay Tay.

My niece Kenna girl.

Jake and Breck floating around the dock.

Dave and Robyn Inc.

Lukity-Luke.

Jay and Robyn "engagement" photo. haha.

Melinda and Luke.

My cute Mom.

Jake and Gavin going on a kayak adventure.

Jay, my brother.

Robyn and Jenna girl.
Andy and Shawna. So cute!

Jeffrey, my bro.
(pic a little blury, sorry)

Julie and her silly mask she made.

Mom and her daughters:)

It was hard to leave the family, as usual.

CA Trip Part Deux

We drove up to LA for a day to visit The Griffith Observatory. We drove a lot this trip. We just wanted to visit so many places this time I guess. I had to snap a shot of the freeway, since we spent a lot of time on it:) At least the traffic wasn't too bad.

Griffith Observatory above. It was a neat place. If you haven't been, go and take your kids to a cool show in the planetarium. We saw "Water Is Life". If not, there is a lot to see for free inside the building. Plus, there are incredible views outside since the observatory sits high up on a hill.

Too bad for a hazy day, or the views would have looked better.

We met my Uncle Allan, who lives nearby in Burbank. We hung out, grabbed IN-N-OUT on Sunset Blvd. and had a nice time.

We headed over to La Brea Tar Pits afterwards. It smelled a lot like Tar, I don't know why though. (wink, wink)

Random cement cubes calls for random poses inside them.

We drove down Hollywood Blvd. to see the weirdo's dressed up like Spiderman, Batman, Storm Trooper, etc.... Chinese Theatre, Kodak Theatre, Hollywood Walk of Fame, etc... Neat-O!

You know you are in CA when you drive down palm tree lined streets. I love it!

Back to Grandma's home.


Part 3 coming soon......

CA trip part 1

****There are too many pics to post in one post so I thought I'd spread it out.****
We made our tri-annual (haha) trip to CA a couple of weeks ago. The kids are quite good in the car for the 12 hours it takes us to get there with all of the stops we make. We arrived around 7pm and just hung around my Mom's house. The kids love to jump on her trampoline when we stay there. We were crammed into this house because I have two brother's that were living at home for the summer.
The next morning we took off to T-Street in San Clemente which is the beach I grew up on.
The kids had fun playing in the water. It is awesome because it stays pretty shallow for quite a ways out. Jonah figured out body-boarding and loved it. Sadly, I didn't take my camera to the beach. (Too much sand to get in my camera. For this reason, I should have brought my little point and shoot for that.)
The next day, we drove to Escondido to visit my sister, Melinda and her family. We had fun hanging out and going to a park nearby. She then made us a quick yummy dinner and we were off, back to my mom's house.

The cute couple.
Melinda and Jon.

Pretty Melinda.

Tay-tay. My niece.

Baby Luky-Luke. My nephew.

I had Melinda be my model on the swing.

Taylor and Breck enjoying a drink at the park.

Jon and Melinda.

Me and Shawna.

Pretty sister-in-law and pretty photographer friend, Kelly.

Part Two coming soon.......

I'm still here.....

....but I'll be back soon.

FHE

Tonight for FHE, we decided to utilize the amazing place that is just a hop, skip and a jump away from home. It is sad we don't go there more often, but we will now. It was so nice to just walk around the temple and see the flowers and the cute Sister's and Couple's working around the Square. The time of day was perfect and I got that amazing pic of the temple above.

The flowers are georgous, of course. The Church really knows how to beautify!!

Two things I realize from looking at this picture above: 1. I love my cute little family and 2. I have to lose my gut! Hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Argh! Ugh!

Handsome and Me:)

Different angle.

I love to see the temple.......

Daydreaming.........

.....while driving through DayBreak, Utah.
We love to drive through DayBreak. If you haven't done it yet, you better go there and see what this place has become in the last 3 years or so. It is this huge 30 year master plan of a community to be built. It is growing quickly. We almost bought a townhome there a few years back but didn't feel right about the timing and stuff.
Some Sunday's we drive there and roam the streets looking at the neat and unique homes. Families are happily strolling around the neighborhood waving at other's. There are park's speckled throughout the neighborhoods. There is a school and a couple of churches too. There are walking paths, tons of green grassy areas, and a pretty lake you can paddle a little boat in or wade in the shores. We have friends that live there and they sold one of their cars and bought a golf cart. No joke! We saw it last time we were out there. She just plops her kids in and drives it around on the paths or to the grocery store across the street. I think that would be so cool! Saves $$$ too:)
This last Sunday we went to a larger park that is there on the shore of the lake. The kids had a blast and Jake and I sat and stared and admired the people that live there. Hahahaha!
It sounds funny, huh? We did.
The only problem I have with DayBreak is that in order to have a backyard, you have to pay the big bucks! Their whole idea is to not have a yard, but share "common areas" with the homes around you. While this sounds nice to some, I would hate to have my smoking neighbors always hanging out there blowing smoke on my kids. What if my neighbor was just plain weird? I would not want to share space with them!
Anyway, eveything else is perfect there though.........in my opinion.
Oh, and NOW, they are so lucky to have the Oquirrh Hills Temple to look at too!
Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

{Medieval Princess}

Why do grandma's rock? You can see for yourself below!

My Mom made this for Breck. I'm sure it took quite a chunk of her time too. She is so talented in so many ways and sewing is one of them. She also made my wedding dress a looooooong time ago.

I love it! Breck has been wearing it since we opened the box from the mail. Hopefully, Breck will not wear it out so she can wear it next Halloween too.

Thank you very much Mom!

F-A-M-I-L-Y

Today is July 4th, 2009. Happy 4th!
Here are a few things I know about myself:
~Family is the most important thing to me.
~Family are really the ONLY people I can depend on ALWAYS.
~Friends are great, but Family is better.
~Family always returns phone calls instead of "screening" and only replying to texts. I hate when people only use text. I don't want to have a whole conversation using text either.
~I hate that my family is in California and I am here.
~I wish my family was spending the 4th with my Mom and siblings in CA at the beach.
~I am a family girl!!
~I love having a little girl.
~I wish my kids lived near their cousins on my side of the family. They have a few here, but they are an hour away.
~I can get negative sometimes, but I think I am allowed to be every now and then........I'm not perfect!
~I love Jake and feel that we were meant for each other.
~I love the smell of the ocean and the asphalt near the ocean.
~I love driving my car alone with really loud music playing.
~I love to laugh really really hard.
~I love taking pictures of people being candid and places.
~I don't want a pet anything except maybe fish. They ALL stink people! I don't care what anyone says.
~I love my kids more than I know.
~I am glad to be LDS and know that I am blessed beyond comprehension.
~I love popcorn and pickles(only a certain brand).
~I could live in water. I never thought I could be addicted to swimming laps!
~I need a getaway with Jake.
~I love music, many kinds but not country. Unless you count James Taylor country.
~I miss watching Laker games with my Dad in the family room of the house I grew up in.
~I never thought I would have to lose a parent at such a young age of 29.
~I could go on and on..........

Life is precious. It is crazy how precious.
I want to LIVE it better:)

Excited to learn more!

I have been attending an advanced photo workshop the past two Tuesday's and today we had our "photo shoot" at a certain location. Our teacher brought two girls who are sister's to be our model's and we had such a blast! Especially me! I even bursted out, "Can we do this every Saturday?!!!" in the middle of everything and everyone just stared at me. (then laughed)
I posted a couple, okay 18 picture's from today's shoot. They are on my phlog!
Go HERE to see:)

What's up?

Jake and I celebrated!



We had family bowling night tonight!

Jonah in action.




I'm kissing the ball for luck. (Don't worry, my lips did NOT touch that nasty thing! Ew!)



Daddy helping Breck bowl.

And lastly, it is crazy how you can have kids and then BOOM, one day you can see little things they do that is exactly like you!
Breck is ME in so many ways:) It makes me laugh.

All 3 of them.

I found this cool red barn and it is brand new. I had to get a pic by it:)