Mother's Day

I had a very low key mother's day this year. I just wanted to take some pictures of me with my mom and with my children. My mom has been a great example to me on how to be a mother.


I am so lucky to have 4 wonderful children....(most of the time)

My Favorite Place on Earth

My favorite place to go on vacation is Disneyland. I am sure this is because of all of my good memories of going there with my family when I was a kid. That was before the 3 day hopper pass. You went for one day and you felt pretty good if you got more than 10 to 12 rides in a day. The lines were always really long and I remember waiting over 2 hours for the more popular rides. But we always had a really good time. It wasn't so much about the rides but going there with cousins and having a great time being silly. I remember that we would be at the gate when it opened and then would run with my dad to Space Mountain to get on it before the line got to long. So to keep up with tradition Space Mountain was the first ride we went on everyday we were there. This was our first time without worrying about stollers or a baby....and everyone could go on all the rides except for 2.

The kids at the Hotel waiting for the shuttle bus on the first day. Can't you just see the excitement.

Splash mountain was one of the kids favorite rides and I am not even sure how many times we went on it. The ride made more sense to them once I explained the story behind the ride.....it is sad that they haven't ever seen "Song of the South" and probably won't ever get to see it. As a kid this was one of my favorite Disney movies.

This is an all too frightening picture...and one that I will face daily in about 3 years.
Zach was so excited that they let him drive his own car. He was only tall enough because of his hair.

Cruella was one of the the kids favorite characters. She was very funny....and very tall.

Nobody does a parade like Disney!

This is Amanda on the Canoe ride.

The "Fam" with Donald Duck.

The longest line we stood in was Pixie Hollow.....all to meet Tinkerbell and another Fairy Friend...which I can't remember the name. But the girls were excited to get Tinkerbell's autograph.


This was during the fireworks on the last day at Disneyland. I guess after 3 days of 8am to midnight the kids were kind of tired. We had a great time and I can't wait to go back.

The Beach

We managed to spend an afternoon at the Beach. It was cold so the kids didn't really get in the water but just waded. We did walk down to Huntington Beach Pier and eat at Rubys. We did manage to bring home a ton of shells and sand.

The Surprise

Craig and I decided in January that we wanted to take the kids to Disneyland....kind of a family trip in celebration of Craig's graduation. We thought it would be fun to surprised the kids. They thought we were going to St. George for the week. I have to admit that it was the hardest for me to keep this secret....mainly because I was not getting any leverage out of this. But on the positive side I also wasn't getting asked everyday how many more days until we go to disneyland. We told them when we got to St. George. The video was the reaction. The funniest part is Kayla's reaction....she is my pessimist.

Tied Up Elmo

So a couple of weeks ago...Amanda came out of her room looking very sad. So here went our conversation.
Me: What is wrong?
Amanda: I tripped over tied up Elmo.
Me: Why did you tie up Elmo?
Amanda: I didn't tie up Elmo. Elmo tied himself up.
Me: Elmo can't tie himself up. Why did you tie him up?
Amanda: Why would I tie up precious Elmo? (as she is laughing)

Goodbye Grandpa

This is a hard post for me to write. Last week was a hard week for us. A little over a week ago we got the call that we knew would be coming but were hoping it wouldn't be so soon. Craig's dad had passed away. Darald's health had been going down steadily the last couple of years. He was to the point that he was on oxygen all of the time and couldn't walk from one room to another without sitting and resting in between for a few minutes. The decline was hard to watch. We had moved him to Craig's sister's house about a month ago because he had been passing out. We hoped that once his doctor got his medications stable he would be able to be back home but that didn't ever happen. Craig's sister-in-law went to pick him up to take in to a dr.s appointment and found him. It looks like he went quickly and we knew he was ready to go. He has been saying that for the last few months. I looked through my pictures to find some that I really liked. This Craig with his family at on our wedding day.Most of the pictures I have of Darald after Amanda was born.....Amanda is either on his lap or really close by. She loved her grandpa.

This one is at Zach's Baptism.

This is one of my favorite pictures and only about 1 and 1/2 years ago. It is at Craig's nieces wedding.This is another picture of Amanda on Grandpa's lap.

This one was at Craig's graduation from USU just last December. This is that last picture I have have of him. Craig was so happy that his dad was able to make it. It meant the world to have his dad see him graduate.

We were lucky that Darald came and stayed with us for a week after Christmas. We had been trying to get him to come stay with us because we were worried about him home alone all the time. It is a time that my kids will always remember. We did puzzles and he was able to sit and talk to the kids. We also watched the Sugar Bowl with the U of U playing Alabama. This is the first and only time that Darald and I and Zach were all cheering on the same team. (Zach and I are a BYU fans and he is a U of U fan.) It was really fun. I remember how excited he was that the U won. He was funny because he said he couldn't sleep the night before the game because he was so nervous.

Craig and his brothers at the viewing.

Zach and his cousins were the pallbearers. As you can see Zach is the smallest one but he was honored to be a pallbearer for his Grandpa. Darald was a veteran of the Navy so he was given a military farewell with taps and the folding of the flag.

I love this picture because it is Zach paying his last tribute to his Grandpa. We will miss Darald but we know that he is so happy to be reunited with his wife Sherron who died 11 years ago. He has missed her so much. I look forward to the day when we will see them both again.

Questioned by Police

We had an interesting night last week. On Thursday night we were sound asleep when the phone rang about 11:30. Well there is nothing worse than being woken up by a ringing phone....when someone calls that late it is not usually good news. Craig answered and I being half asleep asked who it was. He answered that it was a reverse 911 call and that there was a little boy missing. Soon after that call we could hear the helicopters flying around most of the night. About 4 in the morning the door bell rang and someone was pounding on the door. Turned out that it was two detectives and they wanted to asked Kayla some questions. It turned out that they little boy that was missing was in her class at school and they wanted to know when she saw him last and who he played with and stuff like that. Well waking up an eight year old to be questioned by police is a little unnerving. She was half a wake and confused. She answered the questions and I could tell a little shaking by the whole event. The detectives were very nice and explained to her that they did think anything bad has happened to him but they can't find him. So after they left we went back to bed. I could not go back to sleep. I just kept thinking what this family must be going through and if something bad did happen how would I help Kayla cope with this. Luckily he was found the next morning at a friends house. Kayla was extremely relieved. Come to find out that most of the home in our neighborhood were actually searched. I am not sure why our wasn't. We are just glad that everything turned out okay.