Thanksgiving on the Beach

This year we rented a beach house in Santa Cruz for Thanksgiving with my side of the family. It has been so nice relaxing, sleeping in, playing volleyball on the beach, and building sand castles. We took some family pictures- here are my favorites.

 This picture below i didn't know was being taken but is really funny because these beams are located under a railroad track which also serves as a bridge. We had to climb up to the beams and then it dropped off into a gully type of area. for some reason as soon as I got up and had to walk across a skinny beam i was really nervous and scared. there was  a rusted knob that I was holding onto and wouldn't let go of. haha I was a baby, i just wanted to take the pictures and get down. I think this picture displays my emotions well.

 

We were trying to spell "love" can you see it? with a heart on the end too.

 this on was just for fun

We are having  blast and will be hitting up the boardwalk tomorrow. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I sure have a lot to be grateful for in my life and it is all thanks to my Heavenly Father.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Softball Team

yes we are alive and yes we suck at blogging... Time is so jammed with everything and anything ahhh. here are a few pictures till i have some time to really blog

Jared working hard... this is what i usually see when i look over at him. ha!

 We went to our family's cabin over conference weekend- here is my brother Cole about to jump into the freezing water. the high for the day for 59 degrees. No thank you!

 We are on our work softball team- Jared Pitches I play 3rd base. the sprinklers came on last game and caused 3 game delays... we have won 1 of our 7 games. ;) I can't get the picture to rotate sry.

Bye for now!

Pioneer Trek 2011

Jared and I had the wonderful opportunity to be Ma and Pa's on a Stake Pioneer Trek  this past month. We walked about 20 miles ate about 1 lb of dirt, slept with insects and sweated all our body away. It was so much fun! We had 8 teenagers that were part of our family and we loved all of them. We were the youngest ma and pa which helped with relating to our family.  When talking with others who have done a Trek before they were saying how awesome and wonderful it was, but once we got out there all I could like about is how HARD it was. Literally  hard, sometimes it was hard to stay positive and to keep pushing... Let me tell you i have gained a much deeper appreciation  and respect for our early ancestors the pioneers. They were amazing! 

I have a hard time being dirty, I do not like dirty things, a house, a car, clothes. I take at least 1 shower a day and am constantly washing my hands, my face, my feet blah blah blah. By all means I love to have a good mud fight  or food fight , if I can shower right after. It was VERY hard for me to go all day soaking my clothes in sweat and dirt then to sleep in those clothes to do it again the next day tromping through dirt and mud and water to sleep in those clothes again and then the next day hike the last few miles home. I went through a whole pack of baby wipes trying to keep at least my hands and face clean. I ended up changing into some shorts and shirt on the 2nd night because i couldn't handle the dirtiness... haha I can be such a baby.  We had porta-potties so I was thankful. I didn't sleep very well because we had to keep our heads in our sleeping bags otherwise the mosquitoes would attack your face no matter how much repellent you put on. I even brought dryer sheets and set it right above my head and they didn't care. I think they were just so excited to have so much food to choose from with all of us there sleeping.

Anyways the food was great and the overall experience was awesome. To be able to gain a deeper testimony and appreciation of this gospel made every minute so worth it and so much fun. We were given a baby to care for and we named her Molly Mae. 

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

CBQ this one's for you

So when we lived in Rexburg we met these lovely friends who we now miss dearly now that we don't live there anymore. My husband informed that our friends think I don't update our blog enough so they have to text/call my husband to find out what we are doing. This is so true because by the time I get home from work I don't feel like being on the computer cause that is where I am all day at work. So today I prepared and brought my camera to work with the cable hookup to upload to our blog just for our friends!!! Aren't you happy friends? This one is for you! ;)

Last week our work treated the entire company to a Disney Training Seminar. Our company is the top producer for Disney and so as a thank you they offered this seminar to our company for FREE!!!! Usually this seminar is around $1000 a person. As you can imagine I was super excited to go to Disneyland for the day. Jared has started full time with the company again so he was included on this training. We started the day  with breakfast in the CAST only cafeteria, I am pretty sure I saw Pocahontas and Jasmines maidens while eating in here.

Jared I and Salina with Boss Rip in the Cast Cafeteria

 After the morning seminar of the history of Disney and their values as a company we then went to lunch and had a VIP tour of the Disney Dream Suite (above Pic, on the balcony) the Dream Suite is in the middle of Disneyland and can only be won, not booked. The day we went was the Cast Member day and they had an Employee staying the night with their family. Pretty cool huh? The rooms were literally magical, each room did something cool.
After the dream suite we took a tour of Walt Disney's apartment and had a quick version of the Leadership Training that Disney puts on and got to skip the lines and walk right onto Pirates of the Caribbean ride.(SWEET!)

 I can't get this picture to rotate cause I don't know how- but we passed this shop on main street as we walked to our front row seating at the parade. Pretty special I am eh?

 Here we are waiting for the parade to start, please notice the front row seating! It was a very bad idea to wear black on a hot day so we took our free shirts that we got and put them on our heads for some shade. Parade started below with a drum-line which was SO cool- you couldn't help but wave like a maniac at all the princesses and characters. It doesn't matter what age you are at Disneyland you can act like a kid and still get excited about Goofy and Mickey Mouse :).

We then had 3 hours to kill in the park before we had to catch a bus to the airport so we waited in line at Indian Jones and loved it.  I think our next vacation will be to Disneyland, i forgot how much fun it was! We will definitely have to SAVE for this trip as Disney loves to eat all your money once you are in the park, but the place feels magical and fun and its so worth every penny. Anyone want to go to Disneyland next summer? :)

This week Jared and I are going on a TREK. We are Ma and Pa's and are in charge of 8 teenagers for 3 days where we push a handcart and dress like pioneers, sing songs and have a hoe-down. It is going to be a blast and I will be sure to post pics afterwards.

CBQ I hope you enjoyed this update on your favorite friends life. We miss you!

Vacations

Alright shame on me, I need to play catch up. I am bad about this blogging stuff. In June one of my bestest friends and old roommates left on a mission so us besties and roomies got together for a fun filled weekend in Sunny St George Utah. 

 This cutie is Calee's baby boy who was about 4 months at the time, he loved me and was so fun to play with and cuddle with all weekend.

 This picture took 3 attempts before we could get a good one

 We went and saw Grease at an outside theater which was WAY TOO awesome! It was a great performance.

It was such a blast and Kelsey is now gone and is serving in Texas. GO Kelsey!!

For the fourth of July my Honey Bun and I gathered lots of camping gear together and drove to Fort Stevens Oregon for a camping trip with all of Jared's family ( minus one who is serving in Iraq). There are 17 nieces and nephews and 6 siblings with 6 in-laws. It was so much fun! I will let the pictures do the talking.

 We had so much stuff. We had planned to take our gas efficient smaller car but after looking at all the stuff we had we had to take the bigger car.

 Beautiful Beach and Ocean

 We got there a day early before our campsite opened up so we set up at our brothers site and just picked the tent up and moved it  two sites down once ours opened.

Below- our big tin foil dinner which was delicious

This is how Jared and I slept the whole week- eye covers and ear plugs- had a great nights rest the whole week! Loved it!

 Jared was trying to blind the camera with his white legs

 We put on a scavenger Hunt for the Nieces and Nephews using a geo-caching device giving them coordinates to clues to finding the hidden treasure below

 Took a tour at the Tillamook Cheese Factory- I love their cheese and they had lots of samples to eat. YAY!

Here are some random and fun pictures of odd happenings here in California

 Ponderosa's High School Spring Concert- all the wonderful and good choir alumni attended

 Trying to fit the new fridge into the door- it was barely too big maybe 1/16 of an inch- my momma on the side peaking in.

 Jared working hard at his desk/cubicle

 Floor hockey night at the church

Lil Bit loved the smell of the Febreeze we sprayed on the sleeping bag to air it out. now we will have to spray it again to get the cat smell out.