Visits on our way through

Our drive to Utah went very well. Katelynn was very good for the long drive. I would say that portable DVD players are the best inventions ever!

Because I am pregnant we had to stop about every two hours and have me walk around. Here we stopped to visit my aunt Joan for a few minutes in Cedar City. 


My job on Monday when the men were packing up the truck was to keep Katelynn out of the way. So I called up some friends and let Katelynn play for a while. It was so much fun to catch up. I was surprised how well Katelynn played with Jared again. It was like good old times. Jared got this great idea to climb into the mailbox!! The kids thought it was pretty funny!


Here is cute Kennedy. She has the most beautiful hair of any one year old you'll ever see! 

Unfortunately, we didn't even get any pictures of our new niece Bella! We were so excited to see her and think she is adorable. We only wish we were in Provo so our babies could grow up together for the next year. Congrats Ben and Alyssa.

Hello, Goodbye

It is always fun to catch up with friends when we are in California. Katie and Katy came by with Gredtel and Mayzie. They are the cutest and friendliest girls. I wish I could say the same for Katelynn but as you can see she wasn't on her best behavior. She really was just obsessed with Mayzie (babies) and not kids her own age. I think she'll get over that quickly once the baby is born. 


Katelynn was willing to give Gredtel a hug before she left. 

One last picnic at the beach

I know I posted about a trip to Corona Del Mar once already but with Mike and Jen in town, we went again. We ate some KFC and Togo's for dinner and then took family pictures. The girls first swooned over the new baby Collin. (Note me in the corner wrestling Ethan.)


The guys chatting with themselves.


And me wrestling Ethan.


A game of Ring-Around-The-Rosies, one of Kate's favorite games.


They all fall down, except the kids.


Which of course turns into the game Tackle-Dan.


And when Dan can take no more, the game becomes Tackle-Mike.


But Mike got even.


We got several cute pictures of the kids. Anna in a cute pose.


Kate showing off her attitude.


The girls together.



The proud Grandma with baby Collin.


And just to keep things fair, a picture with all her grandkids.


Greg took the best pictures on his camera but here we are.


Kate picked up the hat, put it on like this, and said "Take a picture of me."


Not to be left out.


Cousins. Getting all of them to smile and look at the camera at the same moment that the picture is taken is very difficult. 

We really will miss California. It is so pretty there at the beach and with the sunset. We will also miss the family all being around so close (even more so of course). 

Last Days of water fun

The last couple weeks in California, we were in the water a lot. The summer in California was pretty mild and got much warmer those last few weeks. Here is a compilation of picture of those last couple weeks of water fun.

Kate and Anna wanted to float in this thing and Kate pretended to go to sleep in it.


We also went to a park that had these fountains in it. Kate isn't a big fan of squirting and splashing water. She is wet because she was caught by surprise when one of the fountains started. She wasn't that happy.


Ethan and Anna had fun while Kate looked on.

Everyone was in the jacuzzi except for me and Jen. My dad was on his way over to pack his car with our stuff. This was the night before we came up to Utah. My dad caravanned with us up and filled his car with our things. Thanks Dad.


We loved being in California and were sad to leave.

Yard work

Greg did some yard work and the kids helped him out after their sleep over. No pictures of the sleep over but some of the yard work. They loved working with Papa.


I thought this is a great shot.

S'more face

The next few posts are from when we were in California for the last week. We have been busy packing/unpacking and pictures have been hard to access.

Diane had an idea to make s'mores in the oven and the kids had fun with it.


Katelynn was really excited.

She just had a hard time figuring the whole thing out.



Cute cousins. 



Messy cousins.


After S'mores, Diane pushed Kate and Anna on the swings. Kate really has come a long way. She always hated swings and screamed at the very mention of them. She started liking them at her second birthday and now loves to swing and asks for "higher and higher." She really loved Diane's crazy swing though. Looking at the video it doesn't look as crazy and scary as it did when we were there.

An upcoming marriage

Yesterday we were driving and Kate and I had the following conversation:

Kate: "I want to get married mommy"

Daddy: "Who do you want to get married to?"

Kate: "Myself"

Daddy: "Well, you'll have to live in California then."

We had been at the Logan Temple earlier in the day and we saw a few couple getting married. Kate wanted to go in the temple and we told her that she had to wait until she got married. I guess it left an impression.

Back in UT

So yesterday we traveled back to Utah. We stopped 5 times so it took us a while and we are exhausted. We are staying in Provo for the day and then tomorrow we will kill our selves and move all our stuff. We are excited to see Lyss and Ben and their baby Bella. We also get to see my Grandpa Campbell. So for the move, Jen will take it easy and visit friends while Jarrod, my Dad and I will move all our stuff. We are then heading up to Logan and unpack. It will be a crazy few days. We will let you know if we survive.

Train Ride

A while back we went as a family to San Juan Capistrano on the train. It was a lot of fun. Here are the kids. The nice thing about the train is that the kids could play and move around.


Dave and Nichole.


Elise came too. She helped so much with the kids. Thanks Elise.


Grandma and Papa.


And us.


In San Juan Capistrano, the first place we went was Zoomar's Petting Zoo. It was so cool. They had this area for kids to feed rabbits and guinea pigs. We bought the food of course but the kids had so much fun.


I didn't Kate would even last in the pen but she loved to feed the animals. It was great though. Rabbits and guinea pigs are probably the least intimidating animals ever so Kate really was able to enjoy the experience.

There were goats, lamas, and el pacas.



There was even a cow. Kate loves cows.

This was the best we could do for a picture of all the kids.


We paid for Kate to go on the train. She loved it. We were worried because we couldn't go on it with her so if she freaked out, there was nothing we could do.


We really had nothing to worry about. She loved it.


I mean she had a blast. In fact, she freaked out when it stopped and we went to watch Anna and Ethan on the horse ride.

They use a lot of carrots every day. Look at this thing. Those animals aren't going hungry.


Anna on the horse.


Ethan's horse was a little bigger.


Then we went to Ruby's. After we thoroughly washed our hand.


Here is the historic mission in San Juan Capistrano. We didn't go, it was way expensive. 


As was walked though a little shopping area we saw this horse, Popcorn, and the owner was eating at a little outdoor restaurant. He asked the kids if they wanted to hop on. Having just been on one, they got on right away. Kate would have nothing to do with it.




There were several of these little shops with mostly art stuff.


I thought this was hillarious. My home is my home.


Here is an explanation for the last few pictures.


Here are our miscreants.


Kate really didn't want to go in and come out.



Here was are at the train station waiting for the train to take us home. It was so much fun that I hope to do again in the not too distant future.