Merry Chirstmas Mom and Dad

For Christmas this year, my siblings and I decided to give my mom and dad family pictures. My sister-in-law Sher's sister Carrie took the pictures and she did a FANTASTIC job. We are so happy with how they turned out! Here are some of my favorites of about the 5000 that were taken.

Brooklyn had a picture that she just had to have done and it was on the loveseat in the back of Carrie and Derek's truck and she is absolutely thrilled with this picture

LOTOJA

We made our annual trip to Jackson last weekend to see my brother Brian participate in his 6th LOTOJA!! I think to finish once would be amazing, but 6 times. I think is amazing! In the words of Brooklyn, "We were such proud of him!" Thanks to the place we were staying overscheduling and offering us a free night, the gals went up the night before and met up with B along the way. We had a blast!! On Sunday, we decided to take a major long-cut and went home through Yellowstone. We were so excited when the first animal we saw was a grizzly bear. Our family LOVES Yellowstone so it was fun to drive through! Thanks B for taking place in this so we can go and make some fun memories!!

With these cuties cheering for you- how could you not get motivated?

So cute!

Gracie and Pops cheering for B

Mal wanted in on the action- so she grabbed Garrett's Magnadoodle and came up with her own picture.

B and Sher at the finish line

The kids were SOOOO excited to see some buffalo.

The Tetons are amazing!! This is the bear we saw and the entrance into Yellowstone!

Random Things

I can't let summer end without posting about some things that happened. I have meant to put Brooklyn in swimming for several years now and then before you know it summer is over. That was the #1 thing that I wanted to accomplish this summer. She took at The Peak in Brigham. I was really happy with her lessons she learned a lot in the 2 weeks and 1 private lesson she had.

The gals had fun in our little pool. I love how Gracie is cheesing it in this picture.

We also sold our Durango to Sean's brother, Brent. I was super sad to sell it and I miss it! It was a good car for us. It took us all over. To California, Island Park/Yellowstone, Jackson. We are on the lookout for another SUV or van. If you know of any good deals let me know. We thought we were going to be able to upgrade. But to our surprise the used car market is up 30% right now. It is really discouraging- making me miss the Durango that much more!

One day I put the sprinkler under the tramp and the gals LOVED it!

There were several nights this summer where there were AMAZING sunsets. I love sunsets.

We had a great summer and now we are moving into my favorite season- fall. Everyday I look at the Wellsville's and see more and more color changing taking place and I am SOOO excited!

Funny

I don't know where Brooklyn comes up with some of the stuff she does, but she crack me up. It is hard when she says these things not to burst out laughing.

My sister was asking her how her first day of school went. This was Brooklyn's reply, "Nat, I REALLY want to tell you. But so many people have asked me about it and I didn't tell them and it just wouldn't be fair if I told you!"

I asked her how her day was. Her reply, "One word, AWESOME!"

She was talking to a girl that was going to be going into Kindergarten. She says, "I really like to talk. They tell me I'm a socialist."

The other night she was in bed and called me in. She tells me, "Mom, I have a crush on Justin. That means I want him in my heart." She said this with this dreamy look in her eyes. Heaven help me!!

Gracie is following in her sister's footprints because she has said some things that crack me up to.

I was trying to get the gals out the door and she was just laying on the floor. I told her to c'mon. She then tells me, "I can't walk my leg is broken."

Today she was saying the prayer "Heavenly Father thanks for Elmo." (It happened to be what she was watching.)

My life would be pretty dull and boring without these 2 little gals to keep me on my toes. I don't know what I would do without them!

The Big 3-0!!!

Yesterday was my birthday- not just any birthday, it was my 30th birthday!
It is kinda weird that my 20's are behind me now. I enjoyed my 20's!
A few things that happened in my 20's
- I got married
- I became a mom to 2 sweet little girls
- Sean and I bought our first house
-I went to Hawaii (LOVED it!!)
- I lost my 3 remaining grandparents
- I graduated from college
- I went on some fun vacations

Me and Sean on my 30th

I had a great day. I got Brooklyn off to school and hung out with Gracie for a little bit. And then Nat came and got her, I turned my phone off and had a nap. It was a nap like I hadn't had in years. Quite possibly the best present I could have gotten. Then we had dinner at Cafe Sabor with my family and Sean's family. It was a great day! While I have enjoyed my 20's, I am excited for my 30's and can't wait to see what they bring!

Week of Firsts

We have had a week of firsts in our house this week. On Monday, Gracie and I started a mommy and me dance class. It was quite fun- she had a few moments of needing me to hold her but other than that she had a fun time. Brooklyn also started dance on Monday. Yesterday, was Brooklyn's first day of school. she started first grade so she is gone all day. It is a little weird for me to have my little side-kick gone all day. She has Mrs. Giddings and we are hoping for another good year.

Gracie looked so cute in her little leotard

First day of first grade!

She picked a Barbie backpack this year

In front of her classroom

A picture with grandma. (this is grandma's last year of teaching and then she retires)

A Trip 3 Years in the Making...

We just got back from a fabulous family vacation. With Sean being in school, we weren't able to go on a vacation during that time. There was a 2 week gap in between him being done with school and being licensed so we planned a vacation. We decided to go to California. We spent a couple days with my cute cousin Kristin and her husband Tyler and their cute kids. They were amazing hosts and we had a blast with them. After we stayed with them, we headed to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. We were so excited to get there. As we were driving down the 405 in Los Angeles- if you have been there you know this is a crazy freeway. We were driving in the carpool lane and heard a weird sound we were trying to figure out what it was when we heard the dreaded thump thump thump and knew that we had a flat tire. Sean then started trying to get us over 4 lanes of busy traffic. We were able to get over and Sean started unpacking the trunk to put the spare on. A policeman pulled over and told us he had called someone to come and change the tire. He told us to stay in the car with our seatbelts on and basically hope they we didn't get hit. Sean decided that he would just change the tire instead of waiting the 15-20 minutes it would take for the towing company to get there. He got it done and we found a place to get a new tire. And then we FINALLY made it to Disneyland. We stayed there 5 days and had a BLAST!!!! We had a fantastic time. We would just go when the girls woke up and then come back to the hotel and have lunch a little nap and then head back for the night. It was a good system for our little family. It was super busy there- I will not go again in the summer time, but that was when we could go. After we were done at Disneyland, we headed down to San Diego. On the way we stopped in Oceanside and Sean was able to do some surfing and me and the gals played on the beach. We spent 3 day in San Diego, took in Sea World, and headed home. We were gone for 13 days- so it was really nice to get home. We took over 600 pictures which means this post will have lots of pictures (if you want to see a the collage bigger just click on the picture).

Tyler works for Fox so he took us to the Fox lot and gave a tour. It was really cool. Brooklyn likes to watch the Simpson's with Sean when I am not home so she was happy to get her picture taken with the wall. We went to the beach with Kristin and Tyler and the kids and had a good time. The water was pretty cold so there was a lot of playing in the sand. The kids did a lot of bickering back and forth, but had a good time together. Brooklyn and Vinny put some music on and started dancing. They were so funny. Thanks Atkinson family for letting us invade you guys- we had a blast with you!!!

Our first day at Disneyland the gals decided to dress-up. Gracie was Tinkerbell and Brooklyn was Minnie Mouse. Brooklyn was so excited when we walked in and one of the first things we saw was Minnie Mouse. We also got the gals their cute mouse ears with their names on them. Gracie decided sometime during the trip that start giving a big cheesy smile. She cracked us up with it. We only had a few hours the first day because we had tickets to go to a Dodgers game.



We had a blast at the game. The Dodgers were playing the Padres. Brooklyn picked out her cute hat that says- Dodgers Princess.

The characters. We spent A LOT of time in line to get pictures with these guys, it drove Sean nuts, but Brooklyn loved it. I wasn't sure how Gracie would do. But as long as I was right there she did good.

Our first ride we did was the Tea Cups. The gals LOVED Dumbo and A Small World. At night time we would do them over and over.

Brooklyn was so excited to get her Autotopia driver's license (she thought it was real) and was even more excited to actually drive the car.

One of the favorite parts for the gals- getting to see the princesses. Cinderella was the first one we saw and you can see Gracie wasn't so sure so Sean got in the picture. She had dressed up as Snow White one day and so was happy to see her and she loves pink so she loved Sleeping Beauty. Brooklyn was in heaven with the whole thing.

The gals LOVED playing in Minnie's house

Just some random pictures. At California Adventures Brooklyn got her face painted. She actually got 2 days out of it. The picture on the top right, the gals were so excited to ride the train and that was their reaction to getting to ride it. We loved the Toy Story ride even though the wait was 45 minutes or more- we look stylin' in our 3D glasses. Brooklyn and Gracie looked so cute dressed up. Sean and the gals waiting for the High School Musical Parade. The last picture was taken of us the last night in front of the castle. The gals loved the castle.

Our last day there, I took the gals to Disneyland while we were there we were able to see Tinkerbell. The gals loved her. Sean had gone surfing while we went and got stung by a sting ray. He said it felt like 20 bee stings in the same spot. He soaked it in hot water and rested for a little bit and then was ok.

We had a blast in Toontown! In the top right picture you can see Gracie cheesing it again.

The High School Musical Parade. We spend a lot of time waiting to see this. We read the schedule wrong and sat waiting for it one day for 20 minutes and then we were told it was blacked out for the day but would be going the next day. We went the next day and realized it wasn't showing that day either. We were finally able to see it. I love how the gals are taking it in- laying on the ground (gross)! Brooklyn loves Loves LOVES all things High School Musical so she was very serious about the whole thing and took it all in. Gracie loved the music and was up dancing to it.

Sean surfing and the gals playing in Oceanside

On Sunday, we went to the temple. They are doing construction on temple.

After the temple, we went to La Jolla Cove. It is a beautiful place. There are rocks there where Sea Lions or Seals I don't know the difference hang out. We were hanging out on some rocks where I got the picture of the wave hitting. I was getting nervous and told Sean I thought we should go and I headed off with Gracie. The rocks are super slippery and I totally fell carrying her. Luckily I was able to save her from getting hurt. But I didn't end up so lucky- my knee got all scraped up and bruised, the other foot got scraped up, and my hand. It hurt so bad. I was wearing a skirt so I am sure that the many people that saw it happen and didn't ask it I was ok got quite the sight! :) We did see a pod of dolphins swim by and witnessed an amazing sunset.

We had a blast at Sea World. (I actually didn't take too many pictures here.) We fed the dolphins and that was really cool. They have the Sesame Street characters there and Brooklyn was excited to get a picture with Elmo.

We had so much fun on this trip and made so many fun memories as a family. The flat tire and Sean getting stung weren't fun. A funny thing happened to me. I went and rode the Matterhorn while Sean took the gals on Small World and we were pretty close to the end when the ride just stopped. They got on the speakers and said it would be shut down for 45 minutes. I was thinking great. We were right by an exit door and couldn't figure out why they just couldn't get us off through it. Finally, 20 minutes later they did. A kid had been sticking his legs out of the ride so they stopped it and escorted him off to security. At the same time in Small World they were riding along and then starting going backwards. Those are some random things that happened. The worst thing that happened on the vacation was when we got word that my brother-in-law Greg was admitted into the hospital and was very sick. Things were not looking good and I happened to call my Aunt Paula- she was upset and said they had taken Greg into emergency surgery to take out his infected gall-bladder and that things weren't good. I felt completely helpless and all I wanted to do was be with my sister. Sean and I started looking for flights to try and get me to Utah. It was about 10 o'clock and we could not find one until the next day. The surgery ended up going good. He stayed in the hospital for several days after. He had salmonella, bacteria in his blood, and a bacteria in his stomach. We are so glad that he is getting better every day. But other than that it was really an awesome vacation for our family. I can't wait to do it again!!