California Trip - Part 1

Our trip started yesterday - we drove, and drove, and then drove some more! We stayed in Jean, NV, which is about 20 miles south of Las Vegas. Overall the trip went well. We stopped for dinner in Alamo - which seriously, has the best gas station EVER. We had corn dogs, chicken nuggets, hamburgers and ice cream cones. How much better can it get? Oh, it only cost us about $20 for all of us. Killer deal! Our favorite part when Ryker said (during a snow storm), "It looks like we're in space." Apparently the snow coming towards the car looked like we were traveling in light speed. I think he's watched too many Star Wars movies......

Today, we finished our drive to California. On the way, we stopped for some alien jerky in Baker, CA. Who knew alien jerky was super good? We also found some interesting aliens in a car and a spaceship. The kids thought it was pretty cool. Baker is also the home of the world's largest thermometer - which normally measure incredibly high temperatures.... except today, where it was topping out at 43 degrees. Brrrrrrrrr.



We arrived at Melissa's........ The kids were excited to get out of the car and enjoy running around. They were loving the 60 degree weather. They had a great time running and playing with their cousin Gage! Baili, Jett, and Gage came up to see us! It was nice to see everyone.




For dinner, Melissa and Hamid took us all out to Medieval Times. It was an exciting adventure! Everyone had a great time. We cheered for our knight (who happened to be the bad guy) - Gunnar stated that it was too bad there was a happy ending - since our knight was killed. It made me laugh. He always comes up with a different perspective than what I would think.


Now we're off to bed with visions of Disneyland dancing in our heads! The weather is supposed to be perfect and it should be a fun day!

Cub Scout Cake Auction

It's that time of year again that the cub scouts are having their cake auction to raise money. I'm always at a loss to figure out what type of 'extremely creative' cake I'm going to make. This year the picture of the motorcross hill won out. Since I couldn't find a 'person' to go on my motorcycle I opted for the 4x4. This is my brother's type of cake!

With Jerrick and Gunnar both in cub scouts I had to come up with another one. Since they both loved the motorcross cake, I picked the one that I wanted to do. I found the fish idea in the Family Fun magazine and am very happy with how they turned out. Although they took a lot more time than what I would have thought! Darn M&M's - they take quite a while to put on as fish scales. But the finished product was worth it! Hopefully they'll help raise some money - although we'll probably end up buying one of them..... :)

Disneyland Countdown

Our countdown has begun for Disneyland. The kids are excited and keep asking how many more days. Cannon and I made this fun little countdown. Ryker is having a great time cutting the days away. He's probably the most excited. Today we have only 9 more days. Happy dance!! Not only do we get to see Disneyland - but also we get to see Baili and Melissa and their families! Can't wait!!

Eyeball Fun

This year for Valentine's day we made butterflies out of suckers and two hearts together. They turned out really cute, but the best part was the stick-on eyeballs that everyone loved! They had way too much fun sticking them to their faces and then showing off their new eyeballs! I got lots of pictures of the extra eyeballs and none of the butterflies. Who knew you could have so much fun with stickers!

Valentine's Day

By some strange coincidence all my boys were dressed with blue pants and a red shirt. Okay, it was intentional for Gunnar, Jerrick and Ryker, put purely accidental that Jared and Jaxon were dressed in the same thing. Love moments like this!! Jared was at early morning seminary with Monica (parenting panel day - my Valentine's day present - not having to go!), so I got the boys dressed for school. I can't resist dressing them the same, especially on a holiday! We figured once everyone else matched - we made sure that Cannon did too. Then it was Jared's suggestion that we take pictures. Who can resist moments like this!!