Summer Vacation

During the middle of July we went on a 2 week vacation to Colorado and Utah for family visits. On our way to Grand Junction, Colorado to visit my mom's family(who we haven't seen for like 3 yrs.) we stopped for the night in Las Vegas to visit our friends the Wardens. We had a really fun time with them. They had lived in San Jose for about 3 years, and then had moved to Las Vegas about 7 months ago.

The Girls & Charlotte

The Girls

Adam & Noah

Noelle & I

We spent about 5 days in Grand Junction with my mom's family. We had a fun time. We saw Toy Story 3(IT WAS REALLY FUNNY AND AWESOME!). Went to Bananas Fun Park, Cross Orchards Farm and a Dino Museum. Along with tons of family time and a 4oth anniversary party for my Grandparents we had a great visit. We also got to go swimming at our hotel and at Lincoln Park(fun place with slide and diving boards).

For those of you who don't know I am obsessed with Gerald N. Lund's church History, Historical Novels, Now you do! I was introduced to another series (Children of the Promise by Dean Hughes) during our stay in Grand Junction, which I am currently reading through. Children of the Promise is about a family during World War II. I'm really liking it so far. Learning alot as well. I highly recommend it.

Cross Orchards is a preserved farm. It was like originally a 15 acre Apple and Peach Orchard. They would sell their fruit. Anyway they preserved the main buildings. Truth be told I go NUTS with picture taking at places like this. This is only a sampling of stuff.

Stove

Ice Cream Maker

Family Logo/Sign

This is a look at the ceiling that was plastered with the papers put on the boxes and cans of shipments . There were 3 types.

The Taylor Family Reunion was in Joseph, Utah this year. Which is a change for once. We always usually had it somewhere in Arizona( because all Dad's family lives in Arizona, except for us and my Uncle John's family). Joseph it a small town right next to Richfield. We had a nice time there. The Teme was Love & unity. And we had some fun activities. During the whole time we did this thing we call Love Grams. We had a box and some cards, and you write love grams to others throughout the reunion. It was nice. My Uncle Corey likes to go shooting, and has a bunch or guns. So one of the days those who wanted to, got to go shooting. It was really awesome! We also got to go swimming and have lots of fun family time together. It was a wonderful trip.

On the way home we stopped in North Ogden to visit some friends who moved out of our ward last year. We arrived there Saturday afternoon(Pioneer Day) and stayed til Monday morning. The beehives invited me to an Open Air Movie(projected on one of the girls house) so I went to that and saw Mine Yours & Ours with the Beehives and Josh Myers(one of our friends). I had a really fun time.

Our Summer Vacation was long and very tiring so by the end of our trip we were so glad to be home.

So that's about it!

Family Trip Tradition

One of our favorite traditions is that at one of our last stops we get 'Dibs'. Dibs are really yummy treats. They are little bite-sized vanilla ice cream balls with a crunch coating. They are nice treats for when it's hot and you don't have time to stop for ice-cream. They are also not very messy(except on a 2-year old who is also my partner in the car, and you know what that means). But overall, they are delicious! I suggest that if you ever find yourself of family in hot place and in need of refreshment, you might just want to try some Dibs!

Disney Land Part 1: Monday

Yes, Disneyland! See my Pruning post for more information. Anyway, so we left around 9am. We were So excited, you have no idea. We had a nice drive. I read like the whole trip. We finally got there and checked into our hotel. We stayed at Best Western. It's just across the street from Disneyland, so that's why mom chose it. After checking in, we headed to Downtown Disney, to explore. We also got our tickets for the next day( we only had to buy 1 ticket, the link above explains why). Adam, Sammie and Dad headed off to the Lego store and us girls went to explore the World of Disney store. We each brought money, but we didn't spend money that day, just browsed. We met up and then we went to take a peek in The Grand California Hotel. We heard the the Lobby was gorgeous and had a really HIGH ceiling. It was true. Beautiful. After that, we walked down the street to Mimi's Cafe to meet Eddie and Liz Ogle, who we haven't seen in a few years. They are my great-great aunt and uncle. We had a lovely time. They even walked back with us to our hotel because they wanted to see our van! After all the kids were in bed(we have a two room(adjoining) suite so the kids who go to bed first won't be disturbed by those who stay up later) I went down to the swimming pool with Dad and Adam. We met two great girls(Jessica and Rachel) who I later found out were LDS(it's not hard to figure out, when they have 4 kids in fam. and are from Utah. We had a nice time. Then we returned to the Hotel Room to sleep, before an exciting day at Disneyland.

Downtown Disney Sign!


Jamie


Adorable!

family w/the Ogles, can you tell who is missing?


me and the Ogles


Dad and Eddie just couldn't stop talking!

to be continued..............

The Weekend of 'S'

Assignment: as you read this post, try to figure out the *three words that made me title this, 'the weekend of 'S''.

On the weekend of the 27th of February, we went up to Sonora. My dad teaches Consitution Seminars(really awesome) for NCCS (National Center for Constitutional Studies). I have been with my dad before to work the book table, and this time Dad wanted to have me teach Kenzie and Adam, so we decided to take the whole family, so we could also play in the snow. And as Sonora is only about 4 hours away it would be a drivable distance for the family.

To tell the truth we stayed in Twain Harte(right next to Sonora), in an adorable cottage(more like a house). Pictures Below!!!! It was new, so we were like the first guests. There were two bedrooms with other nooks, and couches for beds. The Kitchen was new and furnished, with a nice dinning area and LR. Underneath the stairs was a "Harry Potter" nook, which I tried to convince Adam to sleep in(he refused).

After we were settled, Dad, Jamie, Kenzie, Adam and I(it was raining alot so mom didn't want to take the little ones) geared up and headed to the Snow Park(about 20 min. away) We went tubing for a few hours. Luckily, there was a lift, that dragged us up the hill. The snow was coming down in little hard balls(NOT HAIL) so when we slide down the hill I would hide my face, or I would get quite stung. A couple times we went down together (by holding on to eachothers sleds) and it was REALLY fun. When we finally left the roads were realy slushy and dangerous. The way out was uphill and the car wouldn't go uphill. It got really scary. Then one of the workers(who had a 4-wheel drive truck) offered to go ahead of us on a road that is one-way(the opposite of the way we needed to go) and make some tracks for us. Since no one would likely be coming that way we should be able to use it. So we followed her till we got back on the main road and away from the danger. It was a scary experience but fun too.

We spent and evening playing Charades and drinking Hot Chocolate(YUMMY) to warm up. The lady(Denise Healy) who set up the seminar, stopped by with her husband to say hi. then we all snuggled down in bed.There was some debate ofver who go to sleep in the 2nd bedroom upstairs/loft. Mackenzie, Jamie, and Adam were is a big co0ntest for the double bed. Eventually Adam won, though by bed time he was trying to get me to share it with him. So I we slept peacefully(sort of).

I didn't really enjoy waking up at 5am so I could be picked up at 6:30 to go to the seminar. We had to wait about 30-60 minutes till we could even get in the building. We set up the book table and then settled down to wait. The Seminar went well. Mom came for lunch to join us. We had lots of people come buy stuff. Most of the People already had the 5000 year leap so we had two boxes of extra copies. There was even extras of The Making of America and The American Heritage Series. Which is NOT like the seminar I helped at in Tacoma.

And thus ends The Weekend of 'S'.

The Back of the Van before the Trip

Our Cozy Cottage


Our little Snow Monster!

* Sonora, Snow & Seminar!

Arizona Trip

Hi! So I said I would post about our trip. Fun, Fun, Fun.

On Saturday Morning I went with *Sarah and Aunt Michelle to the Temple to do Baptisms. It was really neat to visit a knew temple. They picked me up at 6:30am and the temple is only 10 minutes away from Grandma's house, but it was still really busy! It was really nice.

I survived the morning until cousins came by reading The Undaunted. The first cousins to arrive was Aunt Beka, the twins and Little Owen. It took a bit of time for Landon and Braedon(3 yr. twins) to warm up to us again. Little Owen is So sweet. He was born in January, so it was really fun to see and hold him for the first time, excluding pictures. Later while I was waiting for Sarah, I had fun talking with Katie Turley. She is a next door neighbor to my grandpa and there is a low wall connecting yard so we can easily talk and jump into each yard. She brought out her 1-week old baby goat Jessy(boy). Really cute!

Later when Sarah came, we built a "mail system" from two trees parallel to each other on separate sides of the fence. We set up a rope with a basket hanging on it. We move the rope to get the basket. Pretty cool? Sorry no pics. I went home with Sarah for a sleepover. Amazingly we got bored! Finally we decided to write a story. We brainstormed Ideas but could not think of anything we wanted to do(more like couldn't agree on anything). Than Sarah suggested that we right a book about a character in the Clue game. Sarah and I LOVE Clue. We always play Clue and Clue Mysteries(awesome clue game with extra characters) A LOT when we get together. We read the plot of the game and choose the person who gets the story. We are writing about Miss Josephine Scarlet, daughter of Patricia Peacock. She is accused of the Murder because she is an actress(Like Me!). I won't give away the real answer though, because Authors NEVER do that in their books.

My family went to church with Sarah's family on Sunday. Instead of Young Womens, I helped teach Sunbeams, because it was their ward's visiting teaching conference and all the women go(including Primary teachers). We had a nice afternoon with the cousins and then went home for a rest. The Phelps(A. Anna & U. Greg), Picketts, (A.Beka & U. Danny), and the Willises(A. Rachel & U. Corey) came over in the evening. It was really nice.

Monday was the Funeral. We went early for the viewing. Great-Grandma looked very beautiful in her temple dress. She was so peaceful and at rest, now reunited with Great-Grandpa Taylor. The Funeral was lovely. I enjoyed hearing Aunt Annette(Grandpa's Sister) give Grandma's life history. I went up with all the other Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren to sing "Families Can Be Together Forever". After the cemetery, we went to the luncheon back at the church where the funeral was. I spent the afternoon reading, and playing outside till the Birthday Dinner in the Evening. They had it early since we were in town for Mom. It was Lot's of fun.

The Drive back went great. We watched a bunch of Little House on the Prairie, als0 "Wall-E" That is one of the most annoying movies ever! There is a little human talk, but mostly robots and, "Waaall-E?" and "Eeve-aah!" I read through half of it. By the end of the drive I was just about sick of Cows(we pass a lot in the last couple of hours. Every time they are spotted we get cow talk from Laurel. She still talks about cows.)

So that about sums up the trip. I unfortunately took like only a few pictures:

Cousin Mary & Me

*For those who don't know, Sarah is the oldest Grandchild(I am the second). She is the only cousin my age(both sides) and just four months older than me to the day(April & August 5). So we are really close and don't exactly like only seeing each other 1-3 times a year.

I think this is my longest post yet!

Funeral

On Tuesday, February 2nd my great-grandma Taylor passed away. Her health has been declining so it wasn't a great surprise. But to travel to the funeral(Monday, the 8th) would mean that I had to give up my long-awaited YW/YM snow trip, and a farewell party for my BF Noelle. The Party wasn't that hard to give, but I really struggled with the snow trip. After many tears(I hate to admit it) and conversations, I finally decided to give up my trip, for a weekend in Arizona.

On Friday the 5th we drove the long 12-hour drive to Mesa. I managed to stay alive. We watched TONS of Little House on the Prairie shows(we love it!), and I learned that 2-year olds are Very Hard to entertains when you only have books and two dolls(she was my seat partner). We arrived safely around 6:60(Arizona time/5:30 California time) Aunt Rachel was there to welcome us. It was a quiet evening. My cousin Mary Phelps and her dad came over for a bit, and we learned to play Pit(very fun).

I will post later about the rest of the trip and funeral.