Last pics of trip....temple, beach and San Diego Zoo

Here's the rest of our trip. San Diego was such a blast! The temple was beautiful and the beach was super fun. The zoo was massive and had so many animals....I was impressed!

Here's the family in front of the San Diego temple.

Here's one a little farther away from the temple so you can see more of it.

Finding seashells at the beach.

We started out with having the kids just roll up their pants and telling them to not get in the water past their ankles. Well, that didn't last long, so soon we switched to shorts.

The kids soon soaked their shorts and Tink and AJ got wet up to their necks. Tink was quite upset about it. AJ couldn't have cared less. Tink's shorts were already off at this point.

So Tink's wet shirt came off and we put on her partially-dry jacket. She didn't go back into the water. I should've just had them put on swim suits in the first place. And we didn't get many pics of Roo at the beach...he's in the background on this one. But his jacket pockets were OVERFLOWING with seashells and sand. He's quite the collector!

At the zoo. The pandas were a hit.

Baby tigers.

We didn't get a ton of pics at the zoo. We were fairly tired by that point. But we had lots of fun and we're excited to do it all again someday!

Pics from Sea World

Ok, I lied. Sea World was such an amazing experience, I'm going to have to give it its own post. When we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was, they couldn't really decide between Disneyland and Sea World. They were fascinated with the animals at Sea World!

Whole family at front of Sea World.

Kids at Shamu Tank. They loved this. We stayed there for a long time watching 2 killer whales play together and one scratched its back on some rocks at the bottom of the pool. Awesome!

Roo checking out a killer whale.

I think this might have been the most amazing experience at SW. Petting and feeding the dolphins! SOOOO FUN! They feel so cool.

The dolphin show. So fun!

Lady looks so cute clapping along with everybody else!

And here I am looking silly trying to get her to clap again. She knew better....nobody else was clapping. I couldn't fool her.

This was one of Roo's favorite parts.....the SHARK TANK!!!

They have a tube in the tank that you can walk through and see all the sharks swimming around you. Kind of creepy, but quite incredible.

JAWS!!!!!

And the grand finale for the day was watching the Shamu Show. It's spectacular that they have these animals so well-trained.

These next 2 pictures were amazing to me. Isn't this the way the killer whales play with their food in the wild? I'm not sure if I could ever do that.

We also got to pet sting rays and AJ and Brent went on a couple of big rides and we all got to do some fun smaller rides. What a fun park!

I'm still alive! And pics from our trip....

Well I made it through the morning yesterday. And I was the SECOND speaker....I thought for sure I'd be the first! Luckily the woman speaking before me took enough time so that my talk wasn't too short. When I timed it the night before, it took 15 minutes....when I actually did it in Sacrament Mtg, I think it was more like 12. I have a hard time speaking slowly enough. SOOOOO glad that's over! I think I've perfected the art now and should never have to give another talk in Sac Mtg again....that's fair, right?

Ok, on to pics from our trip. Here are our first 3 days.....

Here we are in line during the morning. The rain tapered off enough in the afternoon that we didn't have to wear ponchos the whole day. We were pretty soaked for the morning, though. Luckily Brent went to Target that morning before going to DL and bought us all rain gear.

Kids standing at the river...notice the wet pants. Luckily the ponchos kept the rest of their bodies fairly dry.

Ann and Lady w/Woody and Jessie.....none of the older kids would go near the characters. Lady had no choice. ;)

Here are the spoil sports. :) They'd been hiding behind Brent.

Here's Lady in the tent we rigged up over the double stroller with a poncho. This is where she slept that afternoon. And had quite a good nap, I might add.

Here we are waiting for the parade to begin. It seemed to take forever!

Here's the whole fam at the front of Main St. after the parade....just heading back to the hotel.

Day 2 at Disneyland. Notice the difference in weather? It was wonderful! And still no lines!

While Brent and the kids went on a rollercoaster in Toon Town, I walked through Mickey's house. I had no idea I'd end up waiting in line for pics w/Mickey himself. I felt a little silly once I realized what we were all waiting for, but there was no way to get out. So I went ahead and got my pic taken with him. Did you know he has security there with him?

Here was a part that wasn't there when I was little. They had a whole section dedicated to princesses and knights. It was pretty cool. Aurora came and shared a story. And they had arts and crafts. The girls loved it!

And here is our one and only picture of Day 3...at California Adventure. It was raining really hard again, but with the temperature drop and the crazy wind, it wasn't worth being outside. So we didn't last very long there that day. We did some inside stuff, but for some reason didn't get any pics of it. AJ LOVED this ride! She and Brent also went on Soaring and loved it.

I'll post pics of the rest of the trip in another post. We had a great time and the kids have made us promise to go back again!

Funny conversation tonight with Brent

So Brent's been laughing at me all night because of how stressed I am about this talk (which I'm slightly less stressed about thanks to a good friend finding the link for me...and thanks for the effort, Phil)!

Here's a conversation we had earlier, just to show my insane (yes, I know it's completely irrational) dislike of giving talks in church:

Brent: (laughing) Why are you so stressed out about this?

Me: Because I HATE being in front of that many people, trying to feel the Spirit and only feeling perspiration.

Brent: Honey, if you can give birth to a baby naturally, you can give a talk in Sacrament Meeting.

Me: I'd rather give birth.

Brent: I know....and that's a little messed up.


So I'm a little messed up.....what's new?

Home From Our Trip.....and a bad phone call

We got home last night from our big CA trip. It was SOOOOO much fun! We got soaked the first day in Disneyland, but still had a blast. The next day was all sunshine....beautiful! And the third day (the day we went to CA Adventure) was yucky. :( It was raining, so we thought we could brave it like we did the first day. What we didn't count on was the temperature dropping dramatically and a LOT of wind that made the rain not only soaking, but stinging as well. And the poncho that we'd rigged to put over the double stroller the first day was blowing all over the place. So after doing a lot of "inside" stuff, and letting Brent and AJ go on a few of the big rides, we called it a day and headed for San Diego. The kids had a hard time deciding if Sea World or Disneyland was more fun. Those killer whales really are amazing. And they got to feed and pet dolphins and pet starfish and sting rays. It was really cool!

The next day was spent at the beach where I quickly realized I should've put the kids in bathing suits despite it only being 55-60 degrees and the water being extremely cold. They got soaking wet anyway. And there was sand EVERYWHERE! But we got some great seashells! We also visited the temple this day, which doesn't have a visitors' center, by the way. Brent's dad described it to us beforehand as looking like the "Intergalactic Headquarters for the Emperor of the Universe." The kids thought that was fun....and we explained how it was pretty much true since God was the Emperor of the Universe. :)

And the next day was spent at the San Diego Zoo in the morning before heading back to St. George for the night. That was a pretty cool zoo. I've never seen a zoo with that many levels before!

When we got home last night, Brent went and picked up Ruby, who was very excited to see us all. And then we got things unpacked and put away and the kids in bed, and the laundry started, and the van cleaned out! Whew! I finished up the laundry this morning and just got done with school with the kids. We made plans for going to Costco and Harmon's tonight for much-needed groceries (great FHE, huh?.....hey....we just had FHWeek.) and I was feeling pretty good about not letting myself sink into the "Back-from-a-trip-Blues" (which usually cripple me for at least a week).

Then........


I got the call..........


from a member of our bishopric..........


asking ME (only me, not Brent....how is that fair?) to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday.


Uh, hello? It's Christmas this week! And I just got home from a trip last night! He knew all that and was apologetic (I didn't let him know how much I'd gotten done since getting home last night....I'll let him feel sorry for me), but he felt like I should really speak this week.

Dang it! How do you say no to that? (How does one say no to ANY calling? I've never understood this, nor have I ever been able to do it, although sometimes I wondered if it wouldn't have been best if I had.....just kidding.)

Now, to top it all off, he gave me a topic that doesn't exist (at least as far as I can tell) and isn't answering his phone so that I can clarify. He told me that the subject would be President Uchtdorf's talk from this last conference titled "The Wind Beneath My Wings." I've looked online and in my Ensign....no such talk. Great.

I can already feel the pit in my stomach forming. I HATE giving talks. For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE to talk.....I can chat it up with just about anybody for quite some time. Brent has been known to gently remind me to keep my mouth shut for a while when we have company over so that somebody else can get a word in. That is TOTALLY different from standing up in front of people and forming coherent sentences. THAT I am NOT good at. I even reminded the bishopric member of this and told him how Brent would LOVE to give a talk. He's exceptionally good at it. The bishopric member laughed that off. Dang it again!


So it looks like I've got a long week ahead of me. A shadow has been cast over my Christmas. And I don't even know what I'm supposed to talk about yet! Argh!

Alright, vent over. I'll try not to let this assignment ruin Christmas. *sigh*

Oh, and for those of you who expected pictures from our trip, you'll just have to wait. The camera is still out in the van (somehow missed it last night while cleaning up). And I'm too lazy and cold to run out and get it and download the pictures. Maybe later tonight. But I promise I'll get some up!

Nostalgia

The kids and I went to see my parents yesterday. They offered to babysit while Brent and I went out on a date. And who in the world says "no" to that? (Not us....ever!)

I drove the kids down after naptime and then later Brent and I met at the restaurant.

A couple of months ago, I was getting tired of the CDs that had been in our CD player in the van for a VERY long time. So I pulled out the CD case and fingered through it looking for something new. Well, I found something old and decided to expose the children to MY childhood music.

So I popped in Neil Diamond's "The Jazz Singer."
(It was one of about 3 albums that we listened to OVER and OVER again on every single trip growing up.)

The kids have been asking to listen to it ever since!

So yesterday afternoon, as we were driving down the freeway, I had waves of pure, magical nostalgia sweeping through the van. I don't think you could've wiped the smile off my face when Roo started singing along to "The Robert E. Lee." He had no idea how happy he made me.

Gotta love great memories and getting to re-live some of them through your kids!

Out of the Mouth of a Vegetarian Kid

Conversation between me, my sister (Aunt E) and Roo:

Roo: "What are you doing here, E? Did you come for a visit?"

Aunt E: "Actually, Roo, I'm going to be your mother now."

Me: "Yeah, Roo, I'm going to take cousin O back to his house and be his mommy now. Aunt E and I are trading places. What do you think?"

Roo: (laughing because he can tell we're joking)

Aunt E: "And guess what we're having for dinner tonight?"

Roo: "What?"

Aunt E: "Steak!"

Me: (laughing) "I don't think he even knows what that is."

Roo: (defensively) "Yes I do!"

Me: "What is it, Roo?"

Roo: (proudly) "Zebra!!!"


Some of you might get the context of Roo's answer right away (that is if you or your children have watched "Madagascar" more than 10 million times). For those of you unfamiliar, I'll let you in on the funny. In the movie, Alex the lion is becoming wild and is hungry for steak. So he envisions his best friend, Marty (the zebra), as steak and tries to take a bite of him. So in Roo's mind, steak = zebra.

I was laughing SOOOO hard after Roo's comment. But I had to let Aunt E in on the funniness since she was incredulous as to how my son could think that steak comes from zebras. (Aunt E's son isn't quite old enough yet to enjoy the hilarity of Alex and Marty (or any other movie, for that matter), and so she hasn't yet experienced the joy of having a movie repeated back to her word-for-word.......oh, the joy that awaits her.)