Weekend with Grandpa

This weekend Kate and Veda and I all went to SB to hang out with Grandpa.....lookin' good!

We did the best thing humanly possible in SB and went to the beach. It was such a nice day! Mid 70's, not a cloud in the sky. Here's the girls being cute and Taylor being crazy as usual!

Besides being with Grandpa it was really nice to be with some of my favorite cousins as well.

I'm so lucky to get so much of them in my life right now!

It was also really fun to hang out with my Mom and Patches. We took several long walks down the beach and we got to talk while Patches chased birds and made friends.

We stayed all the way until sunset and it was really stunning. Grandma Helen would have loved this one.

Tonight Grandpa took us all out to Wing's which is his favorite Chinese restaurant right near Hope Ranch. It was very tasty. As you can see it was a classy affair, as is so typical of us :)

....Jack is such a nut!
After we dropped Grandpa off we went to Montecito and got hot chocolate at Starbucks for Rebeka's 13th birthday.

Happy birthday Beckis! Although I'm pretty sure she has been a teenager since she learned how to walk:)

Stampede

Tonight we got a crew together to go country dancing at this place we had heard about in Temecula called Stampede. We all piled in the Suburban which made it even more fun.

Lookin' good ladies! The first little while they played country songs and there were lots of line dances and two step songs which was really fun. Some of those line dances are super hard!

In the middle of the night they put on some top 40 music to dance to and I got some great dancing shots.

Jordan came down from LA which was a treat.

Lookin' Good Jenna - Let me see your hands in the air!

Mel boot scoot and boogie'n

Veda let loose and had a great time.

Kate had some amazing dance moves.

Julie brought her ipod since she was pretty sure she would be bored - she was wrong! Had a great time!

Mitch was rocking the dance floor as usual

Before we left Kristen took a ride on the mechanical bull. So awesome!

Smelly Pillow

Tough day today - surprisingly. Ever since I can remember I have had the same pillow. It is called my smelly pillow and I carried it around everywhere when I was a kid and even when I got a little older. It comes on all my road trips and most vacations. It finally go to the point where it was too ratty to keep around, so today I threw it away. I was surprised at how sad I was - I even shed a few tears! I guess most kids carry a wooby or a stuffed animal which you eventually grow out of or are weaned off of by your parents. A pillow is not something you grow out of, and I realized today when I got rid of it that I hadn't grown out of it either. I feel like it is going to be tough to sleep for a little while with a strange pillow in my bed. Thanks smelly pillow for all the good times!

New Years

New Years this year was in Santa Barbara - I think this will be even more of a center of gathering for our family now that the Nelsons are there. Love it!

This picture demonstrates that we can pretty much be happy doing almost anything. Here we are watching the boys do skateboard jousting.....so funny.

I loved watching and playing with Patches - pictured only in the tail.

Justin was riding around with Henry - so cute! We made sure to play tennis every day. We of course never had enough courts so we played a little game that we called "Poor unfortunate souls". We were obsessed with it so we played it pretty much every day.

Later that day we had some great beach time. Mel came up with Veda so she hung with us for new years which was great.

During beach time Sammy Jr. asked Sam Hirt to make a maze on the beach. It was so cute to see him run around in it. Sam Hirt is such a great dad. Katherine and I each took a turn at it too which was really great.

At one point Kim started teaching an impromptu hip hop dance class on the beach which was marvelous. Kim is the best!

This is Daren's new years party outfit....crazy!!!
All kinds of crazy things happened pre midnight on new years eve. Me and the girls did our booty pass, we played I've never and mafia and just before midnight a sweet dance party broke out....our favorite!

So we danced in the new year and it was marvelous! I feel like 2011 is going to be really great!

LA MSA Super Fun Weekend

Today Rosie, Mel, Kate and I all headed up to LA for a mid singles activity. In the morning they had a service project where we helped with some tree planting, which was marvelous not only because we were serving but it was also a beautiful day!

Then we headed into Beverly Hills to a super posh mall called the Grove. We spent most of our time in the farmers market part of the mall getting lunch and checking out all kinds of crazy little shops.
We all got something a little different and shared around. Very tasty.

My favorite thing about this mall was just the atmosphere. They had crooners singing old jazz songs playing and there were beautiful flowers and a pond and the buildings themselves made me feel like we were somewhere in Europe.

After we were done at the mall we headed to a friends house to get ready for the evening events.

They had put together this really amazing 1940's style gala. It was held in a chapel in LA that was build in the 30's, so it had a cultural hall that was really beautiful with exposed beams and the chapel had great stained glass windows. Really great building.

As we came in everyone got dance cards. I wasn't sure if people would get into those, but they did and it was great. They had a wonderful jazz band and everyone danced and had a wonderful time!
Rosie made sure her dance card was full and had a great time being spun around the dance floor just like the rest of us. I decided after doing some swing dancing that I LOVE IT! I used to do country swing all the time during college and I am now determined to get back into it.

These are two of our San Diego friends - Micah and Mitch that came up for the occasion. It was really fun to hang with old friends and meet some new people as well. I was really a wonderful night all around.

After the dance we headed over to Moises' house and all four of us crammed into his bed for the night. Jordan is staying with him right now as well, so it was fun to see him. It was a super fun Saturday!

Heading Home

Check out that water! It was very hard to leave

It pretty much took all day to get home. Daren had the idea that we should play a game of tic tac toe. I was "0's" and Daren was unicorns.....weird. But then he decided that his strategy was to go always to the left of my play - didn't work out as planned for him I guess....hehe

We spent most of the day in the airport - we got very creative on ways to charge our phones. It was great to get back home. What a wonderful vacation!

Montego Bay

Today we went to church in this little tiny branch in Negril. There was another couple there from Canada and us and this was the whole branch. It was a very nice meeting but pretty hard to understand. As I sat there I was thinking that these are truly faithful saints! In the US we have these huge wards that are really well organized and full of people that are our friends. It is much easier to be a faithful member here. I was very impressed with them.

After church we had another spiritual experience..... We drove back to Montego bay and paid $5 to go to this private beach. I don't think I will ever get bored of this.

More of my favorite beach activities today - mostly reading and napping. Thankfully it was a little cloudy, when the sun did pop out it was scorching!

We walked down the beach to the next hotel over and they had a heated pool that we swam around in for a bit.

When we scuba dived last our guide caught a puffer fish - so Daren gave it a try. Totally worked!

And then....just like on any good beach day, we did jumping pictures.

Another really amazing sunset....just as stunning as the others.

We had talked about going to see Tangled, so we hit up the movie theater on the way back to our hostel and watched it in 3D - loved it! Even though it was my third time seeing it.

We had also tapped out on Jamaican food, so we went all American....excellent!

We stopped at the gas station and got ice cream cones - what a great night! This is the hostel we stayed at when we first got here, not comfortable really, but cheap.