California Trip

Danny had a work conference in San Diego the first week of March. We decided it would be a good opportunity to escape the cold. The boys were in their school play, so we couldn't leave until March 1 and that was the day the conference started, so Danny ended up flying down there the day before we left in the car. We also had to cut our trip short a couple of days when we found out that one of Danny's YSA counselors was getting married on the day we were planning to drive back. On our list of things to do in California were Sea World, the beach, and Magic Mountain. We ended up having to do Magic Mountain without Danny when we discovered that they were only open Friday-Monday at the time we were there. We needed to drive home Friday, so I took the kids on Monday while Danny was at his conference still. The day couldn't have been much better. It was perfect weather, and we walked onto almost every ride. At the busiest time of the day, we had to wait in a couple of 15-minute-long lines. The biggest disappointment of the day was that all of us really wanted to ride X2 because we had heard so many people talk about it. We only saw it open one time all day and it only stayed open for about 30 minutes before closing down again. I learned that my older body cannot handle the rides there as well as it used to. I was feeling so sick from the nonstop thrill rides and lack of lines for most of the day.

On Tuesday, we went to the beach. It was a little colder than we would have liked it to be. In fact, the whole week was about 10 degrees colder on average than we were expecting. It also didn't help that there was a pretty constant breeze coming off of the water. I made the rookie mistake of leaving unattended food in the outside pocket of our backpack while we took a walk down the shore. When we got back, there were about 50 seagulls gathered around our stuff taking turns pecking at the backpack. They had somehow managed to mutilate the star crunch inside the mesh pocket and remove most of it from the plastic wrapping, but not from the pocket. The worst part about it was that the dumb birds had pooped all over our blanket and backpack. The kids took it out on them by aiming their football at any seagull that dared to come close to us. Tyler even managed to hit one with the football and they all had a good laugh about it. The seagull was not harmed.

On Wednesday, Danny's conference was over, so we headed to Sea World together. Their was a chance of rain that day, so the weather was not ideal. However, I think the rain scared away the crowds. We walked onto every ride that day and the shows had plenty of seating, even when we arrived right at start time. We learned later in the day that there were only about 2000 people in the park that day. And we didn't even get rained on, unless you want to count the boys sitting in the splash zone at the orca show. The highlights of the day were when Tyler started on the front row at the orca show and then after seeing the first splashes to the side of him he moved up a row. He ended up about 4 rows back from where he started because he moved up every time there was another splash into the audience. Camden stuck it out in his original seat, but didn't end up getting very wet. Another highlight was when stumbled on the sea lion show. We had somehow missed that show in our search of all the shows and just happened to walk past the show as it was starting to fill up. Ashley and I got to see the very entertaining preshow, which was a single man that walked around messing with people from the audience. He eventually ended up on stage doing some things with a mop and music. He was pretty funny. The kids also fell in love with sea lions since they acted so similar to dogs. Ashley asked if we could get one after we left. LOL.

On Thursday, we drove north. We met up with some of Brian's kids at the Newport Beach Temple to do baptisms. Maryn was there, too. Then we spent the rest of the evening at their house hanging out. Brian didn't get home until later, but we were still able to fit in a few games with him, too. The kids loved spending time with their cousins.

We drove home on Friday. It was a great time to go to California. Ashley did have a few things she had to make up at school and we missed out on a few school events scheduled around that time, but I don't think any of us regretted taking that week off to enjoy some sunshine and make some memories. We missed having Alyssa there with us.

Another Ninja Competition

Tyler participated in another ninja warrior competition at the end of January. It was at a different gym, this time. He ended up bien third in the line up this time, so it didn't give him a lot of time to prepare and watch the others and learn from them. He actually did pretty well. I feel like the course was a little easier this time for him and he was able to complete at least part of all of the obstacles. The competition is steep at his age level, though, so he still placed like 17th out of 27. 

Here are some of the pictures from the course.

We left before the awards ceremony since we saw the leaderboard and knew that he wasn't in the top 5.

Nick and Anna's Wedding

We were happy to be able to attend Nick and Anna's wedding in Logan on January 18th. The weather was quite snowy that morning and we were worried about the drive, especially through the canyon  between Brigham City and Logan. But the snow stopped around 11 and the roads were pretty clear for the whole drive. We met up with Jeff right off of the freeway in Lehi so that he could drive up there with us and we arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare. It was a full car with the 5 of us, Jeff, and Dad but the kids didn't complain about being squished in the back row.

The wedding was beautiful. I was surprised how similar it was to a temple sealing, minus being sealed together for time and all eternity. They were not able to get a temple reservation for that morning in the Logan temple, but they had plans to get sealed in the near future. My favorite part about the wedding, besides seeing the couple so happy, was the cute little flower girl that walked down the aisle. 

Everything took place in the same room. First the wedding, then the luncheon, and finally the reception. The luncheon was Cafe Rio and delicious. We didn't end up staying for the reception because of the long drive back home and wanting to get through the canyon before dark. We felt bad that Dad did not have a chance to see his siblings because of our early departure, but other than that we had no regrets. We are so happy that Nick and Anna found each other and look forward to getting to know Anna even better in the future.
 

Ashley's 17th Birthday

Ashley and Alyssa were both a little sad when we found out that Alyssa would be gone before Ashley's birthday. We did a double celebration for her, once before Alyssa left, and once after. She got to open one of our gifts and a gift from Alyssa. We had brownies and ice cream for a treat. 

On Ashley's actually birthday, we let her invite some of her friends over for a game night. They played jackbox games and then had cake and ice cream. Her friends were a little crazy, so Danny and I mostly hid upstairs. Her request for the cake was red velvet. She wanted a character from her favorite you tube channel, the beard. The Beard is always hidden in their videos, so we did the same with Ashley's cake and had her friends try to find the cake. 

Ashley was a little stressed out with how crazy her friends were acting and was a little relieved after they left that nothing ended up broken. She had a good birthday and we even got to talk to Alyssa for a few minutes that evening.

Alyssa Leaves for the Philippines

It was unbelievably hard to say goodbye to Alyssa. What do you say to your child, or sister, as you say goodbye to her, knowing that you will not get to hug her again for 18 months. We got to the airport around noon and get her bags checked quickly. We had about an hour of sitting with each other in the waiting area before sending her through security. 

When it was time for her to go, she hugged her grandparents in the waiting area. 

The rest of us walked with her to security. This pictures make me so sad because the kids were crying all afternoon after saying goodbye to her.

I don't have the picture with me because it is on Danny's phone. We waved goodbye and watched her come out on the other side of security. Then we started to pray that she would arrive safely.

Alyssa made this for Camden before she left when he was sad and he carried it around with him for the next week.

 Three excruciatingly long days later, we found pictures of her on Facebook at the MTC. Shortly before we saw the pictures, we had a couple of emails from Alyssa telling us when p-day was and letting us know that she would be calling later that day to get our help connecting to her Facebook account on her new phone (she needed a code sent to her phone at home)

As you can see from the pictures, she was one of the few Americans in the MTC the whole time she was there. She was also one of the tallest (only a few elders and one sister were taller or the same height as her for the entire 9 weeks). Little by little, we have been able to get information from her about her trip there. The layover in San Francisco was long. She did a lot of pondering and crying, I'm sure Someone bought her dinner at the airport. We wished he had taken a picture of her and sent it to us, but oh well. She also had a guy on her flight hit on her and ask her to meet up with him when she gets back to the states. The flight was long, but she said she was able to sleep on it. When she got to the airport in Manila, her bags were not there. She filed a report with baggage claim and then had an awkward 2 hour drive with a driver to a hotel in Manila. Eventually, she met up with another American missionary (an Elder) and they walked around a bit to kill the time. That Elder ended up being in her district and they became good friends. She arrived at the MTC the next day and they told her they would send us word that she had arrived (but we never got anything). Her bags took 4 days to arrive, but her companion let her borrow stuff and the MTC Presidents wife gave her some clothing. Her district had 2 brothers from Africa, 3 sisters from Pakistan one of them ended up being her companion), the American Elder, a Sister from Austrailia, and a Sister from New Zealand. Once her bags arrived, things got much better for her.

Family Photo Shoot

About a week before Alyssa left, we got family pictures taken. We usually get this done about every other year, but who knows when then next time will be. We were happy with how they turned out.

We got shots of Alyssa with each of her siblings

The photographer was so good with the kids, especially Tyler who refuses to look at the camera in any pictures we take of him. At one point she even threatened to add a mustache to his picture if he didn't look at the camera. And then this was the first shot in the gallery.

I love looking at these pictures and preserving that time in my memory when all of my kids were home with us. We may never have that again.

 

Tyler Receives the Priesthood

On January 5, Tyler was ordained to the office of a deacon. Alyssa was 2 days away from leaving for the Philippines and Tyler was happy to have her there still. Gawbie and Grandpa were able to come, too. This was one of our last family pictures together before Alyssa left.

We moved the bishopric along quickly with Tyler's temple recommend, because Alyssa wanted to be able to go with Tyler the first time he went. We thought we would have a couple of weeks to fit it in, but with the change to Alyssa's MTC and start date, we had the morning of the 7th to have them go. We had to be to the airport at noon. So Alyssa, Ashley, Tyler, and Danny headed off to the temple at 6:30 am that morning and were back home with enough time for us to sit around and enjoy the last couple of hours with Alyssa. He enjoyed the temple and has been back multiple times since.

The first time he passed the sacrament was in the YSA ward. They gave him the easiest route and he did a good job with it. It was cute to see him standing up there with all of the YSA's. We are still getting used to having him in the young mens, but he seems to be enjoying it.