Laguna Beach~Holiday Party 2009 at the Montage Resort

Joseph and I had a great trip to Southern California. My mom came and took care of the kids, I forgot to download all of her pictures, but they had such a great time together! She even made gingerbread houses with them with homemade gingerbread. She always does things with all of the kids that I would never attempt to do on my own. I need to get the pictures she took with her camera while we were gone. I think they had as much fun as we did.

Joe and I packed it in this trip. We tried to take it all in. We stayed up until 1:00 a.m. and were up by 6:00 working out, and swimming in the pools and the ocean, enjoying good food and we even took a trip to Disneyland/California Adventure. Next time I think we'll opt to stay and enjoy the Montage a little longer, but it was fun to go just together. We were exhausted by the time we came home.

I love the Montage. They have the best guest services. They treat you like royalty, but I must admit, sometimes I feel a little out of place. When they stop for me to walk past in the hallway and call me Mrs. Lee, I want to say, "Hey listen, you can call me Amy, I'm just a normal girl, who drives a mini-van, you will usually find me in a pair of old $9.97 clearance Gap jeans and a t-shirt with 4 small children in tow, nothing about my life is fancy, but my life is good and happy!" I know it is just part of their job, and they probably already know we're not like most guests that stay there, but I still would like to set things straight sometime.

This is so funny, but this is the only picture we got while we were at Disneyland/California Adventure. We were so busy talking and going on rides that we forgot. We walked past Mater and Lightning and said, "Ohhh! Aaron would love that!"

Salt Lake~Temple Square

We were so glad that we were able to squeeze the lights at Temple Square into our trip. Abby really wanted to see the Christus bu we made it seconds too late. They were ushering the last group down as we walked up and closed the visitors center. She was sad, but she cheered right up when she got to see the nativity right outside and then the Christus from the big window. We ran into our friends fromw law school who also live in Sacramento, Brian and Emily Bowen. My parents met us there after the BYU/Utah game. It was so nice to see them before we headed out. It's always hard to leave, but we are thankful for the memories.

Clarke Planetarium

We decided to get to Elko on Saturday night so that we wouldn't have to travel so long on Sunday. We made a stop in Salt Lake to go to the Planetarium, get dinner, and see the lights at Temple Square. The kids loved it!

Fun with the Cousins!

The day after Thanksgiving we spent trying to split the time between both sides of cousins. It's always so hard to leave one activity because the kids are having so much fun, but then they are so excited to see the other cousins as well. We spent the first few hours playing at Joe's sister Michal's with lots of cousins, but my family was going ice skating. The girls wanted to do both. When it was time to leave, they kept saying, "We don't want to go yet!" I told them they could stay, but that would mean they had to give up ice skating, "But we want to go ice skating too!" We comprimised and they played for 45 more minutes and then we went ice skating for about 45 minutes. It ended up being perfect, I don't think my kids could have handled any longer. Brynn was tired and struggled a bit, it made her really mad. I didn't post some of the pictures because she didn't like that she was crying in them. She gets frustrated when things don't come easily to her. Abby LOVED it. She was racing along so fast it scared me. I took Brynn with me to run a few errands afterward and had Abby go home with Grandma and Grandpa and the other cousins. I bought Brynn a new skirt and DownEast and she was a different person. I better watch out! Retail therapy is not something I want to encourage. :)

Thanksgiving 2009 in Utah

Wow, I finally got some of my Thanksgiving pictures downloaded and ready to write about. They are not in order by any stretch of the imagination, but I am determined to keep up with this blogging thing. Just the other night, Joseph and I were talking about what happened in the year 2009. We quickly referred to the old blog and laughed about all of the cute and funny things the kids said and all of the memorable moments that we were pushed back in our memories. I'm determined to keep up.

I should try to get things in better order but I think I just need to write. We spent Thanksgiving in Utah this year. It was wonderful! Details are already starting to slip from my mind, but I want to recall everything I can, even if it is more of a travel log. We decided to go a little earlier this year, so my mom flew in to drive with me and the kids and Joseph flew in later for the last 4 days of the trip. We picked Mom up from the airport and drove straight to Elko, Nevada to spend the night at our usual Holiday Inn Express. I think we are considered regulars there now. :) The kids did awesome in the car and the weather was perfect for driving.

We got to Spanish Fork around 2:00 and got ready and then went to Scott and Annette's beautiful new house for dinner. It was great for the cousins to play and I loved visiting with my siblings, parents, and nieces and nephews. On Monday we got settled in, did a little shopping, and then went to see Joseph's little sister Celeste perform in the musical "The Music Man." She played the lead part of Miriam the librarian and did a wonderful job. She has an amazing voice. The girls sat quietly through the production and the boys, well, they crawled and wandered through empty seats at the back of the auditorium, but it was funny to see Aaron stop and become captivated and return to his normal wondering, toddler self.

On Tuesday I met with a couple of my friends from high school and visited. Kim, Amie and I had lots of fun catching up and seeing each other's children. I am so sad that I didn't get a picture of Isaac and Kim's little girl, Ella. They were born 1 minute apart! One minute! I can't believe I forgot to pull the camera out, I thought that would be cute to have a picture of the "twins" now and then in 20 years take another picture. Oh well, it's an excuse for us to get together again soon! I had the best friends in high school. Now that I have daughters (sons too) of my own, I hope that they will choose good friends like the ones I had. They are all such good moms and smart women. In terms I always use for my children I would say (in speaking about my friends) They made good choices then, and they are making good choices now.

On Wednesday we did our baking day. I was in charge of the pecan yams. I have never really cared for yams and then a few years ago when we were in Spokane, Joe's aunt Linda's mom made the best yams ever! They tasted like they belonged on the dessert table (maybe that's why I liked them so much). It was fun to spend time in the kitchen with mom and Emily and my girls. I picked up Joseph from the airport that night. I am always so happy to see him. The one thing I hate about going to Utah is that I usually go alone and Joseph comes in later. I really miss having him around and the kids really miss him too! Our life is complete when he is around.

He hardly gets any sleep when he comes because he has so many people he wants to see and he plans so many activities and adventures. I love being with him. I am always so much happier when he makes it to Utah. I love my family and I love his family, but being away from him is hard and it makes me realize that my life would feel so empty without him. He is my best friend.

Okay so if this is not random enough already, here are some pictures to make it even more so. Abby tried on my old point shoes while we were there. We thought it was so cute to see her dancing around in them. She was actually pretty good, even though they were way too big. Well, after we realized that she took the lambs wool out and her feet blistered. Ouch! She was sad because they hurt so bad!

Abby thought making the pie crusts was the best!

Isaac just crawled all around us and inside the warmer as we baked and prepared food.

Many times he stood at the door watching the older kids on the trampoline, it was cold outside, but we did end up letting him play with them, he loved it every second!

While we were baking, Aaron went down to watch a movie and fell asleep on the luv sac. It was very convenient for us. :)

Abby had been dreaming up a Pilgrim costume for weeks. This was her completed outfit that she came up with the day before Thanksgiving and then we realized after that she didn't even wear it. I think she got a little shy when her older cousins came over dressed in their cute regular clothes. When my mom realized, she felt bad, but I told her that I thought half the fun for Abby was creating it in her mind. This is a dress that we bought about 3 years ago for her. She keeps pulling it out of the "clothes-that-are-too-small-bin."

After dinner, the women did the dishes and the men took the kids on a walk down to the Hollow (a children's wilderness/playhouse yards away from my parents home).

After we ate dinner and visited for a little while, we headed up to Joe's Mom's house to visit with them. It was a wonderful day! The food was amazing and the only thing that was better was visiting with so many family members. More to come!