Spring Break

We just got back from a fun and busy trip to San Diego for Easter Break.  We planned this trip over a year ago so that we could be sure to get a spot at Capri By The Sea.  After we booked our condo, I asked my parents if they wanted to join us.  They are always up for another trip and immediately booked their condo about 20 minutes north of Pacific Beach.

Our current family vehicle has been having issues with the transmission, heat/ac and needed new tires which made driving it to California not a safe option.  After looking at renting a car, flying or buying a new car, Gavin decided it was time for us to buy our very first brand new car.  The boys were so excited and went with him to pick it up.

We drove all day and made it to San Diego just in time to get settled in the condo and go to sleep.  We woke up the next morning and opened up the curtains and couldn’t get over the view.  

Pacific Beach

We grabbed some yummy breakfast at a little spot on Pacific Beach boardwalk called Konos and then headed down to the beach for the day.  It was sunny but the wind made it chilly.   Apparently not too cold for Gavin and the boys who spent most of the time out in the freezing water, boogy boarding.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to go to church in San Diego.  It was so good for my kids to see the diversity that the church offers outside of Utah.   They all said that it was the best sacrament they had ever been to and that they learned so much.  There was a sweet spirit present as we listened to so many newer converts share their testimonies.  And hearing Gavin share his testimony of the Book of Mormon and prayer was just an added bonus.

Balboa Park

After church we headed to Balboa Park for the free Sunday afternoon organ concert and (not-free) lunch.

We walked through the International Cottages and grabbed lots of free samples and since it was House of England’s turn to host there was a Beatles impersonator band and lots of English people walking (and bike riding) around.  We even saw people dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland.

Mormon Battalion Historic Site

We finished off the afternoon with a tour of the Mormon Battalion Museum.  We took the kids here 3 years ago but only the big kids remembered it.  Mia loved how the photos inside the picture frames came to life to take us through the tour.  “We should get pictures like that in our house, Mom!” And Mia even got to dress up in all of the gear that they soldiers wore in the battalion.

At the end of the tour the kids got to go back in time and pan for “fool’s gold”, wash clothes by hand and pretend to make bricks.

La Jolla Tide Pools and Children’s Beach 

The next day we drove into La Jolla for a kayaking tour.  Only we were 30 minutes late and had to reschedule for another day.  We drove a few blocks down to the tide pools and walked around looking for sea life.  It definitely didn’t compare to the tide pools we went to 3 years ago at Cabrillo but Jack and Ryan did find a few crabs.  We walked over to Children’s Beach and saw lots of seals (including ourselves) sunbathing on the rocks.

Universal Studios 

We only wanted to spend one day at an amusement park and gave the older kids the option of Sea World, Knott’s Berry Farm or Universal Studios.  They wanted to try somewhere new and chose Universal Studios.  We drove 2 hours from our condo to Universal Studios.  Morgan was so nervous the whole ride up and walking into the park.  She is not a fan of scary, fast rides.  We only had her go on the new Despicable Me ride and The Simpsons ride.  She didn’t like The Simpsons ride but acted like she liked DM even though she didn’t want to go on it again.  The big kids loved the Transformers and Mummy rides but everyone’s favorite was the Studio Tour.  Even though Morgan doesn’t like amusement parks at the time, it seems like she likes it after we are all done and back home.  She talks about Shrek 4D movie and that Princess Fiona needed help all of the time now.  Just wish she could enjoy it more while it was happening but the fear of the unknown takes away all of the fun for her.  Grandma and Grandpa joined us for the day and Ryan kept commenting on how cool it was that Grandma and Grandpa are so young at heart and go on all of the rides with us.

Kayaking

The next day we all just wanted to sleep in after walking all over Universal Studios and getting home late but no rest for the weary.  We had an early morning kayak tour set up in La Jolla.  We had already had to pay a $50 rescheduling fee for getting late and missing our first tour so we all woke up early and got ready to brave the cold waters.  Gavin, Jack and Ryan really braved the cold by not paying the extra $10 for a wetsuit rental.  We walked down to La Jolla and got into our kayak teams and headed out into the ocean.  I’m still not sure the purpose of our helmets.  Maybe it was just to let everyone else know that we didn’t know what we were doing.  The waves that we had to paddle over were huge, surfing waves.  The smallest person had to sit in the front of the kayak which meant that person got soaked on the way out to the smooth part of the ocean.  Poor Morgan, Mia, Griffin and Hadley. After the experience of the huge waves, Mia cried for remaining two hours of kayaking.  We kayaked over to some caves and then saw lots of sea lions on the rocks.  We all made it without tipping over except for Hadley and me.  We tipped over on the way back to the beach when we tried to go over a huge wave.

San Diego Temple

We spent the afternoon in the temple with Jack, Ryan and Hadley.  It was definitely a memorable experience.  Such a beautiful temple.

Coronado

We’ve never taken the family over the bridge to Coronado Island and thought we’d try something new.  What a beautiful part of California!! We had so much fun walking around the island and seeing the San Diego skyline in the background.  We rented surreys that held 6 of us and rode around the island.  We rode around on the boardwalk for about 30 minutes.  That was long enough for it be fun and not exhausting. 

Jack and Ryan were crazy drivers and almost crashed into us several times.

Hotel del Coronado

Seaport Village

We drove back across the bridge to San Diego and went to Seaport Village to walk around and get some dinner.

Las Vegas

Crazy how quickly the week fly by!  I think we all wanted one more day to just hang out at the beach and condo but it was time to pack up and drive to Vegas for the weekend.  We stayed at South Point Hotel.  It’s about 10 minutes from the strip and has a movie theater and bowling.  We were all ready to be home and didn’t do too much.  Gavin took the Mia and Griffin bowling one night.  We met up with Jeff and Rae and went to the New York New York casino so the big kids (and Uncle Jeff) could all go on the roller coaster.  Then we made our way down the strip to Serendipity’s so Hadley could finally try a frrrrozen hot chocolate.  We stayed at the same hotel as Weichers but only saw Sylvie and Surie.

Easter

The Easter bunny found us at our hotel and left everyone a basket of goodies.  Each basket had confetti filled eggs that we thought would be fun to break out in the parking lot on our way home.  This fun event ended with lots of tears and a confetti mess all over the sidewalk and in our hair.

We had a yummy Easter dinner in St. George with Nan and Papa on our way back home.

What a great way to spend Easter break!  After 9 days and 2000 miles of driving, we were all ready to get back home, except for Morgan.  That girl LOVES vacations and being out of school and doing whatever we want everyday.  And I have to agree that nothing quite compares to being on vacation.  Until next time. . .  stay classy, San Diego!

Junior Prom

Jack is a junior this year and asked sophomore, Annie, to Junior Prom.  He dropped off a pillow at her house with this written on the pillowcase: “It’d make all my dreams come true to go to prom with a girl as sweet and pretty as you”.  He got answered a few weeks later, the night before we were leaving out of town for Spring Break.

Prom no longer means just dinner and the dance.  There is always a daytime activity as well.  He went in a big group of 16 couples.  They picked up their dates at 10 am and went on a morning hike up in the mountains.  Then they took their dates home to get ready for the dance and picked them up at 5 pm.  We got to see them all and take pictures at his friend’s, John’s, house before they left for dinner at Market Street Grill and the dance at Rice Eccles Stadium.

Jack and Annie

Everyone in the group--all 32 of them

The Swag Team

 John, Logan, Logan, Jack, Kade and Jace

The Boys

The Girls

After the dance they went to a church and watched a movie and played volleyball then took their dates home.  Jack got home at 1:15 and even though he doesn’t like to tell us too much but just wants to text his friends about the dance after he gets home, he said he had a great time and lots of fun with his friends and Annie.  Seems just like yesterday that I was going to my own Junior Prom.  And to now have a child old enough to be going to his own Junior Prom.  It really is crazy how quickly the days fly by and your kids go from busy, wild toddlers to busy, (hopefully not too) wild teenagers.  

Vegas Birthday

Gavin had a business trip in Vegas over his 43rd Birthday so we decided to follow along and put to good use his suite at The Venetian while he was busy doing other important, business-related things.  Gavin and Griffin flew down and the girls (Hadley, Sylvie, Morgan, Mia and I) drove down and met them in Vegas.

We were only there for a few days and loved our big suite.  We stayed busy swimming, eating at the food courts, sightseeing on the Strip and hanging out in The Venetian.

We didn’t see Gavin at all on his birthday until late that night.  We met up for some gelato in St. Marks square and then Gavin and I joined up with his birthday twin, Adam and his wife, Cammi (and his brother Kipp and his wife, Chelsea) for a limo ride to The Paris buffet for dinner.

It was such a great, relaxing weekend.  We really should try to do it more often with Vegas being so close.  The kids had a great time and I loved the extra time I got to spend with them.

We felt pretty lucky that we all got to go on a trip to celebrate Gavin’s birthday even if we only did see him for a few hours the whole weekend.

Killing For The Crown

Hadley is officially a teenager!  She’s known for quite awhile what she wanted to do to celebrate her 13th birthday. . . a Murder Mystery birthday party just like her cousins did when they turned 13.  The premise for her party was a pre-pageant Miss America party.  All of the contestants, judges, father of a beauty queen, private investigator and the pageant hostess made up the guest list.  Hadley played the reigning Miss America.

The girls were the perfect age for this party.  They loved getting all dressed up and acting as their new character. I was worried they may be too shy but was wrong.  They were up for the challenge of being a beauty queen-- gossiping, black mail and even killing.

Hadley decided she wanted to have a chocolate fountain instead of a cake which worked out perfectly because the guests could all mingle around the table while working on their objectives and eat lots of chocolate coated treats.

And it’s no surprise that Gavin got completely into character, accent and all, as “Daddy Big Bucks”.

Unfortunately, Miss Texas (Sylvie) didn’t make it through the pre-pageant party without being murdered.  That is when the investigation started and the clues were given.

The former Miss America (Brinley) did her best to help us figure out who murdered Miss Texas with clues and hints.  Unfortunately, no one really looked at the right hints on the clues and were unable to solve the murder of Miss Texas.

We eventually found out who did it . . . Miss Arizona (Rilee) and even she was surprised.  She didn’t know she had it in her.  Apparently she really wanted to win the pageant this year and Miss Texas was her biggest threat.

Then it was time to vote for the Drama Queen and Best Dressed Awards.  Misha won the coveted “Dressed To Kill” Award and Hadley won the “Drama Queen” and “Miss Money Bags” awards.

Each girl took home a fun and easy parting gift...framed beauty pageant picture in their dress and sash. 

The girls ended the night with one more big group photo and then they took selfies and videos as they walked the red carpet and sang, “Here she comes, Miss America.”

Hadley loved every minute of her party and said it was definitely one of her favorites.  It wasn’t too hard to put together with this kit that came with the invitations, parts, clues and awards.

In honor of her 13th birthday, here are 13 things that we love about Hadley:

1.  She is now in 7th grade.

2.  She insisted that her locker needed to be decorated and wanted shelves, rug, mirror, chandelier, etc.  I surprised her and decorated her locker while she was at camp.  She was so happy when she opened her locker and it was all decorated.  I think she soon realized that she actually didn’t need all of that stuff and it really just got in the way of being able to use the locker for her books and backpack.

3.  She still loves to babysit!  Most of her pictures and videos on her iPod are of the cute kids she is babysitting.  Ryan decided to surprise her with a babysitting iPod cover for Christmas.  She loved it!

4.  Hadley LOVES to read and the Hunger Games series is still her favorite.

5.  She made a beautiful pirate for Halloween!    

 6.  She is definitely a teenager and has mastered the art of selfies and snapchat.

7.  Loves to be busy and involved and ran for 7th grade SBO and made it!  The SBOs got to be on the news and break the ground for the new soccer field that is going in.

8.  She is the BEST big sister and is always looking for fun things to do with Morgan, Griffin and Mia.  She takes them on bike rides, bakes cookies, gets them surprises from the store, babysits, crafts.  She is the ultimate sister and we are all so lucky to have her!

9.  Hadley and her friends love to do photo shoots together.  Some of my favorite pictures are from them being silly and documenting it on their iPods.  This generation is so lucky to have so many pictures from their childhood and with their friends.

10.  She finally got her own room and got to decorate it with new (and not-so-new) furnishings.  We painted Grandma Norma’s waterfall dresser and vanity in white and added some fun Anthropologie knobs.  And decorated her room in gray, yellow and turquoise.  

11.  She still plays the piano and is starting to learn some of the Hymns.

12.  She read the Book of Mormon in a day with her Young Women’s group up at an over night cabin activity last summer.

13.  Her 13th birthday celebration consisted of a new iPod (with a camera on the front), Beats headphones and Hunger Games collector Barbies.  She wasn’t very good at hiding her disappointment of not getting an iPhone.  Just a few more years, cute girl!

Happy 13th birthday to an amazing, talented, caring, giving, beautiful girl! xo