Pretty in Pink

A couple of months ago our camera went wacko and decided not to work anymore. So we pulled out our discarded digital camera and went back to using that. Buuuuummer! I was campaigning hard for a new camera and the one I really wanted was the canon rebel. Whenever I would talk to Kefford about it he would laugh at me and tell me there is no way he is spending that much money on a camera. It is a really pricey camera. Instead though, for our anniversary he surprised with a different new camera, the Kodak Easyshare m580, in pink! I was bummed for a split second because it wasn't the one I really wanted, but, once i saw all of the features and what the camera was capable of I quickly fell in love. Plus the cute pink color is a major bonus!

This picture makes it look more purple but it is really pink. :0)
I took it on my trip with me and all of my California pictures were taken with this camera. I think the camera takes really great pictures and I am happy to have a new one finally. yay!

These are pictures that Kefford took with my camera.

Out little thumb sucker.

I really love this picture. i think it is a cool action shot.

And what secrets do you think these two are sharing? This is another one that I love so much. I like that it is not all posey and that it is capturing a moment.

I am excited to continue to play around with my new camera and I love Kefford for always continuing to spoil me. He is the best!

Oh No!

The other night we were sitting around reading scriptures as a family. When it got to be my turn to read I opened my mouth and all of a sudden started coughing. I had a weird yuck in my throat and so it sounded a little hacky. Right in the middle of my coughing semi-fit Avynlea blurts out..

"Oh No! SHE HAS THE FEVERS!!!!

It made us crack up laughing so hard. So random and soooo funny!

Homecoming!

I had a fabulous trip with my family in California. But on Saturday I was OK with leaving and going home. I missed my kids, Kefford, my house, my bed and being in my routine. I was a little sad to say goodbye but I was happy to be going home to my family. I was really excited to give my kids the surprises I had brought back for them.

At Disneyland I bought each of the kids a lollipop which they loved. For the girls I got them Best Friends Forever necklaces. Kenedy is into that kind of thing along with Avynlea and Rylee just likes jewelry so I knew it would be a hit. Which it was. They thought the necklaces were really fun. Kenedy got "Best", Avynlea got "Friends" and Rylee got "Forever".


I found the perfect thing for Ryker. Last year while we were at Disneyland Ryker got to be a Jedi and fight Darth Maul. So when I saw a "Mickey as a Jedi" pin I knew it had to be his. Can you see him wearing it in the picture? Ryker was soooo excited when I gave it to him. He absolutely loved it. Score!

I had a lot of fun in California but it was really nice to come back home and see my family. They told me how much they missed me and that kinda felt good. It is good to be missed. Having said that though..when can we do it again?! :0)

the Los Angeles Temple

I have not been back to do a session in the LA Temple since I took my own endowments out 12 years ago. Since I was coming solo this trip to California I asked my Mom if we could go to the Temple so I could do a session. Of course she said yes. So on Friday Mom, Andrew and I picked up Erin at her place and headed out to the Temple. Andrew needed to visit the distribution center and while they did that I walked over to the Temple entrance to be by myself for a couple of minutes. I love the LA Temple. It is so big and so beautiful. I love that it is up on a hill and it just looks so majestic.

When I went through for myself 12 years ago the entire endowment stayed in one room. I was really happy to find out that they now go to different rooms throughout the endowment process and I loved that. I have never done that before and it definitely kept me interested. After our session we were in the Celestial room and I saw that the door to the Sealing room that Kefford and I were sealed in all those years ago was open. It was roped off but the door was open so I went over to take a look. The memories washed over me and i got a little teary eyed. It was so cool to see the place where Kefford and I were sealed for Eternity. Definitely the next time Kefford and I are together in California we need to come back and do a session together.

I had Andrew pretend that he was going to jump into the reflection pool that is in front of the temple. I think it would have been a better shot if he actually jumped into the pool. It would have made me happy at least!

Andrew was leaving for his mission in a couple of days and so I was happy that I could go through the Temple with him one last time before he left.

Me and my Mom!

Thanks Mom for taking me back to the Temple. I am sorry that the drive home took us 3 hours because of traffic but for me it was worth it to be with some of my family in that beautiful Building!

Beach Trip!!

On Thursday we packed up our towels and sand toys and headed over to the Pacific Ocean. :0)

I LOVE the beach. I love the sand, I love the salty air, I love the sound of the waves crashing. When I was growing up almost every summer my family would pack up our camping stuff and head to the beach for a week of camping. It was always so fun and I have a lot of glorious memories of our time together. One of my biggest bummers about living in Idaho is the lack of the Pacific Ocean. So you can bet i jumped all over a day at the beach while I was in California.

My sister-in-law, Anita, and I were standing at the shoreline watching the waves when a big one came and crashed on us getting us pretty wet. We decided that since we were already halfway wet we might as well take off our cover ups and get in the water. Brrr the water was cold, it always takes a while to get used to it but once the numbness sets in it is great! I had some fun in the water with Anita but let me tell you those waves were tearing me apart. They were so strong that day and I tried jumping them but then I would get pulled under and tossed around. So then I tried going under then but they would still catch me and flip me around. I finally had to call it quits and go in. I am glad we braved the water though, nobody else was brave enough. Ha!

See my crazy, frizzy beach dried hair? Fun stuff and oh so sexy right? hahaha Good thing I had my hat!

Me and my bestie Heather!

Erin, Elizabeth and Heather...I love my sisters!

We got to the beach early so that we could claim one of the fire pits so we could do some roasting later. After some delicious roasted hot dogs it was time to break out the marshmallows!

I love mine caught on fire and turning black!

Don't want to get burned!

Now I can blow out the fire and eat my mallow!

I love the look of my nephew Dillans face behind me. hehehe

Even though my brother Jeremy couldn't be there I was really happy that his family came. Here I am saying goodbye to Anita, Jaylynn, Little Jeremy and Alec.

I had a wonderful time at the beach and am really glad that we made the time to go. Thanks Heather for planning it!!

Another Free Meal!

Wednesday morning we packed up our things and checked out of our Hotel. It was time to head home...but...not before we redeemed our free breakfast coupons! Yeah! We wanted to go back to Steakhouse 55 for breakfast since we had such a good time previously.

I ordered french toast with a warm berry sauce with a side of roasted potatoes and another side of bacon.

The french toast was super delicious, the bacon was not that great and those potatoes were the best tasting potatoes i have ever eaten. They had onions and green peppers mixed in with them and they were so tasty. Yum Yum.

After we were all finished eating we were just sitting around talking and I started playing with my camera. My mom was looking away from me and so I got my camera ready and called her name..boom, I took a picture. Hahaha. It was kinda funny she just rolled her eyes and looked away again. So this time I went even more sneaky, I got my camera ready and then I ..fake sneezed..she looked over again and...Boom..

I took her picture. Hahaha so funny. I am going to do that fake sneeze trick more often, it really made me laugh!

Oh what a delicious breakfast we had. yum yum yummeries!
I could really get used to this free business, too bad it had to end!

Positive Feedback

It really is fun for the kids when I leave and Kefford is in charge. Many times I think it would be better if he was the one to stay at home and I worked...except I don't like to work..hmmm. But when Kefford is in charge they always have so much fun. One of the days Kefford took them to get snow cones and while they were sitting on the grass enjoying their treat Rylee looked up at her Daddy and said...

"Daddy, you make us all so happy!"

Isn't that the sweetest thing? Kefford said it made him feel really good!

Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday morning we all woke up bright and early and got ready for a day at Disneyland. Waaaaay back in February I found out about Disney's "give a day, get a day program". The concept was for you to do a day of service and then Disney will give you a free pass for one day. Not too shabby. So I went onto the website to sign up. They had a list of serviceable activities to do in my area and as I was searching I found one that really excited me. It was the "Project Linus". Way back when Ryker cracked his skull open he spent about 5 days in the hospital. And while he was there he got some blankets from the Project Linus foundation. At the time I thought that was so cool and I thought it would be cool to give back by making blankets and donating them. Well that idea kinda slipped from my brain and so I was really excited to finally be able to air out that idea and do it! So I did. I made two teen size fleece blankets and donated them to the organization. It was kinda cool. And then I got my free ticket..YaaaY!



So at about 7:20ish Erin and I left the others and made our way to the will call window in front of the park to get my ticket. Disney also has a special thing for guests of their Hotels. It is called Magic Morning and it entitles you to get into the park one hour before general population. Cool thing! So I got my ticket and then the guy said that I cannot get into Magic Mornings with that kind of ticket. What! I said that we were guest at the Hotel and he said it didn't matter I couldn't get in. Bummer! So we went to stand in line with all of the common folk and waited. While we waited I took some pictures of the California Adventure sign. After about 10 minutes we were tired of waiting with all of the commoners and thought what would it hurt to try it out. So Erin and I walked over to the Magic Morning entrance gave the girl my ticket and showed her our room keys and....were let in! No questions asked! I think that guy was a little confused! So I called Heather and Ashleigh who were saving our places and told them we were in. Let the fun begin!!

We went on Space Mountain, Matterhorn and the Submarine Ride before Mom caught up with us. We had to do the more crazy roller coasters fist because Mom is not a fan of those. Even though this day was Heathers birthday My family were really cool and let me be the one to decide what to do. They all have season passes and can go whenever they want but they knew this was a one time thing for me to be here without the kiddos and so they let me dictate what to do. I thought that was really great of them! I really wanted to go on the Submarine ride because I have not been on it since they changed it to a Finding Nemo theme. Heather hates the ride because of the being trapped feeling but even she was gracious about it and sucked it up for me. Luckily she was the last one on so she had the seat right next to the exit. I think that might have helped her a little bit more to endure it. So after Mom found us we all decided to head over to Splash Mountain. Apparently they up the ante with the water during the summer. Heather and I were in the front and by the time the ride was over we were pretty wet. My entire right leg was soaked through and my entire bum was wet. Luckily it was a hot day so we dried up pretty quick!

While walking through Adventure Land I saw Aladdin and Jasmin and so I stopped to take a picture.

That night was Baseballs all star game and so Disney celebrated by having the all stars in a parade through Disneyland. We thought it would be fun to check out the action so we stayed to cheer on the players.

Now we are not a baseball watching family, if it were basketball you can bet that most of us would have known who the players were but since it was baseball we had no idea who any of them were. But that did not stop us from cheering for every single one of them, in the 100 degree heat, with no shade, for about an hour. We were, hot and soaked through with sweat but we had so much fun yelling like crazy every time another player came by in his truck. Good thing the trucks had placards on them that said who they were otherwise it wouldn't have been as much fun. We cheered for each one like they were our favorites. Alot of them were video recording the fans and let me tell you we got on so many videos. it was exciting.

I did know who Derek Jeter was..kindof..so I got a picture of him and his truck. If you look close you can see his little head right by his name sign.

We finally got tired of standing in the heat and we decided to call it a day with the cheering and we walked away. It was then that we saw we were only two away from the end. Oh man! We almost made it!






We loved the confetti that came down throughout the parade!

While we were hanging around one of the cafes we saw Mary Poppins and Bert. I thought that was kinda fun so I went to take their picture. Let me tell you that Mary Poppins was so rude I wanted to take her umbrella pop her on the head with it and tell her to be nice. She was ignoring most people around her and even was rude to a little boy whose painted face got too close to her skirt. Not a happy lady. Boo to her!

We took a ride on the teacups and Heather and I made ours spin really fast! We have strong arms! :0)

I talked my family into going onto Tom Sawyers Island which they gave a pirates theme to. It is a big island in the middle of Disneyland that you get to by getting on a raft and crossing the river. It was OK but I thought it would be more exciting.

Any of you Pirates buffs recognize this skulls and crossbones ball?

Last year when Kefford and I took the kids to Disneyland I didn't go on the Indiana Jones ride because Avynlea and Rylee were too small to go on. So this time I definitely wanted to ride it and how excited was I when Erin let me trade places with her so I could be the driver. After we climbed in our car I assured all of my passengers that I will get us through safely and will do my best to make it a good ride. :0)

It was a blast. This might sound stupid but I really felt like I was driving the car. I had so much fun and we were just laughing the entire time!

I had such a good time a Disneyland and I am glad that I could go and spend the day with my Mom and sisters and be a kid again. Such good memories!



P.S. Can anyone explain why I get so many gaps between my pictures when I upload them to blogger and how to avoid that. It is kinda annoying!