December Fun

Dave took me to City Center's VIP pre-grand opening last Wed. Dec. 16th. Kleinfelder Eng. worked on City Center and so they were given 2 VIP tickets. They were playing interesting music with different kinds of instruments and handing out food from the restaurants. I told Dave it reminded me of Star Wars when they were eating at places with wierd music playing. Once, me thinking I was ready for something sweet because we were eating lots of exotic meats and sauces, I saw a man carrying some ice cream cones -it looked like chocolate and vanilla swirled. I eagerly took one and bit in, as did Dave, only to find it wasn't ice cream but probably liver and something really icky. Luckily just up the stairs was a beautiful assortment of yummy chocolates. It was fun hanging with Dave and seeing all the upscale shops and rooms and lots of lavishly dressed people. There was a neat fountain that changes colors and a cool wall of water as you arrive. This picture is who we were greeted with as we entered. We love Christmas caroling to the neighbors.
The Christmas parties are fun to look forward to. This is from Dave's work party.
We also enjoyed yummy breakfast and great people at our Ward Christmas breakfast; had fun running around the Red Hill with Joey, Kristie and family; visited with my grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins at the Covington Christmas party; and savor the time with my parents and family -plus a really fun bonus of holding a very sweet little baby girl Maggie.

Every year, beginning with mine and Dave's second Christmas (1991), we sleep out by the Christmas Tree the Eve of Christmas Eve (Dec.23). This year we decided to start the evening off by making your own pizza.

I think this will be a new tradition because everyone thought it was their best pizza ever.

Usually we play games and sing Christmas songs, but not this year. Ali got upset during a game, which she was winning, and stormed off to her room and only came back down to sleep -oh joy.

In the morning Dave made some super delicious omlets from the leftover pizza toppings.

This one is mine -Yum!

Happy Christmas Eve and

Happy Birthday Steve!

California -Fun!

California here we come!

We headed towards Sacramento Wednesday, November 25th at about 2:00 pm. and didn't get there until about midnight. It was a long drive, but so fun to get out and see Wendy and Lori awake to greet us. Thanksgiving day we had fun playing croquet in the beautiful CA sunshine, playing more games, reading and making these cute turkeys.
Here's our group: Wendy and Blair and their cute boys, Ben, Eric and Nate; Lori and Jamie; Wendy's friend Heather; and our family -13 of us all together.

We ate around 5:00 and it was yummy! Then we put on our PJs and hung out -the girls painted their toes and Sam decided he wanted to help.
These were actually blairs toes. Aren't they pretty? Sam couldn't wait to see them the next day to see if he still had those pretty toes.
Reading was big, just find a comfy spot. Playing the computer (I think they had 4 in a row upstairs -heaven for Spencer) was another big hit -so was bowling since it was raining Friday which I loved -I ran in it that morning. That night Ben showed some of us how to play Peanuckle and then Spencer came down and showed us how to play Spades. We didn't go to bed until 2am. Saturday Dave got in 9 holes of golf.
We had such a super time at Wendy's. She's always so accommodating and fun. I couldn't believe how quickly Sunday came. Then we loaded in the car again -this time we were suppose to be on the road for only 6 hours. Oops! Holiday traffic. We got out of church at about 12:00 and didn't get to Anaheim until 9:00 pm.

Monday morning we woke up and headed across the street to Disneyland with our good friends, the Gublers, from Santa Clara, UT.
Waiting in line which was hardly ever more than 15 minutes -mostly we only had about a 5 minute wait.
Matterhorn -fun! and Sam was tall enough 35" was the min and he was about 36".
We also loved the Tower of Terror in the California Adventure park. and Screamin, and Soaring California (my favorite).
Sam loved the Pooh ride that we rode a few times while we waited for the big kids to get off Splash Mountain which was Ali's favorite.
Pirates of the Carribean -Sam asked very seriously, "Are we going to get killed?"

It's a Small World was so amazing. They did a great job decorating it for the Christmas season.

A little wet after Splash Mountain, but still Ali's favorite. Lucky we had such terrific weather.

Spencer's favorite -and we all loved it, was Space Mountain.


It is a small world. We ran in to my cousin's husband Stafford and their daughter Finley from Kansas, the Halls from our ward in Henderson, and the Imlays and the Hanks from St. George.

We had a great time hanging with the Gublers.

They have a son, Drew, who's a week younger than Sam (he is also 40" tall so he got to go on some of the big kid rides like Space Mountain),

A daughter, Maddie, who's about six months older than Ali,

a son, Chase, who's about 6 months younger than Spencer, and another son, Dyllan, who I wish we had a buddy for.

Sam loved Dumbo and all the fun Disney characters around.

I loved all the fun Christmas decorations.

This was in the Haunted Mansion which they'd decorated for Christmas too -the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Crazy driver Sam.

More fun Disney Christmas.

It's a Small World was so amazing at night and so was Sleeping Beauty's Castle.


This was so cool. After the fireworks, on Main Street it snowed (bubbles).

Disneyland is so magical! We had a great time. We were there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until 2:00pm when waved good bye sadly. But I was so happy to pull up at 6:30pm and find our home anxiously waiting for us, and sleep in our very own comfy beds.

Home Sweet Home ; )

Halloween

Sam decided a few months ago that he wanted to be Max -King of the Wild Things. He's really good at being Max.

We went to Where the Wild Things Are at the theater a few weeks ago and Sam thought it would be great if Dave and I were KW and Carole -some of the wild things from the movie. I thought about it and decided it might be kind of fun to try to create those characters. I tried to talk Ali and Spencer into being wild things also, but that wasn't happening.

Last Saturday Dave and I went to a fun Halloween party at the Calls house. We ate yummy food, hung out, and and played the Thimble game. They also voted on best costume which Dave won

(actually Janelle, the hostess, won but she wasn't accepting the award). Another couple there, the Lynn's had great costumes. Kristine was Wilbur -the pig from Charlotte's Web, and John was the web who was carrying their 3 month old baby Micah in a front carrier (I can't think of the name?) and Kristine added 6 legs and the baby's made 8. It was so cute and clever.

On Wednesday night I got to perform Thriller with a fun group of "Mormon Moms" at our tri-ward Trunk-or-Treat party. It was a thrill. We've been practicing for a few months now every Wednesday morning at 9:00 -now what? You can check it out at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OIVtdjKrKc

Dave got to run the Spook Alley which he and the Scouts (Spencer's one of them) put together.

The Scouts also were the scary grabbers and moaners inside the Spook Alley. -Fun times.

This was at Ali's class Halloween party.

The whole school gathered out on the lawn the last half hour of school for a parade. It was pretty cool. This was the 1st time the kids got to wear their Halloween costumes to school. Some of the teachers had fun too.

Ali's been reading a lot of manga books and one of them is about a witch named Majoko. Ali is her friend Majohra who is also a witch.

Let the Wild Rumpus start!

I love their tails, and so do they. Sam and his friend Aiden, who's a dinosaur, argue over whose tail is bigger.

Spencer and his buddy Vincent. They didn't want to hang with us and told us to stay back -jk ;0).Here's our little trick-or-treating group. I was amazed at how long Sam hung in there. I thought we'd be done 1/2 hour into it. Notice he already took off one of his "claw" hands in the picture. Not too long after he told me he wanted to take off the crown. By about the 6th house he pushed off the Max head part because it was too hot (it was such a great evening). After a few more houses he wanted his costume off. I told him we were done trick-or-treating then. He left his costume on. We kept going and going. It was slow because he was so curious about all the scary things around in people's yards. Ali was quick with her buddy Ellie. Spencer called as we were heading home and said he was done -probably did twice as much in the same time. They all got so much candy, and tomorrow's fast Sunday -that ought to be fun.

This was a really fun year for Halloween. Hmmm ...what are we going to be next year?