Friday, April 30, 2010

Hotel Highlights

When you're in a hotel for a week, you eat sour Warheads and take pictures of your sour faces.

Our hotel stay here was because the house we had lined up got a leak (the day I left AZ).

It ended up being good cause we're in a bigger and better house.

While in the hotel, I had a birthday.
It was on a Sunday.
To make myself feel better about a Sunday hotel birthday I had an enormous piece of cake.

Also during our hotel stay, Owen started his new school.

He looks so studious holding that notebook. But really, it's filled with Pokemon cards that he wanted to look at on the way.

What you don't see is his backpack from the 2002 Olympics holding a flowered notebook that he got from my mom.

Drew is knocking on the door to get back in cause it was cold.

The only other excitement from the hotel was getting called on twice for being loud. We are glad to be out of there.

The Last Leg

Between Tami's 8 and my 3 we took over the McDonald's playground in Wilcox.

Tami was nice and met us there on our way from Mesa to El Paso.

She was REALLY nice and brought brownies, balloons, and snacks for the drive (for my birthday).

It was fun for the kids to play together...they were so happy!

And I was happy I got to see all my available siblings on this little journey (Brent missed out in Afghanistan).

PS Tami is a good hugger. I am not.

The little pit stop made it so I didn't get to El Paso until like 1AM but it was worth it. That was the halfway point where we spent the night.

Did I mention I was doing this leg of the journey SOLO? My mom was planning to come but I waited too long to book a return flight and it would've been $450. No thank you.

She felt bad so she and my dad thought of everything possible to make it bearable for us...hence the car-seat tray.

She bought shower hooks and stuck em to the windows so each kid their own water bottle and bag that I refilled with snacks and dollar store toys when necessary.

Next time, though we will for sure be safety pinning blankets to car seats and creating a shoe bag. Crazy how shoes were always lost in such a small space!

It went waaaay better than I thought it would.

But it's rough playing "I Spy" on the freeways of Texas. We could choose between:
trees/bushes/grass
the sky/clouds
semi trucks
fences
and wild flowers and oil rigs if we were lucky.

If our Texas route had a perfume it would smell like tar, oil, and gasoline. Yes I had a lot of driving time on my hands to think up these things.

We got to San Angelo on Justin's birthday.

So for his birthday he got us!

And his Chili's chocolate lava cake.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

2 Days in Mesa

An early birthday celebration for me with my family at Nielsen's.

I am the proud owner of an Alan-here (my dad) creation.
He made this tray for Sally's chair.
I like: the clamps used to hold it on, that he autographed it,
and that he let Sally read one of his precious National G's to try it out :)

My grandma stopped by with some books for the rest of the journey.
Have I mentioned Sally likes books?


We got to meet Nate & Bethany's new baby Gavin.
These are all the kids of the oldest 3 in Justin's family.

And lots more.

Rachel I'm sure misses sharing her bed with Sally & me :)
My parents house is FULL!

Cousins after Church

On our way from Monterey to Mesa we visited Errin and Jones in Oceanside. The Burrs were there, too...which meant cousins got to play and I got my hair done. :)

The Monterey Wrap Up


Loading up day.
Yes my poppies are strategically in this picture. I miss them!
My movers were all a little scary looking but they were so nice.
My mom showed up this day and I cried tears of joy/relief.


After we finished at the house we took my mom to the
wharf for some clam chowder that she loves.

This lady just wanted to use Owen as a demo.

If the drawing ended up looking like him I would've bought it.
But it didn't.




Danna and the B's met us down there.
I think I said bye to Danna 4 different times.
And cried every time.
I cried a lot that week.
So I'll just stop mentioning every time I did.
You can just assume I cried and you'd probably be right.


Mama!


We spent our last night in Monterey the same place we spent our first night:
The Navy Lodge.
That's one place I won't miss!
(seeing as our first stay there was a whole month)


One last delicious breakfast with the Bs.
The ones that made it possible for me to move with no husband around.
They did SO much.
THANK YOU!

After this we were on the road...and the pictures fell off my van :)

Bye to everyone I didn't get to say one last bye to.
And thank you to EVERYONE that helped!
You all are welcome in Texas or Georgia ANYTIME :)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Scattered Pictures

This would be me running across the highway.

Less than 1/2 hour after leaving Monterey we heard a thud hit the van.
Then the car next to me pointed to my roof box.
I pulled over to see that it was open and a box of pictures had fallen out.
By the time we got back to it, it had been run over.
200+ pictures were scattered on both sides of the highway.
The same pictures I didn't let the movers pack cause I wanted to keep them safe.

Apparently that plan backfired.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

My Perfect Monterey Area Day


Would start off with breakfast at Wagon Wheel.
I would eat eggs benedict, oatmeal pancakes, and an omelet all by myself.
I didn't know I even liked eggs benedict til I tried it last week and seriously thought about it all day. And this is coming from someone who doesn't like runny eggs.
I would probably enjoy Wagon Wheel better with no kids but if mine were there, at least they'd give them horsies to play with.

Then I'd go do a harvest or flower walk at Earthbound Farm.

Then I'd go to Point Lobos.
The tides would be perfectly low, the tide pools full with everything imagineable (and I'd be able to identify everything), and the waves would be hugely crashing against the rocks.

And then I would eat lemon chicken at Tommy's Wok.

Throughout the day I would randomly see all my friends.
And my kids would be in good moods the whole time.

Goodbye to my happy place.

The Movers Are Here

This marks the first time Sally told me to, "take a picture."
She was all proud of her bundle of crayons.
She's wearing ratty clothes cause it was spaghetti night.
This was right after she came into the bathroom and told me to, "be reverent."
Didn't know she knew that word.

The aquarium has a new exhibit...the flamingos!

And I'm so happy they finally got a sea turtle. Loved this guy.

You can also see yourself on the big screen in the new exhibit.

Last trip to the aquarium!

Followed by a last trip to the farmer's market.
meat on a stick,

cupcakes,

and caramel apples

This was after a yummy dinner with friends (Cybill is one of our babysitters we love)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Primary Singers

These primary kids sing their little hearts out every Sunday and I love it.

Just one more thing I'm gonna miss!

(Justin's orders didn't get changed like we were told they most likely would, so we are still moving this week!)

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Good Old Days Year 2


Started with a parade.
These guys made me shed a tear.

So did these guys for a whole nother reason.
The Balloon Platoon

Only in a California parade...


Last year we bought overpriced lemonade.
This year we spent our money on overpriced games and rides.

A kid from our ward was in the dunk tank.
Drew tried to dunk him but no luck.






The free bird holding won the happy prize this year.

The not about me night


that really was.

Originally: a good-bye dinner for me.

But then: We found out the military here messed up in giving Justin orders for us all to move to TX. The movers are scheduled to come Thursday and we still don't know if we're moving or not. 90% we're staying here til June. So I emailed everyone saying it was no longer a good-bye dinner. Just a fun night.

And then: Danna emailed everyone behind my back to ignore my email :)

So: I was surprised with a goodbye (just in case) and early birthday dinner at Lalla Grill.

You're looking at a delicious lemon coconut cake and me turning 4 years old.
Wish you could see the framed pictures and fresh flowers decorating the table.

Thank you Shawna


and Danna for organizing!
The favors were circus animal cookies wrapped up all cute that said,
"the birthday girl's favorite,"
and note cards that said, "don't forget to write."
So thoughtful.

Thank you ALL for coming and making me feel special :)
If you could tell your husbands to join the military and get orders to Georgia I'd appreciate it.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

My Son Has a Crush on a Chipmunk

I overheard Owen whispering to Drew, "I kind of like Brittany."

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Easter is Over

But I'm back looking at my pictures.
I think this is my favorite picture from Easter and really wish it was my child focused in the foreground.