More adventures in California

Buckle up folks this is going ot be a long one. After the wedding on Thursday we all decided we wanted to go explore Los Angeles and check out a few famous spots. We drove around Rodeo drive, up by some celebrities homes, and then stopped and walked around hollywood blvd. I didn't get many pictures of that except for my most favorite picture I have ever had taken in my life. It is a picture with my older sister and we are with a midget puss n boots and a midget smurf. I'm going to try to get that picture posted because it was the highlight of my trip and I loved that the puss n boots was purring and meowing to my sister the whole time. I am such a people watcher that I kept getting lost in my own world just stopping and watching all the "different" people in the world. I can't believe the amount of people who dress up as characters and then charge people money to take pictures with them. My dad kept watching them and saying look at that wad of cash that one has. There must be some good money in that business. We saw everyone from Michael Jackson, Elvis, tinkerbell, hello kitty, Mickey mouse from like the 70's, to spiderman and batman. It was cool to see the walk of fame, Grauman's chinese theater, and all the shops they have on the boulevard. Saturday we decided to hit up Santa Monica pier and the beach. It was awesome. The kids all loved the ocean. My personal feelings about the beach are, I like sitting on the beach but have no desire to be in the nasty, cold water. I sat back and played in the sand with the kids and took pictures. After we did the beach we cleaned up and went to the pier. It was pretty cool but not what I expected. I was expecting more to do but I am so glad we went and experienced it. We didn't go on any of the rides because it was getting pretty late and we needed to go move the cars before they got towed. I got some awesome pictures of Addi in front of muscle beach. She was being so dang cute. One thing we learned is that it takes hours to go anywhere in California, their traffic is so horrible. We learned after the first couple days that it was best to go to one place and stay there instead of trying to get around to much because it wasted so much time driving and sitting in traffic. We sure enjoyed all that we were able to do while we were there. Showing off at muscle beach

Push ups

My favorite picture (meow)

More moves

Cuties at the pier

burried in sand with dad

mom & Addi

Family picture at the beach

Amanda & Logan

COLD water, shocked my body

Mom & Dallas

Addi building castles

Dad- is he Tebowing?

Brynlee being her cute self

kids playing

It was a reception to remember

Shayla was married on Thursday and they had their reception in Bakersfield, CA on Friday night. We got up early and got ready and drove the 3 hours to Bakersfield to help set up for the reception. We got there about 2:00p.m. and it was HOT. I was miserable, being almost 5 months pregnant and all. I wasn't super happy that we were setting up the outdoor reception and it was like 104! I might have just sat around and complained in the shade, but my mom and sisters and Kevin's mom were able to get the job done. It was so pretty. Beautiful backyard, simple, country, and classy decorations. The reception began as it started to cool off. They had an assortment of salads, rolls, and pies. It was so country, just like my little sister. Steve and Addi headed home pretty early because they had a 3 hour drive back to our hotel and Addi wasn't feeling well. The other guys left a little early too. My mom and dad stayed along with me and Amanda so we could help clean up. We were warned that there was bad traffic delays so we were hoping by the time we left that the roads would be all clear. We left a little before 11 p.m., and as our GPS was telling us to exit near our hotel ALL the exits were closed for construction. So after driving around for about 20 minutes in circles trying everything we could imagine to get on our road, we stopped at a gas station and, of course, the cashier couldn't understand my dad. I'm still not sure how we made it to the hotel because, seriosuly, every detour sign on the road led us to another closed exit. We did end up getting back to the hotel at about 2 a.m. Steve luckily heard me knocking on the door and let me in. Amanada wasn't so lucky. Dan was OUT. She knocked and knocked and knocked and then came to our room to call on the hotel phone, and he still didn't wake up. I think that took about 20 minutes of constant pounding and calling to wake him up. I'm sure their neighbors loved us. It was a long day, but wouldn't have missed it for the world! Beautiful

Cute little wagon

Who's the stud

The food table

He loves the guns

So cute

I loved this

Cuties

My brother and his cute family

Dan the man

Sweet little Bryn

Posers :) Addi just followed Aunt Shay everywhere

Kevin & Shayla's Wedding

My youngest sister Shayla had her wedding in the Los Angeles, CA temple on July 26th. We were so excited for this fun event. So happy for Shayla and to welcome Kevin into our family. We were mostly excited about the wedding but slightly excited for the fun adventures we had planned as a family while we were all there together! Wednesday we were able to be with Shayla as she got her endowmments and then on Thursday for the wedding. It was absoulutely a beautiful experience and a beautiful day. I'm so thankful for my family and I love that we each enjoy everytime we get to spend together. I appreciate that my parents and siblings choose to use their vacation time and money to visit us instead of going on fancy vacations. I feel very fortunate for our family. We get in our fair share of fights and arguments but it's usually because we just are trying to help. Enjoy the sweet pictures from Shayla's wedding. I'll post more about the reception and the adventures after. Oh and just for the record Steve and I stayed in by far the NASTIEST hotel ever on our way to Los Angeles. I can't recall the name of the town but MY OH MY it was miserable. I was crying because I was so tired and just wanted to sleep but I literally wouldn't touch the sheets, I had to wear flip flops in the shower just to prevent myself from getting any type of disease. I was so disappointed in kayak.com for giving this place such a high rating. We woke up way early and high tailed it out of there. I was so thankful for our temple apartments and the Marriott we stayed at later. Just a little game of ring around the rosies

Best of friends

Best of friends too

Beautiful bride to be

Worlds best Dad and Grandpa

Sweet boys

Married....finally

Courtney and Preston looking good

All the cousins waiting

All the siblings

Such love

Love her face, it's like what did I just do ha ha

The night of the bats

So I had heard from some locals about going to watch the bats migrate through Tucson on their way to Mexico in early May. I have to admit we were skeptical. How cool could a few bats under a bridge be? I was told the best place to go see this cool event is by a local wash here in Tucson. We brought Gail and Andy with us because they hadn't seen it before either. We parked and then walked down beside the overpass, where a few other people were waiting as well. When I walked under the overpass I could smell the guano and hear the little noises the bats were making, but I couldn't see them anywhere and I didn't think that there were going to be very many, because the seams in the pavement of the bridge were so tight. We just waited for a while. The only thing we read is that "it" happened at sundown. Sure enough, as we were waiting, we saw one bat fly out, and then another one that kinda circled around, and then all of a sudden, hundreds of bats just took off and it got so noisy from their screaching and flapping wings. It was amazing to see. I read that they think there were over two thousand bats in this one location, and as the sky filled with a huge swarm of them heading pff for their hunt in the setting sun, I had no doubt there were at least that many, if not hundreds and hundreds more. I tried to get good pictures, but it was just something that is so much better in person. Cool sunset

Walking to check out the overpass

The bats

Catching up.. Mt.Lemmon

Seriously, I can't believe how fast time flies. I often feel like our life is so boring and simple but then I look at our pictures and our blog and I realize how blessed we are to be able to do so many fun things as a family. We just love being able to hang out together, explore where we live, and make new friends. We love anytime that Steve can be home with us, and we try to make the most of our weekends. These pictures are from our trip up to Mt.Lemmon. We did this in June and had a blast exploring the newness of it all and truly loved being in the mountains. We found a nice little hiking path that we took off on, having no idea how far it was. Addi was such a trooper and walked most of the trail, of which we only did about 3 total miles, because it got soooo hot and we weren't prepared with water or food or anything. Addi loved being able to walk, and touch everything. She even found a catepillar and we were able to bring him home and put him in our plants. We wanted her to see it turn into a butterfly but he disappeared shortly after getting home. We really love being able to know we can drive an hour and be up in the mountains. Enjoy our pics. Our little diva

A cool seat carved out of a log

The catterpillar

A cool picture

Just plain beauty