August and September

Needless to say, I took a little break from my blog. I have been super busy this Fall season.

Courtney and Katie both made Cottonwood's soccer team. They had an amazing year. Their coach said it was one of the best teams he has ever coached. They won 9 games, lost 2 and tied 1. They ended up 2nd in their region, but lost to Layton in the first playoff game.







It was so great to watch them play on the same team this year. They both made Varsity. Here is one of Katie's amazing goals.



Tyler and Erin are still "going out", luckily she hasn't come to her senses yet. She got about 10 inches cut off her hair, so I made them pose for a picture.



Tyler finally got a job. He is working in the pizza kitchen at Desert Star Theater, and he absolutely loves it. A couple of weeks ago he purchased his first car. He was so excited when the title came in the mail with his name on it.



Katie finally got her braces off! Miracle of all miracles.

What a cutie!



James had to have surgery on his shoulder. He hurt it during a football camp this summer, and then hurt it worse in the second game of the season. Hopefully it will be healed by next year, that is if he doesn't fall down any more stairs! lol



Courtney is taking sign languarge and one of her favorite pastimes is drawing hands. In case you can't read hand drawn sign language, this says, "Courtney loves James".



As for me, I decided to go on the HCG diet and I lost 15 pounds! It was hard, but well worth it.



Hopefully things will slow down a little now that soccer season is over. Not that soccer season is ever over, they start practicing next week for the Turkey Shoot in Vegas :)

The Cruise

As you can tell from my last post, Disneyland was awesome. I guess the third time really is a charm! I kept getting deja vu every time I walked past a bathroom, or a street that I remembered from our last trip. Every time I felt that way, I would get a huge smile on my face and announce to everyone, "This is so much fun!"

Courtney had bunion surgery 2 weeks before we left, so she was in the wheelchair this time. It was actually pretty sweet, we only had a 3-4 minute wait for most of the rides!

Sunday we drove to Hesperia and spent the day with my sister Trish and her family. Monday morning we drove down to San Diego, met Mike and his family and then boarded the ship.

First stop was Tiffany's to have a little lunch and then it was off to the pool.



They spent hours trying to push each other off this board.









There were tons of activities for the kids. Tyler and Andrew loved to play with the giant chess set.





I loved going to dinner. It was like going to a fancy restaurant every night where the food was delicious and free!

Here is the way all my dinners started:







One night, the servers pulled Jess, Andrew, and Bev up to dance with them.





Alisa has a sweet camera and got some great pictures, luckily she shared her photos with me.

Tuesday was a fun day at sea and Wednesday was a fun day in Cabo San Lucas.



The beach was beautiful, I could have stayed there all day.



We played for hours.





Mike is a master barterer. He speaks fluent spanish and the deals he got for us were pretty amazing. After talking for a good 30 minutes, we all boarded a boat and went parasailing. Thanks Mike, but you are probably going to have to accompany us whenever we go on vacation now ;)



Thursday was another fun day at sea. Friday we docked in Ensenada, it was a far cry from Cabo, but once again Mike worked his magic and we all went to the blow hole and did some shopping!









Sean was actually pretty good at bartering too. He doesn't speak as fluently, but he also doesn't take no for an answer.



We got some great deals. Do you like my New York hat?



Tyler was very proud of his purchases.



Mmmm... fish tacos!





By Friday night, we were all exhausted, and a little sad that our cruise was coming to an end. Sean and Courtney had to get in some karaoke before we left. They sang Twisted Sister's "Were not gonna take it".



We played one last game of cards, and stuffed our faces one last time.



It was so great having my kids to myself. No cell phones, not texting, no friends. They showed some signs of withdrawls, but luckily they all survived. This was one of the funnest vacations that we have ever been on. I am so glad Mike and Alisa were able to come with us. Hopefully more members of the family can come next time. Courtney graduates in two years, so start saving!

Disneyland

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Julie (okay, she wasn't really a princess, but in this story she is). When Princess Julie was 4 years old, her parents took her and her brothers and sisters to Disneyland. Sadly, since she was so young, she had no memory of this wonderful place.

Princess Julie grew and grew and grew... stop laughing. When she was 19 years and 11 days old, she married a funny prince named Sean. They had 3 cute kids.

Princess Julie and her funny prince saved all their extra gold for years and years. The day finally arrived when they had enough gold to take their cute kids on a family vacation to Disneyland.

The night before their adventure began, Princess Julie started feeling sick. The next morning when the princess awoke, she was more sick than she had ever been in her whole entire life! She boarded the plane, and 3 agonizing hours later she was in Disneyland. The poor princess was so sick, she couldn't even go on any of the rides.

She was very sad.

Her funny prince was very mad.

Hours later, her funny prince finally realized how sick she really was. He quickly went and rented a chariot (wheelchair) for her, and that is where she spent the rest of that miserable day, praying for a quick and painless death.

Years went by and then one day, the princess' oldest cute kid graduated from high school. The funny prince thought it would be great to take the family on a cruise and celebrate this wondrous occasion. To start out their vacation he decided to take his princess, once again, to Disneyland. So they packed up their cute kids and on the very day that the princess turned 39 years old, they spent a glorious, fun-filled day at the happiest place on earth!

The princess was very happy.

Her funny prince was very happy too.

He even gave her a kiss on the cheek!



And they all lived happily ever after.....

THE END

Camping at Woodland

At the end of June we decided to tag along with Sean's brothers and go camping. It had only been a week since girl's camp, so I was a little hesitant, but it was one of the only weekends we had available for the rest of the summer, so we couldn't pass it up.

We went to the Camperworld in Woodland. I love going up there, my mom was borned in Francis. (Lol, I had to throw in a little "Heber" humor.) I love driving through the little town and seeing the ancient houses and barns that are about to fall over.

I'm not really a huge "camper", but when there is grass, shade, showers, a trailer and a swimming pool, you can count me in!

We even got to take our Pam.



My favorite part of camping is sitting around the campfire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Unfortunately we were lacking in our fire-building skills. The guys kept blaming it on the wood. I tried to pull out my 3 hour burning log, but they wouldn't let me. Eventually Jeremy got a pretty decent fire going.



Mike sure does love his older brother.



Alisa, Beverly and Mike



Courtney and Andrew



Bev, Morgan, Taylor and Tyler



Jess and Camryn



At night we would cuddle up in the trailer and watch movies.





During the day we played games and went swimming.



Andrew loves to play chess







Robyn and Camryn



Katie asked Camryn to smile at the camera, the sun was in her eyes, but she did her best. What a cutie.



We had such a great time. My kids LOVE their little cousins. It was so beautiful up in the mountains. I found myself wishing we could have stayed a little longer.