San Diego

We started the next day at the San Diego temple.  It is beautiful!  Some day my kids will be old enough that I can leave them somewhere and actually go inside all the beautiful temples we visit!

 As it is, I am grateful for eternal families.  There's no one else I want to spend eternity with!

 

 Next we went to the Mormon Battalion visitor's center.  I wasn't expecting much, and was thoroughly surprised!  It was awesome, and the kids loved it!  There was gold panning,

 brick making,

 pumping water,

 and washing clothes activities available.  When we gave the five minute warning, no one wanted to leave!  Definitely another place we'll go back to next time we are in the area.

 We finished up the day at the beach.  It was cold!!  But it didn't stop the kids from getting in the water.  Nothing much has ever stopped Regan from getting in the water!

 I love this picture.  Little Lila had just had enough!  If she is going to be in the water, she insists that she wear her swimsuit.  Once we changed her, she was much happier!

 

 No matter where we go or what the temperature is, Haden builds sand castles.  He doesn't really care to go in the water.  As long as he has his bucket and shovel, he's happy.

When everyone was sufficiently cold and tired of the beach, we loaded them up and headed to Anaheim.  I think all three of my kids were out before we hit the freeway.

Sea World

The next day we met Clint's brother and his family at Sea World.  I love Sea World!  The cold weather chased a lot of people away, but made the water rides not quite as fun. Or so everyone said, I didn't go on any of them!

 

 Instead, I took Lila to see the shows.  She was fabulous!  She may have been bribed with cotton candy, but she still sat and watched the shows with me.  It worked out well since she was too little for most of the rides everyone else was going on.

 Lila almost fell into the pool trying to touch the sting rays, but then would jerk back quickly when she actually got one.  Luckily, I had a change of clothes for her.

 My kids always love hanging out with their cousins!

 What show is complete without popcorn?  I don't even remember how many times we had to refill this silly bucket!

 Poor little Lila was completely worn out!

 

 

 

 I rarely get to spend much time with Regan whenever we go anywhere with her cousins.  She loves hanging out with them!

 

Everyone loved Sea World, and we will definitely be back.  Hopefully, when the weather is warmer!

Legoland

 

We made another trip to Southern California this past February.  Someone had told Haden that LEGOLAND had a bunch of Star Wars stuff there so he was dead set on going.  Clint was dead set on not going.  So, we drove straight from the airport to LEGOLAND where Haden and I got out and Clint took the girls to the hotel.  Haden wasn't interested in riding any of the rides at all.  We just wandered around and around the Star Wars displays.  It worked out well, since we only had a couple of hours before they closed anyway. 

 

 I will never understand why all the little boys like Boba Fett so much.  He is such a small role in the movies, plus he's a bad guy.  Haden is no exception; he loves him!

 

 

Haden was very happy that we got to spend the afternoon there.  It was fun hanging out with just him and following him around looking at whatever interested him.  Sisters would have just gotten in his way!

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas!  Okay, so it is July when I finally got around to blogging about it, but still.....

 

 It was very easy to figure out presents for my kiddos this year.  Each kid seemed to have a theme they were currently obsessed with.

 Regan loves all things American Girl.  Caroline joined our family this year, along with several new outfits.

 Between Christmas and his birthday, Haden now owns nearly every Star Wars toy sold at either Target or Walmart.  He was one happy kid!

 Lila got lots of new princesses.  She was thrilled!

And of course there was princess lip gloss in her stocking.  I actually think that was her favorite present!  She went through all three tubes in only a couple of days.  But who can resist that smile?  Even if her entire face is covered in sticky lip gloss?

 

I love my family so much and absolutely love spoiling them with their favorite toys!  I also love teaching them about the birth of our Savior.  I am grateful to have each one of them in my life.  We did take our annual trip to Idaho immediately after Christmas, but we must have been having too much fun to take any pictures!

Happy Birthday, Haden!!

My sweet little guy turned 5 this past December.  We had a Star Wars themed birthday party.  I don't think anyone was surprised!  This kid has loved Star Wars for a long time now!  We started out coloring pictures while we waited for everyone to arrive.

 

 Then Clint held a Jedi training academy.  Each Padawan got a robe and a noodle light saber.  They learned all sorts of moves!

 Darth Vader came and tried to steal the presents!  Luckily, all the Padawans were well trained and fought him off!

 Then Yoda had each Padawan go through an obstacle course.

 The Darth Vader piñata was quickly demolished, using only noodle light sabers.  Those kids were tough!

 Somehow, with all the craziness, I didn't get a picture of Haden blowing out his candles.  (They were, of course, Star Wars themed!)  We gave him a bike for his actual birthday.  He had learned to ride one of Regan's old "girly" bikes a couple months before and wanted a real racing bike.  Since the weather was not fabulous, we did push all the furniture back and created a race course in the house.  Haden quickly learned to make skid marks and my kitchen floor was soon covered in marks!  He loved it, the little stinker!  We had plans to replace all the flooring downstairs, so I really didn't care. Regan and Lila also rode their bikes (tricycles) around and around.  It only got dangerous when someone decided to go the wrong direction!   

I love my sweet, little Haden!  He is and will always be a mama's boy.  He is the always the first to come to my rescue.  (One time during moth season I was digging around in the basement looking for something.  I disturbed a bunch of moths who had found their way down there.  I screamed in surprise and Haden came racing downstairs wearing his helmet and clutching his light saber to save me.)  He is very helpful around the house and has a crazy active imagination.  He is very protective of both of his sisters.  Haden recently requested to begin piano lessons. I was a little skeptical because he was young.  He is doing great and loves it!  I can't imagine life without him!

The North Pole

Last fall break we took the kiddos to The North Pole amusement park close to Colorado Springs.  They were the perfect age for all those rides that spin you around and around.  It made me sick watching them!  It was a little cold, but the place was deserted!  We never waited in any lines and the kids rode whatever they wanted as many times as they wanted.  Definitely the best time to go!

 

 

 Clint is always such a good sport!  He rode many of the rides over and over with the kids.

 

 And we had to visit Santa.

 I think Regan rode this ride 10+ times one right after the other.  Clint and the other two kids started off riding with her, but only made it a couple of times before they were all feeling sick.  Regan loved it!  (Think teacups at Disneyland.)

 

The kids had a wonderful time and I am sure we will be going back annually until our kids outgrow it!

 

Halloween

Halloween was during Fall Break this year, so on the last week of school, they hosted a trunk or treat.  We arranged to meet our friends there.  The weather was cold, but the kids still insisted on walking from car to car to collect their candy.  After some rather steep bills at the dentist's office I confiscated everything that was more likely to cause candy.  The kids had so much they didn't even mind!  They might have been bribed as well....

Halloween day the weather was beautiful!  We had arranged to meet some friends at Mile High Farms for the day.

 We picked out pumpkins,

 broke open a pinata,

and played with the animals in the petting zoo.  Lila thought they were too loud!

Regan was thrilled when she saw snow cones and insisted we all get one.  She loves them!  I love that the weather was warm enough on Halloween for snow cones!  We are definitely going back there again next year!

 That evening a princess, hawaiian girl, and Jedi met up with the same friends for trick or treating.  Bobba Fett had originally joined us, but I think Haden wanted to bring his light saber.  He is a stickler for being as authentic as possible.  Bobba Fett was not a Jedi, therefore, he could NOT have a light saber.  Period.  End of discussion.  I've learned the hard way that he cannot be persuaded when he makes up his mind!

 The older girls immediately took off together.  We quickly realized that it was not feasible to keep all six kids together so we divided them up. 

 I got the two little girls.  Many people asked if they were twins.  Um, they are a year apart and short of both having blue eyes, look nothing alike.  I guess it was dark?  They are both super cute, though!

 All three kids got loads of candy and had a fabulous time with their friends!

 

 

Keystone 2012

 So much has happened since I last blogged!  So, I'll be brief and try to catch up.  We accompanied Clint on his annual conference in the mountains.  This time, though, we got to have friends come with us!  Clint talked our neighbor into getting on the same board he's on so they all came, too!  It was a lot of fun!  Friends make everything even better!

We went on a hike with the kids while the dads were in boring meetings.  Haden and Calib quickly found swords which they covered with laser dust (mud). 

 

We always feed the ducks in the pond.  Lila was so cute copying Haden's every move.  I really do adore these kiddos! 

The next day we spent the day in Breckenridge.  I love that little town.  We went to breakfast at one of the resorts.  It was probably a very good thing that we were there in the off season.  Five kids, one baby, and two moms trying to help everyone with the buffet make quite the scene in restaurants.  Then we killed time at Peek A Boo Toys and the rock park in the center of town.  The weather was beautiful and the scenery was even more spectacular.  It's always a fun trip!