Workin' Girls

It's true! We now have two working girls in the family! (Erik says he is going to retire now. Funny boy.)

Nicole started her first job about a month ago, working as an assistant dance teacher for Pop Rox dance studio. She teaches 4 or 5 classes (i forget which) one night a week. She is in heaven! She gets to put two of her passions together- dance and children- AND she gets paid!

I started working a local hospital a few weeks ago as a CNA. I am still in training so I can't say that I love it yet. :) Most days I feel very overwhelmed and am on the verge of tears. There is just so much to learn! But each day gets better.

I have been surprised by how much I miss the days of being home with my children, baking cookies, cleaning the house, and doing laundry. Training has been intense (5 days a week, some days are 13 hour shifts!), so I sure have learned to cherish the time I get to spend with my family now. I adore being a mother- and once my training is completed, I will get to go back to a mostly normal 'mom schedule', working only a couple nights a week. I cannot wait for that time to come!

But we are thankful for our new jobs- for the experiences we are having and the opportunity to grow and do what we love. Oh, and the paychecks are nice too. :)

Disneyland

And now what you have all been waiting for. I give you.....The Vacation.

Our vacation began by flying into Long Beach Airport.

It's such a cute little airport. (Emphasis on little.)

It has a lot of charm though. And the lines are really short!

Across the street from the airport, our rental car awaited us. When the kids and I saw it, our jaws dropped. What the? Are you serious? We are going to be driving around California in this all week? I think Erik was quite pleased. It was a cop car after all.

Just so we would never forget 'Bessie', or 'Clara', or 'Daisey' as it was lovingly called it over the next few days (Erik liked to say that he was driving Ms. Daisey), we took this picture.

If you can't tell, Ian is pretending to be handcuffed in the back. Don't you love it?

Ya, we drove in style, I tell you what.
I also have to include this picture that Erik took of me reading my Kindle. (This one's for you, Christy!) I brought it with me to Disneyland so that I would have something to do- other than people watching, which I totally adore- while the kids were on rides.
We met a lot of characters while in the park. Here are just a few....


But the biggest, and best characters we saw were the ones we traveled with. My sister, Terra, and her cute family. (Somehow the daddy's escaped this photo.) Oh and we also saw a few famous people....Stevie Wonder, Marie Osmond, and Sam (Jenette McCurdy) from iCarly.
This is a picture of the BEST meal Disneyland has to offer. Hands down.

The clam chowder bowl. Soooo good!
As we were leaving the park the last day, we took the famous 'Entrance Picture'.

Disneyland was awesome! The weather could not have been better....the lines were not too long....the company was fun to be with. But it had to come to an end- as all good things do.
The day we left, we stopped at Long Beach.

Taking off your shoes and putting your feet in the warm sand does a lot to lift your spirits- let me tell you!
There you have it. Disneyland 2011.

Magical for sure!

It's over

As I sit here looking at these pictures, I cannot believe that I was standing on this beautiful sandy beach of California just a few hours ago.

The hot sun rays were pouring down on us, in fact I think I brought home a touch of a sunburn just to prove it, and the ocean was so calm. It was truly beautiful.

I wish I were back there....but alas, the vacation is over and it's back to reality.

My favorite parts of a vacation are:
the day we leave, I love the excitement in the air, all the unknowns of what is to come,
and getting to spend quality time with the people I love most.


My least favorite parts:
the piles of mail and laundry when it is over,
the messages on the answering machine that are waiting for a response,
and having to cook again- although by the end of a vacation aren't you just dying for a home cooked meal?

Now that it is over, I am so glad that I took way too many pictures. We have so many fun memories to hold us over until the next vacation comes our way.

There will be more to share as soon as the laundry is caught up and the messages have been returned. Until then....

Focus

Less than an hour before the new year would begin, I found a quite spot in the house and with a pen and paper in hand, I wrote down my goals for the new year. I tried to look at each area of my life; spiritual, physical, emotional, social, mental, etc. and thought of one thing I would like to improve on in each of those areas.

After writing it all down, I looked over my list. It was all good. Really good. But, my list was long. My list seemed overwhelming. My list gave me a headache.

But then I had an idea. A flash of inspiration.

If I would take each of my goals, and work on them one at a time, instead of trying to tackle them all at once.....I just might be able to do it.

It is now three days into the new year. I am still working on goal number one, and probably will be for awhile. But it is good. It is really good. And I don't feel overwhelmed. I feel like this just might be my year.

It's amazing how differently things can look when you focus.

Happy 2011!

Bryce (barf) Canyon

Allow me a scrapbooking moment my dears. *Warning: This may be one of those painful posts where someone shows you way too many pictures from their vacation.....yep. It's definitely going to be one of those.

Our family just returned from a little jaunt to a place that we now lovingly refer to as Barf Canyon. You may know it as Bryce Canyon.

It was sunny and quite lovely on the day we arrived....here is a look at the view from our room. Aren't parking lot views the best?

We haven't done a road trip for quite some time. It's not that we haven't wanted to. It's because our kids just don't seem to get along very well, and in the past, Erik and I have found ourselves using phrases with our kids that we never thought we would use. You know, the ones I'm talking about... "Don't make me turn this car around!", etc.

Surprisingly, the kids did really well and it was quite a pleasant drive.

When we got to the hotel, they amazingly still liked each other and decided to play a game. It was so cute. So I took a picture.
The cuteness didn't last long though. A tired Ian got frustrated and threw a fit. I just happened to have my camera out still, so I took another picture. Don't you love the look on Nicole's face? Priceless.
That evening was spent eating (a lot) and playing in the hotel pool. A nice way to end the day.

But then it got ugly. Nicole started feeling ill. Really ill. She spent the next 12 hours kneeling to the porcelain god every hour, on the hour.

That night, we got a nice dusting of fresh snow. The view from our window. :)
The next morning, we debated about what to do with Nicole. Leave her at the hotel while we go explore the canyon? One of us stay with her? Take her with us on a short drive to see a few things? What to do?
We decided to leave her there, run up to the canyon, drive to a view point or two and snap a few photos and then hurry back. Her last words to us were, "Don't be gone too long."
We started at Unset Point. I mean, Sunset Point. He, he.
I forgot to mention that we were traveling with our friends- I'll call the "S family". Here they are...Katie, Rissy-roo, C-dawg, Wendeline, Heady, and La la.
After snapping a few photos, our friends, who had come to hike for the day started on their way. All of a sudden, I had a strong urge to go with them. I really wanted to hike through this beautiful canyon and the hike they had planned for that day was only 3 miles or so. So Isaac and I decided we would go and Erik and Ian would head back to take care of Nicole. Great plan, huh? I thought so.
So off we went, snapping photos right and left! The pictures just don't do it justice. It is so shocking to see the bright orange rocks against the white snow. The touch of green from the trees just adds to the beauty!
And since Isaac was the only family member with me....I got lots of shots of him. Bare with me.

He had the time of his life! The "S's" are so fun to be with and the girls treat Isaac like a little brother. He got thrown in the snow more times than I can count and had lots of fun having snowball fights.
And I had fun using my new camera taking zillions of pictures. The scenery was so amazing!
So much fun for everyone!
Especially Isaac. Here he is sliding down the side of the mountain. It was quite a ride! I would have joined him but that meant that I would have had to climb back up again and man! I just couldn't do it. One time was more work than I had planned to do. I was on vacation, remember?
So back at the hotel, Nicole slept. And slept, and slept. Only Erik couldn't check on her because I had accidentally taken the keys to our vehicle with me....on the HIKE. Ian and Erik ended up being stranded at the top, waiting for us to finish.....which only took THREE hours. Oopsie. They made the best of it though. They did a little hiking and luckily Erik had his cell phone and called to check on Nicole- who was, you guessed it, sleeping.

Poor baby.
The last day of our vacation, Nicole was feeling much better. It snowed a foot or so during the night and was still snowing when we woke up, but Nicole really wanted to see some of the canyon before we drove all the way home. "All I have seen so far is the inside of the toilet and that wasn't so great!" she said.

It was about -7 degrees with the wind chill, but at least she got to see a little of the magnificent canyon before we left.
She is the best big sister!
Man! Can I tell you how great it was to see that smile of hers?
Did I mention it snowed? Take a look at our darling next door neighbors. They were from Japan. Their little boy was all bundled up and looked like an Eskimo. He was too cute!

See how the view from our window changed over the days? Crazy!
So we piled back in the car and headed for home. The weather was a bit sketchy to start off with......

But things soon cleared up and once again, we were treated to magnificent scenery!
Excuse the amount of pictures....but my good heck! Isn't it just gorgeous!

It was a vacation to remember for sure! We are already planning a return trip for this summer. Hopefully next time we will get to make new memories that don't have anything to do with barf. :)

The good things of December

Once upon a time.....

There was a mother who was very busy studying for finals. She was stressed to the max (her eye was twitching and everything), but she didn't want to look back on the month of December with only memories of studying and tests. So she made a plan. She would study hard during the day and in the evening she would drag her family out to make some fun memories.

And that is what she did.....

A visit to the Festival of Trees was the first on the list of 'must do's' that month. This was the first time the boys in her family had been to the Festival- and they loved every bit of it from the trees to the treats!

The gingerbread village was a favorite for sure!
Then what to our wondering eyes should appear?

Nicole got asked to go to Snowball by a boy she adores.
Of course she had the time of her life!
Next on the list was a spontaneous visit to Yogurtland! It's a must at least once a month. So tasty!
The night before finals, the family climbed on board Trax and away they flew to downtown Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square.
So festive!
So beautiful!
So colorful!
Then right in the middle of the month, Nicole decided to turn another year older. We celebrated with the most delicious chocolate cake ever!
And the BEST birthday party anyone could dream of.

Herod the Fink....you should seriously book these guys for your Christmas party next year!
So with 25 of Nicole's closes friends, we clapped and tapped our toes and ate lots of sugary treats.
She even got her picture taken with the band. Awwww.
And now with only 10 days left in the month of December, what more fun things can we squeeze in? I can't wait to share it all with you!