cAliFoRnIa

This is long but it is more for my journaling then anything!

After Kamas we had one day home again and then we headed for Anaheim. We left Saturday July 10th and drove to St. George and stayed the night then headed to California the next morning. Once we arrived to California we headed to Knotts Berry Farm first to enjoy the chicken dinner which my family loves! Then we rested the rest of the night at our hotel and played games.

Of course no trip to the beach is complete without a pedicure first! We all went before we left for my mom's birthday!

Our first day (Monday) we headed to Disneyland for the first half of the day. We got there about 8 and stayed until 1! It was starting to get crowded before we left and we had done half the park by then which was nice!

Ella can't sit normal it is always legs in the air!

We then headed to Newport Beach for the rest of the day, and no trip to Newport is complete without lunch at Crab Cooker! After we ate we walked over to the beach. We were hoping to swim and boogie board but it was so cold and windy that only the guys wanted to get in!

Waiting for our table at Crab Cooker

Another tradition my family has is to ride the ferry over to Balboa Island and get a Balboa bar or chocolate dipped frozen banana!

The first half of our group on Splash Mountain

And the other half

Newport Beach

It was so windy that on our ferry ride to Balboa there was about 15 sailboats loving the wind it was pretty cool to see!

Tuesday we headed back to Disneyland but we stayed the entire day! We did Magic Morning so we got in at 7 before they opened and stayed until midnight! It was a long day but we had so much fun!

It happened to be the Major League Baseball All-Star game in Anaheim that day and they were broadcasting from Main Street in Disneyland. This is the trophy I guess for the game!

Can't Imagine why she was so worn out!

My little brother Spencer and Ella

After the Toy Story ride, Ella loved this ride

Watching the Pixar Parade while we were waiting to eat dinner

That morning we walked in since we got in before everyone else we were able to walk up and get our pictures with Mickey and not wait in a line it was the best way to do it!

Watching the World of Color. About 5 min after this she was sound asleep!

Riding the car ride which is hard to do, the pedals are really hard to push! A great calf work out!

This year California Adventure has a new show at night called the World of Color. It is on the Pier, it is a show totally of water and color. It was amazing and worth buying fast passes for!

Wednesday we went back to Disneyland. When we first got there we got to ride this awesome fire truck down Main Street to the Castle! It was fun everybody would wave at us!

On the Fire Truck

I was so excited that we finally found Minnie Mouse since Ella was wearing her Minnie dress and shoes! We were leaving to go back to the hotel for a couple hours for a nap and we spotted her coming out so we ran over and didn't have to wait in line! She was so cute with Ella and loved her dress and I loved that she no longer had to wear the dress!

In New Orleans Square! A little story about all the green shirts. This day was my littlest sister Sarah's 13th birthday and her favorite color in lime green so everyone brought a green shirt to wear that day except us! So after lunch Andrew found a shop with these Disneyland shirts in them and three shades of green to pick from so we bought them to match everyone else! It ended up being really nice because we could see each other in a crowd we just had to look for the green!

Dumbo!

For Sarah's birthday lunch we decided to introduce my family to the Blue Bayou inside the Pirates of the Caribbean, a tradition Andrew and I have every time we go there. We all had the Monte Cristo sandwiches which are so amazing!

They gave Ella this hat which stayed on only for the picture!

She has a thing for falling asleep during loud firework shows

Thursday we took a day off from Disneyland. My dad has a friend with a condo in Laguna Beach and they just happened to be there at the same time so we headed to the Beach again hoping for a better day! The day was awesome! They live right off the beach and have a private beach which makes it a lot better!

All ready for the beach!

The guys played so hard in the ocean they were so beat that night and Andrew and Brent were burned really bad! Spray on sunscreen doesn't work for Andrew!

Trying to get her to take a nap she was beat! Once again legs in the air!

Ella hated the water! She wasn't sure about the sand at first but she got used to the idea!

We walked over to this old castle and ruins on the beach it was amazing!

After dinner that night we headed back down to the beach for the sunset! It was beautiful and such a pleasant evening! I could definitely do that every night!

The castle we saw is off in the distance

After the beach we jumped into their pool which Ella liked a lot better cause she could sit in the floaty and water wasn't crashing on her!

After a long day at the beach she fell asleep on the way back to the hotel and managed to pull both her feet up and rest one on each of our arms!

On the drive back we stopped at the Newport Beach temple and our photographer (my little brother Spencer) said this is the best he could do!

Friday we headed back to Disneyland again, but ended up spending most of our day in California Adventure!

Ella on the "L" outside California Adventure

Caramel Apples so yummy!

Inside the Innoventions they found Rock Band!

Saturday we packed our cars up and headed over to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping! Some of us went back into Disneyland where we found out it was the 55th Anniversary that very day! (That explains the crowds!). We were there a couple hours and then headed on our way home! Driving through Primm, Nevada (the NV and CA border) we can't help but stop at the outlets! We got some amazing deals like two swimsuits for Ella next summer at Gymboree for $3 each! We then ate dinner in Vegas and drove on to St. George getting in at 1 am to sleep for the night! We woke up Sunday and went to church and then headed on home! We had so much fun we weren't ready to come home! We could have gone another week!

Kamas

After we got back from Montana we were home for a day and then headed to the cabin in Kamas. We spent the rest of the week enjoying the cool weather and beautiful scenery!

This is what happens when you have 4 kids playing with you, you get to be the guinea pig! They kept calling her their cheerleader firefighter!

This picture is blurry but it is the best we have of the guys trying to get the mouse we had the last day we were there!

My little sister Sarah's birthday cupcakes that Ella couldn't wait to try!

4th of July part 2

We made it back in time the 5th of July from Montana to enjoy my families bbq.

Ella loves to take things in and out of the cup holder on our chairs

Playing some Volleyball

Montana

For the 4th of July Weekend we went up to Montana for a family reunion with Andrew's family. It was so fun and the weather was nice and cool! We spent most the time at his families cabin eating and playing! We also got to go to the local drive-in and eat, Andrew was excited to eat a wagon wheel (hamburger thing) and a rum hot-n-tot (coke with rum and cinnamon flavoring) which was really good!

Andrew got the fire going!

We drove to the top of the mountain to an abandoned radar station and the views were amazing!

Andrew's grandma, mom, and uncles

Everyone that was able to make it!

Family Pics

Before Jared and Celyn moved my family had some pictures done because we aren't sure when we will all be together again, it was hard to get everyone together and on time but it worked out!

All the Girls
All of us

Jocey and Ella

Taylorsville Days

We were excited to make it home in time for T-Ville Days, it will probably the last time for a few years. The fireworks were great as always so we went two nights! The second night they had cannons which surprisingly Ella thought were ok, she also loved the fireworks which surprised me.

Before the fireworks listening to the Beatles tribute band

Enjoying our company from England we were excited to see my cousin Brent and his wife Emily for a few days before they headed back over the ocean!

Wedding

June 24th my cousin Camille was married in the Salt Lake temple. It was such a wonderful day!

Ella was lucky enough to come to the temple and luncheon at the Lion House (so yummy!) where she was really hyper.
Outside the temple after the ceremony

Jake and Camille - her dress was gorgeous

My mom, two of my sisters, Ella, and I waiting for them to come out of the temple

She was exhausted once again!

My mom and Ella

They had their reception in my aunt and uncles beautiful backyard!

They served sherbet with their buffet they had lime, orange, and huckleberry to match the colors of the wedding, orange, lime green, and purple.

They put in this fun swing before the wedding!

Lagoon

The day after we got to Utah we went to Lagoon with my family. It was my grandparents Stake day so we got entrance passports for free and just enjoyed walking around. It was perfect weather that day around 75 degrees a huge difference from where we had just come from!

My little sister and two of my cousins did the free falling sky coaster perfect for 13 year olds to do!
Ella was so exhausted wondering why we drag her everywhere!

Ella and her cousin Jocelyn

Ella's Secret

Shocked....we still are and we have known for a long time! We are half way done, due December 1st! Yes 13 months apart they will be, hopefully we will find out this week or next what we are having. We told our families just over a month ago and they are pretty much the only ones that know until now! Ella sure seems happy about it in this picture if she only knew what was about to become her reality!!!