Our Venture to Ventura

Last week our family went to the beach in Ventura California. We were lucky enough to get to take my little brother Coleson. He was so much fun and the little boys loved playing with him. We met Dave's sister and her family their and Dave's aunt Babata and her family. We stayed on the beach all week long. It couldn't have been any better. Dave spent lots of time kayaking and boogie boarding. I spent time surfing, boogie boarding, a little kayaking, and playing in the sand. Collin loved playing in the sand pile we made and running into the waves. Casen seriously loved following the seagulls into the water over and over again while he pointed his finger and chirped. Oh, so cute! We arrived really late at night to the beach house, with all the boys sleeping. When we woke up in the morning the first thing they did was head out side to the beach. They started getting all their pajamas wet, so I had to strip them down. All of the cousins had a great time together.

And the cute blond babes... Casen and Joshua.Maya, Collin and Tyler

Coleson and I got our surf on! :)

At night before the sun went down and the tide came up we would take walks on the beach. Then we would layout on the deck under the stars with blankets. It was seriously one of the best parts.

Our beach house.

April, Babata and I.

At a certain time in the after noon the tide would go down and Uncle Benjamen showed the kids how to find all the creatures in the rocks. The kids loved it. They held crabs, starfish and octopus.

Collin freaked out over the octpus suctioning his hand. Too funny.

My cute bro Coleson.

This is the warm bath water pool for the babies to play in. Casen and Jacob throughly enjoyed it.

"Mommy watch this Big jump!"

These are the hard core kyakers, and while they were out they happened to run across a group of dolphins. So they just chilled out there for ever watching them swim around. They said there were swimming around from about 10ft to 20 feet away. Pretty neat. Just thinking about it... there is Dave and Coleson on this little Kyak next to all these dolphins... and no life jacket for Dave. Has any one ever seen "When dolphins attack?" Pretty scary.

Yeah.... we tried to get one family photo... and honestly this was the best we could do!

After the trip we visited Grandma Willis for her 87th birthday party in Redlands, and "mama Mink" was there! We love you mama! We loved spending time with our favorite cousins, the Fillmores and thanks again for inviting us! We love you too!

Our 5 year

Dave and I just celebrated our 5 year anniversary!!! Being married to Dave has been the most wonderful years of my life. This is a picture of us going out the night before to dinner and temple. The next morning I woke up deadly, and I mean deadly sick. The only thing I got out of bed to do was to go to the doctors. So needless to say, Dave took great care of me. He took me to the doctors even though the BYU game was on T.V. :) If you know Dave, BYU games are very important! Anyways, Happy Anniversary to us for 5 years!

PASSED A TEST

I just found out that I passed the Utah State Bar and although I know that you probably don't care - I am yellow-smiley-guy stoked on that news!

Thad Sealed the Deal!!

Thad was married to Rozlyn in the Logan temple last week, and we got to go! yaa.... It was really a beautiful ceremony and I couldn't be happier for Thad! Actually I couldn't be happier for both of them. Thad is an awesome man and Rozlyn married great! And from what I hear, Thad married great too! Rozlyn seems wonderful! It was really fun to see so many people from Alabama at the wedding. I love Thad's mom too, she is definitely the definition of Southern Hospitality! She is a great woman. While we lived in Alabama Thad took us to his home for a memorial day celebration and she definitely took care of us! The wedding dinner and reception was also beautiful at Rozlyns house. We miss you Thad and are so happy for you guys!

This is us chilling, watching the BYU game and eating pizza in between. My sister Jena came and watched our kids while we went to the temple and the wedding dinner. She wouldn't let me get a good picture of her.

And here is the part I loved... The grooms men came driving up in this old truck honking and riding in the back...Then the bridesmaids came up in a beautiful carriage and horse...

And finally... the couple themselves in a small carriage with Rozlyn on Thad's lap! Let the party begin!
I really needed a picture of this table... the GROOMS TABLE.... In the south all the grooms men have their own table with a cake, deserts and such. This table was all Crimson... Roll TIDE! Thad's mom homemade the treats and there was mint chocolate small elephants to eat. I couldn't not take a picture. Way to represent Thad! :)Happy Honeymoon!

Hodge Podge

So, I am officially naming this post the hodge podge because of its randomness. But, its what we have been up to. The Pleasant Grove canyon is beautiful! It is seriously 5 minutes from our house and we have never hiked up it. Its small Canyon - no cars can drive up, and its a beautiful river and water fall that you walk right beside on a small trail. The boys had more fun going up that canyon than anything we have done in a long time. It was seriously therapeutic to be up there. My mom and I hiked it last week for some good therapy ourselves. Afterwards we went over to some friends - the Rameys- and watched an outside movie on a big projector. It was a blast!!!! Collin ran around with the kids until the movie started and then he was in a trance, with his food, popcorn and candy!. Amazingly, Casen was great! He ate food and just played on our big blanket. It started to get a little cold and Casen wrapped up in a blanket on Dave's lap and fell asleep. It was wonderful! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. Thanks so much for having us over Lisa!

Collin at his best- dancing like usual.

First we went to an Owls game as a family with the Sonnenbergs. It was really really fun and couldn't have been better weather. We sat on the lawn instead of the seats and it was great. Collin and Maya spent a good deal of time on the big park right behind us. The baseball players(2 of them) talked to me and I was pretty excited about it. I felt all special. I am lame, I know! I have a thing for baseball players!

Earlier that morning we went to the Animal Farm at Thanksgiving Point with Maya too. The little kids has a blast.

I made homemade Kool Aid play dough, and it rocked! It was blue rasberry, and it is seriously the softest play dough I have seen. Some of the moms in the ward take turns having preschool at our houses, so it was our turn and I let all the kids help stir it on the floor and they each took a big chunk home. It turned out to be a hit! And the picture below is Casen at his cutest! He is such a doll.

Grandma Mink gave let Collin pick out a birthday present at the Disney Store and Collin picked a POWER RANGER backpack! He has never even seen power rangers!!!! But he loves anything with fire and helmets or people who like like they fight... so here is is showing it off! It is his prize possession right now! (And yes it is like twice the size of him)

I met up with lots of my high school friends for dinner. We took tons of pictures just for fun, caught up, laughed and talked about what everyone was doing 7 years after high school-- Kinda crazy! The next day Emily (she couldn't get a sitter for the dinner) and Tara came over to my house with their little boys. It was the first time we got together with all our boys. It was pretty cool to see them together. Love you all!

So then, our family was over at my parents house and they had a big box of pears on the floor. We turned around to see Casen eating a pear of his own. That night he ended up eating 4 different pears, only half of each. It was nuts- he was seriously obsessed. Plus baby Case is now walking ALL around! He refuses to crawl! The weather has been amazing and we are trying to spend some of our free time enjoying it. Collin is the scooter man and Case is the red car man.

And to all my Alabama friends - you might be jealous- This month we were also able to go and see Meghan and Damons new little baby boy SETH! CONGATULATUONS Meghan and Damon! Seth is so adorable and I love all his dark think hair. It was great to be at your baby blessing and see you again! Meghan has a lot on her plate with Damon leaving, we hope everything goes well for you! (so sad I didn't get any pictures- what were we thinking?)