Universal Studios

Our last day in California was spent at Universal Studios.  Day 5 of parking and walking all over, and Matt was ready to fork out the extra bucks for vallet parking.  Heck ya.  Here we all are on the red carpet at the entrance to the park.

Matt and the kids loved these fans that were set up all around.  I guess they miss Alaskan Winters.

One of 4 very long escalator rides.

Jurassic Park ride entrance.  Personally, we all kind of felt it was a little over rated.  Unless you were in the very front, you really didn't get wet, and it was a little too short.  But it was fun for Morgan anyways.



The Universal Tours was really fun.  If you are heading to Universal, I highly recommend it.  It long, about 45 minutes.  And some of the behind the scenes stuff is over the kides heads. But the King Kong 3D ride is worth it.  Very cool.  

Hey, where's Gabe?  I left him right here...





Shrek 4D was another totally awesome and great for the little kids "ride".  Totally unexpected features and bonus, the characters are waiting ride outside for you to snag a picture with. The park worker forgot to get Matt in this one.

Ok, there he is.

The Magical Kingdom

Disneyland was such a fun magical place!  We spent our first and fourth park days there.

 This picture was actually taken on our last night, about 45 mintues before we left, right before the fireworks show.   

We spotted our first princess the first afternoon at Disney.  We followed her over to her alloted picture taking spot, and managaed to escape a large line. 

Chandler is 12.  And almost as tall as me. I think part of him was like, "I'm 12, and way too cool for Disneyland.  I'm really kind of bored with this whole thing".  I managed to catch him smiling a couple of times, and he even let me take his picture in front of the Pinocio whale in Fantasy Land.

Meanwhile, the princesses pose for a perfect picture.

Cinderella's Fairy Godmother was absolutely adorable.  She even managed to get Chandler to stand next to her and give a half smile for his mom. 

We took the rafts over to Frontierland, and explored the island for what seemed like forever.  The kids loved it though.

I never know what this kid is thinking. 

 Everyone trapped in the Jack Sparrow bone cage. 

I know, I'm very sunburned from our trip the day before at the beach.  We made matching t-shirts for Disney, so I'd have an easier time keeping an eye on everyone.  Gabe and Morgan's were covered up in this picture with sweatshirts (can you believe my Alaskan kids were actually cold part of the time?)  We got a lot of comments on our shirts though.  They were fun.  I had everyone design their own with a gel pen. 

Gabe and Chandler running through the fast pass line to get on the Indiana Jones ride.  A new one to Matt and I, and definately a family favorite.

The kids rubbing the lamp to hear their fortune being told. 

Family...its about time.

 I ABSOLUTELY loved spending 9 whole days with this bunch.  The kids were amazingly good sports on a 5 1/2 hour flight, then a shuttle to the car rental, then 45 minutes at the car rental (by this time it was around midnight) while we tried to convince them that we actually wanted the mini van vs. the suburban.  Even when the soda machine ate Chandler's $5.  Then a fun trip down the Santa Anna to Anaheim where we were staying.  Can you blame me for wanting to spend the next 24 hours at the beach?

Huntington Beach, Ca

Our family vacationed in sunny California this year, and among the many things we did during those

glorious 8 days, one of the kids favorite things was spending the day at Huntington Beach.

Here's Morgan after she'd spent a great deal of time burring her daddy.

 Morgan and the Mermaid's tail that Matt made for her.  The amount of sand that followed these two home from the beach is astounding.

 Morgan liked running from the waves, while Gabe enjoyed body surfing.

Daddy daughter time.

Chandler spent his beach time collecting these little crab like critters. We still don't know what they were, but they were nasty looking.

I spent the majority of my time on my beach towel, enjoying the sun, surf, and watching my family have a great time.  It had been a very busy and very stressful month before our vacation.  Between Matt working, and doing a play for the YM's encampment, and my Girl's Camp and subbing for a co-worker, the whole family really deserved a vacation.

Matt helping Morgan navigate the surf.

Occasionally a big one came along, that got the better of her.

And here's the gang after a long, sunny day at the beach.

Erin's Cake

So, I don't like to brag, but every once in a while, I'm pretty excited when my projects have such a successful conclusion. 

A few months back, I received a text from my hair stylist asking if I would be willing to trade a cake for her sister's graduation party, for a cut/highlight/low light session.  I was thrilled to do it, since it was an amazing deal for me.  I picked her brains on what she had in mind.  As soon as she said her sister was into girly stuff, and loved the colors pink and black, ideas started to form in my head.  Zebra print, make up, purses, all kinds of fun stuff.   So here's the final product. 

 My amazing sister in law Renae even came over to offer some opinions as I put the final touches on, and helped my out by making the blush brush and jewelry for the base.  All in all, I was pretty pleased.  When Clair came to pick up the cake, she was so excited, insisting that it wasn't enough for just me, but we needed to add some more to my package.  I told her if she'd cut and style Morgan's hair, (and maybe add a few fun highlight before our vacation) we'd call it even.  My appointment is Monday night, and I can't wait to reap the benefits of my hard work. 

BTW, everything in this picture is edible. (with the exception of the wooden dowels we cake decorators use to hold the dang thing together.)  Everything else?  You betcha!

Girls Camp 2012

So, I love girls camp, really LOVE it.  I have been a leader in some capacity for the last 7-8 years.   I've been the craft leader, the cook, extra help with YCL's,  and just as a member of the Young women's organization.  This year however was different.  I was the camp director.  And I have to say, I was totally excited.  I was able to come up with my own theme, menu, t-shirt design, schedule.  You name it.  Once I got to camp though, it was all about the girls.  This group of young women has some amazing girls in it.  I was so excited to get to know each and every one of them, including some that none of us really knew well, since they were either inactive,  new beehives, non-members, and we even had an exchange student from Thailand.

On skit night, we tried something new to all of us, including me.  One of my pinterest pins.  Eclairs on a stick.  Totally awesome!  Take a thick stick.  (not a skinny little marshmallows roasting one) and cover it with foil.  Then wrap a refrigerator crescent roll around it.  Cook it over some hot coals, then fill it with pudding and whipped cream.  Yummmmmmy. 

My group of amazing girls, minus a one exchange student who went home sick.  Missed ya Mook. :(
The theme I chose was Daughter of a King, so everything was very princess-y and girly.  We really had a blast with the theme.  Skit night we had bags for every cabin with a different Princess story they had to base their skit off of.

      We were really blessed with some great weather. The only time it really rained was our last day, about a 3rd of the way through our 6 mile hike.  We sure had some troopers though.  Even when it hailed on us.

                               Me and our Young Women's President, Sister Gribble.  We had a blast.

                                                          Some beautiful Beehives.

I had some great YCL's.  Jaycee was my water expert, so she took her water treatment class down to the docks.  We were so lucky to have this amazing lake to come and play in every day.

My little cooks in the kitchen on the first night.  We made Sweet Pulled Pork Salad.  There were some skeptics, till they tried it that is. 

As a service project, we went down to the lake and took apart a very old board walk that in need of being replaced.  It had nails sticking out all over, missing boards, very dangerous.  Along with that, we also took out some trees that had been blown over in the winter winds, and cut them up and stacked them for other wards to use for firewood when they come up this summer.  Your welcome Karin! :)

                                                                       My hard workers.