Pinewood Derby

The Pinewood Derby was last night. Noah and Damon worked on Noah's car the whole month of January and finally finished it Monday night.

The masterminds behind the car building contemplate how well their cars are doing and how to improve them for next year.

Noah's car looked great, but it didn't perform the fastest. He had two races and both times he went up against the cars that ended up winning. He enjoyed the race and we love the fact that we don't have to worry about it again until next year. Yea! His car won the award for most real. Not 100% sure what that means, it does look nice though.

Cooper, Noah and Hayes. Their cars all looked great. Way to go Bears!!

A Quiet Saturday

It was an unusually quiet Saturday for us. No big projects going on, no sporting events, no cleaning. It was a rare occasion, but nice. We spent the morning at Costco. We surveyed the damage from the storms. All trees were still up, but a lot of small branches were down. The kids cleaned those up in no time. We worked on the cub scout stuff with Noah. His pinewood derby car is finished. He also signed off on his cooking section. We walked the lake at Miramar, which had a lot of tree damage and then we fed the ducks. It was great to be outdoors again after being stuck inside for a week do to all the wind and rain. All and all a very nice Saturday indeed. They are going to come to an end very quickly though because baseball is starting soon. (oh yea)

A Quick Trip

My sister, parents and I headed to Phoenix this past Thursday for a funeral. Our dear friend, Christine Keeler, lost a 2 year battle to cancer. We have been friends with the Keeler family since I was 8 years old. We were all saddened by her passing, but grateful that her suffering in this earth life is done. How grateful we are to know that there is a plan for each of us and life doesn't end after death. She was always quick to help and lend an ear or open up her house for various projects. The longest being building our senior float for homecoming in her backyard.

With funerals comes reunions. Since my parents moved from central Phoenix 12 years ago I have not seen many of the kids that I grew up with our their parents. It was so great to see people who have known me my whole life and can tell me stories of my early years that I don't even remember. I have fond memories of all the families that we were able to visit with while there. I asked Neil Cleck for a lemon drop. Surge Huff told me not to kick him in the shins and when I saw the Turley's I was reminded of how their son showed me in the backyard at their house how he could pee on the cat (we were 4).

On top of seeing my parents old friends, I was able to see my old friends. It was great catching up with each other and I was reminded of all the fun times we had in our youth. We must have driven out about 5 different sunday school teachers. I know we made at least 2 of them cry and then when we started driving, sunday school was a great time to drive home and get a snack. Boy what rebels we were. My YW president was crying before the funeral started because she loved seeing all of us grown up. Funny how we don't see ourselves as being grown up.

My little sister flew down from UT to attend the funeral as well and it was nice being with my sisters and my parents. This is the last time I stay in a hotel my dad picks out.

It was a quick trip. We came back Friday night, but I am so glad I was able to go. The kids were happy to see me and I was really happy to sleep in my own bed. There is no place like home.

Last week of Break

This week past by quickly. We had a little bit of fun. I think we are all ready to go back to school now. Monday we didn't do much except tidy up the house and play on the Wii. Tuesday Adam got to go to school with Lily and Noah and I worked out at the Lake. Wednesday was our fun day. We went to Disneyland!


We met up with our friends, the Shoff's, at 9:30am and were there when the park opened. We had so much fun. The park was empty and we practically walked on to every ride. We really enjoyed our visit there. I am so glad I found a friend who is a Disney nut like me. We had lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe. We went on Astro Blasters twice and the second time I amazed myself and got my highest score ever 641,900 points. That is Level 6. I was so excited I called Damon. I took a picture, but you can't see the numbers because I didn't have time to change the iso reading on the cam. (rargh!) So everyone will just have to take my word for it. I don't know if I will be able to manage it again. While we were there we ran into our other friend Erika and her girls. It's a lot of fun to be there with great friends. It was the perfect Disney day. Enjoy the pictures.




The rest of the week passes with Daddy in charge since I went to Phoenix for a funeral. The kids had play dates with the Shoff's and Fellar's and Daddy took good care of them. Nothing was burned down upon my return and the kids still have all appendages. Yea for Daddy. I think I was missed though.

3rd week of break

The first two weeks of Christmas break always fly by. We have family in town. Then there is Christmas and New Year's and lots of cousins to visit. The last two weeks is when I have to put on my cruise director hat and entertain the troops. We have been off doing some stuff this past week.

Monday we had to run errands, Costco, (out of snacks and such) where we probably spent way to much money. We then went over to our neighbor's house to jump on their new trampoline. The pictures are blurry because the kids are in motion not because I don't know what I am doing.

Tuesday we hit Balboa Park and their free museums. We went to the Science center and learned about motion. We went to the railroad museum and saw the Lego city display. We had a picnic lunch at the fountain, which wasn't turned on, and then headed into the Natural History Museum. We watched the pendulum knock over some wood blocks as well as walked through the new Darwin exhibit.

Wednesday we headed to Miramar lake without Lily, who I felt needed to go back to school, and got some exercise. The boys did great. They rode the 5 miles around the lake in 50 minutes. They had to go slow and keep stopping to wait for their mom who was always running behind them. Next we need to walk the 5 miles with backpacks so we can start preparing for our 10 mile hike in Zion's.

Thursday we did go back to the lake and walked 3 miles with heavy backpacks on. Well, I didn't wear one, but the boys did. It was hard for them, but they pushed through and did a great job. We got ice cream later to celebrate surviving.

Friday was a big day for us. We headed back up to L.A. (I have decided I really don't like going there) and went to the La Brea Tar Pits. Noah was so excited when I told him where we were going. I didn't know he had wanted to go there so badly. He was so helpful that morning. The tar pits were fun and we really enjoyed the museum out there. It was weird to be standing in the middle of a grass field and have it smell like road work. We were done there by 12:15pm and I really didn't want to go home yet so we headed south and stopped at Disneyland.

It was a nice time despite the bad parking and shuttle arrangements which I am trying to forget about. We left at 6pm. That was a bad idea. The traffic was horrible. Even the carpool lane was slow. We kept trying to find a place to get off the freeway and eat dinner and ever off ramp I went on there was nothing there. It was a bit discouraging. One would think you can find a McD's off any exit of a major freeway, but not in Orange County. They must be above such things. We did finally find a Jack in the Box an hour after we left. We did make it home finally and the kids had a great day. They thought it was cool to have a double field trip.

Lily started ballet today. She was so great today. I loved getting her ready in her ballet stuff and putting her hair in a bun. Her teacher seems great and says already that Lily has some talent. I don't think I will inform the instructor about how often she falls down or runs into walls. That doesn't sound to graceful.
It's been a busy week. Only one more left before the kids go back to school. (YEA!)

Some of the old and Some of the New

Wow! 2010! That's amazing. We had a great 2009. It flew by. We have some amazing things planned for 2010 so I am sure this year will fly by just like the last.

We finished off 2009 at Mortensen Manor. The kids brought in the New Year at 9pm with sparkling cider and crackers. They watched the ball drop and then were off to bed. Our crackers had crowns and games in them.

The adults brought in the New Year by doing much of the same, just at midnight. Then it was off to bed for us too. The thing about getting older is that it is harder to stay up later.

The next day the cousins played outside most of the day and also watched the rose parade in Pasadena and football. Lots of football. It was fun hanging out with my sisters and brother. As I get older I realize that my own family time (sisters, brothers, parents) is really important for my kids. I have so many memories being with my cousins that I want my kids to have those same memories.

We returned home later on the 1st. I went out with some friends of mine to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. One of our dear friends, Melissa, who moved away, was in town. It was fun getting together and enjoying good food and great company. We went to a friend's house afterwards and played a game called, "Curses". It was a very interesting game to say the least. It take the ability to make a fool out of yourself which I have always had a hard time doing, but we had fun. (nice pic Heather. It must be from your new fancy camera.)

We are all looking forward to the New Year which is upon us and all the exciting things that will come our way.

A Few Days after...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AFUALO'S!

We had a lovely Christmas. The kids were pleasantly surprised by what Santa and their family had given them. The morning was relaxing and then we went to see family. We came home late that night. Saturday we did nothing. It was the best day after Christmas. We played with all of our new stuff and had together time.

Every year we have our picture taken by the tree. Usually we do it at night. We look much better then. I think we were just happy to have happy children.

Favorite Christmas memory this year... I have two. The first came a few days before Christmas and we were watching BYU in the Las Vegas bowl. All 7 of us were sitting on the couch enjoying the game in HD and cheering on the cougars. It was nice. The other one was hearing my ever not satisfied child yelling, "this is the best Christmas ever." Can't have a better response than that.

Sunday after church was more of the same. I am surprised that the kids even ate that day. They were so enthralled with the Wii. Lily put on a ballet show for us with all her new ballet stuff.

Monday we woke up early and headed up to Los Angeles to see two more missions. Mission number 10 and 11. We have now seen over half and have two more trips planned to see the rest. (Yea!) We drove up to Missions Hills (on the north side of LA) to see San Fernando de Espana. It was a beautiful mission and to our surprise it is where Bob Hope is buried. The next mission we went to was San Gabriel. This was a simple mission, but set up nicely for touring. They gave us a map that had numbers on it and then there were numbers found around the place that we read about on our map. It made touring much faster.

It was a long drive home. I had 3 girls in the car. My sister took the boys and I got her girls. We have been having fun playing Wii, feeding ducks, having movie time and running errands. We are headed up to Mortensen Manor for the New Year. After that I get to put my cruise director hat back on and entertain the troups for two more weeks. Stay tuned...