Adventures from our Vacation!

We had a BLAST!!! Our kids were awesome, Bryce and I were both happy and it was so nice to have maid service, instant food and sunshine! We spent almost 10 days together and nobody was ready to come home.

We started off on Friday February 27th heading to St. George for Bryce's "Rhino Rally" desert dirt bike race. We spent the evening at the park, went out to eat at Wingers (the wait at the Olive Garden was WAY too long and the kids were really disappointed)and headed to bed cause we knew that we would have a long day ahead of us with Bryce's race.

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn and Bryce had some pre-race jitters. We fed the kids and headed off to Washington, UT to the middle of no-where for the race. About a half an hour of driving on dirt roads and such we made it to the spot and off Bryce went with his buddy, Rich Black, to "check things out" while he ditched me and the kids with Rich's wife, Kaylyn, and her two kids. (Kaylyn is really nice and it all worked out well though but a bit awkward at first.) I wasn't too concern with what to do with the hours we had on our hands till the race began since there was endless dirt to play in and the kids LOVE to play in the dirt... but it didn't go so well. They hadn't been outside more than a few minutes when Abbey came in with a panic cause Landen and Braxton had both fallen in cactus. I had no idea that there were so many million little pokey quill type things on a cactus!!!
After forever of pulling them out of their clothes and skin... and a few in my hands from pulling them out... we were good. Abbey tried to stick her hand in a hole that was "already dug out of the ground" by a rock, I panicked, told her to never stick her hands in holes you didn't dig and stay away from them because we have no idea what is actually living in there!! (I am not a fan of snakes, scorpions or anything else!)

Finally around 1 pm Bryce's race began. It was 80 miles long with a crazy start! All of the riders line up and when the flag goes down they start their bikes and pray they don't get run over by somebody around them! I took a few pictures of Bryce's start:

Can't really see him well in this photo but there are so many bikes!

Bryce is in the middle of the photo. He has an orange KTM bike, brown riding gear on and a helmet with the yellow M on it.


He is ahead of the pack and a bit out of control as he hits rocks and such.


Notice the people standing in the middle of the way. They were the ones that had to hold the flag up for 1 minute to signal them to go.


Now notice those same people jumping out of the way to avoid being run over by Bryce! I think a few choice words might have been said and maybe a few prayers by everyone involved! Luckily nobody was hurt and I laugh when I look at the picture.



Bryce is in the group of the first 4 riders to get ahead of the pack! He ended up finishing 5th place! WAY TO GO BRYCE!!! 80 miles and several hours later he was beat but had a great time!

It was a fun day. Abbey and Braxton made some new friends with Rich & Kaylyn Black's kids and we all went back to the hotel covered from head to toe with red sand!

NOW OFF TO THE BEACH!!!
Sunday we spent driving to California and went to the Newport Beach in the afternoon. The kids have never been to the ocean and they loved playing in the sand. We didn't really get in the water cause it wasn't THAT warm outside.





I love the silouette pictures! Abbey and Braxton had fun running in the shallow water and splashing around.
The water was a little bit colder than Abbey thought and it was funny to watch her jump back and think twice before getting in!

Abbey's favorite things was to find sea shells! She came home with a bucket of them.


Braxton had so much fun building a sand castle with his dad!
Landen loved digging in the sand but you had to watch out cause he loved to flick it all over too and we were victimized several times by him! Braxton had me bury him in the sand. He was a tuff guy and got out all by himself.



Landen loved chasing the seagulls! Glad he didn't get pooped on! :)

Landen wasn't interested in being "King of his Castle!"

Braxton is "King of His Castle!"











Disneyland here we come!!!!
We had such a great time at Disneyland! We were there from open till past close. We didn't take as many pictures here cause we were too busy having fun doing everything! The weather was overcast and not very many people were there so we didn't have to wait very long, or not at all, to get on rides. Braxton was SOOOO excited to do the "Jedi Training" and to fight Darth Vader!!! Abbey wanted to do the training as well but she didn't want to fight Darth Vader. Little did she realize that if you did the training, you had to fight him. They both did really well. Abbey kept smiling while she was fighting him and they teased her that her smile threw him off. She was pretty proud of that. Braxton tries to teach Landen the things he learned at Disneyland but the training isn't going quite so smoothly.

Braxton was excited about everything (as usual) and Abbey seemed to hold back her excitement like she always does. They both had a great time and LOVED the pirate stuff. Which it surprised me that their souveniers were all pirate stuff and nothing to do with princesses!

Landen didn't feel top notch that day so he was pretty mellow (which was a real blessing) but he felt good enough to act excited to go on the rides. Braxton wasn't tall enough to go on Indiana Jones with me so Abbey put on her brave face and went. I had a great time going on it with her. We met some cool characters and just had a great time doing everything that we could get to! I see now why people go for a few days, but one day was enough for Bryce. Here are some pictures:
You would never guess that Bryce is on his phone, on a ride, at DISNEYLAND! I just had to take this picture... and I got in trouble by the people at Disneyland for taking a piture while we were on a ride, but it was worth it!

The neighbors let us borrow a Jedi costume and he is all excited and waiting for the training to start!





Abbey doing the Jedi training too. She made a cute poster to help the kids get picked out of the huge crowd.
Abbey fighting Darth Vader. She did an awesome job. I was really worried about her cause she didn't want to fight him but finally realized that she would be okay afte she saw a few other kids survive the ordeal. They tried hard to convince her to come over to the "dark side" but she smiled a huge smile and refused over and over.
Braxton's dream come true! He finally got to fight Darth Vader and still talks about beating him! You better watch out cause Braxton will use his Jedi powers on you!
Abbey, Braxton and Landen with Mickey Mouse. Landen just kept shouting out "Mouse?!" over and over while we were waiting in line. He was looking all over for Mickey Mouse. Now he gets excited to see him on his diapers.

Tinkerbell with Abbey and Braxton. I was surprised that Braxton wanted to meet her but he loves the magical side of everything! Abbey was funny cause she didn't really look at her while she was talking to them and didn't seem to know how to react to her. Maybe Abbey is just shy. Who knows what she was thinking cause she showed no emotion and doesn't ever talk about meeting her.

Braxton w/ Aladdin.

Oh, one more thing. It was so cute. While we were waiting for Disneyland to open they tell you about how all your dreams come true at Disneyland. Throughout the day Braxton would randomly tell us, "All your dreams come true at Disneyland!", "How do they make your dreams come true?", "Is it REALLY true that your dreams come true at Disneyland?" and when we were watching the Fantasmic show at the end of the night with Mickey Mouse in it he kept telling Bryce that all of his dreams would come true cause we were at Disneyland! I love it! I finally asked Braxton what his dream was that he wanted to come true and he said,"I want Spiderman to come and rescue me." Not sure what he wants to be rescued from... or how that will all work out... but I guess that is why it is a dream!


Enough of California... Arizona is our next stop to see Dave, Lori and Ila!!!


Dave had to work the first day we were there so we lounged around and went swimming with the kids. The weather was perfect and I didn't want the day to end. What more could you want than just lounging at the side of the pool getting a tan and looking at the beautiful flowers surrounding you??? Okay, a pina colada would have been nice but I settled for a package of fruit snacks.

Poor Landen, you can see it in his face and eyes that he doesn't feel good. He wanted to go swimming but didn't last more than a few minutes. We pulled him out of the pool, wrapped him in a blanket and he slept on my chest while I sat on the sidelines watching everyone have fun! I enjoyed snuggling with him since he hardly does that anymore. Too bad he had to be sick to do it though!
Ila and Braxton enjoying Lori's pool mattress.
Bryce would launch Abbey through the air and into the pool. We had fun watching them and Abbey enjoys it. I think that she is going to start growing a few gills and fins!
This is at the start of our pool day and everyone is having a great time! Lori didn't want any pictures of her but I thought that she wouldn't mind this one since she is hiding behind the pool toy! :)









The next day we headed off to a ghost town from old gold mines. We had a great time checking it all out and meeting some "real" cowboys, eating gold nugget gum and seeing several dozen poisonous snakes, spiders and all sorts of nasty stuff! EWWW! Dave and Lori were so fabulous to us and we didn't want to leave!
Our family with 'real cowboys'!
Such a cute picture of Landen, Ila, Braxton & Abbey at the ghost town.
Doesn't Landen just look so adorable in this hat!? I am still kicking myself that I didn't buy it. He is actually reaching up to take it off so maybe he wouldn't have liked it. He did like the train ride we went on though.


Our family. Check out that massive cactus!!! Holy cow! It takes about 70 years for a cactus to grow any "arms" and they weigh 100 lbs per foot! That is a big cactus!!!

Our last stop, back to St. George for a wedding!

It is Friday morning at 6 am and we are up and ready (not really ready, but forced to) head to St. George for Barry's wedding (Bryce's youngest brother). We were excited to go to the wedding but sad to see our vacation come to an end. We all know that weddings are a whole bunch of work and such a LONG day! It was a great day though. I love sitting in the temple with Bryce when people get married and fall more and more in love with him! It reaffirms to me that he is the right one for me and I JUST LOVE IT!


Barry and his wife, Sam, as they are leaving the reception. Congratulations!!! We are excited to have Sam be a part of the family. The kids absolutely love her and Barry has to fight to get the kids away from her!


Our little family in front of the St. George Temple. We had such a great time together so it just capped off our trip to be reminded that if we do what we are supposed to be doing that we will be together for FOREVER!




Well, now that you have lived every minute of our 10 day trip... I am done for now! It was so good for our family to go on our own little vacation that isn't tied to a family reunion, camping or some sort of holiday. I highly recommend it!