Friday, July 8, 2011

Happy Independece Day!

   We had a great 4th of July weekend. We spent Friday night at our cabin in Kamas which was amazing,


and then had my sister Melissa and her family up for the weekend. On Monday we went to breakfast at Angies, which apparently is where the locals eat. It was delicious. Scones as big as your head and eggs benedict. Yummy! My favorite was watching Allen get hyper because he was so excited about the food. Our waitress was laughing at us because he was so amped to be there.
    After Angies we went to look at the student organic farm where Matt works several days a week. We love it there because it is beautiful and there is so much good food to eat! Just yesterday Matt brought home a whole sack of organic strawberries. They were so flavor full! I don't know if you have ever had an organic strawberry but they are like a third of the size of the ones sold at the grocery store and packed with flavor! They aren't hard or sour, but they are soft, juicy, and sweet, so in other words how a strawberry should be!
     Then we went to first dam. We laid out a blanket, relaxed while the boys threw rocks in the river and played catch with the rugby ball. We even tried playing beggars bridge but that game is almost impossible to play with two babies and a three year old.









     Then thanks to Matt, we decided to celebrate our independence with some tasty Mexican food. Seriously though, Matt makes the best street tacos. Steak with an onion, cilantro, lime mixture, corn tortillas, avocado, and tomatoes. Then it wouldn't be independence day without some watermelon and grilled corn on the cob. I also treated us to some homemade limeade. 








 
   Finished off the day with a good firework show in Hyrum. I just want to say that I love this country! I've been around to places like Kenya, China, and Mexico and none quite feel like the Land of Liberty, the beautiful United States of America. I would publicly like to thank all those that have fought for our country to keep it free. For all the families that have sent Fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandchildren to fight for what is right, and that is liberty. The freedom to choose life, liberty and happiness. It brought tears to my eyes on Sunday when we all had the privilege of standing in sacrament meeting singing our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. God gave us this land and I am so grateful for it. And just like it says in the third verse of the star spangled banner, "and this be our motto: In God is our trust".

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

California!!

     When my family told me that we would not be going on a family vacation this year Matt and I decided right then that no matter what we were going to go on one ourselves. Of course when either of us think of vacation we usually think of Hawaii, which is a little expensive, or the lovely state of California which is way more affordable. So lucky us, our two favorite people live in Pasadena, California, Luke and Kristen.
     I really wasn't sure how traveling with a baby would be, but with thirty toys, blankets, graham crackers, and not near enough binkies, we made it to beautiful California. We actually split the drive in two and slept in the not so beautiful Mesquite, NV for the sake of Lillie. We are actually really glad we did because it was so wonderful to have her sleep all the way from Vegas to Pasadena.
So the first day in Pasadena we spent at the aquarium and Queen Mary Ship. They were both really fun!





Sea Dragon. Ever heard of one?



Lillie would be making such a cute face and as soon as we got the camera out she would make this face.


                   Spider Crab. All I could think about was how bad I wanted to eat it. MMMM!




    Next we went to the Queen Mary. If you buy a combo ticket for both the aquarium and the ship you get to take the haunted tour on the ship. It was a little different than I thought because I thought that they were going to tell real ghost stories from the ship, and maybe they were, but I felt like I was in a haunted house. The funniest part was that it was really dramatized with strobe lights, mist, and loud booms and Lillie slept through the whole thing! Seriously though, she didn't even move. Then right after it, when it was peaceful and quiet, she woke up. I seriously don't understand that child. The Queen Mary was fun though. I totally felt like I was on the Titanic and found myself saying "I will never let go Jack" and "Look Jack I'm flying" over and over in my head. 






The second day we went to lunch in Santa Monica at a cute little cafe:



Then we went to the beach in Malibu:



Lillie has always been a water baby (you should see her in the tub!) so she loved the beach.













So we had a great time and were sad to come home. Oh how I love thee California :)