San Diego Zoo

I never did the last post to our San Diego trip in April. Shows you how much of a slacker I am...but I just really haven't felt like it. Anyways, we went to the zoo one day while we were there....along with thousands of other people! It was kind of hot and crowded so it was hard to get up close to the animals. But we experienced the San Diego Zoo and can check that off our list of things to do when we visit San Diego! Here are a few pictures I would like to remember....Ben and Lucas actually took my camera and took a ton of pictures of the animals...but nothing too exciting to post!

Whale Watching and Ruby's at the Pier

One day while on our trip, we decided to try something we'd never done before and go whale watching. It was a 2 hour boat ride that took us out onto the ocean to look for migrating whales. We lucked out on out trip seeing 3 different kinds of whales...a Minke whale, Gray whale, and a Fin Back Whale. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time...except maybe for Rachel who wasn't sure about the rocking motion of the boat.

Rachel was a little anxious about the whole boat experience, but it actually made the trip so much easier because all she wanted to do was be held. Otherwise...I'm sure she would have been wanting to be all over the boat! Zac and I took turns holding her and were actually able to enjoy the trip!

My mom and Ally hanging out on the boat!

Ben at the very front making sure he could see everything.

Lucas watched from the front the whole time as well.

Lucas and his cousin Paige


After whale watching, we drove to one of our favorite places to eat in Oceanside...Ruby's on the pier. It's a restaurant at the very end of the pier so you have to walk a ways to get there. We met up with all my other siblings and kids as not everyone was able to go whale watching. This picture is Cami, Ben, and Max. It was quite an exciting dinner with 10 kids and 11 adults!

Lucas and Paige

A huge pelican just hanging out where people like to catch fish off the pier. I'm sure he's hoping to catch some too!

Lucas and Cami posing with the pelicans. We later found out that one of the pelicans has sort of a mean streak, so luckily he didn't try anything with these two!

We all had a great day on the ocean and at the pier. The kids even saw dolphins swimming along the pier, so that made their day of animal watching quite eventful!

Easter Afternoon

Easter was a nice and relaxing day because we got to listen to Conference...or at least tried to listen with kids running around! After Conference, while waiting for more family to arrive for dinner, the most exciting thing happened that day for my kids is that they experienced their first earthquake. We felt it pretty strong where we were( it happended in Mexico, and we were probably about 60 miles or so from the epicenter), but luckily it wasn't strong enough to cause anything to fall from the walls or anyone to get hurt. We all did run outside though and I had Zac wake Rachel from her nap because it kind of kept going and you never know if it's going to get worse. Anyways, it was definately something my kids will remember...I think Ben was spooked the most saying it was his worst Easter ever! Luckily they all slept through the few aftershocks that I felt later in the night!

Here are pictures from the Easter Egg hunt outside with all the cousins. Luckily there were enough eggs for all the kids to find plenty....even the eggs with money!
Aunt Ally brought Easter bunnies for all the little girls. Rachel still likes to sleep with hers!

Easter Morning

This year we headed down to San Diego to spend Easter and Spring Break. We figured it would give the kids something fun to do while they were out of school. It's a good thing the Easter Bunny is kind of like Santa Claus and always knows where to find the kids! We actually had two Easter Egg hunts...one in the morning with just our kids, then later in the afternoon all of the cousins came over to my mom's and found all the eggs hidden outside. It's always fun to visit when we get to see all our family! Here are some pictures of Easter Morning:

Getting ready for the big hunt

A beaver webkinz for Ben in his basket

I think I have a picture of all my kids at this age holding up an egg, wondering what this whole tradition is about!

She realized there was candy in the eggs and started eating right away!
There were many new places for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs at Grandma's house!

Ben...still not too old to look for eggs!

Posing for the camera!

Lucas discovering Peeps in his basket

A nice close-up of Lucas' face after he had fallen on my mom's treadmill the day before...thus proving my point that kids shouldn't play on treadmills! Maybe he will listen to me now!

Ben Turns 10!

Ben celebrated his 10th birthday on March 24. This year was a "party" year for him, so he got to invite some friends and we went to Boondocks where they did the go-karts and laser tag. We all had a great time celebrating Ben's birthday! I just can't believe he is already 10!

Rachel Turns 2!

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel had her birthday and turned 2 yrs old. It's hard to believe that 2 years have already gone by, but time goes fast and she's growing with it! I definately see signs of the terrible twos, but she is such a joy in our family. She's usually pretty happy, loves her brothers, and is especially fond of her Daddy! We are so glad she is a part of our family!

This is before church as she got to celebrate her birthday wearing a new dress!


We had cake, ice cream and gifts at Grandma and Grandpa's house. At first, Rachel was more interested in the dog Gary, than opening her presents!

Taking a minute to pose with Gary! This is classic because she hardly poses for a picture!

Not too happy about posing for a picture on her new wagon...but she does love the new wagon!


Blowing out the candle! We actually used a hand me down cake from a friend's baptism party the day before and just put a candle in a piece of cake. The cake was still delicious....and Rachel didn't know the difference!

Skirts for Haiti

Recently my sister was visiting and had brought with her some skirts that she had collected from a friend, to donate to the Humanitarian Center to be sent to Haiti. She took them out to show us and had the boys try them on to see how they would fit on kids. They thought it was the funniest thing to be wearing a skirt, but they sure got a kick out of prancing around the house and showing them off.

Quilts of Love!

I have been such a blog slacker lately. I really don't think anyone really cares or has great interest in reading anyways, but for me it is a great way to record what's going on with us and a neat place to keep my pictures in cyber space! Anyways, being the slacker that I am, I never blogged about the neatest gift I got for Christmas. I know it was 3 months ago, but I thought I should record it now or never!

Anyways, a little background on these presents is that my dad had quite a collection of hawaiian print shirts and was often seen wearing these shirts. I have very fond memories of him in these shirts. Well, after he passed away, my mom wasn't really quite sure what to do with them since they did have quite of bit of sentiment, even though they were just shirts. Anyways, she was about to get rid of them when she asked my sister if she would be interested in using them to make quilts. From there, my sister took on this great project in making 9 quilts in all which literally took her about 18 months. She was really excited for Christmas and made sure we were all there to receive our presents.


Each quilt is very unique and she even made a name for each of them (which I'd have to ask her for since I could never remember. ) It was fun seeing them all and remember my dad as he wore each of those shirts. I know my sister put so much time, effort, and love into each quilt and I am grateful to have something of my dad's made into a beautiful quilt.


I have pictures of all the quilts except for my sister's since she hadn't wrapped it up for herself and I think wasn't finished!

This is the back of my mom's quilt. The neat thing about this is that the handprint is actually my dad's, traced from a cement block of the sidewalk at our house with all our handprints! There is a handprint made out of each of the shirts.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year. We went to San Diego again and had a great time enjoying one party after another. Santa did not dissapoint the boys this year...although some might question his rules for evaluating which kids get put on the good or naughty list. I guess Santa looks at the heart and knows their true intents! Anyways, Ben finally got the XBox 360 that he had been asking for 3 years...finally his wish came true. Lucas wanted a drum set, which Santa could only come up with an electronic one that would allow ear phones to be plugged in to block out the noise. Rachel got a baby with a stroller, high chair, and bassinet to help develop her natural motherly instincts!

We all had a great Christmas, especially as we were able to visit with so many family members. The kids have a great time just hanging out with their cousins. We had a couple of big family parties...one of them included close to 75 people with cousins and 2nd cousins. There was never a dull moment!

Christmas Card 09

Every year before Christmas, I somewhat dread the thought of doing Christmas cards and getting the perfect family picture, but for whatever reason, I continue on with the tradition each year. I guess I think that despite the trouble of getting the picture and sending out the cards, it's a good way to get a family picture each year for the sake of documenting our own family history. Anyways, this year I asked a kind and friendly neighbor who has interest in photography if she would be so kind as to take our picture. Since it turned out to be a snowy day, we just took a few shots in our house. Rachel was only cooporative for the first few shots, and then turned into the cute monster that she is, so we were lucky to get at least one good picture. Zac was kind of bummed though because we didn't realize until after, that his collar was not turned down the whole way...oh well! Here are a few of the out-takes....

And the winner.....

Glad to have it over and done with for another year!