LIFE IN CALIFORNIA

We are finally settled here in California and lovin'it! We have been exploring California and getting to know the area. We have been to 5 beaches (we live 6 miles from the ocean) and we've even been to San Diego for the weekend. We especially like going to the beach for family night and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

We live about 20 minutes from Disneyland, but we haven't been yet. We're planning on going next week. More on that later...

The kids are loving our neighborhood! We live one block from a water park, skate park, pool, tennis courts, rock climbing wall, park, Mylee's elementary and Brooks' preschool. All are part of the community we live in. We pretty much walk everywhere we go!

We have tons of great shopping, spas, restaurants, a farmers market and a maggie moos (we visit it at least once a day!) in our local mercantile. We also have great neighbors. There are at least 5 families in our ward that live on the same block as us and TONS of kids.

We are really enjoying the life here, but missing all of you :(
Hope this gets you excited to come visit :)

FUN IN THE SUN

These are a few pics from our weekend trip down to San Diego. My family came down and we stayed at a home right on the beach...so much fun! We road bikes down the boardwalk, shopped, relaxed and went SURFIN'! I didn't actually get any pics of myself (I got up I swear), but I got some great ones of my sis Annie.

I'm in love with a VAMPIRE!

I'm in love with a VAMPIRE! Well, not really (that's actually the name of Twilight in Europe) but I love these Stephenie Meyer books. I've been enthralled with them the last few weeks. I don't have a lot of extra time on my hands, but when I get it-I'm reading these books! Forget about cleaning, dinner, blogging-yes, even my blogging has been shoved aside for these books. I've been getting comments about my lack of blogging lately. Not that I don't have things to blog about-Our recent trip to San Diego, Mylee and Brooks starting Soccer & School. I'll get to them I promise-but today is a very special day. It's Bella's Birthday! So I'm dedicating todays post to Bella and Edward(the vampire)! And because I am SO HOOKED on these books!

It all started a few months ago when I saw my friends Tiffany and Teressa roller blading past my house. I ran out to say "hi" and all Tiff would talk about was EDWARD, EDWARD, OH EDWARD. Making comments like "I want to suck your blood". Telling me I HAVE to read these books. GAG! I mean come on-can you blame me? First of all a VAMPIRE book and secondly it's written by an LDS author-uhhhgg!

She kept hounding me about reading these books...no way was she going to get me to read them-not on my life!

She was OBSESSED with this "Edward" (the vampire). She was even wearing a tattoo with his name on it (comes in the second book). She's actually pretty normal, but this behavior was anything BUT! Before I knew it, all my friends were talking about Edward, Edward, Edward!

Meanwhile, we moved to California but returned back for a quick visit to Utah. We went to our friends house the night before going home when the "vampire books" came up. All the girls are just RAVING about these books. Amy and Teressa have read them too(thanks to Tiff) so Katie and I are just listening to them ready to gag! It's 11:45 p.m. but somehow they convince us to go to Wal-Mart to buy these books. Unfortunately(to my relief) they were all SOLD OUT! Dang, I was so looking forward to reading these Mormon vampire books-NOT!

The following week Dwight took a trip to Barnes and Noble and so kindly(as he always is) bought me these "vampire" books - ALL 3 of them!

I decided I would look through the first book twilight. It was 500 pages of what looked like big letters and easy reading. Side note, I haven't read a fictional book in over 7 years! I decided I'd give it a whirl and see what all this fuss is about. I read the first chapter-o.k., the second-even better, so onto the next...before I knew it, I too was HOOKED! After I finished the entire book, I couldn't wait to read the next-thankfully Dwight purchased all 3 for me. I don't know if I could have endured the torture of waiting another day to read the next book!

These books are SOOO GOOD! At times I am reading them thinking holly crow(I stole that expression from the book-hehe) what am I doing? These books are so absurd-yet so REAL! I even cried in the beginning of new moon -if you've read it you know what I mean, if not-you've GOT to read them!

***but just a warning*** You WILL get addicted and won't want to do anything else besides read these books and dream of EDWARD! Make sure all the laundry is done, dishes washed and have a few frozen meals on hand! Oh, and sorry to get you involved in this...

Well got to go, Edward is calling my name and my tattoo has been drying for longer than 3 minutes now :) THANKS TIFF!

WHY DO I BLOG?

So this is kinda fun. I have been "tagged" by my wonderful sister-in-law Cassie. So now I have to answer the question "Why do I blog?"...

Need I say more????

So now Katie and Kjersten...you're it!

SPUDMAN TRIATHLON 2007

So I really wanted to do the Spudman triathlon this year, but I didn't get in on time (they capped the total participants at 2,000 this year and it filled up in a matter of hours after it opened). I was bummed, but the triathlon was the last Saturday in July and we were moving that Monday, so it would be really tight. Anyway, Sidney was leaving to China the day after the Spudman and wasn't going to be able to make it. She was doing the Biking in a team with Mckell Blake and Melanie Haddock. Sidney asked me if I would do it for her. figuring I could squeeze it in, I decided to do it. I only had a few days to train, but I felt good since the bike is my strength. And I had plenty of those bright red energy beans!

We had a blast and actually ended up finishing FIRST PLACE in the team category. Mckell swam 1 mile in 20 minutes, Melanie ran 6 miles in 56 minutes & I biked 26 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes. We all did great and had the best time!

What is goose tape?

Okay, this is great! I was inside making dinner (yes this is a true story) and Brooks and Mylee were in the garage playing with our moving boxes. Brooks came in and asked me for some "goose tape."

"What?" I asked.

"Goose tape!" he replied.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Brooks."

"Mommm, I neeeed some goose tape, I know you know what it is."

"Oh do I? What is it then?"

You know Mom, the real sticky stuff that holds things together."

I couldn't help but burst out laughing when I realized that what he wanted was not in fact "goose tape" but duct tape or "duck tape"!

FLOW RIDER BABY!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13659575

So my friend Danna Roberts is an instructor at gold's gym. She was telling me about the new "flow rider" at the gold's gym in Ogden. It is basically a simulated water current that you can surf/boogie board on. It sounded pretty fun, so McKell and I went with her and her hubby Tyson last night. IT WAS AAAWESOME! We totally sucked at it, but I can't wait to go back. Everyone should try this at least once(but you'll want more I promise). Check out these sweet pictures. The top one is me in the middle of a barrel role. Make sure to click on the url below the picture's so you can see some rollin' in action. Watch out ocean city California, here I come(hehe).

FORTUNE COOKIES - ARE THEY TRUE?

Okay, so when I was in high school(isn't that the best way to start a sentence?) Anyway, I was at a volleyball tournament and we had an hour to spare before our next game. My friend Verla and I walked over to the grocery store and purchase a box of fortune cookies. As we were walking back to the high school I decided to open a cookie. Just as I opened the package, the cookie inside fell to the ground and broke in thousands of pieces, okay more like 10-15 but who's counting? We were going to just keep walking and let it go, but turned around not able to just leave my fortune laying on the ground unread! As I picked the mysterious white label from out of the cookie wreckage it read (and I can still quote it to this day )"Your clumsy and inquisitive ways will get you through life." From that day on, I swear every fortune cookie I open has some truth as to what is to come! So, the reason for this story from over 10 years ago...Uncle Mike treated us to some yummy Chinese food the other night and we were left with a pile of extra fortune cookies. Mylee opened a cookie and the fortune read "A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon." Hum, fun :) Just as she finished reading the fortune a knock was at the door. As she opened the door, it was our neighbor standing there. To our "surprise" she was holding a plate of "pleasant" looking peanut butter bars. We were definitely overdo for a plate of cookies...but so "soon"?

Less than 24 hours and one down!

So, I had had my new nails on for less than 24 hours when we had a house fire at work. I was doing great and no one even noticed because I had my thick fire gloves on. After over 6 hours of fighting fire, it was finally out, and all 10 nails were still attached. When we started to clean up (usually everyone's air packs, helmets, coats, gloves, etc. immediately come off to lessen the weight), I (of course) left my gloves on (heaven forbid any of the guys see that I had my nails done--I would NEVER hear the end of it!). But one of the guys happened to notice my gloves were still on. He jokingly asked me, "Why are your gloves still on? Did you get your nails done?" "Ha ha ha , yeah right!" I replied. He laughed too. Whew! Got past that one--barely!
As we were taking apart each hose section preparing to leave (we use a wrench-type tool) the tool slipped and one of my nails took the fall. It came completely off. Oh the pain!!! What was I thinking doing acrylic nails???
I came straight home and cut every single nail. There's no way I'm going through that pain and humiliation again!

tat,tat,tat

So, I have nothing new to add, I've been spending most of my time trying to figure out this blog thing! I just wanted to type with my brand new acrylic finger nails. That's right-I HAVE GIRLY NAILS (or sissy girly nails as Kristin put it)! A bunch of us girls went to a nail salon for pedicures and they didn't have enough pedicure seats, so 2 of us decided to do acrylic nails. I went with the more traditional site, the fingers. Lisa went the more adventuresome route and had them put them on her TOES! It actually turned out really cute!! Normally this would have taken me about 30 seconds to type--I think it's been over an hour now trying to figure out how to type with these things. How in the world am I going to work? I don't think they work very well pulling hoses or starting IV's--what was I thinking?