We're Going to Hollywood!

This is a little bit late but I had to still post about it. One Sunday night we were at my Grandma/pa Smith's house and someone casually asked me if I had decided to go to California with them. I thought it was a joke and said yeah! When we going? The answer was that we were leaving that Friday. So in five days! And they were being serious. My grandparents had a week at their time share in Escondido, California and wanted to know who could come. Pretty much none of the adults could come, they all had jobs or something dumb that kept them from being able to come. Well since my mom was currently unemployed and I didn't really have any obligations for the week, we talked to Braden and Annie and they decided that they didn't have any obligations either and we decided that we were all going to go to Cali! We had five days to get packed so we had to get going!

Grandpa and Grandma told us to pack lightly. We were so proud of how lightly we had packed. I was pretty much amazed at how much I didn't take that I wanted to...

Grandpa was not so impressed. He did not understand how we were going to get it all into the van.

Somehow they managed to fit everything in and got on the road! We had alot of fun on the way down. My favorite thing that we did was play school. We learned a lot about the desert while we played. It was so fun! We also stopped and stayed in a hotel about halfway there the first night. We got checked into our hotel and gambled the night away! It was great. I think if I remember right we only lost $9 total between the 6 of us for 4 hours of gambling. Pretty great entertainment! Grandpa forgot some of the rules that you have to follow while sitting at the table playing 21. We even got a song out of it... Hands off the table, hands off the table, looking like a fool with your hands on the table... We had more to it but I can't exactly remember it but it provided us with hours of laughter.

We finally made it to Lawrence Welk! Yay! There were times on the drive that I didn't know if we ever would. On Sunday night we went and walked around Old Town in San Diego. Speaking of San Diego, we got into a discussion about the true meaning of San Diego... Apparently the "older people" haven't seen Anchorman. Anyway...

Here we are at Old Town. It is pretty much just a bunch of shops filled with the same crap. But I have to admit that I totally get lost in the magic of shops filled with junk! I love them all!

The Mormon Battalion Center had just reopened after a huge remodeling. We went through the little tour. It was pretty great.

Brado and I panned for some gold. I had to teach him how to do it. Too bad it wasn't real because I was finding tons!

Grandpa "volunteered" to be the one to get dressed up as a soldier. He sure does look cute though!

We ended the night by driving to the San Diego temple. It is always such a beautiful one to see.

The next day we went to SeaWorld! I hadn't been there for years and it was great!

We had to have our usual churros! I do love them but Annie said that she wasn't too impressed.

I think that she liked it a lot better during this picture.

I think that I pretty much look exactly like a shark in this picture.

I loved these cute little penguins. They are Morgan's favorite animal and so I had to post a picture of them.

And Shamu! We watched the show Believe that starred Shamu and it really inspired me. If you just believe in your dreams, anything is possible!

And the next day was DiSnEyLaNd! I do love Disneyland! We only spent one day there, which I am NOT used to but it was so great because the place was virtually empty! I believe ther were only 2 or 3 rides that we even had to wait for!

Brado and my mom were too wimpie to go on Splash Mountain and so Annie and I went by ourselves. We wore our ponchos to "stay dry." That didn't quite happen though. We kind of got drenched!

Here are Brado and Annie eating our must have ice cream cookie sandwich! Mmm!

Here we all are waiting for some 3D ride, maybe Toy Story?

Apparently that is the end of my Disneyland photos but that was not the end of our day... So we were walking down Downtown Disney right out of Disneyland, just casually making our way to the shuttle to go back to our car when all the sudden we see this crowd of screaming girls. Since I usually love whatever 14-17 year old girls scream at I had to find out what was going on. I asked some lady coming from that direction if she knew what was happening and real casually and sarcastically she told me that Nick Jonas was up there and that I should start running. I thought she was probably lying but I decided to run just in case. Well at first when I got there this is all that I could see...

I couldn't exactly see what was going on from this point so I had to get up front! I don't exactly know how many children I stepped on or accidentally pushed out of the way.

Obviously I got right up to the front and obviously the lady was right! It was possibly one of the greatest events in my life thus far. He was giving a private concert to promote his new solo CD. It was so great! I really felt bad that Morgan was not there! She loves Nick so much!

The next day we went exploring the beach.

During our travels we found this new delicious restauant that is Baja Style Seafood. Mmm! I loved those greasy shrimp! They pretty much ruined my brand new sweats but the shrimp were pretty much worth it!

Annie and I had a photo shoot on the beach. We are pretty hot!

Braden and Annie having a special moment on the beach! Precious!

One disgusting thing that could make me cry if I look at this picture for too long is remembering these creepy huge rat/squirrel things. There were literally millions of them living on this hill. They were so gross and some of them almost tried to attack me when I tried to get closer. They were so gross!

One thing that was so great about Escondido was that there was a Chick-fil-a and an In-n-Out right next to each other. It was the best thing ever! So I got my Chick-fil-a and brought it over to In-n-Out. Everyone was happy!

They are really enjoying their animal style burgers!

The last day we went to some shops. They weren't the greatest but I did find this really great flower to take a picture with.

I loved California so much! It was such a fun trip and such a fun getaway! I am so glad that Grandpa and Grandma invited us to go with them! I can't wait to go again! One last thing that I found in our travels that pretty much sums up the way I feel about life...

Isn't that perfect? I am pretty sure that I need this sign so that everyone knows what mornings are for!

Game Night!

For as long as I can remember, Christmas break has been all about playing with your new games and toys, staying up all night playing, sleeping all day, and hanging out with our family. This has changed a bit since we are now grown up, have jobs, and my cousins have gotten married, but I try to still hang onto the fun we have always had!

We started the night off with our own snuggie advertisement. For the record I hate snuggies but the commercial shooting was pretty fun. Lets see everything that you can do in a snuggie...

You can snuggle so much better in a snuggie since you have arm holes.

You can pose really great in front of fireplaces because you have access to your hands.

You can play the guitar.

You can do some sort of weird thing with your hands up in the air.

You can read a book together.

I guess the commercial looked way too fun. Alyssa, Steph, and I had to get in on the action.

Mary made us her famous carmel popcorn for our game night and we could eat it so much easier because we could have our hands out.

We did get around to playing games eventually.

These pictures were taken at 2 in the morning so don't judge too harshly. Ha.

I loved our game nights and am glad we still love to play! Dave and Ty were also at the game night but they chose to play the playstation instead of games with us. I'm glad they had each other to keep themselves entertained. I think they tried to ignore us and pretend that we weren't there but we made that pretty hard to do! It was so fun and I'm so grateful for everyone in these pictures! I love you guys so much and can't wait for our next game night!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Christmas this year was fun because it is the first one with Tyler home! Yay! It was so much better with the whole family together rather than being split up on two different continents. We did the normal stuff. Went to Grandpa Swayngim's on Christmas Eve, well I didn't because I had to work. Lame. But my family did. Then Christmas morning we woke up and went straight to my Grandma Moyes and Dean's house for breakfast and presents. I love the traditional breakfast at my Grandma's house. It is always the best way to start off Christmas day! I got some kid's chapter books for my future classroom. My grandma said she felt weird giving me Junie B. Jones books but I loved them! Then we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for more presents!

They definitely spoil us! This is a picture of a portion of the presents they would be giving out this year. They gave all of the grandkids a down comforter for our beds. Shadie, Mylie, and I love our comforter so so much! I don't know how we ever slept before we got it! After the Smith house then it was time to drive home and see what Santa brought us! I love that we wait until the end of the day to open our presents! This was Tyler's first year of doing it this way and he said that he hated it... until we were driving home at 7:00 and still had all of our opening to do! Yay!

Shadie and Mylie get to open their stockings first so that they will have a treat to keep them occupied while we open our gifts. Santa always spoils them too!

Here are some random pictures of us opening presents...

Morgan with her guitar that she has wanted forever! She even shed a few tears when she realized that she got one!

Lynsie with her new dreadful snuggie that she had to put on the second that she opened it. And with her season 6 of One Tree Hill. Yay!

Ty with his new Jazz jersey.

Morgan with her new iTouch. She is on it all the time.

Me with my new Lucy Barbie. By the way this is my favorite episode.

Mom opening something. I don't exactly know what.

Dad with his favorite book by his favorite person in the whole world.

Lyns with her new laptop. Ty got one too but for some reason I can't find the picture.

We got a ton of other fun stuff too and we love it all! We are so blessed with everything that we have. When I think about how little other people get and have it makes me feel so grateful that we have what we do. It is very easy to take it for granted. I loved Christmas and I love my family! Only 365 days to go!

Festival of Trees

I have always wanted to go down to the Festival of Trees but just never would go. Well I heard that there was a tree decorated in an I Love Lucy theme and so I knew that I HAD to go see it! I recruited my mom and Letia to go down there with me one day. Wow there were a ton of trees! I got a little overwhelmed. We skipped a few hundred rows and still ended up seeing about a billion. Some were really lame and some were really cool.

We each took a picture with our favorite tree.

My mom with her favorite. I wouldn't be surprised if we got another set of decorations next year and our tree looks just like this.

Letia's favorite tree. I just realized that she actually matches the tree. Maybe that is why she picked this one...?

And a big surprise... My personal favorite! I was really worried after seeing some of the other lame trees that the person that decorated this tree wouldn't do a very good job but they completely surpassed my expectations! I loved it more than I could even say! It was absolutely darling! So colorful and cute! I wish so bad that I could have bought it. But even if I could have afforded the thousands of dollars that it cost, it was already bought. And the thing that made it even cuter was that it was made in honor of a little girl named Lucy that is suffering from cancer or something. I can't remember exactly what it was that she had. I loved it!

Here are some more pictures of it so that you can really appreciate it.

I made us all get a picture in front of my Lucy tree. It was the whole reason that we came down after all. I loved looking at all of the trees and getting ideas for cute trees in the future. And I love the reason behind the Festival of Trees. On a sign I read it said that eventually we will all know someone who needs to be treated at Primary Children's. It is so true and I will definitely be back there next year to support it and look at all of the cute trees! Thanks mom and Letia for coming with me!

Joe Nichols in Wendover Here We Come!

My great friend Krissy had tickets to Joe Nichols in wendover and asked me to go. I was excited for the concert because I kind of like concerts a little bit but I wasn't all that excited for the actual Wendover part because I'm not too big of a fan of gambling... Or so I thought.

We got a later start than we were planning on and I got us a litttle bit lost on the freeway so we got there just in time to make it to our seats. I have never been all that attracted to Mr. Nichols but seeing him perform made him so much hotter to me.

Just look at him singing on stage. Mmmm!

Here we are just loving the concert!

So after the concert we decided to go and try our hand at gambling. I was mostly just doing it to humor Kristen because I hate playing the machines. Well after I watched her play for a minute we decided to go learn how to play at the tables. Oh boy. We first learned how to play Rouelette. I was doing so good! I had doubled my money! But then I got cocky and lost it. So then we went and played Black Jack. Same thing happened at the Black Jack Table. Ha. So I guess I do like gambling now. The tables are way funner than the machines. I think I'll still stick to going down there about once a year though! One thing I did learn, all you have to do is put like a dollar into a machine and sit and use it slowly and they'll bring you as many fun drinks as you want! Cheapest daquiri ever! The man looked a little confused when we said non-alcoholic. I take it they don't sell too many non-alcoholic drinks in Wendover.

But... even more fun than my new found love of playing the tables... our huge jacuzzi that was in our hotel room! It was so so great! After we came back to the room we just hung out in the tub for like 4 hours! I could use a tub this size in my home someday. Thanks for inviting me Krissy! It was so fun!

I Love Jacob!

I just feel that I need to clarify one little point. I have loved Jacob Black since I first started reading Twilight. Long before they ever thought of making a movie. I am not one of the shallow bandwagon Jacob lovers that suddenly love him now that he is so much hotter than Edward. Ok enough said.

I am totally Team Jacob and so New Moon was my favorite book in the whole Twilight series. Jake is such a great friend to Bella while Edward is gone and I loved reading about it. Many people that I have talked to said that New Moon was boring to them, but I loved it and couldn't wait to see it on the big screen. And it definitely didn't disappoint!

We bought our tickets a couple of months ago for the midnight premeire. We were going to the double feature. Twilight was played at 9:00 and New Moon at midnight. Well we wanted to make sure that we got good seats so my mom and I went and got in line at 12:30. There were already people in front of us that were going to need a total of 50 seats so it was a good thing that we got there so early. We just brought our books and treats and made friends with the other people in line with us. The time pretty much flew by!

Ty isn't into Twilight but he came to visit us and keep us company for a while. He thought we were a little bit crazy.

Letia and Morgan got there to keep us company once they were off of school and work. Yay!

These are all of the people behind us... Guess they should have gotten there earlier!

We had to have our New Moon shirts of course... And I bet you can't tell which team I am on...

Or Morgan...

But we decided that we can still be friends.

Once they finally let us into get our seats we were a little bored and trying to entertain ourselves. This is what we came up.

This is my best friend that I made while waiting in line all day. She is a fellow Jacob lover and so obviously we hit it off immediately. She sat right behind us. For about the whole first half of New Moon she would kick my chair or make some sort of noise whenever Jake would come on the screen. I loved her!

Apparently Lynsie got a little sleepy while waiting for the movie to start. Not exactly sure what Morg is doing. But Mom and Letia are wide awake and waiting for the movie!

Morgan looks a lot more happy in this one.

And here we are after being at the theater for about 14 hours. We look a little tired but not too bad. New Moon was amazing! I had a blast and am very grateful for best friends, sisters, and a mom that will do these fun and crazy things with me! I don't know what I would do without them. And I am so excited for June 30th so that we can do it all again for Eclipse!