OUR POCONOS GETAWAY

Friday afternoon we drove up to the Poconos. Jacob had a few days off so thought it would be fun to see some new scenery. As you know, we originally thought we would go up to Pennsylvania so Brian could see the Army-Navy game on Saturday in Philadelphia. You all know our sad story of the lost tickets. Since we had the place reserved, we decided to use it. It was an 8-hour drove up from Julia's. (took longer because we had to go a round about way to turn in our rental car) Anyway, the place turned to be nice and we had a good time with some exceptions. It seemed that someone was sick almost every day. We had picked up a stomach bug. But in spite of that we had a relaxing few days. It was ccccccold up there--down in the teens at night and in the 20's during the day. We drove back on Tuesday. So far I am the only one not to come down sick. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Do you like our hats? Julia and I found a fea market to explore but it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing so we picked up some $4.00 hats!

Tis The Season

I spent the day decorating for Christmas.  It was different to see my decorations in new places.  I got rid of some of my decorations before we moved and now I wish I had them back.  I actually have more places to put things in this house than I did before.  

Holiday Weekend

We have two bunk beds in one of the downstairs bedrooms, and all five of the girls slept there.  On the first night of the sleep over, Shareen and Kristie put all the girls to bed.  I thought what a cute picture it would be to go down and see them all asleep.  When I walked in, there they were as you see them.  It did make a cute picture, but no luck in getting the girls to sleep.  I believe that night Anya and Mia were the last ones to go to sleep.  They had so much fun together and got along really well  with very few tears.

We  have quite a back yard for the kids to play in.  Out to the back are lots of trails, hills, rocks, all places to have fun exploring.  I don't know what to think about some of the outfits the girls have on.  I think they need some fashion advice.

Saturday afternoon Shareen, Kristie and I went on a hike in Snow Canyon.  It was called Three Ponds.  It was very beautiful and was about all the hike I needed.  We did a little rock climbing, trudging through sandy trails, etc.  However, I believe this picture below is just out back of our house.  Anya actually took this picture.  Not too bad!

Saturday night the girls helped to decorate the tree and even themselves.  It turned out quite nice with very little redecorating by me.  We really did have a nice time together--lots of eating, shopping, game playing and football watching by the guys.  Now Brian and I will enjoy a few days of quiet before we head out to West Virginia.  Look out Loraya and Isaac, here we come.

We are ready for company!

This is all out of order and I am too lazy to change it around.  Hopefully, you can figure it out. 

Can't really beat this view from our deck.

We are quite settled in our home now.  Our movers arrived at 6:30 pm Wednesday night  and it took them about 3 1/2 hours to unload and put furniture and beds together.  Our new furniture for living room, one bedroom set, dining room furniture, and 4 bunk beds arrived on thursday.  We have worked so hard to get boxes unpacked and stuff put away.  I should have taken a picture of the garage which was filled with boxes.  Brian and I were so tired and sore we could hardly sleep at night.  We did a lot of work in two day.  But, it is all worth it.  We love it.  By the time Kyle arrived on Saturday afternoon we were in good shape.  Friday the internet guy and the tv guys arrived so we are in business.  

Brian says the office is his favorite room.

Living area is small but we have the family room downstairs which is larger.

GO COUGARS

Sherry invited Brian and I to go see BYU play on Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful fall day, perfect to see a football game. Jeff didn't come as he was too busy getting ready to go on their mission. (They leave for MTC next week.) We had a great time. BYU won big 41 - 6 over San Diego. We hadn't been to a football game all fall so it was fun to be in the college atmosphere. Sherry and I were able to catch up on family news. I manage to get a picture of everything but the football team. Oh well!

It is a total traffic grid-lock after the game so we walked to Subway after to have a bite to eat. We wanted to go to the BYU Creamery but it was packed with people. After walking back to our car and getting Sherry to her car we went back to the Creamery for ice cream. That ended our big day out.

St George

Saturday we took a trip to nearby Snow Canyon. As you can see the scenery is beautiful. Luke got sick and Lizzy wore out so Brian took them back to our place, and the rest of us enjoyed a few more walks.

Our home, a work in progress. As you can see the outside is done except for the driveway being poured, which they are doing today.

This picture below is the living area.This is the kitchen. They are putting the cabinets in today.Looking into the kitchen from the living room area.Downstairs family room.Looking into the walkin closet.

San Deigo Zoo

Saturday afternoon we drove down to the zoo.  We were there along with everybody else in the area.  It was really crowded.  It was such a beautiful day, I thought everybody would be at the beach, but they all came to the zoo.  Even though it was crowded, it is such a big zoo that it didn't seem too bad.  There was a wait to see the panda bears, but other than that it was great.

Time out for some refreshments and a little rest.

Wednesday Fun

Once again the pictures are in the opposite order.  My blogging skills are regressing!

Today Shareen and I took off after the kids were in school and went down to the Oceanside beach to the area where our reunion was.  We walked along the pier and took a nice walk on the beach.  It is rather wonderful to be able to go beach combing the end of October.  We have no autumn leaves to admire, we can't complain when the temperature is in the high 70's and you can go watch the surfers and enjoy some of God's wonderful creations.

We made a stop at the Mall to do some shopping and eat lunch, and we both managed to find something to buy.  It wasn't too difficult!

We picked up Anya at school and took her to her gymnastics class.

Just another hard day for me in paradise.

These pictures should be part of the previous blog.  They have all these stars of famous people all up and down the sidewalks.  In case you can't read it, one is Lucille Ball and the other is Lassie.  The picture of Brian sitting on the bench is at Paramount Studios.  This is the bench used in the movie "Forrest Gump.  The plaque says "My name is Forrest Gump.  They call me Forrest Gump.  Pretty interesting huh?

Our Los Angeles Adventure

It seems these pictures are in the opposite order that I intended them to be.  Oh well, I suppose you can figure it out.  Brian and I decided to have a day in LA.  After making sure I had our destinations printed out on Map Quest, we took off.  The traffic was good and it took us about 1 1/2 hr. to get up to Hollywood, our destination.  First stop was a tour of Paramount Studios.  It was interesting seeing the different sound stages they use for filming.  Right now they were mostly doing TV shows.  We saw the set for a show called Kath and Kim, Dirty, Sexy Money, and others.  I haven't watched any of thosevshows but it was nice to see how they are setup.  Our guide had some interesting stories to tell about some of the stars.

After the tour we were going to drive down to Venice Beach, which is supposed to be quite interesting, but about l/4 of the there we realized we probably didn't have time to go there as it was taking longer than we thought.  We were in the Beverly Hills area so I took a picture of that sign and when we turned around we found ourselves on the famous Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, the shopping area of the stars.  No, we didn't see any one famous.

We headed up to the Pantages Theatre which is on the famous streets of Hollywood & Vine.  We walked the streets and read all the names of the stars in the side walk.  After walking for a while looking for a place to eat,  we found our choices were McDonalds, KFC and Subway.  We hadn't been to KFC for ages so that is where we ate for a big night out.  Then it was off to see the show "Wicked" which was really good.  I enjoyed seeing it for the second time and found I enjoyed it even more than the first time.  After the show we managed to drive back to Oceanside.  All in all is was a fun day, and we didn't even get lost.