California!!

We spent an amazing week in Newport Beach, CA last week! My family rented a beach house about 150 yards from the beach and we got to spend the week on the beach and at Disneyland! It was so much fun! We spent one day in Disneyland and it was just as great as I always remember it to be. (I only had to remember back to November since we were just there it seems.) It's a little more fun when you don't have a 1 year old to take care of because you can hit more of the good rides but we still had lots of fun. And Kiley was a trooper. She hardly fussed at all about being in her stroller all day. She is a people watcher and had fun watching all the people go by as we walked 13 miles throughout the day. Yes that's right. Chad's phone has a pedometer in it and it showed we had walked just over 13 miles that day. Which made the next day at the beach that much more relaxing. We spent the rest of the week at the beach and had a great time. It was overcast most of the time which was a plus and minus. Chad was happy because we didn't have to worry about getting burned, but I wished it would have been a tiny bit warmer. The sun did, however, come out as we were leaving to come home.
Kiley loved loved loved the sand! So much that she actually ate a whole bunch of it. And yes! That means she had sandy poop! While at the beach, we learned she is a bully. Her cousin Asher is 7 months older than she and about 10 pounds heavier, but she managed to wrestle him to the ground on multiple occasions. She thought it was absolutely hilarious (as did we), but Asher was not so much a fan. She kept pinning him down and laughing about it. Poor kid might have some self-esteem issues if he sees the video of it when he's older! (Just kidding!) Well, the week was amazing and we had a blast. Kiley had so much fun with the sand and her cute cousin. I wish we were still there, but it's always good to get home too. Thanks family for a great time and thanks Mom and Dad for everything!!!

Beware there are a lot of pictures to follow. 

Family Picture on the Pier

Lovin' the shades!

Ki and Chad on "It's a Small World"

Riding on the Caterpillar

Petting the goats at the DL petting zoo

Kristi looks the most excited in the second row.  And you'd never know Josh was on Space Mountain right now. 

Kiley, Grandma and Asher

I love this picture of the kiddos

My dad "reading"

Kiley eating birthday cake.

Chad body surfing for the first time.

Sand monster. Notice she's been eating it.

Chad still happy after his first attempt at body surfing.

Kiley wrestling Asher to the ground

"Alright man!!" 

Aunt Heather and Kiley

It took a while but she finally liked the ocean after seeing how much Asher loved it.

My Dad

Dad and Josh waiting to catch a big wave.

Lindsey

Riley

She laughing as she crawls away. Look how happy Grandma is to have her babies together.

Kiley and Asher loved to bounce on this chair.

Saying Good-Bye :(

So two weeks ago, we had to say good-bye to some of our best friends. They also happen to be family! We are not very happy about this new arrangement, but of course, we were not involved in the decision making. If we had been in charge Ryan, Emily, Joslyn, Evan and baby boy in Nov. would not have moved over 5 hours away to Logan. BOOO to you guys!!
The week before they left, we went on a cook out at Wood's Ranch. The combined student wards kicked us out a little later so we went up to the kid's pond to do some fishing. The kids absolutely loved it. As you can tell by Evan and Kiley...they didn't stay clean!! But it was so much fun.

Joslyn and Kiley. Oh how Kiley will miss that crazy little almost 4 year old.

We found a bunch of rocks in the car later that night.

Evan, the Defender of Fire

Later that week, we went to say our final good-byes (I realize that sounded like something you would say about a funeral but that is how I feel.) We were hanging out in Emily's basement and Kiley decided she would start trying to walk. She did a pretty good job!! She also learned that she could climb stairs really really well. Good thing we don't have stairs at our house or we'd never be able to keep her off of them. It sure was sad to see these great friends of ours leave. I was lucky to marry Chad before Joslyn was born so I have been around to see both of her kids in the hospital right after they were born. I also have had the greatest privilege of watching them on multiple occasions. And the thing that I will miss the very most will be all the hours (which felt like minutes) hanging out with Emily talking about all that is going on in life. I will sure miss those talks!!

So to those crazy people who moved ALL the way across the state...We miss you already and wish every day that you will move back!! We love you lots and can't wait to meet that new little guy hopefully before he is a teenager!!

Oh and Kiley misses her cousins and is mad that you took them away from her!!
 NSAJH,549;/P9;.OT TR (Kiley telling you how mad she is!!)

Joslyn doing her funny face.

They usually don't like each other, but they seemed to get along that day.

Family Time

We've been busy the last few weeks. The weather has been absolutely wonderful in Cedar and we've been taking advantage of it!! Kiley has been spending a lot of time outside, playing with Daisy. She has also been just as busy making messes throughout the house. Here are some fun pictures of what we've been up to.

Kiley loves spaghetti!!

This is a tree that we walk to most days. There are fields all around us and this tree is in a field down the road from us. Daisy loves this road because she can run like crazy. The coolest thing about this tree is that there is a bald eagle nest in it. Every year the eagle comes back and lays more eggs. If you look on the left branch in the middle, you can see the eagle. Its really little from the picture but it is huge when it flies around.

This is Kiley's friend Davin. They have been spending lots of time together lately and have so much fun together. This is while they were fighting over the phone. I think Kiley won. (Only because she could crawl away and Davin couldn't)

Kiley loves to play with markers. This won't last much longer considering she's trying to open them.

 So for FHE last week, we decided to go fishing. Chad was so excited and wanted so badly for me to catch a fish. I, on the other hand, wanted to cast, but had no desire to actually hook a fish. I don't like touching fish all that much because then you have the joy of smelling like fish the rest of the day. (Same .reason why I rarely use bleach.) Well, I won and didn't catch anything!! Chad caught one. I convinced him it was okay for me to not catch any because I had more bites than he did. He felt better about that but I still know he was irked because I didn't catch anything. I, however, was grateful!! (Even though he offered to take it off my hook for me so I wouldn't smell like fish.)

Playing with and eating dirt.

Lovin' on Daisy

 We spent last Wednesday hiking one of our favorite Cedar hikes. We couldn't get to the trailhead where we usually start because of snow. So we started at a different spot and worked our way backward. It was absolutely beautiful. The flowers are starting to come out but they will be even more beautiful in about 2 weeks. 

Chad found this and thought it was ugly. So he untied it and threw the logs in places that seemed more natural. Oh and he also kept the rope it was tied with.

Early signs of life. The really pretty flowers won't be out for a little longer.

Kiley absolutely loves her Dad!! Every time he comes home from work she cruises over to him to give him a huge hug. She gets so happy to see him. It is so fun to watch her reaction when she hears the door open. She also thinks its great to eat lunch while sitting on his lap.  

We took Kiley to the beach on Leigh Hill last Friday evening. It was a little bit cold but Kiley had fun playing in the sand. She ate a whole bunch of it. Now she is all prepared to go to California. Chad went snorkeling. It was cold enough that I didn't even put my feet in the water. But we had a fun night. (this is the same lake where we were fishing earlier.)

Taking it all in.