January? What January?

Chilling at the Marriot

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Seriously, did we even have a January this year? It sure doesn't feel like it. That month flew on by, and honestly I am glad. The new year started with LOTS of studying for Aubrie, which meant no homework "yeah!", but lots of stress. She had her Pre-Comps which are equivalent to semester finals. It was a great opportunity for her to learn how to study for finals, but also drove such fear in so many (since the exams were half of their quarter grade) that it sent them running in flocks. The first week back to school Aubrie would come home saying, or texting me from school, that someone else was leaving her school. Aubrie started to get nervous, but I had to keep giving her encouragement, that she would do well. While I liked not having the Math homework every night, it was nice when she was finally done with testing. I also enjoyed the actual testing days because she had early release, so she actually got to come home and relax a bit. I'm impressed with Aubrie's diligence in studying. She did much better than she thought she would. Her only struggle was Math, and now we are working on that to help her. Beyond that, she pulled all A's and B's. It's a lot of work, but what she is getting out of it is invaluable. Boston is actually acting a little excited to attend Basis. I know he will miss his friends, and they will miss him terribly. But this will be a good experience for him, also. We just registered him in January! Andso it's official... two kids in Basis next year!

The weekend after Aubrie's pre-comps was her gym meet in San Diego. The gym said she could go, but that we should not have high expectations because it would be very competitive and Aubrie had only one gym meet under her belt. I decided we could go for fun, and fit a visit to the Frandsen's and Danny. I hadn't been to San Diego since I was a kid, so I was looking forward to it. Well, I guess I should say once it got close and I finalized hotel, and visits, I was looking forward to it! I ended up pulling Boston and taking him and Sophia with us, too. Ben stayed back with Ethan so he could work, and also so they wouldn't miss Ethan's soccer game. It was good for Ethan to have that one on one time with his Dad. It was also great for me to have one on one time with the other three. We had a great time. The drive wasn't bad. We took Ben's car, and so not having movies was a bit of a problem. It was hard sharing one Ipad and one set of earphones:) Sophia's legs were also hurting her later into the trip, and she was crying a lot. I felt bad for her. Besides that, the trip went well. We stayed at a Marriott across the street from her meet. Of course, Sophia and Aubrie wanted to go to the hot tub as soon as we checked in. Boston hung back in the room and watched some sports, while I took the girls to the pool. When we got back we watched some x-games type biking competition, and then we went to bed.

The next morning we got up and ready, and headed to a breakfast place nearby that came recommenced by the front desk. The food was GREAT! Pancakes to DIE for! The portions were out of control. The service was AWFUL though. I could hardly track anyone down to pay, and we were running late for the morning work out, which Aubrie needed to get familiar with their equipment. We finally paid and rushed over to the the meet. Aubrie was able to get about 30 minutes of a work out in. The meet was about and hour after they closed the open work out. We sat around in line for that hour. Sophia found a friend (name Sophia who was also 4) to play with, and Boston played on his ipod.

The meet went much better than we expected. Aubrie's first event was the vault and she got a 9.075. She was beaming and doing her little "boodie" dance, she was so excited. He next event was bars. She got something like and 8.5. She was happy about that score, also. The third event was beam. She has been so nervous about beam, because at her last meet she fell. I was so nervous for her, too. Everyone keeps telling her she has great form, and all she needs is the confidence, and she will kill the beam. Well, she ended up KILLING the beam! She got a 9.175! She was ELATED when they flashed up her score! With the Beam out of the way, I was relaxed, knowing that the floor is her strength! I shouldn't have relaxed. She was so pumped up from her other events she wasn't concentrating and missed an element on the floor. She had such an adrenaline rush going, she didn't even realize what she had done, until we had played it back to her on the video. It caused her to get below a 9. If she would have not missed that event, she would have placed all around. She still got 3rd on the beam and 6th on vault, which was more than she ever expected to get! We were super proud of her.

After the meet, we rushed out to try and beat the traffic, that was doomed to kill us on the way to the Frandsens. I really wanted to see the San Diego Temple, but knew there was no time. I headed out, with the directions Trina gave to me. There were two ways to go, and I randomly chose one. I was so THRILLED as we passed the San Diego temple, without even knowing it would be on the freeway I chose. It was as BEAUTIFUL as it is in all the pictures. The kids were in awe. Soon after the temple, we hit bad traffic. It ended up taking about an hour to get to the Frandsens. We met at a burger joint close to their house. The kids had fun reuniting! It had been over two years since they had seen each other, but you would have never known it! Friendships like that are the best. The kids had fun cracking peanuts on their heads, that were provided by the burger joint. (The indention's were still on Boston's head the following day). When we got back to the Frandsen's, the kids watched a movie and Trina and I caught up. There was a lot of catching up to do! After the movie, we took the kids to the neighborhood pool for a while. Sophia was freezing, and wanted to go. I was able to hold her out until the pool closed. When we got back, we headed to bed. I realized that I had to get up at 6:00 in order to get to Danny's in time. We headed out the next morning at 7:30. It was raining, and so it delayed us a bit. Fog was so bad that at one point I could only see 3 lines in the road ahead of me. The kids were a bit freaked out. We got to Danny around 11:30. He was so happy to see us, and it was great to see him. We stayed till 4:00. It was so hard to leave. Time flew visiting him. I'm looking forward to another visit with him. He loves my kids so much, and they just adore him. I'm lucky to have such a great brother, and they are lucky to have him for an uncle.

After our visit we headed home. The trip home was nice. It's not a bad trip in Ben's little zippy car. When we got home, Ben was at the Adult Session of Stake Conference. I told the kids we should try and have everything done before he got back. Boston was on FIRE! He emptied most of the car himself, and had unpacked his things, and helped me with so much, including emptying the trash, cleaning out the car, etc. He is always great at working fast and efficiently! When he has fire under him, there is no stopping him. I'm glad we took the trip! It was so fun!

The following morning was Stake Conference, and the whole stake already knew that we would have a stake change. Wagner had received a call as mission president, so there had to be some changes. The new President (Hinton) had just been called as a stake counselor about six months ago. Ben knows him a bit, and really likes him. They also called Bishop Pace in as a counselor. It didn't surprise me, but it was still hard to keep back the tears, because I LOVE having him as Bishop. He is one of the most caring Bishop's I have ever had! We are still waiting around for a replacement. All the men are like chickens waiting to be plucked!

The rest of the month kept me busy, with a lot of friends having needs. I felt like I have been cooking up a storm, just to keep up with the meals. It has been good to serve, and keep my mind off my own problems. I also took time to have lunch with a few friends, where we have been saying "We need to do lunch". It was good to have some time for myself. (Even though Sophia was with me for all of them:). I can't believe February is already here. Before I know it, Spring Break will be here! YIPPIE!!! We have planned a surprise vacation for the kids, and I can't wait to see their reaction. Here is to a good FEBRUARY! I actually want this month to go by just as fast as the last!

Two Weeks of Heaven

Two weeks of Heaven is what Christmas Break is for me. Free of homework, early morning scedules, and extracuriicular's. I literally have been looking forward to this break since the first week of school. I remember after many frustrating nights helping Aubrie with her long list of homwork telling myself, "Just get to Christmas, just get to Christmas!" This year, since Christmas fell at the very beginning of our vactaion, we decided to extend our typical New Year Utah trip, by following it up with a trip to California.

Orginally, we planned on leaving the Thursday after Christmas, but Ben came home early Wednesday and talked me into leaving that afternoon. I quickly packed and we left around 2:00. The trip went really fast, until we were on the 20 pass almost to the 15. Our back suspension went out AGAIN and we had to drive the car that way for the 2 remaining hours to Provo. Poor Aubrie took the very back seat this trip, and she got the brunt of the bounding. We stayed the night at the Provo Fairfield, where we typically stay for the 4th.

Ben woke up early and dropped our car off at the dealership, and rented a car. While we were waiting to hear on our car, we all piled in the rental car for our errands for the day. Our first stop was the hospital. We got on our way to Utah the night before that Amber was in labor. She had her baby that night, so we got to go and visit her first thing in the morning. Aubrie was elated over her new cousin. Her and I didn't want to stop holding her. I LOVE newborns and certainly could not get enough of her. Boston held her for awhile, and Ethan and Sophia just watched. After our visit with Amber, we headed to Great Grandma/Grandpa Jenkins. There we visited with them, gave them our gift, and the kids and Grandpa played the piano. We then got lunch at Brick Oven, per Aubrie's request. I only got the soup and salad this time, and the kids all got the pasta bar, except Boston. He got a burrito from Taco Bell on the way there. LOL After Brick Oven we headed to the BYU bookstore. We all picked up some BYU parofanlia. Boston replaced the hoodie he lost, and the girls got shirts. I think Ethan got a football. Oh and Sophia got a dress. ( This week she finally wore it, and Ben asked her if she was going to wear that when she met her husband at BYU and she said, "NO! THIS IS A 4T! WHAT IN THE HECK ARE YOUR TALKING ABOUT?" haha) After BYU we went to Sub Zero. It is an ice cream store that freezes your ice cream with liquid Nitrogen. We had never been there before and thought we would try it out. First you pick your milk base (non-fat, etc), then any flavors, and then your add ins. They mix it in a bowl as they add liquid Nitrogen. It was very cool (double entandra)and yummy. We then went to check to see if our car was done. We still had about another hour to kill so we went up to Rock Canyon and walked around. We were very lucky that our car was fixed so quickly, and that it stayed fixed this time. We were almost convinced that the Lord was trying to tell us to get a new car, after we swore that if anything happened to it this year, we would trade it in that day! Once we got our car, we headed up to Centerville to stay with the Godowns. The first night there, the kids played, and Aubrie hung out with the adults and played a new dice game similar to Yatzee. Things got a bit crazy later that evening, so we called it quits and went to bed, to get ready for our long day that was ahead of us.

Friday we spent up in Midway. We headed there around Noon, after a stop Costa Vida. It is like Cafe Rio, but not as good in my opinion. Our first Midway stop was the ice skating rink. Aubrie LOVES ice skating, and so do I. Boston didn't last long. He gets frustrated when things don't come to him naturally, and he doesn't like doing things he isn't good at. He takes after his father a bit in that area. One of the reasons he never likes to water ski:) Ethan and Sophia weren't doing well at first, but they picked it back up and were improving by the end of the session. Aubrie also started getting her backward skating down. The ice wasn't as smooth as it was last year, because it wasn't cold enough to freeze fast enough. That made it a bit harder to skate. That should have been a sign that the sledding slopes wouldn't be the greatest either. After skating we had some time to kill, so we went to a nearby park and played for a bit. Then we headed to the lodge to get ready. It's quite the process getting on snow clothes for 4 kids who are not used to the order of things. "No, Gloves then Coats!" Sledding was fun, for the mere fact that all the kids could go this time. FIRST time EVER! I think Sophia would have been happy with the just the lift. She thought that was so cool. We had fun throwing snowballs at one another on the 5 minute lift ride. That made up for the slushy slopes. Every run included us getting stuck half way down, and having to give the kids and ourselves a push for the other half. Nothing like the times we went so fast we were practically hitting the fences at the end of the run. Still good memories though, and nice tempreatures! :) After the slopes, we finished with dinner at Dairy Keen. The kids already love that place, with the indoor train, lego table, and icecream. However their affection for that place increased as we walked in to find not one, but TWO Coke 100 Flavor, machines! After a yummy dinner, that ended with shakes (my fat jeans are fitting more by the minute), we headed back to the Godowns. The kids went straight to bed and we stayed up at watched a movie with the Godowns.

The following morning we slept in. It felt good! We ran to a few places in the afternoon, including lunch at JJ's. What yummy sandwiches! Then we all took a hike up one of bountiful's trails. The houses leading up to the trails were HUGE!!! The kids were all in awe, and when we got out of the car Ethan said, "Mom, I don't feel rich anymore!" First of all, I'm glad he feels we are rich, bc that means he recognizes how blessed he is. Secondly, I think it is funny how a kids perspective can change in a second. The rest of the day we just hung out till evening. Then Aubrie babysat all the kids while we we traveled North to Roy for some great Sushi! It was a great time! The sushi was delish, and the company was even better. We had a great time. To finish our date, we stopped at a famous burger joint called Burger Bar-Home of the Big Ben. Scott saw it on TV and heard tehy had not only great burgers, but shakes. It was FREEZING, and so we sat in our car eating our shakes. We started reading the menu and realized most everything had "Ben" in it. It was hilarious reading it, thinking of Ben at the same time. We were all rolling, and decided Ben had to get out and get a picture next to the menu. We then headed home, to find Aubrie had been the fantastic babysitter she always is. She cleaned and sweeped the kitchen, cleaned up an huge blanket fort in the family room, and cleaned up the entire basement family room. She also tackled a running poopy diaper, and manged to calm down a hearbroken boy, who felt dissed by Sophia as she was spending her time with another brother. Aubrie is such a responisble babysitter. She was happy to finally get paid, since when she sits for us, her payment is her gymnasitcs tuition, etc. etc.

Earlier that day, when we made a Walmart stop for a toothbrush and pack of underwear for Ethan (a few things he forgot during our mad rush out the door), I picked up a large pack of fireworks. Natalie and I watched the kids and the Dad's shoot of the fireworks from inside, through her Dining room window! It was SUPER cold, and I was done with it! The kids all had fun taking their turns lighting the fireworks. Afterwards, they had hot chocolate, and we put them to bed. I fell asleep laying down with them, and woke up at 11:15. The adults talked till Midnight, and then we went to bed. We had a LONG drive ahead of us. We had a good time with the Godowns. They have been good friends to us.

New Years Day we headed to California. We made GREAT time all the way to Vegas. Then we hit BIG traffic. We ended up being in the car about 12 hours! We all couldn't wait to get to the Hendrickson's and our of our car! The boys had fun out on the Hendrickson's new Christmas present, a trampoline, and Aubrie had fun catching up with Jamie and Cori. They are really nice and great examples to her. I had fun getting the tour of their new house. There is a lot more room with a great bonus room upstairs with lots of storage. Just the right amount of space to make all the difference. Once the kids were settled into a movie, we roped them into watching the last few episodes of Arrested Development we had yet to finish on Netflix! We finally got to be close to Midnight. We had to get some sleep for a day of Disney ahead of us.

We decided our time of departure was 9:00. We got up at 8:00 and were all out the door, with lunches packed by 9:00. Not too bad for 12 people....8 being kids! Wehn we arrived at the Disney parking lot, the lines were ridicoulously LONG! I texted Lou and she said she had never seen it that busy. I instantly thought how the day of rides was shot. We all decided to start over at California Adventure, and it ended up being a good decision. We sent the girls to get fast passes for Soarin' while we headed for the Toy Story Mania line. The line was 40 minutes, so the kids jumped in the Screamin line and rode the roller coaster, while Lou and I held our place in line. When that ride was done, we sent the girls for Tower of Terror fast passes while we waited in line for the Ferris Wheel. After the Ferris Wheel we met up with Jon's brother and his family, and did the swings. Then we all went over to Grizzly Rapids. Sophia was a hair short of going, so Ben kept sneaking her in line, until we finally got her to the front. She was so excited that Dad was "sneaky" and got her on! We all had a great time on that ride, and Sophia thought it was hilarious how wet we were getting. After the Rapids we hit Soarin, and then headed over to Bugs Land for a kid ride, while we were waiting for all our fast passes to be ready for Tower of Terror. Sophia chickened out and so Ben got a parent pass, and gave Jon's sister and son (who also showed up) their fast passes. We 17 in our whole group. We almost filled the whole elevator. We decided we would all do something similar for the picture. Here it is! We thought we were so funny! It was a fun group. After the ride, Ben took Aubrie with his parent pass, we headed home for dinner. It ended up being a good time, despite the crowds, and we got all the good rides in.

When we got home, we got pizza for the kids, and then headed out to favorite Mexican Restaurant to meet the Hellwells. They just had a baby, and I was super excited to hold her! We got their a bit earlier than them, which worked out perfect, because I was done eating early, and had PLENTY of time to hold her while we talked. It was nice visit that had to end early, because their kids all started back to school the next day, and Jon has to get up early to teach Seminary. When we got back we watched the final episode of Arrested Development, and then they went to bed.

The next day we thought would be less crowded at Disney b/c school was in. The parking lot was pretty empty when we arrived and so we thought we were GOLDEN. Then around 10:00 everyone started showing up. It was CROWDED by 11:00. However, amongst the crowd we were lucky enough to run into Matt and Nicole, and neither one of us knew the other was going. It was a SURPRISE to say the least. We met up with them later at California Adventure for Toy Storia Mania and California Screamin. Then we split off and the kids talked me into doing the Rapids. It was only a 5 minute wait because it was dark, and since we were going home right after, I figured it would be ok. Then two really large people joined our raft, and we all got SOAKED! It was a fun time, though, and we were in the car with the heater on within 15 minutes.

After two busy days at Disney, we decided that we would skip Disney on Wednesday and drive straight home. We packed everything up and headed out. I checked the wait times on my Disney app out of curiousity, and they were are very short. The next thing I know Ben is pulling into Disney. By the time we got there everything was long (go figure) but we decided since we were there, we might as well get a few favorites in. We parked at Downtown Disney, and rode the monorail in, as to surprise the kids. We told them we were just getting breakfast at downtown Disney, and that we were going to ride the monorail really quick until the restaurant opened. They were totally falling for it, until the announcer said that it was a one way trip to Tomorrowland. Darn, the jig was up. We were glad we took the monorail, because we have never done it before (except when I was a kid), and it was cool to see the park from above, and ride close to the Matterhorn. We rode rides until around two, grabbed lunch at ToGo's (YUM) and headed home.

Overall, it was a great trip. When we pulled in to our garage, Ben told me we had travled 2100 miles in all. I find it an accomplishment that for the most part, the car rides were peaceful and uneventful! What a great Christmas Break....Do we really have to start school again?!

Olivia...ONE DAY OLD!

Ice Skating Time!

Who is this Masked Man??

Celebrating the New Year with  Sushi and Good Friends!  

Godowns Birds= Sophi'as entertainment

Our Dessert Stop...Looks like Ben is holding out on one of his Buisness Ventures......Dine and Diver Stop!

Disney with the Hendricksons

Ride Home!