Year in Review- 2013

I know I'm not very good at blogging. I don't think I have ever said that I was... However, I would like to try to be better at recording the events in our lives, and maybe some thoughts. Since I know I only wrote one post last year (on our family photos that had been taken the previous October...), I thought I'd start out this year as a year in review--- looking back on some of the things we did. (Many things taken from what we had on our calendar... I definitely have a pregnant brain, plus, some months were less eventful than others.)

January: Not a whole lot happened in January for our family... Kiely started primary, which was exciting... and quite humorous to see the look on her face after that first Sunday... She did ok, just had to get used to the newness... She didn't seem so frightened after the first week. From what I take from our calendar, James and I went to the temple, and we had a family dinner at my parents' house. I also attended a food storage class with our stake this month (as well as several other months.) I learned a lot from the classes I attended, and hope I can continue to learn and improve on getting our food storage supply for our family.

February: This month we watched the Super Bowl with James' family, which was fun. James and I were also able to have a night all to ourselves-- we went to dinner, and then stayed at Destinations Inn. (Thanks Nae & Kevin for watching the girls! We realize now how SUPER important important that was for us!) Hopefully we can do that again sometime. I went to a baby shower for one of my very best friends from high school. It was so fun to see her- especially since I don't get to see her very often since she and her husband live in Utah and we are in Blackfoot. I had been wanting a baby boy, but going to her baby shower (for her baby boy) made me want a boy even more!) Kiely also had her first primary talk on the 17th, and did a good job. In February, we met with the missionaries, and a woman in our complex who was then investigating the church. (She did get baptized later on. :))

March: In March, we went to Fast Sunday dinner at Grandma Butler's house. We always love going and visiting Grandma and Grandpa and all the family that also go to Fast Sunday dinner. My mom's 50th birthday was the end of March, and we had a party for her. I think she enjoyed seeing lots of friends and family-- relationships are so important to her. The highlight of the party was probably when I devised a plan to give her a puppy for her birthday. (James' parents were trying to get rid of some puppies, my dad said something about having a puppy, and I said, "I could arrange that!..." I called James' mom, and a little while later, she brought the puppy who became known as Coco (Coconut). My mom is a softy... :) She later "re-gifted" Coco to my dad. haha. We did tell her that if she wanted she could bring it back to Butler's, but she couldn't let go.... at least she didn't want to while Coco was a pup!

April: April brought General Conference and James' mom's graduation for her Bachelor's from BYU-Idaho. We are so proud of her accomplishment in that! I also attended another baby shower for another of my best friends- Danyel. We have gotten close to Danyel and Jordan since James and Jordan have done some hunting together, and enjoy some similar things. I made a baby blanket for their little guy, which was fun for me, and I think it was the very first blanket I made on my own without any help! James' dad also received his Silver Beaver, which is quite the accomplishment in the scouting world!

May: May was stake conference, and James' brother, Wesley's graduation from high school…. nothing much more eventful that I can think of...

June: This month marked a somewhat crazy event for us: My grandparents invited us to go on a fishing trip with them. Now, for some people that might not sound so crazy. However, just think about me and James camping with 2 kids under the age of 4, and two eighty-something year olds! Yep. Just that is pretty crazy! (There were a few other specific things that made it even more crazy, but I will leave that out...) We also went to the drive-in to Monster's University and Iron Man 3 as a family and with Nae and Kevin. That was a first for our family, and we were able to check something off of our summer to-do list. :) It was pretty fun! James also had his birthday at the end of June, and I can honestly say that I don't remember what we did for it... But I'm sure we enjoyed it together! (He had been wanting to buy some different guns for a while, so I felt sort of lame, but I just gave him some cash to add to his gun fund.) :)

July: One of my favorite holidays is in July-- Independence Day. We enjoyed a hike and breakfast with James' family, and later on went to DaNae and Kevin's for a BBQ and some fun! We did a water balloon toss, and we were also able to sit along the greenbelt by the Shilo because Kevin's brother-in-law works for Melaleuca, and Julie was kind enough to let us come sit with them. (Thanks, Juile!) We also went to our first movie as a family at Edwards: Despicable Me 2, and then went to Chuck-a-Rama afterwards. It was so fun doing that as our own little family! We also did a camp out in James' parents' back yard, and had Nae's baby shower! It was a busy, fun month!

August: This was probably one of the busiest months of the year for us! We had something every single weekend this month! This was also the month that we found out we were expecting! :) The first weekend we did our annual bike ride to Reed's Dairy with my family, and also had a little BBQ afterwards. The second weekend we went to the Andrews Reunion in Logan. My aunt planned some activities to make it sort of like the amazing race around Logan, and we had a pretty good time with that. (I started the day with a migraine, but decided to go along with them for the race, and after throwing up, I felt much better!) The third weekend marked a fun/crazy couple days for me and James: The Grand Teton Relay. This was especially big for me, because I don't think I'd run more than a mile before the beginning of last summer. I remember feeling so accomplished after running 4 miles... and then by the end of the race I had run 13-14 miles within a 24 hour period! (At 6 weeks pregnant... no one else besides James and I knew on our team, of course, though! When I told my friend we were expecting, she said "And you ran while you were pregnant?!") I felt accomplished but SO worn out by the end of the race. My first leg was mostly downhill, my second pretty much all UPHILL. UGH! I'm so grateful James ran my last leg with me, otherwise I probably would have walked the entire leg. (It was definitely a combination of jogging/walking, but I was so determined to finish... no matter what I felt like!) The following Monday was Kiely's 4th birthday, and we just celebrated at home with our little family. The fourth weekend was our 5th anniversary, and the Mesa Falls Marathon for James. James and I ate at Pizza Pie Cafe and then spent the night at Bubba and Jaclyn's... not exactly the most romantic, but we had fun together, and I'm glad I could be there to support James for his first marathon. The last weekend was our annual Labor Day campout with my family. We had some fun, but I was definitely starting to feel the nausea starting to come on... Thank goodness I didn't throw up while we were there! We ended up heading out Monday morning because it had rained lots Sunday night, and we didn't see a point in hanging out in the rain all day.

September: The second Sunday in September was Wesley's farewell speech. It's crazy to think that we had just gone to his high school graduation, and now he's on his mission! It's so neat to see the Lord's Work going forward! This month was also my first doctors appointment and James' Spud Day 1/2 marathon.

October: In October, Charlotte had her second birthday, and we also had General Conference. I guess we're pretty low-key with birthdays, because we just celebrated at home for her birthday, too... Maybe someday we'll do something more extravagant, but I kind of like keeping things simple. I also had my first ultrasound, "confirming" that we were just having one baby. I had had thoughts about twins early on, because I felt like I was getting big so fast. When I told people that, they were like, "No, it's just because it's your third... you always get bigger faster with your third..." I'm not sure how I feel about how we found out the truth, now, but I think it was probably better for me... James still continued to question if we were really having twins because my belly was growing so fast. Guess he was right to question it! I was also able to take some photos for the Firth girls' cross-country team, as well as Danyel and Jordan. It was pretty fun, and I'm glad I'm able to use those skills occasionally, even if it's not consistent work.

November: The beginning of November wasn't too busy. We went to Nae & Kevin's baby's blessing ("Baby Baxton" as Charlotte calls him), and also had Stake Conference. I went to a little Achievement Days activity, and the girls in our ward painted mine as well as a few other lady's fingernails. It was kind of fun to go to, and to be able to chat with the ladies that were there. The biggest event was the Monday before Thanksgiving. We had the doctor appointment we had been anticipating probably for months, because we wanted to have a little boy so bad! (We love our girls, just need some balance!) While, we went in to the room for the ultrasound, and as the doctor was getting things going on the ultrasound, we were watching the monitor, and then the doctor said, "Have we done an ultrasound for you yet?" I said, "Yes... around 12 weeks." Then he says, "Well... How do you feel about two babies?..." My response was, "Are you serious?..." And James said something like, "Really?..." Oh yeah, and this all happened when I had an EXTREMELY full bladder... The doctor ended the ultrasound at that point (printed off a couple pictures of the two heads) and allowed me to use the bathroom before we went to his office to discuss any questions we might have. Our feelings included fear, excitement, unsure, and overwhelmed all at the same time. We didn't get to see a lot that day, which brought on some crazy dreams for me, and worse sleep than usual for the next few nights because of it. (Not that I was getting excellent sleep anyway...) As we started telling our families that week, our fears didn't completely subside, but we definitely felt more excited. We were supposed to find out the genders just 2 days later, but because of the holiday, they ended up having to reschedule for a week after the original appointment with the specialist.

December: We celebrated my birthday at the beginning of December. I had a good birthday, and James decided he wanted to get me a big comfy chair (which we had been talking about getting sometime before… but then we found out we were having twins, and decided it would definitely be worth it) for me for my birthday. After searching and searching, we finally found THE ONE. I didn't know chairs could be so complex, but decided that if we were going to put money down for a new chair, I wanted something really good that would last and that I would enjoy for a long time. Our bishop is the manager of the Idaho Falls Blackers, and helped us out, and also gave us a deal! (He told us he didn't really do much, but it felt like a huge blessing and "a lot" to us.) The only issue is that the chair won't arrive for another couple weeks probably because they had to order it in with the speculations that I wanted. (Glider Recliner!) I can't wait for it to get here, but I think it will definitely be worth the wait!
The next exciting event came 2 days after my birthday when we found out that we would be having two little BOYS join our family! Have I mentioned how badly we wanted to have a boy?! Kiely had been saying all along (and even before I was pregnant) that we were going to be having a boy… Who knew we'd get two! I was a little sad that James wasn't able to come to the ultrasound with me, but made sure I let him know as soon as he could (at his lunch) about our little guys! We were both so excited, and I just wish I could have seen his face as I told him! We feel so blessed to have these little guys coming to join our family. It has been a very different pregnancy for me-- easier in some ways, and much harder in others. My morning sickness subsided and pretty much quit at about 16 weeks, and I've only thrown up a couple times since then, which is a huge deal compared to my pregnancies with Kiely and Charlotte-- I was sick pretty much the whole way through with them, throwing up at least once a week all the way to the end. I get nauseous sometimes, but that's nothing compared to the vomiting. (and I'm pretty sure it's much better on my teeth!) The tough times come with back pain, no break from middle-of-the-night "potty breaks," and my belly getting large much faster! Last time I went in to the doctor I was measuring about 6 weeks bigger than a single baby pregnancy! Thus, the aches and pains that usually come later in pregnancy already seem to be coming on. Oh, and I feel like I'm getting back to being tired almost all the time! (Maybe from having to wake up so much??)
Preparing for Christmas after receiving the news of twins was quite different for us… not that we decided to go out and buy a bunch of baby stuff, but because we had so much more on our minds (and on our plates) than we had originally thought we'd have. Honestly, it's still crazy to us when we talk about "HOLY COW! Two BABIES!?!" I don't think it will be completely real until they get here. Ok… so we did the majority of our Christmas shopping online… probably at least 80-90%. AMAZING! A couple of things got lost in the mail, which ended up turning out ok… not because they got here on time, but because one thing we just got something different until the other thing arrived (after Christmas) and the other, we just cancelled the order, and bought the items at Walmart. It was pretty nice not having to worry so much about fighting the crowds in town. We got both the girls bikes for Christmas, and they love them! It has been fun watching them ride around (especially Kiely, Charlotte is still a little small, but it should work in the summer) and getting excited about their "bike rides." We enjoyed time with both of our families on Christmas day, and James was able to talk a little bit to Jake, and then we were able to be there to Skype with Wes.
We feel blessed in so many ways, and look forward to all that 2014 has in store for us!

Family Photos October 2012

Not long after Charlotte's birthday, I took the girls out and did a little photo shoot with them... I wish I had gotten one of them together, but Charlotte had been asleep, and they just weren't cooperating very well... We also didn't get one of just the two of them during our family photos because it was just getting too dark out. :( Oh well, I guess we'll have to do some of at least the two of them this spring... It was kind of fun, and somewhat frustrating at times, but these are my favorites. :)

Soon afterwards (within the next few days), we did our family photos. It was definitely later in the day than I had wanted, but I think we got a pretty good one, and I loved the colors!

We also did a few silhouettes when we got back to James' parents. I thought some were way cool and cute! :) I even used one to carve in my pumpkin! :)

**Please don't copy or use these as your own. If you would like a photo, please ask, and I will print one for you. Thank you!!**

Birthday Girls!

Kiely's birthday was back in August. I know, I know, that was two months 5 months ago... But at least I'm getting back to it. She really anticipated her birthday, and it was a little different, but exciting. I kind of decided to make, and Kiely wanted a castle birthday cake. She is all things princess right now... We are actually kind of getting sick of the whole princess thing, but I have a feeling that as soon as she's done with the phase, it will be Charlotte's turn. Maybe she can skip that one? ;) Anyways, I made the castle cake, and for my first time trying to do any sort of fancy decorating, I felt like I did a pretty good job. Her birthday was on a Sunday, so we didn't do anything too fancy, just the regular cake, ice cream, and presents. We got her a fishing pole, a little ABC tracing book that comes with a dry erase marker, a CTR butterfly necklace, and fingernail polish (purple and sparkly- two of her favs). She loved her cake, and almost didn't even want us to cut into it, but we told her that's what we made it for. (We didn't even eat half of the cake. We're not much of cake people. I think I might do a pie or cheesecake next year.) She loved all of her gifts, and still enjoys them, so that's a good sign. :) Kiely is such a big girl now. She knows how to spell her own name, mom, dad, and knows that Charlotte starts with C. We've been working a little bit on writing letters, too. Back in June, she memorized her first book- Something Special by Terri Cohlene. I can't remember if I've blogged about that before or not... but it was really cute. :) Kiely still has her long, beautiful, blonde curls, and is becoming more willing to get her hair done. She is a great helper, and also great at bossing her sister around. (Yep, she came first for a reason...) We have started teaching her a little bit about money and saving, so she has her own special money jar. One time I was talking about how I want to buy a house, and she told me she would buy a house with the money from her money jar. :) She continues to tell me that she'll do that. We love her so much and she has such a fun personality. Kiely is loving and kind, and likes to help take care of her sister.

Charlotte's birthday was on October 1st. It's so crazy how fast time goes.... Right now I'm kicking myself (ok not literally. :) for not getting to this sooner, but I'll do my best. :) Charlotte has been so different than Kiely, but she is so fun, too, and so sweet. She wasn't walking by one, but really probably could have if I had wanted to push her a little harder (and if she weren't so stubborn.) She was closer to 13 months if I remember right... Which I was ok with, because she's a handful. That little Charly gets into things so much!! (Sharlee- not to be confused with Charlie-I have to clarify that, because I said I wouldn't call her Charlie, but DaNae started calling her Charly, and I told her NO CHARLIE, so Charly has stuck.) We didn't really do anything too fancy for Charlotte's birthday, either. Maybe I'll start doing things a little more fancy when it will mean more to them. I made brownies (with frosting of course, because you can't have a first birthday without becoming ridiculously messy, and I'm pretty sure that by the time we got around to eating them, she was getting pretty tired. :) We of course got her some plastic stuff- a little puppy (she LOVES animals SO much!) that was supposed to be for her to walk around with/ encourage the walking... Kiely pulled it around a lot for a while instead, and Charlotte would sometimes chase it... Charlotte does play with it now. :) She also got some blocks, and a baby doll.  It was fun helping her open presents (and Kiely definitely took part in this-- Thinking maybe some of the gifts were for her, I'm sure.) When she turned one, she weighed just over 16 pounds- maybe 16.5. She's our little one. Still not even on the charts as far as weight goes! She's just like her mom, though. When I was one, my mom said I weighed around 15 or 16 pounds is all. (From looking at my baby pictures, you probably wouldn't believe it, because I was probably the chunkiest as a baby out of all of my siblings, but I guess as soon as I went mobile, it was gone!) Charlotte is a bit of a fireball. She still has a little bit of red in her hair- she's a little strawberry blond, and can get pretty upset about things at times, and she'll let you know with her shriek! (good thing she's so cute!) She really is so sweet, though, even with everything she does to cause mischief, and she has me wrapped around her little finger.

 

You can definitely tell the personalities of each girl from some of these pictures! :) I can't believe how big they're getting! Even since Charlotte's birthday! More posts to come... I will catch up! :)

Disneyland April 2012- Relive the Memories with Us!

**This post was written a while ago, but I finally got around to adding pictures today. We took over 500 pictures, and it was tough to choose what to put on the blog! James also made a little movie of it, which is even more awesome than this blog post with pictures, but here you go!! PS. There are still TONS of pictures on here. :) **

In April, our family (plus DaNae and Kevin) took a little vacation to California. Well, I guess I'll back up a little... back to the beginning of December. James and I went to his work Christmas party. They have a raffle every year that consists of a range of different prizes. On our way, we debated whether we were going to put in for it or not, and decided, okay, why not? (The money is donated to a charity/people in need each year-not always the same.) We didn't think we'd win anything, because the odds were not in our favor by any means, I'm sure. (a couple hundred employees, hundreds of tickets going in each box-- we bought ~30-35 tickets total, and spread them between three or four raffle boxes. Odds in our favor: very low.) Well, the big prize was- you guessed it- Disneyland! (It was either Vegas or Disneyland, but when that's the option, who really has to decide between the two, isn't the choice obvious?!) I was telling everyone around us at our table how BADLY I wanted us to win the trip. (James and I had been in California AT the gates of Disneyland in June 2009, but opted out of going, since I was 7 months pregnant at the time... James had never been inside Disneyland, and I wanted to go and do it right this time!) If we'd been in a room with a regular 8 or 10 foot ceiling, I'm sure I would have hit my head when they said James' name! I was so happy! We got a trip for 4, 3 day park hopper passes, flight and hotel. For the next 4 months, that was almost all I could think about. It was kind of silly, but I was beyond excited. I even told James I'd be okay if that's all I got for Christmas.... (although, of course, it wasn't.)

We knew we wanted to take our girls with us. (After all, Kiely is kinda obsessed with princesses!) Plus, since Charlotte's so young, and I'm still her food source, it would have probably been a bigger pain not taking her. We also knew we wanted to take at least one person with us... It was honestly kind of hard to decide in a way... There were a few different people we considered, but we decided it would be great to take Nae and Kevin. Because of this, there were basically only two different times we could go: April (during Spring break) or the end of July/beginning of August when EVERYONE is on break, taking family vacations, and it's hot. Even though it's literally one of the BUSIEST times of the year, we chose April. (By paying for the extra hotel night, we were able to stay for 5 days instead of 4, and we are very glad!) And now that we've done it, I don't think I mind the crowds too much-- as long as the situation is right-- and I wouldn't go back and change my mind about when we went now, either. We got to see pretty much everything we wanted to, including shows that none of us had ever seen that were completely amazing!

Day 1: April 9, 2012- Arrive, check in, lunch, and beach!

We flew in during the late morning, and weren't supposed to check in to our hotel until 3 or 4. Luckily, when we got there, a room was ready for us! We stayed at Desert Palms which is on the same block as Disneyland, and was about a 1/2 mile walk to the gates... not too bad! It was nice to be close, and it was a nice place to stay, too. (Free hot breakfast, a pool, and the rooms were nice, too.) It was a warm day, and we were excited to go to Huntington beach! We chose to take the public transportation bus system. UGH! Wow. I remembered it being crazy from when James and I went, but I guess I forgot how crazy some of the people are that ride it... It was a LOOONG ride with the crazies, and I would not choose to ride it again if I didn't have to. (Especially with my kiddos!) But, eventually, we made it to the beach. (In the late afternoon/early evening.) None of us really wanted to get in the water all the way, and Charlotte hated the wind, but we made the best of it, and had some fun while we were there for a little while. (We may have been there as long as we rode the bus to get there, even! :) When James & I were in California when I was pregnant with Kiely, the beach was much warmer that day, I think. But, we still had fun this day, too!

"Just me & my dad"

Kiely & James' footprints

Looking out at the ocean

Our Family Footprints

All of us!

James & the girls (with Kevin & Nae playing in the ocean)

Our family

Kevin & Nae- Kevin had a little accident at work before we left- thus the bandaid

Nae & Kev's Footprints

Kiely's just a little cold. ;)

All of us- close

When we were all tuckered out, and our toes were sore from the sand, we headed back to the hotel, but decided that we would NOT ride the bus back, and went to a fancy hotel close by and asked if they could call a taxi for us... we ended up riding in their sweet Tahoe instead!

Day 2: April 10, 2012- First day at Disneyland! :) Happy Anniversary, Kevin and Nae!

Before we left for the trip, I had done lots of research about how to make the most of our vacation, etc... but I have to say, reading about it, and then remembering it all was kinda tough. I did learn how to do the FastPass thing, which was great, because it helped us get through rides MUCH quicker than if we hadn't learned the trick! Here's the secret: if you have little kids (or a baby with you) that can't ride on all the rides, it can be beneficial, especially during the busy season. Two of us would get FastPasses for one ride, then the other two would get FastPasses for another, then when it was time to ride, we got RiderSwap passes which would allow the two that didn't have the FastPasses for that ride to go through the FastPass line. AWESOME! James, Kiely, and Charlotte's very first ride at Disneyland was the Jungle Cruise. We got through quite a few rides, including some of our favorites: Pirates of the Carribean and Splash Mountain! Indiana Jones is pretty good, too. Kiely enjoyed the Winnie the Pooh ride, and even liked Pirates!... She wasn't so much of a fan of the Carousel, though. (She didn't like riding by herself, and her seatbelt ended up slipping a little, so she didn't feel quite as safe.) She loved, Loved, LOVED the castle! I'm pretty sure just about every time it was somewhat in sight or other times, too, she'd say, "Should we go see the castle?!" I loved to see her eyes light up! That day, we got to watch Mickey's Soundsational Parade.It was pretty cool, although Kiely was asleep most of the time, so that was kind of sad. We woke her up to see the "butterfly princess" (Tinkerbell) and she thought it was kind of cool, but she was mostly tired. We also went to Bubba Gump's for dinner that night for Nae & Kevin's Anniversary... I wasn't really all that impressed for the price we paid, but we did get cool light up cups! or flashlight cups. haha!  ;)

Before we left for the park

Getting ready to go!!

Charlotte cut her first two teeth before we left (we had been hoping that would happen so she wasn't miserable on the trip!) She cut one the Saturday before Conference, and the second cut through the Saturday before we left for the trip!

Excited for their first time at Disneyland!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Waiting for strollers

CASTLE!!

Kev & Nae

James & Crissa

For some reason we didn't take a picture in front of the castle with just our family. :(

Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse & Pirates of the Carribbean

Yoho! My Pirates! :)

Lunch @ Plaza Inn, Soundsational Parade

Yes. She slept through pretty much the entire parade...

End of Day/Bubba Gump's

Stuck on the train.

Flashlight Cups! :) 

Shirt we thought about getting for Jaclyn...

Day 3: April 11, 2012- California Adventures

When we first got into the park, it rained a bit, and since the line was short, we went on Grizzly River Run. We went on California Screamin, Soaring Over California, Ariel's Under the Sea Adventure, Toy Story Midway Mania, Monster's Inc, and our little family went on Mickey's FunWheel. We were sad we missed out on Car's Land (by a couple months is all...) but we still had a blast, and that just gives us one more reason to go back and visit someday! Our favorite thing of the day was World of Color! It. Was. Amazing. One of my overall favorites from the trip. Colorful water. 200 feet in the air. Movie clips projected onto a water screen thing. Fire. Music. Yes. AWESOME!!

(These pictures are out of order, but this was what our day consisted of.)

World of Color!

Hopefully this works!

Day 4: April 12, 2012- Second Day at Disneyland, last day in the Parks

By day 3 in the parks, I think we'd figured things out pretty good... I'm SO glad we had 3 days instead of just one or two! In the morning, we met some characters, and then went to see what Kiely had been waiting for: the Princesses! They have their own special location (and I think I heard that they might be changing that again, too, not sure...) and you stand in line, and get to meet them one-on-one (instead of having the long line behind you). It was pretty cute, and special. I think that 4 would be the PERFECT age to take a little girl to see the princesses. Kiely was a little shy, but it was still adorable, and definitely worth the time. We rode Star Tours, Space Mountain, It's a Small World, Finding Nemo, and I think we went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad that day, too... Kiely loved the Tea Cups, and I wish we had ridden them more! She thought they were great, and after talking to James' mom, she told us that was one thing she remembered from her trip to Disneyland when she was really little. We also did some repeat rides of Pirates, Splash Mountain, and of course, Winnie the Pooh. Our day ended with Fantasmic! which was also one of our favorites. Nae and Kevin were kind enough to take Kiely back to the hotel with them while James and I got some souvenirs.

Last Day in Disneyland!

Kiely LOVED the teacups! Wish we would have taken her on them more!

Before & at Fantasmic!

The Souvenirs we bought! James & Kevin made the frames.

Day 5: April 13, 2012- Back to SLC

Our last day in California was RAINY! We were glad that we didn't decide to go to the beach this day!  We had bought a stroller on the first day in the park to take back and forth from the hotel, and we went to the gates to try to sell it to someone... It didn't work out in the park so well, because everyone with small kids were leaving since it was so wet. We did end up selling it to a lady back at our hotel, though. We left that afternoon from the John Wayne Airport, and I think got back to SLC around 9 that evening. We stayed at Rebecca and Nate's (my aunt and uncle's house) that night so we wouldn't have to drive home so exhausted. (Thanks for the bed and breakfast!)

We had a wonderful vacation, and are so glad we were able to go! We probably couldn't have gone at a better time (despite the crowds). We look forward to going again someday, and can't wait!! :)