Kiersten’s Blog

Ever since our trip to the El Capitan theater in Hollywood to see The Muppets, my kids have been obsessed.  They’re constantly listening and singing and dancing to the music.  Their favorite song is Smells Like Teen Spirit.  Funny.  I played them the original.  They weren’t so impressed.  They just think the Muppet barbershop version is hilarious.  And it is.  Anyway, we had a great time.  Taylor’s mom took us as a Christmas gift.

None of us had ever been to a movie at the El Capitan before.  I would definitely go again!  It was all decked out in holiday decor.  Downstairs were two sets that were used in the movie, as well as a bunch of Miss Piggy’s costumes on display.

Much of the movie was filmed right there in the El Capitan so it was fun to really be there.  Before the movie started, there was a sing-along with Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

The kids showing off the jingle bells we all got for the sing-along

“Snow” even fell from the ceiling!

London loving the snow

The movie itself was quite cute, but I think the whole experience made it fantastic!  And it was even better that Ashton slept through half of it!

While in Sacramento, we did some fun things.  We took the kids to Fairy Tale Town.  They loved it!  I used to love that place as a kid and in going back, I remember why.  I have lots of good memories of time spent there.

We were also able to do some other fun things.  London has been asking to go fishing, so my dad took her and Preston out.  When they got back, I went next door to my Grandma’s house where they were, to ask if they caught anything and London said, “No, but we went to McDonalds!”  I’m glad she had a good time.  Once they were back, the kids sat outside and played with the worms.  When I said, “EEEEWWWWW!” to London, she responded with, “No, they’re cute!” as she watched one crawl all over her hands.  Funny girl.

While they were gone fishing, Kenton and Bree took Ashton and their other 2 boys to the Railroad Museum.  Ashton LOVED it.  He wouldn’t stop talking about it, he enjoyed it so much.

I had some old friends over to visit while we were in town too.  Some of them I had not seen since high school.  It was fun to see each other again.  Then, of course, we spent more time with family.  We took the kids to the park with Jana and Jordan and Mila.

London and her only girl cousin

The kids also spent some time helping Grandpa in the back yard, cleaning up the garden and building a fence.

Ashton dragged this thing all the way across the yard

They were pretty excited to have found a bird nest!

We had a great time and I can’t wait to go back again!

When new years rolled around, we were in Sacramento.  Kenton and Bree planned a little family party at their house for new years eve.  We had a great time!  It was just Kenton’s family, our family, and my parents.  Ashton fell asleep in the car on the way over (SUCH a blessing!) so he missed the whole party.  I didn’t care.  But London stayed up until midnight for the first time in her 6 years of existence.  Usually we watch the ball drop at 9 and then we all go to bed, but that doesn’t happen when my family is around.  I remember many new years eves being spent at home eating yummy food, playing games and watching movies.  This year reminded me of those good times and I was glad that London was able to participate this time.  We had a lot of food so we spent the evening eating and playing on the Kinect.  In case you’re not aware (I wasn’t), the Kinect is a video game system that hooks up with the x-box.  It senses you and when you move, it “sees” what you’re doing.

It was a lot of fun.  It was especially funny watching Jameson and my parents.  When the clock struck 12, we ran outside with noisemakers and hats and party poppers and made a racket.

London had a great time with the cousins and the rest of us had fun too!

It’s hard to believe Christmas was almost 3 weeks ago and I have had my birthday already.  Weren’t we just in the middle of the craziness?  Despite all of our setbacks this year, Christmas was nice.  Our plan was to go to Taylor’s mom’s house on Christmas Eve.  Santa would come Christmas Eve morning to our house.  That way we wouldn’t have to haul gifts up there.  It seemed easier.  But the week before Christmas turned into a crazy blur.  It started out on Tuesday when we drove up to Los Angeles to see The Muppets at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood (more on that later).  After the movie, we headed up to the valley where we had Taylor’s extended family Christmas party.  We got home really, really late, but we had a fun day.  The next day Kerri came to our house to stay a couple of days before picking up Holli from the airport here in San Diego on Thursday night.  Holli’s plane was delayed a couple of hours and in that time, we received a phone call from a hospital that Taylor’s dad had been in a motorcycle accident.  Kerri left immediately for the hospital and left us to pick up Holli.  Because of these circumstances, we decided to just go to Hemet a day early so we could take Holli and so that we could visit Steve in the hospital.  So we packed all of our gifts (that were wrapped at this point), all of Holli’s stuff, our stuff for a few days, and our instruments into our car and headed out.

We were packed tight.  It’s a good thing we didn’t have too far to go.  Even though Steve was in a lot of pain (with a shattered pelvis, among other things), thankfully he was alright.

Ashton stole my camera and took hundreds of pictures. I asked him if he was taking pictures of Papa and he said, "No, I take pictures of Papa's pee!"

When the kids got too crazy, we left the hospital and headed to Kerri’s house.  I spent all morning of Christmas Eve cooking dinner.  We had an early dinner and then went to the hospital again, but not before a stop at Build-A-Bear, where both kids made bears.

Kerri told us that this year would be different, as far as presents were concerned.  With many difficulties, there wouldn’t be many gifts.  Looking under the tree would suggest otherwise, though.

We were spoiled.  Everybody was spoiled.  We awoke early Christmas morning (thanks to young kids) and opened all of the gifts before Denver called from his mission in India.  We chatted with him for a while then headed off to church.  When church was over, we ate before going back to the hospital for another visit.  The next morning Holli flew home and we drove home to unpack and re-pack for our next adventure–flying to Sacramento.

I checked the weather last night when we got home. The forecast said 79 degrees in La Jolla. I threw all plans of unpacking from our trip and packing up Christmas out the window and we went to the beach. We had a grand time. It was the best decision I’ve made all day. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny and no breeze. The tide was low. I played in the sand with the kids while Taylor surfed. Then we checked out the tide pools and enjoyed the small bit of wildlife we found.

Before we left, I tried an old pair of London’s flip-flops on Ashton. They fit! So what if he couldn’t walk in them, the kid was going to wear them. Now he’s in his bed wearing his “new twip-twops”. Yeah, they’re a hit. Here’s to another great day tomorrow.

We’re home. I feel like we’ve been gone for two weeks. Wait, we pretty much have. So someday soon when we have internet again and I don’t have to blog via iPhone (yes, I got one for Christmas!), I’ll fill you in on the craziness around here and the joys of traveling with kids. Don’t worry, I won’t forget about the time that the old lady in the airport told me that I need to watch my kid, or how adventurous I was to take an escalator with a two-year-old and two suitcases. Those are stories to be told. And they will be. Just not tonight. I have some catching up to do with my own bed.

We’re spending time with my family in Sacramento. We get a lot of time to relax, which is nice. The kids are having fun. Yesterday Kenton and Bree took Ashton and their two youngest boys to the Railroad Museum in Old Sac. Ashton had the time of his life. At the same time London and her cousin, Preston, were fishing with Grandpa. Upon asking her if she caught any fish she replied, “No, but we went to McDonalds!” When they got home, they were found outside playing with the leftover bait. I said, “EW!” she said, “He’s so cute!”

Today the kids are out helping Grandpa clean up the yard and having a great time.

They found a bird nest.

Right now it’s 73 degrees outside.  When London was driving me nuts asking which ones to wear and I told her to pick whatever she wanted, I guess she thought it was cold outside.  I explained beforehand that if she was warm, short sleeves and shorts would be good.  If she was cold, then maybe long sleeves and pants.  If she was just right, probably short sleeves and pants would be a good idea.  It was warm when she got ready.  And she’s in long sleeve, long pants fleece.  Whatever kid.  And right now Ashton’s sleeping with his feet under his pillow.  His head isn’t even on the mattress anymore.  It’s on the floor.  It’s a good thing he sleeps on a mattress on the floor.

We spent the weekend in Hemet.  It was kind of a last minute thing, but there has been a lot going on in Taylor’s mom’s family life at the moment (the latest with the surprising passing of her sister) that we wanted to be with her to lend support this weekend.  We probably drove her crazy instead, but at least she wasn’t alone.  We had a nice time which included watching conference and eating WAY too many cinnamon rolls.  I put some in my freezer today so I wouldn’t get too fat.  Oh, and speaking of kids sleeping, Kerri checked on the kids before going to bed Friday night and Ashton was nowhere to be found.  When at her house, the kids sleep in the same room — London on the bed and Ashton on the trundle.  He had rolled off the trundle and under the bed.  There was no sign of him at all.  When we lifted the bed skirt, there he was, as comfortable as ever and fast asleep.  Maybe you had to be there, but we thought it was hilarious.

On our way home, we drove in separate cars.  I’m taking the kids to Disneyland next Monday with a friend and her kids (the kids don’t know yet) and we thought it would be easier if we all drove together, but neither of us have a car that fits all of us.  So we borrowed the in-laws van since it’s rarely driven.  Taylor drove it home with the kids (because it has A/C and if you recall, ours doesn’t anymore or maybe I didn’t write about that yet so just know that we don’t have A/C in our car at the moment) and I drove the hot car all by myself.  It was kind of refreshing.  I had the windows down and the radio blasting.  I don’t do that much.  Sure, it was a little warm, but it was a nice, relaxing drive.

And one last thing.  I bought a new vacuum.  A Dyson.  I ordered it from Kohl’s because I found a 30% off coupon code.  That also means that I got $50 Kohl’s cash which I intend to spend on shoes for myself tomorrow.  I can’t wait to get my UPS package sometime this week and immediately vacuum.  I’m excited to have a machine that actually sucks.  A lot.  And then I’ll vacuum my car since the car seats are no longer in it.

Oh, and one more thing, in case you don’t read my other blog, let me mention that I spent Friday morning lifting these two 2-year-olds in and out of airplanes and helicopters at the Miramar Air Show.  Lots of fun was had by all.  I think.  And we were all exhausted in the end.  At least I was.

In case you’re not one of the 5 million people living in the southwest corner of the country (and the northwest corner of Mexico), it may be news to you that we lost power yesterday.  It was hot.  Like the hottest week of the summer so far.  Power went out at around 3:30.  I really have no clue when it came back on because we were all asleep.  When we woke up, it was up and running again.  But things were a little crazy last night.  Traffic was no good.  Most lights were out and the ones that weren’t, I think I ran reds anyway because I didn’t realize they were on.  Luckily we had food that we didn’t need to cook, and our refrigerator didn’t get too hot that anything (that I know of) spoiled.  We even had our milk this morning.  We all went to bed early and slept great, although due to no night lights, the kids had a hard time getting to sleep in the first place.  But it was dark once they were out and I was bored so I was asleep by 9:30.  I need to do that more often!  This morning we were notified that most colleges and all public k-12 schools were closed today which gave us a day off!  So we hit the beach.  It was the best beach day we’ve had in a long time.  The water wasn’t too cold and there were NO crowds!

We found a parking spot without a problem.  We had a great time!

When we showed up, we had our choice of where we wanted our beach spot.

London making sand angels. I guess that's what you get when you don't live in the snow.

In not too long, a few more people showed up, including this family on vacation from some eastern country, equipped with a plastic table cloth as a beach mat.  Not so effective in the wind, but if all you’re going to do is lay there, covered in a sheet, a towel, and a hat, I guess it’s not going anywhere.

I’m glad we were able to take advantage of another day of summer!

. . . continued.

We all met Friday night for dessert.  Then Saturday was the day of the reunion.  The sisters got together during the day (I think) while the cousins and the kids spent the morning at the Railroad Museum Caboose Club Ice Cream Social.  The Railroad Museum is in Old Sacramento.  I sometimes forget what a neat place Old Sac is until I go back.  We had a great time.  Sure it was hot, but we did some cool stuff.  We saw a protest march in the streets.

We had a ride on an old train.

The conductor even came and stamped our tickets!

We got a nice view of the tower bridge one way and the state capitol building the other way.

The tracks follow the river for a bit.  Then we stopped, the engine moved to the other side, and we were pulled back to Old Sac.  Not only did we get a train ride, we also got ice cream

and we were able walk through a different train car

and try out a handcar.

Then we saw a magic show (which the kids LOVED)

All the kids (and Kenton, who sat with them all while the rest of us stood in the back) waiting for the show to start

and were off for naps, but not without stopping for some salt water taffy first.

Saturday evening was spent with everybody at the church where we had a yummy potluck dinner and a show.

The woman who started it all (and Liz)

My mom’s family is quite musical so we had a talent show that was packed full of fun and good talent.  It gave me an opportunity to play my violin and London was excited to sing (which, sadly I got no pictures of).  I love spending time with my extended family (although it might have been Henrie family overload for Taylor) and was glad that we were able to bring Mylie home with us for another week of fun before we could finally catch up from our vacation.  Oh wait, that STILL hasn’t happened.  Either way, it was a fun month and I can’t wait to see everybody again!