California Day 2–Santa Monica

We got up at 5 am and headed to Anaheim.  We got to the hotel around 9:30 and checked in and then headed to Costco to get tickets for Universal Studios.  Then we hopped on I5 and headed to the end of route 66 – Santa Monica Pier.
It was the perfect day, warm, with clear skies.

The kids hopped out of the car and ran to the beach (without their swimsuits)

Matt had to go put on some shorts and then he joined in the fun:

It was getting close to lunch time so we grabbed some burgers here:

After lunch, the kids got changed into their suits, and we headed to the end of the pier:

We walked around, looked at some shops, and came upon this historic sign:

The kids went back to the ocean and played around.  Jeremy even met a girl, Maya, whilst playing in the water:

Then everyone decided to bury Jeremy in the sand:

Even Maya joined in:
Gabby and I were set on going on the roller coaster and Ferris Wheel on the pier, so we left Matt and the little ones to mark something off our bucket lists:

Then we loaded up the car and headed back to Anaheim to get ready for our 8 o’clock reservation at Napa Rose.  Before the trip, Gabby said she wanted to try caviar, so after some research we found out that Napa Rose served caviar appetizers, along with some other interesting things:

It was a delicious dinner. 

Matt insisted on showing everyone his new “bald streak”

It was a fun relaxing day, filled with new experiences and a lot of new memories!!

California Day 1-Las Vegas

Sunday morning, Gabby came over and we headed to church.  After church we loaded up the car and headed to Las Vegas.  After 5 LONG hours in the car, we made it to Sam’s Town.  After we check in, we had to take a picture of the famous bear:

Then we headed down to Caesar's Palace to have dinner at:
 
It was very tasty, and of course, we had to have the world famous frozen hot chocolate:


And of course, it is not a trip to Vegas without visiting the Bellagio:

Then we snuck the under 18 children into the flower room.  It was Chinese New Year:

Then we headed back to the hotel since we were getting up early the next morning to head to Santa Monica Pier. 

Valentines Day 2013

Around the end of the summer last year, Logan informed us that the new Die Hard movie would be coming out on Valentines Day and he wanted to make a V-day date with dinner and movie.  A few weeks ago, he was devastated to learn that the new Die Hard movie was in fact coming out on Valentines Day, but it was rated R.  So we started to think of alternative date ideas.  Thanks to Lori, we decided to head to the temple and do some sealings.  We started out the night with dinner at Magleby's.

They had a Valentines buffet that was quite tasty.  On the desert table, there was a huge chocolate cake.  Matt told Logan he would give him $10 to go downstairs and pick up the cake and bring it upstairs like he was going to eat it . . . . . so he did:

After dinner we drove up to the Mt. Timpanogos temple:

It was a wonderful night full of the spirit.  After our sealing session we took some photos outside the temple.

On our way home, Logan suggested that we use his $10 he just won to go to Walmart where we each had 10 minutes and $2.50 to spend on a last minute Valentines gift.  It was a fun night, and we are so glad to have such wonderful friends.

Month of Love

To kick off the month of Love, Matt sent me a cheesy little poem.

"A million stars up in the sky
one shines brighter I cant deny
A love so precious a love so true
a love that comes from me to you
The angels sing when you are near
within your arms I have nothing to fear
You always know just what to say
just talking to you makes my day
... I love you honey with all of my heart
together forever and never to part."

Love you honey.

I love this cheesy guy: