California Dreamin

After plenty of hype, months of practicing, hours spent on weekends at rehearsals in the heat, most mutual nights spent learning dances, costume fittings, attitude adjustments, carpools, plenty of headaches and 2 wonderful performances - the 2008 California Dreamin Inland Empire dance festival is finally over. The last time a similar thing happened around here was 20 years ago. It involved 12 stakes, approximately 3000 youth and a lot of work. The beehives and Deacons did separate dances and then the miamaids/teachers and Laurels priests did dances as well.
I was so happy that Hayley thought it was all worth it after the performances, she loved the whole experience of the weekend. She said on Friday night that it was one of the funnest 5 hours of her life!
These are the beehive costume - they performed to a Hairspray song - got so far to go! We thought they were horrible, and you couldn't get any worse until I saw the Cha Cha costume which was hilarious - I must admit it did look good on the field though!
Hayley and her friends found us in the audience during the finale and thought they were so cool because they were doing the can can and kept getting on the jumbotron big screen!

The kids all wore red, white and blue polo shirts in the finale and then formed the United States flag, it was really very cool and then they set off fireworks and had some patriotic music!

The drive on the way home we were all exhausted, well most of us!

Dance festival is finally over and now Australia - here we come!

They came from the land Down Under!

This week my not so little brother David, his wife Esther and their 4 kids came to stay with us from Australia. They are just starting out on their crazy adventure of going to BYU and doing his masters in business. He got some great scholarship and a long story short I will now have family living in the same country as me for the next 2 years - YAY! We had a great time with them, the kids loved being with their cousins and we were able to do a lot of fun things.

Lemonade crunchy ice, sip it once, sip it twice. Abby and Savannah had a lemonade stand and had so much fun, they even made a few dollars each, which was unbelievable because they gave so much away and drank so much themselves. They were so great together all week, it was so fun to watch them, Abby kept teaching Savannah how to talk American so she would fit with the other kids.

Hyrum and Luke had a ball together, in the first few minutes of them being here they had shirts off and were wrestling with each other.
Beth and Luke had a love hate relationship. Luke found out that it really annoyed Beth when she asked him if he liked her and he said no. The little stinker thought he was being so funny and she was devastated!


One morning just the adults went to South coast winery for breakfast. They have the best banana pancakes you have ever tasted. My friend took me last week and I had to have them again. It was really nice being together with no kids and the food wasn't bad either! Here I am with my brother David and my man Chad!

Wednesday night Esther and I went down to San Diego to see Phantom of the Opera. It was so great. It was really the first time we had done anything together being just us and it was great getting to know her a little better - my brother chose well. The play was so good, even though I saw it a few years ago I loved it just as much, the stage, set and special effects were amazing. Afterwards we stayed behind for an actor chat, where they would answer questions, I really enjoyed it!
We figured we hadnt gotten a picture with the phantom sign, so this is us in the middle of the road, very late at night, down town San Diego!

Theres no place like home!

This year I was able to go to girls camp again - this is my 3rd time in the last 4 years. It was my first time on a stake level and it made for a very different experience. I was so excited that after going 2 times without Hayley that we could finally go together. It was great that I wasn't with her all the time with the ward but we could see each when ever we wanted. It even came in handy the night she threw up and was bought to my cabin at 2:30am. We think the day before she hadnt drunk enough fluids, she then got a stomach ache and a head ache. Once we made her drink she desperately wanted to go on the hike the next morning.

As you can see she did just fine and was still able to pose quite well for pictures as well!


The Theme was from the Wizard of Oz - Theres no place like home so many of the devotionals centered on needing a brain, courage and a heart to do what is right in order to return to our Heavenly Father. There were so many great messages and opportunities for the girls to feel the spirit.
These are the girls from our ward and our Bishop!
Hayley,and her friends Claire and Madison decided as a YW project to make pj pants for all the girls and leaders in our ward. Our wards color was bedazzling blueberries, they spent alot of time on them and Claires mom helped alot too, but 45ish pants later they looked so cute. All week long we were complimented on them - good job girls!

I had the wonderful opportunity of working with the YCLs from the whole stake. They were responsible for doing scripture study groups, certification, conducting meetings, leading camp songs and being great examples. The girls did not disappoint and did such a good job of being where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there. During the week we had a fake tornado ( you know like in the wizard of Oz), some of the girls really panicked for a little bit and thought it was real. The YCLs all were injured and the YW had to use their first aid they had learned to treat them. Here they are with there prize winning hair and makeup jobs
We had the best leaders to work with. It was so much fun being with them and working along side them. This is the camp stake staff 2008, thanks for all the hard work and a wonderful week at camp!

There is NO DOUBT I am a little star struck!

Last week I took the kids to Sea World. Hayley, her friend Claire and Trent had separated from us to go ride Atlantis - you know big kid stuff and I was wondering around with Abby and Luke. All of a sudden I noticed a lady walking toward me that looked very much like Gwen Stefani, I was doing a little mental checklist - yes she has platinum blonde hair, yes she has bright red lipstick yes she is pregnant, yes she has a little toddler with her - when I realized that it was so Gwen Stefani. As I was staring I caught the eye of the nanny and she knew that I knew, I think she was wondering if I was going to make a scene - Me? So I turned around and followed her to the tide pools. Oh there was a seat right next to her to look at the star fish, guess where we sat. The whole time I was trying to figure out how to get a picture of her without being obnoxious or bring attention to her so she wouldnt get mobbed. I decided to get out the camera and just do it. First I tried to act all cool and take a picture of Luke holding a star fish
Then I kept thinking just turn around and do it, turn around and do it, when I finally did it - this is the result she was getting up to leave! And by the way she is really really pregnant and even was waddling a little bit!


I decided that this wasnt good enough and that I would like a better picture. We went ahead with our day by going to the Shamu show and then just after we left the show who should I see walking toward me again, but this time with her husband Gavin Rossdale and I decided I just had to do it. I just took out my camera and as Gavin stared at me I mouthed SORRY and clicked, this time success - a picture worthy of Star or Us or even People magazine.


Well I decide to call Hayley and brag a little of my star sighting and told her I had been hanging out with Gwen Stefani. She was jealous and that was the point because she wasn't with me because we were doing little kid stuff. Apparently they decided they wanted to see her. After about an hour they found her. According to their story this is what happened. Hayley proceeds to go straight up to Gwen and say -I hear that you have been hanging out and talking with my mom! Could we get some pictures together? (Did she not understand that I didn't literally mean I was hanging out with her - AAH) Gwen proceeded to tell her she couldn't today because there were so many people around and she couldn't get started because so many people would come up to her. She said she was super nice and friendly and apologetic. Hayley was a little sad, but then realized she had just had a conversation with her - NICE.

When we met up again to discuss our stories, she couldn't believe that I hadnt really hung out with her, but now she wont stop bragging that she I guess did hang out with her for a little bit.
It was a great day at Sea World with a good story to tell. Here are some other pictures of the day.

Our backyard Campout

PART 1

Thursday night we had a little family and friends campout in our backyard. People always say that is the size of a park so we thought that we would put it to good use. We started the evening by roasting hotdogs and smores in a fire bowl. The kids of course loved cooking their own dinner and I loved the very little preparation for it. When it got dark we all went out to the culdesac for Jasons not so little firework show - we had our own personal 3rd of July show just for the occasion. It was very loud, the kids loved it and then we ran back to the backyard when they were over (you see personal fireworks are illegal in this part of California). We then started the movie portion on a big screen in the backyard. We watched the Little Rascals - the younger ones loved it and the older kids were having too much fun on the trampoline and doing other things. At a little after 11 we tried to turn off all the lights so we could start getting the little kids down. I forgot that camping is pretty uncomfortable and I was having a hard time getting to sleep despite how tired I was. At 2.00 the talking and giggling boys were driving me crazy so I got up to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep. While I was up I saw movement in the house and wanted to see who else had ventured inside (it just turned out to be someone going to the bathroom), BUT when I saw my bed I decided I would just lay down for a little bit - aaah it felt so good - you have to have some perks for having it at your own home right! I think I got a much better nights sleep than others even though I only had 4 hours - by 5am the younger girls were playing tetherball and by 6.00 most other kids were up. We had about 50 people over for the night activities and then only about 37 were brave enough to campout! It was a fun and an exhausting night!

Cook cook cooking



Abby and friends - notice the gang signs on the right - nice Kylee



Some of the boyz watching the show out front
The fireworks spectacular



Time for the girls to go to bed - yeah right!
The boys were so cute and completely mesmerized by the movie on the big screenIt only ended up being Luke Chad and I in the tent (well to start off with) He got so excited and hyper, he kept covering his eyes when we took the pictures because it was so dark and the flash blinded him!

PART 2!

When everyone left we went to IHOP for breakfast and then came to home to clean up. It took us awhile to completely get everything back to normal but we were on a mission with a nap to look forward to! We even cleaned out the fire bowl, emptied the ashes in the trash, returned everything to the owners and then came inside. It was a hot day, we turned on the air, cleaned up inside and then all went upstairs for a well deserved and needed nap. Cut forward to an hour and a half later when I heard the doorbell ring and people knocking - next I hear was people saying your house is on fire, your fence burned down but now it is out. I wasnt too worried because I was only hearing neighbor kids voices, but I got dressed and came down to see what was going on. Well it just so happens that my trash can had caught on fire(and they are inflammable says the firemen), which then caught my fence on fire. At this point my wonderful neighbor came out to water her plants and saw flames coming fron the side of our house. She ran inside to get the phone and called 911, then grabbed our hose and started putting out the fire. She was disconnected from 911 so we didn't know if they would still come. Meanwhile my firefighter neighbor comes out and quickly helps and then right about now I come out to see what is really going on. So I am in shock right now (was it the illegal fireworks that I put in the trash that morning?) We keep watering everything down and figure out that it was from the fire pit remainders, it was so hot with the lid closed and there was a lot of flammable stuff inside that it had reignited. Next thing we hear is sirens - oh my the fireworks Kelly and I quickly remove any sign of the fireworks and discreetly put them in another trashcan as fast as we possibly could right as the 1st truck pulls in!


Me straight out of bed being questioned and debriefed by a firefighter, and then we had a little fire safety instruction


Jason freaking out and feeling very guilty about the fireworks - will they know it was him?

My quick moving and life saver of a neighbor who was our hero for the day - thankyou so much Julie!


And then all the kids wanted to play firefighter and help put out the fire - luckily John is a firefighter and lent his helmet to make it look more authentic

So now we need to replace part of the fence, get a new trash can and always water down the ashes before tossing them - big lesson learned. Our side still completely smells smoky and burned! Not quite the ending to our campout that we expected but I guess we will never really forget it either!