7 years

We celebrated our 7 year anniversary last week. Since we are in California and have our Disneyland passes, and that is where we got engaged, we decided to go to Disneyland for our anniversary. (Well, actually the day before because our passes were blocked out on our actual anniversary.) Unfortunately we had to bring the kids with us because we had no babysitter. :(

(Seriously, I have the worst time getting a babysitter. After I get over my initial anxiety of calling a teenager that I don't know very well, they are usually busy. So I have to try again. And again. I have tried 4-5 different girls on 3 different weekends thus far since we moved here and no luck. I think teenagers are a lot more busy and a lot less interested in babysitting than they used to be.)

Anyway, back to our anniversary. We mostly hung out at California Adventure because Emmy was begging to go on Soarin' and the jellyfish. I also convinced her to go on the Symphony Swings and then wanted to go on that over and over.

We did, however, go over to Disneyland for dinner at Cafe Orleans. Yum!

The kids were actually pretty good at dinner, which was nice. And they actually were pretty good most of the day...they just wanted to go on rides that I really didn't want to go on. Nothin' says Happy Anniversary like riding Heimlich's Chew Chew Train with your 2-year-old. Ha!

Anyway, we mostly had a fun time until Emmy threw the biggest fit about a stupid balloon. So then we left. Carrying her kicking and screaming all the way back to the car.

I really hope that one of these days we can go without the kids. The next day on our actual anniversary, a family from the ward agreed to watch the kids while we at least went to dinner for an hour.

It's been 7 years full of ups and downs, and this last year has been particularly rough, but I'm glad I have Matt to go through it all with! At least in another 7 years, Emmy will be old enough to babysit and we'll be able to go out alone. :)

Emmy turns 5

Emmy has been celebrating her birthday for over a week! We did some family festivities while we were in Utah, but I wanted to make her actual birthday special for her because she was really sad about having to have her birthday in California. She was afraid she wouldn't get any presents and that no one in California would know it was her birthday.

We had a little birthday party at home with a few girls from church. They made crowns, had a treasure hunt, and threw some water balloons.

We had cake and ice cream and opened presents. It was short and sweet, but I think Emmy really enjoyed it.

The girls were playing with their treasure and Zach came and plopped himself down right in the middle of them. Ha!

She got a fun Lego set, and she and Matt had fun putting it together.

On her actual birthday she wanted to go to the beach. Of course it was cold, windy and threatening rain that day, but we went anyway. She had a ball and wouldn't stop jumping up and down the minute we got there.

Zach just played in the sand.

And then it started to downpour and we saw some lightning and the beach was evacuated. This was about 30 minutes after we got there.

Emmy had fun playing in the rain on the walk back to the car. Even though it was a short-lived beach trip, she still had fun. Of course then it took forever to get home because everyone was leaving the beach at the same time.

She opened presents and we had pizza for dinner. With candles.

She loved this Minnie Mouse doll from Zach.

At 5 years old Emmy...

-loves water (beach, swimming, rain, baths)
-is pretty shy about trying new things and being around new people
-likes to do crafts
-loves to go to Disneyland
-has a bad sweet tooth
-favorite foods are anything sweet, hamburgers, spaghetti, yogurt
-is very sensitive
-has an excellent memory
-is not very good at entertaining herself
-is very particular about things
-loves to watch Disney Jr shows

We love our Emmy!

Utah trip & other summer stuff

Emmy took swimming lessons this year. She did great. On the first day they moved her up from Level 1 to Level 2. She learned to float on her front and back, do bobs by herself, jump in the pool, do superman glides, and sort of do the beginnings of the freestyle. I was so proud of her. She was so brave!

She wanted to jump off the diving board, but after 5 min of standing there, she chickened out.

But she loved the waterslide.

We have been going to Disneyland every week or 2. It's been great! One time we were on the carousel and I looked behind us and the band was there on the horses! Playing their music! It was fantastic!

These sillies love the carousel.

We drove to Utah on the 4th of July weekend to get Matt's car fixed. We broke down between Mesquite and St. George. It was HOT! And the freeway was shut down to one lane. Uggh! But we got going again and made it home.

We had a great time in Utah. Emmy convinced Dad and Grandpa to have a tea party. We also went to the cabin, but I didn't take pictures there. Emmy loved the 4-wheeler!

And of course we had to get some shave ice. California does not have this and it makes me very sad.

We went to the annual cousin party at the Spanish Fork pool, and Emmy discovered the joys of a life jacket and that she could go down the waterslide by herself with it on. She crashed on the way home.

We did fireworks that night. I got to catch up with these awesome ladies who saved my life when I got called as Primary president. I love them so much and I miss them!

We went boating with Grandma and Grandpa Lively.

Emily loved it! Zach liked it if he could sit by me the whole time, but would freak out if I would move or get in the water.

Emmy even convinced Grandma to get in the tube with her.

This was just funny. Zach resting his chin on the table.

We had a family birthday party for Emmy while we were there. She loved the Barbies she got!

We seriously had so much fun. I loved seeing our old neighbors and friends and hanging out with family. I miss living in Riverton. I miss our house and our family and friends and neighbors. I miss living so close to Rivers, who is Emmy's favorite person. She loves playing with him. I miss the gas prices and the grocery prices. I miss having everything so familiar. It was so hard to come back. I cried all the way to Lehi. Then again in St. George when we were leaving Utah. Then again when we crossed the California border. And then again when we drove into the San Bernardino valley. I'm pathetic, I know. This move has just been REALLY hard.

Trying to be more positive

It's been almost 2 months since we moved here. It's been really hard and lots of bad things have happened to us. I frequently wish that we wouldn't have had to move or that we could go back. But despite the rough time, there have been some good things that have happened that I want to remember...

-when we first got here the bishop and EQ president brought over mattresses, blankets, table and chairs, and a few other things to help us get by until our stuff came.

-a guy in our ward spent a lot of time hooking up the electricity for our dryer since it didn't have electric hookups.

-a couple of families in the ward have invited us over for dinner.

-someone in the ward came over to drop by a treat for my birthday. That really meant a lot that someone here even knew it was my birthday.

-our last electric bill was $6. And we had the air running all month. Love the solar panels!

-we were able to get Disneyland annual passes. I am so excited about this!

-the beach! We've gone to the beach more in the past 2 months than I have in the past 10 years. I love the beach.

-I actually get stuff besides bills and ads in the mail.

-Emily has become more outgoing and brave. She asks when she can play with other kids and she wanted to go give pictures to all the kids in her Primary class and to all the neighbors. She is excited about going to swimming lessons and to kindergarten. It's nice not having to force her to do these things.

-The sunsets here are beautiful. And the palm trees.

-I'm finally going to get to run a Disney race. And I actually started running again.

-We've finally gotten in the habit of doing family scripture study and prayer.

-The fruit here is delicious. And the citrus groves are beautiful.

-We get to have the missionaries over for dinner. I'm excited for my kids to be able to see missionaries on a regular basis.

Here's hoping for more good things!

Birthday weekend

A few months ago I won a free night's hotel stay in San Diego, so we decided to use it for my birthday weekend. Matt had to work on my actual birthday, so I took the kids back to Disneyland with our annual passes. We only stayed for 4.5 hours, and it was great! It was super crowded though, and there was a SoCal grad night going on, but it was still fun. I made sure to get my birthday button and a Dole Whip! It was fun to have my birthday at Disneyland. Even if I was by myself.

After Matt got off work, we went to dinner at the Claimjumper, which used to be one of our favorite Cali restaurants, but it has changed and wasn't all that impressive. Then we drove down to San Diego. The hotel I won was not the greatest of hotels and it was gay weekend or something because we were the only family in that hotel amongst a lot of same-sex couples. I'm fine being around gay people, but I prefer not to be around big pride gatherings like that, and it was just weird to be the only family there. The kids were not behaving and we didn't sleep well at all that night.

We almost turned around and went back home. But we stuck it out and went to the Mormon Battalion visitors center the next day. It's pretty fun, they have a really cool, interactive tour and at the end you get to do all sorts of fun stuff like take an old picture and pan for gold.

Emily loved panning for gold. She seriously asks if we can go back every other day. Zach just liked throwing rocks in the water and dumping water on himself.

We also went to the Point Loma tidepools. We didn't see much in the way of tidepools but the location itself was absolutely gorgeous. Emmy fell in the water, and didn't like it after that. But really, it was amazing.

The breakfast at our hotel was on the roof with a view out to the ocean. That was pretty cool.

We also ate Mexican food in Old Town before heading back home. Zach was a stinker and had to be taken out of the restaurant before we were done. And he was a stinker at the Battalion. And at the tide pools. And pretty much the whole time.

We are trying to get out and explore what SoCal has to offer and have fun during our time here! Hopefully the kids will be better behaved on our next exploration.

Disneyland, Part 2

Emmy really enjoyed meeting all the princesses. And they were adorable with her. They asked her all sorts of questions and it was really fun to watch her interact with them.

And thanks to Emmy, Zach knew who all the princesses were too. Ha!

He especially loved Belle. He ran right up to her and gave her a hug.

He also said that he wanted to give Minnie a kiss. Ha!

The kids both really liked Dumbo.

Matt bought them these little fans. That kept them entertained in lines for awhile.

Zach kept asking to go on the Ariel ride over and over. We went like 6 times in a row.

On the last day, we upgraded our tickets to annual passes. Woo-hoo! I figured that since my Dad pretty much paid for half of them we might as well. I was so excited! Thank you Dad!

On our "night off" from the kids, we went to dinner at Carthay Circle with my parents and to World of Color. Both were amazing. We also did Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones and Radiator Springs Racers. So much fun!

We also saw the Disney Jr show with the kids, which was really cute. They loved seeing the characters from their favorite shows. It really was an awesome trip, and I'm excited to go back as much as possible in the next year. I am such a Disney dork. :)

Disneyland, Part 1

We spent 3 fun days at Disneyland. I loved it so much!

Zach loved the carousel. He kept asking to "ride horses" all day!

We let Emmy stay up late one night to watch the parade and fireworks. The other nights we rotated babysitting so the adults could go do the big rides when the kids were in bed. It worked out great.

Radiator Springs and the Cars ride were pretty awesome.

The kids loved Mater's tractor pull!

Emmy wanted a giant pickle for her treat that day. Ha!

We love Mickey!

The kids loved Dumbo, the carousel, the Ariel ride, and the teacups. Emmy went on Splash Mountain and Soarin over California and liked them.