Friday, October 30, 2009

U2... Need I Say More?

Last week, U2 was in town. They have been my favorite band for years and as I watched them, I was reminded why I love them so much. It was such a good show and we had so much fun. My old college roommate flew down to go with me (just a sidenote... she recently found out that she works with The Edge's first cousin. Not too bad... Unfortunately, he decided not to come down for the concert to so he couldn't get us backstage to meet the band. Oh well...).

Anyway, here we all are!
Dave, Me, Kelleigh, Beth:The other half of our group (our neighbors)
Jarad, Katie, Kimberly, Kevin:

Dave... taking his customary nap before the show started:
The stage just before the show started:
Just some great little snapshots of the band:




Here is just a small clip of them singing.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Fall Break '09

Last week was fall break for the kids. We managed to keep pretty busy with the kids and I think they had a good time.

The last half of the week, we went up to the cabin. Here are the girls playing outside.
CK, Anna, L

B and Zach on their homemade teeter totter.
On Sunday afternoon, we took a little drive to the Snowflake Temple.
Here is CK and Sam.

Our family in front of the temple.

a cute picture of CK

Dave with the boys... he was daring the boys to eat a cricket from the fountain, I think.

Our kids with the Browns....
Scottie, Zach, Josh, B, D, Sam, L, Anna, CK


During the first half of the week, we went out to visit out good friends, the Turley's in the eastern part of the state. Just a little note... our temple was announced the same time as theirs was. Here is a picture of our temple site:

... and here is theirs:
Admittedly, I'm just a little jealous that it has come so far, but really I'm mostly, I'm happy for them. After all, we still have a temple 30 min away, whereas they have to drive almost 3 hours.

One of the reasons we always have so much fun with these guys is that they have 5 kids that are same genders almost the exact ages as ours. The only "big" difference is around the twins. They have a daughter 3 mo. older and then a son 14 mo. younger than the twins. Still, they are all great friends. (Our kids match up so good, in fact, that with our last 2 pregnancies, Debbie and I announced our pregnancies to each other on the same day!)

While we were there, we drove up a canyon to have a picnic. It was a gorgeous spot and the kids had a blast.

Here is D with his best friend Shawn.

L and Savanna, and CK with Keira.

B and Carson

Savanna and L again.

Our cute spoiled little princesses.
Kayla and KL

Just another cute little picture of my little princess.

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Twins Turn 8!!!


I feel like a bad mom, because I didn't get a change to post on their big day! They turned 8 on Saturday, and I'll get to the actual events of the day on another post. There has just been so much going on lately, I haven't had a chance to post anything.

Well, I do want to take a few moments and say how grateful I am for my little guys! They are both so special in their own special ways. B is such a big softy. Dave call's him a Mama's Boy, and I couldn't be happier about that. He thinks he is getting too cool to hug me when people are around, but when we are at home, he has no qualms about snuggling up to me and making sure I've had several goodnight hugs and kisses.

L still has one of the strongest personalities I have ever encountered. She is absolutely determined and there is no one who will ever convince her to do something she doesn't want to do. She loves to lead, to draw, to write, and to do her nails. She is all pre-teen girl! I truly love her strength of character, even if it collides with my own from time to time!

Having the 2 of them has been so wonderful to me! I love they way they are so independent of each other and yet can compliment each other so much. 8 is a pretty significant birthday for us since they will be getting baptized and I have a hard time believing that much time has passed since I had them! Time really does fly! I'm so proud of them and love them so much!

Friday, October 16, 2009

San Francisco

Last weekend, Dave and I got to take a little trip to San Francisco. We were originally going to go because he was suppose to argue a case in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. We bought all our tickets and were all set to go, then 2 weeks before we were scheduled to go, the court decided they didn't need to hear oral arguments. We decided that wouldn't stop us from going though! Here are a few pictures of out adventure! :)

One of the cable cars. It was really cool how old these things were. I meant to ask just how old the cars were, but I didn't get the chance (and when I did, I forgot to ask). But this is a station where they turn around the cars. It is cool to watch because the guys literally get out and manually turn them around.
Here was just a street performer that was right by where we waiting to get on the trolley. He was fun to watch.

We had a quick stop at Lombard Street. We didn't actually get off and walk (the car was pretty packed and there were always more people trying to get on than off so I really didn't feel like losing my spot, just walk the crooked street), I was fine with just the view from the top!

The end of the line...at Ghirardelli Square.
Dave in front of Ghirardelli Square.
Looking the other way, with a cool boat!
I don't know what it is, but I always love the way a pier looks with lots of sail boats lined up. So cool!
Ok... this is just because I heart candy! (well food really, but candy falls in that category)
As we walked along Fisherman's Wharf, we walked past a bakery that was making some cool sourdough loafs.

Hard to tell, (because the girl behind us walked up just as we were trying to take the picture) but we are standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Dave in front of the Golden Gate.
The Sea Lion Sanctuary
We took a ferry to Sausalito. Here is a picture of the Port of San Francisco as we left.
As we went past Alactraz
On the windy ferry with the city behind me.
I wish I had taken pictures of this, but truthfully, it got to cold for me, so I went inside, but the Blue Angels were there the whole weekend preforming and as we were on the ferry, they were doing all sorts of tricks directly over us. It was pretty cool to watch.

In Sausalito. I thought this town was so pretty!

This is the street that faces the bay and San Francisco. It is hard to imagine just what it costs to live there! Still, they had some nice views. (We actually saw a "for rent" sign in front of one of the houses. There was an apartment for rent in it, 3 bdrm... only $3995 a mo!)

Our last day, we got up early and drove over to Santa Clara. That is where is older sister was buried. She passed away when she was only a year old.


After we got back to San Francisco, we walked around a little bit more. Here is Dave in front of the Courthouse... the one he was suppose to argue in... the reason we took the trip in the first place.

Me, in UN Plaza

Dave in front of City Hall.
This building was truly impressive. You can see all the gold plating... and it was just the City Hall! We were trying to decided if we have a building this nice anywhere in the state... let alone for a city hall!
Here is a "zoom in" on the dome of the building... just impressive!

And now... for what for me was the climax... Wicked!
Here I am standing outside the Orpheum Theater.

Dave at the front doors. They were like Nazi's when you were inside about cameras. So I couldn't get much more than this. Just trust me it was amazing!
I loved the play as much as the first time. We had some really good seats, the only draw back was the fact that I ended up sitting behind a rather tall lady with a pretty huge head of hair that I had to strain to see around the whole time. Still... worth it!

All in all, we had a great time, but were quite happy to be home and see our kids. They made us feel so great when we saw them again as they told us how much they loved us and missed us. It just doesn't get any better than that!