Hello World!

I think I must be the last person on the planet to get DVR...but it is fabulous! We have been wanting it forever, but I am just too cheap. The only reason why we got it is because Brandon called Cox for a different purpose and talked them into giving us 2 HD receivers and a DVR for free! (for a year) Where has this been all my life?! No more rushing home from work to catch 24 while trying to get Ty ready for bed and not having him watch TV in the process. (I really don't want him to watch much TV...especially not Jack killing endless people). We were always missing our favorite shows, but no more! The only bad thing is now pretty much all of our shows are over. :( No more 24 and maybe no more Office. All I have currently is So You Think You Can Dance, but at least I can re-watch the dances as many times as my heart desires! Who knows what is next for me?! Facebook possibly? It only takes me about 5 years to join the bandwagon on these things. Just in time for everyone else to be over them. :)

California!

So we were fortunate enough to take a family vacation to Southern California the beginning of July. It has been waaaaaaaaayyy too long since we have all gone to the beach together and I was having serious withdrawals. Everyone was able to come except my sister-in-law Courtney who is expecting and my niece Abby. We missed them but they were nice enough to let Andrew and Carson come alone. We stayed in Escondido for a week at the Lawrence Welk Resort and had 4 suites there...hallelujah! That meant plenty of room to stretch out there and not getting woken up super early by Missy's kids...although we still did somewhat because they were in the room above us and Milly did track and field events each morning (at least it sounded like it. :)
So I have couple hundred pictures and it is so hard to narrow them all down...so I am sorry but there are a TON of them here. Here is Ty on the car ride there...he always has his legs all over the place. He did quite well for only napping for about 10 minutes!So of course we spent a few days at the beach...but not nearly what we wanted too. Unfortunately it was record lows for July and was pretty dang cold all week. That meant I only boogie boarded once! and I am still super white because I had to wear so many clothes at the beach! Ty was a little sand crab on the beach and mostly just crawled all over the place.Digging a hole with GabeWiffle ball (that's Em at bat)We were able to meet my good friend Mary Ellen (from Theatre Ballet at BYU) and her cute family for dinner. It was so good to see her after so many years and have her be just exactly the same!
The 4th of July consisted of church
Tennis (I did not bring work-out clothes)Fun at the resort...too bad I don't have the pic of my dad hula hooping (Brandon is the only one who cannot do it) MeEmilyMomBrandon and Andrew
Bar-b-q (almost impossible to get a good picture of all of the kids)And fireworks from Camp Pendleton...now that's what I'm talking about...right over the ocean!We spent a day in Old Town San DiegoCarpenter FamilyDayne and Myhoa (who had to leave on Tuesday :( and were missed)Panning for gold at the Mormon Battalion Museum
Some of the family went to Legoland but we went to Wild Animal Park
Of course there were some cold beach days and more fun at the resort pools, water slides and tennis. We were able to hang out with our friend Sam a few days too before he moves to Chicago. On Friday morning Andrew and Carson left for home and we all checked out of the resort and checked into the Marriott La Jolla for the last weekend. We spent a very freezing day at the beach in La Jolla. Our last day we went to Balboa Park.

Then to the tide pools in La Jolla
and stuck our fingers and toes in all of the sea anemones (Emily and Gabe below)and saw the seals and sea lions (so cute!)
Then we went to Belmont Park at Mission Beach and went on the very old and jerky roller coaster...still so fun! Ty and Milly went on the carousel.

Then went across the street to Luigi's pizza for some small slices of pizza and ate at the park, yum!
It was such a fun trip. We stayed up late every night playing games and then Ty was fabulous and let us sleep in every day. He was exhausted from never getting naps. We ate way too much; as Emily put it we were on a 3000 calorie diet. I even got to read a fabulous book (These Is My Words) which I rarely get to do. The bad thing is now I have to read the 2 sequels! Thanks so much mom and dad for a fabulous vacation...we can't wait for the next one!

Our House - Backyard

So we have lived in our house for about 6 months now. The time has flown and I wish we had made more of the improvements that I have envisioned in my head...hopefully the next 6 months we will get more done. Anywhoo...I have never shown any pictures of our house. A few weeks ago I took some pictures of our backyard as it is today...so I thought I would start with those. Maybe I will go room by room as each is finished? But they will probably never be truly finished in my mind. The following 3 pics are taken from near the back door standing under the patio from left to right.This is facing towards our house from the back of the yard. As you can see we still need a pool fence...it will definitely put a damper on things visually :( but is a necessary precaution. This last shot is a boring one of the side yard. There were already these 2 large yellow flowering trees (obviously the scientific name) and we added a lemon and a tangelo tree. You can see the little lemon tree in the middle in this pic.So there you have it. It is not huge but just right for us. I know Brandon would not want much more yard work than he already has anyway.