Thanksgiving in Cali

We have been looking forward to this week forever! We left Phoenix Friday afternoon, and after a long 6 1/2 hour drive to Carlsbad, CA we are finally here! Our resort was amazing with lots of room and tons of storage but the best part was the spectacular view of the beach and the ocean and the other best part was that my parents came down from Idaho to spend the week with us!

On Saturday morning we woke up to RAIN! Clint and I got up early to go jogging on the beach while it was just drizzling, but by the time we got back it was a full on downpour. Despite the rain we headed into downtown San Diego to Little Italy to the farmers market. Within a few minutes the kids were cold, wet and hungry so we found a cute Italian restaurant in the back of a grocery store and had the best pizza ever.

My parents took the kids back to the condo to play on the beach and hot tub while Clint and I met our friends Dan and Jamie White and Scott and Nichole Smith, who came to San Diego for the weekend so all of us could go to the Utah v. San Diego State game which Dan's brother got us awesome tickets for.

After dinner we headed over to the Chargers Stadium for the game in an absolute downpour! We had the best seats and 2 sideline passes which the boys loved. It was funny to see Clint put on a Utah Red Shirt to go down on the field since he is a serious BYU fan. The game was really exciting and Utah pulled a win in the end! Thanks Dan and Jamie for inviting us!

On Sunday the weather was lots better. No rain, just cold. Of course that doesn't matter to kids how cold it is when you're at the beach!

Cooper chased the seagulls all over!

The amazing sunset from our condo's deck!

As good as it gets!

So here's our attempt at family pictures. It always starts with a crazy mommy planning the pictures and the outfits and yelling at everyone to get ready and stop whining and stop moving while I'm fixing your hair. Then as soon as we got there, Pierce and Cole started running around like crazy. Cole fell in the parking lot flat on her face. There was crying involved and so she has red puffy eyes. Not to forget she also has a big chunk of hair missing from the top of her head where she cut it yesterday! Pierce either fell or was playing and somehow got grass stains on his knees. And Cooper would not hold still for a second! So this is as good as it gets this year!

Scissors (Enough Said)

Cole has been on a scissor rampage! She somehow got a hold of a pair of scissors during quiet time and did some serious damage! I came in to help her clean her room and noticed bits of yarn everywhere and it took me a second to realize what it was...her blanket. Yep, she cut a huge hole right in the middle of it. I was crazy mad! Then I find 2 skirts and 2 shirts and some of Cooper's clothes that she did her magic to and I was ready to blow a fuse! So I can't really blame her when a few days later I find a bear who has obviously had his ears hacked off by the master herself and when I ask her what happened to him she says, "I don't know." So I tell her she better not lie to me and to tell me what happened to the bear. Then finally she breaks down and the tears start and she says, "(sob sob) I just (sob) was hugging him (sniff) and I just hugged him so hard that his ears just POPPED off (now hysterical sobs)" As I'm trying to muffle my hysterical laughter (seriously where did she come up with that one?!!), I attempted to punish her. Apparently I wasn't strict enough though since just yesterday she whacked off a big chunk of her hair a day before our scheduled family pictures!

Halloween

We had such a great Halloween this year! It took us quite a few weeks to decide on costumes, but finally we made our decisions. Pierce and Cooper were scary skeletons and Cole decided to be Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. We had so much fun getting ready. Cole loved her necklace and crown and getting to wear pink make up and getting Pierce ready with all his make-up and black fingernails was a great time.





We started celebrating on Friday the 29th at the ward trick or treat carinval. The kids had so much fun playing games and getting candy! They came home with a huge bucketful and we spent a long time sorting it out into piles to see what they had. Andrea tried to make rules for the piles like all the chocolate should go into a pile for mommy but they were having none of that!

On Halloween night we headed over to Dan and Jamie Whites' for a party with all our friends. We had a blast eating soup and rolls and lots of treats with Steve and Jen Jurca, Scott and Nichole Smith, Dan and Jamie White, Brian and Shelbie Clement and Rob and Lanea Clement. We trick-or-treated the neighborhood until our buckets were full and then came home and crashed from sugar overload!

Here's the lineup: Taylor, Cole, Kylie, Pierce, Joe, Parker, Jaycee, and Cooper.