Timp Visit

I love driving up AF canyon and seeing the beauty! As my mom reminds me, we are so blessed to have such beauty so close by! We had a lovely afternoon! Matt and Carter walked on a trail while Katherine slept so I stayed with her while they explored. The kids threw rocks into the water at this cool reservoir called Tibble (weird huh?) and we had a picnic at an area called swinging bridge. Speaking of picnic I for the life of me cannot understand why people go up the canyon to have a picnic in nature and then bring all manner of packaged foods. It makes me crazy because the juice bags, cookie sleeves, and one of my biggest peeves, sandwich baggies get blown around and end up in the water or snagged on branches. It makes me so sad. Next time we go up we are bringing gloves and cleaning up while we are there. So pass it along if you want to picnic in the canyon bring the containers you use for leftovers instead of disposable items. It's so much better for our Earth.


It was so great to spend time as a family. Katherine loved running back and forth across the bridge over a rushing stream and both loved the reservoir. I am so grateful for my family and treasure our family time.

Easter Vacation

We returned home on Saturday from a week long visit to my parent's home in Irvine, CA. The weather was wonderful, the drive there was fine and we arrived to find plenty of oranges and lemons to feast on. We had a lovely Easter seeing family and were very lucky that my parents had both taken time off of work to spend with us. We hit California Adventure, Aquarium of the Pacific, a balloon ride, Laguna Beach tide pools, an Angels game, and Newport Beach Walk In when Carter had an issue. It was great to spend time with my parents and I love that my dad was able to make Carter's pine wood derby car with him. Hopefully a yearly tradition. We don't like doing stuff like and don't have tools so it was great timing to be able to bring the wooden block with us and have my dad work on it with Carter. They are both such cutie pies. Carter went back to school yesterday and instead of talking about all the places he went and things he saw he told all his friends and teachers about how he got to feel an earthquake on Easter there. Funny kid! Matt flew home Easter night and worked during the week and flew down on Friday to drive us home. That Friday he and I got to go to the Newport Beach Temple. It was such a great experience. We had been there for the open house when we lived in California. If you want details about the day feel free to ask me. It was special! The drive home was bordering on awful because of all the bathroom stops Carter needed. He had some urinary issue that still hasn't been fully solved. Anyway, we may need to visit less frequently so we can save up and fly there. I should have followed my friend Jennifer's idea and blogged each day about the day but I just didn't and now it would be too much to even try. So we'll just leave it at we had a lovely time and wish we had brought some warm weather back with us. And I am so ready for summer break. Dropping Carter off Monday morning was painful. I really enjoyed having him around all those days and with zero after school obligations, homework, or piano practice since Matt forgot to put the piano/homework bag in the car. It ended up being very NICE and a WONDERFUL time with my parents.