Beach

When we went to California we spent a morning at Huntington Beach. This is a picture on the end of the pier.





The water was so cold Mady wouldn't barely even stick her toes in.

It was very windy and cold so the swimsuit thing only lasted a minute, then they wanted their jackets on. They thought this was like summertime beach swimming.

Mason loved making a sand castle.

California trip!

BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP CO.

Over fall break we took a family trip to California. A lot of the Taylors (cousins) from Utah ended up coming also. One of the nights we ate at Bubba Gumps.

My Forrest, with his suitcase, box of chocolates, and gigantic tennis shoes.

It was a fun dinner with all the family!

The Happiest Place On Earth!

Here we are at Disneyland in front of the famous Mickey Mouse flower bed. The kids were so excited to go, Mady especially because she wanted to see all the princesses. She could not stop asking where they were and if they all lived in the castle together. It was so fun to see the excitement the kids would get over being there. It's like being a kid again.

Donald Duck Mickey & Minnie

Pluto and the kids

Me and Cruella Deville striking a pose!

The first ride we went on was Star Tours. Mady didn't know what to think and Mason loved it.
Uncle Larry came along on the trip and all of the Taylor's went to Disneyland with us.
Mason even got to make his own double sworded light saber.

Bug's Life 3-D glasses, aren't we stylin'

flying dumbo ride, in Mady words "gumbo Ride"

Monster's inc. car- Noah, Mason and Mady.

My little princess! Mady's most favorite part of the whole day was watching the parade because she got to see all the princesses, Belle and the Beast were one of her favorites as she watched them dance.


Mason's most favorite rides were space mountain that he rode twice and Indiana Jones.


It was especially neat to go around Halloween time because everything was decorated all halloweeny. The Haunted Mansion ride was all decked out like the Nightmare Before Christmas movie, it was really neat!

The picture on right was taken outside of the Haunted Mansion, we are all exhausted because it was the tenth hour that we had been there and Mady was sacked out on my shoulder. But, we didn't let anything stop us, we stayed until they closed at midnight.
These were taken inside of the ride .

Lets just say it was a long 15 hour day at Disneyland, but it was something the kids and us will never forget. It was so worth it, we got to ride every ride that we wanted, some of them even twice. We can't wait to go back!

NBA ALLSTAR

Mason is playing basketball through NYS and he loves it. He's done baseball and soccer and didn't really enjoy those so this time he chose basketball. For being his first time playing he actually does pretty well. His first game he scored 6 points. He was so excited to get the #1 jersey! I think I am the loudest mom on the team screaming through the whole game cheering them on. His team name is the Greendragons.


Getting ready for jump ball, making sure they know who they are supposed to be guarding. That doesn't really mean anything anyway, because they are all over the court in every direction.

Going up for a rebound.

Dribbling down the court.

AZ State Fair

O.k. I know we might be a little white trash or hillbilly, whatever you want to call it. Every year the Rowley brothers make it a point to go to the state fair just to watch the derby car races. Three years ago Larry even put together a derby car and entered the demolition derby. This year we took the kids and watched it. Mady was very confused about the fact that cars were just full on crashing into each other and some of them even starting on fire. She did not like that at all, because to her a car crashing meant bad things. Notice Uncle Jason in the background.

This was the kids favorite derby car, it was all painted like the joker, even the driver was dressed like him.

The highlight of the night was when the kids got to ride on a huge elephant. They are the two in the back.

The one ride we did was the colossal slide, it is huge.

HALLOWEEN

Hard at work cleaning out the pumpkins, mom had to help because they said it was too dirty and gooey.


Mason carved his out all by himself with the little battery powered carving saw. What will it look like?


Of course I carved Mady's pumpkin, she did help a little.

Finished product, the face of a werewolf (can you see it Mason worked long and hard on this), and a big happy face pumpkin!

Can you guess, Madisen was a cowgirl for Halloween. She was supposed to be riding her horse but she ditched that first thing, I could barely keep her hat and boots on.

Mason was a ghostly goul (doesn't he look scary). He didn't think he looked scary enough, every costume that he picked out was so scary with masks and gory stuff, so we settled on this one.

PUMPKIN PATCH

We went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins for Halloween. The kids got to decorate a little pumpkin, go through the hay maze and go on a hay ride. Then we picked out our pumpkins to take home and carve.





On the hayride!

Mady picked the best pumpkin!