CALIFORNIA FER DAYS!

Day 1

So Daisy, Ethan and I got on the plane. It was interesting, including the moments when Daisy couldn't pop her ears... and Ethan was on his phone the whole time.

The first thing we did was go look at a graveyard of construction.

Yes that's what I'm calling it. The Kelly's house burned down in the California fires, but the house right next to them was just fine.
All the houses in the area were springing right up. As far as you could see there was the splinter wood chip walls going up.
Jeanie showed us her lot, where they were going to rebuild. It was pretty sad, but as long as you think of whats to come and not really on the past, it just fine. But there was lots of times at the Kelly's we would say something, and they would be like, 'Oh yeah. Fire.' Which meant, we lost that in the fire too.
ANYWAYS, we went and got our nails done. I wasn't super hyped about the whole thing, but when I saw what we were doing, I was down.
They sat us down in these massagey chairs. And while they were doing your massage, you could get your back massaged too.

We had these nice Korean, or Japanese or Chinese girls do our feet. (I can never tell them apart) We picked colors, then they filled up this foot bath thing and turned on the bubbles.
We soaked our feet, and when we took them out, we got the nice massage. The one with the gritty goop that gets rid of all the dead skin.
Then hot rocks. Those... were interesting. I'm sure I loved the whole massage, but it was a cool experience that was very relaxing.
Then my favorite part was the steamed towels. I could wear those all day.
They had this refrigerator looking thing, but it made steam instead of cold. They stuck the hot rocks and towels in there. When you put the towels on, it was so warm. By far, my favorite part.

Then came painting. I chose gold for mine, and Daisy pink. Jeanie chose a lighter pink too. But while we were getting them painted, the lady was very chatty. So she just talked and talked and talked. She eventually found out Daisy's name, so she asked if she wanted a daisy. She said yes, so did I.
The final product, was worth the massage. But isn't anything worth a massage?

Then we went swimming at the club at some place. We got ice cream too, and learned what gummy bears are made out of. ...Pig fat.
Then we watched Ethan's game, which he lost.

We ate at Apple-bees, which I had never eaten at. It was pretty good.

We played games and and sat outside and talked.
The Kelly's have this really weird thing, they called the egg chair.
It was Daisy's favorite.

Then we went to bed.

Day 2

We started the day with waffles. I must say, waffles are my favorite breakfast food. But mom doesn't make breakfast food, so she wouldn't know. 

Then we made the trip to SAN FRANCISCO!

Our first thing on the list was to see the crooked street. Honestly, when we got there it was more windy than crooked, and it was a little ridiculous and probably could also be labeled the most dangerous street, above 15 miles an hour. 

We took a picture. But it is not here.

Then we 'took a bus to china town'. Not actually, we drove there, but it was like nothing I've ever seen. It had everything. Everyday groceries, to random things like an umbrella. I saw this store of knick-knacks and I had to go in. They had magnets and bells and statues to spare. Posters and ornaments. It was crazy. 

We kept going to this fortune cookie place. This was cool. We watched how fortune cookies were made, then bought and tasted some. 

They had this automatic machine that squirted a little bit of batter onto a rotating griddle. It closed than turned around in a slow circle, cooking it, then it would come out on the other side all cooked, but still soft enough to fold. 

Someone would put in a fortune, then fold it closed, and put it on this rack to dry. And it dried fast! Seconds later it would be all hardened up. 

But we bought some frosted cookies, which were actually pretty good, and we made our own fortunes in cookies. 

Then we went to the Italian part of San Francisco. It has all these spots. China town, Italian... town, and there was a Mexican spot too, but we didn't go there.

We ate at 'the old slice house' which supposedly had the best pizza. It was pretty good, but the pepperonis on mine were little bowls. 

After eating we went to ride a cable car. We had to wait in line for a bit, and this old guy came over. He was wearing this blue and black shirt, with tan pants on. He set down this big ol' amp, and gets out this harmonica. 

He turns on some tunes and starts jamming, ON THE HARMONICA. 

He was actually pretty good, and it was really interesting to listen to him. We gave him a tip, in a box stapled to a tree. 

We got on the bus and left him. He was really kind of strange.
I stood at the back of the bus holding on with Ethan.

It was pretty cool. Francisco has a TON of hills. It's crazy. And the trolley had a little bit of a hard time getting over them. It was really steep, you felt like you were going to fall over. 

We got off and walked to a beach. 

Then we went to Ghirardelli, and sampled some chocolate, and threw coins into a fountain. (To be clear, Daisy did not want to be in the picture because she didn't like the fountain.)

Then just as we were leaving the Cisco, Jeanie bought these 'Italian doughnuts'. They looked like a little flattened brown roll with sugar on top. 

Only it tasted like heaven.

It was warm, and the perfect consistency... it was amazing. My new favorite treat. 

You were supposed to eat it with ice cream, but it was just fine by itself. 

And here's my favorite memory of the trip. This is for you daisy. >:)

We went to the golden gate bridge. It was actually pretty cool, because we got to walk it. It took us almost 45 minutes. Me and Daisy walked ahead of Ethan and Jeannie. (Tim and Erin drove the bridge.) And Daisy's birthday was coming up, in case you didn't know. And mom had already gotten her some new shoes. 

And she just so happened to wear them the day we walked the bridge. 

Oh, glorious memories!

So, we were walking. And we talked, and we watched the other people, and when we got close enough to the big red post, we looked up and saw the top. We read the information signs. 

But at one point, she got a step ahead of me, and I flat tired her shoe. 

And her foot kicked up, and kicked off her shoe...

And since we were so close to the edge... her shoe almost flew right off the bride.
I mean it was less then a inch away.
It would have flown right through the railing and she would have been very sad. 

But it didn't! And we laughed about it, and she is still annoyed at me for calling that my favorite memory, but it was hilarious!

Then we left the bridge behind, with both of Daisy's shoes. Everyone slept on the way home, except Tim who was driving.
We then went to the Wednesday night market.
It was pretty fun. We got face paint to match our pedicures... except the clown painting didn't know what a 'daisy' was.
So we both got starfish looking things on our faces.

We bought strawberries and some Mexican skulls that were pretty cool. We named then and went to bed.

Day 3

We ate breakfast and watched TV, because what else do you do on vacation? Oh yeah! We went to the beach!
It was cold though. We got out there, and the sand was nice and hot, but the air and the waves were like a blizzard.
We went to a shallow spot for a little bit, but then we went back to the big waves. They were so fun.

We played 'hold your ground'. When the big waves came, we would try to stay put, and then go in deeper. It was really fun, but really cold.
Then we got saltwater taffy to eat and share.
We showered and packed, watched Ethan's game, then went to the airport.

We played the world's championship game, which... Tim won. That's a victory for the Kelly's this year. They won almost everything we played.

We boarded and flew home around midnight.

How was it over so quickly?
Daisy slept on the flight, and when we got back we gave mom and Dad their fortunes. and I told mom all about what we did on the way home.

It was really fun, and totally worth it!

California Meets Utah

Our cousin exchange program went so well last year that we decided to do it again. Plus, we love any excuse to get Ethan (or any of the Kelly's) out to visit us. Ethan is crazy busy with sports, so it was very hard for him to find some time to get away. But he finally settled on a weekend right after the fourth of July.

The only problem was that I threw my back out the morning he arrived. It was really bad timing. I carried the vacuum upstairs and felt all the muscles go wrong. Then I couldn't move very well after that. But I didn't have a choice about picking Ethan up. That is mandatory. There is a rule about not leaving people at the airport, especially when they are minors. So I took Ivory with me and I walked like an old lady. (Actually, old ladies walk faster than I was walking.) It was pathetic. But I could still move, so I counted my lucky stars. And although we didn't beat Ethan to the gate, we did find him easily in the terminal.

Plans for that afternoon were swimming. I took my crew and a couple extras over to the rec center, dropped everyone off, and I went home. Boo. I was so excited to go swimming with the kids and Ethan. We had such a good time when we went for Tyler's work party and now everyone would be there...except me. Such is life. But needless to say, I don't have any pictures from swimming.

We had some scheduled activities, but naturally, we just played a lot too. We had games going all the time. Tyler had nine square up (which they made for Scout Camp) and it was really fun to play. I think we had it up on our lawn for over a week. Anyone stopping by would just join in.

We played some board and card games. Moods was not Ethan's favorite, but I have yet to meet a boy who loves that game.

Saturday we had some scheduled activities. First up was hiking to Stewart Falls. Scratch me off that list and I think I kept Pearl home as well. (Either she was home with me, or Tyler managed to leave her out of all the pictures.) Stewart falls is a good hike I hear. Maybe 4 miles round trip. I have never hiked it myself. But it looks like it was a fun, if exhausting time.

I can't complain about my back too much. Although it was really bad Friday morning, by Saturday I was feeling better...remarkably better. Usually it takes four or so days to get me back in business, but I was playing Spikeball by Sunday. That is miraculous healing time. I still tried to take it easy, so I contributed to the party by playing games while seated and trying not to beat everyone. (Ivory and Robyn tied playing Camel Up.)

Tyler took Ethan and Ivory shooting in the afternoon on Saturday. Ethan shot the 'Assassin' Rugar Mark III, the AR-15 Assault rifle, the cowboy action .45 long Colt, and the 9mm Beretta. (Yes, I had to ask for all those names from Tyler. I have no idea what kind of guns he has.) E and Ives seemed to be digging it. Ivory found clay pigeons and used them as targets. They are both pretty good shots.

Sunday night means game night and it was fun to have Ethan there for games. We had a few of our regulars and some new people. The twins came down to play Spikeball and Radi and his cousin Corbin stayed for Secret Hitler. Sophie looks so innocent, but she is devious and quite a good Hitler.

On Monday, we went to see Ocean's 8 in the theater. We don't go to movies often, so that was fun to watch. And then all too soon, Ethan had to leave. We only got him for a moment, but it was fantastic. This time we planned it right and sent two kids with Ethan to California. It was Robyn and Daisy's turn to visit so we shipped them all out together.

I have some great pictures from their adventures in Cali, but I'll try to get Robyn to narrate since she will be a better tour guide than I would be.

Glad to Be an American

We had a very relaxed 4th of July this year. We are privileged to live by two guys that have their pyrotechnics license. I'm not sure what that means, but they have to do at least one large show a year to keep their license. (I may be making this up. Someone told me this.) They live just around the corner, so we stop by when they are putting on a show. One of them did fireworks on the 3rd and one of them did fireworks on the 4th. We managed to catch some of both shows. I always try and take a few pictures and they are awful. Luckily Tyler took a few and they were much better. Plus they were interspersed with selfies of him and Robyn and that was totally worth it.

On the morning of the Fourth, our ward hosted a breakfast. I was newly called into the Relief Society presidency as the secretary, so this was my first event with them. I didn't do a lot. I helped cut up fruit and then I helped serve the food that morning. I was amazed at how many people came. Over 200 people showed up. It was well attended. We didn't have a lot going on besides food. Someone sang a bit and we had a kid's bike parade at the end. It was actually a nice relaxing morning.

The best part of the day was when Caroline randomly showed up in the afternoon to play games. I guess her family wanted to watch a movie, but she wanted to play games, so she came over. She came to the right place. There is hardly a time when we won't drop almost anything to play a game. We played some Codenames and she taught us Monopoly Deal. It was really fun.

Fourth of July is one of the only holidays that we don't have set traditions to go with it. We do something different every year. We seem to enjoy everything we do, so we'll keep it random. Why not?