Disney & California

Well, as you might could tell by the title of this post, we went to DISNEY! Michael and Chalyse took their family as well as both their parental units and us! It was a fun fun trip. We did 4 days straight at Disney Land and California Adventure. Lemme tell ya, Halls, they can go from sun up to sun down! And do it 4 days in a row without stopping! They can go go go! My poor little legs and feet...but I did it, because I'm a Hall too :) (and my Brinkle pride wouldn't let me go home!) We did EVERYTHING pretty much at both parks, sometimes doing a couple things 2-3 times extra! Being with the kids made the Disney magic come alive and we all had a great time. Can't wait to do it again!

Riding the Matterhorn

Talmage passed with flying colors in his Jedi Training Academy

We saw the Incredibles (it was incredible!)
(lame joke...i know...)

Bumper Bugs

Saw Jesse and Woody

Elle was on Cloud 9 getting to see her princesses!

The manager at Johnny Rockets placed a pile of free nickels on our bar table for us to pick the music. That was the best part about dinner!

We got to see the World of Color water show. It was really neat! The water would shoot up like 150 feet! And they also made the water like a screen and it played different Disney movies on it. It was pretty cool!

The Carousel will never get old! It's a classic!

We took 2 art classes at the Animation Academy. We drew Piglet and Pluto. Pluto was our favorite. He turned out pretty good!

California Adventure - The Ferris wheel was SO awesome! The cars would swing on those tracks while you would go around. It was soo cool! James and I did it twice, once sitting backwards and once forwards. It's an interesting feeling to watch yourself seemingly headed over the edge. We had a blast on it. The roller coaster was fun too! And I finally went on one that has a loop! Granted it wasn't that big, but it's a starter. Onward and *gulp* upward from here!

I loved these benches :)

The Lego store in Down Town Disney

James and I temple hopped on the way home. First stop was the New Port Beach temple. These are small temples but they were very pretty. The decor for this one was even beachy! I also thought it fitting that I did work for a Minnie :) Actually, I did a Minnie in BOTH temples. I thought that was a fun co-inky-dink :)

The beach (you can't go to California and NOT go to a beach. That would just be weird...)

Great evening shot of our second temple stop, Redlands. This one was my favorite. It was pretty inside with blue and cream and gray coloring. The ceilings were painted like the sky with big puffy clouds and beautiful sunset colors.

And one of our more exciting passings in the car, the big windmill farm! I LOVE windmills. Windmills and trains are sweet reminders of my mission so I get excited when I see them. This farm stretched on for about 3 miles. I loved watching them spin!

While we were gone, my parents watched Boomer for us. Had a great time with his brother Tebow getting into mischief and being cute. My mom took a great picture of them so I thought I'd post it. My lil pooch also gained a pound while there. He now weighs a whoppin 20 pounds! He weighed 6 pounds when we brought him home 3 months ago. He's a big boy now!

Boomer (tan) and Tebow (black)

Birthday & Easter

James' Belated Birthday

For James' birthday present last year I gave him tickets to see an AZ Diamondbacks baseball game at Chase Field in Phoenix. He was super excited. Well the day (April 9th) finally arrived! It was a chilly day in Phoenix (surprising for an early April day) but the game was fun to watch. We had great seats in left field and my parents were also able to join us. We ate official baseball hot-dogs, ice-cream and a cookie the size of my hand (with my fingers outstretched). Although we didn't win, it was a great time. We definitely want to try doing it again soon.

Easter

For Easter we were able to have the Andersen's come to visit us from El Paso. We headed up to Mesa so that Jess and Marsh could go to the temple and we could watch the kids. It was a good time except Reve started to not feel well and got some sort of a stomach bug. It stayed with him the whole trip. He was such a trooper about it though.

Here is some of the beauty of the Mesa temple in the springtime

Such a cute family!

My parents were awesome and let us stay at their house (they'd gone out of state for Easter) while in Mesa. When Reve felt a little better we went outside and enjoyed the swimming pool for a little bit.

We came back home to my house and there we colored eggs and watched a movie. Lexi helped colored Reve's eggs because he wasn't feeling well. Such a sweet sister.

Sunday morning came and Reve still wasn't better so he stayed home with Jess while the rest of us went to church. When we got home Jess, Marshall and I hid a ton of eggs for the kids to find. Reve felt good enough to find some which was great. The rest of the time he let Lexi find them. :)

Lexi LOVED Boomer! She was his little shadow!

A fun time was had by all. And even though it was cut short because of sickness we still enjoyed the Andersen's company and glad they could come.

I'm also thankful for our Savior, whose gift to us of the Atonement helps me to be a better person.

Happy Easter!

Happy 2 Years

May 1, 2009 was a great day. I got to marry the man of my dreams!
Happy 2nd Anniversary my love!

"This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love."
-Anonymous

"And now you're my whole life, now you're my whole world...like a river meets the sea, stronger than it's ever been, and I thought I loved you then." -Brad Paisley

"Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that's a real treat." - Joanne Woodward

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person."
- Mignon McLaughlin

"A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendships, all the enjoyment of sense and reason - and indeed all the sweets of life." - Joseph Addison

"You're nothing short of my everything." - Ralph Block

"You may only be one person to the world, but you may also be the world to one person." - Anonymous

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden."
-Anonymous


"Success in marriage is much more than finding the right person, it's about being the right person" -Anonymous

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale."
- Anonymous