The Johnson 5

Dad-cation, Races, and FUN!

2011-08-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

Take me out to the ball game! Micaylee's best friend got free tickets to the Padres game! This was so exciting. They had an amazing time! The Padres pounded the Giants by 9 hits! This was quite a surprise!

ZOOM! Off to the races we go! Up by the Barona Casino is the Barona Speed Way. We went up and watched the cars with a few friends. It was a great night out!

Dennis went on a weekend ride/vacation up in the mountains with some friends and had a great time! They saw some great sights and even found us a campground for Thanksgiving. We are all excited to go camp in Big Bear.

A few more photos from Brooks visit

2011-08-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Justin at the Zoo!
Brook and Scott at the Pearl Restaurant on Movie Night.
Sisters at the Beach!

Seal Rock in Lajolla. Brook insisted on visiting after I mentioned going there with Don and Snowee!
San Diego Zoo.
Can you see those 2 dogs that Maggie has trapped? The smaller of the 2 belongs to Brook and inspired Dennis to get Brulee, our latest pet!

Brook and the family's visit

2011-08-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

Dylan and Ellie had a great time together while book and justin were visiting. they spent a lot of time together playing, watching movies, and laughing. These two will always have a good time together.

Oh Baby Tripp! You had many admirers at the beach. One family just couldn't help themselves and came to say Hi! I'm sure you were the cutest baby at the beach.

Justin and baby Tripp had some nice father son time full of laughs. Tripp is absolutely adorable, we wanted to keep him to ourselves.

Ellie was not the biggest fan of the ocean, no one could get her to go in. So she opted to play in the sand. Micaylee sure doesn't blame her, the water was very cold!

While Brook and her family were here we did many things like, the beach, zoo, sea world, seal rock, and Ocean Beach. In Ocean Beach we played in the sand, and went to the tide pools. Tammy also stopped by for a visit on her way to Utah. They went to the tide pools with us because Savannah wanted to see our beach. Ellie, Maggie, and Savannah liked finding all the little snails and crabs.

One year older

2011-07-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

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Am I the luckiest mom in the world to have these three darling children!!!! All one year older and wiser! I am so thrilled that birthdays have passed and we are now on to summer.

Hello Blogging World!!!

2011-03-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

O.k. so it's been awhile. I am surly too busy to blog because I am having so many fabulous days out in the world around me.... Life has been good to us here in San Diego and many memories have passed that I have not shared. This year the kids are all good and happy in school, Dennis is happy and enjoying work and I am pretty much doing the same thing!

I will blog at this time because I just realized that I have 3 cute kids that are in birthday mode and I have not updated my friends on how much they have grown. No promises if I will take the time to blog, but I will promise to make a few birthday posts.

Meet us half way!!

2010-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Lake Morena- Let's start by informing the world that we have replaced our tent with a R.V. Yes we have crossed over to the dark side!!! And let me tell you, it's the best thing (next to the boat) we have done for our camping experience. With our aching bones not being a very distant memory from those tents and Dennis dreaming of the camping world again we met half way. Kids love it, Dad loves it and Mama is happy! Room for all in this baby and how nice to be able to use our own bathroom. Dennis also thought My Dad (and anyone else) may come visit again and with this in the driveway the kids could give up their beds inside, and well....

This was our first adventure, Lake Morena. Just about 1 1/2hrs. east on the 8 it was an easy drive and we went on a Sunday-Wed. so not many others in the campground as you can see.
Sunsets were amazing! Some days I forget to look out at the sun going down but here you can't miss them.
Kids spent most of their time riding bikes and playing in the empty campground. One day we went to the lake to fish. We knew that it was to warm trout but knew Dylan couldn't resist.
Dylan didn't take much time remembering how to toss in the pole. Maggie wasn't really a fan.
One baby fish. How sad this huge lake and this was all we could find!!!
Maggie is our animal lover. She plans on growing up and taking care of animals. Even after promising we would let anything we caught go she still had an emotional breakdown!! She is so tender when animals are involved.
We did run over to a small pocket of the lake the next morning. Maggie and I just hung out with the ducks after the nonsense she pulled the day before!
The ventured off to scale some rocks
And made it to the top! We had so much fun getting reacquainted with the great outdoors! I don't think I can ever sleep in a Hotel after this! What a great way to enjoy San Diego. I know there are lots of places to visit in California, can't wait!!! We did take Eddie and he was awesome. I forgot to upload a picture of him.

Julian

2010-08-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Off to Julian! We had been here before, it reminded me of a very small Park City without ski resorts. They are known for Apple Pie! Yumm, that's not a bad thing for anywhere.
Looks like the Hobo's have even found their way up here! Julian is about 1 1/2hrs. from the beach.
We used the self timer on the camera but every time I ran up the hill Eddie would get up!
Kids played for hours in the dry camp area and then we gave in on the last day and played in the pool. Camping and a pool? OK not the worst combo.
Dylan
Micaylee & Maggie

Maggie Moo

This is the location of our future "permanent" spot at this campground. Dennis and his co-workers have all purchased trailers and they keep theirs up in Julian at this campground year round. We plan to just keep it there part time.

Comic-Con

2010-08-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

I will only post a small glimpse of all of the photos I took while at my first Comic-Con!
Here you can get many autographs, if you are in the mood to wait in line!
You can get your photo with really cool stuff from really cool movies.
You can play video games that are not out yet.
Learn how to play games with all those Bakugan cards.
Get sewing tips and great ideas for recycling those Huge swag bags!
Get your photo taken with people that dress up for fun?!
Take random photos of people that dress up for fun!
Have random people take photos of you holding their props!
And take pictures of props that just didn't make the movie.

Morning walk

2010-08-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

When the is just NOTHING to do at our house we always have the Pier. Many times the kids say they don't want to go but they always give in. Dylan enjoys chatting with the fishermen, they can't understand him... oh well.
Micaylee is working on her skills with my point & shoot camera. Now she is wishing $ grew on trees so she could have her an awesome camera like at school.

"Mom can we PLEEEEASE go in the water" Burrrr

beach day

2010-08-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

Ready or Not the 4th of July weekend is here and the tourist are at the beach!!! Us too.
Kids had their boogie boards in hand and played in the water for a few hours, but no trip to the beach with dad is complete without tossing something around!
Look at my silly kids laying around in the sunshine. Micaylee swore she wasn't going to have fun.
This is the only moment Dylan wasn't having fun. He is still protesting photos, 2 years later.
Maggie is such a doll face at the beach. She never needs a buddy and is always content.
My sister sent this, I always keep it in my purse. I offered it to Dennis 3 times and one time even read him the label. He said no and totally got burned!

4th of July 2010

2010-08-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

OK so here I am!!! I am only posting this photo because it may be the only photo of me all summer. We were so lucky to be invited to watch the fireworks off our friends boats at Paradise Island on the 3rd of July.
Talk about some amazing seats!!! Right next to the barge, my kids were Blown Away! Dennis had to stay home because he was on call this fine holiday weekend.
Maggie was so sad she had to wear Dylan's old life jacket the whole time!
This year we were invited to a neighbors home (amazing view) where we spent the 4th of July. We had a yummy dinner and great company. Due to the fact we were not out on the water, Dennis did show up to this event.
Kids armed with glow sticks and waiting for the big show! We could see all 3 of the Big Bay launch spots. Last year we could only see 2. If you have never seen or heard about it, it's pretty awesome. 3 launch spots with music.
Maggie with her friend from school.

Micaylee and her good friend & Dylan.

wild animal park!

2010-07-19T09:12:00.001-07:00

Same fence!!

Sounds like this park has a new name but when we went it was the Wild Animal Park! We kinda didn't LOVE this place. But if you can't say something nice...... Right?

My mom had told us they were here before and after pulling out some of my baby books this photo of my parents was tucked in it! Funny. Wish I would have known it was there and I could have had them re-pose! The kids did love Lorikeet landing and of course rolling down big long grassy hills and dropping their quarters into the footsie wootsies! My dad totally needs on of those in his house! I will revisit this place but will have to take an "expert" so I can learn to navigate the park without getting worn out!

2010-07-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

On on of the days we had "Visitors" we went to Lajolla and hung out with the seals. Things look innocent in the beginning but we should have know that my dad couldn't resist amping up the fun. Next thing we knew everyone was asking for permission to enter the water even though we were sight-seeing, not swimming. Sure why not, and while you're at it why don't you all go over to that small cave and see what is inside! He is such a goof! The kids all had a blast. Micaylee went to the fair for a friends birthday so she didn't join us.

After playing with the seals, napping, exploring and squirrel spotting we went to the tide pools in OB. This is always a fun event, even if there are only hermit crabs lately. Kenzie and Don caught on real quick that the tide was on its way back in as she found herself stuck on the rock for a moment. This was another great day and was so sad that it was the last day of their visit. After our beach stops we headed to the airport and said our goodbyes. This is not my last post on the visit though!

Mormon Battalion and Old Town

2010-07-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

So just incase you were not aware the Mormon's came to San Diego! There doesn't seem to be to many here anymore but they left a great impact on the beginnings of this town. We went to the newly renovated museum with my family and I must say it was such an awesome, interactive experience. The kids got to dress up as soldiers. Everyone gets to pan for gold, wash on a scrub board and the view from the watch tower is AMAZING!! I recommend this.

Then of course we stopped by Casa Guadalajara for some yummy dinner. I just love that place, Dennis too. I know if he's willing to put up with that much confusion he must LOVE it!!! My mom and I secretly went there 2 days prior! It was so much fun to watch my niece order chicken wings (that she didn't eat) for an appetizer and chicken mole for dinner!!! She didn't believe us that is was made with chocolate (she is addicted to chocolate!) and claimed to have loved the 3 bites she consumed!! Love you Kenz.... After dinner we ventured into Old Town for a shopping spree. Found a few souvenirs for her to take home and my kids even found a few trinkets! Mic and Mac got matching purses (in photo) and my dad desperately wanted a t-shirt that had a picture of American Indians on it and had the saying 'Fighting Terrorism since 1492' but we all know he didn't buy it!!! So much fun, I am so lucky they came and just LOVE that Kenzie came with them. I will post a few more events that we had later!

Micaylee Graduation

2010-07-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

6-18-10 What an incredible two years this has been for Micaylee!!! She worked her buns off to graduate with honors from MTM. We we so proud of her and so excited that Grandma could come and share in the excitement. The graduation was held at the Nazarene University, such a beautiful campus with some incredible views. We were so excited to see her wrap up middle school and now ready to be a BIG high school student. Hopefully this will be a great chapter in her adventures! After the graduation we took her downtown to her favorite restaurant. They had one more day left at school and got to say their goodbyes, she got to introduce her cousin that was visiting to all of her friends.

2010-07-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is nephew Austin, bad footage from my phone but the only footage!!!

8 is GREAT!

2010-05-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today is Dylan's Birthday, so what better day to post about his baseball season! As well as 80% of the 10 people reading this blog we have been shlepping back and forth, everything but the kitchen sink to the baseball field for the past few months! Tonight, on his birthday we are going to start playoffs. He started off as pitcher (not really that hard with a pitching machine) and while in that position got his first game ball after snagging a line drive and turning 1 out into 2 with a double play at first! He played second base for a few games (earning another game ball for multiple outs), tried third once as well as first (not too bad) and has finished out the season proving to everyone involved that he was made to Catch!!!! This kid is amazing! He might be the only catcher in the whole league. As the other teams kids lean up against the backstop Dylan gets down behind home plate and catches every pitch (from the pitching machine), makes plays at home base and has the mask off every-time a foul is hit in his domain!

I can't make a baseball post without mentioning Dennis. He has been the dugout coach all season, not the best job on the field! He has been awesome and even made a shift change at work to make it to the game tonight.

Anyway this town is NUTS for baseball. These parents are "those" parents at the games. This neighborhood was born for baseball, I don't even think they have competition leagues they are all so good! This being our first year in SD I was nervous but our team has been fantastic! The kids have left every single game with a huge smile, great attitude and bragging about all the awesome plays they had. I have had to become reserved, Un-opinionated and managed to only voice my intense disagreement with Umps and other teams coaches a few times. Oh how sad and happy I am that this is at an end!!! I wonder if my new found friends from the bench will miss me!!!!! Oh well, Good Bye Baseball... We will miss you!

So just a few fantastic thoughts about Dylan: Love him!!!! Love that he won't let me cut his hair more than twice a year, just cuz! Love that everyone that meets him on a personal level has a dozen nice things to say about him! Love that he has perfected being a BOY by the age of 8! LOVE his smile!

Here are some facts:

He is the best son I have
He loves more than is humanly possible
He remembers EVERYTHING
He loves being logical
He has masterd 4-square,wall ball and butts up
He wakes up at 6:15 ready to enjoy the day
He could win the spelling bee given a more intense mom!
He eats WAY too much, and he is only 8
He doesn't do yard work or housework but he will do homework
He tells me "I'm NOT your Slave" if I ask him to.
I still haven't met anyone I would trade him for and haven't given him to anyone that has tried to swipe him!

Now please be aware that I do not live in LA-LA land. I am totally aware of All Things Wrong with Dylan. At this time in life I sometimes even accept responsibly for those things, but for today only folks he is #1 in my book!

2010-04-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

So I will start with a run down of how it appears to me.

-It had been a really rainy 2 months.

-When it stopped we had flowers and fleas!

-Dennis survived 2 shutdowns.

-I was anticipating my surgery.

-Micaylee celebrated a Birthday

-I realized that I have fantastic friends in S.D. that pulled together to take care of my kidos for 2 weeks!

-After encountering my first "real" earthquake as an adult Ron pointed out "if you don't die, its kinda cool"!

-I felt better!

Now that I think I feel like a Kadrillon Bucks, Spring has Sprung!!!! I can't stand it. Here I was in February just moseying along and suddenly I am realizing that Baseball is in full swing, Maggie had her first "BIG GIRL" birthday party, the kids testing, mornings may start being a bit Grey and School is moments from being over.

Can I just hit rewind, add a few posts and linger around in this fabulous season for a little bit longer???? I will be sad when the chapter closes and I am still not ready for Summer to be here!

My sister Tammy had her sweet little baby Jacqueline Raine, she is a beautiful girl. Born a few weeks early she snuck into the world with very quickly! Born on the same day as my niece Lauren, now we have 2 sets of cousins sharing birth day's! Too much fun. She was #21 on my side of the family. I will be calling her Jackie Blackie!

If you have never met my family let me tell you there is nothing like it! I can tell you that I know everybody I am related to and there are so many relatives that I can not tell you how many there are. Call me crazy to assume that once my Grandpa died I figured that there would be a good 20 years until my Aunts and Uncles died. Not so much. Last week my Uncle Tom died, this might be the first funeral I have missed ever. Once while attending a funeral a girl mentioned how silly it is to fight over earthly possessions because nobody can take away our memories and that is what we should hold on to. Not only do I have great shared memories of him from family gatherings but he got me my first job at the Food Court in Fashion Place Mall. He worked there too, not scrubbing tables like I did but he was everyones boss and all my coworkers loved him and shared so many great stories with me when I was there. I always loved him.

I am so dealing with raising a teenager and realizing I either owe my parents a HUGE apology for existing during my teenage years or a big SUPER HUGE THANK YOU for not giving up on my sole!!!! Who votes I call my parents?

At least I know what I'm up against!!!

Now to end on a good note - Dennis and I celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary. We went bowling with the Scouts!!!! One day, after all five of our lives are not so intertwined I will post fantastic photos of us vacationing somewhere exotic while celebrating!!!! Until then we are grateful to just be together!

Oh life.... I opt to go with the flow of this sweet town we have fallen in love with and just enjoy it, "no bad days" they say!!!

maggie singing at morning meeting

2010-04-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

Every Monday one class sings a patriotic song. Here is Maggies class in action!

More Pets?!

2010-04-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

So the funniest thing happened. Maggie joined Dylan on a play date and scooped up a dead fish out of his friends fish pond. This would be a bit disturbing only we have previously figured out that she has a serious attachment to animals, even dead ones! So the whole story took about 3 days to figure out but Dennis had his heart strings pulled and purchased a fish tank the same morning Maggie had lost her "pretend fish" like I said Long Story. Well folks if you get a fish you must first purchase a tank, let it sit for 5-7 days, add fish and hope they all get along! We didn't follow any of these rules. After one dead fish, one returned fish and now 2 fish tanks we have a lovely aquarium full of 6 fish, one cleaner fish and a frog. Just like all these other pets Dennis is taking good care of all of them. The photo of the kids with their bags of fish is for my mother, hope you giggle when you see it mom (Oh wait my mom doesn't read my blog)!!!

At the plant

2010-03-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

How many dad's are willing to take their kids to work? OK Dennis probably isn't but they love to run down south with him when he has to go grab "stuff" on the weekends. It always makes the kids think he is so super cool when they get to see where he works. I personally find it hilarious when "stuff" equals his laptop that he needs to turn in his time sheet. I personally love to tag along and see the "family crossing the road sign" and all of the Mexican Flags along the 905!

Doesn't everyone have a Darth Vader face mask in their car?

New pet/Old pet

2010-03-09T20:31:00.000-08:00

Look at my sweet dog in "dog jail" waiting to get adopted! As we were sailing the deep blue seas he was wandering the streets of O.B. and got carted of to the pound. My sweet friends that were dog sitting posted signs, involved family members on the hunt and gave up a big chunk of their weekend morning to find him. Luckily this neighborhood loves dogs more then we even do and turned him right in to the authorities. Our friends were at the pound so early that they were there as he got carted in! Oh Eddie. side note- can't flip the photo because I'm on Dylan's pc and boy is it different then a Mac.

This here is our new friend P.J. He was dropped of by Santa. We all Love him so much. He is so sweet and loves to be loved. Yes Eddie is a Lab and apparently they hunt bunnies. I think he doesn't know what kind of dog he is because he loves P.J. too!

Maggie School update!

2010-02-23T10:42:00.001-08:00

My baby doll's first bus ride!

Her Hip Hop performance at the Morning assembly was so cute.

Dad's and Donuts was so much fun. Maggie even had better handwriting on her special note she wrote do her daddy then Dylan. Where is Dylan you ask? We never saw him after he got his donut.

Maggie and her BFF digging through their Valentine Bag. Those were the days!

Ice Cream Sunday Party in Class.

Braces Round II

2010-02-23T10:11:00.001-08:00

What a week this was for Micaylee, she is now a 4 eyed brace face! Or in her words, a dork! It has been so much easier on the eyes this time around with the clear braces. I tried to get her to get the GOLD ones but she just wasn't going for it. The orthodontist we are using does all his own work, assistants are only there to assist. That's not the was the first orthodontist did it. Anyway he was so proud of his excellent work and as she stopped him from putting clear bands on and asked for red and silver I think he got a bit offended! But he did it for her. She may have been his first client to want clear braces with colored bands! Oh Micaylee.....

Monster Truck Rally!

2010-01-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

This was our first family outing to the Stadium and it was a blast. We had a Chili, hotdog tailgating party that the kids found so entertaining. Then we made our way to our awesome seats on the front row in the second section, right by where the trucks parked. With earplugs in and purses loaded with treats the kids thought it was AWESOME!

The Iron Man truck had my hopes high the whole time but didn't wind up winning.

The kids and our friends kids were dressed super warm for this event!

And look who I found!!!!

And look at this mess that someone left behind.

what do you do to pass the time at church?

2010-01-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

So I try to pack a great little bag of tricks to keep the kids entertained while at church. This sunday Maggie took a special bag full of her own random treasures. Three teenage brothers sat next to us and as their attention ran low they decided to see who who could stack the highest tower! Nice.... Any suggestions for my bag next week!?!

Thanksgiving Cruise

2010-01-22T10:55:00.001-08:00

Seriously People who doesn't want to surprise their kids with a vacation? Well we found the prefect time and took it! We packed them in a Taxi and told them we were taking dad to the airport for the long awaited Utah trip to retrieve our things we left behind when we moved. Dylan FREAKED when the cabby pulled right up against the cruise boat and told us to get our and take a look. He couldn't quite grasp the fact that we were taking a trip.

I worried for days that I was packing wrong for Micaylee, I could hear my cousin Kim's voice in my head "I remember when our parents surprised us, and my mom packed a bunch of clothes that I didn't love" Well that is how I remembered it! But everyone was thrilled. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving getaway. This will most likely be the last Carnival Cruise for awhile, not because there is anything wrong with them, just ready to see what else is out there! We had a blast and when we returned home our doggy sitter had a story for us...... Eddie took off out the front door, with his Utah tags and a 4 year old # on his tags was found at the Pound. Oh thank you my sweet friends that took good care of him and retrieved him.

I am going to pass on posting 500 photos of the ship, or us on the ship due to the fact that everyone seems to have been on one or seriously who cares what our elephant towels that the kids created look like! I do think that my sweet Maggie had a blast enjoying everything Camp Carnival Offered. Dylan was only seen at lunch time and for one or two dinners and other than that took full advantage of his group. Micaylee was in the age group that was minimally supervised and made a "boatload" of new friends she is keeping in touch with. As far as Dennis and I we got just what we wanted. 4 days of un-interrupted peace and quiet!!! We passed on the mass of food this time around but we did enjoy the art auction (more to come!) and watching the water pass by. Ahhh how sweet it was!

Cabo San Lucas

2010-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Getting off the boat was a breeze and No More tours for us!!!

Our tender let the kids drive the boat over to land.

Maggie took it so seriously and Dylan was freaked out!

Micaylee only did it for photo purposes!

After returning to their seats the ferry driver

so kindly snapped a family photo for us!

One of the Ladies I lunch with told us to grab a water taxi and so that's what we did. We got up close to Lovers Beach, The eye to the Pacific, Seals and with the glass bottom we got to see swarms of beautiful fish as the driver fed them.

After the tour we opted to enjoy the day on the other side of the island. First the swarm of the local sellers hounded us. Micaylee still loves her "silver" ring she purchased.

Each of the kids had their names tied into a bracelet.

This is what I believe it is all about!

After all the purchases we moved on to enjoy our day at the beach. What beautiful water, people and Sun! Micaylee spent the day sunning and babysitting the towels while we played and played in the water.

I only took a few photos of the fish, but it was so cool!

Our taxi driver returned for us just as we expected.

This is one of Micaylee's photos.

This is a very similar end to a hot day in the sun before jumping back on the tender.

2009-12-28T17:16:00.000-08:00

So as another christmas passes we added a few features that we ignored last year. With all of our holiday decorations in Utah we opted to NOT get a tree last year and instead left Santa a note...... This year cute Miss Maggie was so excited for Christmas that Daddy Dennis couldn't refuse her wish to have a house like all the neighbors with lights hung all around it! Wish Granted.... Then the cute little Miss Maggie wished that Daddy Dennis would please get a tree.... Well you got it, he got her a tree!

We go to start our celebrations a few days early when our friends the Ericksons had us over for a early Christmas feast and they helped my kids make me gifts! Then had a great Christmas Eve celebration with the family and dipped some pretzels, Grannies chocolate treats and almost made cookies!

Micaylee got to be "Santa's Helper" again and had a great time. Everyone got what they wanted since nobody ever wants... We received many gifts over the past week in the mail and thank everyone that thought of us! We went with Ron's Breakfast Casserole in the morning and off to the Goff's house for prime rib. The Chargers game finished off our afternoon to make this Christmas a very, merry one!

While at the Goffs Maggie played with the nativity. Just so everyone is aware, one of the wise men goes by the name Jose!

2009-12-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas would not be complete without a visit with the Santa from Church!!!! This year he was struggling a bit with the beard by the time I got around to snapping a photo.

We made an awesome checkerboard cake with our pampered chef pans, we put together strawberry cake and lemon (dyed green) and it was fantastic! We also provided 2 dozen cupcakes that were gobbled up by happy children before any grown ups even joined the line.

We have had a blast on our first week off of school. Monday we went to Hodads for lunch with our good friends Kyra and Sam then shopping and off to pick up our new dishwasher (second time I have received one for christmas!) unfortunately it was dented so one more week of hand washing!

We played and played, rested, slept in, had sleep overs, went to legoland, shopped and Dennis even took one of his sick days (that don't roll over) and we enjoyed it! Micaylee went to a movie, and another one! We ate and ate and ate in fact we ate so much Micaylee woke herself last night because she was eating to much in her dream and well, you know the rest! Our first week off was a blast.

Oh ya did I mention

2009-12-22T11:59:00.001-08:00

It Rained, and rained and rained! It rained so much I had to buy an umbrella and rain boots, for everyone! Last year it rained more but there was still a ton of rain. I sure wish the sun would come out more cuz' I'm getting a bit pasty! Oh ya and Eddie got out when a wind gust blew both the doors open. Oh ya and I didn't notice, so when Dennis called and interrupted my show with the news I was shocked he wasn't laying next to me! Off I ran in my new rain boots and a cute little girl from the Nazarene was watching him, making sure he didn't play in the road!

I love that kids that LOVE playing in gutters! Puddles, gutters, puddles, gutters...........

Thanksgiving break in Disney

2009-12-22T08:15:00.001-08:00

So the first few days of Thanksgiving break we snuck up to Disneyland, why not I thought! We went with Kyra and Sam and had a blast. We couldn't figure out where the extremely long line for Pirates began so we opted to ride Splash Mountain for our first ride while waiting for them to arrive. We should have know by the 30min. wait we had at the entrance of the park that the lines would be long but I had no idea that a line where the wait time posted was 50min. would turn into 1 hour and 45 min.! Yet we kept waiting and waiting. As we got to the front of the line I realized that the "fast pass" holders would be let in, about 25 at a time, then the regular line would let 4-6 in. After the regular line was in the lady would loudly command all guests to proceed and make room. Of course I demanded an explanation and she smiled and said " I just let each line through for 30 seconds, then switch" oh goodness! I guess the 20 seconds of commanding everyone to proceed forward counted! Long of the short of it, get a fast pass to Splash Mountain!

We ate at Mimi's and as much as I despise chain restaurants this particular one seems to do the job well in Disneyland! Then we walked back to our hotel and got ready for the night. It was fantastic! Everyone go a chance to go on their favorite rides. Micaylee informed us that Disneyworld no longer lets you ride in the front of the monorail so she insisted on doing that. Dylan went on Screamer while I took Maggie on the Merry-go-round (our new tradition since she is too short!) and we did a few new extras like rode the double Decker trolley, found out what character we are at California Adventures, rode the Monsters Inc.. ride (we didn't even know it was there) and sat down to eat in the park! This was a fun visit and we are glad our friends showed us the hidden things we haven't done before. Why did I not know the Haunted Mansion and the Small World were made over for the holidays? It was great. I was so glad we spent the night, enjoyed the next day and I can't wait to do it again in a few months.

2009-12-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I find it silly to update because not only do I have the worst grammar in town but seriously things are so "the same ol'" so I hate to bore everyone! Thing are good, real good and I can only hope they stay that way. Today I saw a license plate holder that said "Ocean Beach, 7 square miles surrounded by reality" oh how true that is and oh how we love it! This is Maggie and Dennis on the playground during grandparents day. I wonder what he wouldn't give this girl!

Halloween

2009-12-17T22:12:00.000-08:00

These posts will be in order. I am this far behind on life!

Halloween was a blast, we did the school thing, we carved pumpkins with friends, we drove to St. George at 3 in the afternoon on a Friday! We had a blast hanging out with all the cousins and trick-or-treating around Mindy's neighborhood! We ate 3 halloween candy bags on the drive back home and regretted it! We ate fast food on the train in Barstow and kinda regretted that too. What can I say.....

Dylan with the Swine Flu

2009-12-17T21:55:00.000-08:00

So just like 80% of the world we go the swine flu. It sucked! I felt like I got hit by a truck. I took a nap every day for 3 weeks, drank a lot of water, quit drinking soda and even felt bad for myself. About the same time I started feeling better I spread my germs to everyone in the house. They felt the same way I did but with a little Ibuprofen and sleep we all recovered. Well almost. One morning dylan couldn't break his fever of 105.6 so after a few hours of trying we took him to urgent care and he was rushed to the back and hooked up with some fluids. After 2 bags of fluid and a dose of meds he broke his fever and sent home with some Tamiflu. Asthma is not our friend and apparently they are serious when they warn that kids with it have issues! He has been healthy since but we did return to urgent care after he smashed both pinkies in his folding chair at church, duh!

2009-12-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Micaylee was the lucky Lottery Winner in our family to go to Disney World with my parents this year!!! We never seem to be able to buy 5 plane tickets and justify a week off of school! So last year Maggie and I went and this year Micaylee joined in the fun. It was quite an unusual group this year including My oldest sisters family who Micaylee bunked with, David and Scott, Tammy and her family, Mindy's daughter Alex and Micaylee Humm. She took so many stinking photos that I just opted to get all the photos developed and make her store them! With her new found love of photography she cant resist snapping the camera. She did take the photo at the top of the blog.

This was one of many getaways since we moved into our new place. We went to St. George where my whole family went -my sister Tammy. Dennis and Dylan went to the Mud Caves with the Boy Scouts, Disney for the first part of Thanksgiving break, we went to Cabo (will blog that soon) and Dennis and I got an unexpected getaway this past weekend! Its been so crazy and our neighbors must wonder where we are always off too!

2009-12-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

School has been so fantastic for both the little kids this year at their new school. These are a few photos of Dylans field trip to the Quarry in Mission Valley with his class. I loved that they rode on the Old Town Trolly around the plant! They learned about the trucks, safety, correct terms for cement and concrete and how the trucks that get loaded get weighed in the state and as they cross the state borders.

This is Maggie dumping her portion of dirt on "Miss Mulberry Tree" that all the kindergarten classes learned about and planted in Eco Lab. They will be using the leaves from her when they are in second grade to feed their Silk Worms!

A year has pass.....

2009-09-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

I may be the only person wishing for a red light!!! It is great.

Often I find myself more amazed by the night sky then the sunsets.
She loves how much he loves her!
Corvettes Diner for a fundraiser.
8th grade for my beautiful Micaylee.
First day of Kindergarten.
2nd grade and still cool!

So here it goes.... A year has passed. We love our life. We are almost in a house. We changed schools for the 2 younger kids and love it. As much as we miss the Chinese, I am realizing the importance of a "high functioning" school, ran by staff, not PTA. I love Dennis. We love the beach, Seaworld, Disney, Balboa Park, Cabrillo, Cruise Ships (hopefully this year we can use some!), Church, Visitors, Mexican Food, Friends, Job, Harley rides, walking the dog, sunsets, sunrises, airplanes, phone calls from Utah, swimming, spiders and so many other things! I am enjoying having every morning to myself to clean house, visit the school, drive Micaylee to school after grabbing a Jamba on special occasions, spending mornings with Dennis when he works the night shift and finding some fun ladies to go to lunch with! Life is Great!

What a difference 12 months of sunshine has done for us! I hope this year multiplies the happiness and we continue to find new things to embrace.

One week until school starts!

2009-09-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

Oh Joy, the kids are so excited to go back to school I just know it! This year Micaylee will be returning to the same school and the two little ones will be starting anew at a local school without any language immersion. We had such a blast learning Chinese last year and would love to continue but weighing all our options we decided to enroll in another local school.

We will be moving into a home in 2 months. I can't wait!!! Dennis is excited to have a garage. I am excited to have a washer and dryer! Eddie is excited to have a yard. Dylan is excited to get his motorcycle back from Utah. Micaylee is excited to paint her room and Maggie could care less. Gotta love her! We are still going to live in the same neighborhood so it will be a easy move.

Dennis went to Utah this past weekend to his brothers wedding. He said it was nice to see everyone. He got a chance to catch up with his brother, nephew and saw his parents for the first time since moving. He has had some great rides on his Harley this summer. Some long (great way to see San Diego), some short and a few just to get around town! It has been a fun addition and a great replacement to a dirt bike! He has kept some awesome friends from his last place of employment and made some great friendships at his new job. We have not managed to drag him to any amusement parks so far but I know that Disney is in his near future!

Me! I feel like a full time Nanny this summer. I had no idea how busy life could be if you fill every second with activities. This is the first time since I was 14 that I haven't had a job. Oh wait I have a job, I am my "Baby's Mama" according to my sweet friend Jamie! Boy it is hard work full time. It is all by choice but boy is it tiring to go, go, go! We have gone and done almost everything that came our way. I have also been lucky to make some great friends.

Micaylee has been such a great help this summer, boy did I miss her for the two weeks she went to visit Utah. The first few days home I wanted to hang her from her toes and shake some reality into her, but I continued to let her think she was a princess and didn't bring her down from her throne she had been put on during her visit! She saw cousins, made jewelry, went to a play with Kathy, reunited with her best friend (cousin) Kensie, went to Snowee's school, went to Damon's wedding, flew alone and many more things I don't even know about! She wishes she would have been there all summer! Thank you to all my family that took care of her and showed her "Granny" treatment! She got her ears pierced when she got home. She wanted to do it in Utah but apparently you have to be with a parent to get it done.

She is ready for this new school year. The school will be adding 6th grade and doubling their students from 250 to 475, WOW! They will be the first 8th grade class to graduate from the school and I know with how hard she has and will work she will be graduating with honors! She finished her (very large) summer homework packet along with continuing her love to read. She also helped me work on studies with the two little ones all summer. She has great friends and has found that babysitting not only gets her some quick cash but some time away from home! She is awesome and I am so luck she is such a good kid!

What happens when 3 girls raise a boy? Dylan. What can I say, there are not enough activites in a day to keep him entertained. If we wake up at 6 to go to Disney he wonders what we are going to do when we get home. If I need a rest he can't understand why he can't just go out front and play with his friends. If we are in the car he needs to play his DS or he can't stop talking. If we go out to eat and he finishes before us he want's to know what he can do while we finish. Oh boy this kid can go and do like no other!

At the moment he is entertaining the idea of returning to BMX. His tubby guts wouldn't mind some exercise and even though he is willing to skip church to play football and baseball on Sunday's I am going to make him wait till spring. This week after he saw Micaylee surfing he HAD to do it too. He is so awesome, or I should say is going to be so awesome! He didn't do his usual whining when he was tired. He didn't even care if I was helping him or not, he just wanted to get out there and get up on the board. According to him it is Way Cooler than Boogie Boarding! Love IT!

He says he has no desire to go to school but I know that he will have a great time this year. This school will have neighborhood kids, and LOTS of them. I can feel some good ol' fashion fun coming his way this year!

He started boy scouts this summer and it has been great for his "boy side" to build, shoot hoops and just do all the things they do. Good Times

Oh Maggie Moo Cow, how we love this child!!!! What to say? She is so full of independence I have no idea what to do with all of it! She is the baby of the family for sure! She is ready to go to school. She reminds me she needs to work on her ABC's and Math. She hugs only second to Dylan. She refuses to wear clothing that matches. She has unconditional love for All animals. She loves the beach. She let the boy that lives by us give her a kiss. And according to her daddy she can do no wrong.

It has been one year since we moved here and I am so grateful that we have this chance to experience all these new things in this wonderful place. I loved our summers full of Camping, fishing, boating, motorcycle riding, bike riding, BBQ's with family, going to Cabin, slip and slide and all the other things we routinely enjoyed in Utah and almost missed them a few times but I must say that we have had a blast this summer! I am so excited to spend this last week of summer at the beach. I love that Dennis works nights right now so he can go with us.

I hope everyone has had a great time and is as excited as I am to get started back up in the new School year!!!! I love this time of year, even more then the beginning of calendar year! A fresh start and a new schedule. New friends and teachers. A chance to see how much the year before sunk into my children's head. What a fabulous time of year!!!

A few things we have done this summer

2009-08-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

I typed out each event next to the photo but for some reason I can't figure out how to blog still! Good Luck putting up with my bad grammar and bad typing skills all in one post.

This is Dennis, he works so we can play! This is the first time in years he has dug a hole. It hurt!!! It is busy season at his job so he works a lot. He goes for rides on his Harley and loves when I make his lunches. That's about it.

This summer has been a blast. We have been enjoying our friends that we have made over this past year and using all of the season passes to their fullest while the kids are out of school and the beaches are packed.

Last week sister Mindy and family stopped by and slept on my floor on their 3 day vacation through SoCal. We had an Awesome time at Seaworld and managed to stay till closing. We saw All the shows and go on 3 rides, she passed on both water rides boooooo.

The best part was seeing my sister who I adore and admire. Dylan had a blast having the boys to play with and they gave him some valuable tips on his Star Wars game. Micaylee just loves Alex and had such a great time buddying up with her. Maggie for the first time had someone her age to bum around with and also thought that was great. My friend Kyra always giggles at the people watching the Sea Lions Live show for the first time. I loved watching Eron watch this show and think that he could be Biff.

Next set of photos are the kids hanging out after a day at the pool. That happens daily around here. All 3 kids LOVE the water and it is the gathering place for all the kids. Dylan got light sabers to use on his Unleashed and Lego games, they have been awesome!

Next we went to the stock car races. This was super cool and even though Dylan is kinda Anti-Photo mode he did have a good time. We went with Kyra and her friend Jesse. They are so much fun. It was quite a drive and reminded all of us of driving out to the BMX races. It also reminded Micaylee how much she missed the go-cart she left behind and Dylan that he wants to race his motorcycle. Ugg!

So anyway this was so old school and so much fun. A lady passed out some beanie babies to all of the kids as they got a chance to check out the cars and Kyra passed out glow-sticks that lasted a few days in and out of the freezer!

Oh yah we went to Disneyland again! We woke up at 6:00 so we could be there at 8:00 when they opened and boy was that worth it. We hit 5 rides in the first hour, starting with Space Mountain. All of the kids would have spent the day riding that one ride but I convinced them not to. We packed snack bags and everyone got $8.00 for the day. It worked, everyone had food and drink when they wanted and thought real hard about what they were willing to spend their cash on.

Micaylee wore my Birthday button and she loved every second of the attention that was paid to her. We all benifited when the lady running the new Toy Story ride put us in the front of the hour and a half line for a birthday gift!
Micaylees friend had only been to Disneyland 3 times so we made sure to tackle some of her favorites while we were there. At the end of the day she wanted to swing by toon town. Two hours later we went on this roller-coaster she requested.

We bounced back and forth through the parks, used fast-passes, stroller swap and even did single rider a few times to ride the screamer a few extra times. It was awesome. We ate a Turkey Leg, Rice Crispy, Churro, Frozen Lemonade and even had to replace Dylan's Flip-Flop's! It was great and we can't wait to drag Dennis there in the fall.

Ok, Okay so we go to Seaworld way too much! If you ever want to know how many time's we have been just ask Dylan. He is totally keeping track. Now that the heat has turned up the kids Love going on the water rides. We have to throw in some shows because I can't stand in line without getting wiped out. My favorite is Cirque de La Mer. How entertaining. Maggie is so impressed by the amazing acrobatics. Dylan is going to be one of these silly guys to pay his way through college I'm sure. They remind me of the hyenas in Lion King. These boys with him belong to a friend we just started going with.

Dylan and I snuck in 2 visits to Legoland. It is a bit more difficult because it is not located across the street and the girls don't have a pass.

I convinced him to go on the Octoblast with me and he thought it was great. Legoland is Hot and Big and I don't do well there. Lucky for Dylan I love him and we will probably go again before summer ends.

We have also taken a few rides on the Pilot boat in The Bay. The week of Comic-con we couldn't help check out the festivities. Next year I will have to take Dylan, he would love it. We got an awesome view of the back side of the Convention Center on the boat. Maggie and Dylan have resorted to falling asleep when we go now. I shouldn't be surprised since that is what they would do when we went boating last summer!

Well that takes care of the things we did that I had a camera for! We have spent lots of time trying to teach Maggie her letters, the eye doctor says she missed some cognative steps with he bad eyesight. She has managed to learn her #'s and half her letters. After our visit to Palm Springs she has been quite the water bug. She has been such a good sport all summer going and doing whatever everyone else chooses to do. She does require a nap though!

Dylan has grown a good 6 inches and started Boy Scouts. He is trying to master the boogie board and asks if he can start surfing now that he can swim so good! He got strep throat mid July. The nurse thought I was nuts when I recommended she do a swab for it. He has given up his dream of baseball to dabble in some golf this last month of summer. He has also found what channel Sports Center is on and now spends less time watching kid shows and almost all his time on Espn, Speed and Fuel. Oh BOY!

Micaylee has spent her summer Babysitting for neighbors. Learning about Good Works at church, camping, chilling with friends, reminding me that we have access to a pool and working on her Summer homework packet. This week she finally escaped on her big Utah getaway. She flew all by herself, with a layover and survived. This is the 3rd summer she has flown by herself but for some reason I was so freaked out!

Dennis and I have found a few times to get out. We took an awesome ride with a group of his buddies and saw some amazing sites. How lucky we are to be here and I love all the things we get to do and see. We don't return to school until after Labor Day.

We have given up the search for a home and fallen into an awesome rental situation right by where we live now. We are looking forward to a home, garage and a yard for Eddie. We will be changing schools for the little kids and are even excited about it. Not doing the Chinese will be sad but I think it will be a good tradeoff for all they offer at the new school.

We have been having a great summer and hope you have also, we have enjoyed some visitors and would love to see more!!! I would love to say I will post more but I have been so bad at it since January that I better not promise anything!!!!

P.S.

Dennis informed me that "The itsy bitsy spider has climbed up our waterspouts, the rain never comes down to wash them all about!" He is trying to get a photo of his pet black widow at work. I will add it to his collection of spider photos that amaze us on a daily basis.

Cabrillo in July!

2009-07-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

My favorite four, in my favorite spot in San Diego! Micaylee and Dennis followed us out here on his motorcycle.

2009-07-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it for Pre-School in our house!!! We enjoyed 5 years from Lorie B. We were so glad to have Maggie in for her first year. This year we went to a State pre-school due to the fact that everything in this town is expensive, even school! It wasn't the same as what we were use to but she did do a lot of learning and growing while here (few items posted)! She just adored her teacher Miss Tami and Miss Jodla pictured on the left was her favorite. I don't think the video will upload but if it does I am posting it for my dad. All others do not have to endure all of it! I'm going to post a few photos of graduation including a picture of her favorite friend Hailey in Micaylee's sunglasses! Her mom made the darling cupcakes and Maggie picked the one that looked the most like her. Goodbye pre-school, its been fun to say the least......

What we did in Palm Springs

2009-07-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

So here are a few things we did to entertain ourselves!!!

- we were impressed when the temps. fell below 110!

- I was blown away by the windmill farms. What an awesome sight.

-We went to spot some celebrity homes. I was bummed that they were almost all dead but couldn't resist and the kids were convinced it would be fun after I told them that Walt Disney was on the list.

-We have 6 photos of Maggie sleeping......

-Went to the street fair held every Thursday in Palm Springs. It was fun, I am always impressed by the things people make and sell. Maggie LOVED the man that played drums and Dylan thought the man spraypainting was so cool. Micaylee scoped out every booth for a ring.

The frogs were cool but I didn't want to pay $20.00 for one. The stick rubbing up and down the back made it bark like a frog. Dylan made a friend with one of the vendors kids and they played with the putters made of rocks for a good 1/2 hour!

-Maggie and I went downtown for lunch at Rubys. She got a free Root beer float by getting a red gum-ball from the machine and I know that I am going to win the Red and White Electra Beach Cruiser they are giving away!

-We ate WAY to many cookies and popcorn that was free from the front desk.

-We went to target..........

-We took Eddie and he had a blast lounging around the courtyard.

-We didn't do any schoolwork and did play every D.S. game we own.

-We felt bad for Dennis that he was working while we were doing nothing, but so glad to be with him.

Palm Springs

2009-07-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

So I can guarantee you that "normal" people do NOT go to Palm Springs in July! We spend all 5 days at the pool. It reminded me of going to Vegas or Southern Utah and I must say that my kids were not overly impressed!!!!

We started out with Maggie needing a refresher course on swimming but after day 2 she was as good as gold! Micaylee even got in the water the whole time it was so stinking hot. Dylan of course made friends with EVERYONE in the pool (still taking after my dad). The high heat didn't keep maggie from catching a chill and heading to the hot tub 70% of the time. I got a chance once or twice to work on my tan. It isn't really possible to lay out when the temperature dial reads 116 and the one time I did I got these small blisters on my legs and arms! It was amusing to say the least. Oh well a vacation is a vacation and for that we were grateful and had a blast swimming and watching LOTS of T.V.

4th of July

2009-07-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

I am so super excited that this will be my last post with photos only from my cell phone!!! I found my charger, right where Dennis promised he didn't find it.

So the 4th of July, my favorite day of the year!!! I wish everyone in this country was happy for the freedoms and privileges we have everyday. Even more than Thanksgiving I think we tend to remember that, even if we don't use those freedoms for the same things we all use and depend on them.

This was our first time ever not going to the Murray Parade (I think). I love the parade but opted not to go over to Coronado due to the fact that I wasn't ready for the crowd. We did go to the Boy Scout breakfast and painted faces! That was a blast and did fill the void of the Lions Club breakfast that we are use to enjoying. We had an awesome BBQ and then watched the Big Bay firework show on top of the hill where we live. We also got home just in time to watch the awesome show at Seaworld right as we got home. How glad we were that we took Michelle's suggestion to put that on the agenda, Thank Michelle!!!

Dennis June

2009-07-03T12:38:00.001-07:00

I have lots of photos of Dennis' new work but I never know if it's o.k. to talk about specific job items on blogs so I will keep it basic for now. This is Dennis with his clone Maggie! He has had a great time at his new job and I am so glad that all of his hard work climbing the ladder has paid off! He carries the same title of IC&E tech but this job seems to be a bit different then the others. He spends most of his days doing computer programing and making the unit run to his specifications. Or at least that is what I hear when he tells me about it!!! He is on call on every shift and every third weekend. This has not played a significant part in the job until this past week. He got called in Sunday night at 12:55am. That was crazy. Two nights this week he has been at work on overtime or "on-call" time. Even with the extra hours it is a cake-walk compared to the 12 hour shifts with the hour drive we left in Ut.

We are still hunting for a house. It is kind of a crazy market and one you would need lots of luck and a great relator in. The price range we are in is the same one the investors are looking in and they seem to play the game better than us. Oh well it will all work out in the end. I just wish Dennis didn't have to make the long drive to and from work every day, not that I'm complaining about living across the street from Sea World!!!

We were lucky to visit with one of his best friends from Ut. this past week. The Crosby family came in for their summer vacation and it was so much fun to see them. We of course joined them on one of their beach days rather that an amusement park day. Dennis had a great time catching up with Stash and Dylan just couldn't play with Olivia enough. I highly recommend everyone take their vacations to San Diego and when you do, call me!

Ginger June

2009-07-03T11:43:00.001-07:00

Did I mention it was my Birthday this month?!!!! I LOVE my birthday and since I turned 30 I have enjoyed each of them even more. 20's are for the birds.

This year I turned 33. I was born at 3:33. This year my birthdate was 6-12-2009, #'s all divisible by 3. I don't know about you but I am sure this is a great sign!!! Besides Dennis has been telling me for months that "This is your year"!

I wake up every morning so grateful for all the great things in my life and for all the awesome things we get to enjoy in this town.

My parents came into town for my birthday and we had a blast. We started out by going to Legoland after they flew in. As expected they were Not impressed. They were impressed by our dining experience this time. Old town Mexican Cafe is off the visitor list and replaced by Casa Giadalajara. The next morning we visited Dylan's school so my parents could see the Chinese class in action and I could introduce them to the Principal and his Teacher. Then we pulled him out to go to Disneyland. Ron had told me to sign up for my free birthday visit the day they came out with that and low and behold I used it!!! We got a steal of a deal and I must say that the staff is Awesome to you when you wear this special birthday button! Dennis got us a room and we went a second day after having so much fun. I highly recommend that if you have never had a good time at Disney, go with my parents. Check out my Dad's score on Buzz Light Year. Oh and look at my parents squeeze into the rockets together they are hilarious. My mom tried to convince herself along with us that she should go on many rides but every-time remembered that it wouldn't be worth it. She was very sad though having to watch us go on The Screamer over and over with Dylan and finally ended up on the Mary-Go-Round with Maggie.

This random photo of me is right after Preston put some dimension back in my hair color. Michelle mentioned that I should post a photo but the truth is My camera battery charger is lost and I haven't taken any photos this past month. All photo's I have taken since my visit to Utah (when Ron charged my battery) are from my phone. this is me and my mother. I love her. I hope to grow up to look just like her. Good thing cuz I am pretty sure I do!!!! Next Micaylee and I dragged Dylan to the tide pools, he gets pretty ornery around lunch time and we were just trying to keep him out of the house while Dennis was sleeping. After posting the only photos of me I could find I am realizing that I need to take more time getting ready during the week and not just on Sunday!

Micaylee June

2009-07-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

First I must say that this year has been proof that a-lot of hard work does pay off!!! Micaylee refused to learn her times tables in 3rd grade and when I went to her teacher and principal for help it was apparent that she had "middle of the road kid" syndrome! In 4th grade she refused to read..... need I say more. In 5th grade we somehow got stuck with a very random teacher that loves to teach but couldn't figure out why she couldn't learn, half way through that year we were so lucky to move over to McMillan and were on the path to reforming what all her teachers before would call "laziness and attention issues" are you kidding me! My mom and dad spent countless hours tutoring her and working to catch her up. Between that and Ms. Jackstine took the time to find her strong points she was ready for 6th grade. She finished off her 6th grade year with Ms. Weiss and Mrs. Haun who also also were willing to not let her fall behind. She had accomplished so much and was at this point ready to take on 7th grade (thank goodness)! Now with a big move everyone who loved her was so nervous to see what was to come. Wow I couldn't be prouder of this sweet child of mine. Going from hating school and not quite sure how to study independently she has finished 7th grade with all a's and a few B's throughout the year. She is pictured here with her friends, they all got an award signed by President Obama for getting 3.8 or higher!!! She loves to learn, read and has excelled beyond anything I ever expected. How lucky for us that there were and are so many people willing to go beyond the call of teaching and helping those kids that need just a bit extra. Now that school is out we have been spending some time shopping! Mostly because she needed a one pice swimsuit for girls camp, and it couldn't be a tankini. This was tough. But we did find an awesome purse and pair of heels on our quest! What do you think? I can't wait to collect some photos from camp and she can post on that but for now we all know how much fun girls camp is.

The Chocolate Smart Car is posted for my niece Mackenzie. Micaylee and Mackenzie discovered Smart cars in Paris and Mackenzie LOVES chocolate. So let me end this post by telling you all to VOTE FOR CHOCOLATE!!!!!!

Dylan July

2009-07-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Oh DYLAN!!!! Where do I start.... Now out of school and of course going to keep me fully entertained for the next 2 months. We wake up every morning and do some Math, Science, Reading and Journal writing. He then gets to mark his awesome chart that Dennis created for him to watch his growth throughout the summer. With Micaylee in camp last week and Maggie in school we got to send some extra time together playing lots of baseball and watching a cute boy from church. He is so kind to little kids and it was fun to see him interact with him. While my parents were here we took a harbor tour on a small pilot boat and Dylan got to be the life jacket demonstrator. He then got to enjoy cruising along the bay. I think everyone in our family has grown to love being on the water. He was a good sport in Disney and went on every ride at least one time. He loved the Screamer and did not love the Tower of Terror. He enjoyed having grandma and grandpa there to say YES to all his wants and needs including ice cream, frozen lemonade, food, more food, soda, lightsaber and a turkey leg! That was a fun change from the usual visit's to Sea World where I am often pointing out that we are NOT on vacation and will not be eating at the park. Speaking of Seaworld we have been frequenting it often ofcourse. On this last visit he managed to find his way over to the Cirque acrobats. Maggie wanted nothing to do with them but Dylan was drawn to them!!!! He felt quite comfortable around them.

Maggie June

2009-07-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Maggie is the only one left in school and will not be done until July 16th. We are having so much fun listening to her memorize her songs for her program at the end of the year. She is still trying to learn all of her abc's. She knows all the sounds and what words start with them but cant quite pick them up by sight. The eye doctor said this was normal and she would catch up.

She finally gave in after my mom and dad left and let me cut her hair. I so don't enjoy when kids decide to grow their bangs out or their hair for that matter. It is such a bother for me and Maggie will NOT wear a barrette or a ponytail so it has been quite the event.

She is still protesting church because the kids in her class are a bit of a handful and of course she does NOT LOVE dresses........ Oh Maggie!!!

He new favorite thing is to go to the beach and get a bagle from the local coffee shop. She Loves the sand and water and will always be my best beach buddy I'm sure.

She spends most of her day "cry-laughing" and sleeping. She blesses us with an array of silly faces and goofy sayings and since her brother wakes her up every morning she loves to take 2 hour catnaps in the afternoon. Ahh the life she leads is a dang good one and I am going to enjoy every second of the Summer with her because I'm not quite ready to send my baby girl to school all day.

Dylan's Birthday!

2009-05-26T07:54:00.003-07:00

Dylan has turned 7!!! After weeks of practicing saying he is seven we were all sure he was turning 8. We spent the whole weekend celebrating his birthday. 3 BBQ's, Beach with cousin Kim and Billy, Pool on Monday with friends and freedom to spend all of his birthday $ on anything he wanted at Target!

He waited and waited until his day of birth to receive his DS. All he wanted to accompany it was Mario Cart but Dennis couldn't resist slipping in a few extras! It was a blast. I am just so happy we had an extra long weekend to celebrate him!

Famosa Slough Trail

2009-05-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

Micaylee and her friend (neighbor) wanted to take a walk around the slough that is by our house. My camera's battery charger is mia so I have been using my phone for photos since Vegas! This area gets runoff from the San Diego river before it flows into the ocean. I love the parrots that fly around our complex and Maggie loves to watch the birds gulp up fish out of the water. Micaylee has never wandered over here but enjoyed the stroll while waiting for the American Idol finale. I have loved flowers blooming all year long, it is still a new concept to me! They get so big by never freezing, love it.

Legoland with all the kids.

2009-05-21T10:02:00.001-07:00

This is a funny place! It reminds me of a small disney/lagoon atmosphere. Last time I went with Dylan I knew I couldn't frequent the park because he would insist on purchasing a lego pack every time and I don't have the will power to tell him no.

We got 4 free passes so we took Maggie and Micaylee with us, next time we will take some friends for his Birthday! We managed to eat for $25 and get out of the store just over $50 (memberships do pay off if you use the benefits). Not bad considering we all got in for free! I love that the parks let you take photos of your kids in items that are for sale! This has saved me tons over the past few years at amusement parks.

The baby rides were empty, the roller coasters kept the kids entertained and all of the figurines were so awesome to see. It was pretty cool as we walked through "mini land" to see Las Vegas since we were just there and the section that they depict was the area we hung out in.

Well all my kids had a good time, T.V is limited in our house until school is out so they are just happy to get out of the house!!!

Brook and Justin's Wedding Ceremony

2009-05-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

What a fun day we all had celebrating the marriage of my youngest sister Brook! Every family member and many of their dear friends had a great time. The ceremony was in the garden at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. Justin and Brook have been good friends all through high school and as far as I know he seems to put up with her... Us Robinson Girls are Quite a Handful!!!

Everyone got a chance to mingle as they spruced up from the drive and had local cousin Brenda and Michelle show up for the festivities! It was great to get together and awesome to be there as Justin and Brook said "I DO"! Yay to the happy couple.

Bellagio!

2009-05-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

We spent 2 of our nights "visiting" the water show and getting gelato (Micaylee's Vegas tradition) with different cousins. What a blast, and in my opinion one of the last "family friendly " activities. The first night we saw the New pirate show at TI and boy am I excited to tell you that I will never have to waste my time doing that again! Then off to the Volcano at Mirage and a quick walk by my all time favorite Caesars Palace. After a 2 hour jaunt down a very small portion of the strip the kids couldn't wait for a treat. The Bellagio was still full of tulips in the atrium, that was a great surprise since they are my favorite!

The next night we came back with 4 families and lucky for us Mindy saved all of us a front row spot! Von and Julia stayed for 3 shows so we got to see all the shows they were running on our trip!

We stayed at the Tuscany right down the street from the Flamingo. All the rooms are suites and they have a great pool for kids. I ran back and forth to the airport 3 times and it was a breeze from that location. Did I mention it was $40.00 a night Friday and Saturday?

We took everyones advice and started our journey to and from San Diego before 12:00. I have never driven six hours in bumper to bumper traffic and I must say it was an experience! But I did avoid tons of bottle necking and stop and go, Thank Goodness!!!!

It was a blast seeing all of my family and the kids had a great vacation!

Brook and Justin's Wedding dinner

2009-05-14T09:12:00.001-07:00

What a smart idea to hit a buffet after the wedding! With so many kids there wasn't one unhappy guest in attendance! Brook with the girls both nieces and sisters. My Brother Davids wife had left back to Salt Lake before the dinner so she isn't in this photo. There is also a photo of me with my cousin Michelle, she lives in Vegas and it was so fun to see her at the celebration. Dylan got a special shot with the bride because he is her favorite!!! Last but not least I could not resist this darling photo of my mom and dad "herding" everyone back off the strip!!! How cute that they are always holding hands, I hope to follow their example.

Bridgetts Wedding

2009-05-12T09:42:00.001-07:00

Bridgett and Alan swapping vows.

Robin and JR with Alan

Jamie and Austin

Me! Bridgett and Mary Ann

Bridgett ready to go off to the reception.

Had fun spending time with my mom and dad in Salt Lake. Maggie and Dylan flew with me and we had a great time celebrating their birthdays and playing with all the Robinson cousins! My sister Heather took the kids so I could go to the wedding alone!!!!

I was lucky enough to go by the salon and do a handful of my old clients and even got my Bleached out hair put back to a good ol' fashion Hi Lite thanks to Preston!

I don't miss SLC very much and love that SD feels like home but I do miss my job and all of my friends that I left behind!

Maggie is 5!!!

2009-04-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

WoW the baby of the family finally turned into a BIG girl!!! She has been anticipating this day for weeks now. Asking if she will be able to wear the same clothes? Wondering if she will be taller? Be able to read? Oh what will I be able to do when I am 5!!! She has also spent the last few weeks Telling us she is getting a DS for her birthday. That is so Maggie to tell.

She had a great day. First she split a doughnut with Dylan then we went to Dylan's class and they sang Happy Birthday Cha CHa CHA! We returned home to a gift from her secret cousin and a card from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson in the mail!!! Her secret cousin sent this punching balloon that was good for hours of new entertainment. We then waited for dad to get home so he could give her the present she had so patiently waited for all day. With a bit of disappointment during the opening process she was overjoyed to finally find a Pink DS in the bottom of the box!!! We had pizza and laughs all night long.

I am a bit sad that she is getting so big but boy I am glad she is!!!

Easter at home

2009-04-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

I so hope to Love holidays by next year! If I loved them you would think I would have fab. photos of them dressed up on Easter Sunday! Well here they are in all their Morning Glory. Eating candy and angry that the Bunny brought bubbles! Duh she just bought her own bubbles. BEWARE!!!

Our complex put on a hunt for the kids and they all got eggs and all had treats and All had fun! That was a nice change of pace from all of the other hunts we attended. Monday we got an awesome package from my Mom and Dad!! Yeah, they are the best with holidays and after rummaging throughout the box I felt like I didn't miss out on the festivities! Love My Mom!!!!

Easter at Liberty Station

2009-04-14T09:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday before Easter my sweet friend Amie took us along to Liberty Station to enjoy the festivities. The weekend before we had attended the same deal at the Military base so we opted to show up just before the egg hunt this time. HOLY COW BATMAT this was nuts. At first I thought that we had a chance with all the eggs and being first in line. Wrong. Six eggs later and Maggie in tears after being trampled I simply could do nothing else but ask Dylan to fork over a few eggs to Maggie and blow it off.

We then went and enjoyed a few tunes from the Cover Band. Good Times! Dennis and Alvin spent the afternoon fixing, adding to, cleaning and pretty much just admiring their Harley's. Everyone wins! It has been nice living in a community that puts on so many events for the kids!

I now hope to retire this jacket I purchased for Micaylee last year on my Birthday trip out here. If you miss it please feel free to scroll through my past posts, you can't miss it!!! I figure this photo makes a great send off-

Steve and Suzie's vacation!

2009-04-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Having fun with the Bill's!

Once again I am so glad that I am playing on Facebook! It seems that a girl (me) that can't seem to keep track of her phone benefits from this form of contact! I am able to stalk peoples vacations and enjoy their fun, I may have missed out on had I not seen they were about to be in town!!!!!

This past week we got to see Steve and Susan (as Dylan now refers to her) and play on a few of their outings.

First we bombarded their pleasant afternoon at Coronado! We did some catching up and then they left. No sooner did 2 dolphins make their way 20 feet from the coast! Holy Cow, Me and my ever so girlish figure RAN dow to the waters edge to point them out to the 2 little kids. Maggie was not so impressed but Dylan thought it was Awesome!!! It was great to get over to Coronado.

Dennis and I went to dinner with them over here in Point Loma and it was great to do more catching up without the distraction of the kids.

The next day we went to Cabrillo. With the kids out on Spring Break it was a great way to kick off the week. We finally saw the Grey Whale movie and watched the other one's we had seen, just to pass time. A few hours later Steve and Suzie came to explore the tide pools. We totally got skunked. Not even a starfish. As we were so disappointed we were staring out Yonder and Suzie was telling me about the Whales migration pattern when Steve started hollering at us. I could not believe it. He saw a whale just playing around! I have looked and looked all season and NOTHING! This made my day. Not 15 min. later a few seals came by just playing around in the water, riding the waves. It was dang near the best feeling to see those animals out there playing around. Thanks to Steve for finding that whale!

The next morning they took us on a tour of Seal Rock and again another great morning! Nature at it's finest. The kids were so excited to see them again and the fact that Susie brought treats scored some serious points!!! I was once again SOOOO Excited to see family and hope to see more visitors come tourist season.

Our adopted Grandma!

2009-04-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

It is official, I love my nephews Grandma.

She was so awesome to share her "alone time" vacation with us. We went to Sea World on Tuesday after a quick visit down to Newport to pick up a Shark Tooth necklace.

We saw we snacked we watched the shows we touched Bat Rays we shopped we wore ourselves out!!!

I took Dylan out of school an hour early and boy was it worth it! He Fell in LOVE with Grandma Carla!! Maggie just couldn't figure out how she knew who she was.? She was so sweet to be so kind to my kids as she was on her trip with my nephew. After playing in the Sesame Zone for the second time we realized that we would have to race over to the Atlantis ride if we wanted a second ride. With dylan having one of his usual meltdowns on the way over Carla offered up a bribe of $5. Not only did he shush up but he had a blast on the ride (kind of). The photo opt moment was hilarious with all of us ducking for cover and little miss Maggie Moo Cow's arms thrown up in the air!

After Sea World the kids could not wait to play some more Lego Star Wars. They opted to stay home and eat PB&J sandwiches while the two of us went down to the beach for dinner. After a well rested night we once again got a chance to see them in the morning time for a quick stop to the candy store (again) and then to Little Italy to look at an High Rise with the most AMAZING view!!! I hope she soon moves here so I can spend every afternoon watching the boats in the harbor and the planes from her balcony!!!! As far as our hunt for a home it is on hold for a week or two while our Relator is in Hawaii!! Oh and I just can't figure out where to live in this fabulous city!!!

More from the Bay

2009-04-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

I got tired of uploading photos from the day at the bay so I saved some and will try not to repeat what I have said! This is our peddy cab that got us on the news clip about the whale in the bay!!! The kids had a blast with each other. They ate, laughed, laughed, laughed, played pirates, ran, ran, ran, arm farts, danced with the silver man, played statues, touched cacti, looked for the whale and acted just like kids should.

Somedays are better! This is us visiting the Maritime Museum

2009-03-30T20:40:00.002-07:00

WOW I am soooo Lucky to get a repeat visitor!!! My cute nephew got to come visit again with his Grandma. I was lucky enough to get him for the whole afternoon as she went to browse the real-estate market. This is us visiting all of the ships my kids have been waiting to see with him! We had a chance to board all 4 ships that were docked. Maggie LOVED the submarine and was convinced that it was the one in "daddy's" movie. Dylan was his timid self as we explored down below and my nephew Loved every second of it! The 3 kids played so well together and had a blast pretending that they were pirates, driving, bombing and getting ready to Get Away! Ahh these are the best moments of being a stay at home mom! And one more day I can chalk up to living my dream of being on permanent vacation. After a fun, long day we went to my favorite Mexican joint in Old Town, Casa Guadalahjara.

All in a week!

2009-03-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

This past week Micaylee turned 13!! Ouch a Teenager. Ok I am old and so is she but I will continue to pretend that she is 12 just like I did with my baby sister Brook for the next 10 years. For as old as she is she has taken it in stride and is still waking up every morning on her own terms, letting no outside influence take over her own thoughts and beliefs. She is an example to all around her and for that I am proud to be her mother!
She learned at this function (you will soon read about) that she as a girl has ALL power over boys! They may try to lure her in to noticing them but Oh How Very Powerful she really is!! And this is just the beginning stages.... She is not eating her 3rd cup of chili to get attention from them but because it was Dang Good Chili! The photo was just a ploy to let Dennis see what can happen if he goes out of town again and we go to an event without proper supervision!
So on to the function! We were invited to the neighboring school to perform a few of the Mandarin Songs and Dance that they are learning at their Multi-Cultural Fair. The School did a great job with their own students performing songs from all over and we were so glad that we were able to attend. Besides who doesn't love good clean fun???
Sand Art at the Center teaching the kids about "Native Americans" and just another spot sister Micaylee came in handy after the tickets ran out. The football players were more than happy to keep giving her brother and sister new pictures to work on. Hummm I think they were just trying to keep her around.
Singing and Dancing for the Crowd!
This is My second or third favorite person at the Elementary! The Principal. What a great guy he is. He loves the concept of this program and often goes above and beyond the expectations of his job. Just another one of his nights he is spending promoting all the positive things that can come from this program. My first fav. is Dylan and Second is his Awesome Teacher!!!!!
Not often will he smile for the camera, but he is coming around.
I wish that I took more time to tie back this hair as we are on the grow out, but I just fall in love with the smile that shines right through those silly bangs!
One last train ride before the sun completely set!

March Update!

2009-03-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

Well.... Here it comes!

I haven't posted because every time the world throws a death at me I crumble like a cookie!!! Sometimes it makes me feel like things like blogs are LAME and a waste of time, then I remember that they are great~

On the 13th of February my friend Tim aka Gonzo died. I want to say a million great things about him but wont.

Moving on....

I was lucky to see my friends the Ericksons this past weekend. They came out to San Diego to see

their dad. I got to cut the girls hair,

then we went to get Maggie "replacement" candy. Later that night they let us join them at their campfire!!! We had so much fun roasting starburst & peeps.... Micaylee went back home with them and sat in the Hot Tub and watched a movie!

Saturday we went to the Swap Meet and I found my favorite sunglasses I got years ago ago in Tiajuana. We will be frequenting this Swap Meet place now that we found it!

We spent one Saturday at Old Town eating yummy candy and giggling at all of the pioneer toys for sale that we have made at girls camps over the years. Dylan and Maggie wanted to get in the covered wagon, they bumped the tourists out of the way just to get in. Ugg I must teach my children better.

Dylan and I have been frequenting Sea World on early days. This past week we went on Micaylee's early day and then I picked up Maggie after school. Lots of fun! The week before Dylan and I went for lunch. First we were going to go to Arbys. He raced out to the car and I walked to the garbage, the whole time on the phone. I proceeded to the truck jumped in and right before Arbys realized he was not in the back seat! Off the phone I got. Back home to find him back inside watching T.V. I then realized that we both needed something fun and distracting to do!

As we have settled into Dennis's new job I found a spare moment to fly back to Utah to do my Mom's hair. My sister Brook got a new do also and I was so lucky to spent the next morning with all my friends at the salon the next day. It was wonderful flying back to San Diego where is constantly lingers around 68-72 degrees! This was a quick shot of Point Loma where we are lucky enough to be living at the Moment! We are still looking for a place to call home and there are so many factors here that I keep finding myself changing my mind on where to buy! More to come I'm sure!

This last photo is Micaylee with her buds from school. I can't say enough how grateful I am that she has such a great group she hangs around with!!!!

Sea World with Flat Stanley!

2009-02-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

First things First....

Sea World is a great way to spend early day!

And as with any amusement park it is easier the second time around since you know your way around!!!

The kids were sad not to have Jaxon with them and mentioned it from the exit of the car to the exit of the park......

Still off season we enjoyed the comfort of an open stadium during the Shamu show. Dylan made his way up to the top row and made himself at home with a group of older tourists.

On this visit not only were we showing Stanley around San Diego for a friend from Utah but we got to go on the Atlantis roller coaster that was shut down on our last visit. Maggie LOVED it an made Dylan go 2 times. Needless to say Flat Stanley is not so flat anymore!

The 2 kids also got a chance to interact with the dolphins during feeding time on this visit. That was an awesome experience. The Sea Rays are more interesting to me as far as the texture but seriously A DOLPHIN!

February update....

2009-02-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

Here it goes, I hate to type long drawn out posts because I am so horrible at re-reading and fixing my grammar! So I will type small and feel better about it.

This has been a long month and we totally got out of our mundane schedule that is for sure!!!

This month Dennis started a new job! Wow, we have been here for 6 months and already moving on to a better future. We didn't intend to change jobs after moving here, in-fact we were so excited for the one he had! Great location, great co-workers awesome hours and the list could go on. And I will not bore anyone with the details of him leaving but he was sad to go and did enjoy it for the short time he was there!

Now he is working down south, a mile from the border! He has gotten himself a "cheap" commuter car and is now going to work a swing shift with lots of "on call" work.

Now all of those words are a bit intimidating too us after his job we left in S.L. but this swing shift is not like the one in S.L. it is morning or evening shift! And as far as the on call it seems pretty simple.

I am so proud of Dennis, he is a great provider for our family and always has been. He will be working with more Computer Programing and in a very small plant that produces energy and sells it. That is the best explanation I have so you will have to call him to find out more ( I am still trying to figure out what an E&I tech is!!!!!!! )

With this job change we have started to pursue a "house hunt" We know, no emails, we DO NOT need another house.

We are dumping quite a bit of money into renting out here and even though we thought we would wait for the market to hit rock bottom before buying but we have found the commute for Dennis is going to get old. We have gotten a feel for where we will spend most of our time and as some of you know, trying to decide between NEW which sounds fun but is not right next to the ocean. Or older and right by the ocean..... We are just looking around at our options and hope that there is the perfect little house here for us. I figure as long as Dennis is close to work, the kids are in a good school and I am somewhat close to the beach we will have found the right place.

It has been such a blessing to be here. We love having each other and enjoy the year round sunshine. The kids are still doing awesome in school and I have enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom. We have been blessed every day and we are so grateful for those blessings.

Dylan's new haircut!

2009-02-17T16:06:00.001-08:00

Don't be alarmed by the tears, I am sure they are just there because he couldn't have Ice Cream! Dylan cut his hair in the bathroom the other morning and it resulted in this!

It was more than time to get rid of the mop he cherished!

I would have posted a better photo but he refuses to get near a camera!

Valentine's Quilt

2009-02-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

Here is my Valentine Quilt I would have left in the hall coubard if my sweet friend Michelle wouldn't have posted her blocks!!! I made this for Maggie 2 years ago because she loved everything poodle and my mom and I both loved every valentine quilt that ladies showed at quilt class!!!

It sat in the basement for a few years needing to be quilted. Before we moved my mom had it quilted for me and put on the binding! Love my mom!!!!

Blurb.com is the word!!!

2009-02-10T20:05:00.000-08:00

My Sister Mindy just called and was so excited to share her "find." This company blurb.com will publish your blog into a book-

http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook

Chinese New Year!

2009-02-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

I should be better about this post but am just too lazy!

Dylan is so lucky to attend a Chinese Magnet school here in SD and it has been amazing to say the least to watch him learn not only the language but the culture. I can't say enough good things about the school.

For Christmas they had a program and all of the kids sang a few songs in Chinese and they had a whole New Year's program. Each of the kids dressed up and sang many songs. When the portion was over they had Lion Dancers and a girl do some Kung-Fu it was beyond cool!

Panda Express catered a very large meal to each student and all visitors. I am going to put a small clip on of the lion dancers. The other thing that I love is "Family Friday's" where the parents come in, learn a technique or skill to help their child read better. I love and look forward to this day of the month, this past month Dylan's classmates each recited a poem. No it was nothing to jump for joy over but only because I had Miss Lorie for a Pre-School teacher and we have heard poems coming out of this kids mouth for YEARS!!! Dylan is holding his chinese calander and his favorite person in the world that is not a Jedi! President Obama. Who would have thought, my child, a democrat.

zin nian kuai le & gong xi fa cai!!

Micaylee's Sacrament Meeting talk

2009-02-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

I'm 32 years old and have never had to speak in church, hats off to Micaylee for doing it!!

Here is a copy of her talk. She did awesome and was flagged down by the first counselor so he could tell her it was in the top 5 youth talks he has sat through!

President Hinckley said- It is a wonderful time to be a member of the Church, with millions of members, all belonging to the greatest community of friends in all the world. Wherever one goes as a faithful Latter-day Saint he will have instant friends IF he makes his identity known.

If you have not met me yet my name is Micaylee Johnson. I moved to San Diego from Salt Lake City this past summer and even though I was nervous to leave the only place I have ever lived the one sure thing I knew was that I would find friendship in the ward. I knew there would be other girls just like me that I could learn about my Heavenly Father with. I found comfort and a sense of community here in the ward.

My topic is friends! I have always been so blessed with many friends, my best friends are my family. I have a brother and sister and 25 cousins! I am also lucky that friends at school came easy to me. When I first started elementary school my mom would always remind me to say something nice to someone. That was just one simple way to be a friend. Here are many more

first, to have a friend, you must be one.

Learn to love them.

Be yourself.

Include someone who is feeling left out.

Be interested in what others are doing.

Help others.

Say good things about others.

Share with others. and

Invite others to do something with you.

Also there are ways NOT to make and keep friends:

Buy friendship by giving treats and expensive gifts.

Lie about others so you will seem to be the only worthwhile friend to have.

Give false praise.

Threaten to desert your friend if he won’t agree with you.

Don’t be a friend to persons you don’t like.

In a talk given by President Thomas S. Monson he said:
"We tend to become like those whom we admire. We adopt the mannerisms, the attitudes, even the conduct of those whom we admire—and they are usually our friends.

Associate with those who, like you, are planning not for temporary convenience, shallow goals, or narrow ambition, but rather for those things that matter most—even eternal objectives.

Not only will your circle of friends greatly influence your thinking and behavior, but you will also influence theirs. Many nonmembers have come into the Church through friends who have involved them in Church activities. "

I have enjoyed inviting in-active and also non-member friends to activity days and young women activities over the past 3 years. I have never been in a ward with any kids my age so if I wanted friends there I had to bring them in with me. Even though I was never intentionally teaching them about the gospel, I know that by my example and choosing to be a happy person that makes good choices I am showing them what a good friend is and teaching them my religion by my actions.

Since entering middle school I have found it more difficult to stand up for what I have been taught and for the things the gospel has taught me. As I face every day I realize that the simple values Heavenly Father has given the youth are something we would not succeed without.

Friends that do not share those values can be intimidating at times and it is easier to just fall into the trap of peer pressure!

On the churches web site they give a good explanation of peer pressure-

"People who do wrong often want others to join them because they feel more comfortable knowing that others are doing wrong too. Those who are striving to live a righteous life may receive pressure from such individuals. This pressure is often strongest during childhood and teenage years, when there is a powerful need to be accepted by one's peers. The Lord will strengthen those who strive to maintain high standards regardless of what others may do or say."

Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 6-8 say

6 ¶ If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy ^ason, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, ^bentice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

8 Thou shalt not ^aconsent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

In the scriptures there are also many examples of followers turning away from the Lord. We must stand up for our beliefs, tell others what we will and will not do durring all of the daily situations so we will not fall into their traps.

I know it is very important to be strong in what I believe, that I have been taught to be and example of my Heavenly Father and show others how to be a good friend. Even though sometimes it is hard to overcome the choices my friends place before me I know that the reason people want to be friends with me is because of my values and that Heavenly Father will help me overcome the pressure as long as I hold to my high standards.

John chapter 4 verse 7 &8

7 Beloved, let us ^alove one another: for ^blove is of God; and every one that loveth is ^cborn of God, and knoweth God.

8 He that loveth not ^aknoweth not God; for God is love.

I know that belonging to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds us to higher standards and I know my friends respect me for that. I am grateful for the example I am to my friends and strive to always be one.

Van Nuys! (Pssst, did you hear what Maggie did!)

2009-02-10T09:51:00.001-08:00

Here are 3 sweet and very great sports!

So I ventured North, way north! I printed out some directions off the ol' reliable Google Map. Packed lunch in the trunk and got Micaylee from school. It felt natural to keep it a secret where we were headed due to the nature of who we were visiting and her Joy for Surprises.

The 2 hour jaunt may have felt longer if they did know where we were going, but we had a blast and they were so excited when the went into the hotel and saw none other then Aunt Tammy!!!! She mentioned on her facebook that morning that she would be in L.A. and I couldn't resist driving up to see her.

It's funny I love to drive and just happened to have a great little rental car this week, 2 kids were out of school and Tammy is one of the only people that actually LOVES her nieces and nephews without any reserve. With all those things in our favor we had to go!!

Van Nuys was a cute little town, we wanted to visit a farm right by her hotel but it was closing as we drove by. We drove up and down the main drag, picked up a book for her to read on the plane, went to the bakery and swung by In&Out for a late night dinner!!!! After returning to the "very nice" hotel we threw some color in her hair and sat down at the pool while it processed. We were a sight! After a Very LONG swim the kids got out showered and we were off. Oh wait did I say we were off? We were almost off. While waiting for the elevator to arrive to the 5th floor Maggie Moo Cow decided to see what the red and white contraption on the wall was all about. Yes, the fire alarm! The what? The fire alarm? Yep that was us, 10:05pm at the Marriott in Van Nuys. Every room in the building was awoken by my sweet 4 year old Maggie. Tears, fear and fire trucks were our last memories of this sweet little town on the outskirts of L.A. Thanks for the memories Tammy!