California Day #1

Warning: Long posts ahead with a lot of pictures. Feel free to skip!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my family. A whole lot. I think we're the funnest, funniest, and greatest family out there. Dysfuntional beyond belief? Yes. But we do have a lot of fun together. Everyone thinks its weird that I am so close to my extended family, but my aunts and cousins are like extra mother figures/sisters to me.

Everyone also knows that our family has a slight obsession with Neil Diamond. We have been to his last few concerts in Salt Lake and when we saw he was touring again this time, we were heartbroken that he wasn't coming to SLC. Knowing that he is you know, up there in age, we decided it was worth it to travel to see him. So, we picked out date way back in the fall of last year and bought tickets. The months of anticipation almost killed me, but we finally made it to mid May and our trip out to see Neil!

We had the most fabulous time. My only regret is that we didn't get to stay longer.

So, here's day #1:

The night before we flew out, we all stayed at a hotel near the airport because our flight was leaving at 7 am. We all thought that getting up at 4 am to leave by 5 seemed a bit ridiculous, but luckily we listened to Mari Ann, who always knows best. We dragged ourselves out at that horrible hour and made it to our flights without any major issues, but with not a ton of time to spare.

We were a bit of a tired crew on the flight over...

When we landed in LA, we were all eager to get started with our day. However, someone (absolutely not naming names) had made car rental arrangements at a rather questionable looking place that no one had ever heard of. It didn't bode well when we walked into the garage to pick up our 15 passenger van (YES!) and there was hardly a single car in the place, let alone a monstrosity of a van. Ugh. It took more than an hour for the people to come up with a van from somewhere (no idea where-- again I tell you, questionable!) but they did give us a discount, so we went on our merry way.

We stopped for our 2nd breakfast of the day at a place that Yelp highly recommended. It did not disappoint. Too bad I can't remember the name of or I'd recommend it to you too.

When this large baby came squealing into the garage, it was a joyous moment. There just aren't words. It was a beaut.

Somehow Mari Ann and I were the designated drivers. I think it's because we are clearly the most responsible of the bunch (or me because I am the one who booked the rental car. Perhaps. But Mari really is the most responsible.) My mom was a nervous wreck every time I drove. Her oft repeated phrase was "Shhh, everyone quiet! I am trying to focus!" What she was focusing on, I am not sure. Anyway, I am not biased in any way, but I am pretty positive I was a better driver than Mari Ann. See exhibit: Curb Story below. 

 Breakfast at that really great place:

I now apologize for the sheer number of selfies that will accompany this photo documentary.

After breakfast, we headed to our rental condo. This place was amazing! I must thank my co-worker for telling me about it. I don't have pictures, but here is a link: www.suiteescapes.com. It is just a few blocks from Disneyland, super cute and modern, and space for 10+ people. They also had everything ready for us- soap, shampoo, strollers (not that we needed those, but you know, if you go with your family!), laundry, a full kitchen, etc. etc. Super great place and good price. Definitely recommend!

We changed into our amazing Neil Diamond t-shirts (always a must with this family) and then headed down to San Diego for the day.

One additional fact you may have noticed about our family is that there is a slight addiction to caffeinated beverages (specifically diet coke unless you are Carlie) in 100% of us. So, on our way, we felt the need to find a McDonalds for a little beverage. We pulled off into a little coastal town with a Mickey Dees. I wish I had the video of this event, but fortunately for you, Che' has it. Anyway, as Mari Ann hauls into the drive through, the crowd of us all screamed in unison as we took out a sign and then ran over a curb before bouncing to a stop in front of the order screen. It was classic. Nobody could stop laughing long enough to get our orders out, so there's Mari Ann shouting from the front "How many!? HOW MANY?!" while we all just laugh on. At about this time, our 40 month pregnant lady, Cortney (actually 34 weeks, but you know) decided that she needed to go to the bathroom really bad, so she hopped out right then and there and made a run for it. It was a zoo. The McDonalds workers were not amused, to say the least. From then on, we avoided all drive throughs with the massive van.

Gosh, the van pictures never get old, do they? That's my eye in the right corner, in case you are interested. Hahaha..

A good driver needs a good navigator. She even kicked our 84 year old grandmother out of the front seat to do the job. That is until we figured out that the back is a whole lotta bouncing around and that may not have been the best for dear Grandma. Then she got the front every time after that.

Oh yeah. Extra classy t-shirts this time. Hashtags on the back.

And we had to have a few versions of the pictures on the front because there were just too many attractive ones to choose from. Neil-he's just so fancy. It made it nice though, because then everyone had at least one Neil buddy automatically. So when we needed a head count, or to pair up, it was just an easy "Find your Neil buddy!" You wouldn't think that grown women would need that system, but in this family we do.

After the McDonalds incident, we were on the road again. San Diego is just beautiful. We arrived and met up with my cousin Kaarin, who is a San Diego native. We had her show us the ropes. We spent the afternoon at the marina, right near the USS Midway. We wanted to tour the Midway, but it was closed by the time we got over there, so we toured a pirate ship and a submarine instead and of course took a bajillion pictures. We even found some nice lady who loved our Neil shirts so much that she wanted to take a few photos of us as a group. She posed us this way and that and told us how to smile and when to cheer. It was fabulous. Just what we needed. :)

I love this crew. In case anyone wants a visual of who is who: Grandma Donna, Lisa (mom), Sue-Dawg (that's her preferred name), Hailie, Cortney (40 months pregnant), Che, me, in front is Kaarin (the long lost cousin from San Diego but don't worry we brought her her own t-shirt), Jen, Mari Ann, and Carlie.

 

Submarine tour. I don't know about you, but submarine living is definitely not for me. Man, it looked miserable! 

Loved seeing this famous statue. No idea what it's called? But it was neat.

The USS Midway. Even though we didn't get to tour it, it was really cool to see.

We had dinner along the pier while we were there at a seafood place. I think our shirts gave away that we were going to the Neil Diamond concert :) There was a waitress who kept running over and singing little snippets of Neil songs to us while playing her air guitar. She made dinner pretty entertaining. 

The Neil t-shirts really helped us make friends everywhere we went. Or at least they were a good conversation starter. haha...people all have good Neil Diamond stories that they want to tell and they know we'll appreciate them! We made friends with these people behind us at dinner for that very reason. 

After dinner, we made our way over to the concert itself! It was, in a word, AMAZING! This is the best I have ever seen Neil (and remember, I have seen him a fair few times). He was witty, he was engaging, he was personable, he was oh so great at his singing and performance...oh boy. I could go on. And let's be honest-- the main in his 70's has far more stamina than I do! He was so, so great. It was extra awesome that we were by far the youngest people in that arena. I have never seen so many jazzys in one place in my life! We had to sit down for the majority of the concert, which is not our way, but we had so many old people behind us that we knew would not see a thing if we stood the entire time. I wish I could play you some of the video clips from the concert to demonstrate just how great he was, but really all you hear is us screaming in the background. Oh, well. 

The weirdest/funniest thing happened at the concert. We had one seat left in our row and we were pretty sure it would not be filled. But, we were wrong. It was filled, by a kid in his early 20's I'd say, who came all alone. He said that he was treating himself to the concert for his birthday but then went on to say that he doesn't know very many of Neil's songs. So weird. I think we completely showed him a new side of crazy. At the end, he asked us where he should go to join us for the after party. He was completely serious. I am sure he thought that we must have been drunk to have that much energy. Little does he know that us non-drinkers can have fun, too. :)

Oh, the van. We had to park the beast at the very back of the parking lot even though we were hours early for the concert. It didn't fit anywhere else. It reminded me of Vacation where they all go running for the amusement park and their car is the only one in the lot. Yep, that's us. It did not serve us well to be parked there, because we were pretty much stuck and the last ones out of the parking lot too. 

Suffice it to say that Neil was amazing. Highlight of the trip. We drove back to our condo in LA that night and did not get in until 2 am their time, so 3 am our time. Yep, that means we had been awake for nearly 24 hours. My poor grandma. She had a few cat naps during the day in the car (and she's so cute-- after a little nap, she woke up and said "I love these little naps! I go to sleep for a few minutes and then I wake up vibrant!") We had to park the van in some sketchy neighborhood because it did not, unfortunately, fit in the condo garage and then trek back to haul ourselves to bed. We made plans to sleep in a little the next day before going to Disneyland, but that did not happen...

Oh and photo of the day: 

Not because it is yet another photo of Che' and I (mysteriously, we were Neil buddies too and had the most attractive Neil...go figure) but because Sue has such a great photo bomb. She's funny. 

Ugh

Well then. So much for consistent Sunday posts, eh? I have no idea what happened on May 10, but on the 17th I was in California and last Sunday I was called in to work, so at least I have those excuses. Anyway, I'll do a quick recap and try to get back on track this Sunday.

Package update: We officially resent our package today. We have not heard anything about the original package and it has been over a month. Just our luck, that one will probably show up tomorrow just because we barely resent the new one. We had our agency do all of the translations and then it still took some time to gather it all and re-do it, but we figured that it was worth it because maybe the original never will show up. Who knows. This whole thing has just been another major roadblock that has served to damper my spirits, but at the end, I am sure we won't remember all these horrible little details. So, anyway the package was overnighted to our agency and then she will attach the translations and send on to Ecuador. I think she wanted to manage it this time so she makes sure it gets done right. :) Please, please, let this be the last problem....

Kids update: The kids are still in soccer and Hallie will be going for quite a while apparently because a lot of her games have been rained out. The weather has been super rainy, which is great, but it is kind of getting depressing. Jace has one more game I believe. He graduated from preschool today and the kids have one more week of school. How can it be summer already? I am kind of looking forward to it, but kind of not. I like the structure of the school year...

Devin update: I am alive and kicking. That's about it. (Direct quote from Devin)

Kim update: Still as busy as ever. If it's not one job, it's the other. This past week I worked 6 days in a row at the hospital and it was a zoo the whole time. I usually only work two days, so I was maxed out by the time I was done! I got called in twice for traumas in the middle of the night and then last night I was on call again and didn't get called in, but was on the phone for 3 hours dealing with various problems. So not fun. Anyway, there was an experience there at the beginning of the day Thursday that I can't go into details about, obviously, but it was something that hit really close to home and my own personal family deaths that have been traumatic for me. I was the one there to handle it (on a day I normally would not have been working, but a co-worker had traded me). I was really nervous about having to deal with a situation like this, but now that is done, I am so glad I was there. Seems kind of weird to say, but it was really quite healing for me in a way I can't describe. It just reminded me that the Lord is mindful of each of us and has plan for each of our lives. I was worried about my ability to handle this type of situation, but I think it helped me to be forced into it and to know that I can handle it. It was tough and I shed a lot of tears after I left work, but it was really good for me overall. And now that I have been as vague as can be, there you go.

Here are a few pictures of the last few weeks. I went to California last weekend as mentioned and have a whole lotta pictures from that- those may need a few separate posts. You have my permission to ignore them if you so desire. :)

We got Hallie's official dance photos back. TOO CUTE, RIGHT?! (I am not biased at all!)

And a cute bunch of girls. 

My cousin Che' graduated from the U as a new midwife! We are so happy for her. And this is the only picture I have from her graduation. I'm that awesome. 

This was from Mother's Day. The kids and Devin spoiled me. I am one lucky mom to have my three kids. 

Mother's Day again

And this is totally random, but we went to the library one day and Flor kept getting this same book out even after I repeatedly put it back on the shelf. Apparently she is a closet Miley fan?

Wish me luck on updating this Sunday!

Sunday Post #8

If you are really paying attention, you'll know I skipped a week (last week). Too late for recapping that week now; it's long gone and I have no idea what happened.

This past week was pretty standard, I'd say. Last Sunday was our anniversary (#8) and I don't think I mentioned that. So yay for being married 8 years! It's really incredible to look back and think about how in love we thought we were when we were dating/engaged/first married. Now, our love is definitely different, but it's so much deeper and more amazing. We are true companions and there is no one I am more comfortable with and no one I'd rather spend my time with. One nice perk of my job with UAS  and prior to that at LDSFS is that I constantly get to talk to couples about their marriages, about what works, what challenges they have, etc. I have seen some awesome marriages and some not so great ones. I am always kind of taking stock of what Devin and I are doing well and what we could improve on. Learning about others' marriages has given me good insight into my own and I feel that Devin and I are truly suited for each other and make a great team. I have to admit that Devin is far more easy going than me, so he is the half of us that makes things work more often than not. :) Love him. Here's to many more years.

Now, onto the bad news of the week. I am not sure how bad it is, but I am sort of dreading knowing, which is why I have not done anything about it yet. I got a letter in the mail this week from USPS telling me that mail fraud had been committed against me and that some of my identity may have been stolen. I have no idea what this means, but there is a website set up that I looked at, and it all looks legit. We were assigned an officer from USPS to be our contact point and I just have not called him yet because I don't want to know...Okay, what I am really afraid of is that our dreadful package got stolen and that we need to start all over. Seriously. I am sure no outcome is good with this, but if it's that, I may really just lose it. You may recall that I prayed a few weeks ago and told Heavenly Father that I am done with it all, that I can't handle any more drama or hard things happening with our stupid documents. Then I apologized and asked for forgiveness the next day. So maybe I am being tested to see which it really is? I don't know. But I just feel like I can't emotionally deal with any more. I usually have a pretty high threshold for handling hard things, I think, but honestly, I just don't even have words to express how exhausting this process has been this time. I am waiting for the ray of light to shine through....and I'll keep waiting until it happens. It's bound to. No wonder the confirmation to start this process was SO INCREDIBLY STRONG that I could not and cannot deny it. Who knew I'd need that so much in this process? Otherwise I would have given up long ago. I've gotten some suggestions that we should just throw in the towel, but that's not what I want or need to hear right now. What I want and need is for  people to encourage us and let us know that despite it all, it's worth it to keep going. Whenever I get too discouraged, I try to picture M's face and remember that she is a real person waiting for a family, not just an idea or a fleeing thought. She's real. She needs a family.

So, I guess I'll be brave and call the officer tomorrow and find out what awesomeness awaits with mail fraud.

Other than this excitement, I don't think there's too much to report. The school year is winding down and that's weird. It feels like it just started! I have been a good mom and gotten my kids involved in some extracurriculars. Hallie and Jace both have soccer 1x per week and Hallie is in dance. I think she needs to start piano next year, so maybe I'll start looking into that. Let's be honest...neither of the kids is good at soccer AT ALL (sorry kids-- just telling the truth). The poor kids. It appears that they did got lack of outward talents in life. Good thing I went through a really solid time of feeling sorry for myself that I wasn't good at anything, so I can maybe help them through it when they face it. Hahahaha. Joking, kind of. I know it's too early to tell what their talents will be, but let's just add soccer to the list of likely not. :) Jace runs around behind all the action, trying to look busy, and Hallie is really just not aggressive enough. Hallie does do surprisingly well at dance, though! That was not a talent I had, but of her little group at her dance recital on Saturday, she actually knew the moves and executed them quite well. I was quite surprised. She's a cutie.

Now for some pictures:

I got to go to lunch yesterday with some of my favorite friends, amy and jaime- both Cheetah friends from the BYU days.

Hallie and her dance class were all Belle at the recital. Super cute. :)

Flowers from daddy. He's a keeper.

Jace at his first soccer game! The first game he liked it, the second game he whined and ran off the field at whim. So, who knows how the rest of the season will go?

Videos

Here are a few videos from the last few months!
1) Jace singing "I Love to See the Temple" which we sang in church a few months back
2) Jace and Flor on a ride at Lagoon
3) Flor at the Jazz game
4) Devin and Flor (Isn't he the best dad ever?!)