So Cal......

Hello from California! I will do a complete post once I get home, but we are having a great time enjoying the southern California sun. We are all a little sunburned after our day at the beach and off for another day at Disneyland today....

Another one down!

Well, one more kid puking, one more carseat being washed.....and the floor mat of the car, and the floor, and the back seat...and a couple pillows, and the living room rug, and a blanket or two, and some clothes... fun stuff!!

Never a dull moment!!

I'm sure most of you have noticed, I don't normally do the posting on our blog, but considering Crystal's current condition, I figured I'd take a turn. :) Hopefully she won't turn around and delete it before anyone has a chance to read it. lol

Anyway, yesterday was quite a day! We went home for the weekend for Justin's farewell, and since most of the family was going to be there anyway, we decided to bless Cara too. Side note...Crystal went kind of crazy when she was shopping for a blessing dress for Cara the other day, and ended up getting Caeli and Cohen new church clothes too (they did need them, so I guess its ok. Cohen got a pretty sweet suit.). However, for some reason we didn't get any pictures of them. We'll have to do that and post pics of them later... anyway. I always get pretty nervous for things like that, so needless to say I spent the whole morning sweating like a pig. Thankfully everything went well, and I didn't have too many long pauses. lol

Justin did really well with his talk. We are all proud of him and are sure he will make a great missionary!! In a way I'm actually kind of jealous. Missions make for good times! Sometimes you can't help but wish you could go back. :( Speaking of good times, I think almost all the dads in the family (or grandpa in Adam's case) ended up in the nursery for most the rest of church. I don't know about the rest of them, but with Cohen, I spend a lot of time there with him. He doesn't like to be left alone, even if there are other kids he knows in there. There were almost as many adults there as kids. haha.

Dinner at the firehouse was excellent as well. We couldn't talk any of Crystal's family to stay for that part, but there were still a lot of people there. The kids had a blast checking out the fire trucks, especially Cohen. He loved it! He kept walking around pointing at trucks he wanted to get in and look at, even after we had been in them all 2 or 3 times. I wish I would have had the camera with me.

The ride home last night was probably the best ever!! (yes that was sarcastic) About half way the kids started whining about being hungry, so we ended up stopping to find something to eat. Not too long after getting back on the road, while driving through downtown Salt Lake, Cohen started whining all of the sudden and next thing we know, he along with his blanket and car seat, are completely covered in vomit. We had made plans with CJ for us to stop by his house on the way home so he could take pictures of Cara. Luckily for us, (but not for CJ and Steph) we weren't too far away when Cohen started puking. I'm pretty sure he threw up about every 15-20 minutes from then on until we got home. Even with having a large bowl on hand, we still ended up with some messes to clean up of CJ's carpet. (Sorry again about that!!) Its good we had several pairs of clean pjs on hand. The good part about our stop was that CJ took some of the cutest pictures of Cara in her blessing dress. So, with out further ado, here are the ones he's finished up so far.

I don't know about crystal, but this is probably my favorite.

Followed closely by this one.

She's definitely a cute kid, if I do say so myself!!

So we eventully made it home in one piece, even if some didn't feel like it. Thankfully no one else has started feeling sick (knock on wood). Hopefully Cara can manage to avoid it. If Crystal and I can avoid it, that might be possible, however, will all the puke we've cleaned up (some of it off of ourselves) I'm kind of surprised neither of us have caught it yet (knock on wood again). By the way, for those of you fortunate enough never to have had the opportunity to clean a car seat covered in vomit, which I had just such an opportunity when we got home, its not fun so count yourself lucky. :) On that note, I've got homework to do, so I'll be off.

Results are in...

and I got second place! It was by one tenth of a point.... crazy. I had so much fun. There was this older lady who was a finalist as well and she was SOOO mad that she didn't win, and threw such a fit as they announced the winner. It was actually quite funny. She had a few valid points, but the girl who won did a great job. Congrats to her! Now, which kitchen items to get with my $1000?!?!?

Cache Valley Cheese cooking competition

SO today was the Cache Valley Cheese cooking competition. It was so much fun! There were a few mishaps... my stove had problems so I had to use my neighbor's. But it was a blast. Thankfully it was a lot more laid back then things you see on food network. But it was still well put together. Channel 2 news showed up. The most stressful thing was probably the cameras in my face all the time. They had a still camera and videography. Very cool. The winner will be featured in better homes and gardens magazine, and gets a check for 5000 smackeroos. We find out the results tonight at the Bees baseball game. I really don't think I won... but I do at least get $1000. bonus....
Darin Adams from KSL was one of our judges. He was super nice and we sat around and talked for a while afterward. Really nice guy. 
Also one of our judges.... the Grocery Guru. You probably know who he is if you watch Good Things Utah... also a very nice guy.
Me just cooking away, I thought I had sooo much time I waited a little bit to get started, and at the end I was running. Time just goes by fast when you are having fun. This is my "I am stressed leave me alone" face. It was a really good experience. I am glad that I was chosen to be in it. They said over 200 recipes were entered, and 5 of us were chosen. So haha.... there were more than 5 that entered :P

Anniversary

Today (actually yesterday now I look at the time) is our 7 year wedding anniversary! Time goes by so fast! A lot of things have happened in the last 7 years and I am so happy that I have had Cam by my side through them all. I am married to the greatest man in the world! He's awesome and works so hard for our cute little family.

A few of the things these two smiling kids have done in the last 7:

• moved 12 times (3 different states)
  
• survived 2 deployments
• had 3 GREAT kids (2 NICU experiences)
  
• cruised to Mexico
• visited New Orleans and other fun places
  
• coped with a few health scares
• learned to do awesome things with wood
• gained a few pounds
• lost a few pounds
• cried a little
• laughed a lot
• and loved more than we ever thought possible!

I love you Cam! I am so glad you are stuck with me for eternity! :)

Bear Lake

Today we took our first excursion over to Bear Lake. It was so fun. It's really beautiful over there. The beach is perfect for playing. The water was nice and it was just a great time. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand. They built an awesome castle with the help of their awesome dad.
Cara just had shots the other day and is still not a happy camper about them. She didn't like being there too much. But she sure looked cute in her little swimming suit.
Cam supervising the castle building.
cute kids actually playing nice together :)

Finished project, killer moat and all. It was such a nice day. When we left the wind was just starting to pick up, but the temperature was perfect. The beach where we were was perfect because it was shallow for a long ways out. The kids could wade out a long ways. Caeli collected shells. Cohen ate dirt and drank a little nasty water.... and we just enjoyed a fun day together. I hope we get back over there before the summer is over!