For our family vacation this year, we went to Southern California. We spent a week in Oceanside in a beach house, literally the home was right on the beach. The kids loved waking up early in the morning and running out to body surf in the ocean. The only down part was that the water was so cold (not Bear Lake freezing....), but they didn't seem to mind and spent hours upon hours out there. We made so many wonderful memories and the cousins had so much fun together. Here are a few pictures (OK, a lot of them...sorry) of our time in California...
This was taken the day we flew home. Logan wanted to walk on the beach one last time. The whole flight home, he kept asking when we could come back to the beach. Hopefully soon was all we could say.
We met up with Uncle Jeremy at Disneyland. He was such a hit with all the grandkids. Sorry, Jeremy, if they beat up on you too much.
The grandkids loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa all day. The beach house made it so perfect to spend time together.
It was my great idea (or not so great idea for some) to wear matching colors at Disneyland so we could find each other easily. Since we were there around Halloween time, orange seemed like a perfect color. You could definitely see us all coming from a mile away. When Jeremy saw us he couldn't stop laughing and said only people from Utah would do this....OK, we are proud to be from Utah.
We had a few days at the beach to build sandcastles and just enjoy the sun and surf. Uncle Troy even let Logan put sand on his head. OK, now Logan, who is your favorite uncle???
We got to go to the new Newport Beach Temple. It is so beautiful and such a unique coral color.
Here is our little family at Legoland in Carlsbad. The kids loved seeing all the cities made out of thousands and thousands of Legos.
Addie loved eating the sand for some reason she couldn't get enough. This literally made Grandpa sick to his stomach. Luckily Addie didn't get too sick from eating who knows what in that sand.
Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for making such wonderful memories for the family to remember. Where will our next adventure take us???
We have a Halloween party every year with the cousins and this year it was at our house. It seems like most years it snows, so this year it was nice to have it clear and not so cold. We did get a bit of rain that night, but still had a good time at trunk-or-treating.
This year for Thaksgiving, we headed up to Boise, Idaho to see our Halladay cousins. There were 22 grandchildren up there so lots of noise and activities going on. They had a blast riding Scot's horses, going swimming, seeing movies, and just playing with each other. We look forward to Thanksgiving with them in 2 years.
Logan's preschool Christmas program was so cute. It happened to fall on the worst snow storm we had this year. Mrs. Daniels combined both 4 year old classes, so there were 28 children in all. I can't believe how much he has learned this year and continues to amaze me with what he comes home with.
Grandma Diederich prepared a nativity hand puppet show. The kids loved it and it really brought in the true meaning of Christmas that night. Thanks Mom for all your hard work.
We spent the week between Christmas and New Years in St. George. So on New Year's Day we hiked Snow Canyon. It felt so good to be outside in the warm sunshine and made it that much harder to go back home to the cold and snow.
