More Videos

Here's more of them trying to be the best.

4 man jump! We showed this video to Sister Galland and she said that this has never been done. They succeeded!

All 5 of us that were missionaries together went up there, but they left me alone, so I had to jump by myself. :( It was still fun, though and a great way to finish a trip.

Cabo Videos

I'm really glad that Sister Galland thinks that you shouldn't build a roof without a place to jump into the pool! We had a blast doing it! And on the last day there, it became a competition to see which guy could do the coolest trick/trying to do something that hadn't been done before. So here's a bunch of videos and this is just a few.

Cabo, Baby!!

OK. This is a gianormous picture post. There are tons!! But we had a great time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and wanted to document every part of it. So, here goes. We drove up North Sunday night, February 26th, and stayed with Brian's family. Monday we woke up early, kissed our boys bye, and drove down to Provo to board the Gallands' private plane.

This baby was beautiful! Like a limo for the sky. We were the first there and I was so proud of actually being early, which doesn't usually happen with me.

Soon the whole crew arrived and we prepared for take off. We all picked up right where we left off laughing and joking and enjoying each others company; not at all like 6 years have gone by. So on the left there is the golden child, Jeff Bennett; then it's us (obviously); Brian Allen and his wife Jessica; and Courtney Venable and his wife Haley.

The Gallands look pretty much exactly the same. We all decided that they don't age. I like Venable taking a picture of Jeff taking the picture of us.

The plane has a jump seat that they let people sit in to watch the pilots work during the flight. Brian took a turn on the way there.

We landed, drove to the town and stopped for the most delicious tacos before heading to their house. We made it safely to Casa Galland. It is huge, beautiful, and on the very top of a cliff right on the coast! This is the view from the lowest patio.

As we were taking the tour of the house, Sister Galland (who I guess I should start calling Virginia) said, "why build a roof if you aren't going to put a place to jump off of it into the pool?" and she was serious! There is a flat ledge right there so that you can jump the 3 stories into the pool below. So, as soon as the tour was done, we all ran and changed into our swimming suits to give it a try. Brian had just done it. Jeff is the one up there contemplating his first jump.

Then we hiked down the cliff to the beach. The water was so blue! We went to the right side first and that sand wasn't actually sand. It was very rocky. We got rocked in the waves for an hour or so (I got a head full of the pebbled sand to prove it) and then we hiked back to get dressed for dinner.

They took us to all of their favorite places to eat. They were all SO good and some weren't serving Mexican food. Along with the delightful tacos, we had sandwiches, fabulous Greek food, and even big delicious burgers, which is what Brain is chomping into here.

At nights, we'd chill in the spa.

And the boys made a tradition of jumping off the roof into the pool every night. I jumped, but not at night. They loved it, though, and thought they were so cool, which they are to be honest!

Out getting more deliciaries! This place had the best pork sandwiches!

Here's the street that it's on. So classically Mexico.

Down on the beach exploring the tide pools.

Tried our hand at snorkeling. Brian saw fish. I didn't. I had a kind of leaky mask and it was really wavy, so I just got motion sick and stopped trying after about 5 minutes.

Then Brian and I took off to explore the beach. The others went back to the house, but we wandered for a good hour and a half. We drew sand pictures...

....found all sorts of dried out crustaceans.......

....tons of birds, crabs, lots of shells and several different types of sand (to the left is much softer, so we started go that way to play on the beach)...

.....before I was freezing and we made the long trek back and up the hill to the spa.

We hiked up and down this hill everyday to play at the beach. It was a good workout, along with the morning exercise the Gallands had us doing at 7 AM. Ya, they really haven't changed. There were fortunately stairs that made it much easier.

The beautiful shot looking down the beach and back to their house on the cliff. It's the white one on the right side right at the top. I love this picture of the Venables walking down the beach!

Hey look! I actually was at the beach, too.

Night time roof jump caught in action.

Our last afternoon there. :( We had a fabulous time waking up to the breeze wafting through our screen door and the waves crashing, eating the best food, relaxing on the fabulous patios like this one that was right outside our room, playing on the beach, jumping from the roof, even being up early to exercise and hiking up and down the cliff was enjoyable actually. It was sad to say good bye, but I was starting to miss the boy boys.

Back on the plane. On our way to stop in Tucson to go through customs, I got to be the one to sit in the jump seat. It was really interesting to see all the amazing technology that goes into an airplane. I've never been afraid of flying, but having seen all the back-ups that they have, I feel even less afraid. I got to be there to watch them land the plane. It was thrilling.

Then we landed back in cold, snowy Provo at 5 PM on Friday March 2nd. Ugh! It was so cold after having spent the week on the beach. That was no fun. But the Bowles brought the boys down to meet us (so that we could keep heading South from there, seeing as Brian had a test the next morning) and that was fun to see my babies only 10 minutes after landing. We drove home and made it back before it was too late, about 10, which was good because Brain was up early for his test, yes even on Saturday. It was a fabulous much needed break!

I'm Still Alive, I Promise

OK. So I know it seems like I've died or fallen off the face of the earth or been abducted by aliens, but I haven't. I'm still here. I have now had officially no camera whatsoever for a month or so. None. So the only pictures I've been able to get are when Cristina kindly lets me use her camera. It's been very nice of her to be our photographer! I just haven't gotten those pictures from her yet. So, I have nothing to post until I remember to get them loaded up on my computer the next time she's here. I will have TONS of catching up to do, but in a week or so. Brian and I got randomly invited to go to Mexico with our mission president and his wife and a few other missionaries and their wives! I can't believe it! Still. And we're flying out tomorrow. Good news, though. We got a little extra cash and finally bought a new camera. Just in time too, because I would have died if I had to do this once in a life time trip without a camera! I take lots of good pics and then when we get back, I'll post my brains out (as long as my computer cooperates, sheesh)!

Baby Girl

I still need to do my New Year's Eve post, because we actually had a lot of fun, but my batteries died and I'm waiting for some of those pictures from Cristina's camera. And since we had our big ultrasound (complete with 3D pictures), I just can't wait anymore. I'm skipping on to post the baby girl pics and then I'll go back to New Year's. Between my camera issues and my computer issues of late, blogging is a bear! But, I'm trying to hang in there and get you at least some of the good stuff. All looked good. Heartbeat, bones, brain, kidneys, stomach, etc - all in their proper place and functioning well. Good news when all is healthy. So now, here is the girl child.

It was so fun to see the 3D ultrasound! It's the first time I've had one. She even yawned while it was in 3D mode and it was precious! Looks more like Ollie's skinny chin and nose to me, but I guess we'll see for sure when she's done baking. Now let's just hope that the hair is curly, too.

Goodbye 2011

Since I've been a slacker and didn't send anyone Christmas cards or anything and have hardly kept up on the blog as good as I should, I am now going to do this year in review post. This is as good as it will get for this year. Goodbye to 2011! We've had a great year!

We have lived in this house for the whole of 2011. We've moved a lot in our still short married life and I believe that this is a first for us to not have moved at all in a year. We are so grateful to my parents for letting us live in their condo. The space is fabulous and the reduced rent they charge us is amazing!

Brian has been at school full time this year. He has worked so hard and rocked all of his semesters with A's and B's, including this most recent semester during which he had 21 credit hours! He was so busy, but we are so proud of how hard he's working in school. He also came up with the clever idea of posting a tutor ad on Craigslist and is doing so well making a little extra cash and helping people who are struggling with math and science. He really is a good tutor and likes it a lot. Brian was also released from the Young Men's presidency and moved to the 11 year old scout leader. The young men loved him so much and were so sad, but we're happy to be able to actually see him some now. And, I really needed an 11 year old scout leader so it's a double plus.

I am still serving as the 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency (over cub scouts, hence why Brian's calling was good for me, too). I feel like the one who is the biggest slacker out of all 4 of us, but I try my best and I love the kids and think that I do a pretty darn good job keeping the kids' attention when it's my turn for sharing time. The only thing new with me this year is that I went and got myself pregnant. I'm happily out of the icky stage and starting to finally catch back up on all the house work. Our third little one is due May 27, 2012 and it's a girl! We are happy to try out one of the other kind and are looking forward to her arrival. I'm also still busily trying to go through all of the random stuff of two families and organize it into a way that works for us.

Oliver has had a great year. He started preschool and loves it. He now goes Mon-Thur for 2 hours and even rides the school bus to and from preschool! He has his own ideas and suggestions and expresses them in fairly accurate complete sentences, even with correct grammer. He goes to the bathroom all by himself. He can put his shoes on alone. He's good to try doing a lot of things for himself. He is actually a very big helper to me with little tasks like moving the laundry along, unloading the dishwasher, or carrying groceries in from the car. He's sleeping much better at night, uses words more often, feeds himself fairly cleanly, and is just growing up into a full fledged grown up boy. He had his last year in nursery at Church and is starting 2012 as a Sunbeam, during which he did great yesterday.

Dexter has gone from a baby to a big boy during 2011. At the beginning of the year he was still wearing diapers full time, sleeping in a crib and talking very, very little. Now he only needs a diaper at night, decided he was too big to even take a nap, sleeps in a big boy bed, moved back into the upstairs room with his brother, and talks all the time. He has made huge verbal strides! He's gone from the baby who only said 10 or fewer words when 2011 started, to the big boy who speaks actual sentences and has a vocabulary of well over 100 words. We got Dexy into TLC this year and it has been so good for him. He has a speech therapist who comes to our house once a month and we have been doing Kindermusic once a week for the last couple of months. Both of these, along with having his brother going to preschool and leaving him to actually have to speak for himself, have turned Dexy into an all out talker. I'm so proud of him!

The other thing that was new in 2011 was that we got a couple of ferrets this year. We had 2, a white one named Frosty and a racoonish looking one named Chewie, but Frosty got sick and died. It was more sad than I thought it would be, seeing as we only had him a month or two before he passed away. Chewie is still with us and going strong. He puts up with the boys very well, and likes to get out of his cage and be curious about us and what we're doing. He loves to steal and hide plastic bags, small stuffed balls, and shoes.

We love being in the St. George sunny weather. We've had so much fun this year hiking the Dixie rocks, playing at the splashpad, being able to go to the park year round, and having a summer pass at Sand Hallow aquatic center. The boys and I have also loved story time Fridays at 11 AM at the city library this year. My parents sold us their Camry for a whole dollar before they moved to Nebraska this year and it has been a great second car. It's so nice for Brian to get where he needs to go and for the boys and I to still be able to get out of the house or run needed errands. Everyone has been fairly happy and healthy this year. Our only major issue this year was Dexy getting stitches back in July. We also got to go to Disneyland this year which was awesome, but you all know that because it just happened. We now say goodbye to 2011 and look forward to another great year in 2012!!!

Christmas