November

I can't seem to remember most of the activities that took place during the month of November... go figure, it was already 3 months ago!... the first week or two, the boys and I were sick. We visited the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point A LOT during the month- I think we may have even visited the Aquarium in Sandy once or twice too. Spencer started working for a new company in Salt Lake the first week in November, so this meant he had to commute each and every day of the week the 40 minute drive to and from downtown Salt Lake; he carpooled with a friend of his who also worked for the same company, so it made the commute a little bit more enjoyable, but still he hated spending that extra 1 1/2, sometimes 2 hours, every day stuck driving in the car.

Thanksgiving dinner with The Campbell's
We were going to be gone the week of Thanksgiving so I planned ahead and offered to host Thanksgiving Dinner for Spencer's family at our house on Sunday November 16Th. I LOVE hosting parties and get togethers, especially for family, and I actually enjoy cooking BIG meals too- so preparing Thanksgiving dinner was right up my alley. This was the 4Th year I've made Thanksgiving dinner for Spencer's family and maybe I'm just tooting my own horn, but it seems like it gets easier and better year after year. My in-laws took the boys the day before the dinner so that I could get all my shopping done and food preparations made with a bit more ease; they even let Noah spend the night and go to church with them the following day so that I would have 1 less little person to distract me Sunday afternoon while I was cooking.

I have no pictures to show from our Thanksgiving dinner- would you believe me if I said I was too busy stirring and pouring to even think about snapping a picture of the Thanksgiving spread?! (please note the sarcasm), but if you must know what we ate, here's a list of the things that were on the menu... turkey (I used a Chilean rub for the turkey that my sister Trish told me about that she learned from her sister in law who's actually from Chile. The recipe is DELISH and by injecting the turkey with orange juice it ALWAYS stays so moist!), garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, homemade cranberry citrus sauce, french green beans with bits of bacon topped with slivered almonds, candied yams and miniature pumpkin pie tarts (I don't actually know whether the mini pumpkin pies I made were any good- the shell was made from flour so I couldn't taste them, but I thought the idea was super cute- mini 4 inch pumpkin pies baked in mini tart pans served personally to each guest).
I LOVE EVERYTHING about THANKSGIVING, particularly being with family.

SPENCER'S 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Isn't this picture precious?! Spencer was either 1 or 2 years old in this picture.

Spencer turned 30 on Friday November 21st. He warned me at least a good month or two before his birthday not to try and plan any surprise birthday parties for him since he HATES to have a fuss made over his birthday, so I kept his wishes and he had a very BORING birthday- it's not my fault- any one who knows me well, knows I like to throw parties and if it were up to me his 30Th would have matched some of those sweet 16 celebrations you see spoiled rich kids throwing on MTV (not really- but it would have been a P.A.R.T.E.E.!) blame Spencer for being a PARTY POOPER and not wanting a party. Truth is, after work that evening, we packed the car, buckled the kids in their car seats and took off on the road to San Diego! We were going to spend the week of Thanksgiving enjoying sunshine and fun with our family in San Diego.

The BREAK IN...
We didn't leave our place in American Fork until nearly 7pm on Friday evening; It was going to be a long drive but Spencer and I prefer to drive at night while there's less traffic on the road and so the boys could sleep most of the ride. By about 1 a.m.- just as we passed Las Vegas we both started to get a little drowsy (remember Spencer worked all day and hadn't had a chance to catch a nap) so when we reached a little town about an hour south of Las Vegas we decided to stop off, get a room and catch some zzz's (I can't remember the name of the town, I think it was Nevada Landing cuz we stayed in some room just off from the casino). We parked the car not far from the entrance to the hotel/casino and with in view point from our hotel window- took only the diaper bag in with us and packed all 3 of the boys up to the room with us. Can I just say "YUCK!"- this motel/hotel, whatever it was, was so disgusting, but I was so tired I couldn't see straight- my eyes were practically CROSS EYED- I didn't dare spend a minute examining the room for every gross detail; I tried not to think about what kinda fungus hid in the bathroom or what the comforter was stained with; we ALL crashed immediately (Noah and the baby sleeping with me- Ian slept with Spencer).

Cohen woke up early that following morning just before 6; Noah got up just after that, but just laid there in bed with me while I tried to come to. Around 6:30a.m. I heard a car alarm go off... my first instinct was to JUMP out of bed and look out the window to make sure it wasn't our car- (not that we even set an alarm on our car, but sometimes if the door to it is opened but hasn't been unlocked by the actual car key, an automatic alarm will sound- it's only ever sounded once before and that happened when I reached in through an open window to open the car door) but I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed and look- I was still a little disoriented from the lack of sleep I'd gotten. The car alarm eventually went off, but then it sounded again. This time, that little voice inside me was URGING me to get out of bed and look, but I chose to ignore it and somehow fell back asleep for another 10 or 15 minutes before the boys jumped on me and TOTALLY woke me. I got myself and the boys ready and by 7:30 we had dropped our key off in the trashy convenient "key box" and we headed out to our car. On our way out to the car we joked in the parking lot about our cruddy accommodations for the evening- despite having not gotten a ton of rest during the night- both Spencer and I were in pretty good moods for such an early start to our day, that is until we got to our car...

Spencer buckled Noah and Ian in their car seats while I went around to the passenger side of our car and put Cohen in his car seat. I then went to open my door- the front passenger door, but before doing so, I took notice to all the broken glass on the ground beside my door. I had two initial reactions: at first I fancied over the way in which all the broken glass looked so PRETTY- it sparkled on the black asphalt and reminded me of jewels (good grief- I KNOW I sound totally ridiculous) and in some canny way, it reminded me of the ocean (if you've seen broken windshield glass, you'll know that the pieces are bluish, and for some reason this particular shade of blue reminds me of the ocean), then after that first thought, I remember saying something along the lines like "oh that sucks- someone must had gotten in a car accident right next to our car"- that thought came just as I went to open my door and I realized the broken glass was broken glass from our car window!!! The entire front passenger window was missing- it had been broken into thousands of tiny little pieces! I was IN SHOCK! Not only was broken glass on the asphalt next to the car, but it was also ALL OVER my seat, on the floor, on the drivers seat and pieces of it had even flown back to the back of the car! The glove box was open, personal items of ours had been tossed out of place and the middle console in the car was also open. Part of the dash was torn off our car and our VERY EXPENSIVE ($1800) after market Touch System Radio, I-POD player, Movie player, and GPS System was missing!!!

This picture was taken after I'd already tampered with the crime scene evidence and did a little cleaning.

My initial shock turned into instant anger- I was PISSED- I WAS FURIOUS! FURIOUS THAT SOMEONE WOULD HAVE THE NERVE TO VANDALIZE OUR PROPERTY AND SMASH OUR CAR WINDOW TO PIECES JUST TO STEAL OUR RADIO! What made me even MORE upset was remembering the car alarm I heard going off earlier in the morning and realizing it was our car alarm sounding to warn us and I could have gotten up to stop and scare the person off but I was too tired to look!!! UGG!!! (I still think about the event and wander if I had gotten up the first time I heard the car alarm, what would I have done had I seen the thief??? Could I have yelled out the window to scare him off- would that really do the trick, or better yet, maybe I would have tried to chuck the iron out the window at him... then sometimes I think maybe it's better off we didn't try and stop him/her- what if the robber was armed with a weapon? things could have gotten pretty ugly. I just wish I could have seen the person who stole from us- I could have shown him/her what UGLY was by unleashing my fury!)

Following being upset and wordless for a few minutes, I began to panic... here we were stuck on a road trip with all three of the boys buckled into their car seats- we had NO window and still had another 6 hour drive ahead of us and broken glass EVERYWHERE all through out our car! Nothing but this tiny casino/hotel was around and surely they didn't have anyone on hand to replace our window. Even if we drove to San Diego, there's no way we could spend an ENTIRE WEEK there without a passenger window- it would be an open invitation to have ANYONE there come and steal our car when we went to the beach, the mall or Disneyland.

To my surprise Spencer kept his composure pretty cool- he took a sec to gather his thoughts and then told me to wait by the car with the boys while he went inside to talk to hotel management. There was an older couple parked directly in front of us who had gone out to their car the same time we found our messy situation- they too saw the mess we were in... they saw the broken glass (how could they not- it was EVERYWHERE- I'll bet even a piece of glass probably landed on the hood of their car), overheard our disbelief, and saw me about break down all while I had three babies in the car- but they did NOTHING of the sort to offer any help while we tried to access the problem. The wife just watched us while her husband packed their luggage in their car and together they got in their car, took one last look and drove away. PEOPLE!!! I was furious! Why couldn't they just be good Samaritans and offer us some help when it was so obvious we needed it... Even if they couldn't be of any use- it would still had been nice to receive the offer. I bet they were counting their blessings as they drove away that it wasn't their car window and personal items that were damaged or stolen.

When Spencer returned, he had a hotel security guard following him who surveyed the break in and then called Las Vegas Police to drive out for assistance.

While we waited for the Police to arrive, I tried my best to keep the boys entertained- fed them a few snacks for breakfast and did my best to clear the glass off of my seat (the police officer on the scene later scolded me (very politely though) because I tampered with their crime scene evidence before they got there- oops! I wasn't aware I wasn't supposed to touch anything; growing up in San Diego my family had lots of cars stolen and my parents house was broken into at least 3 times, and at the time of each robbery the police would just tell my parents over the phone to take pictures and file a complaint with our insurance company- yeah- I know, crappy San Diego police).

While Spencer filled out the police report with the Officer on scene, I had to look through the car to see if any other items other than the radio was taken. Nothing- except for our copy of "Kung Fu Panda" that was in the video player; the remote control that worked the system and a bag of Funyuns and Beef Jerky we had stashed in the same row as all the other snacks - just below where the boys were sitting (oh yeah, and later in the afternoon after we'd already driven 5 hours or so away from the casino, I realized the thief also stole an old wallet of mine from the middle console- luckily it only had old receipts from grocery shopping in it, a few Cafe Rio punch cards, and a $50 gift card to Champs Sports Spencer got 3 Christmas' ago and still had never used- SUCKER! i bet the thief thought he/she was getting cash and credit cards when they snatched the wallet- like I'd be stupid enough to leave my wallet in our car that was parked outside of a casino). We were EXTREMELY LUCKY the thief thought only to take what he/she did cuz he/she could have made off with a lot more in valuables- we had another portable DVD player sitting under my front passenger seat that was left untouched; the thief took a BRAND NEW i-pod player out of the glove box in order to disconnect the radio system it was hooked up to and JUST LEFT IT on the passenger seat of the car; while the thief was looking in the middle console for the remote control to the radio system, he/she pulled a book of PERSONAL BLANK CHECKS out and also JUST LEFT THEM on the front seat of the car!; he/she also left behind all of our movies- I had at least 20 Disney movies just sitting up front next to the dash that were left untouched- if the thief did their math he/she could have gotten at least $10 a movie, that's $200 in cash; it was obvious the thief poked around in the back of our car because our luggage was tossed out of place but even though they looked in the back, they took nothing that was back there; THE THIEF JUST LEFT BEHIND OUR LAPTOP (easily worth over a thousand dollars) and THE CAMERA BAG, THAT CONTAINED OUR NEW $900 NIKON DIGITAL CAMERA, a $700 SONY DVD DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA and a $200 CANNON DIGITAL CAMERA!!! So in other words, this thief, who ever he/she is, was smart cuz they knew exactly what they wanted (OUR AFTERMARKET STEREO SYSTEM) and found it in the light of day, in our car, surrounded by hundreds of others at a busy podunk hotel/casino in a parking lot guarded by security cameras and TOOK WHAT THEY WANTED, but this thief also has to be the DUMBEST THIEF BECAUSE THEY LEFT BEHIND TONS OF OTHER VALUABLES IN OUR CAR!!! I'm not complaining- in fact I'm grateful the person did a sloppy job of burglarizing our vehicle- I would have been COMPLETELY MORTIFIED if the thief made off with all the extra things I mentioned.

The incident threw our travel plans off by about two hours. Lucky us (in such an unlucky situation)- the hotel had one of their men clean the glass out of our car with a shop-vac and they also brought us out some cardboard and duct tape which we used to tape up my side of the door where the missing window was; we drove the rest of the distance to San Diego with the cardboard covering my window. The view from my side of the car was pretty boring; Spencer and I laughed at least 10 or 12 times about how ghetto it must had looked to those people we passed on the freeway. My dad arranged to have a guy meet me at my parents house as soon as we got there to replace our car window- who knew that in the big city TRAVELING ROADSIDE WINDOW REPAIR COMPANIES existed?!?! I was thrilled to get glass back on the front passenger window- it only set us back $180... I'll have to thank the robber for that added expense.

As an update to the break in; apparently we were the first ones in over 6 years to have our car broken into in that town- it's hard to believe we were the first and that break ins don't happen more often there (personally I think everything about Vegas and the cities outside of Vegas are a bit shady with SHADY people- I might be wrong, but I'm entitled to my opinion) but whatev, we won't be stopping in that little town EVER AGAIN! The police on scene were worried that the guy who broke into our car was probably high on METH- what else would drive him/her to break into a car in day light, in a crowded parking lot at a busy hotel and run the risk of getting caught on camera- and oh, the METH thief stole a bag of our Funyuns and beef jerky- apparently people on METH always have the munchies I'm told; let's hope it settled their cravings before they had to go out and do another hit. Also, the cops were able to get some good prints on the thief but still, we've gotten no word about whether or not he's been caught. Lastly, our insurance company is LAME! Since the radio was after market, they only refunded us $600, part of which was for the broken window and damage done to our dash. UGHHH, so frustrating!!! We just barely replaced the stolen radio- we decided to replace it with a less expensive radio and just do the drop down movie player in the back for the boys- we wouldn't want to make ourselves a target to thiefs again- no sense in getting the same radio system in case the same thief decides to break into our car again next time we're in Nevada.

P.S. I'm pretty positive the break in WAS NOT A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE either Spencer or I could have ever anticipated; he/she pulled that surprise off pretty successfully- STUPID THIEF!

OUR WEEK IN SAN DIEGO

After a busy/chaotic morning outside of Vegas, we arrived in San Diego later that afternoon. The boys were really behaved during the BORING car ride from VEGAS to SAN DIEGO- they all just either slept or ate; the last hour or so Noah and Ian started to get a little antsy so I let them watch a movie on the little portable movie player I purchased the day before from Toys R US.

Don't worry, ours isn't pink, it's blue...

That afternoon just so happened to be the same afternoon BYU played The University of Utah in football, so after just barely arriving in San Diego on time before the kick off, Spencer had me drop him off in Mission Valley at a sports bar called SEAU'S where he met my brother in law Victor; while Spencer followed the game on the television at the sports bar, I left to run over to my parents house to have our car window replaced, and then followed my sister Janna and her kids down to La Jolla Shores to meet up with my other sister Tricia and all 8 of her kids who were also visiting from Utah. I LOVE THE BEACH- have I ever mentioned that before- of course!... I know I have, but what I LOVE EVEN MORE IS THAT MY BOYS L.O.V.E. the beach! Noah was SO EXCITED we were at the beach- it didn't matter to him that the sun was already going down by the time we arrived (I'd forgotten how early it gets DARK in San Diego- we're talking 4:30, 5pm during the Fall)and that he couldn't go in the water that night- he just loves to play in the sand and see the waves. I decided after watching my boys play in the sand for about an hour with their cousins to pack 'em up in the car- I didn't want to risk loosing any of them in the dark there on the beach and I had an idea they were carrying around a TON of sand (no exaggeration) in their diapers- I didn't want to take the ENTIRE beach back to the hotel with me. We said our "goodbyes" to the cousins and drove off in search of food. My dad had just told me about this pizza place in U.C. (University City- near the San Diego Temple and across from U.T.C.) that makes AMAZING made to order gluten free pizzas- so I called and ordered one to pick up. I ordered their gluten free barbecue chicken pizza- IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! EXPENSIVE, ($15 for a little 6 inch pizza) but SO WORTH THE MONEY WHEN I HAVEN'T EATEN A PIZZA FOR YEARS!!! By around 7 it was time to pick Spencer up from Seau's, (the game was over- BYU LOST- momentarily Spencer was in a rotten mood over the loss- I HATE how the outcome of a sporting event has the power to sway peoples attitudes- I think I told him to "get over it"- he did) and together we drove too and checked into our room at The Four Season's Hotel (this room was much, MUCH NICER than our accommodations at The NEVADA LANDING). We brought along our portable playpen for Ian to sleep in and asked the hotel for one of their cribs (which was HUGE- we could have fit 8 babies in just that one crib); Noah slept in "THE CAGE" and Cohen slept beside our bed on the floor on his giraffe mat we brought along. Couldn't have asked for better sleeping accommodations...

The following is a breakdown of what events took place during our trip to San Diego...
Sunday November 23RD
We woke up early, got ourselves showered and dressed and met my parents, and Idrese and Paresa, at church @ 9a.m. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE 9 o'clock church- especially with 3 little kids I have to shower and dress and feed before church! We had 9 o'clock church back in Utah- I was hoping since we were on vacation that church wouldn't be until 11 at least- but no such luck. Up and early with the boys. We stayed at church just until sacrament was over then went back to the hotel to change. We had a lot we wanted to do while we were in San Diego so we decided to spend the afternoon up at the Carlsbad Outlet Mall and do some shopping. First though- we ate lunch outdoors at Ruby's; we love this little burger joint; the boys like it too because of the train that runs around along the ceiling. After lunch we stopped in at the Etnies Store- had to find some skate shoes for the boys- found a great deal too- buy one pair get one pair free- also found the boys some hats- PERFECT! We didn't get to do as much shopping that afternoon as we had wanted to, it was nap time for the boys and they started to get irritable and ornery so we took off and went back to the hotel for a nap before heading over to my parents that evening for dinner and hanging out.

Monday November 24Th
We woke up early and dropped the two younger boys (Ian & Cohen) off at my parents' house for my mom to watch, while Spencer, Noah and I went to DISNEYLAND!!!This was Noah's umpteenth time to Disneyland... Seriously! Lucky for him, even though he lives a thousand miles from it, he's been lucky enough to go to Disneyland every 6 months. Already at 3, he knows his way around the park! Did I forget to mention he's COMPLETELY fascinated by the place- every night during family prayer he thanks God for Disneyland amongst our other blessings like food and family... Silly kid.

Oh funny story... just as we were prepared to pay $20 for parking, the parking attendant let Spencer park for FREE! Why? Well, Spencer has this funny way of being INCREDIBLY FRIENDLY and OUTGOING with ALL the parking attendants or fast food servers he meets- he calls them by name, asks them how they're all doing, etc. etc.- it's just EMBARRASSING for me to watch sometimes cuz he's SO OVERLY FRIENDLY! This particular morning outside of the Disneyland Parking he was SUPER FRIENDLY to the parking attendant- I don't remember the guys name but let's just say it was "John"- the following dialogue is sort of like the one Spencer had with John- only keep in mind John didn't respond back to anything Spencer was saying.. AWKWARD. "Hey John HOWS IT GOING DUDE! You having a good day? How's it feel John to be working at the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH???? I BET YOU'RE LOVING LIFE JOHN." and apparently the parking attendant appreciated Spencer's kindness and concern so he let us park for FREE! AMAZING! We even got a great parking spot, just with in a short walking distance to the parks entrance. It was pretty busy that day though at both parks.

We had Hopper Passes so we decided to stop by California Adventure first and watch the Mickey Mouse Playhouse Show- during this visit we got MUCH better seats up front next to the puppets. After the show we watched the Muppet Show (super funny) and decided it was time to head over to Disneyland. Right as we walked into the park we spotted Mickey, so we jumped in line and Spence and Noah got their picture taken with him (I have to say- I wasn't a huge fan of Mickey's holiday sweater- it's sort of outdated don't you think?). We visited the New Orleans area first- you know, where Pirates of the Caribbean is and The Haunted Mansion. Noah usually LOVES Pirates, but this visit for some reason HE DID NOT WANT TO GO ON IT! He's been kind of scared about silly things like pirates lately and monsters. Pirates of the Caribbean is both mine and Spencer's favorite ride so we weren't about to not go just because Noah was being pouty. We jumped in line- made sure to keep him distracted as to not let him know what ride we were about to go on- at one point during our wait in line he suspected we were in line for it and began to fuss (maybe he recognized the musty smell??? I LOVE that musty smell by the way) but I managed to quiet him down by bribing him with some Starbursts. Once we were on the ride he was fine and seemed to enjoy it but once the ride ended he asked us NOT to go back on it again. We obeyed his wishes.

All of Disneyland was ALREADY decorated for Christmas, so I was excited to take Spencer through The Haunted Mansion since it was decorated in The Nightmare Before Christmas theme- Spencer had never seen it transformed and he loves The Nightmare Before Christmas. I vote that Disneyland ought to keep The Haunted Mansion decorated as The Nightmare Before Christmas house ALL YEAR ROUND.

We wanted to eat at the little restaurant that's inside The Pirates of the Caribbean- no matter what the cost was, but... we found out quickly that would be IMPOSSIBLE... the restaurant was ALREADY booked 3 MONTHS in advance!

We had a nice visit at Disneyland alone with just Noah- it was nice being able to pack lighter and take along just a single umbrella stroller instead of a double stroller.

Noah on the teacups.
On the carousel.
In front of Small World...

By the end of the night- just after we made it around to Tomorrow Land, we crossed paths with my sister Tricia, her husband Victor and all 8 of their kids; they had already been to Disneyland the entire week before us... they pulled their kids out of school a week before Thanksgiving week and stayed in their vacation rental across from Disneyland and bought season passes for their entire family so they could go every day during their two week vacation! Talk about Disneyland overload!... by the end of their vacation- their kids had seen and ridden every ride in both parks 10 or 20 times each! Noah wanted to ride the Buzz Light Year ride just once with his cousins Luke, Jake, Daniel and Alana so we did that just before leaving the park.

Noah & Alana

Spencer & one of the twins (Luke?)

Tuesday November 25TH
There are two reasons Spencer and I chose to visit San Diego during the week we did.
1. Because my mom and my sister, along with her two eldest, have school off during the week of Thanksgiving so they were free to visit with.
2. Because my mom wanted my sisters and I to come down to San Diego and SURPRISE my brother's wife, Corina, for a little Baby Shower/lunch get together. It's been YEARS since my mom and all of my sisters have been able to ALL be together for any bridal or baby shower and since my brother Jeff and his wife, were expecting their first baby after nearly 10 years of marriage, we had a reason to get together and celebrate!

It turned out really to be a surprise! Corina had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA either Celeste, Tricia or I were in town from Utah- she was only expecting to go out to lunch with my mom and my sister Janna (who both still live in San Diego). She was such a CUTE pregnant mom to be! The tiniest pregnant woman you've EVER seen!
We ate at The Cheesecake Factory in Fashion Valley. Since everyone of my sisters have children of their own and have all experienced child birth more than just once, we shared experiences with her- not to scare her but just to reassure that mothering will come naturally to her and that she and Jeff will do a FINE job parenting.
(Note: since I'm writing this post 3 months later, I'll add that Corina had her baby almost two weeks after our luncheon surprise. She gave birth to a baby girl named Tatiana Love Truesdell on Monday December 8TH; 6 pounds 8 ounces. We were surprised in the pictures my brother sent out to family to see Tatiana had light hair like her
Daddy!)Oh yeah- I almost forgot to mention; Spencer was kind enough to watch ALL 3 of the boys while I went out to lunch with my sisters and mom. He stayed back at the hotel with them where they watched movies, napped and ordered pizza and pasta. Our luncheon went MUCH, MUCH longer than I had thought it would so I didn't get back to the hotel until 6. We decided to take the boys that evening and go miniature golfing with them at The Family Fun Center. Noah understood the concept of miniature golf since he's been a few times before, but it was a struggle getting Ian to play by the rules.

Wednesday November 26TH
Since both Tricia's family and mine were in town visiting, my parents requested that we all get together in the afternoon and have a barbecue at the park near where my brother lives in Teresanta. I LOVE barbecues with my family and this occasion was NO EXCEPTION.

Before the barbecue though, Spencer and I thought we'd take the boys out to
Seaport Village and get a good walk in. We invited my niece and nephew, Paresa and Idrese, to join us. It was such a beautiful sunny day! We walked along the water by Seaport Village down to the where the boats were docked. I wanted to show Noah
The Star of India, since it looks kind of like a pirate boat and I knew Noah would appreciate seeing it. Once we arrived at the Star of India I saw that we could take a tour of the boat and four others for a small fee, so we took the tour (Spencer didn't care to look so he waited behind with Cohen and Ian). The Star of India was pretty impressive. It's the oldest boat of its kind that's still sailed around the world! It's been used as an immigrant ship, a cargo ship, but its original purpose was for spice trade. I remember meeting an OLD lady (well in her late 80's or even possibly early 90's) in Portugal during my mission, who had an old picture of a young sailor in front of The Star of India framed by her bedside; I recognized the ship since it's usually docked in the San Diego harbor and so I asked her who the young man was; she told me he was her brother who sailed for the English Navy- he was stationed on The Star of India LONG AGO and died just after his service with the English Navy.

The kids on board The Star of India... "HEEVE HO!"

Idrese, Paresa and Noah aboard the submarine with Star of India behind them.

After touring The Star of India we toured another ship- this particular ship was really old too but didn't sail any more; it had been used in movies like "Master and Commander". We got to tour an old Russian Submarine that was used in war...

Just outside the Russian Submarine

I don't think I'd ever have the likes to live on a submarine... EVER! We didn't have enough time to visit the other two ships because we had to get back to our car so we could get to the barbecue on time.

Since the barbecue was a last minute suggestion, we just decided to barbecue hamburgers... good enough for the fam. The kids all had a GREAT time playing together- it's not often my sister Janna's kids get to see mine or Tricia's kids (Celeste had already flown back up to Utah earlier in the morning so she missed the barbecue). It's been YEARS since all of my family used to ALL live in San Diego; get together and barbecues were loads of fun then, but I feel like they're MORE fun now that my own children can be part of them and since all my nieces and nephews are old enough to organize and play games of soccer or tag! SO FUN!

Noah was a bit quirky on this day... we caught him saying two funny things that made us all laugh hysterically... the first of which he said just after my sister Janna removed his hat from his head... Noah turned to her and asked with great concern, "Does my hair look okay?"... Are you kidding me?!!! My three year old cares to know about how his hair looks?! GOOD GRIEF...
The 2ND incident happened just after Ian accidentally fell to the ground. It looked like his cousin Daniel may have pushed him down since he was standing over him, but I saw it happen from the corner of my eye and saw that Ian fell all on his own. Well, a couple of adults jumped to conclude that it was Daniel's fault (poor innocent Daniel) and Noah overheard the commotion.. so what did Noah do?... Noah ran right over to Daniel and with all seriousness looked him in the eyes and said "No! don't push Ian... Now he fall and NOW HE'S DEAD." Dead???!!! Where on earth?!!! DRAMA! ... at least he was sticking up for his younger brother.

Our barbecue was cut short by both the ' darkness and the rain. It had started to sprinkle on us earlier in the afternoon, but the rain came and went, but once it got dark it started to POUR. We packed our cars, my sister Trish took her kids and Janna's kids to the movies that night, but Spencer and I chose to drop our boys off at my parents' house again so we could go back up to the Carlsbad Outlet Mall to do some more shopping.

We arrived at the Mall just before 6 but ALREADY most of the stores had closed! Spencer really wanted to shop at the Ralph Lauren store and just our luck, that was the one store in the WHOLE mall that stayed open an hour later than every one else. We also wanted to shop at the Sun Diego Surf, Skate and Snowboard Shop (my favorite clothing store in San Diego to visit while I'm down there) but the one at the mall was closed. I called around to find out the store in P.B. near where my parents live was still open so after Spencer was done at the Polo store we headed to Sun Diego in P.B. I shopped to my little hearts content there! Seriously I LOVE this store- it has all the great brands like Volcom, Hurley, Roxy, etc. and so much more- it's a million times better than any skate shop or Pacific Sunwear store in Utah, so I wait to do most of my clothes shopping till I make trips like this to San Diego to do all my shopping. When we were done shopping we stepped outside the store to find it POURING DOWN RAIN!!! Rain is so UNUSUAL for San Diego, especially HEAVY RAINFALL, but when it does pour rain there I LOVE IT! I didn't mind getting DRENCHED on my way out to the car.

Thursday November 27TH-a.k.a. Turkey Day
I feel this needs some explaining to do... you see, my parents weren't originally intending to stay in town for the Thanksgiving Holiday until they found out both mine and Tricia's family would be in San Diego. Tricia was spending Thanksgiving Day with her in-laws, the Huhem's, so it was just going to be Spencer, the boys and I over at my parents with my sister Janna and her 3 kids. We'd already celebrated Thanksgiving back in Utah and I'm not a big fan of turkey so I told my mom to relax and not go to the trouble of making us Thanksgiving dinner; instead we ate some yummy chicken soup she made.

Earlier in the day we tried to take some family pictures down at La Jolla Cove. The boys didn't really corporate as much as I wish they would have; we were able to get just a couple of good single portraits of the Noah- but most of the family pics had one child crying or looking away from the camera... oh well... at least they had fun being at the beach- still they didn't get a chance to play in the water though- it nearly broke Noah's heart.

Did I forget to mention how SUNNY is what was down at the beach?!
There was ALWAYS one kid who refused to corporate- usually Ian.
Noah Townsend
Ian Spencer
Cohen Phoenix
This was the "BEST" family pic we took that afternoon- of course none of the boys were really paying attention to the camera...
Oh well...

Friday November 28TH... a.k.a. Black Friday
Even though there are some FABULOUS places in San Diego to shop, I wasn't about to try and fight the crowds on Friday... Generally I HATE BLACK FRIDAY- I don't usually care what kind of deals are out there- the madness of it all is not worth saving an extra buck. I made an exception though-I woke up early, just before 7, drove down to Mission Beach to buy a watch for myself and Spencer from Sun Diego (while we were shopping there on Wednesday evening one of the workers tipped us off and told us that they were going to have sales 30% until 9am Friday morning and they weren't expecting a crowd at their store, unlike their same stores in the mall, since the Mission Beach store is right on the beach) so, I succumbed to the luring sale and I got in and out of the store with both our watches in just less than 5 minutes and I was so stoked cuz the discount saved us some big bucks.

After getting back to the hotel that morning, we got the boys up and dressed, dropped Cohen off at my parents to be babysat, and we drove up to LEGOLAND in Carlsbad. I'd never been to LEGOLAND before and had never thought to take our boys there before since I'd heard the first few years it was open that it wasn't much fun; but then, I saw the Gosselin family from TLC's "John and Kate plus 8" show visit LEGOLAND during a trip to San Diego and it looked like fun, so in October I started planning to take a trip there. I was hoping the new aquarium would be open but it wasn't- bummer.

My dad gave us a few discount tickets he received from his work, and Spencer was EXTRA nice to the guy working the ticket booth to the park so he let us get Noah in for FREE! saving us an extra $65 on admission! I just can't BELIEVE how much money Spencer's KINDNESS saved us during our trip to San Diego!

LEGOLAND is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! I have no words to explain it other than it's AMAZING! I never even really liked Lego's growing up as a child, but the sculptures we saw at the park made out of Lego's nearly made me want to start building with Lego's. It was AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING! Everything there was made from Lego's- LITERALLY!

New York City, built completely out of Legos!

In many ways I'd have to say LEGOLAND is WAY MORE FUN for little boys than Disneyland! We spent ALL day there but still didn't have the time to do or see everything.

LEGOLAND=AWESOME EXPERIENCE

Ian driving a Lego car
Noah as a Knight
The HOT Lego policeman on duty I nearly mistakened for being a real person.
Swallowed by a Lego SHARK!
Mom & Noah on Coast Guard Patrol
Playing with the Sea Lions
Noah & Spencer on an African Safari
Check out those ZEBRAS!
Ian was literally ready to JUMP out of his little plane! Thank goodness I flew with him so I could stop him!
This entire dragon was made out of Lego's. AMAZING!

After LEGOLAND, that evening we met up with my parents, my sister Janna and her kids, and Jeff and Corina and ate at my family's favorite Mexican Restaurant near Montgomery Field where my dad used to teach and fly planes from, Casa Machado. Again it was NICE to enjoy good food in the company of family.

Saturday November 29TH
We woke up early, checked out of our hotel by 9 and we were on the road headed back to Utah by 10 just after a little stop off at my parents for breakfast. It was bittersweet leaving San Diego- although I've lived in Utah now for nearly 5 years, I will ALWAYS consider San Diego as home HOME. There is SO MUCH about the place I just LOVE that Utah will NEVER be able to offer me or my children- thank goodness I still have family living there that I can use as an excuse to go and visit whenever I miss the place. There is so much I want my children to learn about and experience whenever I visit San Diego- our little vacations there are ALWAYS just too short to see and visit everyone, family and friends, and visit all the fun places. I told myself before this trip that we were going to enjoy swimming in the hotel pool since it's not often we get to swim in pools around here in Utah, especially since it's Winter, but it NEVER happened. I also told myself we'd spend EVERY DAY at the beach but we only made it to the beach twice during our trip and it was just for short visits. It's only been 3 months since our visit to San Diego but ALREADY I'm itching to GO BACK! No wonder it's hard for us to take vacations anywhere else but San Diego!

To sum everything up about our trip and the month of November, the trip back home was ENJOYABLE. Yes, I capitalized "enjoyable". The boys were excellent travelers; they just slept, ate or watched the scenery from the car. (Tip worth mentioning for parents of young children: Spencer and I picked up a few extra maps from both amusement parks we visited during our vacay and Noah and Ian spent HOURS during the car ride home looking over the maps. I think I might try and collect maps from now on from any park we go to and make the boys a book of maps- it should keep their busy little minds OCCUPIED for some time). No one even bothered to ask for a movie during the 11 hour drive. I was happy I had a window to look out of instead of staring at cardboard. It was a bit awkward not having music to listen to, but we did a lot of talking and surprisingly after 4 years of marriage and 3 kids later it's interesting what I still didn't about my husband.

I BEGGED Spencer to drive down the strip in Las Vegas- I'd only been down it once before and that one time was late at night when I was only partially awake.... so... he made the DETOUR in order to drive me down the Las Vegas strip so I could "oooh" and "ahhhh" over all the sights. That wasn't so much my reaction though- after about 5 minutes on the road I'd seen ENOUGH! THE VEGAS STRIP LOOKED LIKE PARTS OF TRASHY MEXICO I'VE SEEN!!! I wanted off the strip ASAP, but it took us nearly 2 HOURS to get to the next freeway exit! I had seen more of Las Vegas than I really wanted to by that point. I'm really curious as to why ANYONE would EVER want to LIVE IN LAS VEGAS???!!! Let alone visit it?! I might be able to understand how a trip to Vegas would be enjoyable if I could stay in a fancy luxury suite in The Venetian or something of the sort, with out EVER HAVING TO LEAVE my room, but what percent of the tourists can afford to do that?! From now on I am POSITIVE, Vegas will NEVER be one of my "destination vacations"- NEVER!

Enough said- November was FUN, especially our family trip. Family trips aren't always the most romantic or relaxing trips (not with 3 babies screaming for food and for a diaper change @ 7 in the morning) but they're definitely FUN and MEMORABLE!