Da Jazz....

It's Bailey's Moving and Storage's party with the Jazz! This is the first year I have been able to go because most of the time I have lessons to teach. Mike is in Chicago for the 2nd time this month and had to miss it. His parents came last year, so he invited them again this year. Only Jim was able to come, but it was great to have him there! He really liked it and loved watching the kids play.

It was kind of fun to introduce Jim to Spencer, Kevin and Barry (the owners) and hear them tell him how much they love Mike and how much Mike does for them and their company and how they can't run the business without him and how valuable he is to them.

We are so proud of Mikey!Here are Sydney & Brandon warming up! I don't have as many pictures of Amanda, but I took a lot of video. I just can't ever get my videos to load on this blog.....
The Jazz players were Devin Harris and Gordon Hayward. The guy in the middle is Nate and he was the emcee and host. This was a Q&A. The players were really cute about answering questions and it was fun to listen to their perspective as NBA players.

Gordon Hayward - he said it was a blessing to play for the Jazz and that they know how to do things right! (B asked his favorite color - blue)
Devin Harris (Sydney asked how old he is - 28yrs-and B asked his favorite color-red)
The kids were broken into 4 groups so they could rotate through 4 skill stations.

Learning with Gordon...

Sydney wanted Brandon in her group. So, he was a foot shorter than everyone else and hasn't played before. Sydney was so cute with him. The players were also. They made him try about 10 times in a row to make a basket at the first rotation! He didn't make it...but he didn't cry!

Amanda 'dribbling' at the 'dribbling skills' rotation!

Amanda did not like me taking her picture. No surprise there!

Brandon did great! Grandpa and I think he needs to start basketball. I'm not sure if he's ever really played with the basketball much. He made huge improvement from the beginning of the clinic to the end! Way to go, B!Sydney did really well on this 'passing drills' station!

Hi cute Sydney!

Amanda and Brytin Jones (Spencer's daughter)

Amanda is in the shirt with the orange Allied vans on it. This is Gordon Haywood bringing his group in for a 'go team'

Hey bud!

Brandon is at the back of the line. I just thought it was cute how he is peeking around to see Devin.

Two peas in a pod!

This is at the end where they had Devin and Gordon 'play' against each other....like who could make the first 3 pointer and the first half court shot. Devin won both times and gave his 'team' the kids on his side of the court high fives! Sydney and B were in this group. Amanda had picked Gordon. Gordon did dunk the basketball though. That was cool!

We got professional pictures taken with both players. I say 'we' because Mike said his Dad and I should jump in the group picture. The kids a 'box lunch' afterward and then we headed home! It was fun to have Grandpa there and we are grateful to Baileys for letting the kids hang out.

Go Jazz!

DARE Graduation

Today was a busy day for our kids. Amanda had DARE Graduation. This is their guest speaker, Bradon Godfrey from the Utah football team. He will be playing for Baltimore in the NFL. He gave them a great talk and told them that their thoughts become actions and that their actions, whether good or bad, will influence other people's lives. He gave them a couple of stories that helped them to decide to be a influence for good! He was cute enough to sign shirts, etc. and take pictures. We have (l to r) Brinley Memmott, Sydney, Bradon, Amanda, Liz Wilson and Maddy Lloyd.
The 6th graders sang a song for us. Here is Amanda trying not to look at us because we were trying to make her laugh.
Hi cute girl!
There were too many speakers and the program went too long, but the kids were excited. I had Sydney and Brandon with me and Brandon was SO bored and hungry. He was whining for about and hour and a half and it was really wearing on me! :) I took the kids to lunch, along with Liz Wilson because her parents are out of town. We met up with Mardee & Susie Eames, Mel & Maddy Lloyd and Meridee & Julia Larsen.

Here is Bradon during his speech.

L to R: Bradon, Chief of Police for Kaysville, Officer Wilco (DARE officer-the kids loved him!) and Mayor Hiatt of Kaysville. When the kids received their diplomas, they had to shake all the teachers hands and all of these guys, too. It's a great program and we are proud of Amanda for taking it seriously. Good job, Panda!

More, more, more....

Later on Saturday, we decided to visit La Jolla. Ok, want some pictures of beautiful scenery? Goodness.....we strolled along the ocean, walked into town and had lunch at a local Mexican place and just hung out! So great!

We walked along the sidewalk and along the park and ran into a full - on Baywatch rescue! Some lifeguards had to go out and rescue some people who were snorkeling who got out past the break and couldn't get back. So exciting! There were also many seals sunning themselves along the beaches. One beach was closed because the seals were there....another was a shared-use beach, meaning people and seals share the beach. There was major protesting going on there. It gives me a headache to think about it, so if you want the full story, ask me.

I won't be documenting here.

Fun to watch them waddle up the beach from the ocean

Mama seal and baby coming up on the beach to nurse

We watched the sunset in La Jolla. It was getting cold, but the sunset was beautiful! There was a couple getting married - same wedding date as us - at sunset. It was gorgeous....

That night we went into the Gaslamp District and ate at Taka hoping the sushi was good! It was good. The rolls were huge and we couldn't finish! We walked around for awhile, but then got tired of getting bumped into by people who had been drinking for a couple of hours and decided to go back to our lovely hotel and watched 'The King's Speech' (awesome movie if you want to know). Before we went back, however, we drove to the San Diego Temple!

Beautiful House of God

It's beautiful and it reminds me of a palace or a castle.

We woke up on Sunday...time to go home. Sad to be leaving such a great get-away. We got ready and then drove to Imperial Beach. We walked along the pier, watched surfers and then ate lunch at a surf shop. It could have been a great lunch, but the guy must love pesto because our paninis were swimming in it and we just couldn't finish....bummer. Cute 'village.' I took a picture that looks 'into' Mexico!

Mexico is the outline of mountains behind the beach houses/hotels.

Like I said in my last post, Mike had to fly to Chicago and I flew to Vegas and then home. We are anxious to go take the kids to this fun place! (Oh no....now it's in writing!)

It was a great anniversary weekend! Thank you, Mikey! I love you!

More San Diegoooooo

We got up Saturday and walked along Silver Strand beach and did some seashell hunting. It's a great souvenir for landlocked kids! We found so many varieties of amazing shells! Soon, we were looking for whole sand dollars and ended up finding 19! People were stopping us as we walked along the beach asking to see them!

These next pictures are out of order, obviously, but demonstrating my point of how the landlocked kids like checking out the seashells! This is when I got home on Sunday night about 10:30pm. The kids were all up and ready to see me! It was a fun homecoming! Mike had to fly to Chicago Sunday, so we said good-bye at the airport and he flew to Chicago while I flew to Vegas and hung out for 2 hours and then home.....it was sad to say good-bye after a fun, fun weekend. I was excited to see the kiddos!

Amanda didn't want her picture taken.....

Ahhhh, San Diegooooo....

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary on March 12th. Mike was supposed to be on a golf trip with his buddies, but he decided that he wanted to take me on a vacation and we ran away to San Diego! Love that man!

It was a short, but very sweet trip. Our vacations have always been go, go, go...see, do...etc. But, this weekend we just wanted to hang out and walk on the beach! It was so fantastic!

Was is coincidence that we went to San Diego when that almost became our home a couple of months ago? Maybe, maybe not. It is a beautiful place! Mike kept asking me, 'Why didn't we move here?' :) It's ok, we know we made the right choice.

So, thanks to our parents for helping us with babysitting pretty last minute...we were off! We had to leave for the airport at 5:30am Friday morning. Thank goodness our children are responsible and willing to get themselves off to school. It's kind of fun when your kids get older and a little more independent. That doesn't mean that I want them to grow up anymore, though.

When we woke up, it was to the news of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Then, there was a tsunami warming for the entire west coast of the United States. Well, we had a short layover in Oakland and so by the time we got to San Diego, the warning had passed and locals said they didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

We picked up our rental car and heading toward Coronado! We stopped for lunch at Hotel del Coronado and walked around the hotel and grounds. Beautiful place! Then, we took off our shoes and walked on the beach forever! We played in the surf and Mike even gave me a big hug which was so sweet until I realized the waves were rolling in and we got soaked up to the knees!

It was fun!

This guy made the most amazing sand castle ever! He also charges for pictures....good thing I took this while we were far away and he wasn't looking....

The sand on the beach

The sand on our feet!

We later headed to our hotel...Loews Coronado. We stayed there 13 years ago when I won a trip (for being a good employee) with AT&T. It's a great hotel and we really enjoyed it. We went out for dinner to Peohee's....it's a place on Coronado Bay and had great views.....the food wasn't the best, but good enough. We drove around San Diego, did a little shopping, and enjoyed our time together!

More to come...