Ben and Barbara's wedding, Part III

Two weekends ago we left all our kids home with a wonderful young couple from church and drove up to the Oakland temple for Ben and Barbara's sealing. From start to finish, it was an incredible weekend. I got my own endowments at the Oakland temple 13 years ago, and it was wonderful to be back. It rained both times. It's up on a big hill, and they tell my it has a beautiful view of San Francisco. There's nothing like being with my family in the sealing room. As always, the spirit was very strong, and I was just so happy for Ben and Barbara and the eternal family they are starting. Now all nine kids have been married to their sweethearts in the temple. What a blessing!

The rain did slow down long enough for pictures afterwards.

Then we went to Fenton's for lunch. Apparently it's where everyone there goes after temple trips. It's also the ice cream shop the old guy takes the little boy to at the end of the movie Up. The food was really good, and we especially loved this homemade caramel sauce and toffee almond crunch ice cream. Yum!

Josh came from Maryland. Megan stayed home with their kids. We missed you Megan!

Jen and Uche came from Oklahoma. Aaron and Marrisse came from Utah.

Ellen and Jason came from Hawaii. They've been able to stay here for 3 weeks, and we've loved hanging out with them.

Anna has grown up so much in the 10 months they've been in Hawaii. But she and Brennan are still best friends, and they've spent every possible minute playing together.

The two siblings missing were Maryruth (who just had a baby) and Emily (who went to help Maryruth after she had her baby). We missed you guys, but how wonderful for you. Welcome to the family, Makayla Grace!

Afterwards we went shopping and had all kinds of success. Kristen and I don't have many stores where we live, so we were in heaven at Ikea and Crate and Barrel outlet in Berkeley.

I'll end this post with some classic laughing pictures from the other end of the table. I don't know what Josh was saying, but he sure had them all cracking up down there.

I love my family!

Temple Day

We went down to Los Angeles last weekend for stake temple day. As usual we rented an apartment and took turns watching the kids. I went to the 6:30 A.M. session. I love waking up early and walking to the temple when it's still dark outside and the temple is all lit up. I'm always amazed how many people are there at that hour. It happened to be a Tongan session, and wow! there are a lot of Tongans in the L.A. area. I had some things I needed to pray about, but mostly I really needed a good spiritual lift. Sundays have been so busy for me with Dave up on the stand that I haven't felt like I've gotten enough from sacrament meeting to get me through the week. As soon as I sat down to pray in the Celestial room, I felt completely enveloped in the spirit and started to cry. It was just what I needed, and I'm so thankful we have a temple we can go to. And I'm glad my kids like to go too so it's a fun trip for the whole family. Afterwards I took the crew to the new visitor's center. It was an incredibly warm, beautiful day. We left around 2:00 and got home in time to watch the second disc of Emma.

Last minute temple trip

Around the middle of last week, we realized we had nothing planned for Saturday. And since we've had something going on every weekend for months and will have soccer games every Saturday for the next couple of months, we decided to head down to the L.A. temple Friday after work. We had a good book to read in the car, which makes me not even mind the long drive.

We were so excited to see that after 3 years of renovation, the visitor's center is finally open. And wow, were we impressed. It is so beautiful, and it is full of hands-on activities for all ages.

There was a whole kids area, and the boys had fun drawing digital pictures and watching lots of touchscreen videos.

There were multiple small rooms, and this one was really cool. It was an ancient scripture scroll room with a big map showing where key events of the Savior's life took place.

There were computers and videos everywhere, so instead of everyone watching one movie at the same time in a big auditorium, we could walk around and pick and choose videos to watch on our own. No wonder it took them three years to remodel this place. If you get the chance, I highly recommend you check it out. Afterwards we went to Ikea (which I hadn't been to in probably 15 years), and Tyler, Dallin and Brennan loved the kid play area there. If I lived closer to an Ikea, I'd go there weekly. Free babysitting while I shop - what a genius idea. It was a lovely weekend, until the drive home when Levi decided he did not want to be in the car anymore (the little pill refuses to sleep in the car, like all babies are supposed to do), and he screamed the last hour or so. I just had to read extra loud.

A happy birthday

Dave made me this super yummy chocolate cake from scratch with whipped cream and cherry pie filling. We were short 1 candle, so I used the clone feature on Photoshop to duplicate one of the candles. Can you find the 2 that are identicle? We went down to Los Angeles last weekend for a combined birthday celebration and stake temple day, spending Friday night at the temple apartments. We traded off watching the boys and going to the temple. While Dave was with them, they played at the park and rode scooters and roller blades around the apartments. Then when it was my turn we walked around the temple grounds and took pictures, which is one of our favorite things to do. They especially like climbing trees and walking through these huge leafy plants that make us feel like we're in Bug's Life.
Dallin's hissing like a snake.

Then we went to Crate and Barrel in Beverly Hills to pick out my birthday present. Three of the boys fells asleep on the way to the store, so Dave stayed with them in the car while Spencer and I went shopping together. That was a lot of fun. It was really hard to choose, but I ended up getting this metal wall hanging for above our bed.

Then we went to a Persian cafe we recently discovered called Pink Orchid. It's in a Persian neighborhood near the temple, and we sure got a lot of attention there with our 5 blonde boys. (Grampa - tell Azarm we love Persian sweets!) It was such a fun weekend.

11 years

We celebrated our 11th anniversary by taking a little trip down the coast. Our anniversary is actually next week, but with Thanksgiving and Brennan's birthday, it'll be a busy weekend. Plus this past Saturday was our stake temple day, and we decided to combine both trips. Dave took off work Friday, and we left right after getting the kids off to school and Brennan over to Kristen's house. First we stopped for lunch at Olive Garden and Christmas shopping at Toys R Us. My uncle recommend this great hotel in Ventura - it's literally right on the beach, and we had a great view from our balcony.
Of course Levi came along. He did great in the car, but he was pretty fussy the rest of the time. I think he has colic, because he's been crying more and more. I guess he doesn't just look like Dallin - he's got his personality too, since he was just like this as a baby. Oh boy!! We got there in time to watch the sun set, and then we ate dinner at a great restaurant on the pier. After dinner we drove to huge outlets in Camarillo - another great recommendation from my uncle. I could have spent hours there, but it was getting late and Levi was cranky, so we just went to a couple stores. We both got a pair of Rockport shoes. I'll have to plan another trip there when Levi's old enough to leave home and I'm back down to my prepregnancy size so I can do some serious shopping. Saturday morning after breakfast (an amazing buffet at the hotel that even had eggs benedict), we walked along the boardwalk enjoying the beautiful day and watching the surfers. Then we checked out of the hotel and drove an hour down to the L.A. temple. They had some young women babysitting at the apartments, so I joined Dave for sealings after his session. What a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary.

We're Off!

We drove down to Los Angeles Saturday morning to attend our Stake Temple Day. Kristen and Ellen and co. went too, so Christopher and Jonathan were able to watch all the kids at the temple apartments. It was wonderful to be together with everyone in the temple, and we had to laugh as we remembered that time when mom accidentally flushed her locker key down the toilet before changing and worried the bus would leave without her.

Then we stayed in the temple apartments that night (after eating at Cheesecake Factory for dinner - yum!). The next morning we walked around the temple grounds and attended church at the chapel across the parking lot.

I never realize how fat my face has gotten during pregnancy until I see pictures of myself. Yikes.
Then we packed up and drove about 2 hours down to San Diego. We stayed at an amazing hotel called Estancia La Jolla Hotel And Spa that we got super cheap through Priceline. I like to stay in nice places but I don't like to spend a lot of money. It's a bit of a gamble to name your price and see what you get, and I was disappointed that we didn't get the same place as last time with the amazing view of Sea World and the harbor; but I ended up LOVING this hotel. The decor was gorgeous, the pool was amazing, and it was close to great beaches. I was a little worried that people would be snotty (I read reviews that it was not a kid-friendly hotel), but everyone there was SO nice to us. I find that people are simply amazed that we have four boys and just have to ask if we know the gender of our next one. Of course it helps that we have such cute, well-behaved boys - most of the time. We certainly attract a lot of attention wherever we go, and thankfully it was all positive attention.

Temple and Family

We found out right before our trip that there was an open house going on for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It's in South Jordan, not far from Salt Lake City.

Before temples are dedicated, they open them up to the public for tours. We've always wanted to go to one so that our kids could see how beautiful and peaceful it is inside. Spencer was especially excited about it. The whole thing was extremely organized. They had lots of tents set up on the temple grounds, and first we went in one of the tents and watched a video about the importance of temples. There were little guides all along the way; next they led us over to the temple, where we could walk through at our own pace. There really wasn't any kind of a formal tour inside, except in the sealing room. A small group of us sat down while a married couple talked to us about the importance of being sealed together as eternal families in the house of the Lord. The kids were especially amazed by the chandeliers throughout the temple, and we were told they even had diamonds in them for extra sparkle.

After a quick lunch we headed up Provo Canyon to Aspen Grove for the family reunion. They always start things off with Aspen Follies, which is a bunch of fun games in the big field. Mostly we just visit while the kids play the games. Maybe that's why our family never wins. The name of our group was "Choose the Wight!"

The big ball is always every one's favorite.

Our boys had 27 first cousins and 10 second cousins there to hang out with. What a group!

Here they had to pass the ball using just their feet.

Brennan especially liked climbing on all the little animal statues. They're new this time.

That night was the campfire at the amphitheater. The kids performed the skits they learned in their groups, then all the counselors did a bunch of fun, silly skits and songs. Afterwards they played dancing music, and the kids really got into it.