Rotator Cuff Tendonitis

I've been having trouble with my right shoulder lately.  I can't lift it certain ways or I get a terrible pain.  I've had this happen before, but it'll eventually go away.  This time it's not going away.  It's even woke me up in the night aching.  I have no idea what the deal is.  BUT, I also have this awesome rash on my face.  I got it last year, too, and after being told to just put lotion on it it just kept getting bigger and bigger until it looked like I had a red goatee on my face.  Not cool!  I eventually had to go to my former dermatologist (whom I wish I could still go to--he just doesn't accept our insurance, boo!) and pay out of pocket to get a diagnosis.  I had to take an antibiotic for 1 month to get it to go away.  SO, this year I know that just putting lotion on it wasn't going to help.  I decided to make a doctor's appointment since I had 2 ailments.  Oh, and I wanted to get a flu shot :)

Turns out, I have perioral-dermatitis on my face.  The doctor wasn't sure how I got the rash, but he said it is common for women my age to get it.  Awesome.  I have to take the antibiotic again for a month to get rid of it.  At least I got the antibiotic before it spread into a goatee, ha ha.

I also have rotator cuff tendonitis in my shoulder.  The doctor recommended I get physical therapy 3 days a week for 2 weeks and it should probably fix my issue.  He said the physical therapist could also give me suggestions for exercises to do if the problem ever happens again.  Now I have to see if our insurance will approve me to get physical therapy...

When I got home from the doctor, we went to the Red Barn in Santaquin.  I wanted to get some pears for a salad I'm making on Sunday.  I also wanted to see if they still had Lemon Elberta peaches.  I was in luck and the Red Barn had everything I needed.  The only thing they didn't have were the yummy apple cider doughnuts I've heard so much about :(  The boys got a blueberry doughnut but I didn't want one.  I'm holding out for the apple cider doughnut!

The peaches are ripe so I called my mom to see if she wanted to help me can peaches tomorrow.  She doesn't have anything going on so she said it was ok if we come down.

After the Red Barn, we went to the pizza store that is by the ice cream store.  Ryan has been asking to go to the pizza store??  I asked him where the pizza store is.  He told me its by the ice cream store.  We took the boys for an ice cream at Arctic Circle last night.  SO, we figured he wants to go to the Pizza Factory :)  He's a pretty smart boy!

We ate pizza, salad, and bread twists for dinner.  The boys finished up the night with their blueberry doughnuts 

Productive Monday

Jim took the day off of work today.  He didn't tell me until yesterday afternoon.  Why, you ask??  He said if he would have told me he had the day off, I would have made plans and left him home to babysit.  Sad :(  I don't do that...very often anyway :)

SO, today we slept in (until 8am, which is sleeping in at our house).  We were woke up by the sound of banging hammers, nail guns, etc.--there is a house being built kitty-corner behind us, ugh.  I don't mind that there is a house being built; I do mind the noise though.

We got up and had breakfast.  I surfed the net while Jim and the boys watched cartoons.  A little after 10am, I decided we needed to get busy.  We got the boys dressed and then went outside to start working on the beds we've been building for the boys.

One of the beds fell while we were taking it apart so it could get its first coat of paint resulting in some wood splitting, blah.  SO, we had to take it apart and make a trip to Home Depot to get a new piece of wood for the bed.  We decided to stop and get some lunch at 'Old' McDonald's and let the boys play for a bit.  They actually do more playing than eating...

After 30 minutes or so, we got back in the truck and headed for home to continue working on the beds.  We actually made some progress, woot, woot!

The bed's we've been working on for, what seems like, forever!  Really, its only been a few weeks.  But these beds have kicked my car out of the garage.  SO, we must finish them before the first snow storm or else :) 

This is the bed after the 1st coat of paint.  I still need to give it one more coat and sand it to give it a more rustic look.

The other bed, the broken bed, had to get a bit of glue so it is drying over night before it gets its 1st coat of paint.  I'll most likely be painting it tomorrow while Ryan is at preschool.

The boys fell asleep on the couch while Jim and I were outside working on the beds.  It seemed like a good idea at first to let them sleep, but it ended up being a horrible plan!  Both boys had a hard time getting to bed. In fact, Ryan is still sitting by me on my bed as I type, ugh.  No more late naps for these fellas!

We had a very productive day!  I actually like when Jim takes the day off and we get stuff done :)

Nebo Loop

We took an impromptu trip up over the Nebo Loop this afternoon.  We were going to take a picnic and go up to Payson Lakes, but we left a little later than we should've and the boys were already hungry (and ready for a nap).  SO, we were naughty and went to Carl's Jr. for lunch.  A picnic would've been yummier, but the boys had fun playing.

After lunch, we made our way up the canyon.  The leaves are changing and the colors were so pretty!

Some of the beautiful fall leaves.

The boys were asleep when we got to the turn off for Payson Lakes so we just kept going up the canyon.  We decided to stop at the Beaver Dam overlook--not sure why its called that?? but it was really pretty.

The boys woke up when we stopped at the overlook so we made our way back to Payson Lakes after the overlook.

We brought the boys sand buckets and shovels so they could play in the sand.  They had a lot of fun digging. 

They loved building sand castles.  Jim would help them fill the bucket, pack the sand, and then turn the bucket over.  The sand castle would last all of 5 seconds before one of the boys would smash it!

Another attempt at making a sand castle.  Notice there is one "castle" and they are dumping the second.  It was driving both of the boys crazy--they wanted to stomp it down so bad :)

Payson Lake is usually really clean and pretty, but for some reason there is a bunch of algae this year so the water was all green and gross.  The scenery was still really pretty though.

After about 30 minutes at the lake, we decided to make our way over the rest of the loop.

We stopped at a couple of the rest points--Bald Mountain and Nebo Mountain.

The stop at Nebo Mountain made me SO nervous.  There isn't a fence or anything to keep people away from the edge so Jake and Ryan would run and get right next to the edge--makes my hands sweat just typing that.  Jim said it looks like we won't be visiting the Grand Canyon any time soon.  I'd be a nervous wreck!

I held Jake so he wouldn't run and get close to the edge.  He is my little snuggle buddy :)

When we got to Nephi, we decided to go and visit Granny J.  We called my mom and dad to see if they wanted to come into Nephi and visit, too, so they came in.  My Aunt Judy, Aunt Barbara, and Cousin Jakoye also came to Granny J's while we were there.  It was a fun visit.

The boys loved going to the mountains and exploring!  We'll be able to go again next weekend when we go to Payson Lakes to celebrate Jackson's 18th Birthday :)

Annalisa's Baby Shower

The Eyre's threw a baby shower for Annalisa this weekend.  She is due with twins December 2nd, but the goal is to make it Halloween, which is just a short 5 weeks away (yikes, I better get going on my boys costumes...)

The shower was really nice.  Lacy and I rode together.  They had made 3 different kinds of sandwiches, a fruit tray with dip, and a veggie tray with dip.  They also served 3 different kinds of cake bites and cream puffs for dessert.  The food was delish!

They also played a couple of games.  Lacy was the lucky winner of the "guess how many red hots are in the bottle" and won an i-Tunes gift card.  Lucky! (said in the Napoleon Dynamite voice, ha ha!)

This is the cute invite.  Julee found it on a shop on Etsy and I think it turned out so cute. 

The invite was accompanied by this insert :(  The baby has been diagnosed with Limb Body Wall--basically the baby's organs are forming outside of its tiny body so the baby won't live very long; no one really knows how much time they will get with the baby...

Annie has had some maternity pictures taken.  She displayed one at the shower.  The picture she displayed was very nice!  Sometimes I wish I would've had a maternity pic taken...  They did a really good job with the decorations at the shower.

We had a really good time at the shower.  I'm sad we didn't get a picture with Kristy though :(

Afterwards, Lacy and I ran a few errands.  We went to our favorite stores and shopped a little too long.  She had another party to go to at 2pm (she was a little late, oops) so I went to a couple more stores after I dropped her off and then went home.

I was exhausted when I got home (I think it's because we canned tomatoes, salsa, and herbed tomatoes yesterday--64 pints total!) so I took a little snoozer.  Because of my nap, I was un-prepared for dinner so we made a little trip to Cafe Rio.  It was actually good tonight, too (the Cafe Rio in Spanish Fork struggles some times.  Or maybe its because I have eaten there too much...who knows...).

I'm really excited to meet Annie and Cory's new baby!!  I'm nervous it'll make me a wee bit baby hungry :)

Ryan's 1st Field Trip

Ryan's preschool class took a field trip up Payson Canyon today.  I decided to tag along.  They had to take a sack lunch and I just didn't think Ry could handle feeding himself all by himself :)  Jim took the day off work so he could stay home with Jake while I went with Ryan.

There was a caterpillar near the picnic table where the kids sat to eat lunch.  All of the kids were fascinated with it (with the exception of 1 little girl--she was terrified of the thing, ha ha).

The caterpillar.  When I think of a caterpillar, this isn't what I think of??  I think of green, not fuzzy, bumpy...kind of like the picture on the Eric Carle book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"...this was my first experience with a fuzzy caterpillar. 

After we finished lunch and got it pretty much cleaned up and put away, Miss Tiffany had the kids sit on a blanket.  She talked to the kids about the 4 different seasons and read a book about them.  Then she read "Going on a Bear Hunt".  She had the kids stand up and do actions with her.  Ryan would not participate!  He sat there on the blanket and dug in the dirt. 

I didn't think he was listening at all until we got home and he told Jim about going on a bear hunt.  I was amazed.  He actually was listening and had heard the story. 

When Miss Tiffany was done reading the story, she took the kids on a nature walk.  She gave each of the kids of paper bag to put any treasures that they found on the walk in.  They found things like leaves, rocks, sticks, snail shells, acorns, etc.

The bottom two pictures are of Ryan's class. 

She had the kids hold on to a rope so no one wandered or got left behind.  Ryan would not hold onto the rope unless I was holding on to it, too.  I wonder if he would have behaved better if I wasn't there??

After the nature walk, we helped clean up any trash and lunches that were left out and then left.  Miss Tiffany took the paper bags with the kids treasures in them.  I think they are going to do something with them at school next week.

I didn't have to take any kids in our car so it was just Ryan and me.  On our way home, we stopped at IFA and got a water bath canner.  I figured if I'm going to can, I better start investing in some of the tools.  Ryan was so upset that I wouldn't buy him a toy power tool set that he saw in IFA.  I told him he needed to remember it and put it on his Christmas list.

He fell asleep on the couch within minutes of walking in the door and napped for a couple of hours.  When he woke up, he was ready to write his list :)  He didn't forget about those power tools, ha ha.

We had a fun time on Ryan's 1st Field Trip.

Maters {2011}

We made plans earlier in the week to go down to Levan today and can tomatoes.  I was planning on going to the gym from 9-10am, rushing home to have a quick shower and throw my hair in a ponytail, and get to Levan to get to work.  My mom said she and Emilee would pick tomatoes that morning.

Well, mom decided she had to get a hair cut ;)  I didn't know this until after I had decided to skip the gym in an attempt to get to Levan earlier than planned so I could help pick/start on the tomatoes.  I called my parents house on the way down and my dad answered.  I asked where mom was.  He told me she went to Lehi to get her hair cut.  I thought he was joking; he wasn't.  I was a little mad, but we were already on our way down.  I figured we'd just get started on our own...

We got to Levan around 10:15am.  Dad was just leaving to go into Nephi for "club".  My boys and I went inside and made ourselves comfortable.  Mom had made a list of what to do so I started on the list :)  I got all of the jars and lids out and put them in the dishwasher to wash (that was after I had to un-load the dishwasher, seriously, ha ha).  Then I started to scald and peel the tomatoes. Maters are actually quite easy to peel so it went pretty fast.

Emilee and Ethan came down a little after 11am to help us with the tomatoes.  My boys were thrilled when E showed up; they finally had someone to play with :)  It was so nice because Ryan kept thinking he needed to help me peel and cut the tomatoes, ugh.

My mom got home close to 1pm.  By then, Em and I had 2 of the big, white Tupperware bowls full of diced tomatoes ready to be canned.

Mom brought some Cafe Rio for lunch so we took a little break to eat and then got back to work.  We started to get some bottles of tomatoes ready to put in the water bath canner.  Right then, mom's visiting teachers came, seriously.  We finished getting the tomatoes in the jars, got the water bath canner ready and the water boiling, and got the jars in and processing.  It takes 45 minutes to process pint jars of diced tomatoes.  We can only do 9 pints at a time.  We had another large bowl of tomatoes diced by this time so we decided we better stop doing tomatoes until we get some processed.

The processing took the rest of the day--45 minutes is a LONG time.  We ended up with 50 pints of tomatoes (2 didn't ever seal, bummer).  Emilee had to take Madeline to dancing so she left at 4pm.  She is also going to get her mother in laws water bath canner so we can have 2 going when we do more tomatoes/salsa on Friday.  Yay!

Ryan even got in on the action.  He LOVED helping fill the jars with the tomatoes :) 

Our tomatoes all canned!

I LOVE home canned tomatoes and love learning how to can.  We use the tomatoes in pasta sauces, soups, etc. throughout the year.  YUM!

Water Colors

Ryan has been asking to paint for a couple of days now.  I wanted to go to the gym this morning and they were being little stinkers about getting ready.  I promised them we would paint when we got home if they would get ready and be good at day care.  It worked! 

I held up my end of the bargain when we got home.  We finally let Jake in on all of the fun--it was his first time painting.

We only had a couple minor messes--Jake only spilled his water twice :)  Other than that, the boys had a great time painting pictures today.  Ryan said he was painting a tummy-ache??  He was sick while Jim and I were in San Diego--he must have been painting how he felt :)

Happy 1st Birthday Kendrick

We went to Kendrick's 1st Birthday party tonight at Scott & Molly's house.  It was so nice to just have to walk next door for the party :)

Kendrick on his 1st Birthday and his cute teddy bear cake.

We had grilled hamburgers and hot dogs to eat.  We all brought appetizers, salads, and chips to share.  It was a really nice party; fun to be with family.

Just a little side note...the kids were catching grasshoppers.  Dallin came over to his mom and said something about Max catching the grasshoppers.  Max wasn't at the party though.  He thought the little boy on the left was Max.  Too funny!

Dallin put two party hats on sideways!  It was soo funny so Ry had to copy :)

Jim was a good sport and wore a party hat, LOL!

Happy 1st Birthday Kendrick!

Hats

Sometimes the boys insist on wearing their hats.  Other times, they flat out refuse to wear them (for instance, when it is sunny and it would be beneficial to wear their hat, ha ha).  Today was one of the days where they wanted to wear them while watching cartoons :)  

Jake wears his backwards and resembles Adam Sandler on Billy Madison, LOL.

Flu Shots

We took the boys to the pediatrician's office to get flu shots this morning.  Jake also has some crazy, rash looking bumps on his torso and neck so I wanted the doctor to look at those, too.  Since Jake was being seen by the doctor, he had to have his temperature taken, get weighed, etc.  Jake weighs 29.8 pounds (71 percentile).  Just for fun, I asked if we could weigh Ryan.  I just wanted to see how much more he weighed...Ry got on the scale and I about died.  He weighs 30.8 pounds (32 percentile)!  There is only 1 pound difference between them!!  No wonder I get asked all of the time if they are twins.  Doesn't help that I usually dress them alike...I just always thought there was enough size difference that they shouldn't look like twins but people always ask if they are.  I've even had a few people say "the older one must be small and the younger one must be big".  It would kind of irritate me (not sure why) but I guess they are right!

Jake's rash turned out to be eczema--it runs in Jim's family.  SO, I have to bathe Jake but not wash him with soap, seriously (whats the point of the bath!).  And we have to put this cream on him that we can only use for 5-7 days then we have to wait 3 weeks before we can use it again because it makes your skin thin.  Hopefully the eczema can clear up in the 5-7 days.

Ryan's 1st Day of Preschool

Ever since signing Ry up for preschool on January 20, 2011, we (or more like I) have been anxiously awaiting this day. Today was Ryan's 1st Day of Preschool at Just Imagine Preschool.  School actually started last Thursday, but that was the day Jim and I flew out to San Diego so he missed his first day.

Ryan is in the Tuesday/Thursday afternoon class.  He goes from 12:30-3pm on those days.  Since we are staying in Levan while Jim is still in San Diego, we left from my parents house around 11:45am.  We had to get the first day of school pictures :)

Ryan all ready for his 1st day of preschool.

Jake wanted in on the pictures.  He still asks where his back pack is--I didn't get him one :(

Both of the boys fell asleep on the way up to Spanish Fork, but they woke up when I stopped the car.  I was nervous about that because I knew I would have to walk Ryan into school but I didn't know if I should leave Jake in the car or wake him up (I hate waking my kids up from their naps).  So I was glad when they both woke up.

I walked Ry into his classroom.  He was a little nervous at first and cried when we left.  But Miss Tiffany assured me that he would be fine.  In fact, she said its always harder on the parents :)  She could probably see the look on my face, ha ha.

Jake and I stopped at Lacy's house and visited for an hour.  Then we stopped and got the mail and made our way to our house.  Jim's truck is in the drive way so Jake immediately thought he was home.  He ran in the house and called for Jim :(  I had to tell him daddy wasn't home yet. 

I  thought 2 1/2 hours would go by so quick, but it actually didn't.  I think it will go by faster when we're home and I can clean something or get something done.  Today I just watered my plants and went through our stack of mail.  Jake kept asking where Ryan was.

We headed up to get Ry around 2:45pm.  It only takes about 2 minutes to get there so we had to wait.  I know next time not to head up so early :)  Ry was happy to see me--he ran and gave me a big hug.  Miss Tiffany said Ry was sad for the first 10 minutes and it took him a bit after that to warm up and socialize, but he was fine after he warmed up.  I figure he can only keep getting better--he needs the social part of preschool :)

We ran to the bank and Wal-Mart after school then went back to Levan.  Ry told me a little about preschool on the way home.  He said they learned about the letter B.  He had two handouts that he'd brought home.  The boys fell asleep on the way home again.  Ry was so tired he slept for another hour on the couch after we got to Levan.

I think Ryan really liked preschool and will have fun as the year progresses.

San Diego Trip {2011}

Thursday September 8, 2011:

We took the boys to Levan last night to stay with my parents while we were in San Diego so we were able to finish up packing last night in peace :)  Our flight left at 11:25am so we got up around 6:30am to get ready, finish packing, and get on the road.  We made it to the airport with plenty of time to get a Cinnabon ;) but getting through security took FOREVER so we didn't think we'd have enough time to get one.  Luckily, there was a Cinnabon right by our gate so I was able to get a yummy cinnamon roll.  You know. they aren't as good as they smell.  I think I told myself that last time, ha ha.  I think its just something you have to get when you're in an airport though.  Good thing I don't travel a lot!

Our flight was just over an hour and we made it to San Diego around 12:15pm CA time.  We got our Mustang GT, oh wait,  I mean silver Corolla and found our hotel.  After checking in, we decided to walk and find something light for lunch.

View of the Midway from our hotel room

View from our room looking the other direction.

We walked by the Midway and went to Seaport Village.  It was a wee bit humid--I had sweaty face and sweat rolling down my back.  Awesome, huh.  It felt like I'd been to the gym and just got done working out not just a light stroll for a few blocks.

On the way to Seaport Village we stopped at Fish Market.  I thought it would be more of a "market" but it was just one restaurant with a fish market in the basement (not somewhere you want to go and shop around). 

 We did get to see this statue of a famous photograph taken during World War II.  Jim thinks the actual photograph was taken on Victory Over Japan Day aka V-JDay.

There was also a tribute to Bob Hope at the Fish Market. 

Another pic of The Midway, Number 41.

A sea lion on the pier sun bathing.

We finally made it to Seaport Village after about a 10 minute walk.  After walking around for a bit and looking at some of the shops, we decided to get some lunch at a little cafe there.  I won't lie, the food wasn't good at all :(  The best part of the meal was Jim shared his dill pickle spear with me.  It was that bad (but I LOVE pickles so...).  I made up for it by getting some delicious Ben & Jerry's chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream.  Wowza, it was good.  Didn't take me long to get it slicked up ;)

We decided to walk around Seaport Village and look in some of the shops for a minute.  While we were shopping around, the power went out.  We didn't think too much of it.  It was still warm outside and my feet were hurting from walking so much because I chose cute over comfort in the shoe department, so we started to walk back to the hotel so I could change my shoes.  While walking back, I heard a lady ask a cop if his cell phone was working.  Wha?!?  Why wouldn't their cell phones be working??  I immediately started to freak out.

Flash back, I bought a Groupon last year for a pedicure/manicure at Prestige Salon in Spanish Fork.  I had been waiting for some special occasion to use the Groupon and San Diego happened to be just the occasion (and because the Groupon expired in October, haha).  While getting my nails groomed, the gal said she was scared to be near SLC or travelling on Sunday because it is the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and she thought that there would be a terrorist attack or something.  I hadn't even THOUGHT of it being 9/11 and the 10 year anniversary so I hadn't even had time to be nervous about travelling home on that day.

Flash forward, with the power being out and people not being able to use cell phones I went into panic mode!  We got back to our hotel and the power was out there, as well.  We didn't think we'd be able to get in our room since we don't have actual keys so we sat down on the grass and waited.  I actually took a little snoozer on the lawn.  Yes, I'm sure I looked like a bum, but what else was I supposed to do.

After an hour or so, we decided to walk up to our room to see if our keys would work.  Mind you, we're on the 9th floor and the power is out so we had to hike the stairs (we'd heard rumors of the elevators still working, but who in their right mind would really get on an elevator when the power was out and risk getting stuck in there.  Yeah, not me).  After about the 4th flight my calves were burning.  I even go to the gym pretty regularly and I was huffin and puffin.

We finally made it to the 9th floor and got to our room.  Sadly, our key did not work.  We'd hiked up all those stairs and I still had to walk around in shoes that were killing my feet, ugh.

We went back down and decided to go ask the front desk if our keys should work.  The front desk said our keys should work and asked if I'd had my key next to my cell phone or something that would demagnetize the key.  I had had it in my pocket next to my cell phone.  We did have another key that hadn't been next to my cell phone, but that would mean we would have to hike up all of those stairs again, ugh.  Luckily, Jim said he would just go and see if the other key would work and switch my shoes for me if he could get in.  The hotel had drinks set out so I took a Diet Coke and hung out while Jim went back out to try our 2nd key.

I sat on the lawn again and wrote down receipts in my checkbook.  Jim came down a few minutes later and was able to get in our room, hallelujah.  We would have somewhere to stay even if the power didn't come back on.  We sat on the lawn for a few more minutes.  There were two guys sitting on a bench near us that started chatting with us.  They had bags of snacks they were munching on.  After a few minutes of just sitting there, we decided to go and see if we could find where they bought their snacks (rather than just asking them, of course).

We walked all around--San Diego was like a ghost town.  All the shops, restaurants, convenience stores, everything had closed down due to the power outage.  It was really quite peaceful, but I was so worked up and so nervous about the unknown that I couldn't even enjoy myself.  It was awful.

A ship in the harbor.  It looked so much cooler in person :)

We came across some hibiscus flowers on our walk.  They were so fragrant and so beautiful.

Jim and I talked about having a major disaster happen at home and how scary it would be.  We don't really have food storage or anything like that--we only have what is in our pantry, which is a fair amount, but it wouldn't last.  And I don't have any water stored anywhere.  We decided we needed to start working on getting some food storage.  One of my worst fears is not being able to feed my kids when they are hungry, ugh...scary thought.

But after walking around and not being able to find anything to eat, I decided I didn't want to buy food storage.  I want to get a gun with 4 bullets so we can just leave the world before the disaster got too unbearable.  That is how worried and upset I was.

We walked up into the Little Italy, and there was actually a pizza place opened.  We figured they were making pizza in a wood burning pizza oven, but the line was so long we kept walking.  Finally, we came to a 7-11 that was letting people in two at a time to buy what they could find with cash and no change was being given.

Jim and I bought a couple of waters, 2 packages of donuts, 4 bags of chips, and a couple bags of nuts.  We were surprised that the bulk of the people in the store were buying booze and cigarettes.  Kind of a scary thought--we were going for things that we could eat and would keep us full not things that would get us intoxicated.  We had no idea when the power would be back on.

We walked back to our hotel after getting our goods.  The two guys we had talked to earlier were sitting on the lawn.  They asked where we found our groceries.  We told them; they told us that the convenience store at the hotel was selling the same kind of stuff.  Hence the reason we should have asked where they got their stuff!  They also told us that the hotel was grilling hamburgers and hot dogs if we wanted to try and get something to eat.  We went and looked at the line, but it was so long.  We thought they'd run out of food before we got to the front of the line.

After deciding not to stand in the line for hamburgers, we headed up to our room to eat our dinner :)  We sat on our balcony and ate our "dinner".  I had called my mom earlier and told her the power was out.  She had called while we were out to see if the power was back on yet.  I didn't hear my phone ring so she left a message saying the boys were worried about us and wanted Grandpa to come to "Sandy Yeggo" and get us, LOL!  I called my mom back to let her know we were ok and to see if she knew what was going on.  She couldn't find any info about the power outage.  We chatted for a bit but I told her I better go so I could save power on my phone.

Jim and I sat on the balcony for a bit.  It was really quiet and peaceful--many people don't get the opportunity to sit in complete silence without and lights on.  Of course I was still freaked out so we just went to bed.  It was only 9pm (8pm in UT).

What a nice, fun filled first day of our vacation...

Friday September 9, 2011:

We woke up to POWER!  What a relief, whew!  Jim said he heard people cheer in the middle of the night when the power came back on.  I didn't hear anything though.

Today we were supposed to go biking and kayaking in La Jolla, but we weren't sure if we'd be able to go with the power being off.  The power was on so we got ready and got in the car to head to La Jolla.

La Jolla is only about a 20 minute drive from where we were staying.  However, there were traffic lights out all over the valley so our 20 minute drive took over an hour.  We hadn't eaten breakfast before we left; we wanted to get to our destination first and then find somewhere to eat.  Its a good thing we didn't eat before we left or we would've been late. 

We were almost to our destination when we came across a Subway.  We decided to stop and grab a bite to eat for breakfast.  We got to the front door and there was a sign that said there was water contamination in La Jolla so the restaurant was closed.  Seriously!  There was a convenience store next door so we went to get donuts and water for breakfast...again.  Yuck!

We got back in the car and started to eat our donuts--they did not taste good at all.  We passed La Jolla Biking & Kayaking and on the same block there was a coffee shop that served croissant and bagel sandwiches for breakfast.  We had a few minutes before we needed to check in so we decided to ditch our donuts and get a croissant for breakfast.  It tasted so good!

Finally, we made it to our appointment.  Our guide was stuck in traffic so another guide took us out.  It was only Jim and I on the bike tour.  They drove us up to the top of a hill to where we would start our biking tour. 

Jim and I before starting the biking tour.

I guess the cross is a controversial item since this is a public park.  Here is my personal opinion, I think people need to start worrying about more important things.  That cross doesn't hurt anyone or anything.

Some of the hills on our way down were super steep.  I rode the brakes on my bike pretty much the whole way down :)

In the top picture, you can see the San Diego temple in the right corner.

Those little houses on the pier are motel rooms.  I think it would be fun to stay in one...

 Our biking tour took us down to 2 beaches--Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.  The board walk on Mission Beach was just like what I picture a "beach" to be like.  It was really fun with such a fun atmosphere.  There were beach house rentals right on the beach.  I think it would be so fun to rent one for a week in the Summer and stay right on the beach...wishful thinking :)

The Real World is currently filming in San Diego.  Our bike tour went right by the house.   The vans parked outside meant they were inside filming at that current moment.  Crazy!

A view at one of our stops on the biking tour.  How would it be to have a house right there?!?  Amazing.

Jim and I on the tour.  Don't mind how awesome we look--we've been biking for over an hour with a sweaty bike helmet on our heads :)

The Children's Pool was another stop on the tour.  Its called the Children's Pool because it is a little cove protected by a concrete wall to break the waves making it safe for children to play at the beach in that area.  However, sea lions and harbor seals (seals are in my pics) now use the beach.  It is legal to play on the beach still. but there are some San Diegan's who feel that because the seals are there, people shouldn't go on the beach while others feel the pool was built for children so they should be able to use it.  Our tour guide also told us that the water isn't really safe to play in.  With the seals in the water all of the time, there is a high amount of E-coli in the water.  Yuck--that's enough to keep me out :)

We biked by these sea caves.  They were really neat.

Our next stop was Sunny Jim's Sea Cave.  We hiked down 145 steps to see the cave from the inside out.  It was really neat.  We learned that the cave resembles Sunny Jim, a cartoon character from the 1920's, after we had already hiked down.  I happened to get a pretty good picture without knowing :)

 After our 2 hour biking tour, we had about a 30 minute break to get a snack and get ready to go kayaking.  We had to wear helmets to go kayaking in San Diego (we didn't have to wear helmets when we kayaked in Hawaii).  We had to walk 2 blocks to get to the beach--Jim said it was the walk of shame because we were in our life jackets and helmets.  We looked pretty ridiculous :)

It was a bit cold kayaking--the water was a little chilly and then the ocean breeze topped it off, but we had fun.  We were able to kayak in a sea cave and see sea lions while we were out on the ocean.

When we were done with our biking & kayaking tour, we went back to San Diego.  We weren't hungry after our biking tour to get lunch so we just got an ice cream.  BUT, after we were done kayaking we were ready for some food!  We couldn't decide on what we wanted or find a place so we snacked on our donuts that we bought earlier from the convenience store.  We decided we'd just go back to the hotel room and get ready then go to dinner.

For dinner, we walked up to the Gas Lamp district.  We didn't have anywhere in mind to eat so we just walked around until we found a place.  We ended up eating at The Merk.  It was Italian food and ended up being SO good!  It totally made up for eating crap for dinner the night before :)

We walked back to our hotel after dinner and just chilled in our room. 

A building in downtown San Diego lit up with red, white, and blue lights to show respect for the World Trade Center Attacks.

The second day of our vacation was 100 times better than day one :)

Saturday September 10, 2011:

We didn't have any specific plans for the day.  We decided to go see the Mormon Battalion museum after having a large breakfast at Denny's.

The museum had just been remodeled and was really nice.  We stayed and watched the presentation, which was really well done, too.  One of the main characters in the film is one of my ancestors, Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown.  She was one of the only 3 women that made it to San Diego on the journey.  Jim's Great-Great-Great Grandpa Ebenezer Brown was Phoebe's second husband.  This information was almost a deal breaker for Jim and I when we were dating.  Since Ebenezer and Phoebe didn't have any children together, it made it so Jim and I weren't related and so we were able to get married :)

The girl that took Jim and I on the tour of the museum was also pretty impressed that we were both direct descendants of some of the members that walked with the Mormon Battalion.   

A statue outside of the Mormon Battalion Musuem

You can have your picture taken at the museum and emailed to you.  It was kind of fun :)

We walked around Old Town San Diego after leaving the museum.  There was a car show going on so we looked at some of the fancy cars and went in some of the shops.  We weren't ready for lunch yet because we had such a big breakfast.  I had forgot my mascara when I was packing so we went and found a Target so I could get some (yes, I had went without mascara up until this point, lol).

After Target, we drove over to Coronado Island because I wanted to see it.  It felt more "home-y" over on Coronado Island, not sure why but it did.  We drove around for an hour or so and then went back to our hotel to make a plan for the evening.

We ended up going back over to Coronado Island to see "The Help" at the movie theater.  It was such a good movie--I was mess crying, more like sobbing, by the time it was over.  I'm pretty sure Jim was embarrassed to be with me, LOL.  

After the movie we went and had dinner at the Coronado Brewing Company.  We'd heard they had good food so we decided to give it a try.  The food was pretty good.  It was just nice to get to go to a movie with Jim and have a nice dinner with him.   

San Diego had put red, white, and blue lights over the bridge to commemorate the 10th anniversary of  9/11.

We tried to get a picture of the bridge with the ships in the back ground...you can't really see the ships though :(

Day three of our vacation was just as good as day two!

Sunday September 11, 2011:

Today was my last day in San Diego.  My flight left around 1pm so I wanted to be to the airport around 11am so we could turn the car back in, get through security, etc.

We decided to find somewhere yummy for breakfast.  We ended up in Little Italy at a little cafe where we had yummy ham and egg panini's, hashbrowns, juice, etc.  It was really good.  

After breakfast we walked to Sea Harbor Village and then down to the embarcadero.  There was a 5/10k race that morning so we watched all of the runners sweat while we enjoyed sitting and watching :)

Jim and I at the embarcadero.  Yes, my hair is outta control.  The lady that took our picture tried to fix it for me but the wind wouldn't let my hair look normal :)

The Ronald Reagan and the Carl Vinson carrier ships were in the harbor.

We hung out at the harbor for about an hour and then decided we better walk to the hotel to get our car so we could get gas before we turned it back in to the rental place.

We dropped off the car and I got on the shuttle to go to the airport.  Clint and some other Army guys came and picked Jim up.

I got to the airport with plenty of time. Either my pants or my bra kept setting off the security sensor so I had to be frisked at the airport.  It was awesome!  But I made it through and had time to spare at my gate.  SO, I got caught up on all of the magazines that I had brought with me.

When I got to SLC, I got in the car and headed to Alpine for Cade's 11th birthday party.

Jake was outside when I pulled up.  I think he was excited to see me; he came and gave me a big hug :)  Ry was happy to see me, too.  BUT, I think my mom and dad were happiest to see me, LOL.

The party was lots of fun.  The Nielson's served yummy french dip sandwiches, fruit, salads, and cake.  It was all so delish.  

The kids had fun playing in the yard and with all of their fun toys.

Jake looks like the cat that caught the canary--nope, just getting some chips off the table :)

We headed to Levan after the party.  On the way home, Jake was crying and saying he wanted his daddy.  Ryan was being so funny.  He would tell Jake, "NO!  You can't have your daddy.  He's still in Sandy Yeggo!"  It made me laugh, but it would upset Jake even more so he kept crying.

I had a really good time in San Diego.  I'm glad I was able to go and I'm glad my parents were able to watch my boys so I could go.  Maybe next time we'll be able to take the boys with us for a little vacation :)