In-N-Out Kickoff Dinner 2018

The kickoff dinner was in January this year.  All of the years since Corey has been a store manager, it has been in February, so this was a little bit of a surprise.  We got to fly to California for a couple of days and go to a nice dinner in the Disneyland Hotel.  Corey did not win anything, which wasn't a surprise, but it sure would have been cool if he had.  I wasn't able to go to the last kickoff dinner because I was almost to my due date with Nathan, and last year was a Hawaii year so there wasn't a big dinner with guests.  So it has been since 2015 that I went to one of these.  After 2013, they stopped having them at Disneyland Hotel and had them at the Anaheim Conference Center instead, so I was glad to see that they had this one back at Disneyland Hotel.  Hopefully they'll keep them there.  It's a much nicer venue.

Some Random Fun in January

We went to the Groves family game night this week and Jonah actually got out of his comfort zone and played some Twister with some other kids.

Nathan was upset about something and in an effort to cheer him up, I took some pictures.  Taking pictures always seems to get my kids to stop being grumpy.

Westley was being great with his younger brothers and they were cuddling with him during Family Home Evening.

Eliza smiling for the camera.

Braces Off!

Westley got his braces off finally!  We went in December to get them off but the orthodontist said he needed four more weeks.  Today we went in and he was ready!  So now he has nice straight teeth several thousand dollars and 2 years later.  He is growing up!  Now he'll have to relearn how to play the trumpet. 

Shining the Way and A Honor Roll

Eliza got on the A honor roll this morning for the last term for grades in 4th grade.  She also earned the "Shining the Way" award, which is kind of a big deal.  Only one student in each class gets this each grading period and none of my kids have gotten it yet.  I was very pleased that somebody finally recognized my kids' good efforts!

Trampoline Fun and Goodbye to Cousins

Our cousins are moving to Japan this week and they invited us to come to a trampoline park with all of the cousins who live here. It was a great way to spend a super cold day and get the kids out of the houses for one of the last days of the winter break.

Even the big kids came and had fun at the trampoline park.  We would never have gone if Aunt Kaori didn't have coupons for it.  And Nathan had fun too trying to walk on the trampolines.

We will sure miss our cousins who are leaving for Japan. Maggie, Eliza and Travis have become really good friends and Maggie will be missed.

End of Year 2017

As you can see, we have done some exploring this year while Corey has enjoyed working.  Okay, we did go see the Alamo and Mt. Rushmore without him, but he was with us for White Sands.  And he does work a lot.

We keep busy, Westley with marching band, school and seminary, Caleb with school, band and scouts, Travis with school and scouts, Eliza with her pageant, school, activity days, and the many choirs she is part of (she quit gymnastics just recently), Jonah with school, Annmarie with making everything a challenge, and Nathan getting into everything, especially markers and crayons.  Corey works a lot, both at work at In-N-Out and with his church calling as the Elder's Quorum President, and Jenna keeps busy managing it all, plus teaching preschool and piano lessons.

We hope you all find joy in this Christmas season as we remember the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the World. Merry Christmas!

Ice Cream in December

We had these gift cards for Chic-Fil-A for a free ice cream cone and we had nine of them, one for each kid plus me and Corey, and they expired on December 30, 2017.  We ended up using seven cards--Nathan and I shared--so while we were there eating our ice cream, I gave the two extra cards to some other customers.  Eliza was feeling better during the day, so she came too.  Free stuff is free stuff, and we like free!