Costa Rica 2013

My favorite part of the trip----late afternoon surfing at Este.

Our annual trip to Costa Rica was, once again, a HUGE success. It's truly hard to re-adjust to real life.... (I know, you're all feeling so bad...) We had a big group this time around----Baileys, Paynes, Hunters, Andersons, Clarks, Deuchers, Youngs (Chris & Karen) and us. We had tons of fun surfing, eating, playing Five Crowns, swimming in the ocean and the pool and especially playing "Would you rather...". My abs were sore from 9 straight days of laughing. 

Awesome time and awesome friends!

Some of the ladies at Este

yes, even I surfed!

Farmers Market in Jaco

Party on the rooftop

Bringing in the only catch on our first fishing day.

Dave gutting my fish. 

A little vacation

Our lunch and movie date.

Looks pretty nice huh??

We left right from the ranch after Thanksgiving and headed to So. Cal for a little get-away. Granddad England graciously let us use his week at the house in Capistrano Beach. 

Finn decided last minute that he couldn't miss a week of school so he wasn't able to come. And Montana flew down later in the week to join us. Indy was able to miss a few days of school to hang out with us. So Emerson got a lot of one-on-one time with Mom and Dad!

Montage

The Montage was having a community event with food and crafts and music and a Christmas tree lighting.  We headed over there with Darin & Peter and Brett & Christy and their families. It was a little odd for me to be experiencing Christmas activities outside without being bundled up and freezing to death. It was a pretty good time and fun to see the beautiful hotel. 

A day at Disneyland is always a must! The crowds at California Adventure were a little crazy at the beginning of the day (because of CarsLand I think) but overall the waits were pretty minimal. 

My favorite ride!

We finally were able to see World of Color. I liked it! It was a little long after a long day at the park but I'd say it was worth it.

a little bike ride on the beach

Banzai Bowl----delish!!

no cooperation for a cute picture.....

Thanks to the England clan for letting us use their beautiful house! Hopefully we will get to go again....

Reunited!

 road trippin' with the folks

I finally got the chance to go see Indy last week! The trip actually had a dual purpose. My parents were going to So. Cal for Max's funeral so I decided to go with them and then stay a few extra days. 

San Clemente Pier

We got to San Clemente Thursday night and went out to dinner with Granddad and Dorothy at the pier. It was a little early celebration dinner for Mom's and Granddad's birthdays. I got to stay at Dan & Jan's house that night-----what a gorgeous house! Nothing like having a sleepover with your aunt in the kid's bunk room!

Friday was the funeral and it was amazing! Courtney and Gordon are amazing---such strong testimonies. Although the accident is such a tragic thing, I know that they feel peace and will continue to feel that because of the gospel and the plan of salvation.

When I finally made it to Laguna, Indy wasn't really in a hurry to see me! He was with friends and taking his sweet time to get home. I was dying! After a couple of hours he got home and it was so good to see him! He's gotten taller.  And all the surfing has made his shoulders and arms pretty strong! Watch out Finn----little brother is getting bigger!!

That night I went with Peter and Darin and all the kids to the Laguna High football game. It was a lot like the games here at Orem---very social with tons of parents and families. It was fun to see Indy in his social scene.

Saturday was spent doing a little skimming, shopping at Irvine Spectrum and just hanging out. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest that day so I didn't spend any time at the beach.

The next few days were just spent hanging out at Darin's. I didn't really do much of anything. It was nice not to have a schedule and just be around to be with Indy. He seems like he is doing very well and enjoying his stay. We all sure miss him though and will be glad when he is back home with us.

Big shout out to Peter, Darin and family for taking care of him!!

Finn's Lake Powell Trip

Finn went to Lake Powell this week with the Hunters and Slades.  Here's a little video of some of the fun they had!

50th Anniversary Celebration

To celebrate Pat & Sherry's 50th Wedding anniversary officially, the adults drove up to Santa Monica to spend the night. We went out to dinner that night.

The next morning we rented bikes and rode along the boardwalk. The weather was perfect and we had a really good time. I had never been to Santa Monica before so it was all new to me!

We walked along the pier, got a funnel cake and did a little people watching. We even spotted Kalen from this season's show The Bachelorette. Kurt totally wanted to talk to him but I convinced him not to! 

Sherry showing off her new Tiffany ring. 

What a fun weekend we had celebrating together!

Balboa

Our family almost took up the whole ferris wheel!

I wasn't overly impressed with this corn dog place.... :(

One of the MANY little dream houses found on Balboa

We are always up for a trip to Balboa! Such a fun place to walk around.

More Beach Week

During beach week we were able to celebrate two very important things that happened on June 28----Pat & Sherry's 50th wedding anniversary and the 2-year anniversary of Pat's passing. Christy got 50 gold helium balloons and we all wrote messages to Pat & Sherry. It was a really fun thing to watch! Those balloons stayed all clumped together until we almost couldn't see them anymore. I think everyone really enjoyed the happiness it brought to Sherry. We sure love her and know how much she misses Pat--as we all do. 

Beach Week 2012

Montana and Perry paddling away!

Last week was our annual Brian family beach week in Laguna. We have never had it this early in the summer before so I was a little bit nervous what kind of weather we would have. As luck would have it, it was the best weather we have EVER had for beach week I would say. And luck was really on our side that Kurt's work trip that was scheduled for that very week was cancelled and he got to spend the entire time with us. 

Finn and Indy are obsessed with Penny boards. Luckily both Ford and Penn have them as well. We hardly had to drive these boys anywhere the whole week. They were riding back and forth between Derik and Darin's, downtown and to the grocery store all week. It was great!

I love seeing the comparison of these boys from a few years ago to this year. They grow up way too fast but they still love doing the same things at the beach! I love that this foursome get along so well and enjoy being together so much.

I think I may have mentioned this before but funny that one of the boys who actually lives in Laguna is the whitest in the bunch!

Myla, Noah and Eliza playing in the waves.

The Break after the Break....

 Tim, Sean, Michael and me waiting to see Mystere.

So......I haven't posted any pictures of our Spring Break because 1) I don't have any and 2) it was fun but a little stressful so I'd rather not think about it too much! 

But, lucky for me, Kurt had to go to a conference in Las Vegas the Monday following the break. So, instead of going home, we sent the kids home by themselves and we drove to Vegas for a few days. The weather was perfect (unlike most of Spring Break). We got to go out to eat, shop and sit by the pool. It was slightly more relaxing than the week before! 

And who can resist a ride on the roller coaster at New York New York! We hadn't ridden that thing in a long time. Not the smoothest ride I must say but pretty darn fun.

Big Island-Day 6, 7, 8 and 9

Here is what a lot of the Big Island looks like. There are beaches but you have to go searching for them----and there are some good ones!

I celebrated my birthday during our trip. Kurt was so thoughtful and had presents packed away in his suitcase to pull out on my big day. He is SO good at celebrating special occasions.

This is the only other picture of my birthday. We had dinner at Ruth's Chris and it was delicious as usual! Here I am about to partake of the birthday dessert with Clark and Michael.

Here I am with Clark and Michael (again....). I was just lying there minding my own business when they came along and Kurt just had to take a picture!!

There's my handsome husband with the white eyebrows.

Some more of our group at Makalawena Beach. I think there were only about 10 other people there. We sunbathed and snorkeled. It was a really fun day.

A-Bay

I guess Kurt didn't feel like he got me enough birthday presents so we had to make one last stop at Tiffany & Co. before we got on the plane to come home. Again, so thoughtful... :)

20 1/2 years later and I still love this guy..... (sigh)