Vacations are so wonderful

Ok, so I am sure some of you have noticed that I have not blogged in quite some time. I am not sure why...I just have had little motivation. So, you have had the pleasure to hear all about Kyle's latest and greatest, including his masterpiece self portrait!

Anyway, last weekend...wait, 2 weekends ago, we went out to Malibu to visit my brother and sister-in-law who had just had a baby in december and they were blessing the little cutie, Luke. So, my entire family (excluding Kristin and kids, we missed you guys btw) went out to be there for the blessing and be able to see each other and spend a little time together. We hadn't all been together since Maddie was born, back at Thanksgiving 2008. So, it had been a while. It was so nice and so fun to see everyone! And it was so great to be there when Austin blessed his baby. It was a very wonderful moment to be there all together for that. He mentioned that Luke is their miracle and I know that he wont just be a miracle to them, but to lots of people he meets in his life. It is so crazy how much our family has grown! It is also so fun for my kids to have cousins to play with. And it's so fun to see how much they love their grandma and grandpa! California was also a very very very very very very (you get the point?) nice change from the snowy Philadelphia weather. (If you didn't hear, Philly got more snow this year than ever before recorded, in the HISTORY of the CITY......EVER........awesome. Of course it's the year we move here) Anyway, we were able to wear shorts, go to the beach, have a picnic in the warm sun, and not be freezing! That was pretty amazing. Let's just say I didn't want to come back home. We also got to see my old college roomie, Val, and her family. I met her cute baby for the first time, and I couldn't get enough! She is super squishy and adorable!

All in all, it was wonderful. I really wish we could see our families more often. Friends are fun and all, but they're not family. Well, that's about it! Thank you so much mom and dad for making that fun weekend possible! There was something else we did while there, but only pictures will do it justice, and I haven't gotten them uploaded yet. But here are a few that we have:

The house we stayed at had horses!

And a trampoline!

Went to the mall and rode a carousel

Then the beach!

All the relatives of the happy family!

Hallee with her best friend, Brooklyn

In Front of the Camera

I needed a photo of myself for the J. Reuben Clark Law Society application. Most often I am behind the camera so a photo that represents my sexiness to the fullest could not be found. That's when I decided to bless the world at large and do a photo shoot with myself. There were some cropping difficulties as seen here, but I finally got a winner. You're welcome.

Snow Day

So during the last big snow storm I may have criticized Philadelphia for being ill prepared to handle snow. I now stand corrected. In anticipation for this huge storm there was a lot of "prep." And by "prep" I mean the city still shut down, but they let everybody know they were going to in advance. In fact if the storm would have changed course it would have been a little awkward for everybody that closed up shop. But lucky for us the 100% chance of snow forecast was correct and we were able to go out and play. This was the first time that we have really played in the snow with Hallee. Today we decided that inadequate snow gear was no longer a valid excuse to put it off. With Megan's gloves on the wrong hands, Hallee finally got her chance. We all had a good time, for about 10 minutes and then decided we liked having feeling in our limbs. So we went back in to cap the experience off with some delicious hot chocolate (and by we I mean everyone but Megan because she doesn't like chocolate when it's hot).