I LOVE Halloween!

Frankly, I don't even care that Christmas is over, I am still posting these because I think they are fun! (My goal is to get Christmas posted before Valentines day!)

Jack-o-lanterns:




Jenny and I can pretty much take credit for the jack-o-lanterns, although Noah did help take some seeds out. ;-)


Curious George, the Man in the Yellow Hat, and a Nurse!


Aren't they SO cute?! I love it!!


My little Monkey and me:



With my sister Amy (Belle) :


With grandparents:





And the kitty cat:



And with NOAH!! RAWRRR!! (Yeah, couldn't get them to do that in the picture... or much of anything for that matter!)


Courtesy of Jenny's blog:

CA Part 1: San Diego and LA

Remember those long ago promised pictures from our vacation in California? Well, here they are! We had so much fun, and looking through all of these pictures just reminds me of that, it was so awesome. :-)

This first picture is one of my absolute favorites:

Here is Benjamin's first introduction to the ocean... he doesn't like it so much!

I think it's time to go visit that ocean again... isn't it beautiful?!

Here is Benjamin's SECOND introduction to the ocean... and it didn't go any better than the first one!

My cute little snuggle bug:

From left to right, Jonathan, my mom, and my sister Amy:

Amy (She's so brave, it took me much longer to get used to the water!) :

Emily (on the left) and Amy (on the right) :

Amy leaves us in the dust on the best tan contest:

While we were in LA we went to my cousin Amy's wedding, she was beautiful! I stole this picture from her sister Kristen's blog... thanks! ;-)

Including overnight stops while driving, this trip went from South Jordan, to Las Vegas, to San Diego, to LA, to Yosemite, to San Francisco, to Sacramento, to Reno, and back to South Jordan... so there was a lot of driving! Luckily Benjamin was a trooper and did very well! We tried to schedule driving during naps and night time when possible to make it easier for him:

CA Part 2: Yosemite National Park

We went to Mariposa Grove in Yosemite to see some giant sequoia trees. Some of these trees are nearly 2,000 years old:

The tree behind us in the next picture is the Grizzly Giant. Not that impressive you say? Well, it has a diameter of 31 feet, and a circumference of nearly 100 feet:

El Capitan is nearly 4,000 feet, and the largest single granite rock on the earth. Really, really crazy climbers climb the face of this rock (which is a two day process) :

Tunnel View of Yosemite Valley:

Bridalveil Falls (Apparently more impressive earlier in the summer when there is more water...) :

The Half Dome:

CA Part 3: San Francisco

We stopped by Pier 39 to visit the sea lions:

And took a short cruise in the bay on a catamaran (It was REALLY cold, we were worried about Benjamin!):

You'd think I'd be the one to feed the seagulls, but go figure it was Jonathan who fed this one! And he hung around after that! ;-)

Lombard Street:

Postcard Row (I'm actually proud of this picture, I think it turned out well! And I didn't even have to Photoshop any people out!):

We went to the Aquarium at Golden Gate Park, where Benjamin actually seemed to enjoy watching the penguins:

We saw a really BIG fish:

And some smaller fish!:

As well as an ALBINO crocodile! (Apparently they don't do too well in the wild...) :

View in front of the Bay Bridge:

View from inside Coit Tower:

Alcatraz Island:

USS Pampanito from WWII:

Lizzy, we thought of you when we saw these luxurious accommodations! (Note there is a third row of bottom bunks as well, making beds for 36 in this room) :

This was the best picture we got of the Golden Gate Bridge, it was foggy the whole time we were there: