Visiting Family

Whenever we are in California we always look forward to visiting Tim's extended family. Most all of Tim's relatives live there, so it's not often that we get to see them. On Sunday we all drove to Tim's Aunt Cheryl's house in Murrieta for a nice visit. Tim's Aunt has a really nice backyard with this amazing pool. Addison, of course, has never passed up swimming, and took advantage of the opportunity. We enjoyed a delicious dinner that Tim's Aunt Cheryl made for us, and spent time catching up with everyone.

Tim and Addison swimming with Addie's cousins, Madison, Mason, and Kayla.

We had a great time visiting with Tim's relatives. Of course we couldn't leave without getting a big group picture.
Tim's Mom, Marlene, and her sister have a lot in common. Not only are they identical twins, but as you can tell from this picture, they also share the same fashion sense, and love for family pictures.

Tim's Grandparents with the great grand kids.

San Diego - The OTC

We just got back late Friday night from a wonderful week long trip to San Diego with Tim's family (minus Cam, who was missed). Thinking back to when we first arrived at the airport Saturday morning, I can't help but laugh. It was quite comical watching us all try and get our bags checked at the airport. With all of the babies and kids, it was quite the chore, but we made it alright, and here's a picture of us relaxing before we took off.

Once we arrived in San Diego we went to see Tim's brother, Marlon, who lives at the Olympic Training Center. (For those of you who don't know much about Marlon, you can visit his website http://www.marlonshirley.com/ , and we will also do a post on him sometime during the upcoming week) He took us on a tour of the Training Center, which was really interesting to see, and we ended up ordering some pizza and eating dinner there in the cafeteria.

Here is the super sized golf cart that took us around the Olympic Training Center. Well I guess I should say that took us part way around the Training Center. We all got out to walk around the Visitor's Center, and when we got back to the cart, it was smoking and wouldn't start!


At the entrance to the Visitor's Center, there are two huge posters of Marlon.

After the Visitor's Center, we walked down to the track to see where the athletes worked out and trained. Tim, being filled with some olympic spirit, thought he would attempt the long jump. Tim was lucky to make it to the sand!

Feeling dissapointed in his failed attempt at the long jump, Tim thought he might have better luck at table tennis. Marlon had Tim play an olympic table tennis player. (or at least that's what he told him!) After having beat his opponent 5 out of 6 matches, Tim was ready to move in with Marlon and train full time for the olympics. Common sense then kicked in, and Tim realized that he probably wasn't playing an olympic table tennis player as he had been told (Marlon later confessed that he was actually an archerer). I think it's safe to say that Tim's hope of becoming an Olympian, were then officially dead, although Tim is still holding on to hope that throwing the Aerobie ( basically a frisbee that flies a long way) will someday become an olympic event. Even then, I'm guessing he wouldn't have much of a chance, unless losing them in the ocean or in tall trees is the objective, in which case, I think that he would be the overwhelming favorite for Gold!

Later that week we went back to the training center to watch Marlon train. As you can see from the picture below, a television crew was also there to get some footage for some promos for the Paralympics.

We had a great time seeing Marlon in his element and looking around at the Olympic Training Center. In the next few days I'll post some more pictures and stories from our trip.

Another Fun Weekend in Bear Lake

Last weekend our friends Scotty and Jenn invited us to stay with them at their cabin in Bear Lake. We love staying at their cabin and always have such a great time. Saturday we decided to go down to the beach and let the kids play. Addison of course didn't like her feet to get dirty, but once we finally got her in the water, she loved it. She loved being in the water and wanted to walk out as far as she could.

After we spent some time at the beach the guys decided to go out on the boat while the kids where down taking their naps. Tim hasn't had much experience on boats and hasn't ever been able to get up on a wakeboard or even on water skis. Scotty was really confident that he would be able to get Tim up on a wakeboard. Scotty must be a pretty good teacher because Tim got up on his very first try.

Here is Tim wakeboarding.

And here are a few pictures of Scotty.

We had a great time. Addison had so much fun playing with little Scotty and Gracie. It was also fun to see Jeff and Amber and their darling little Addison. Addison absolutely loves babies so she especially loved having their newborn there. The whole weekend Addison would point to the babies and say,"Babies" and then she would say, "I love the babies!" Thanks again for the fun weekend.

Cascade Springs

Tim and I love to take Sunday drives especially through the canyons. This last Sunday after church we decided to take a little drive through the AF canyon to Cascade Springs. It actually wasn't a little drive, it was more like hour drive. (Sorry Amy and Chad) We had asked the Mabey's if they wanted to come and we forgot to tell them how long it would take to get there. Tim actually couldn't remember, and well Tim would tell you I wouldn't know since I fell asleep the last time we went there.

Here is Addison with the cute Mabey girls (Elly and Abby minus Ally, she didn't want to be in the picture. ) Addison absolutely loves playing with these girls.

Happy Birthday Tim!!

Tim's birthday is July 1st, and he has had quite the birthday week if you ask me. Most of you know that Tim likes to joke around by saying he has the best birthday. How does he have the best birthday you ask? Well. . . Tim will say that when you are young, you don't want your birthday close to Christmas, so since July is right in the middle of the year, it's perfect. And since his birthday is on the 1st, that makes it easy to remember. "Everyone can remember the 1st, but who can remember July 18th or 23rd or 9th? He'll also point out that it's Canada day(for whatever that's worth! It's not like he has Canadian roots, and I'm pretty sure he's never even been to Canada!), it's the start of Free Agency in the NBA, and they have fireworks three days later. (I think if his birthday was really THAT cool, they would have fireworks ON his birthday!) Tim had a wonderful birthday and after our fun filled week, I'm starting to think maybe Tim does have a pretty good birthday.

Here is what Tim's birthday week consisted of.

Monday: went golfing at Thanksgiving Point.

Tuesday: My family took us to the OG for Tim's birthday dinner. (Tim loves fettuccine alfredo) For Tim's birthday this year he got a bike and a bike trailer for Addison. Addison gave him some socks for work and a new tie.

Addison absolutely loves going on bike rides with her dad.

Wednesday: Tim had a "field trip" for work that took him to Salt Lake for the morning. After work, Tim's parent's took us out to another delicious birthday dinner. He then had just enough time to go make his work softball game.

Thursday: Tim's work closed at noon. Who doesn't love getting off work early?! We went shopping, and then watched a few movies that night.

Friday: He spent the morning golfing again. He had the day off, since it was the 4th of July. We also watched some great fireworks in our Cove, thanks to the Bacon's for supplying the fireworks.

Saturday: We went up AF Canyon and had a picnic with the Bacon's and the Mabey's. That night we also enjoyed a delicious dinner at JCW's.

Sunday: Watched the Federer/Nadal tennis match. It was such a good match! I was rooting for Federer, and Tim was cheering for Nadal. After church, we took another drive up AF Canyon, this time to Cascade Springs.

Bear Lake

This was our first trip up to Bear Lake this summer. Tim's family has a cabin at Bear Lake and we always love spending time up there with his family. We decided to go up since this was our last time we would be able to be up there this summer with Cam, Mary and Hudson, as they will be moving soon. Saturday afternoon we decided to go down to the beach. We didn't last too long down there because Addison didn't like the sand on her feet. The minute we put her down she would start to cry because the sand would get on her feet and stuck in her toes. This was the only picture that I was able to get down at the beach.

We decided to leave the beach and take Addison to the pool where we knew she would have a blast. She absolutely loved playing at the pool.

Addison with her Grandma Marlene

There is a playground right by the pool. After we were done swimming Addison wanted to go on the swings.

We always love going to Bear Lake, and we had so much fun even though it was a short stay. We ended the weekend by going to Hudson's baby blessing. Cam did a wonderful job and Hudson looked adorable in his cute blessing outfit. We are so sad that Cam and Mary are going to be moving to St. Louis, but at the same time we are excited for them and know that they will have a great experience there.

Children's Discovery Garden

Tim and I have a pass to Thanksgiving Point and I keep saying how we need to take Addison over to the Children's Discovery Garden. We didn't go last year because we thought Addison was still a little to small to enjoy it. Since we didn't go last year, we weren't exactly sure what to expect. All we knew was that there is a big Noah's Ark and water to play in. So last Friday we finally took Addison. She absolutely loved it!! It was so much fun watching her splash and play in the water. Her favorite part was playing around all the water that shoots up in the air. We were both so surprised at how brave she was. She would go right up to it and put her hand over the water and start smiling. It looks like we will definitely be spending a lot of time there this summer.

Besides the water to play in, they also have other things to see that will keep the kids entertained. Mixed in with gardens and ponds, they have a bear cave, a light house for the kids to go into, some water with looking glass to see the fish, a tall maze to navigate through, and a few other things.

Wild Outdoors Festival

This past weekend Tim and I, along with our friends Amy and Chad, attended the Wild Outdoors Festival and STIHL Timbersports Series over at Thanksgiving Point. If you know Tim and I at all, you know that we aren't your typical outdoorsmen, but we thought it would be fun to go to. Since we have a membership at Thanksgiving Point we were able to get free tickets to the dinner on Thursday where they previewed the events that would take place on Friday and Saturday.

We went back on Saturday, and really had a good time. We especially enjoyed watching the speed climbers, and the boom run. They had all sorts of activities going on as well. My favorite activity was watching Tim and Chad drive a dirt track in a dune buggy. (Amy and I found this to be very entertaining.)

There were 9 events but we didn't stay for all of them. Here are some of the pictures of the events we did see.

Speed Climbing

Boom Run

Again these two events were are favorite to watch. The Speed Climb is when two climbers race up a 60 foot pole. Once they reach the top they free-fall to the ground but have to make sure they touch the pole at least once every 20 feet. The Boom Run is where they run across floating logs, circle a stanchion, and run back across the floating logs. When we were there on Thursday Tim was able to catch these shots of the girl falling in.

Springboard

Hot Saw

Amy and Chad

We had a really fun time, and would definitely recommend it to anyone if they come back next year. It was especially nice not to have to take Addison. Not because we didn't want her to come, but she is just at that age where she won't sit still. I will say that I was a little worried about how Addison was going to do at my parents house for so long and right when she usually takes her nap. Addison did really well, she didn't even cry when I left and Tim and I were especially surprised that when we went to pick her up she didn't even seem to care that we were even there. I'm glad Addison had fun and was able to spend the day with her Grandparents.