Palm Springs Getaway...

My friend Cassea was getting married in Palm Springs the weekend right before Valentine's Day, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make it a little vacay!

Phil, being the perfect hubby he is thought ahead and had this beautiful bracelet ready and waiting for me:)

 The room was super cute...I've never stayed in the Homewood Suites before, but I would totally recommend the one in Palm Springs...

 It had a cute little kitchenette and everything.

 This is a horrible quality picture of Cassea and I...she looked absolutely breath-taking in her dress! 

Congrats Cassea and Henry!

Our trip to Utah...day 1

So after an exhausting week of packing for 8, keeping the house clean, and the laundry under control...Wednesday finally arrived!  I have always hated driving in cars since I was a kid...I won't blame it on any one thing...more a combination of a bunch of things that involve 6 kids, sandwiched in the back of a suburban!  Ha ha...my parents call it memories, I call it a recipe for a migraine!
Phil and I try to "keep it real" when we travel...I hate the whole messy traveling car look, it already seems like we attract so much attention as it is, having such a huge family piling in and out of our car...so I like what little attention we can control, to be somewhat not junky!  Ha ha!  I know, I'm so wierd!  So instead of bringing along snacks that would just end up being smashed into the back seats, we started our trip off with McDonalds:)  Nothing like bacon, egg, and cheese in the morning!  The first 4 hours were good...we ate, no one had to go potty...everything was sweet, until we hit "Freedonia"!  Wow!  We made the mistake of telling our kids that when we stopped to get gas, we would also stop and get out to get something to eat.  What we didn't know, was that the only visible restaurant around was another McDonalds!  Okay, so I'm all for McDonalds...but twice in one day?  No.  So we tried telling the kids that in the next town, we promised to get something to eat...we started asking them what they felt like to get them excited...oooh big mistake. 
Anyone with kids knows...that when they flip, they flip fast, especially when they're either hungry or tired...and my kids were both!  Ugh...the next town was Panguitch...talk about a town!  I'm not worried about offending anyone because I'm pretty sure they haven't heard of the internet yet...they only had 2 "name brand" restaurants...Subway in a gas station and Arby's...in a gas station...how lovely!  Yeah so to make a sweet trip sweeter we all got out at the local gas station to go inside and eat at Arby's!  How do you know you're in Utah?  Maybe when suburban that parks next to you has 8 kids showcased on their back window!  Ha ha!  Loved it!!!

After a meal that left me seriously re-"thinking" Arby's...we were on our way again...!  We arrived a mere 5 hours later to Lehi, UT!

Now the real fun begins...

Thursday morning we woke up and went over to Gramma Debbie's and Papas house for scones with the cousins!  Tony, Jessica, and their 5 kids were staying at their house.  Phil, Me, and our 6, were staying with Shauna and her 3 kids around the corner:)

It was so much fun to see the cousins all hanging out together!  Now get ready for a million photos...

Silly side note about the below picture...My father in law is a complete stud!  He owns a few homes close to his and then of course has his daughter super close too, so as we're pulling up to the house he's loading his riding lawn mower up onto a trailor so he could go take care of the lawns that needed to be mowed, if you knew my father in law this wouldn't come as a surprise:)

Before breakfast was finished he was already back and armed with 2 cans of Wasp spray, so he could spray a nest that was like super high.  I think I was the only one completely curious about how he was going to do this...wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt, on a ladder no less!

I wish I had gotten a video!  Phil has some awesome stories of being on the phone with his dad while he was taking down wasps on the other end of the line...and when asked if he was getting stung, he said yeah, but finished the conversation without a hitch!  Now I can honestly say I totally believe that story!  A few swats and a lot of yelling "Get out of here!" to the wasps...he took their little nest down!  I have to say...it was pretty awesome!  (Don't let the picture fool you, there were wasps flying all over the place!) 

After breakfast it was off to Cowabunga Bay!



Finally Phil pays attention...but Berlin is so over this scene!



Cowabunga Bay was seriously fun...the day continued with dinner at Brick Oven Pizza

To Be Continued...

Home for the Holidays...Racing

The guys were going to go "racing"...but when my dad started calling us girls, "hazards"...we couldn't just allow that to happen! (I'm sure he did it on purpose!) Sarah of course couldn't go being pregnant, but the rest of us decided to go and show our stuff!

We first decided that the winner of the girls race could then race against the guys...which we all thought would be a cinch, BTW!

Here's us in our "cute" get up! Ha! We first try to look tough...then decide that we don't really look that tough...so we'll look sweet instead:)

Helmets are so clastrophic! Ugh! Don't we look hotttt?! Ha!

As soon as the race starts, my "high performance kart" dies...classic! So the guy starts it up, but it starts to jam by itself and being the considerate girl I am...I stop so the guy doesn't think I'm being a jerk! Well the kart dies again, and then I get told you can't ever take your foot off the gas or it will die again:( Rudy!!! They did this whole speech about how you can't press the gas and brake at the same time...so I decided I just wouldn't use the brake and Shavonne apparently decided to use the statement as a suggestion and ignore it all together! I think she got called into the "Sin Bin" first...which is like a time out for the drivers so they can tell you what you did wrong. Then I get pulled in and the guy is like super mad at me, telling me if I hit the side one more time I'll get ejected:( I decided it wasn't very fun anymore...because it's like impossible to get around turns without people bumping into you! (Later I find out that I evidently ignored the first "flag" into the "sin bin" so the guy was EXTRA happy to see me when I came around again:) Ooops! Anyhoo, I was 2nd on the board and Shavonne was 1st before we got called in...then I dropped to second to last because I afraid to touch anything. Sky played it smart! She kept it nice and slow the entire time and somehow Adrienne (even with a million spin outs) pulled off being the fastest! Oh well...I say "Pass" from now on! Shavonne and I are just going to say, we were SOOO good, they didn't want to be shown up...so they put us on time out:P

The guys had fun, Phil still beat my time by like 2 seconds...maybe we'll have a rematch some day:) Tyler and my dad practice like all the time...so they of course had the fastest time...whoo hoo!

The other kids had fun "pretending to race"!

Steele, Sarah's son, is obsessed with "Cars" and Lightning McQueen right now, so it was super cute to see his reaction. Shavonne has a picture of him sitting in one of the cars! Super Cute!

Home for the Holidays...Part 1

We drove down to Victorville, CA and joined Mom and Dad Wyatt along with Sara and Chad at Grandma and Grandpa Wyatt's house to celebrate Grandpa Wyatt's birthday. Several of Phil's Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins were there too to join in on the celebration!

Grandma Wyatt wasn't feeling very well, so she was unable to come downstairs and visit, but several loved ones did get to go up and see her, which was a great thing!

The kids enjoyed playing with their extended cousins and the little break in traveling, before we continued up to northern California to visit my family.

I enjoyed looking at old pictures, joking around with Sara and Chad, and of course listening to the VERY talented Wyatt family sing and play guitar! Wow!) I'm glad we made the trip this year, especially because Grandma Wyatt ended up passing away, just a few days later. She was very loved and will be missed by many:)

Halloween at the Hirschi's House...

It was so sweet to see Bettijo and Heath's new place...especially since now that they are ALL the way in Glendale! I have to admit...traveling 25 minutes was a huge change from walking past 2 houses on a sidewalk:( It was so worth the drive though!

They always go ALL out on the food and decor! The table looked amazing! We had a 4 course meal, with the first course actally being vegetarian for Mike Clark and I! (Thanks Bettijo! The soup was super yummy!) I just wish I had a better picture of it! This was from my seat down...to the end. It was so dark, so I'm sure my flash threw a few people off! (Sorry about that:) I saw Bettijo taking pictures with her NICE camera...so there should be better ones to come, I'm sure!

We all sat across from our spouses, so instead of getting Jeff and Deborah...I was only able to get Deborah and Phil...sorry Jeff:)
Cynthia and I were seated next to each other this year! Our end of the table had soo much fun! We always seem to have such "colorful" conversations when we are all together;) We missed the Becks! Next year they'll have to win the lotto and come down for the entire month of October:)


Thanks Bettijo and Heath for the awesome time and the super cute Lip Salves!

The Cookie...CookOff!

So it's a Saturday afternoon...the house is clean...the fall decorations are up...and we've just eaten lunch. Phil and I are "tag teaming" the lunch mess and he starts to say that a chocolate chip cookie sounds really good. So, I do the polite thing...offer to bake some cookies. Instead of saying what most spouses would say..."sure, sounds great, no I'll do it...you relax"...he says, "No I want a REALLY good cookie!" My mouth about hit the flipping floor!

He knew he was seriously close to getting ALL dessert privileges taken away for GOOD! He tried to backpedal but he was just digging his grave...deeper and deeper. So to try and make it a "humorous" event (I think he was being serious)he offered to have a "Cookie, Cook off!"

I wanted to crack up, but I told him I was game, and might have let slip...if he was so good then he wouldn't need a recipe! So he agreed to the challenge, that we would both make our own versions of the "perfect" cookie, without a recipe.

The kids were in the kitchen within seconds of our little debate! (They can always tell when Mommy's about to win something:) The teams were chosen, the aprons were attached, and the trash talking began!

(Team Daddy)

(Team Mommy)

I know they're both pretty cute, but only 1 team was seriously going to be the winner! We were both very determined and began immediately!

Some of us were "cocky" and some of us took the higher road...(letting the cookies themselves do the talking!)

Unfortunately, I was soo worried that he was copying my own recipe that I added "more" and "less" of the things I would normally use, so he would copy, and his would taste like crap...(then secretly added more later....or just hoping that the "more" I put in earlier, would help it taste really good. Does that even make sense?

Anyway, as you can see the batters looked pretty similar...

And the WINNER is....

Neither:(

Mine actually were okay, but Phil's fell a little short in the taste and thickness categories! I guess he added butter AND oil! Yummm. Maybe we'll stick with recipes from now on!

We laughed so hard after this! Phil said this was probably the single worst idea he's ever had! Ha ha ha!

Boston judged the cookies and gave me this note!

Poor Paris...(if only she was just crying about the cookies...)