I heart the ocean

I really love California.  I do.  Not really a lot of the people or traffic there but the state itself it's so beautiful.  We woke up at 3 am on a Sunday and started driving through the night to California.  I love watching it get warmer and warmer as we drove.  We got to hotel at 1 California time, let the kids run off some excitement, got lunch then headed to the beach.  After searching for a hour last year for the beach we wanted we planned ahead.  We love going to Huntington beach state park.  It's kind of a lot of money to park but you can stay all day and not that many people are there.  My little boys especially love being at the beach.  It was almost 80 degrees so they loved splashing in the water.  

I for course love taking pictures at the beach.  I  mean they have their fun and I have mine! And mine includes looking for sea shells and taking pictures. 

We actually found whole sand dollars there which I have never be able to do in California.  we found like 5 or 6.  Ty fell apart when he couldn't find any so I found one and helped him think he found it.  Of course he accidentally broke it before we left. To be honest I'm not sure what happened to the bucket of shells we found. Bryan may have thrown them away since being home...

I have about 50 more pictures but these are my fav. 

I love the first day of our annual disney trip.  So much excitement! I was looking forward to seeing the fireworks at Disneyland across the street from our hotel but after waking up that early and the time change we were asleep my 9pm their time.  I heard the fireworks though does that count? 

Allan

At the end of last summer we found out our family friend Allan Blad had cancer.  He went down hill really, really fast.  Which happens when you get a cancer that is very aggressive and was already all over his body.  Amazingly enough he was able to come home from the hospital after being there on and off for like 6 weeks.  He was able to be home and try some treatments (his cancer doesn't respond to chemo).  He slowly kept loosing weight and getting sicker and sicker.  January 25th he never woke  up and peacefully died at home.  He left behind a wife and six children.  Their one son that was on a mission came home a bit early and was able to spend the last couple of weeks of his dad's life with them.  Their youngest is only 10 years old.  

Bryan has been friends with Allan for a lot of years.  He especially enjoyed playing church ball with him.  They were always teasing and laughing about things with each other.  When we went to his viewing we could see him in the casket and Bryan leaned over to me and said "that's just the shell of a man." He had lost over 100 pounds and didn't really look much like he did. I had a strong feeling though that Bryan was right.  That wasn't Allan.  That was his body but it wasn't Allan.  His family is doing pretty good. It's hard to see his wife now and know the loss she must be feeling.  I mean she has to go at this alone with all those kids.  I'm sure she is scared. I'm sure she feels so alone. And even though he was so sick when he died and he just wanted to be free of it it's hard to think of the person he was and not miss him.  It's weird to see Bryan playing church ball without him their.  He was always their.  

I just look around at my family and realize that I am lucky to be here and at healthy as I am.  We took the kids the Disneyland the day after his funeral and I just felt like this kind of stuff is the most important we can do.  Family time, and family memories.  I love my little boy family.  My husband is crazy but he is mine and I love him.  I'm lucky to have him to help me and support our family.  I'm lucky to have him teaching my boys sports and hunting.  To play and wrestle with.  Lately I've been really worried about my health this next year and I just hope  my kids know how much I really love them too.  Allan was a very involved dad and his kids knew he loved them.  So I'm taking this and trying to learn from it.    

 Last summer we went to Allan Jr.'s wedding reception and of course his dad was there.  Bryan asked me to take a picture of them together which is odd and isn't that he asked. He just told me not long ago he had a feeling he needed a picture with him.  This was a month or so before he started to get really sick.

The day our basketball team won region. 

The day Allan died we had this beautiful sunset.  We felt like it was Allan smiling on us or something like that.

Ty is 9

I can't believe my son is getting so old.  It's an amazing thing watching your kids grow up. I remember having a panicked feeling after he was born that he was going to turn out to be a punk and I was going to mess him up somehow.  Despite my lack of being a good mom he is turning out to be an amazing boy.  Tyson is one of the most caring and compassionate kids I've ever known.  He worries about following the rules and wants to please everyone so much.  He is very tender hearted which I wouldn't have guessed when he was about 3.  He was so funny when he was little because little seemed to faze him.  He was a nut.   It didn't help that he couldn't hear very good come to find out.  He works really hard at what he does.  He wants everyone to be happy with the job he is doing.  His ADHD has been really, really hard but this year in school he is doing so well. It's amazing to see what was locked inside that brain of his and couldn't get out before. He is doing so good with math and last year he was totally failing.  I love this boy.  I'm not sure I deserve him but I'm glad God sent him to me.  =) 

 Birthday ninjas 

 we went to the fun park as per his request. Some dumb family brought this really sick little girl there that day and she was coughing up crap all over the play place.  So much so it looked like she was puking.  Then they STAYED after that.  So we didn't las there long.  Ty loved earning so many tickets an eating the pizza there.

He wanted his favorite- a razzleberry pie.  Happy birthday sweet boy! I'm excited to see what kind of amazing person you are growing into being.  Just don't grow too fast please? 

Christmas

This was the first year in a long time I've been able to get just about everything I wanted to do with my boys done before christmas.  Ginger bread houses, driving around looking at lights, santa, and the list goes on.  The one thing left we needed to do was make cookies so with everything else I was doing Christmas eve I fit in making cookies too.  I don't bake very often.  It's a mess! But the boys loved it and for that reason I need to do it more often.  Stockton especially got into the cookies.  I'm regretting not adding a picture of him with the cookies now but Blake did love it too. 

We went to my in laws for Christmas Eve but this year it was only our family and Jenny's even though it's their year for Christmas.  It seems to me we are the only family that actually still follows the in laws schedule.

When we got home the boys opened their new PJ's and Stockton wasn't happy about it.  He wanted to open a toy and was sad it was PJ's.  My older boys are used to the drill now I've been doing this since Blake was a year old.

Stockton leaving out cookies for santa.  I was really into the whole santa thing this year.

I went a little over board on presents this year.  I do it all the time.  I never have the right amount because it's hard to know.

The boys running in on Christmas morning. 

I forgot to add that Bryan's parents spent Christmas morning with us and that was fun.

Their big presents were a hugging elmo for Brett, vtech trains for stockton, a kindle fire for Blake and a ninjago lego set for tyson.  

 My parents came up the day after Christmas with the kids presents.  My dad had built the kids a lego table that they LOVE.