Thanksgiving with Alton Brown

We came home from Hawaii on the 20th and decided we'd better host Thanksgiving for Justin's siblings since his mom was out of town. It ended up just being us and Uncle Eddie and Jessica and Aaron. It was our first time cooking the bird and Justin studied up on it by watching Alton Brown's techniques. It was the best tasting and non-dry turkey I've had, and he didn't even baste. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Brody dropped his fork during dinner and Uncle Eddie gave it back. Brody impressed everyone (including me) with "day doo" (Thank You), which he had apparently learned from being around his friend Jacob Dunn in Hawaii.

Sam and Jake's Wedding

I have finally renewed my Flikr account and you can view all of the wedding photos HERE.

There was another photographer at the reception who got much better photos than I did, but of course I only uploaded what Justin and I took.

On Friday we took photos at the temple.

I like Jake, I think he's a good fit for Sam. More importantly Sam thinks he's a good fit for Sam. It is easy to take pics of two good looking people.

They wanted a picture in front of the Christus, what a perfect way to begin an eternal marriage.

After all the temple shots we went down to Santa Monica pier for some more spontaneous fun. But we found out that planned spontanaity is just as difficult to achieve as it sounds. The arcades wouldn't let us take pictures in their shops and I had to sign a release to take pictures on the boardwalk. Jake got cotton candy on his suit jacket (luckily it came out) and Sam couldn't sit down on the dirty rides in her crisp white dress (bad planning on my part, I should have brought a towel) so basically it was a lot of wandering and receiving funny looks.

The wedding and reception were both on Saturday. It was a loooong day. The reception was GORGEOUS. Props to Stephanie, it looked deceivingly like a million bucks.

and it was a lot of fun, too. Thriller!

Sam made a special dedication to her mom who then stole the show doing the Time Warp

My charming princes.

Halloween

I went for easy this year and we bought Brody a Zookeeper getup from the LA Zoo. We went to my parent's ward Halloween party on Thursday night cause we had a family wedding planned for Saturday. It was low key... Brody practiced singing "Little Red Riding Hood" with my dad for weeks before and then they made my mom come up to the front of the cultural hall and wear a red cape and they sang to her. I say 'they', but it was my dad singing and playing the guitar and Brody just howled on cue. There were some pretty imaginitive pumpkins for the contest. The primary presidency (Sisters Elms, Giles, and Clemmons) were the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus and they were fabulously in character the whole time. Brody was so content to stay inside and play with the adults that we didn't even take him outside for trunk or treating. PLUS he turns into this crazy, hiper, shrieking wind-up toy when he eats candy so I thought it best to avoid the whole thing. I can't seem to find any of the pics from the party :(

We went to a pumpkin patch the week before Halloween but I was not very impressed. The pumpkins were slim pickins but Andrew and Alex did have fun in the kids zone. Andrew carved this sick jack o' lantern.

Knotts Berry Farm

On October 16th Justin's cousin got married just south of LA but it was a classy no-kids type of event so we decided to take Alex and Andrew to Knott's that day as a birthday present. Alex was forced to go on the big rollercoasters which he LOVED and wanted more of. Brody threw a little tantrum every time he had to get off a ride to get back in line. Luckily the lines were short. Brody and I were cranky by mid-day so we caught the shuttle back to the hotel to take a nap and we made it back to the park just in time to hit a couple more rides. The park closed at 5 o'clock so they could prepare for Knotts Scary Farm later that evening. Good thing, I wouldn't have lasted much longer.

The next day we stopped by the grandparents hotel to visit with all of the family that had come down for the wedding. Brody made friends with Aunt Shelly and she took him out to her car to drive - an obsession that he picked up from his other grandpa. He tries to get everyone to take him to their car so he can drive (and reset all of your stereo/light/wiper settings).

October - a busy month

I helped with Samantha's bridal shower (well, just food, really) which turned out to be very nice. Jessica made the cutest glasses with everyone's name on them and Sierra made pretty (and tasty) cupcakes. We played a few games and ate great food... it was fun. Unfortunately I didn't get a good photo of Sam.




Then the family all rushed over to John's Incredible Pizza for Andrew and Alex's combined birthday party. Alex only wanted one specific friend there :) We all had a good time with the balloon animals. Here Brody began his obsession with kiddie rides.

Where to start? Conference weekend

We needed some family time after Justin having been out of town all summer so we went to Ventura and stayed at Uncle Eddie's house. On Friday we visited the LA Zoo. That was fun but also a very looong day for Brody. Saturday in between sessions we attempted to hit the beach but we discovered we had a blown tire so we spent the entire time waiting around for it to be fixed and then we didn't make it to the beach until the early evening. Brody and Dad had lots of fun with this detached crab claw.

Summer Holiday

Last Friday me, Brody, Katie and Jenna traveled to San Jose for a much needed getaway. We went to Merri's house and swam and ate dinner with my aunt and uncle Patty and Danny and cousin Emily. Katie and Jenna stayed with Merri and Justin, Brody and I drove up to stay at Justin's hotel in Richmond, CA. Justin is building a Burlington Coat Factory in Pinole this summer. We saw this indoor skydiving place on the way and Justin just had to stop and watch. I had no idea that was possible - it was pretty cool to see.

We mostly spent the weekend driving around exploring Marin County. We met up with Justin's aunt and uncle Crystal and Steven and had lunch at a Thai place in Fairfax, walked around the shops at Point Reyes Station, and went to a lighthouse that was pretty cool. Justin stayed in the car for that one cause Brody was napping.

Brody LOVED the beach. We went to Stinson's. He kept running back & forth between the dry sand and the waves - he couldn't decide which was more exciting. He stuck his face down and ate the sand. I cleaned his mouth out and then he did it again. And again. Hmmm... you'd think he'd learn? Nope, he liked it. He was sneezing sand for days. He discovered piggy back rides and ever since he has been trying to climb up on my back and then bouncing like he wants me to run around.

We saw a really great fireworks show on the lagoon at the Marin county fair. We got some great little deals at IKEA. Brody really got fed up with being in the car so much. On the way back we stopped at Casa de Fruta where we ate and let the kids play. Ever since we've been home he's been walking around happy to be free and he's been very interested in his toys.