Well it was that time of the year. Definitely mixed emotions on weather we like it or not. Never something we really look forward to, but it has to be done. Mike goes and plays in the desert for 2 weeks with his military unit. Now usually they go to Wendover NV, that's why its never looked forward to. Wendover is just a big trailer park town with casinos and a lot of sand. Since his unit just came home from the middle east in January they changed it up. They sent only the guys that stayed home from that tour, to Albuquerque NM. Usually I pack the kids up and go and visit Mike for a day or two in Wendover, but because NM is a little further than the 2 hours it takes to get to Wendover we decided to go to So Cal with my little sister and her new baby for a week. Our kids are really good travelers. The DVD player is Lorins best friend and Christian sings to us all the primary songs they are learning. Kaki likes to just sit and watch Lorin and sleeps most of the time. It was so much fun to go and really do nothing. We swam and vegged, and that's about it. The kids love to go visit the grandma that has elephants on her door, so any chance we get we go. Kaki and Ms BB(that's what we call my sisters little babe) had fun laying around together while the rest of us went swimming.

At the end of the week Mike flew to Cali and hung out a couple days with us and then drove home with us. But we made it out to San Diego and visited some friends that are from Utah. They took us to Old Town San Diego and it was really nice. The weather was perfect, in the 70s. So we walked around and ate dinner at this Mexican restaurant. Our friend Ty is in a Captain in the Marines(that's ok, we forgive him :) jk) and so him and Mike can talk military forever.

This is Kathy and I. Mike and I use to work with her and her hubby. They weren't married at the time. I'm pretty sure we kinda doubled with them on their first date. Some Dudes Playground!!!

Mariachis at dinner sang Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer in Spanish to the kids. Christian gave them this, "don't touch me look" and Lorin loved it. Kaki just started them down.

Lorin got trigger happy with our camera and took a ton of pics at dinner. They turned out real cute though, maybe she's found her calling at a young age. This is one she took of me and Christian.

We decided when Lorin was a baby that we were going to let her make the choice if and when she wanted to get her ears pierced(and that option is definitely not open for tattoos). So she decided she wanted to do it with Nana, so after lunch we went to the mall with Nana to put some extra holes in her ears. At first she watched a little boy get his ears done and he didn't cry or anything so she was ok with doing it, she just didn't want to sit in the chair she wanted to stand and take it like a big girl. The tears didn't start till after they were done and they were giving her a sucker for being such a big girl. Then once she started crying they let her take another sucker. Don't ever tell me she doesn't know how to get what she wants :)

She chose pink flower earrings of course, and she loves how they twinkle like mommy's ring. But she hasn't had any problems with them, she is counting down the days she can take them out and put in some of the other earrings Nana bought her.

Christian wanted nothing to do with the ear piercing, that's my little man, earrings are for girls, So him and Mike went to check out the sunglasses. Christian found some that fit him perfectly and brought out his blond hair, but party pooper mom made him put them back.

The last night there we went and visited Mikes best friend from high school. He and his wife just had a baby girl a little over a month ago and she was so sweet. But I swear when Mike and Dave get together it's comical, they crack me up!! I know that Mike wishes we could live closer to him because they are like brothers. So Katie and Dave if you feel like moving to Utah, let us know and I'm sure there's a house available in our neighborhood. Dave served his mission in Argentina and I guess they say Che a lot there. So he got a bearded dragon for a pet, that's all Katie would let him get, and he named him Che. Of course the boys had to take it out and play with it.

Then Dave and Mike tried to get Christian to give Che a kiss. He didn't, thank goodness, but he got pretty close.



So it was a fun trip, but it's always good to be home. We got home in just enough time for Mike to pack his bucket and head out the door to go pioneer trecking with the young men and women in our stake. So far all we've heard from him was a picture he texted us. He was holding up this little sack lunch bag that was his meal for the morning. Poor guy, I'm not gonna tell him we had Cafe Rio for dinner :)