The Glass is Half Full

Even though my reasons for making the quick trip to California weren't so happy, it wasn't ALL doom and gloom. There were plenty of happy times during my time with my family and I thought I would share those. For starters Chelsea got to meet her Aunt Jaylee and Great Aunt Dayna for the first time. Jaylee was funny and didn't really know what to do with an infant and Dayna couldn't get enough of her. Jaylee wasn't able to stay very long but it was really nice to see her and we look forward to spending more time with her when we go back in December.

Last Halloween I started my own tradition with Brad of making this REALLY yummy White Chili for dinner. Had I been home, the plan was to continue the tradition and make it again this year. So I decided that I would save my mom the trouble and make dinner for the fam. So I went grocery shopping and made the chili for all to enjoy. Oh, and I also made these super yummy pumpkin pie shakes for dessert. If you are a fan of pumpkin pie you would love these shakes! We had a good evening together as a family. We ate our chili, and my dad passed out candy to the kids trick or treating. It was HILARIOUS. He used my grandma's walker and wheeled around like a crippled old man. Then he got tired of all the kids walking across his newly planted grass (anyone who knows my dad understands) so he took the candy and the walker and camped out at the end of the driveway and told the kids if they didn't walk on his grass he would give them candy. Funny funny man!

We dressed Chelsea up in her "Pea in the Pod" costumes for about a total of 5 minutes in order to get some pictures but she was pretty cranky and we had to get her to ready for bed.

Saturday I spend some time with my dad. My dad's new favorite pass time is playing the Nintendo Wii. I had yet to experience the world of the Wii so I thought I would give it a whirl and see what all the fuss was about. My dad taught me how to bowl and I did pretty good. Better than I do in real life anyway :) That night my Dad took us all out to dinner. We went to Mimi's Restaurant. We had a good time and were intrigued by a waitress that had to touch Chelsea LITERALLY every time she looked at her. She was Hispanic and I guess in the Mexican culture they have a superstition that if you "eye" a baby but don't touch them, the baby will get sick. It sounds odd to me but who am I to argue with Mexican culture?

After dinner we came home and my dad, mom and me had a Wii bowling tournament. Although we had a really fun time I developed a condition we like to call a "wii-knee". My mom and dad were laughing at me because when I bowl using the Wii I actually do the motions as if I was bowling for real. So I do the walk and I bend down and throw the ball just like you would in a bowling alley. In the process of all that bending down I did something to my knee so the whole rest of my time with my family I kept telling everyone that my "Wii-Knee" hurt. Just a little 5 year old humor I guess!

Sunday I went to church in my parent's ward and got to see some old familiar faces and my mom was cute walking around showing off Chelsea to all her church buddies. Later that day my Aunt Dayna and Uncle Dennis came back down to spend some more time with Chelsea and I was able to get a much needed nap. I tell ya, there is nothing better than a LONG Sunday afternoon nap! Sunday evening was spent going through some old pictures of my grandma and reminiscing with my family about all the fun times we had with her. My dad even busted out some of our old home videos from past Christmases (like 1999...boy did I have some scary bleach blond hair!). Monday morning my mom, aunt, Charity, Chelsea and I all went to Breakfast. We all learned a little secret about IHOP. I will share it with you all. They use powdered eggs! So if you're gonna order eggs, I would recommend ordering them over easy or over hard cause if you order scrambled your gonna get fake eggs...YUCK!!! After breakfast a friend of Charitys came over with her baby boy. He was born just a few weeks after Chelsea so we put them together and took some pictures of them together. SOOO cute! They were holding hands. Cannon (the baby boy) was smaller than Chelsea when she was born. Chelsea could beat that kid up!

After our little visit with Cynthia and Cannon, my mom and aunt took me to the airport. We did make a pit stop at my dad's work where he showed Chelsea off to his co-workers, just like any proud grandpa would. Saying goodbye was difficult, especially for my mom I think. She didn't want to let go of Chelsea. But the good news is we are going back for a PLANNED trip in December, where Chelsea will get to spend some more time with her Grandma D!