~Yosemite National Park~

My niece Korinne was being baptized so my family headed out to California for a little site seeing trip before her big day. My sister had the idea to visit Yosemite National Park and we absolutely loved it. Me, Trav and my Mom headed out on for our road trip. We stopped in Vegas for the night but as always we got there too late to do much so we just stuffed our faces with Pei Wei, then my mom went to bed and we headed down to the hot tub. The next day we headed out to Bakersfield to pick up my Dad and my sister Staci from the airport (they were the lucky ones and got to fly). Then we all crammed in my little car and headed out the last 2 hours to Fresno. It was so fun to see how the excited the kids were when we arrived (it made the 12 hour drive well worth it).

The next morning we headed off to Yosemite. Beautiful...Amazing...More Beautiful... Those are the words that came to my mind when we arrived in Yosemite. I highly recommend everyone make a trip out early enough in the year to see the falls. Every time I look at the photos I think the back ground it fake. As you can see from the photos it was a little bright for Tyson we were having a hard time trying to get him to keep his eyes open. It did get a little chilly when you got close to the falls with so much water coming down it felt like a mist of cold water. It was so fun to hike around and explore such a beautiful place. My brother in-law Tyler convinced us to go on a hike and climb through a crack that was extremely small (for us adults) but the kids were so great and loved every minute. Even Tyson and Trav went on their own little adventure to try to see some deer. Then we took a trip to the souvenir store then headed out of the park for food and the hotel.

Our Champers...

We unfortunately had to lose our dog Champ. He was our closest thing to a baby and it has been a lot harder than we thought to let him go. We hope that someone has taken him home that will love him as much as we do. It is kinda sad we are this close to a dog but he was our family...I can't say much more it is making me too emotional. Goodbye our sweet Champers we will always love and miss you!!

tHe CuTteSt LitTle 3 YeAr oLdS

two of my nieces have birthdays close to each other so we decided to have a fun little bowling trip for each of them. not sure why non of us got any photos of us actually bowling but at least we got some of their cute faces. they had so much fun. happy happy birthday alexa & sienna!!!

*Barbie Cake*

My cute little niece Lillian requested a Barbie cake for her 6th birthday. Her mom unfortunately was stranded in London at the time due to the volcano so I decided to try to make her request. She is a very smart and specific 6 year old. She had to have a white dress with pink flowers that had a purple center and holding the number 6. She first decided she wanted it to be a vanilla cake then she changed to chocolate so I decided to do 3 layers. The chocolate is at the top, strawberry in the middle and vanilla at the bottom. I have never used fondant before so I was a little nervous and anxious to try it. Luckily my aunt is a cake expert and was able to give me a few tips. Aside from needing a lot of upper body strength I loved working with fondant. I realized you can do some many fun things with it. After cutting out all the flowers by hand I will for sure invest in some fondant shape cutters the next time around. After making the cake the night before and working on it all the next morning I was exhausted but happy with the way it turned out. Lillian was so surprised I was so happy to make her day. She was a little shy with all the attention but warmed up to the camera when she started opening her presents. I hope she had a great birthday!! Love you Lilly Bug-Crackers!

My Trip to California

I am so behind, this was actually back in March. I decided to make a quick trip California to surprise my niece for her 8th birthday. I unfortunately had to fly in a few days after her actual birthday but it was still really fun. It was quite the drama getting there. I was leaving late Thursday night and was flying standby. The flight looked completely full so I was sure I wasn't going to get on. There was 1 more seat open and they kept calling the persons name telling them the flight was going to leave and the whole time I am praying he does not hear it. Finally they say I can go. I am leaving out of concourse E so I head out the doors and they tell me I have to go all the way to like door 46 which is clear at the very end and I am the last passenger boarding the plane and they are waiting for me. So I am running and frantically calling Trav letting him know he can leave the airport and calling my sister so she knows she will have to come pick me up. I finally get to the door I think I am supposed to be and get on the plane. The plane is full with tonz of teenagers and it is hard weaving all around them trying to get to my seat. I sit down and hear there chaperons counting and screaming for everyone to find their seats. As a few minutes go by they realize a kid is not in his seat and they are yelling at him telling him to get into his seat as proceeds to say he can't that someone he does not know is sitting in it....(yes that would be me). So we both show our tickets to each other and realize they say the same number so I am telling them that I am on standby and will get off the plane because they must have made a mistake and booked the same seat. As I start gathering my things the stewardess who is only 4 rows in front of me and says "Attention everyone we might have someone on our plane that is to be on a different plane, this plane is going to Albuquerque. Is there a Mr. Zingleton on the plane?" I am horrified and not only feel like a complete idiot but now I am sure my real plan as left me. I try to bow my head and get off as soon as I can as I am leaving they tell me my plane is right next to this plane and is waiting for me. So now it has been at least 10-15 minutes or so and I run a few yard away to get on my plane. I step on and everyone is completely silent looking right at me. As I find my seat the gentleman next to me kindly says "so you are who we have been waiting for". Yep...I am the dumb blond you all have been waiting for. He continues to say "were you on a connecting flight that was late"...Nope as I look out the window to my right and point, I have been sitting on that plane right there. So I get settled and am praying we land as soon and possible because I am now feeling so stupid. We I arrive in Fresno I tell my sister the whole story and she can't stop laughing...so that was my fun adventure to remember. Just when you think it’s impossible to get on the wrong plane...its not!

The rest of the trip was great. Since I flew in so late the kids were in bed so I was able to sneak in so they didn't know I was there. The next morning I was hiding in the bedroom until Korinne went to school because I wanted to surprise her later. After she finally left Becky called me and said to come out to surprise Tyson who was glued to the T.V. eating his breakfast. I sneaked up behind him and he was so surprised so fun to see his cute face. Later on that day we went to check Korinne out of school early to take her out for her birthday. I waited out side of her class room as she opened the door she saw my but wasn't so sure it was me and first but as soon as she did she was so surprised. I was able to bring all of her presents from me, my mom and my sister Heather. I am such a bad aunt and did not wrap them so she got to open them from my suit case. I am so glad I was able to spend some time with them and have a little relaxing weekend.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas day was lots of fun with my sister and her family that live in California. Santa was very good to everyone this year and brought so many great things. I surprised Trav pretty good this year and got him a 4 wheeler. He did not have a clue it was coming. Thanks to my brother in-law (Brandt) he was able to get it and keep it at his house until Christmas Eve and then we hid it in our neighbors garage. After we all opened presents Christmas morning and were about to eat breakfast we could tell Trav was a little down not getting very many things. My brother in-law (Tyler) went and road the 4 wheeler on the front lawn and my sister was out there freezing cold ready to take pic's. So thanks to her we got some really funny pic's of his reaction.

Later on Christmas day we were able to go to Trav's mom and dads and had a great time opening up more presents with everyone there. His aunt Mary from Seattle came to visit us this year and it is always such a delight to have her here on Christmas.

We are so thankful to be able to spend the holidays with all of our family and friends. We LOVE you all very much!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

I am a little relieved that Christmas is over this year..but I think we all had a great time.

We had everyone over at my parents house for Christmas Eve dinner and present swapping. That is always fun to do. We have all of the grand kids draw names with each other so that is always fun to see what they do when they open up their gifts. My amazing oldest niece Ashley brought her boy friend (Andrew) for everyone to meet and he was such a gentleman. We are so glad she is with some that is so good to her. We were also able to convince my favorite Aunt & Uncle to come as well.. They were soo cute and my mom loved having them there. My nephew K.J. was also able to be with us this year from Denver and as most of you may know my husband is a die hard Denver Broncos fan. Even though my nephew does not like them very much his dad has season tickets so he was able to get a little Bronco helmet signed by one of the players. He was so excited to give it to him and Trav loved it.