A Big Surprise for Christmas

Trav and I pulled off the biggest surprise EVER for Christmas! We were not planning on going home for Christmas because I couldn't get off work and we knew it would be too expensive to travel right around Christmas. We had completely faced the fact that we would not be going home for Christmas. We had told both of our families we weren't coming, and I had already shed tears over the whole thing. Well about 2 1/2 weeks before Christmas I decided that I wasn't going to feel okay about not going home for Thanksgiving or Christmas unless I knew for sure that my work wouldn't let me have any days off. So I decided to ask my boss if there was anyway I could take a few days off around Christmas to visit our families. He said I could and I immediately text Trav and told him. When we both got home from work we talked about it and thought about it and decided that even though it was going to cost more that we would have liked, it was WORTH IT! Since we knew that both of our families were convinced that we were spending our holidays in California, we thought it would be the perfect surprise!  I only told my older sister, Shannon, so that she could be my eyes and ears in Centerville and pick us up from the airport (otherwise I would have loved to sup rise her too). We made sure to send all of our gifts by mail because we didn't want them to suspect it at all.

On December 23, the day before we were going to arrive, my mom text me in the morning and said that she wished so bad that we were flying on a plane to be there on Christmas. Little did she know we would be early the next morning.

We got up early at 3:30 AM on Christmas Eve, drove to the Fresno Airport, got delayed because they had to de-ice the wings and we were finally off to Salt Lake City. Shannon and Josh met us at the airport and it was so nice to finally see them! Then we headed straight to my mom and dad's house. At this time it was about 10 AM so we thought for sure they would be up and probably ready. We walked in the garage door and my dad was looking at himself in the mirror. He had his pj's on and his hair was all crazy. When he saw us he had the most confused look as he processed how we were there. We went downstairs to wake up Shane because he wasn't even up yet. We turned on the light and he did a little processing as well and wasn't quite awake. :) Then we sat and talked in the family room while we waited for my mom to get out of the shower. When my mom came around the corner into the family room should just screamed and ran over to us and was crying and hugging us. She could not believe it and it was the best surprise ever! She was so happy! We talked for awhile and explained everything. They said that Shannon had acted a little differently than she normally would in the week prior and that it made more sense knowing that she knew we were coming. Then we headed over to Amanda and Jeremy's. Jeremy answered the door and said, "Hi guys! Welcome to Utah" lol and then Amanda came in and was tearing up and gave me a big hug! We went back to my parent's house and Shannon made us some pancakes, which were delicious. We told them we wanted to make sure to hit up Cafe Rio for a late lunch, but they said that was already on the menu for dinner, so we were set! We headed over for our traditional Christmas Eve game night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We surprised Kathy, Ellen, my Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins.

That night we had Cafe Rio take out. I had the port salad and trav had a pork burrito smothered and we were in heaven. We have been going through Cafe Rio withdrawals since we moved to CA. We played a gamed called "Would you Rather?" One of the questions was....Would you rather marry an annoying practical joker who frequently pulls the "bucket over the door" gag and many other elaborate jokes like it-or-marry someone with non sense of humor? Brooke's answer made me laugh. She said, "No sense of humor because if you just got ready than you got a bucket of water dumped on you then that's a divorce right there." Ha Ha. In the pictures below Whitney had to dance with a mop and Brooke had to drink water like a cat. It was a lot of fun! My Grandpa got a headset to go with the plane he is building. It is all built and in the hanger right now. He has to have it inspected by a couple more inspectors, then they will test fly it. If all goes well, they'll paint it and it will be ready to go! I can't wait to see it all done. It has been my Grandpa's hobby for the past several years. He told us that his call sign is going to be N530RF May 30 for his birthday and RF for Richard Ford. I love my Grandparents!!! Trav, Shane, Josh and Tyler were found playing "Loupin' Louey". It is a younger kid game where you try to knock down each others chickens in the barn. It entertained them for about 45 mins. Never too old I guess. :)

Christmas Eve night we headed down to Huntington about 10 o'clock. Because we had woken up that morning at 3:30 AM we were getting very tired and we had to rock out to music and roll down the windows to freeze us out to stay awake, but we made it at about 12:15 PM. We saw some lights on downstairs and figured that someone must still be up. We knocked on the door and Jaime answered. She was so shocked she said nothing, basically gasped, teared up, and gave us both a hug. Then my mother-in-law saw us and starting shouting, "Travis and Michelle are here!!!" She was trying to wake up my father-in-law and I can't believe our three nephews didn't wake up. Ray came downstairs and they were all so happy to see it and were so surprised! We were so tired that we headed straight to bed.  In the morning we got ready and headed to 9 o'clock church. Ray spoke and gave a wonderful talk. We enjoyed listening to the choir and the primary sing. They were REALLY good! I loved that we got to go to church on Christmas and remember the birth of the Savior and his life here on earth. It was a very spiritual meeting and I loved thinking about Christ and why we have Christmas.

When we got home from church our nephews, Keith, Colin, and Camden were really excited to see if Santa came. They were really patient to wait for all of us to change out of our church clothes. Keith got a fish, Colin got Byblades, and Camden got a Nintendo DS and they all got lots of games and clothes and got everything they wanted for Christmas. Somehow Santa filled us a stocking full of goodies. We got Ray a nice baby blue polo shirt and a red and gray tie and we got Marian the game "Ticket to Ride". We had yummy breakfast burritos for lunch, watched basketball, took naps, and then went to Adam and Heidi's to see what  they got for Christmas. The highlight of the day was talking with Mark. He called about 6:30 at night and Marian was stressing that he wasn't going to call because it was 8:30 PM his time in New Jersey. We talked to him for about 1 1/2 hours. He told us that he just got transferred to a nicer area. He is enjoying his mission except for some health issues he is having, but hopefully those can get fixed here shortly. He wanted to hear about what was going on with Jimmer Fredette and the Sacramento Kings. It was so good to talk to him!

The next day was Camden's 5th Birthday. We all ate at Pizza Hut for lunch and played Ticket to Ride and hung out all day. At night we sang happy birthday to Camden, he opened his gifts and we had chocolate cake. We had a great time with all the Guymon's and were so sad that we only got to spend a couple of days with them. It really wasn't long enough!

The next morning we woke up and read the emails from Mark and helped Marian learn how to navigate her new laptop. Then we were off to spend some more time with my family. We met my mom, dad, Shane, Shannon and Josh at the Pizza Factory for Lunch. (Jeremy and Amanda had to work). When we got back to my parents me, my mom, and Shannon worked on and completed a puzzle of Waikiki Beach while the guys played the Wii. My mom made us a homemade dinner of roast, lion house potatoes, carrots, Cesar salad, and rolls. It was delicious! Then it was game night again. The Wilson's game over and my Grandma and Grandpa Ford. The girl's played Nertz while the guys played there game and then "Ticket to Ride" was a hit, while some of the guys watched the Utah Jazz play.

The next morning we woke up and got ready. We were going to have a nice breakfast (breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, and hot chocolate) then we were going to meet Shannon and Josh at Tilly's (Our favorite store in CA that is not in Farmington) and then got to the new Mission Impossible movie. Well our plans got turned upside down when me and Trav checked our accounts online and found that we had fraudulent charges made in one of our checking accounts. We headed straight to the bank and had to file and fraud claim and that took awhile and we were stressed. By the time we were done with that we had missed breakfast and Tilly's and barely made it to the movie. The movie kept us on our toes and it was a good movie. I can't say that Tom Cruise is as attractive as he used to be....he is getting old, but the movie was still very intense and entertaining. We played a few more games when we got home and then we were off to the airport to catch our 8:05 PM flight.

Our trip went by WAY TO FAST! I would have liked to spend several more days with both or our families and been able to see Trav's sisters and there families (Megan and Laura), but I just have to be grateful we weren't in CA by ourselves for Christmas. We definitely enjoyed every minute we spent with our families and were glad we were able to pull off the best surprise ever!!

Sunday Visitors

In November, my Aunt Deanna came to visit with her 3 kids, Brooklyn, Camden, and Dexton. She lives in an outside city of L.A. My Grandpa and Grandma Tidwell were visiting and they thought it would be fun to come see where we are living and to catch up a bit. It was SO fun to have Sunday visitors! It felt kind of weird when they showed up just because we aren't used to having family here for short little visits. I kind of felt like I was back in Utah for a few hours. I made homemade hearty chicken noodle soup and we ate it with some rolls and french bread. Deanna has always lived farther away, either in Henderson, NV or in California, so her kids don't really know much about cousin Michelle, but we all had a good time watching the kids play, Brooklyn dancing a little bit, and seeing how things were going with my uncle's restaurants. (A new Settabello's was opening up in Pasadena, CA soon, so Brad wasn't able to make it because he was busy with work).

Not a great picture with my Grandma and Grandpa Tidwell, but I had to leave it in. I am really glad they thought of us when they came to visit Deanna.

Couldn't get the perfect picture, so I had to put in two. :)

We hope to go to visit them after the beginning of the year and see their new house. Even though they are about 2 1/2 hours away, it is nice to know you have family that could come help if we really needed it. We loved having visitors!

San Fran....NFL live!

November 25-27

I'm way late on this post, but it is probably a good thing because there would probably be a novel to go along with the bazillion pictures. For Thanksgiving 2011 we just had our own little Thanksgiving together with just us. We had a lot of the traditional Thanksgiving goods of turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls, and pie (just for Trav). Because we couldn't hang out in Utah and do all the family festivities that were going on, we decided to head to San Fran for our own fun. I asked Trav what he wanted for his birthday and he said to go to his first NFL game. Even though it wasn't on his birthday, at least it was in the same month. We really wanted to go to the 49ers game, but they weren't playing at home this weekend, so we went to an Oakland Raiders game. We had been told that Raiders fans are crazy and scary. Well that was definitely true for the "black hole" section. Luckily for us, that was on the other side of the stadium and near the field. The fans cheer on their team just like all fans. There was a little scuff between two women that started a little racket, but nothing major. We had a good time and we were happy they won the Bears 25-20.

We took a boat ride over to Alcatraz. It was a little eery, but it was interesting to hear the stories of the prisoners trying to escape. We took the audio tour.  I always like to add some history flavor into our vacations.

Visiting the Oakland Temple was a must for me! This is Trav's little brother favorite temple, so we made sure to take plenty of pictures. We did a session and it was so peaceful. We got to see the temple in the daylight before the session, then we got to enjoy the inside, and then we got to walk around outside when we came out at night time. It doesn't matter what temple you go to, it is so special to feel the same spirit that each of them hold.

We didn't have enough time to do everything that we wanted or spend enough time at some places we went but we took a quick trip to Ghirardelli Square.

 We took a ride on the cable cars. They really do go up and down the streets of San Fran and they are pretty fun to ride!

We explored Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. Travis got a taste of the best Clam Chowder he has ever had at Pier Market.

I loved the atmosphere of this dinner and of course the compay ;). It overlooked the water and they had the Christmas decorations and lights on. It was romantic.

We saw the famous "Seven Painted Ladies". We walked in the park where the "Full House" family had their famous picnic in the opening credits.

We made sure to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a pretty foggy day and the pictures didn't turn out super great, but it is an awesome bridge. I really wanted to bike it, but we ran out of time.

We definitely wanted to stay longer and we hope to visit again sometime, but I can see why people love San Francisco. It is a beautiful city!!

Sequoia National Park....Unreal

We visited the Sequoia National Park for the first time and it is only about 45 mins from our house, which is such a treat. We only were able to spend a day there thus far, but it was WELL WORTH OUR TIME!!! I loved every minute. I was in such awe of these HUGE Trees. They are not as tall as the Redwood, but they are move massive as far as volume.

We had a nice picnic in the park.

We could not capture the massiveness of these trees, but in the picture you can compare the trunk to the surrounding pines.

This tree is call the General Sherman. It is the largest Sequoia Tree as far as mass is concerned. If the picture above I want you to note the people that are at the base and we only have 1/2 the tree in the picture. It is just insane!

It is so crazy as you are driving around in what seems to look like any other mountain road through normal size trees and then all of a sudden you hit the sequoia trees and you just can't even believe it. They are everywhere.

After our trip to visit General Sherman, we hiked up Moro Rock pictured above. You hike the back side of it.

This is one angle of the view from the top.

These are stairs carved out of the rock.

We were excited to drive through a fallen sequoia.

Normally when you see this sign, you don't actually expect to see a bear. We couldn't have been more wrong. We actually saw a momma and her 2 cubs. On top of that we saw 2 other bears. In 1 day at the Sequoias I saw more bears that I have seen in all the times I've been to Yellowstone. Who would've known!

The bears were so cute and so close to us. They didn't even care that everyone was staring at them and taking pictures. This was a highlight!

We got a lot closer than this, but I wanted to be in a picture with the bears.

The base of a tree. As we read the information about this tree, it was on the Earth when Christ was. I thought that was a pretty neat thing.

I wonder how long it took for this sequoia to grow ever this rock.

Cars used to be able to drive up on to this huge tree trunk. I wish we could have, but it is no longer safe.

This National Park is a must see! I am so happy we are close to the mountains and close to the beach. We really are in the center of California, which isn't a bad place to be. We also loved having my parents come out to visit and get to see where we live and spend time together. We were very happy to have them as visitors.

Company in Visalia!

October 12-16

 My parents were the first people to come and visit since we moved here. It was so good to see them and get to show them around our new neck of the woods. One night we went and saw some small town racing.  I would say most of the racers were under the age of 12 and as young as 6 or 7. We had a lot of fun watching all the races. We would each pick a car at the start and see who won. Either my dad or Trav won the most races, but I can't remember. We had fun cheering on our cars in the race! After the races we went to Red Lobster (Trav, Mom, and Dad's favorite restaurant.....I got chicken...ha ha)

These were tiny little trucks that raced. The youngest kids raced these.

This was my favorite car because it was pink!

My dad choose not to come to Hobby Lobby with me and my mom. He got in a little R&R. It was probably a good choice considering we could spend endless hours at that store.

We went to visit Trav working at the Porterville Target Pharmacy and have lunch with him and did a little bit of shopping for my mom.