In-laws in town

January 31-February 7

 

We were so lucky and excited that Trav's parents came to visit us in Visalia. We  had a great time catching up, relaxing, and exploring somethings around the area.

 

Thursday, January 31-They arrived after a 12 hour car ride. We welcomed them to the best accommodations we could come up with to make them feel at home. A king size double high air bed and a BYU flag on the wall. We also watched the BYU basketball team win Pepperdine 63-61.

 

 

Friday, February 1-Trav and I both had to work, so Ray and Marian met up with Travis to go to lunch in Tulare and Ray hit up the Boot Barn and got himself a nice pair of new cowboy boots. That night we enjoyed eachother's company at Red Lobster. They all enjoyed the Ultimate Feast (Lobster tail, shrimp, and crab legs) and I had a Marsala Chicken plate.

 

 

Saturday, February 2- We got up and headed to the Sequoias. Trav and I didn't know that Marian can get pretty car sick and the drive up to the park has a lot more back and forths than we realized. By the time we made it to the entrance of the park Marian was feeling pretty sick. We let Ray and Marian stay and rest at the Visitor's Center while me and Trav headed back down to Three Rivers to pick up some dramamine. Marian took some of that and we headed very slowly up to the General Sherman. Even though it took us quite a while to get there as we were going 10-15 mph, it was so nice to enjoy the views and nature.

 On our drive up Ray kept asking, "Is that the Sequoia tree?" Everytime he would ask I would reply, "No that's not it, I'm telling you it's huge". Then when we came upon the start of the Sequoia Forest he saw some of the smaller sequoias and just couldn't believe it. I think he then realized how huge they really were. It was fun to see some snow as it was the only snow Trav and I have seen all winter.  We had to be careful not to slip or slide, but I love how beautiful everything is covered in white.

The last time we went up to the Sequoia National Park it was in the Fall. It was really cool to see the moss growing on so many trees. I was once again in awe of how large these trees are. The pictures do NO justice. I guess you'll just have to come and visit us to really see their magnificance :) We took a little break before we headed down and ate our Subway sandwiches. Marian opted not to eat. Trav drove us out of the canyon and me, Marian, and Ray zonked out and caught some zzzz's.

-We had tacos for dinner which included the delicious homemade salsa that Marian brought for us.

Sunday, Feburary 3- We attended Stake Conference together where we got a new stake presidency. Brother Howard from our ward is the new Stake President and he is going to be great!!

-Watched the Superbowl-

Baltimore Ravens beat the SF 49s

-Veggie tray, little smokies, shrimp

 

Monday, February 4-I had to work, so Trav and his Dad went and golfed 18 holes at the Dinuba golf course. It was a beautiful day with a high of about 65 degrees. Marian and I were able to steal the TV to watch the Bachelor. Ray and Trav watched it with us and we had a good time laughing at the drama and trying to figure out who he was going to let go. We had my Grandma Tidwell's strogonoff at Trav's request.

After the Bachelor we played Ticket to Ride.

 

Tuesday, Feburary 5- Trav and I both had the day off. Marian has been focusing on family history work. She wants to finish Travis' Missionary Scrapbook and get Mark's done before he gets home. She was a mission to get all of Travis' mission pictures printed so Trav and I could go through them over the next little while and get them into his missionary book that she had started. We were so glad to find out that Walgreens can put old negative onto a disk. That way you can load them on your computer or get them printed. We got all of his picture printed and it was so fun to look through them because most of them I have never seen.

Such a cute and skinny missionary :) That is what you get for a 100% walking mission in Brazil.

 

Next we headed to the International Agricultural Center in Tulare, CA. This is where they hold the World Ag Expo. It is a pretty big deal actually.

Ray has a farm in Huntington, Utah. He has about 100 head of cattle and he grows alfalfa in the summer to make hay for the cows feed in the winter. He was really excited to go to the Ag Museum. He loved looking at all the old tractors and farm equipment. We had our own personal tour guide in Ray. He was telling us all about the equipment and how it worked. We had a great time and learned alot about farm equipment, how is a dairy is ran, prune farms, and such.

 

 

We hit up Bravo Farms next. I loved to watch and hear Ray all the way there. He just could not believe how much farmland there was. He was just in awe. Him and Marian just kept commenting how beautiful it was. I think Ray was in Heaven.

We walked around and explored the antiques of Bravo Farms. Of course, Travis had to pick up some local made jalapeno white cheddar cheese.

Marian and Trav tested their aim at a little shooting range. Thehy made the old car look like a car off of the Disney show Cars. The animations for if you shot the different targets were so creative and cute.

I took a walk up some of the tree house. Now this is what you call a tree house. It literally wraps around the this large tree and is several stories high. For dinner we enjoyed the Boston House of Pizza, which was all our first time trying and of course we came home and watched the extra 2 hour special of the Bachelor.

 

Wednesday, February 6-We decided it would be nice to do a endowment session at the Fresno Temple together. We headed up to Fresno to make the 5:00 o'clock session. The temple is always beautiful and peaceful. I enjoyed spending that spiritual time with Ray and Marian. They have made a goal to go to the temple at least once a month. They are such great examples to us!!

For dinner, since we were already up in Fresno, we hit up one of mine and Trav's favorite spots.....The Old Spaghetti Factory. We love the bread, the milk, the presto ranch salad, the spaghetti (meat sauce, mizithira cheese, clam sauce) and the spumoni ice cream. We enjoyed the great food and great company!! We were able to sneak in a game a Settler's and Ray won.

 

Thursday, February 7- Our company was originally planning to leave Friday morning, but because of a snow storm that was set to hit Utah, they had to leave Thursday afternoon. Colin, our nephew, was getting baptized on Saturday and Ray and Marian couldn't miss it as Colin wanted Ray to baptize and confirm him. Our time was cut a little short, but they met me for lunch at work. We headed to Pete's Grill in Exter, CA. They dropped me off and hit up a local fruit stand to pick up some in season navel oranges to take home. They also checked out an antique shop in Exeter before headed back to Visalia.

 

We definitely enjoyed having them spend time here with us in our town. It was fun to show them around and to have some family for company. We were sad to see them leave. Can't wait to visit Utah sometime soonish......I can never get enough of our families! Families really are the best and I feel so blessed to have some wonderful in-laws.

Life in Primary

I did sharing time today, and we opened some gifts as part of the lesson. You should have seen all the hands up when I asked for a volunteer. I had the hardest time picking. I think we need to use the "stick" route to picking volunteers. The kids are all super cute and so smart!

 

Funny Story.........(To start, I taught sharing time today in Primary). This dad came up to me after church and said, "You scared my 11-year-old son today". I was slightly concerned at that point and had no idea how or why? Our lesson was on the birth of the Savior. Then he said, "My son asked if those were tatoos all over your legs?" We both laughed. Maybe I shouldn't wear these going forward.... :)



Kickin' Off Christmas Early

 

Monday, November 26, 2012

 

Visalia does an annual Candy Cane Lane Parade the Monday after Thanksgiving, which happened to come a little early this year. Last year we didn't even know there was a parade until after it happened. So this year we made sure to make it and luckily Trav had work off that day. Let me start with the not so happy part. The one disappointing thing was that when the American flag went by hardly anyone stood up or even put their hand over the heart. I was very saddened by this. Where is the American pride and respect for our country? Now on to the cheery part. A lot of people gathered on the route that went down Main Street. In the parade there were lots of bands, dance groups (a lot of baton twirlers surprisingly), some very pretty horses, and of course lights! I really loved the feel of everyone in the city getting together to kick off the Christmas Season.

 

There was a lot of Christmas music, which is my absolute favorite!!! Once Thanksgiving is over, I love to listen to Christmas music in the car, while cleaning, and while I'm getting ready. The parade lasted an hour and a half. I was pretty impressed with the parade and I definitely will return. It was a lot of fun and just the beginning of many festivities. I LOVE THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!

Thankgving Weekend Rush

Our Thanksgiving weekend was a total whirlwind. Thanksgiving morning we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I always enjoy. Then we headed up to a restaurant called "The Gateway" up in Three Rivers, right outside the entrance to the Sequoias for an intimate Thanksgiving Meal. We were sat next to the window overlooking this view.

 

 

The weather was perfect and they had the window open so we could hear the calming sound of the water. The Thanksgiving feast was delicious and we were completely stuffed by the end.

We also had a great time stopping on by Slick Rock Recreation Area that is near Kaweah Lake and got some great shots.

Trav wanted to cook a little hen for dinner.  It turned out pretty good. I was impressed. :)

That night we hit up some early Black Friday sales. We went to Target, the Tulare Outlets, and Macy's. We continues our shopping the next morning. We got some good deals, but there wasn't really any particular sale item we really needed or were anticipating. We were mostly going just for the rush and fun of it all, but boy did it wear us out. On Saturday, we kept the busyness going. We headed to Santa Clarita to go to Magic Mountain. We were pleasantly surprised that the lines weren't a mile long. We enjoyed a perfect weather day of a high of 78 degrees and thrill ride after thrill ride.

We have so much to be thankful for. Our jobs, our home, our family, our friends, the gospel, and our freedom and many many more.

Winter Treasure

 

I always loved getting hot chocolate at the gas station only because they would had the mini marshmellows. That was the only reason I got it because, let's been honest, gas station hot chocolate is scolding hot and overly choclately. When I saw these mallow bites at the store last year, I was overjoyed. Seriously! I was so excited to create the cholately marshmellow taste at home with Nesquik.

The summer went by and it was plenty hot outside, so there was no need for hot chodolate. Well now I'm so happy some colder weather is here. As soon as I spotted these marshmellows I immediatly bought them, and I have had a glass a hot chocolate frequently. :) These mini marshmellows are my winter treasure.

New Calling

A new change of pace on Sunday

I was just starting to get more comfortable teaching the "Teaching for Our Times" lessons in Relief Society. They focus on talks from the Apostles and Prophets General Conference Talks. I have grown such a strong testimony of God's special witnesses here on Earth and I soak up their teachings. I have been teaching for just over a year and I just got released.  I'm really going to miss Relief Society.I got called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Primary. It is definitely a change from teaching women to teaching children. The biggest adjustment is to figure out what keeps the attention of junior primary vs. senior primary. I did my first sharing time today on the Articles of Faith. The children surprise me with their knowledge.  Here's to a new adventure at church and I sure hope it goes well.

Not quite old yet....

Thursday, November 8, 2012

I would consider age 30 as "old" ha ha...I guess it seems old to me. Luckily Trav hasn't reached 30 yet. He turned the big 2.9. this year.  He worked on his birthday, which meant he didn't get home until 8 o'clock. So we went to his favorite of favorites and ate at Red Lobster. I was so glad that they have expanded their menu very recently to include more non-seafood dishes and I actually liked my dish a lot. Trav got the meal that has lobster, shrimp, and crab. He didn't want to miss any of the good stuff. They recently remodeled the Red Lobster in Visalia and I liked the new feel it had. It was more of a romantic setting and we had a great dinner together.

For his birthday he requested tickets to the BYU vs. San Jose State Football Game tickets and a battery for his watch. Pretty simple I know. I decided when I was out and about at the mall to pick him up some Hickory Farm Sausage and mustard. He loves that stuff. The surprise for his birthday was a big Y flag from his parents. He was super excited about it. It's crazy to think that 6 years ago, while dating, I surprised him down in Price with a cake and painted Happy Birthday wishes on his car windows. Good Times.

 

 

Saturday, November 17-BYU vs. San Jose State Football Game

 

Travis was had a lot of anticipation for this game. It was originally going to be played at 1:30 PM which would have worked perfectly for the face that it is a 3 hour drive there and then back, but about a week ago they changed it to 7:30 PM because it was on ESPNU. We headed out and as always had a fun-filled car ride. There is never a dull moment with Trav. We have a blast and it included the usual singing. Our game tickets came with tickets to the BYU Tailgate Party. So we went early to be a part of that. It was held at a Baseball Field near the Spartan Stadium. We ate a BBQ dinner, watched some BYU highlights, and got in on the Cougarettes dancing with Cosmo. There were a ton of BYU fans!! They were everywhere!

 

After the tailgate party we headed to find our seats. We were about 30 rows up at the 50 yard line. In all the other BYU games we've been to we have been on one of the end zones sides. We had great seats and it was a lot easier to tell how many yards they picked up  per play. It sprinkled off and on and rained at the end of the game. BYU had two opportunities to win. In the last 1 minute of the game Trav and I really thought that BYU was going to pull it off, but Riley Nielson got tackled during a pass and fumbled the ball and it was over. San Jose 20 vs BYU 14. Bad loss for BYU, but never the less entertaining and a whole lot of fun!

Don't let the empty seats behind us fool you. It was all packed with BYU fans by the start of the game. If I were to guess I would say 50% BYU 50% SJSU.

Trav got a picture with Chad Lewis, former BYU Tight End who went on to play in the NFL.

 

We headed out at about 11 PM. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us and it was still raining, which didn't help. We wouldn't not have drove home that night, but Trav had work the next day and I had Sunday commitments. Trav and I spent some time analyzing the game and giving our input of what we would have done as a coach. I like that I know quite a bit about football and most sports in general. It helps me know what is going on as I watch the game and it's always interesting to talk through the plays and the game with Trav. It always nice having something in common. It was a fun day trip to San Jose, CA.  Too bad we didn't have more time to explore the city...Maybe next time.