Cousin Swim Party

This was my first time attending the famous Annual Richardson Cousin Swim Party. I'll tell you what- these people know how to throw a killer swim party! Tons of friends and family attended, lots of amazing food, great southern-California weather, and my father-in-law owns a pool company so his pool is pretty much the best pool ever- super-clean, perfect temperature, attached spa, diving board, and water squirting into the sides of the pool.

It doesn't show in the pictures, but the pool was more crowded than the hottest day of summer at the local public swimming pool!

Complete with a long line for the diving board.

How may kids does it take to remove candles from a birthday cake?

Brownie Sundaes were the hit of the party. Such great toppings - all kinds of crushed candy bars, gummy bears, fruit, hot fudge, whip cream,...
And by the end, every single bowl of topping was completely empty! haha

This kid cracked me up. He was walking around squirting whip cream in his mouth.

A pool party is never over until someone gets a cooler of ice water dumped on them and poop is found in the pool.

Our First Visitor and One Fun Weekend!

My cute youngest sister was fearless visitor #1 at the Cardall's new home :)                                                   We packed soooo many fun things into every single day!

Yogurtland

BJ's Pizza twice

Six Flaggs Magic Mountain

Out for ice cream sundaes twice

The Dark Knight Rises matinée

Bowling and dinner at the bowling alley

Swimming and laying out at the pool almost every day

The lines were about 90 minutes so we got Flash Passes which made a huge difference. Time has not treated Wes and I very well so we were worried about motion sickness and took some Dramamine. Poor Wes barely made it through 4 rides then had to leave, but Kami and I went strong from open to close. I was impressed. We went from ride to ride to ride, never stopping to wait in line or even eat dinner. The ride shown in the middle with all three of us was our favorite. We are facing out the whole time and started out staring at the ground (look at the trees behind us).

My healthy sis is apparently on a pepperoni pizza and chocolate ice cream diet. Hahaha Gotta love teenagers! :)

Surfing, Disasters, and Hikes. Welcome to the Beach!

We went back down to OC for a long weekend and had quite an interesting trip. Surfing the first morning turned out to be a disaster. To make a long story short, I crashed trying to catch a huge wave (ok, it wasn't that big, but for me, anything that projects above the surface is huge) and my board broke my nose. Tons of blood, getting me and my board back to shore, the whole beach staring, the sight of my nose deformed and off to the side, wondering if I will ever look decent again, trying to reset it, and explaining the story to Wes' whole family including all his nephews (and a few extra times for his adorable niece who kept asking about it), while trying to recover at my in-laws' house made for an interesting day.

After that, Wes decided hiking was a better idea for a Utah girl, so hiking we did. One hike above town (you can see the whole city behind me) and one beach hike. Wes was really cute too because I used to have to fend for myself (3 mile hike on a rugged Kauai coast our honeymoon with a broken toe? ya.) but this time, he helped me up and down the rocks and steep places and kept saying, "if you don't feel comfortable, don't do it." Basically, we were both glad my face wasn't permanently disfigured.

These are just some pretty pictures of our adventures. 

Wes is determined to keep me out of the water from now on, but hopefully someday I will make my big comeback!

Sisters' Retreat (and Mom and Niece)

My sisters are starting a new tradition where we all get together once a year and have a girls' weekend. JaRelle was 38 weeks prego and needed to be close her her doctor so what was her responsibility? You may think it was to sit back and relax and let us take care of it all... Nope! She was assigned to host! No sympathy! Haha, but she did a great job! We packed a lot of fun in our couple days together. 

Dollar movie chick flick, made yummy food, gave each other pedicures, swam in the pool every day, shopping, frozen custard, out to eat, professional massages!!! It was awesome! :)

Independence Day 2012

We went to Huntington Beach on July 4th and met up with our friends Jordan and Kelly and their family. It was a very busy day at the beach!

The boys went surfing while we watched from the beach (we were the smart ones, the water was freezing!). Wes has a good board for Independence Day too :)

California is a very interesting place. It's where I spend the warmest Christmases and the coldest Independence Days, hence the hoodie at the beach.

The day ended with a BBQ with his family and cousins then fireworks at the local park.

Our New Home

This is our lovely home. It's sooooo nice having a garage!

I must have a thing for red kitchens...

Wait a minute... I though he was done studying! Turns out a man's work is never done. 

We have added my desk on the right side of the room since this pic as taken.

Ya, we are the only couple I know of where the husband has more clothes than the wife. Yup- something is wrong with that statement, but it's true. In our last house, the guest bedroom closet served as Wes' overflow. But now we have one large closet and love it!

And last the best of all the game... our beloved pool! We swim almost every single day! Never gets old! And for some reason, my skin is tanner than it was when I lived in Kentucky... strange. How we ever survived without a pool is a mystery to me!

Our BIG Move

We left our Louisville home Saturday morning, and arrived in Bakersfield Friday. We didn't take the most direct route, but we made it quite an enjoyable road trip. We started in Kentucky, drove through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and finally crossed the finish line in California! We were able to see several church history sites and meet up with friends and family along the way.

Nauvoo temple at night time. Beautiful!

John Taylor is Wes' Great Great Great Grandpa!
Wes' parents came out for the graduation, helped us pack our stuff and load the moving truck, made the cross-country drive with us, then helped us find our new home and move in :) We were soooo grateful for the help and enjoyed spending almost 2 whole weeks with them! Thank you!!!

Trail of Tears/Hope

Room in the Newel K. Whitney store where the Relief Society was formed

Window where Joseph Smith was killed :(

After getting lost from following our GPS and MapQuest, we finally found Mt. Pisgah and a dog came running out to us. He was super excited to see us and rolled over so Wes could rub his belly! haha

(Mt. Pisgah) When the saints were traveling west through Iowa, they sent a group ahead to establish some ground, plant acres and acres of crops, and build homes. That way, when the saints stopped through, food and shelter would already be there. Unfortunately, thousands lost their lives there, but it helped so many more. This is also the place where Brigham Young enlisted over 500 men for the Mormon Battalion.

We visited Winter Quarters, the Pioneer Cemetery, and saw the Winter Quarters temple.

Old picture of ancient Navoo

The major tunnel outside Denver was closed so we took a huge 2-hour detour. This is the steady stream of cars inching their way through the mountains.

Driving through the canyon was beautiful! I miss the mountains!!

When we drove through Utah, we spent the night at my parents' house. It was so nice to spend some time with my family :) This is us driving to one of our favorite local restaurants El Mexicano.

(I also didn't get pics of our Kentucky friends we were able to spend time with along the way, but we spent the night with the Andersons in Grand Island, NE and endulged in Cafe Rio in Denver, CO with  the Nielsons.)