Tea Party

Grammy's Birthday was May 13th and we threw her a "surprise" tea party. As you can see, she came fully decked out!

The party table...filled with as many cousins as we could round up. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

Sammy made this darling cupcake cake. We had so much fun sharing stories and memories of our Grammy. She really is one-in a milion. If I can only be the kind of Gram to my grandchildren that she is to all of us.... Thanks to all the aunts and cousins that made this tea party one to rememeber. I love you Gram.

Good Ol' Mexico

We finally got to go on vacation after Conner finished basketball and his semester of school. We planned a cruise to Mexico during the one week Conner had off and we were counting down the days! Well, the Swine flu hit and after traveling two days on the ship down the Baja Penninsula, we found out that we had to turn around and go back to the states-the Mexican borders were closed to any "unneccesary travel." What a bummer...but, we tried to stay optimistic and make the most of our trip. We made some friends on the ship, Chad and LynDee Barney, and played some great games of paddle tennis. The girls beat the boys every time. When paddle tennis lost its zest, we didn't have anything else to do. It was cold, we were sea sick and we fell into a slight bout of depression. Our ship was re-routed to San Diego (took us four and a half days at sea to go from LA to San Diego!)
Day One-nice and white...we didn't end up getting much sun anyway.

Conner and Chad had to jump in the pool due to their loss in paddle tennis against their wives.

Conner competing in the Ping-Pong tournament. Fortunately I took this picture during the first round 'cause he didn't end up going any further.

In San Diego we went on a tour of the USS Midway, an old aircraft carrier, which was really neat. Conner would have been too tall to be in the Navy-the ceiling was so short, he had to hunch over the whole tour!

Conner said it felt like a Nintendo game!

Following the USS Midway tour, I really wanted to go to Sea World, but I was out numbered when everyone else wanted to go Kayaking with our ol' BYU alum Daniel, the tour guide. Things started getting a little sketchy when Dan's High Priest leader driving his Father-in-Law's minivan picked us up. But we went with it...he took us down to La Jolla, we hopped into the kayaks, and with minimal instruction we headed out to sea. It was beautiful. We sailed past sun-bathing seals and the scenery was magnificent.

Our professional tour guide decided to take us into a little cave to make it more exciting.

It felt like Pirates of the Carribbean.

Our guide told us to go around a shallow bend in the cave and we could come out the other side. I was skeptical but he's the one that knows what he's doing right? Conner and I started paddling and were making great progress. Then a nice wave came and high-centered us on some mossy boulders. We fell out and were trying to get some footing when another wave came, took my feet out from under me, my oar hit my teeth and I emerged from the water without my two front teeth! After Conner confirmed that, yes, my tooth was gone, we jumped back in the kayak and paddled for our lives. When our friends saw us they said, "Why are you all wet? What happened?" Conner replied, "We had a little accident. Knocked a couple teeth out." This was the first time I found out that I had lost both of them...I started bawling. Our guide thought it would make me feel better if we went snorkeling. Heck no-we're gettin outta here!

Posing with the seals following the accident.

Somehow we made it back to shore safely. We took one last picture before jetting out of there.

We spent the next day in Catalina Island where we rented tandem bikes and rode around the island. We had a good lunch but I had to cut everything in little pieces and drink through a straw. We were even lucky enough to see one hour of sun!

The Wrigley Memorial (Wrigley Gum as well as the Wrigley of the Chicago Cubs).

Sporting my new look!

Our last meal with our new friends. Let's go home...my teeth hurt.