surprise!

it has taken me the better part of the last 4 days to recuperate from our thirty dollar vacation. i still have laundry to do, but i am slowly chipping away at my long to do list since returning home early, early monday morning (that's a whole post of it's own!). one of which is to get back to blogging!! sheesh, it's been way too long!

we had a wonderful time with ALL of our family! it was amazing that we were able to see all of my siblings and parents, as well as mitch's sister and parents! we flew into california to spend 4 days with my family, then we hopped into my mom's odyssey (thank you so much mom!!) and made the 6 hour drive to surprise, az. after which we drove back to california to fly back home.

while in arizona, i went golfing for the first time! mitch's mom, mona (his sister), and i had a ladies day of golf. i was a little hesitant because the only golf i had done was miniature! they assured me they would teach me what to do. i wish i had my camera to document such a momentous occasion, but sadly i did not! i didn't do too bad, in fact, i want to go again with mitch (any golfers out there? we could double!)

the next day the guys had their golf day!

the best part of the visit was spending time with family and seeing the girls with their cousin logan. she is 2 months younger than kale'a and doesn't look a thing like our girls!




but she is definitely just as silly as our girls!


nani and lala loved riding around the happy trails rv park in grandma's golf cart! in fact, grandma had stopped to talk with a friend and lala got impatient and stepped on the gas pedal, nearly running over grandma friend! i tell you, that girl has no patience for red lights or talking grandma's, when she wants to go, she wants to go!!

because we had just gotten our new camera that week, we were trying to figure it out. it took us a few days, but once we figured it out, oh my goodness, do we LOVE it! this camera is amazing!! so, of course we had to take lots of pictures to test out the different settings, etc. here are some of my favorite random shots of our surprise trip:



here is nani goofing off with grandma. she was trying not to smile for the camera, but grandma did a good job at working a few smiles out of nani!

nani got the game connect four from her cousin for christmas. so, the girls played it quite a bit in arizona. i guess lala just lost the game!


here lala was playing a game with rocks. if you notice the "line" of rocks she has created that is actually a road to the queen. the queen, of course, was me! the bad guys, one of which was chick hicks from the movie cars (a gift from grandma) were trying to use the road to get to the queen. lala's job was protector of the queen! we've trained her well!!

when lala was bored playing connect four and done playing "save the queen", she kicked off her boots and took off her socks, settling into a stimulating game of ratatouille on her new leapster. i'm not quite sure why she chose her carseat as the seat of choice, but she did! such cute little feet!

just because she is so dang cute in those boots!!

is that not the cutest face ever?! i know i am biased, but come on how could you not love that face!

and before we left, we actually remembered to get a family picture! the only thing i would change in this picture is the golf shirt mitch is wearing (and maybe eliminate the motorhome in the background). no he doesn't own any golf shirts, especially not the one he is wearing! one of the rules of the golf course they went to was that men had to wear a collared shirt. well, mitch didn't have one, so he had to borrow one. unfortunately, he didn't have a different shirt to wear for the family photo!

okay, let's get going! i'm ready to head to california!

don't they look thrilled! thank goodness for dual screen portable dvd players!

california here we come!