Valentine's and The Bigginging of Our Trip

Tony and Megan in the hot tub

We have been busy people at our house.  We celebrated Valentine's Day (and my birthday) last Thursday and then we started on our trip to California the next day.

Margie and Josh playing in the hot tub

The boys had a good time celebrating Valentine's Day.  They both had school and got to pass out Valentine's to their classmates.  After school they liked going through the Valentine's that they had received.  I spent most of the day packing for our vacation.  When Tony got home from work we took the kids to grandma's house so that Tony and I could got to dinner and a movie.  We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  It was really busy and we were glad that we had called ahead for our seats.  Then we saw a movie about witches, it was pretty good.  Tony got me a candy thermometer for my birthday.  I am the big 32 now.  Good times.

Tyler getting his feet wet

Tony and Megan at the temple

Megan liked playing on the statue at the temple

After the movie we went back to our house and finished packing and then went to Tony's parents to sleep there with the kids.  We got there and packed up the car so we'd be ready to leave early the next day.  The boys woke up super early and woke us up and then we all got ready and headed on the road.  The drive to St. George was awesome.  It went by really fast and the kids were really good.  We got to visit with Nana and Papa for a couple of hours before we headed onto Las Vegas.  The boys were so cute with Nana.  She had given them a couple of things (wooden flutes and bandanas) and then she gave them some quarters when they helped pick up branches.  Josh said, "I like Nana." Then Tyler helped Nana cross the street after she got her mail, it was super sweet to watch.

Tyler and Josh at the temple

We got to Vegas and checked into our hotel.  I hadn't brought any swim diapers for Megan and the hotel was charging $3.50 each, so Margie and I went to WalMart to find some.  Turns out that is a "seasonal item" and they didn't have any.  We were pretty annoyed because the traffic was so bad and it took us a long time to get there.
So we decided to just put Megan in a regular diaper and went to the pool...which was freezing.  So we all just got in the hot tub instead.  The kids all loved that.  Tyler said he didn't want to go swimming so he didn't get on his suit, but within three minutes of just having his feet in the hot tub his clothes were pretty wet, so he just went swimming in his underwear.  He had a great time.

Josh with his fat lip

Us in front of the cool tree at the temple

Then we got ready and went to dinner.  After dinner it was bedtime and then we headed to California the next morning.  We took our time and visited a couple stores and then checked into our hotel.

More us and temple, Josh didn't want to be in the picture

On Sunday we went to Church and then came back and changed our clothes before we headed out to see the LA temple.  It was beautiful and fun to go back.  I hadn't been to that temple since my mission.  While we were looking around the outside of the temple Josh lost his footing and slipped on a stair and hit his mouth on one of the stone steps.  He was bleeding pretty good and had a pretty sweet fat lip for a while.  But he was a tough guy and said it didn't hurt or bother him after the first couple of minutes.

Us in front of the Temple

After we decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier...worst idea ever!  It seemed that everyone else in LA decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier the same time we did.  So many people everywhere and so many cars, it was madness.  But we got out of it and got some dinner that night.  Then it was off to bed to be ready for a fun day at Sea World the next day.