Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Nov 22nd

One of my best friends, Nikki (Nicole) Money got married recently. She married a wonderful man named Collin Smith. It was a beautiful temple sealing and reception. I have known Nikki since I was about 13 years old, so we have known each other for about 12 years now. We have been really good friends for all of that time, but unfortunately we don't get to hang out as much as we used to. It was an honor to be one of her brides maids, and it was so great to get to spend so much time with her preparing for the wedding. I also did her hair, which was fun too!

Temple:

Here are some pictures after the sealing at the Mesa temple. Me, Kendra (Nikki's now sister-in-law), Nikki, Anne, and Morgan (both friends)...

All the brides maids and groomsmen...

While I was helping Nikki with hair touchups, etc, after the sealing, Matt and my family took some pictures. Shaylin was so excited to go to the temple, because we had been talking about Nikki and Collin's wedding for a while. Here is Matt and Shaylin...

My mom and dad with Shaylin...

My mom and Shaylin sporting the sunglasses...

My beautiful sister Jaymee with my cute little Emmalyn...

Jaymee, Emmalyn, Shaylin, and my dad in front of the temple...

Shaylin waiting for Nikki and Collin to come out of the temple...It was so cute, because she kept asking Matt if she could go in the temple. I hope she keeps that desire to go to the temple, and I can't wait for the day we can go with her.

Reception:

The reception was seriously one of the best receptions Matt and I have ever been to. It was at the Arizona Historical Society Museum and was awesome. The museum was open during the reception, so Shaylin spent a lot of time in there when she got restless. It was a great museum and very entertaining.

Here is me with the beautiful bride. I had never seen Nikki more happy and amazingly beautiful than this day!

Here I am with Nikki and Collin...

Shaylin couldn't leave without a picture with Nikki either...

We really wanted to get a family picture taken either at the wedding or at the reception and of course never worked out. I really wanted to have it as a Christmas picture since we were all dressed up. So, we just decided to take a quick picture at my parents house later that night after the reception. It was a long day, and I'm surprised the picture turned out halfway decent.

HAIR PICS:

This is what it looked like before the veil and the flower were put it.

Last Stop in California

Nov 8th

During the last leg of our latest tour de California we got to go see Jayna's grandpa Roy and grandma Nilsa (her dad's parents) in Glendale, CA. As always we had a lot of fun with them and were treated to wonderful meals while we were there. We appreciated their hospitality and enjoyed getting to see them again. While we were there we got to go to one of our favorite places to eat in California - a little Mexican place called Los Gringos Locos, we walked to and hung out at Glenoaks Park - a nice park by their house, and just hung out with grandma, grandpa, Chris (Jayna's uncle), and Katie (Chris' girlfriend).

Emmalyn with grandma Nilsa...


Emmalyn checking grandpa Roy out...


Here's a few pictures from our walk to Glenoaks Park...

Shaylin swinging...


Shaylin climbing the wall. She really did most of the climbing by herself with very little help from Matt.


Shaylin riding the ladybug at the park...


Shaylin and Emmalyn riding the lady bug with grandma...


Shaylin absolutely adored Katie. Katie was so good with her and she loved that Katie payed so much attention to her and played with her so much. Katie taught Shaylin how to say "BFF". Shaylin kept saying it for the rest of the night. It was pretty funny.

Here's Shaylin, Katie, Chris, and Emmalyn...



Sometimes Emmalyn's smiles almost look like angry faces, but rest assured, she is a very happy and easy going girl. Here's a few examples...


Very funny face...(We figured out that when she is making this face, she is actually biting her top gums with her bottom teeth, due to teething)


Emmalyn was trying to figure out who the little girl was in the mirror who kept copying her every move...

Sea World X 2

Nov 7th

While we were in California we also got to go to Sea World. When we went earlier this year we bought tickets that were good for two admissions as long as we went for the second time before they expired at the end of 2008. So we couldn't pass up another opportunity to go to one of our favorite places.

It was off peak season for Sea World too, so even though it was a nice day with lots of sunshine, there weren't any crowds to deal with. We got to see five shows during the 4 1/2 hours we were there, plus we fit in lunch and a few of the other attractions like the penguins and dolphins.

We started off with the penguins, which Shaylin loved the last time we were there and was excited to see them again. We went through on the little conveyor belt twice and Shaylin would have had us keep going over and over for a while but we had to head off to make it to our first show...



The first show we got to see was the Clyde and Seyamore Sea Lion show. We thought we were safe sitting towards the back of the lower section until we realized that they spray you from behind where we were sitting!


We didn't get to feed the dolphins since we didn't catch them at feeding time, but there were still several of them up against the glass for us to look at...


Being the smart people that we are we forgot to bring a hat for Shaylin, so we bought one of the inexpensive Sea World hats. It was the first time she's really worn a baseball hat outside for longer than a few minutes. Here she is waiting for the dolphin show to start...


Jayna got a few pictures of the dolphins jumping out of the water - we're still amazed at how high they can jump!


Shaylin, Emmalyn, and Jayna waiting for the Pet's Rules show to start...


Matt riding a Manatee...


Shaylin was so excited to see Shamu from the time we got to the park at 10:30, but the Shamu show didn't start until 2:30. So of course a few minutes before the show she fell asleep. In this picture Emmalyn had just fallen asleep and Shaylin was just a few minutes away from falling asleep...


We had to wake them both up to go to the Shamu show but we knew Shaylin wouldn't want to miss it. She was so excited and had a lot of fun doing the 'Shamu! Shamu!' chant they do when the killer whales are going around splashing everybody. Here's a few pictures of Shaylin, Jayna, and Emmalyn while they were splashing everyone in the lower levels...



Even Emmalyn seemed impressed...


Here's a few pictures of the killer whales doing their thing...





The one show that we didn't get any pictures of was the Sesame Street 4D show (they add in special effects like wind and water). Jayna and Shaylin were able to catch it in between the dolphin and Pets Rule shows. Shaylin really liked that and was trying to touch the '3D' objects as they came out towards her.

We heard them announce during one of the shows that people could put that days ticket purchase price towards an annual pass for 2009. Plus they must figure that they make more money off of people by just getting them into the park, so they literally charge the same price for an annual pass as they do for a single day ticket. We ended up getting two season passes good through the end of 2009 for $11 each! So we are already looking forward to another Disneyland and Sea World trip next year!

Hanging out With Grandma Olsen

For the first few days we were in California, we got to stay with Matt's Grandma Olsen. We love getting to spend time with her and appreciate her being so welcoming to us. We got to catch up a little bit with her and also play a little Rummikub after the girls went to sleep. Shaylin and Emmalyn also seemed to really enjoy getting to spend time with their great grandma! Great grandma is one of the select few people (besides us) who understand Shaylin-ese well. We're extra impressed since great grandma isn't around Shaylin all the time but still understands her whenever she sees her.

(All these pictures are from Nov 6th)

Shaylin, grandma, and Emmalyn before bed...


Emmalyn is starting to understand that whenever the camera comes out mom and dad are looking for a smile. More often than not she is happy to oblige...


We got to go over to Eisenhower Park with grandma, which is a really big/nice park close to her house. We forgot to bring some bread but Shaylin was still happy to see all the ducks...


Shaylin and Jayna looking beautiful as always (yes this is Matt writing)...


As we've mentioned in at least one previous post, Shaylin likes to hold on to things and then tell us 'I'm strong!.' Here she is demonstrating her strength by holding on to a bar at the top of a slide...

Our Day at Disneyland

Nov 5th

We had been planning to go to Disneyland with Matt's Grandma Olsen for several months and were very much looking forward to going. We had been telling Shaylin about it for a while. The week before we went we told her that we were going to Disneyland next week. She was so excited even though she had no idea what it was, other then the fact that we kept telling her that Cinderella was going to be there. She kept saying 'We going to Disneyland next week!' all the way up until we left for California on Tuesday afternoon (the 4th).

We quickly realized after we got there that Grandma had picked a great day for us to go. Not only was it off peak season, but we went in the middle of the week in hopes that there would be even less people there. The longest line we waited in all day was 15 minutes and we were able to literally walk straight up to several of the rides. Grandma said that a couple of the lines were the shortest that she had ever seen them, and she goes to Disneyland all the time! Not only were there no crowds, but the weather was perfect too - somewhere around 80 degrees during the day.

Due to the short lines, Shaylin was able to go on a bunch of the rides. She went on Peter Pan (with grandma), the Carousel (with Matt and grandma), the Dumbo ride (with Matt), the Casey Jr. train (with Matt and Jayna), Alice in Wonderland (with Matt and Jayna), the teacups (with Matt and Jayna), the Toon Town spinning car ride (with Matt), the Go Coaster in Toon Town (once with Matt and grandma and once with Jayna and Matt), Autopia (once with Matt and once with Jayna), Jungle Cruise (with all of us), and the Winnie the Poo ride (with everybody exept grandma). Although a few of the rides scared her a little bit by the end of each ride she was always smiling and saying 'That was fun!'. She also got to spend a lot of time in Toon Town sitting in all the stationary cars and checking out Mickey's, Minnie's, and Chip and Dale's houses. Emmalyn was able to go on Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, and Winnie the Poo.

So if you count the rides that Shaylin went on twice she got to go on 13 rides total! Not bad considering we didn't get there until 10:30 (30 minutes after it opened), stopped for lunch and dinner(Big thanks to grandma for the surprisingly yummy mexican dinner), and stopped going on rides at about 6:15 in order to try and get to main street early for the parade. Oh yeah and she even got a nap in the stroller during the middle of the day during which Matt and Jayna were able to sneak off and do the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride, Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Indiana Jones. We were so glad that grandma went with us and are so grateful that she watched Emmalyn for a big part of the day so that we could go on so many rides with Shaylin and then took care of them both while they were napping so that we could run off and go on some of the more adult rides.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Grandma, Emmalyn, Shaylin, and Jayna at the front of the park...


Shaylin, Emmalyn, and Jayna in front of Cinderella's castle (which Shaylin loved!)...


Jayna and Emmalyn in front of the Peter Pan ride (which was the first ride Emmalyn has ever been on :)...


Peter Pan was our first ride of the day. Jayna was planning on jumping in with Shaylin and Grandma but the operator said that only three people were allowed per car. So we didn't really have time to prep Shaylin that she was going to go with grandma while Me, Jayna, and Emmalyn jumped in the next car. So this is her face right after Jayna jumped out of the car :)...


Shaylin on the carousel...


Matt and Shaylin riding the Dumbo ride (she really liked this one and wanted to do this one again but it was early in the day and we wanted to make sure she got to ride a lot of other rides)...


Jayna and Shaylin on the Casey Jr. train...


Shaylin on the Casey Jr. train. She kept saying 'choo-choo!'...


Shaylin and Jayna on the Alice in Wonderland ride...


Shaylin on the Toon Town spinning car ride - there are several of these pictures that make us look like horrible parents because we're sending our kid alone on rides, but rest assured, as soon as Matt snapped the picture he jumped in with her :)...


Cute Emmalyn (she was so happy the whole day, even though she spend a lot of it in the stroller)...


Shaylin and Grandma getting ready to go on Shaylin's first ride on a roller coaster (and yes, Matt jumped in with Shaylin after the picture on this one too)...


Shaylin posing for a picture before going on the roller coaster the second time...


Shaylin and Jayna getting ready to go on the roller coaster (not sure why Jayna is already ducking her head)...


Shaylin and Jayna going up the hill on the roller coaster (still not sure why Jayna's head is down)...


Jayna, Shaylin, and Matt in Mickey's house in toontown...


Autopia was probably Shaylin's favorite ride of the day...


Matt let her drive the whole time while he pushed the gas. Needless to say it was a very bumpy drive. After Matt told her that she was a crazy driver she kept saying 'I'm a crazy driver' and then laughing...


Shaylin driving with Jayna...


Shaylin looking a little mischievous...


Cute Emmalyn again...


Jayna before we went on Space Mountain...


Shaylin, Jayna, Emmalyn, and Grandma on Jungle Cruise...


Jayna, Emmalyn, and Shaylin on Winnie the Poo...


Shaylin patiently waiting for the parade. She loved it and was so excited that she finally got to see Cinderella and Belle...


Matt and Shaylin before the parade...


After the parade passed us by Matt and Shaylin followed the floats so that she could see Cinderella one more time. This is the look on her face shortly after that...


This last picture isn't actually from Disneyland. It's from the drive over the day before. We were able to borrow a DVD player with a screen that attached to the back of the headrest from some friends. Even though this is blurry and not a very good picture you can still get a good idea of how happy Shaylin was when she first realized that she got to watch one of her new favorite movies - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - while we were driving.