Our Southern Cal Trip:

I just wanted to post a blog that gave a quick discription of our entire weekend. We left for San Diego Friday the 14 and headed back Monday the 18th. It was too quick of a trip but it was so much fun. We were able to see our dear friends, Becky, Andre, Brian and Kate. Then we went to visit Joaquin's family, Rich, Cindy, Steph and Kiley. On our way back we stopped in St. George to visit the Martinuea's. We were excited to see them because of the newest little member in their family. We feel like we did so much in just 4 days that we need a vacation from our vacation. Hopefully these pictures show off how much fun we had down south. If I could I would move down there in a heart beat but Joaquin would never move there. He feels like there are too many people there. But the weather is to DIE for. I personally never realized the beauty of Southern California before. After this trip, there is a part of me that wishes I could move there. Maybe someday when we're rich and famous, we can have multipule homes in multipule states. That probably won't happen anytime soon so we'll have to just keep our friends and family close to us. :) This trip was kind of a kick off trip for our summer. We are planning on taking a trip to Sacramento in May so that Joaquin and I can be sealed for all time and eternity. Then in June we have Tony Sindy and the kids coming to visit us in Zion's. Later on in the month of June we're planning on going to New York. After that trip we have Veronica and Jon's wedding that will be held up in Lake Tahoe in August. We can't wait for this summer. What a way to kick it all off! San Diego was such a beautiful city and I would recommend that anyone takes some time off to visit.

Baby Lucus

Little 5 lb Lucus is where we went to visit on our way back home from San Diego. We stopped in St George to see the newest blessing to Serena and Kyle's little family. He is so tiny and so sweet. Kyle wrapped him up in his little blanket and he looked like a little buritto. Kyle said that he thinks he's eaten a buritto that size before. Ha Ha! He was such a good little baby and Serena seems to be doing 100% better than a few weeks ago. I don' know if she'd agree but she looks great. The whole family seems to be doing really well.

All of us went out to Red Lobster for dinner.

Austin and Will seem to really love their newest brother and they are really good around him.

Waiting for Shamu.

The five of us drove down to Sea world. The first thing we did while we were there was see the Shamu show. It was so cool. I even got a little emotional. Just amazing that they can teach these amazing animals to do those things. Made me wish I was a Sea World Killer whale person. We got to Sea World later in the day so we didn't get to see the whole park but we saw a lot and now we have a pass that gets us back into the park until the end of the year so we'll have to go back again.

March 15, 2008

Kiley! What a doll this little girl is. When Steph and Kiley arrived Kiley was a little shy at first but as soon as Joaquin brough her the gift she warmed right up to him. Yurttle the Turtle. She seemed to really love Joaquin. She is almost 3 years old now and talks like no one's business. She's so loving and sweet. We're so glad we were able to spend the weekend with her and Steph. What a cheeser!

It was so fun to hang out with Steph for the time that we actually got to see her! ;) She's looking good!

Kiley, Joaqin and Yurtle deep in conversation about the world.

Joaquin and his Dad were able to meet up with some of Joaquin's Uncle Brian's buddies. Uncle Brian passed away some years ago but one of his favorite things to do was play disk golf. He loved it so much that his friends made a memorial for him at one of his favorite disk courses. Joaquin was really happy to get the chance to see it again.

Our Visit with Rich and Cindy

After our visit with the Kings, we headed down to Oceanside CA to visit the Ficker Family. Rich and Cindy have moved down to So Cal and they have a beautiful house. We loved it. They have an awesome backyard that should be great for throwing lots of grandbabies birthdays. :)

The Beautiful backyard. And look at the weather! This was suppose to be a bad day. Yeah right!

Cindy and I with some hot chocolate at the beach. It was a little chilly with the wind but still, i'll take that weather over the snow any day.

Joaquin and I at the harbor. Just right of the light house is where Rich goes to work everyday. What a rough life huh?

Cindy, Rich and Joaquin out at the beach.

Our Visit to Sunny Southern California!

Joaquin and I drove down to Southern California this last weekend to visit family and friends. We left friday morning and arrived in Yorba Linda that afternoon. Our first visit was with Becky and Andre King. They were so nice to let us stay with them for a night. We wish we would have had more time to stay longer with them. The time that we did have with them was a blast. We were able to meet up with the Browns, Kate and Brian Brown. Joaquin and Brian are old mission buddies and what makes this world even smaller, after Becky and Andre got married, Becky met Kate in her ward in So Cal and they became really good friends so we all met up to have a tripple date. It was so much fun! We were able to meet the newest members of the Brown family while we were there too. Adam (18 months) and Elise (2 weeks). The next morning all 5 of us, (Becky is expecting.) went over to the Browns to have brunch. Joaquin and I both really enjoyed our stay.

Michelle, Becky and Kate. Hot biker chicks!

Brian, Andre and Joaquin.

Joaquin and I in front of Dave and Busters. This was the restaurant we ate at.

Weekend with Mom

Grandma, Mom and Nickie at the Gateway Mall.

Three of us on top of the Confrence Center with Salt Lake Temple behind us.

Sunday dinner.

It was so nice to have my Mom visit us. We got a lot done. She flew in thursday night and was here unitl monday night. Nickie and I were really happy to have our Mom visit us in little ol' Utah. Although, it makes me wish I lived back in Sacramento. That's ok, I think someday we'll all live a little closer to each other. We all might not be in the same state but we'll be closer. While she was here we went up to Logan to pick up Grandma and then we did a lot of shopping. Mostly for Nickie's new condo. I think my Mom had the most fun. She got to spend someone else's money. On Sunday we went to Church and after Church we did some of the Salt Lake City things like, tour Temple Square. We really had a good time. I can't wait until Joaquin and I visit Sacramento in May to see the whole family. Family is such an important part of who I am. I'm just thankful to have such a loving family.

Fun Pic's

By showing this picture, I'm trying to show off my hair not our messy house.

Fred and Me.

Michelle's First Experience Making Jelly

This was our kitchen during the cooking process. Messy!

The pepers for the Jalapeno Jelly. Yummy.

The finished product.

I decided to cook cook cook this past weekend. I made jelly, a stawberry desert and some cabbage rolls. It didn't all turn out the way I thought it would but it was fun and I'm going to try to continue to cook. Joaquin is loving my experiments. I'm glad he eats anything, makes it easy to cook.

The Newest Member of Our Family

We went down to St George this past weekend to visit with the Martinuea's and on our visit, my Aunt Debbie was looking in the paper and saw a little dog in the animal shelter. She has known that we've been looking for a dog but hadn't found one yet so she called the animal shelter and asked about him. They told her we could foster him for the weekend to decide if we wanted him or not and when we saw him, we loved him and decided to make him ours. We brought him home and he's adjusting pretty well. I don't think he's crazy about the snow but he'll get use to it eventually. Welcome our little Fred Ficker.

Our Second Christmas Celebration!

We're so Weird!!!

Veronica is Joaquin's Sister and my sweet sister in law who came to visit us the second weekend of January. Flights were to expensive to fly during Christmas so she came later and we had such a good time. We created the whole Christmas atmosphere all over again. We lit the fire, played Christmas music and took turns opening presents. We also did some shopping while she was here. Some shopping was for fun and some was for her wedding. We had a really good time and the timing of it all worked out perfectly. Minus not seeing Veronica's wonderful fiance, Jon. Hopefully we'll see him soon.

New Year's Day

The beautiful view ;)

All ready for Snow shoeing!

"Tree Hugger"

On New Year's Day, Joaquin and I went up to the mountain's and tried cross country skiing but didn't have very much luck so then we tried snow shoeing and had a much better time. We really enjoyed it. I think we'll do it more this winter. We should be taking advantage of this beautiful snow.

Joaquin's Birthday Celebration

2 White Candles and 6 pink one's for Joaquin's 26th Birthday

Joaquin and Michelle

Brandon, Heidi and Lil' Hudson

Michelle with lil' Hudson Lieb.