San Diego 1

We went to San Diego this past Wednesday for our big family trip. I will break it up into days like I did last time. It might take awhile because my camera started acting weird and wouldn't take pictures so I will have to get some from my mom. So I LOVE San Diego. If we could afford to live there I would be there in a second. It has the best weather, beautiful beaches, and fun things to do! We stayed at the same hotel Justin and I stayed at for a couple of days for our honeymoon. It's called the Catamaran and is possible one of the prettiest hotels I have ever stayed in. Just look at it.

Even the lobby is beautiful.



They have all sorts of fun little animals.



and plants...


We literally opened up our back door to this beautiful bay. This was taken from our porch.Did I already tell you how beautiful this place is and how much I wish I lived there?


We spent hours on this bay and the boys even had a game of beach volleyball.. which I didn't get a picture of.


We ate at this fun little place that had huge pizzas .


My family ordered three and we ate all except for a couple of pieces. and that was after we ate salad, mozeralla sticks, and onion rings. Man we are pigs!

Another fun little perk to this hotel is that you get to ride this little boat for free!











Ruthie with her cute grandma and grandpa who made this wonderful trip possible!!

Pedicure Anyone?

Daddy will do ANYTHING for his little girl... He will even go as far as painting her toenails!

Fourth of July

We had a great and fun filled fourth of July. In the morning we woke up and drove down to the parade in Provo. There were about 250,000 people in attendance. People stake out their spots the day before! Its craziness and impossible to find a good spot. We still had lots of fun though.

My attempt at trying to take a picture of us... Ruthie loves to point at everything now. It is so much fun.


Ruthie loved it whenever the bands would come and play. She would start dancing in my arms.

These girls were doing some pretty cool tricks on this horse. One did a handstand while the horse was moving.


By the end she was so tired and just sat in her stroller with her dolly. She NEVER just sits there. It was precious.


Later that day we went to the Sandy Parade.. Another attempt at taking a picture of us.

Me and Ruthie were really lucky at this parade. We got to ride on a float with Leo the Lion from Real Salt Lake!!


That soccer ball actually spun around.





We even got to meet the ghostbusters!



Ruthie was pretty restless near the end of the parade, but was happy to find some rocks to play with.


Then of course we did some fireworks at home..




Ruthie did not care for them at all. She just wanted to swing.

I hope you all had a happy Fourth of July too!

Practically Perfect

I may be biased, but I think Ruthie is pretty much perfect. She is at such a fun age. We are really beginning to see just how talented and smart she is.

She can dance,



She can do puzzles by herself, (well two pieces anyway...)



She can do an almost somersault,


(usually we help flip her over, but she wanted to show off for the camera I guess.)

Roar like a lion,



and sing so pretty!



Don't you think she is perfect?

D.C. Day 3

Day 3: This was our last day to do things because we were going home the next day. In the morning we split up in two groups. Most of the family went to the Newsuem, but the five of us in this picture went to Arlington Cemetery.

It was amazing to see the graves of many brave soldiers who gave their lives for this country. You hear the numbers in history classes, but you don't really grasp just how many men died. It is not real until you see those graves... so so many graves that go beyond what your eye can see in all directions forever. The tour guide told us they are buried in perfect formation, just as they were, ready in attention willing to fight when the call came. I tried to capture that in these pictures, but it doesn't quite get the feeling you have when you are actually there.





We were able to see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier. I was trying to get a good picture of what it said on the tomb because the words are beautiful. It said, " Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God." This tomb is known as the unknown soldier, but really he is known. God knows who he is and what sacrifice he has made. I love the picture of the soldier saluting to the tomb. We do not need to know this man's or any soldier's name to show gratitude for what they have done.


After the Arlington Cemetery, we met up again to go on a tour of the Capital. My camera ran out of battery so sorry no pictures. We then had the evening to do whatever we wanted. Justin, me, Jeff, Becky, and Kendall went shopping then swimming back at the hotel. We had such a wonderful weekend in D.C. THank you THank you THank you dad and mom for all the opportunities and memories you gave to us!! and thank you Leavitt's for taking care of our little sweetie pie so we could enjoy ourselves!

D.C. Day 2

Day 2: We woke up early and ate yummy breakfast. Seriously Embassy Suites has the bombest breakfast. They actually make omlets right there with whatever you want! After breakfast we headed off to our own private tour of the Smithsonian Museum. My dad had some hookups so we were able to go an hour earlier than it opened! It was awesome. I did not realize just how lucky we were until the museum actually opened and thousands of people were piling in. It would have been impossible to hear or see anything.

The first part of the museum and one of the only places that we could take pictures was the automobile section. I honestly thought I was taking a lot of pictures but after looking through my camera I realized I hardly took any. But I did make sure to get one with my friend Phil. We were just laughing and talking while we were waiting for the train. He's got some good stories.

Standing on a real piece of road from the U.S. Route 66.

Justin used to be a tour guide for the Grand Canyon. He would take tourists from Las Vegas to Kingman then on to the Grand Canyon. If you look at the map that is no easy drive. He said it was about a 15 hour day for him. Pretty crazy huh? The craziest part is that he was speaking Japanese the whole time! This was his first job he got as a returned missionary from Japan.

This is how we got around town... the metro! I love these things.

After the Smithsonian we went to eat at The Press Club. This is where they hold press conferences. It was very classy. Because of the our large party, we were in our own room and had our own menus. The menu comprised of mini crab cakes with the most delicious corn salsa, a mixed green salad, and tomato gazpacho for appetizers; for entrees swordfish with pineapple salsa, avocado lobster salad with coconut dressing, and steak with blue cheese butter; and the best part of all dessert- strawberry tiramisu, apple tarts, panna cotta, and ice cream. It was delicious! I will have to get a picture to insert later on.

We then went on a tour of the Library of Congress. It was a beautiful building. One of my favorites. Of course we couldn't take pictures of my favorite room because we might distract the people doing research.

Waiting outside of the Library of Congress.

One of my favorite places that we ate at all weekend.... Bens Chili Bowl! If you go to D.C. you gots to go.

I think our faces are hilarious in this picture. I am not quite sure how to eat this and Justin I don't know what he is doing but it is funny! We ate chili cheese hot dogs, chili sausage dogs, chili cheese fries, cheese fries, and shakes.

I later found drippings of chesse down my shirt. My brother had it worse though. He had chili drippings down the backside of his pant leg. Don't ask me how it got there but it looked bad!

After dinner we went to a show called Capital Steps. It is a political comedic show. It was hilarious. They do things like change the lyrics to songs like mamma mia to obama mia. These people were talented. They did awesome impressions and accents. My favorite part was this dialogue that one guy did for about 7 minutes straight. He would mix the first letter in a word with another word in the sentence. I don't know if that makes sense but he said Mitt Romney lost the election because he was a "card more hormon." And he warned us trying to talk like that because we might "fart to stink that way!"

After a long day we went back to the hotel room to the power being turned off. This was not my favorite part of the trip. It was not fun trying to get ready for bed in the dark. They did give us a super tiny flashlight but its hard to try to brush your teeth and hold a flashlight. So I grab the travel sized toothpaste, put it on my toothbrush in the dark and started brushing..... with shaving cream!!!! not a good way to end the day..... yuck