Friday, January 20, 2017

Family 1/11 - 1/15/2017

What better way to start out the new year but to have family here!  Four of our five kids took their families to Disneyland on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The Jace Felix and Hales families arrived Wednesday night, definitely ready for bed.  The Bowens and Travis Felix families were here in time for lunch on Thursday.  Jared's nephew, Ben, was included in the trip so we had 21 individuals here at the mission home.  The bedrooms had wall to wall (including closets) people.


It was a bit rainy and cooler so we went to the Channel Islands Museum.  It was better than I had anticipated.  Wells, who is nonstop, liked seeing the fish in the aquarium.  

Annie with her non-braces smile.

Dax and Brandon
Cooper (he still has his great laugh).
Tad and Maren

This pretty much shows how Rosie Mae was the center of attention.
Front:  Tad, Jared, Wells, Travis, Liz, Maren and Rosie, Shae, Brooke, Dax
Back:  Shelby, Tate, Ben, Annie, Kim, Jace, Nash, Cooper, Brandon
Concentration, 64, no repeats, topic is...(Liz and Travis did NFL teams).  They clapped in rhythm taking turns saying a different team.  The kids had fun doing it with Disney characters.
When asked what the family wanted to do while here, McConnells was the choice.  I think some of them went two more times.  The owner was there and had fun with us.  Fortunately there were not other customers in the store.  He played a song from a Disney show and the first one to guess the movie won a token for a free ice cream; Brooke won.  Kim won an orange for guessing another one correctly.


Papa played Simone Says with the kids.
Friday morning everyone just chillin'.
Here in Ventura we don't have people take off their shoes unless it's been raining or have been to the beach.  This must still be a habit for everyone.
We ventured to the beach in Ventura.  
Nash loved throwing and catching the football.  



Travis running on the beach.
Kids following to scare the birds.

This is what Papa does (texting with missionaries).



Racing to the water.



Knees, achilles -- yea he can jog.
Brooke was freezing.
Some wanted to leave.  I asked Dell if he wanted to but his response was "I'm the quarterback." Like are you kidding me?  They had fun playing on the beach.
Some were definitely colder than others.
Seven pizzas -- we didn't eat them all Friday night; one and a half left over for lunch.

The adults commented on how tired they were from Disneyland.
The family went to Carpinteria beach on Saturday while we went to stake conference in Newbury Park.  The sun was out and it was less windy and warmer than on Friday.
Sunday morning prior to driving back to Salt Lake.  The Travis Felix family left by 7:00.  We had family prayer with them and then they were on their way.
The Hales and Bowens had family prayer and got on the road after 7:30.
Jace, Kim, and Rosie went to church in Ventura while we went back to Newbuy Park for stake conference.  They had lunch with us and left around 5:00 to drive all night.  They thought Rosie would do better.  They got home at 5:00 on Monday morning.
We loved having the family here.  
We thought of Heather's family many times and missed them.  It was exciting though for them to put wood flooring down in their kitchen and living room.