Kaelen playing blocks

Kaelen is so good at everything his does it seems. He can kick a ball so far. When he throws a football it is a spiral throw. Other than playing balls his other favorite thing to do is play with blocks and build things. He loves to take the Janga blocks out and build trains or towers. He is very accurate as well with how he places them. They are perfectly lined up or stacked. After he builds stuff though he always destroys his tower or train and then throws the blocks around the room or down the stairs. I love watching him play. When ever he plays with toys he lines them up. He loves to take his cars and line them up front to back. I am so amazed by him all the time. He is a smart little boy with amazing fine and gross motor skills.

Kaelen reading

Kaelen loves to read. He will run to his room and come back with a book for you to read to him. If his light is off he will grab your hand and have bring him to his room so you can turn a light on for him so he can grab a book. He will run to his room pulling you behind him. For Christmas Grace gave him some fun board books as well as flash cards. He loves them. He is always reading them. When I came into his room the other day he was sitting in front of his book shelf reading. He was still in his pajamas and his hair was a big mess. He was so happy. He was pointing at all of the pictures in the book saying what they were. I just love watching him do things and play. His favorite thing right now is to find 'nuns" (suns) in books. He knows which of his books have those in them as well as fish and moons. I love this age so much.

Playing in the snow

There was no school today because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and so I took the kids outside and we built a snowman. He all had so much fun building it. It was hard to put the middle on the bottom because it was so big and heavy. Every time we would almost get it up it would fall and break. We eventually got our snowman finished. Kaelen LOVES snowmen and he was so excited about ours. A few years ago at a birthday party Jacob got a snowman making kit as a thank you gift at the party. We love it. It has real coal and a real corn cob nose.

After making the snowman we had a little snow ball fight. Kaelen loved that. He loved throwing the snow at us. He took his gloves off at one point. He didn't mind the cold.

A little later Rachel and Jacob's friends came over to play in the snow. All the kids played in the back yard. Jacob's friend Olivia put Kaelen in the swing. Kaelen loved it. A few times it looked like he was fast asleep on it. Rachel and her friend Siena played on the trampoline. They spent most of the time though taking of this huge ice block that probably weighed over 150 lbs. It was so big. It took them over a half hour to push it off. The tramp was so slippery as well that they kept just sliding around. It was so funny to watch. I knew when they got it off because from inside the house I could hear them screaming.

I really enjoyed spending time with my kids today out in the snow. I loved watching them play together as well. It was nice and warm out and so it was really fun.

Snow Sledding

Tonight (January 16) we took Kaelen snow sledding for the first time. He did go last year actually but he didn't really like it. He lasted 2 minutes before. This year was such the opposite. We went snow sledding at Grandpa and Grandma Heileson's house. He loved it so much. He would go down the hill laughing the whole way. Enoch actually had him go down himself as well. Kaelen would jump on the sled, lay down and Enoch would push him down. Kaelen would laugh the whole time. It was so amazing. At one point his gloves were soaking wet and so we took him in the house to get new ones. I came by the front door and he had his face plastered to the window screaming and crying. He didn't want to come in at all. He was freaking out. He was so happy to finally come back out. We snow sledded for well over an hour. I thought that it was going to be shorter than that. Kaelen was actually the last to come in and he laid on the floor and cried. He loves the snow. He stands at the window in the house and yells "snow, snow." It is so cute. We all had so much fun snow sledding. I can't wait to take Kaelen sledding again.

Rachel and Jacob had so much fun as well. Rachel seemed to stuck to the tree at the bottom of the hill. She would slide under it all the time. That is what one of the pictures are of. Jacob loves going down with everybody. He enjoys going himself but really loves going with somebody else. We all had a lot of fun together.

Rachel's braces

Today Rachel got her braces on. She was so excited and so nervous. She has lost all of her teeth and they have all come in. She is so young to have lost all of her teeth like that. Her 12 year old molars are about to come in too so once they come in they will band those. She is supposed to have her braces on for 18 months. They should come off just before she starts Junior High. Pretty cool. Her appointment took about 3 hours from start to finish. She did really well. We really like her orthodontist. They are all so nice and he was really awesome and gave us a deal on them. Rachel sounds different too. They have to put blocks on her top front teeth on the backsides of them to keep her from biting off her bottom braces. She is going to take a while getting used to those.

Rachel's braces are a new type of brace. The wires to the work instead of the elastics. She only has to get her braces tightened every 6-8 weeks. There is less pain this way. I am happy and so is she about that. I remember my braces being tightened every 4 weeks and having to deal with the pain for 4 days after. She won't have to experience it like that.

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Saturday January 16th.

Rachel is in a lot of pain right now. Poor girl. She is on lots of pain killers for it. She should hurt for a few more days. Poor her. She is handling the pain very well. She once in a while will shriek because she has bitten down on her teeth and they hurt.

I can't wait to see how her teeth change over the next while. Her gap in her front will be gone and she has a few teeth that are really crooked. Those will be straight as well. She will really love having straight teeth. I am excited for her. It will also be nice for Enoch and I to have a long break between braces as well. Jacob has not lost one tooth and doesn't have any loose either so it will be a real long time between braces. Nice to not be broke over braces.

San Diego Day 5

January 5th. Our last day of our trip. We flew out of Pheonix around 9 AM. We made it through security pretty fast and so we were able to go and eat breakfast in the airport before we flew out. It was really good. We ate at this restaurant that had some awesome breakfast choices. It was amazing to see all the Fiesta Bowl shirts with the score already on them in all of the gift shops. They had to of printed those the minute the game was over so they could have them out by the next morning. I was so glad that we were not flying back to Boise or anything like that because wow the lines at the ticket booths for everybody was so long. There were probably 100 people in line all wearing blue and orange.

It was so nice to fly back into San Diego. I love San Diego. Once we got there we had a 3 hour layover before our flight home. We booked it this way because at first we were planning on just staying in San Diego and we wanted to be able to sleep in. It ended up that we went to Pheonix and now had a long layover. We were flying home with Delta and if we wanted an earlier flight we would of had to pay $50 each to change the flight. That was not a hard decision for us. We checked our bags and then we took the bus back to the bay and walked around. We went to this area with some cool shops and restaurants. We looked at some stores and then just found some nice grass in a park and sat around. It was so nice and warm. I read and loved it. Enoch once again slept. I think that Enoch could sleep all the time if you let him.

We hung out on the pier and in the park for a while before we headed back to catch the bus back to the airport. We looked into renting a car for a few hours but it would have been $35 instead of the $10 it cost for the bus. I really loved just being able to relax in the sun one last time before heading home. I honestly had no desire to go home. I wasn't missing my kids too much because I knew they were safe and happy. I could have spent another week away. I was so sad to leave San Diego and go home.

When we got on the plane to go home the flight attendant mentioned the weather in SLC, it was 25 degrees outside and then said that he thought that we should just skip Salt Lake and head to Alcopoco. I really loved that idea. We had 3 missionaries heading home and I was tempted to yell out give the missionaries parachutes and drop them off over Salt Lake and fl y us somewhere warm. It was so sad to fly over the ocean and the beaches and an hour later fly into the snow. Oh so sad. I am a warm blooded person who likes to be warm in the winter.

When we landed we found out that not only were the missionaries going home but they were also being filmed for a movie the church was making. They had film crews following them through the airport and then filming them as they saw their families. We walked in front of the camera and behind the missionaries intentionally a couple of time. Maybe we'll be in the movie. (Probably not and who know what the movie even is).

Our drive home from SLC went well. I was still so sad to be home. We arrived home around 7:30 PM. The kids were not home yet from Collin's birthday party. When they got home they were excited to see us. Kaelen was not very sure. He smiled at me and then ran to Enoch. I was surprised about that. While we were gone he started calling Grandma "mama." He really didn't miss us. His first night a way from us was hard but after that he slept through the night. Now Kaelen has never really slept through the night. Once we left he slept 12-13 hours a night. I couldn't believe it. I wish that we had left him sooner. Leaving was just the best thing that we did for him.

He now sleeps through the night all the time and also he is no longer afraid to go to nursery. He used to scream and cry and we would never leave him. Now he might cry if he does for 2 minutes and then he is happy the rest of the time. He also will go to peoples houses with me and not cling to me for dear life. He will actually run off and play. I just can't believe the change in him. It is so nice. Thank you Gloria and Chuck for helping make this happen. It has been so nice for Enoch and I.

Okay I was happy to see our kids and it didn't take long till Kaelen didn't want us to put him down. He will wrap his legs around you and hold on so tight that you can't let him down. It is nice to feel so loved. The kdis loved their presents as well. We bought Rachel a pink fleece sweater that says SD on a corner, Jacob got this awesome air plane that attaches to this base where you pull the string and the airplanes flies around, and Kaelen got a USS Midway mini soccer ball. All the kids loved what they got.

This trip was so amazing. I loved spending time just with Enoch and doing some amazing things. It was so good on our relationship and marriage. We just seem happier. We were not having problems at all but we just our so much closer now. We are already talking about needing to go away soon again. We need to make sure that we plan a trip every year together. Everybody needs to do it and I suggest you all go to San Diego.

San Diego/Pheonix Day 4

This morning (January 4th ) we left our hotel around 5:30 in the morning. Our flight out of San Diego was at 7:30. We went and returned our car and then stood in line for security for an hour. It was so crazy. I guess everybody loves to fly with Northwest because your bags are free. I was shocked with how many Boise State fans we saw in the airport. Once we got to Phoenix the airport was full of Boise State fans. Our rental car that we had was a perfect car for our trip. It was this bright blue mustang. I hate mustangs unless it's the newer convertibles. Ours was not. It matched with our flags and magnets though. We brought our car magnets and flags for our trip. We got beeped at so many times and commented on it. It was fun to have it.

Once we got to Phoenix we went to breakfast because we were not able to check into our hotel. We ate at Denny's . There were so many Boise State fans there as well. I think that half of our hotel was Boise State fans as well.

After breakfast we were pretty tired from getting up so early. Enoch took a nap and I watched some movies on TV. We stayed at another pretty nice hotel. Nothing like our hotel in San Diego but still nice. We really didn't do much in Phoenix before the game. We have decided that there is not much to do in Phoenix if you have only a few hours to do something and no golf clubs. After we ate dinner we headed to the stadium. We got there around 5 PM. The football game started at 6:30. Wow it was amazing to see how many Boise State fans there were. I loved looking over the parking lot and just seeing blue and orange flags on the cars and the blue and orange tents everywhere. So fun.

So this year at the Fiesta Bowl I think that there were twice as many drunk people. I am not sure why people drink so much at games. I want to remember good football games instead of waking up the next day and not remembering half of the football game.

This year we sat in the same section as we did last time but 20 rows closer. They were good seats. It is so fun to watch football games because the noise and also anytime anything good happens everybody around you starts giving each other high fives. Our seats this year as well all had orange flags at them (purple for TCU fans in their seats) and some chips and Salsa. That was so nice. We didn't have to buy any food this year because of that as well the older couple behind us bought us ice cream. It was so nice of them. They were very friendly and we enjoyed talking with them. They were actually headed to San Diego for a trip after the game. They were doing the opposite of us.

I couldn't believe how loud it was this year. So many times the referees and announcers had to stop talking because they couldn't even hear themselves talking on the microphone. Of course this year we won again and so it was amazing. I was really worried before the game. TCU was a good team and was known for their amazing defense. I think that we showed them though because our defense was amazing and of course our offense is fantastic. Going to the football game was just the icing on top for us. It was so awesome. I loved everything about the game. It was not as intense as the last time because the score was not close in the end and we never went to double over time but man was it fun. I love watching football games. Boise State only lost one starting senior this year and so next year they are going to be amazing. Enoch has already told the kids that if they make it to the championship game in Phoenix next year we are all going. We will drive and go and see the Grand Canyon and stuff before the game. I would love that. I think the chances are good of us going.

I loved winning. We won 17-10. It was so nice to once again see them win the trophy. I loved watching all the orange flags as well. There were way more Boise State fans than TCU fans. I loved that it was such a nice upset for TCU. Not many announcers or critics thought that we could win so it was nice to show them just like we did 3 years ago when we played Oklahoma at the Fiesta Bowl.

After the game we got to our hotel close to midnight. We had to watch some TV though well ESPN actually to see what they said. Not much was said because FOX aired the game. We had to be up early again to catch our flight back to San Diego. We were not planning on going to Pheonix at first. We decided after our plane tickets were booked for San Diego to go. So we had to fly back to San Diego to then catch our flight home.

Today was a good day despite not doing much other than the game. I loved just spending time with Enoch and then of course watching once again another amazing football game.

San Diego Day 3

Oh I loved today (January 3rd) so much. We woke up late again and went down to the pier to the USS Midway. It is an old retired battleship on the harbor. We first went to a restaurant on the pier and had lunch. It was nice to sit and look out off the pier and into the bay. Also by the USS Midway and restaurant is a large statue of the famous war picture after WWII of the sailor kissing the nurse. I was hoping to get a picture of Enoch and I kissing like that in front of it but there was nobody around to take our picture. Oh well. All around the USS Midway are statues of military and war memorials. We paid $18 a piece to go take a headset tour of the ship. We were on the ship for almost 3 hours and would have loved more time on it but it closed and everybody was kicked off. I was so sad to leave. We loved all of it. Enoch and I had so much fun. I took so many pictures of the ship. We went and saw were all of the sailors slept, the kitchen, the captains cabins, flight instruction rooms, barber shop, hospital, jail, you name it we saw it. I really wish that we could have had 2 more hours on it. The whole flight deck has tons of planes and helicopters in it. It was so fascinating all of it. I will be honest that at first I thought that it would only take an hour or so to see it all. Not at all. We wanted to listen to everything we could about it. Loved it all. We also saw an amazing sunset on the ship. It was beautiful.

After the USS Midway we went and drove across the large bridge to Coronado Island. It is a pretty high and long bridge to the Island. It was cool to go over it and see the city scape.

When we got back to our hotel we went out to eat at this really awesome pizza place in the Gaslamp district that makes gluten free pizza. We got a BBQ chicken gluten free pizza and then an amazing Greek Salad. It was so good that we bought a jar of it to take home with us. We had to wrap it really well to have it fit into our suitcase.

After dinner we went to the Garibaldi chocolate store and have ice cream. It was so good. I loved the atmosphere as well of the whole place. It was really fun to sit and share a Sunday together.

When we got back to our hotel we noticed that the TV was on to a weird station and that our bed was not the way we left it with blankets. We started freaking out that somebody had been in our room. We kept going through the evening before we left for dinner and trying to remember if we moved our pillows and left the TV on. We finally decided to go downstairs and talk to the front desk. I was not going to sleep in the room if somebody had been there. Well we went down and told the front clerk that this might sound funny but we thought that somebody had been in our room. We told about what had happened and he right a way said he knew what it was. Earlier in the day we found out that if we signed up to be a club member for free we got free internet. It would have been nice to have had 3 days before and not had to call Chuck all the time. Well as part of being a club member they also have a pull down service in the evenings. They come in and pull down your blankets, take most of your pillows off, turn one lamp on and turn the TV on to soothing music. We laughed when we found out we laughed pretty hard and the front clerk said that we were not the first ones to come and think that somebody was in their room. We felt pretty dumb but were really happy to know that it wasn't somebody going through our things in our room.

After this ordeal we got ready to go swimming. They have an outdoor heated pool. When we left to go swimming we were wearing our robes (they had nice bathrobes in our room) and when we walked out of the room we realized that neither one of us had the room key. I laughed so hard. I told Enoch right a way that I was not going down to the lobby in my bathrobe. We could not stop laughing. I found a phone near the elevators that worked though and was able to call down. They called somebody up to bring us a key.

Once we had our key we headed to the pool. The hot tub had people in it so we just played in the pool. We had so much fun. The pool was a lap type pool. There were stairs across one whole side of the pool and then the pool was the same depth. We spent the whole time in the pool racing each other from one side to the other. We didn't swim though we did it where we could only use our arms and other ways. We also had a handstand contest. We laughed the whole time. I am sure the people in the hot tub thought that we had been drinking something.

I was sad to have to leave the pool because I knew that when we got back to our room we were going to have to pack up. We were leaving the next day to head to Phoenix to the Fiesta bowl. I was excited for the Fiesta bowl but I loved San Diego. If California wasn't so messed up and everything so expensive I would move to San Diego in a hear beat. Everybody needs to go and take their families. We already have talked about taking the kids eventually.

San Diego Day 2

(January 2nd) Today we slept in pretty late. We left hotel around 11:30. Took the train to Little Italy. Little Italy is a district in San Diego full of Italian restaurants and shops.
Went to the farmers market. The farmers market was located in Little Italy and it's a few blocks long. Had some really cool booths of food to sample and buy. The farmers market is on a road that runs towards the Ocean. It's on slight hill so you are able to look down towards the bay. It was really cool looking and beautiful. The sun was really hot and bright. Very nice weather. I loved it. We both did.

Enoch bought some blood oranges for Enoch. They were really sweet and sour. The insides are red. Enoch was so excited.

I bought this thick Head band that knitted and goes around your whole head on top of your hair. It looks like a hat. I love it and it looks great with my short hair. I am excited. Enoch had a tomalee. I never tried it but he liked it.

We then walked to a little Italian restaurant called Mona Lisa. I didn't want much so we shared a large Cesar salad. It was good and wow was it large. My favorite part of it was the bread and butter. It was a hard crusted banquette and soft inside.

After lunch and miles of walking we went back to our hotel to pack stuff up to go to the temple and the beach. We drove to Del Mar beach to watch the sunset. Aunt Elaine said that that was their favorite beach. On our way to the beach we were on the phone with Chuck asking for him to look up the address of the temple so we could find it after the beach and just as we went around the corner on the freeway there it was. What a pretty temple.

Our drive to Del Mar went good other than there is no parking anywhere. We drove around forever trying to find parking. We also were trying to find some wireless connection to use our internet. Our hotel we thought charged $10 a day to use the internet. This is another story though for later. We gave up on the internet and found parking. It is a really pretty beach. I am sure that it is even nicer in the summer months. We walked around for a bit, put our feet in the water (the water in San Diego is about as warm as the water is in Oregon in the summer, I think that it is even warmer in San Diego) and then watched the sunset. We also enjoyed watching the surfers. It was fun to watch the waves coming up behind them and watching them catch them. The sunset was really pretty until right as it was about to go down past the water on the horizon a cloud came over the sun. We were pretty disappointed. I got some nice pictures though.

After the beach we drove to La Jolla and ate at this awesome restaurant downtown. It was called the Crab Catcher. It was beautiful. We ate outside. All the restaurant have gas heaters outside so as long as it isn't raining you can eat outside and be warm. Crab at the restaurant that came from the boats off of the show the Deadliest catch were $65 a pound. When the waiter told us that I wanted to pipe up and say we really didn't like those boats from the show, we liked other ones so we weren't getting the crab. I re-framed though from saying that. I got some clam chowder which was amazing. Way better than Moe's. I didn't like Moe's in Oregon. I have decided that you can put up any sign out being world famous and people will show up. Enoch and I then shared this dinner that came with scallops, flaming Mignon and chicken. It came out looking like it was made on iron chef. It was also absolutely amazing. Enoch I think that after he ate it didn't mind spending what we did on the meal.

After dinner we rushed to the temple. We didn't make it to the last session but they let us in to do initiatory. We both did 5 names each. We then were given temple whites and were given a tour of the temple. Everybody in the temple was so nice. We spent about an hour looking at everything. The temple has this amazing grand staircase that you walk up and down to get to the celestial room and sealing rooms. The guy giving us the tour had come home from his mission in the last couple of years. Enoch and him served in the same mission. Enoch enjoyed talking to him about how the mission had changed over the years. The Celestial room is very beautiful. It has a staircase that you go up and then out a door to the atrium and the sealing rooms. The room where the atrium has the sealing rooms all around it and then in the middle is the atrium. The atrium has glass all around it and growing inside and open to the outside is plants. It is really cool. The temple was amazing but I think that my favorite was the grand staircase. So cool.

After we left the temple it was past 10 o'clock. We hung out for a while taking pictures and then drove back to our hotel. It is amazing how tired you are after all that walking. We tried to watch a movie in our hotel room but Enoch fell asleep in 5 minutes and I watched most of it before I did.

I loved our day. I love San Diego so much. I loved just seeing things and hanging out with Enoch.

San Digo Day 1

On the 1st of January very early in the morning we left to Salt Lake City. I had not slept at all before we left. Enoch slept for about 4 hours. It was snowing when we left so we left at 2:30 in the morning. Our flight was leaving SLC at 8 in the morning. It is only a 3 hour drive but because of the snow we decided to leave early. I tried so hard to stay a wake while Enoch drove. I think that I got to Pocatello before I fell asleep. I woke up a few times while driving because the roads were so crazy I felt the snow pulling the car in different directions. Enoch said that it snowed up till about 30 minutes to the airport and then the roads were clear. I am glad that he was alert enough to drive because I was no help. Once we got to SLC we left our winter coats (no coats needed in San Diego). Once we got through security, gotta love taking off your shoes and stripping naked, okay it isn't that bad but a few times on our trip the lines were over an hour long. We found our gate and were only going to have to wait 30 minutes before it left but our luck had it that we waited an hour longer. There was something wrong with our plane so they had to get another plane for us. I was happy to finally leave SLC when we did.

Our plane flight was an hour and 45 minutes. It actually worked out great being late because we were able to go right a way to get our rental car. Oh and let me tell you flying into San Diego was amazing. You fly right in between down town and the buildings. First impression San Diego is beautiful. The airport if right in the bay so you see the ocean right a way. It was so nice too to walk out and be warm and not cold. When we got to our car rental place we were able for $10 more upgrade to a sports car. It was red and so nice. I loved being able to drive around with the top off. Very appropriate for our first time in San Diego.

We stayed right in the harbor at the Omni hotel. The hotel was really nice. We got it for really cheap as well. The one thing though about our hotel was that they had no parking. It was only valet. You pay valet or park your car in a parking garage. It was so expensive to park but we weren't going to park in a parking garage.

Once we went to our room which was on the 15th floor we left to go and see some things. Our room didn't face the ocean but we could see Petco Park (the Padres) baseball field. That was cool. Our hotel as well was right next to the gas lamp district. We left our hotel and took the train to Old Town. Old Town was so awesome. Old Town is the first town in San Diego. Many of the buildings are still intact. They have redone many of them. Old Town was so cool. We went and ate at a Mexican Restaurant that was outside. That was fun. There was also a Mariachi band playing. Very cool. We spent a couple of hours walking around looking at things. While in Old Town we went to the candy store and bought salt water taffy and caramels. Old Town was really neat but we found out after we got home that there was so much more we could have seen. So sad. Oh well. Also there was an ornament that I really loved and didn't buy. I should have and am sad. Oh well maybe I will go back and get it soon. Ha ha.


After hours in Old Town we went back to our hotel for what was supposed to be just a bit because we were going to go to the Gas lamp district and find a place to eat. We ended up falling asleep for almost two hours. Enoch laid down on the bed while I was watching something and then before I knew it I was asleep. We had only maybe slept 5 hours in 2 days so we needed the nap. Once we got up we went to this cool Thai restaurant. The Gas Lamp district is a few city blocks that is full of shops and Restaurants and tons of bars. It is crazy as to how crowded it is as night. Even at 2 in the morning you can hear faint music in our hotel room. The Thai restaurant we ate at was really cool looking. It had sheer curtains dividing each table and a large water fountain. What we ate was pretty good. All of it was gluten free as well.

After dinner we walked a few blocks to the outside mall to watch a movie. Because it was New Years Day all the stores we closed. We were going to see Blind Side but walked into Sherlock Holmes instead. We were just going to watch the first 10 minutes before our movie started but decided to stay and watch the movie. We really liked it.

After the movie we got back to our hotel around 1:30 AM. We were so tired from not sleeping and we walked so much. I think that we walked over a few miles. It was so fun and the weather was so nice.