Collins Cousin Camp 2014

 I'm so glad that despite a crazy past few months, we were able to plan and pull off cousin camp.  I know all the kids look forward to this time together.  We spent time roasting hotdogs, having a "buddy" scavenger hunt at the park, and even had a visit from two special gators (aka grandma and grandpa). 

Return to Yuba City

The decision about where to live in California came pretty easy for us.  Since Bryan will be spending a lot of time at the Yuba City Costa Vida, it made sense to return to Yuba City.  Ironically we found a place to live on Shanghai Bend Rd, just 5 houses down from the home we owned for about 8 years.  Even the layout was exactly the same.  The best part about the house had nothing to do with the house, but only it's location.  There is a large open field across the street and from the front yard we have an amazing view of the sunsets every night, I love it.  We have great neighbors who are very friendly and have definitely welcomed us into the neighborhood, they actually hate that we are only renting because that does mean we are not going to stay forever.  It feels great to be home and strange at the same time.  As we are going through the process of registering the kids for school, we keep seeing people we knew two and half years ago.  The only problem is I can't remember a lot of peoples names or how we know them.  The kids have all reconnected with friends and feel right at home. Of course it's also wonderful to be so close to family again.

A Final Fairwell

Here are a few of our final memories from our time in Pleasant Grove.  This has been a wonderful place to live, despite the cold winter/spring months.  We made some wonderful friends, enjoyed lots of priceless family time, and learned a lot about ourselves.  Of course saying goodbye to friends is always the worst part.  It's especially hard to watch the kids have to say goodbye to their good friends.  I know it is harder for them to keep in touch.  We were so grateful to all those who helped us pack up our trailer and clean the house before we left.  It was a challenging task and we were determined to take it all with us.  Miraculously, we were able to fit EVERYTHING in the truck, we even ordered a second truck just in case but didn't need it.  We are headed back to Cali and we are really excited.

 

Hairdo??

Landry is always telling me not to stick his hair up....or do anything cool with it.  So I decided to show him by taking pictures of him and explaining that he could either look like a "cool guy" or a "lego guy".  I think my descriptions are pretty accurate, and I still choose the "cool guy " look......hopefully someday he will agree.

Brody's loose tooth

 Three dollars from the tooth fairy.  One for the five years that dead tooth hung after jamming it into a bench when he was two.  One for the accidental punch from Emery that loosened it even more.  Plus one more for enduring the brutal pulling his mother put him through.

Hogle Zoo

 

While grandma and grandpa Collins were visiting in Utah, we made a day trip to the zoo.  Emery's good friend Aubrey Jensen came along.  We had a nice time, other then it being a little warm.  I was impressed with the bird show, it was entertaining and educational. 

Cambrees First Dance Rectial

Moose or Meese???

 I hope it isn't a secret that I love Moose!!  One of the things on my list of things to do before we left Utah was to see some moose in the wild.  So we took a break from packing one Saturday afternoon and headed to Cottonwood Canyon.  First of all, can I just say that the Cottonwood Canyon is pretty amazing.  I'm so glad we chose to go there for our moose hunt. We drove to silver lake and took a stroll around the lake hoping to see some wildlife, but unfortunately we didn't see anything.  As we headed out of the canyon on the main road, we noticed a trail of cars pulled over to the side of the road.  I told Bry to pull over so we could check out what was going on.  We looked across the highway and saw a mama moose and two babies playing around her.  We crossed the road and watched them all play for about 20 minutes.  It was magical, well to me it was anyway.  I guess we can leave Utah now.

Bean Museum and BYU Creamery

One of the places we wanted to visit before we left Utah was the Bean museum in Provo.  It was a really cool place, the kids enjoyed all the animals to look at.  I wasn't really a fan of the violent moose exhibit....poor moose.  After the museum we grabbed some ice cream at the BYU creamy.....perfect afternoon.

Piano Recital

 I always suspected that Cambree would do well in piano.  Shortly after moving to Utah, I started to get to know some of the young women pretty well in our ward.  Madeline Biggs was one of those young women and offered to give Cambree piano lessons.  Since Cambree was one of her only students she decided to have Cambree play at a recital being held by another teacher.  Cambree did really well, I'm surprised that she didn't get to nervous.