Happy 12

Ben and I were asked to be in a marriage "panel" for a relief society activity last night.

I went with this attitude:

There were us and two other couples. One of the couples have some teenagers and young kids and are some friends of ours. They had some great perspectives and I truly admire them and their relationship.

The other couple is the relief society stake president and her husband. They each were married before and both of their spouses passed away and now they have been married for 9 years.  They assured me  after they were just an average couple, but they are actually an incredible couple of people.

We must have been the couple to let everyone else know normal marriages are okay:)!

They asked us to bring a wedding picture - I brought our engagement one since it's the closest I could find:)

When I showed Mackayla I asked her if I looked different and her dramatic emphatic yes let me know 12 years is actually a long time to be married.

We were given a list of questions before hand and had an MC asking questions.

One of the questions - thankfully I didn't have to answer - that was asked was this:

"When your spouses' quirks start to annoy you (as we know we all have them), how do you choose not to let them bother you?" 

Now before I tell you the best answer ever I might add Ben and I are super quirky. 

Just really really quirky. 

And we both know it.

Our relief society stake president, who was married for 25 years and her first husband died of a sudden heart attack, said 

those things that are quirky about your spouse, 

the things that make them unique and who they are, 

those are the things that you would miss the most if you lost that person.

Beautiful.

(Us on our anniversary this year, looking goood.)

So our extra quirks will give us that many more things to love about each other.

I truly love Ben.

I also shared exactly how I felt about things and I'm glad I stayed true to myself

because I don't think as many people there are in the same position as we are in life.

But I went with this attitude:

As in, Comparison is the thief of Joy.

I'm grateful for so many people surrounding us in our ward that are solid, great examples, and unique in their own ways.

Now...switching gears...here are some random things I have loved this last week:

Raw Beets in Hawaiian Haystacks are yummy!

I added apple juice to make a smoothie out of ours:

And this happened yesterday...caused quite a stir. The swat team, dozens of cops, multiple fire trucks and dozens of firemen, a sniper, a helicopter circling overhead for hours.

Just down the street from us.

A man started throwing things out his windows and threatening to commit suicide and then started his house on fire. Domestic dispute. Thankfully no one was hurt and he eventually surrendered. This poor family.

Hidden Beach

Of course I had to take my family to see this awesome beach I found.

It was a crowded beach day.

 We wound our way over along this path past the main beach

Down to a more private beach 

 Then on past that onto some rocks.

It took a lot of concentration to get a picture behind me while navigating on these rocks. Hence the scowl.  But I thought those two were so cute.

Cody was in crab heaven. 

 And the sea anemones were all over the place.

Cody let one swallow his hand.

It took us a good 20+ minutes of maneuvering over the rocks pushed up against the cliffs to make it here, but totally worth it.

 There was an entire "hermit crab town" according to Macey.

 I snuck around the corner to see where it leads to and found these little cliffs.

 And came back to some super intense (ha) hermit crab races.

Beautiful day for a Sunday beach adventure.

Smells and Shells

Part One:

Thursday evening I cleared out the fridge of two week old meat and fish and put it down the disposal.

I flipped it on with the water running. A huge geyser (think Old Faithful in a kitchen) of murky water started shooting out of the sink. It took me a second to recover from the onslaught of filmy fishy water that sprayed me and the rest of the kitchen before I could dive to the disposal and stop the show. Clogged drains are the worst.

It was perfect though because I love the smell of old fish. Gag!!!

Part Two:

Ben and I walked out in the hall at about 10:30 the next night and were hit with a wall of something gone wrong.

We followed it in to Mackayla. Now when there are disgusting messes Ben gets all freaked out and starts listing the things that need to be done, like he can make it go away by ordering it gone. I told him he should probably go before he dry heaved, and he was happy to, and I assessed the situation. 

Mackayla hates messes about as much as Ben, so I figured rather than wake her and freak her out too, I would take her in the bathroom so at least Macey could stay asleep.

I took her in to the bathtub and started taking off her underwear.

That's when she woke up.

She started kicking her legs

flinging the contents all over the bathroom. 

Super awesome.

And Mackayla was a little freaked out, but all things considered, totally happy and pleasant the entire time. She's so cute.

Later that night (after I had finished scrubbing what felt like everything in our house) I heard this banging coming from down the hall. I walked into Cody's room and he was thrashing around. Either it was a terrible dream or he was battling something in his sleep.

Macey also woke up two or three times.

No one slept great that night. Is it a full moon?

Cody and Ben went camping tonight and with our luck they will probably get sprayed by a skunk:)!

In better news:

I had finally given in to the idea that California beaches just have no shells. 

I am kind of obsessed with them, so it was disappointing.

But today on a jog at the ocean I discovered their hiding place!

  

It's a totally secluded beach with no pathway down to it. I kinda ran over rocks to get to it. 

This is my buddy when I shower and get ready. She usually hangs out and talks to me

and then we put on "lipstick" (chapstick) together. 

 I got my haircut (finally)

It was TIME and a lot of hair later I felt normal again!

That's about it for today! 

I love Pentatonix. This is their beatboxer doing a little "celloboxing" <-click he="" is="" p="" so="" talented="" there.="">

More Cousin Time!

Becky, Brett and Micah came to visit us!

These guys are so lucky to see some of their cousins lately.

It was a little cool but we made it to the beach and pool.

Sometimes I'm so good at taking pictures and sometimes I'm so lame.

This day was lame, but I got a couple.

 What I missed was the boogie boarding slides and surfing they did in the pool. Micah is on the swim team back home and showed us all her speed and skill.

I was dying at Macey who always seems to have bad luck at little things. She kept getting stuck on the boogie board slide and we finally realized her shirt was sticky and would grip the boards. But that was after she kept turfing it. She's so cute. 

It was so good to see them. Hope you guys have fun at Universal Studios!! Come again!!

The Croslands take California Adventure

The beach was a little cool but it warmed up enough for a good swim!

 Macey was thrilled to have her cousins and aunt and uncle come to her school play.

The kids all got along fabulously, and even Cody really enjoyed himself thanks to Lucy's deep love of all things Star Wars!

These cute girls played shopkins here and there.

 I have no idea how he ended up up-side-down but we got to watch Rex for a short morning and he is the happiest easiest going baby ever. This was our first time meeting him! He kind of watched himself and we just had fun with him while his sisters and parents went to Disneyland. They took him for the rest of the day and he was a trooper. 

We joined them the second day in California Adventure.

Ben not only came, but took off a day to go to the a place he vowed he wouldn't go back to. (It's just so crowded.) But we did it, and it wasn't terribly crowded, and we - and he - had tons of fun!

It definitely helped to have people who knew how to work the fast passes. Once we got those going it worked out well.

This is our first ride, California Soarin.

Just as we were walking in the park, a decent rain started. Luckily Carly had thought to have everyone get ponchos for the forecasted rain. We pulled them out just in time. 

 Such irony that North Dakota was actually warmer while they were here in California!

 Can you see me in this ride?

I am the great hairy monster in the back. 

  

 I think most everyone's favorite or at least one of their favorite rides was California Screamin. It was definitely the kids! They went on it a ton of times.

Rex was a champ. The ferris wheel is the perfect time to eat :) ! 

Tower of Terror!

 

 The little girls watched the Pixar parade while the older kids went on the roller coaster once.

 The clam chowder bread bowls on the pier rival the bread bowls in San Fran.

 Toy Story Midway Mania is such a fun game!

Mackayla was my buddy each time and she seriously did awesome. Her accuracy was right up there with mine. Clearly I'm an expert :p  

 

Ended with World of Color.

I can see the vision of Disney now. It was not ideal only being able to go on rides a two year old could go on when we had passes, but this was so much fun! And anything is more fun with friends!

 Saturday morning Cody had a game and we went swimming, then out to eat, thanks to Tyler. It was really spur of the moment due to a flight delay...and I had approximately 30 seconds notice, so I went dressed as a bum. haha!

We loved spending time with our cute family. North Dakota is just so far away, thank goodness Disneyland lured them our way!! Come again!!