Family Vacation

The first week of October we took our first real family vacation EVER! I've gotta say, it was long overdue. I haven't had so much fun and been so relaxed in a really long time.

We decided to go to San Diego for a few days and do some of the fun things there. I haven't been since I was little, and Brian has never been. We didn't have a ton of money, so we didn't get to do as much as we would have liked, but we're definitely planning to go back sometime and do the things we didn't get to do this time (like going to the zoo and the Wild Animal Park). Still, we had an INCREDIBLE time!!!!!! It was so much fun, and we'll always have such good memories from this trip!

This first picture is of the girls the first morning of our vacation. Sadie loves staying hotels, so she woke up really happy and excited to start our little adventure! It was a great start to a super great vacation!

Sea World was kind of our big thing on this trip- well, that and the beach (because who DOESN'T love the beach?) But Sea World was the first big thing we did in San Diego.

On our way into Sea World!!!

Too bad we couldn't bring one of these fun cars home as a souvenir ;)

The dolphins were AWESOME! And it's not just because I've always loved dolphins... :) They kept swimming up to the tank right in front of us and clicking and squeaking at us. It was so cool!

Waiting for the Shamu show to begin!

Petting a bat ray.

Before we went on vacation, we had told Sadie we were going to the ocean. She would always reply "Where the mermaids live, huh?" I always just told her yeah...I don't know if that will turn out to be a good or bad lie, but she seemed excited ;) Anyway, while we were at Sea World, they had a woman dressed up as a mermaid taking pictures with kids! Of course Sadie had to go sit by her and get her picture taken too. She was so excited, and it was so fun!

On our way out of the park, all of a sudden Sadie started crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she wanted to see the princess. I looked back, and we had passed this woman dressed up as a princess. I told Sadie we could go see her, and she lit right u! She ran up to the woman and gave her a hug, lol!

After Sea World, we went to the beach for the first time during our trip. Sadie absolutely LOVED it!!!! Ambrie was afraid of the water, but she had a lot of fun playing in the sand on the beach.

Ambrie didn't really like the water, but she loved the seashell she's holding! She held onto the thing the whole time we were there, which was a couple of hours.

For Sea World, we got two-day passes for the same price as one-day passes, so we got to go back and finish seeing the park! The only damper (pun intended) was that it rained the whole day. That was ok though, because they sell slickers! Yay! We bought a couple for the girls and we were able to do everything we wanted to, despite the rain!

Ambrie totally drowned in hers, but how cute is she?

They have some fun little rides for little kids, which was a cool surprise for us.

The seals were way friendly, and Sadie was so excited to have them so close. Ambrie...not so much, lol! She wouldn't let me take her anywhere near them.

I'm glad the owners of these teeth are extinct- I would never want to meet a shark whose teeth are as big as my hand!

t

Look at all those teeth!

A great-white shark jaw....oooooohhhhhhhh

Sadie's first time seeing starfish.

Sadie and I holding starfish. It's been almost a month, and if you ask her about it, she'll still tell you that you need to hold them underwater so they can breathe. She LOVED being able to hold the starfish, and was so careful with them.

The girls' and my favorite part was the killer whale viewing area, where the younger killer whale was swimming around. Over and over it swam right next to the glass in front of us, and it was so awesome! I could have stayed there for hours.....but alas, my 1-year-old, not so much.

We had hoped to go to the beach that day in addition to Sea World, but with the rain it was just too cold. Sadie still insisted on wearing her swimsuit all day under her clothes (just in case I guess) and didn't want to take it off after we got back to the hotel. Ultimately, she fell asleep in it :) She also fell asleep with her and Ambrie's souvenirs at the top of her head- I promise you, she's the one who put them there! It was so cute, I had to take a picture!

Brian's only request for this vacation was that we HAD to see the San Diego Temple. We've both seen pictures and heard about how beautiful it is in person (as if you couldn't tell from the pictures), and it truly was beautiful! We walked around the grounds a bit and just took it in for a little while.

Sadie's so goofy, lol!

And of course, we had to go to the beach a few times while we were there. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip- it's just so cute!

Since Ambrie wasn't a fan of the water, we worked on a little sand sea turtle.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we had to go back home. On the way back we stopped over in Vegas and checked out the Fall exhibit at the Bellagio Botanical Garden- because you can't go through Vegas and not see their latest exhibit, right? It's always so cool, plus its free! Anyway, it didn't disappoint, and it allowed us to extend our awesome vacation just a teensy bit longer :)

All in all, we had a great time! I'm so glad we decided to go, and San Diego was the perfect destination! I can't wait to go back one of these days.

Worst Blogger Ever!!!

So, I've pretty much decided that I'm the worst blogger ever...well, maybe not the worst, but I definitely need to improve on how often I update. Not because I think everyone's just dieing to read about my life, but because I don't keep a regular journal and I'd like to have some kind of record of our lives written down somewhere. Plus I like to look go back and look at all the pictures :)

Well, there's no time like the present to start catching up on my blog! So here goes....

Lots of Updates

This has been a pretty eventful summer for us over here in the McNeel household, which has been good and fun in a lot of ways. So I thought I'd do this massive post to tell a little about all the different things that have been going on. I know alot of people won't read everything, because, let's face it, this is one ridiculously long post, but I also like to write things down so that I can look back later and see what we did- kind of like an online journal :)

Ambrie Turned One!!!

This will get its own post. I just thought while I was telling about all the big events we've had this summer, I better start with this one!

Grandparents

My grandparents have been staying with us the past few weeks, and its been cool to have them here. My grandma, who is the toughest and most positive woman I know, has been fighting bone cancer for about three years. It was starting to take off again, so she's been doing chemotherapy and radiation treatments here in Cedar during the week, which is why they've been staying with us. I've got to say, they're pretty much the best house guests ever! My house is totally clean when I come home from work every day :) They also chip in for food and things, and have taken us out to eat a few times. Really, could it get any better? :)

I think/hope they've been enjoying it as well. They seem to. I've taken them to the Greenshow a couple of times, and they really loved it! I've also introduced them to the joy of snowcones from the Tiki Shack :) Tonight I think we're going to an Air Force band performance at the Main Street Park. So we've been doing some fun things.

My Grandma also turned 70 while staying with us! We didn't do too much, but my Aunt Rie came over from Panaca with her little boy Curtis and we all had pizza, cake and ice cream. It was a nice little family celebration :)

We had some sparklers left over from the 4th, so we thought it would be fun to go out and light those as well. And yes...that is my daughter outside in her underwear. She has a thing lately for taking off her clothes. She also changes outfits about five times every day. I hope this is a short phase.

Greenshow
We've gone to the Greenshow a TON this summer. Sadie loooooooooooves it- I'm pretty sure the Greenshow performers are her heroes, lol- and its a fun and free thing to do in the evenings. Sadie usually goes out on the sidewalk and dances along with the performers. Sometimes there will be huge groups of little kids out there dancing with her, but a few times its been just her and she doesn't care! She just dances her little heart out, and its so cute! :)

Every night the Greenshow performers call a kid to come up on stage to answer a question and get their picture taken with the cast. Usually they call an older kid up, like 7 or 8-year-olds, but when we went on Tuesday they called Sadie up! She seemed pretty excited until she actually got up there and they started talking to her in front of everyone, lol! It was so cute though, and I was so proud of her :) I'm still waiting for them to email me the photo they took of her with the cast, but once I get it I'll post it.

This was at the first Greenshow of the summer. My friend Amanda invited me and the girls to go with her and her little boy

Like I said, Sadie likes to dance along.... :)

WORK

I found out towards the end of the spring semester that I'd be having some changes at work. Firstly, SUU's new provost will be adding degree requirements called "Engagement Tracks" starting next year I believe. Basically every new freshman will choose one of these tracks and will be required to complete certain classes and experiences in order to graduate from SUU. Then their diploma will say what major and what track they gradated with. One of these tracks will be Global Engagement, which naturally deals with my office (for anyone who doesn't know, I'm SUU's Study Abroad Coordinator). Because of the increased workload this will put on my office, my position was changed from 3/4 to full-time starting July 1st. It was a bittersweet change. One on hand, we've really been struggling financially this past year, and they not only increased my pay based on the number of hours I'm working now, but they also gave me a little raise. Such a blessing! But on the other hand, it means ten less hours a week with my girls, and that's been a hard adjustment. But I know so many moms who have always had to work full-time, and I feel really, really grateful that I've been able to work 3/4 time for so long.

Another big change I've had is we moved to a new office building, which is an old, remodeled house that has so much charm and character! I really love it! My old office was in a back corner of the Conference Center and my boss and I shared a tiny little space. Now I have my own office (the biggest one in the house- yay!), and we have space to spare. Its really, really awesome!

The third big change is I now have a new boss. Its a really big change for me because I've been working with the same Russian woman for the past seven years :) She taught me a lot and had such amazing life stories. I'm really going to miss her. But I'm also excited for my new boss. I've worked with him a little bit for the past five years, since he leads our London summer study abroad, and he seems really nice, organized and enthusiastic. It will be fun to see what new ideas and projects he comes up with for our international programs. He's also letting me start my work day at 7:00 so that I can take my lunch at 3:00 and go home then :):):) Since my girls sleep in until about 8 or 9, I feel like I'm not missing as much time with them. Its also nice to have some quiet time first thing in the morning to get through my emails and phone messages, of which I have PLENTY :)

A fun thing we've been doing for the past several years is hosting study abroad programs here for international student groups. This year we had a pretty large group from Vienna, Austria. Its always alot of fun when these students come, and this year it was more relaxing than most because we had an intern setting up most of the program and taking care of most of the arrangements- which meant a LOT less stress for me, lol! He did a great job, the Austrians were really happy with how everything turned out, and it was the least stressful summer program for me since we started doing them!

Summer Holidays and Class Reunion

We've had a great time with the holidays this summer. The Fourth of July was a blast! We hung out with some new friends of ours and went to the parade together, had an INCREDIBLE spot for the fireworks, and also had some dessert and little fireworks at our friends' house. All in all a great time!

The best floats were the ones that soaked everyone!

Our friends scored the sweet spot for the fireworks AND brought along a sweet setup for watching them :)

For the 24th, we went to Panaca, in part to celebrate my 10-year class reunion- YIKES! I can't believe I'm that old. On the night of the 23rd we had an adults-only dinner that turned out a lot smaller than we planned. Only 17 people showed up :( But I think everyone who came had a great time still- I know I did! (I stole these photos from Stacey's blog- Stacey, I hope you don't mind!)

On the 24th we went to the fun Pioneer Day activities, like the parade and a town dinner. Afterwards, we went to Kershaw Ryan State Park for my class reunion family mingle. It was still pretty small, but it was fun to visit more with everyone and to watch the kids play with eachother. Plus, its always fun to go to Kershaw :)

So thats pretty much our summer in a nutshell. If you made it through this HUGE post, then great job and thanks for reading :)