Here comes the sun, or Why would anyone want to live in the snow when they can have the beach?

Well maybe people would like to live in the snow when your other option is to have red tide and the beach smells!

Okay, so for a little while the beach was smelly and yet, we still had so much fun! mckenna met 2 girls that were staying in the apartment above us and they played everyday that we spent at the Beach Flower. Then she made a friend at Grandma and Grandpa's house at the pool.

mckenna and her friends at the beachflower, Gabby and Hannah

What the beach flower looks like. We stayed on the right hand bottom apartment.

The BeachFlower is awesome because they have beach toys, chairs, a washer and dryer (which we have to pay for but it is worth it to have clean towels all the time,) and seasonings for cooking. Deanna the proprietor is awesome. The first time we stayed she bought us sprite and popcorn as our welcome treat!


This heron decided that after it was on the beach for a while that it would visit our apartment and actually walked into the house. (Sorry, I only have it on video)


We spent some time on the beach and the boys ended up getting skimboards so that they could skim in Florida and at home. Near our house there is a little ditch that has a low level of water and sand so that the skim with their friends. Kyler was just learning to skim in Florida where Devin had been skimming for quite a while already.

Matt and Mckenna decided to make a devin mermaid


Kyler getting ready to skimboard his way into the ocean.

We also spent time watching a baseball game between the Tampa Devilrays and the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers won. The Stadium is an enclosed Stadium which was really weird for me being used to Turner Field. But it did feel a little more intimate and we had really good seats.

In the other Kingdom's we will find...

While we are in Florida we are staying one week in Orlando and One week in Madeira/North Reddington Beach area.
Our last days in Orlando we spent in the Wonderful World of Disney! Now, we had been to Disney World in October 2 years before and so Matt and I wondered if we really needed to go again. Mckenna really wanted to see Minnie Mouse and the boys really wanted to go on the Rocking Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror, but that would be 2 different kingdoms and I wanted to try and save money, so I only wanted to go to one kingdom and call it good. Since the boys were going to be at Universal on the cool rollercoasters, I thought that we would make Mckenna's wish come true by going to Magic Kingdom. But then I found out that Fairfield had a discount for parkhoppers that was the same as buying tickets on line, so we would save a little money, plus if you went to the owner breakfast (which they said would take 45 min, but ofcourse didn't, it took 2 hours,) you got $75 disney dollars which I used for tickets and I bought 2 day parkhoppers and off we went...

Mckenna wanted to go into Cinderella's castle, which by the way I am wondering why they have all the Sleeping Beauty stuff in their if it is Cinderella's home? What a bummer, I mean,Cinderella becomes a princess and then has to share it with some one else? Why doesn't Sleeping Beauty have her own home?


Sweet little Mckenna Marie


We walked around the Magic Kingdom, then went on Splash Mountain, some of the space rides, even though we didn't go on Space Mountain (way too busy,) and the kids and Matt raced each other around the race track!


Devin riding in his race car. Do you think that he really wants to win Mckenna and Matt?


Mckenna driving Matt around the race track. look how nice those smiles look.


After the car race we headed over to Epcot, so that I could go to the different countries... we went to the mission space area first so that the kids could go on that ride (3 times,) and then went on the circle of life ride and a few slower rides. Epcot was so busy that Soaring California had a fastpass wait of 22o minutes. We never did get to go on that ride because they had so many passes out that they shut down the fast pass option and everytime we went to get on it had over a 3 hours wait! After all the crazy fast rides the family went on, Kyler got a really bad headache and we ended up going back to our condo without going to a single Country! That was a really big bummer, so that is something that I will have to do when the kids aren't with me on another visit to Florida.


Every one ready to go back to the hotel after a busy roller coaster day. Kyler doesn't look like he has a headache does he?


The next day we took a break and spent the day at our condo swimming, playing board games and bingo in the Activity Center. That was a really fun, relaxing day! The thing that I love about the Fairfield Resorts are that they have a great Activity Center where you can check out different board games, play arcade games and they have a movie night on Monday's. They also have a playground for the kids, which Mckenna was going to go play on until she saw the "DON'T FEED THE ALLIGATORS," sign near the walkway from the pool to the playground. Needless to say, she never went on that playground even with me telling her that I would walk with her. If I was going to own a time-share it would be with the Fairfied Resorts for the many options that they have for keeping the kids happy when you need that one relaxing day in between the really fun, but hectic days.

Our next day at Disney World we went to MGM as soon as it opened so that the kids could go on the Rocking RollerCoaster before it started getting crowded. The wait was perfect and while we waited we ordered fastpasses for another time when we got off. I was in line ready to go because Matt told me that it wasn't that bad of a ride when we passed the sign with the back/neck warning and the huge message of the ride causing Naseousness. The kids had kept saying that I wouldn't like the ride and so I chickened out and didn't go. But while I was waiting I met a really nice lady and her little girl from Scotland waiting for her boys and her husband to come off the ride. They were really fun to talk to, they were on Holiday (which is so fun to hear with an accent and the saying "holiday" instead of Vacation,)


My view of the Tower of Terror while I was waiting for the rest of the family during their ride of the Rocking Rollercoaster. We never did go on the Tower of Terror because it was closed.

We went on alot of rides at MGM while it was raining we ran into one of the gift shops and Kyler found the perfect Mickey for his collections of small stuffed Mickey's. He found a Jedi Mickey near the Star Tours ride. He was very excited about that.

After spending half the day at MGM, it started pouring more than it had been all day and so we decided to try one of the other kingdoms that we had never been to. We stopped at guest services and talked to them about going to Disney Wide World of Sports, but they told us since it was raining that we should really go their because every event their that day was outside. So we decided to go to Animal Kingdom

Wow, why in the world did we wait until 4 p.m. to go to Animal Kingdom? Matt, Kyler and I loved this place the best. Kyler was in seventh heaven with all the animals, the plants and that great big tree with all the animals carved into it! Even though it rained it didn't bother us because it was just like being in the rain forest and unfortunetly for us, we only had 3 hours left of this kingdom since it closed at 7 p.m.


Isn't that the prettiest Red in the middle of all the various greens?

Matt and I decided that if we ever went to Walt Disney World again it would be Animal Kingdom and MGM, but ultimately Disney is best being visited every 5 years or so.




This is the only picture of Kyler that I could get that wasn't so obvious of his aversion of me taking pictures while we were at Disney World. This picture was taken waiting for the safari ride in Animal Kingdom

Kennedy Space Center

So, one day we spend at an earthly amusement park and the next 2 days we spend at the epitome of Matt's realm of the Universe; Kennedy Space Center. We started out in the afternoon on Saturday and found out that the center was closing in about 2 hours, but if we bought our tickets we could spend the next day free. The first day, Saturday, we watched an Imax film about space, Which I think was called INTO THE DREAM, and was a movie that I had bought Matt when we lived in Florida and some how in the years that we lived in Utah it disappeared from our collection of videos, (maybe it went to where ever our wedding video went- the missing sock scenario but without the dryer.) WE also had the kids check out the gift shops so that they could decided on their memory purchase of this part of the trip. Mckenna ended up picking out a snow globe for her friend Kyleigh who collects snow globes.

Yes, the next day was Sunday, but Matt really wanted to go back and so we spent the entire day at Kennedy. We scheduled a really cool first activity with a Lunch with an Astronaut.
We ate a buffet style catered lunch and then a guy came out and showed us a film on the NASA program, (Mckenna the whole time kept saying," where is the Astronaut, I thought we were suppose to have him sitting here eating lunch with us," after awhile she just said," this is a rip off," and then the Astronaut came in and she was okay,) Astronaut Jon McBride told us about his career at NASA gave the kids a great message about how Drugs, alcohol and the like will ruin your chances of getting in the Astonaut program and how it is better to be a leader and if someone asks you if you want the drug that they have say no, and then talk them out of using it themselves. It was a great start to our fun time at Kennedy Space Center. Mr. McBride also did a Q&A session and pictures. You could take a picture with your camera or buy one of theirs. Our picture came out better so we were lucky didn't have to pay out anything for that.

The next stop was to take a behind the scene tour near the Launch Pads. It was very neat to see the shuttle on Launch Pad B ready for it's first mission since the Challenger disaster, the launch was suppose to be while we were in Florida, but they had to scrub it til the middle of July (about a few days after we left,) and then they scrubbed it again for another week later. I ended up watching the launch at ReZults while walking on the Treadmill. It was an amazing sight. It remind me of our time where we watched a night launch when the boys were really little and caused me to reflect on so many memories from our time living in Florida.

While we were on the tour we visited an area where they held sections of the International Space station modules, that was really neat to see, because some of the modules the shuttle was taking with them to help restock, add to and make the space station more liveable. Matt absolutely loved this part of our vacation. The tour guide was a gal who was a volunteer but worked for a company that made some of the parts for the shuttle. She was so filled with information and you could tell that she loved her job and wanted to help others enjoy their Space experience. She and Matt talked when everyone else was just looking around, he got to ask great questions and she had very good answers that help him to quench his thirst for information.

We also got to see the building where they filmed the T.V. series, I DREAM OF JEANIE. That was fun because I always liked that show. The guide told us that they use the building for administration purposes, but not like they did during the glory days of the Apollo program. Now, it was just for non-consiquential staff where during the Apollo program, they had all the head staff and big wigs working their.

After the tour we stopped at the Rocket grave yard and walked over a bridge that lead to the area of the memorial to all those who have lost their lives for the Space Program, the kids weren't very interested in this until they noticed the Alligator's under the pier to the memorial. You would think that they hadn't seen an alligator in their whole life! When they had just seen one the day before, we spent a half an hour looking at those alligators, who were residing with a bunch of fish and a few turtles. Kyler couldn't understand why the alligators didn't eat the fish or turtles, I told him that they probably ate the fish but he turtles were protected by their shell. He had been really worried about the turtles, because we thought that they were cute and so he felt better with my non factual information. I mean really, I have no idea if they would eat the turtles or not, but it made sense to my mind.















Hey, does any one know the Answer to this question? What is the difference between Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral?

Write me and let me know, if no one answers I will let you know...

Our wonderful Florida break

Wow! What a great trip! We arrived on a very Humid day ( i guess that all days' are humid, but to me if felt great,) and stayed at a reasonable hotel. Which compared to the night before in Vegas felt like a 5 star instead of the 1 star that the Vegas hotel was. We were right near Universal which is great since that was where we were going in the morning to see all our Florida family! Island of Adventure was nice except for the rain which I guess kept us all from going on more rides. What I am wondering is this; what was the other part of Universal like? Did we pick the funnest park or what?

The kids were so excited to see their Grandparents, Mary, Sharon, Rich and the girls. Mckenna just feel in love with Kiara and Indigo. Poor little Kiara was sick and so we didn't get to see so much her really fun personality until about 3 weeks later when they visited us in Utah. But she is absolutely adorable and we could have kept her and Indigo for life.


Devin and Mckenna, I think that all of the next few pictures are all taken during the missing Sharon escapade. "oh, where oh, where did our Sharon go? Oh, where oh where can she be?"


Here is little Indigo. We were all singing songs while we were waiting for Sharon to show up ( see that story in the finlinson blog.) I Think that we sang popcorn popping on the apricot tree about 2 trillion times, people who have never heard that song were giving us some really interesting looks. Funny how in Utah you get a smile, in Florida you get a look of "wow, you people are really weird!"


Matt and dad doing what they did all vacation long! Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk! Are you sure dad that you don't like to talk? I love that you and Matt love to talk!


Sharon! look how cute she is! I love having Sharon around. It is sad that we live so far apart.


awwwwwwwwwwww! The T-Rex has me!!!!!


Hey, that T-Rex is trying to get me too...............

Which one of the kids will get eaten first? Who will save them?



oh, mckenna look at the sign above you! Doesn't it say "Do not climb!" But look at how cute she is. What person could stop a little kid from climbing in the middle of an amusement park?

Universal was a great start to our 2 week Vacation.

The water is warm in our hotel pool, So jump on in and enjoy the rest of the trip!

more inside pictures of the house. L to R: view of the dining room from the living room, dining room again, view of dining room from side porch, lamp in dining room, side porch (this is accessed from the french doors in dining room, entry to bathroom hall (right off kitchen,) left side of bathroom, right side of bathroom. Window in our bedroom, backyard windows (nice candle scounces from BLVD,) wall leading out of bedroom, my bathroom vanity, jetted tub, matt's bathroom sink, view of side yard from bathroom window, and another view of side yard.

pictures of the inside of the house. L to R: 2 views of the living room, staircase entryway, entryway plantshelf and window, "picture window" to give you a height prospective, back french doors out to backyard, kitchen view of family room, family room from front of house, another view from kitchen of family room, laundry room, kitchen (left side), kitchen (right side), under the stairs storage, view from the kitchen window (to the right,) view from the kitchen window ( looking ahead,) view from a kitchen window (looking left.)

these are pictures of the outside of our house and the view from the front door

Sing along with me....

***F* L* O* R* I* D* A*,
That's where we are going to, the beaches, the themeparks, the view of the bay... the loved ones, the mouses, the hotels and more. I can't wait to see you all, every day we'll have a ball.

FLORIDA, Here I come... Florida, Here I come.....!

Love you all! Here we go.....


**Sang to the theme of:
"California Here I Come."

Interesting Process pt. 2..

Kyler before with that beautiful blond hair!


so the color goes on yellow and turnes into...



This color!



and then you get this! Look at that awesome smile!


And then, ON TO THE STAGE and ON WITH THE SHOW!

Interesting process...

I thought it might be interesting for you to see the process that Kyler and Mckenna went through to get into the King and I, 2 years ago. I just downloaded these pictures from my friend's computer after all this time! Here is a before shot of mckenna, look how blond her hair is....



eating the yummiest stuff-- Popcorn!!!


kenna with the dye in...look at that adorable face!


ahh, now for the trim. Look how dark that hair is...


Mckenna, Kyler and two of their fellow sister and brother

Devin's Pioneer Trek

These pictures were taken right before I dropped Devin off for his Youth Conference Pioneer Trek. The night they left, it rained, with thunder and lightening and so they ended up staying in cabins, and then came home the next morning. Devin and some of his family built a lean-to, because they knew how, but the rest of the family didn't so they had to sleep in the cabin. Some of the other families stayed the next day, and Devin wanted to also, but his family chose to go home and so he had to leave and not do the trek. He was really bummed about that. But they did have a dance, a dinner and a testimony meeting before the rain started and that was fun, or so Devin said. Doesn't he look good in that hat?

Sunday, Sunday...

We went to Zion National Park today to hike and enjoy a picnic lunch. The Park was so busy what with it being Memorial Day weekend.

pretty view of the mountain

It was fun though because we rode the shuttle all the way to the end of the trail (90 min ride,) and ended up walking (not hiking, too many people,) up Riverwalk. Wow, what a fun trail! The boys and Matt walked ahead of Mckenna and I because we found a really friendly squirel and Mckenna wanted to take a picture of it! We also saw a caterpillar and weeping rocks. We felt the moss on the canyon walls from the weeping rocks I told Mckenna about how we would sing when I was little and exploring while she and I were walking up the trail and so she wanted to sing "Give said the Little Stream," it was a fun thing to pass down to her. Maybe she will sing with her kids when they are hiking like we all have. We also skipped along while we were singing.


look how high the Virgin River is and how swift!

The Virgin river is so high and swift that the Narrows are closed indefinitely which is sad, because I wanted to see and try atleast the first part of the hike. We are planning on another hike through the Narrows when they allow hikers in.
On the way back down, I wanted to take some pictures of the boys since I had taken so many of Mckenna on the way up, but they didn't want to. I ended up talking Kyler into walking back down with just me and we had the funnest time. We took great pictures, saw a deer (which the others were so busy just walking down that they missed all the good stuff,) eating in the trees near the pool. Kyler was fascinated with this squirel that we ran into. It was right next to his shoe and then a man gave him a cracker that the squirel was trying to pick up and it ate the cracker with the man holding it for the squirel. Yes, it is against the park rules to feed the animals, but I guess the guy figuared that since the squirel was trying to pick it up himself from some one else dropping it that it was okay. He asked if Kyler wanted to hold the cracker but he said, "No". Kyler could have sat watching that squirel forever. He loves wildlife so much.


Mr. Squirel with his cracker

Kyler sitting in a tree



While we were wandering and eating lunch at the top of the trail, I realized that for the 20 thousandth time that I always want to bring a sketch pad and pastels to the mountains and never do, so I told the kids that we were going to drive back up Zion's sometime this week or next week and spend time drawing, coloring and painting (if I can find my oils or watercolors,) and just melding with nature. Kyler told me that he didn't want to do that because the only ones that would be able to do a great job is Devin and me. I told him that it wasn't about doing a great job it was trying something new and being in a nice quiet spot to try your hand at it. I also think that it would be fun to do alot of stuff like this during the summer because all the kids are getting older and I want them to be able to remember their summers with a smile and a loving feeling in their heart. Devin won't be with me for as long as I have had him so far, and so I especially want to do things that he can look back on with a great feeling. He may not think that he wants to do this now, but he will when he get there and starts drawing. I mean, you can hang out with your buddies, but you also need to do things with your family too. I guess, that is something that i should have known when I was younger and with my own family. But I do have fond memories of the Sunday drives to the mountains, actually to all the fun places that Dad use to drive us too and have a picnic, ride the Heber Creeper and just walk and talk, sing and hold hands with mom.

Enjoy the pictures!



Me with my cheezy grin


Kyler, Devin, Matt and Mckenna sitting at the end of River walk near the entrance to the Narrows.

Fathers and Sons

Last night the boys and Matt went to the 2nd Ward Fathers and Sons activity. They got to eat, play horse shoes and other games. But the big highlight for their day was at Midnight when they ditched Fathers and Sons and went to the midnight showing of Star Wars III! It was such a late night that about two hours ago a very tired Kyler crashed! They thought the movie was awesome! And of course from a previous post so do I!

The Flowers are in bloom!

oh, the pretty roses! These are the new flowers that we planted today!


Beautiful Gardenias. I bought this bush, put it in a pot and put it on our front porch because it reminds me so much of Georgia. The smell that this flower produces is just divine! We had one on our back stoop in Georgia and that is where I always read or wrote in our journal. This is where I plan to do the same but in another southern area.


another beautiful flower. one that is sunny and makes me happy when I look at it. This sits in a grecian urn with an asparagus fern and a fun big hot pink flower, on our front porch. We actually have 2 of these pots flanked on each side of the front door.



The only flower that is original to the house (well, unless you count the primrose that is sitting under it.) These roses, smell great!

Oh what do you do on a Saturday?

Ah, the relaxing Saturdays! Not!!!
Our house, it is beautiful, and yet... it still has some tender loving care needed. Since the day we bought our house we knew that we would have to refinish the front porch and the back deck. We have finally decided that today was the day! Since we already had the paint a colonial red, all we had to do was sand. Matt had talked to Keith prior to today and found out what he needed and we bought the stuff last week. So we have spend all day, moving porch furniture, cleaning the porch, sanding and painting. We also decided that since we were doing the porches, we should fill in the missing bushes with Roses- red of course. I thought that some other color would be good since we were doing red for the porch color, but Matt wanted red and he doesn't really ask for too much when it comes to colors in the house or how I decorate, so it was easy to say yes ( I don't think that me loving red, hurt either!)


Matt applying a second coat to the front porch. It is sure is a change from the worn boards that it was before!



All the furniture from our front porch.



We have also been waiting for a new kitchen faucet for the last week and it should be here Monday, but we have been without a faucet for so long. The faucet was broken and leaked so bad that it was wasteing 5 gallons of water a day. As things always go for me, I tried to find the perfect faucet. I wanted a brass or white faucet but they don't really have a demand for those colors anymore. A decorative white faucet is rare and usually you will only find pull out spray handle ones and they are not so attractive! I ended up finding a white pull out spray faucet but it has a little bit of a decorative flare to it. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to get anything that looked like my old faucet in the Rainbow House, because it was all chrome or oil rubbed bronze (which, i loved by the way,) but that wouldn't work, because everything in our house is either brass and white or just white- bummer! There is also the point of money that you have to worry about , Matt and I weren't going to spend more than $200.00 for a faucet!
Since we haven't had a kitchen faucet for the last week, we have been washing dishes like pioneers; the sink drain and a rinse bucket. The inconvience of it all is that you have to constantly be changing the water from the rinse to wash and getting new water since it gets cold and dirty faster. Needless, to say, I can't wait until Monday night when we will have a new faucet, can use the dishwasher and wash by hand but constantly renew the warm water without dragging buckets back and forth. I guess, that technology has really spoiled us!

faucets; left to right: old, new and Rainbow House ( a repeat of the old- I guess it is haunting me!)

Star Wars!

So, the end of an epic has finally come, or has it? I am not sure....

Wow, did I love episode III! I think that movie caused me to feel every single emotion that a person can have. But most of all it caused me to cry! I know that Anakin turns into Darth Vader, but did he really have to? Could George Lucas have created an alernate ending? Could it all have been very eternal instead of mortal?

I won't talk about what happens in the movie in case anyone has not seen it, but even though the loose ends from the last episode were all tied up, there were still some that were kept blowing in the breeze. Did anyone else notice that? My friend says that George Lucas has said that he is going to create a T.V. series (but not a cartoon,) could these loose ends be the spin off to the new series? What does everybody think about that?

Mckenna's solo day! What place do you think that she placed? If you don't know.....see the last picture,bottom right! Way to go Mckenna!

Here is Mckenna on her next day of her Parowan Competition.

Kyler performing with his choir group " Cougars on stage" They performed at Tuacahn two days before with the other local elementary choir groups. They also performed for the High School and then the High School performed for them! This was quite a committment for Kyler, they met every Tuesday and Thursday and hour before school and then for 2 weeks they practiced every day before their Tuacahn Performance. Hey, he wouldn't be part Field if he didn't like to SING! Great job, Kyler!!!