Wednesday: We headed to the homeless shelter with our good friends the Walkers. It was such a neat experience, especially being with such an amazing family like them. I am so glad the younger siblings were able to come help. I feel so blessed to have shelter, food, clothes, and the gospel in my life! I wish I could have taken some of the homeless, home with me.
Thursday: Christmas Eve! That night I took my siblings sledding with our good family friend Simeon. I took lots of fun pictures, but my camera was stolen out of my luggage on the way to Cali. :( I was so sad to lose all my pictures. After sledding we had our traditional pot sticker dinner. Yummm! We had fun pictures of that too, but Breton decided to help my mom out by clearing her memory card for her. The pictures are nowhere to be found on her computer. More lost pictures. Here are some pictures we retook, acting like it was Christmas Eve!
If you're wondering who the Asian is, that's Yujin, my roommate as of almost 2 years. :) She's part of the fam.
My Mom was a cheerleader so she made us do this. Jk, not really. This picture is so nerdy. Haha.
All our gross white winter feet :)
Friday: Christmas Day! We had so much fun being together as a family. They older I get, the more fun I have watching the kids be excited. This year, I got what I asked for! A sign language dictionary, a cookbook which is still on the way, and a few other necessities. We loved having Yujin there for Christmas Day as always. For Christmas I bought matching footie pajamas for all the girls, and spongebob pajamas for the boys. We looked AWESOME. Christmas morning, we had a dance off with Breton's new speakers blaring. Oh! We got to talk to Ammon! He is doing wonderful. We sure love and miss him. Christmas night we played games.
Hyrum playing with all his new Legos!
Spoons!
Saturday: I babysat some adorable kids. It was fun. I made some yummie brownies that night for Derek Walker's Homecoming party that was the next day.
Sunday: The Hallsted family woke up bright and early to get ready and go to Derek Walker's Homecoming. He gave an incredible talk. We hung out at their house for a while afterwards. Derek and I looked through some scrapbooks and found an old picture of us on the same soccer team. It was fun. Our family adores their family. They have always been such great examples to us. We then headed to the airport to check onto a flight to Cali in hopes we'd get on Monday. For those who don't know, we fly standby with my mom's flight benefits, which is always an adventure. We visited our friends the Humbergs and saw their new adorable baby boy. Merrill, who is incredible at the piano, played while I sang. It was so fun! We were exhausted, and headed home.
Monday: Time for some Cali sun!!! Brynn, my Mom, and I are the only ones that got on the morning flight. It was fun having some girl time in Cali. The rest of the family made it on later that evening. Brynn and I went and bothered the Walkers again on their family vacation and played at their hotel with them. They stayed in the St. Regis hotel in Dana Point. It was such a beautiful place. We swam and ate at In N Out Burger. Rob is always so stubborn and doesn't allow us to pay. He is one of the nicest and most giving people I know.
They had a cool sand sculpture in the entrance of the hotel!
Funny story about Derek's sweatshirt. Mae is a band, but Mae in Portuguese means mother. So when my Dad saw his sweatshirt, he was slightly confused. We got a kick out of that.
Tuesday: My family, and the Walker family went to the New Port Temple together. I love love love the temple. It was such a neat experience. The spirit was overwhelming. A neat man talked to us before hand and made us feel so welcome. What a blessing and a privilege it is to have so many temples so close that we can do something so neat on vacation. Derek baptized us all which was really neat. The Dads confirmed. The spirit was incredible. After the temple we did lunch, a fun game of kickball, and swam. We finally decided to leave the Walkers alone. We headed to Anders Conk's family's home. It was a beautiful home and we had such a delicious dinner! They were so kind to have us over. We played 2 truths and 1 lie. It was really fun. We then showed up at our awesome cousins house...the NAYLORS! We sure love them. They are so nice to let us stay here, and always so fun to be around.
Spoons!
Saturday: I babysat some adorable kids. It was fun. I made some yummie brownies that night for Derek Walker's Homecoming party that was the next day.
Sunday: The Hallsted family woke up bright and early to get ready and go to Derek Walker's Homecoming. He gave an incredible talk. We hung out at their house for a while afterwards. Derek and I looked through some scrapbooks and found an old picture of us on the same soccer team. It was fun. Our family adores their family. They have always been such great examples to us. We then headed to the airport to check onto a flight to Cali in hopes we'd get on Monday. For those who don't know, we fly standby with my mom's flight benefits, which is always an adventure. We visited our friends the Humbergs and saw their new adorable baby boy. Merrill, who is incredible at the piano, played while I sang. It was so fun! We were exhausted, and headed home.
Monday: Time for some Cali sun!!! Brynn, my Mom, and I are the only ones that got on the morning flight. It was fun having some girl time in Cali. The rest of the family made it on later that evening. Brynn and I went and bothered the Walkers again on their family vacation and played at their hotel with them. They stayed in the St. Regis hotel in Dana Point. It was such a beautiful place. We swam and ate at In N Out Burger. Rob is always so stubborn and doesn't allow us to pay. He is one of the nicest and most giving people I know.
They had a cool sand sculpture in the entrance of the hotel!
Funny story about Derek's sweatshirt. Mae is a band, but Mae in Portuguese means mother. So when my Dad saw his sweatshirt, he was slightly confused. We got a kick out of that.
Tuesday: My family, and the Walker family went to the New Port Temple together. I love love love the temple. It was such a neat experience. The spirit was overwhelming. A neat man talked to us before hand and made us feel so welcome. What a blessing and a privilege it is to have so many temples so close that we can do something so neat on vacation. Derek baptized us all which was really neat. The Dads confirmed. The spirit was incredible. After the temple we did lunch, a fun game of kickball, and swam. We finally decided to leave the Walkers alone. We headed to Anders Conk's family's home. It was a beautiful home and we had such a delicious dinner! They were so kind to have us over. We played 2 truths and 1 lie. It was really fun. We then showed up at our awesome cousins house...the NAYLORS! We sure love them. They are so nice to let us stay here, and always so fun to be around.
Everyone that did baptisms!
Dinner at the Conks! Dinner was delicious.
The Walker and Hallsted kids in front of the hotel
Breton: he looks like Syndrome from the Incredibles!
Chicken Fight...I won. Jk, I don't remember
Kickball!
The Walker and Hallsted kids in front of the hotel
Breton: he looks like Syndrome from the Incredibles!
Chicken Fight...I won. Jk, I don't remember
Kickball!
Wednesday: I'm finally caught up to today! We are just waiting for Brynn Naylor to get home so we can go to SeaWorld! As I just typed that....Brynn walked in the door!
We're off to SeaWorld!! Woo! My favorite place! Besides Disneyland of course.
We're off to SeaWorld!! Woo! My favorite place! Besides Disneyland of course.
