Day 4

Towards the end of our trip. Tonight we went to visit a few people after we went to the beach.

This is such a pretty place that Tate took me. It's up a really big hill with lots of houses that are big and pretty. UP here close by is where the church house is that he attended in Ventura. Just beautiful!

This is Grandma Smith. She was so nice and her son gave us some apple pie and bread. It was delicious. One great thing about Grandma Smith is that she made Tate a nice big afghan and also made all his sisters who were pregnant at the time little baby blankets for them when they went to get him from his mission.

Okay so the next family that we finally got to meet after Tate finally found where he was going:) ha ha..I was pretty proud of him actually he only got lost one time and that was after not being in any area for 5 years. He did great. Okay anyway I got to meet Sherri and Don! yeah look at this they had an avacado tree and a orange tree and a tangerine tree. I was in absolute heaven pretty much becuase of this avacado tree! I wish I could have one of those in my back yard!

Here is the Great family! They made us such a wonderful dinner of tri-tip steak and awesome guacomole dip! Yum Yum! I guess Tri-tip stake is really known around those parts and let me tell you it was delicious!

Sherrie was so nice when we got there she had bought Kasen a little puppy and a t-shirt for his happy half birthday and even wrapped up the t-shirt so he could open it. She was so nice! Kasen seriously loves that puppy now. We named it copper and he slept with it as you will see later the rest of the trip and on other rides since we have been home.

Donna and Pete! Another fun family that was so great to Tate!

Kasen with the puppy copper. He really did like him but I just took the picture at the wrong moment. And Pete. He was nice and taught Kasen how to say, Yum yum Yum while shaking his head while eating a delicious cupcake!

Kasen with his new puppy copper. This was after we had visited all the families and he was such a good boy he seriously just was out. Of course it was like 11 at night and ever since then his routine has been so screwed up but hey...we had fun visiting!

Backwords and The Beach

Sorry these posts are going to be all backwords because I am not sure how to rearrange them on my post thingy. I thought that I did, but I guess I forgot.

But here we go on Day 4. Today we went to the beach for a few hours. It was really fun but kind of windy. We didn't really get into the water because it was freezing but we did put our feet in a little bit. I flew a kite and Kasen ran around and chased birds. IT was a great day! This was Kasen's absolutely favorite thing at the Beach. Was the sidewalk with water that came out of nowhere! He didn't want to leave. We went there on our way to the beach then we had to force him to come to the sandy part and to the ocean.

Just relaxing in the somewhat warm weather. Kasen enjoying a cracker. He would get sand on his hands and totally freak out. We spent most of the time trying to get all the sand off his hands because he would trip and brace himself with his hands, which then got all sandy, which then led to trying to get it off. And it isn't that easy...it was the sticky type of sand that you could never get off! And it was twice as hard getting it out of his diaper! Poor BUM!

Cute picture of Kasen and Tate. I love pictures with Kasen and his Daddy. I think that they are so special.

Another pic of the fun water! He would be surprised everytime it would come back up.

Close to the beach. He didn't like getting very close because he was a little afraid of the water. Plus it was really cold on the toes. He would start to creep closer then hurry and run away from the on coming waves. It was fun to watch him!

Trying to make our way back to the car, he absolutely needed to stop once again at the water that he loves!

The Beach!

Stacy trying to help Kasen get the sand off his hands. It was an ongoing process!

Day 3, Stacy and Pizza

I finally got to meet Stacy. This lady is so wonderful and fun it was so great to meet her. Tate was able to help in her baptism and become pretty close with her. She was just able to be married and baptized a little while ago and we were very sad we couldn't make it to those wonderful events, but are glad we got to see lots of pictures! She is just so much fun!

We went to this local little pizza place and it was Awesome! I wish I could have some more! I kept on telling Tate that I wanted to find just little local shops where it was so much fun to eat there and good food and this was one of the places to remember! Also, the nachos from a little mexican place somehwere in Santa Barbara i think! The whole family! Stacy's little girl Kylie was so much fun and Kasen had alot of fun with her. He called her Ky Ky....Cute!

Playing in the trees during dinner! Just a fun little boy!

Day 3 the ZOO

1st time at the zoo. It was such a cute little zoo. Not so big that we couldn't see everything but big enough to have all the animals that Kasen knows and loves. Here we go!!!
Looking at the fishes! We saw some penguins swimming while we were down here too. Very Exciting!

Then some Elephants. He made every sound when he saw what we were looking at! So fun!

The birds. He loves Birds!

More Elephants!

Relaxing on the grass for a lunch break!

Kasen didnt really like riding in this all the time, but once and a while he thought that it was fun. Mostly a waste of 6 freakin' bucks...but I guess it did hold all our stuff so maybe not such a big waste!

He loved seeing the Lions!

These giraffes were really funny. One was walking around trying to lick people and their tongue was so long! Holy cow! And chasing a cool looking bird! Fun to watch!

The train ride was fun! Kasen kept wanting to step off and go up to the things we were seeing.

Getting REady for the train ride. He says choo choo really funny!

So while we were waiting for Tate to get a snack Kasen saw these birds and kept chasing them. He seriously gets so excited and his face lights up and says "it's a bird, mom" I couldn't believe my ears when he said that! It was so funny! I kept on trying to get him to go over to the cool elephants but he wouldn't even hear of it. Just the birds he could chase!

Kasen and DAD! Yeah at the Zoo

IN this little area not sure what the official name is but you walk in and close the gates and there are birds walking and flying around, plus these cool gold fishes that Kasen loved. We stayed in there for quite a while.

The ultimate bird chasing place. The best place in the world!

More Fish!
So while we were walking around I just happened to look down and to my shock I had been pooped on. I kinda wiped it off so you can't really see it, but it was pretty gross. I made tate look all over my body to make sure that my arm was the only place that had gotten the attack! He told me I was wierd when I made him take a picture of it:) ha ha

The beautiful Ocean view from the Freeway. From Ventura to Santa Barbara! On our way to see Stacy and her family!

Day 1 and 2

Instead of trying to write everthing down I am just going to narrate the pictures!

Tate being really excited as we drove into Simi Valley. It was so green and beautiful and such a clean and organized big town! I really liked it there!

The Wonderful and Awesome Portillo family. This family was so fun to meet because they mean so much to Tate. On his first day, his very first door, very first discussion they came to this house. After the discussion, Leonard (brother Portillo) said that he would like to be baptized. So of course Tate thought that this whole missionary work stuff couldn't be all that bad! He really took care of Tate and fed him and was just so great. I loved meeting them and their daughters and hearing all the fun things that they would do for Tate! And hearing their wonderful story of the Gospel!

Kasen playing in his house that he wanted to take home with him. He loved it so much. He would wake up in the morning saying "house, house". So after breakfast he got to go play outside for a while in his house, opening and shutting the windows and door!

The Pinkston Family. They live a few houses down the street from the Portillos and they are so fun. Their son actually goes to school at George Wythe in Cedar so that was fun to talk about. They were so kind to feed us dinner. Thanks to Ashley their daughter who took care of Kasen and Made us brownies. It was so fun listening to Tate talk with them about the times he was here and the other people they knew and how they were doing. Another GREAT family that took care of him on his mission!

He didnt' want to stay in the swing. Probably because this was going to happen:)

Kasen getting a little bit of whiplash. He isn't a big fan of swings!

Kasen playing in the park. We had pulled up to it while he was napping and going to take a little snooze ourselves, but he woke up the second we parked and saw the dogs and it was over. We got out and saw the puppies and then played for a while in the nice California Sunshine!

Saying goodbye to the Portillo family. They were so great and I am so glad that I was able to meet them and hear all the fun stories that they had about Tate!

Traveling to Ventura on Day 3 of our vacation. I think that this is so funny because Kasen is in teh background plugging his ears to whatever I was telling him. I am sure that I was telling him to smile and be happy! He didn't want to hear any of it!! ha ha

I know I have been such a slacker but i have so much to blog about I am not sure where to start..I am posting this to just say that there are some great pics coming soon about what we have been up to. Spring Break was fun and we are trying to recover:) More fun To come!

A few things that have been going on lately in our little world. Basketball is officially over. The girls did great and it was such an honor to be able to be associated with them and who they all are. It was such a great learning experience.
Since basketball is over we were able to go to Talmage and visit Tate's family for the weekend. We were really excited to go up and see the horses and cows and play with Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen. Unfortunately Kasen was pretty sick most of the time we were there and only wanted to be with me. We were hoping we could go out and play with the horses and outside, but it was so cold there we didn't get to do much of that. Even though it was cold and Kasen was sick it was so good to see the family and be there after a long time of not being able to see the Sorensens! I also was able to visit Orderville a few days after we got home from Talmage. It was much warmer which was so nice.....we got to play with Colt and him and Kasen were very good friends! WE went over to Colmans house (our next door neighbor/cousin) who has little horses and 7 new puppies that were so dang cute. Kasen loved seeing the puppies..he would bend over and put his hands on his knees and saying, "oh cute". It was a fun time.
Now we are on our way to California BABY! We stopped in Las Vegas to break up our trip a little bit and spend some time with my awesome cousins Kallee and Ashley and wonderful Aunt LIZ andUncle Brett! We are having a fun time watching the Mountain West conference games and chatting away. We are having our own version of our annual nieces weekend! So I am excited to visit California and see where Tate served his mission. Okay, I will post some fun pictures later when I have my camera!!! Spring Break here we come!

Growing Up

Kasen has decided that he doesn't like to sit in his high chair anymore. Everytime that we are ready for a meal and I start to put him in there he screams and points to the table and says, "Pot". So I always go get a pot for him to sit on because we don't have a booster or anything and he eats there. For all you in the know moms are there little booster things that you can get or what kind of seat do you have for kids that don't want to sit in their high chair anymore? Please advise. Anyway, he is just so dang cute and growing up so fast. Today we were at the PE building and talking with some girls on my intramural team and one of them had a cracker on her book and while she wasn't looking he snatched it right off there and had it in his mouth before I knew it. So I told him to say thank you. And we have been working on signing it becuase he wasn't saying it and all the sudden he just signed it and said thank you to the girl for her cracker. It was so fun to see him learn that!!