Middle of October

Nate's work participated in a charity soccer tournament for refugee children in Salt Lake. We got to go and help and the kids got to play. It was a great afternoon! At the end, they gave out awards for sportsmanship. Josh got the award for his team for helping Megan after she got hurt by another player when their teams were playing against each other (Josh didn't tell us this--Megan did). He was the only non-refugee player that got an award. I was so proud of him, especially because Megan was the one he helped. Later that day we went to a Halloween party at the Nelson's. Janet always does a fun party for the kids and they look forward to it every year!

End of our California Trip

Our last night in LA, we took the kids to get ramen (real ramen--not the cheap stuff from the grocery store). It was really good and I was proud of the kids for trying it, even Megan liked it. On Sunday we drove to Darren and Sarah's to go to church with them and spend the day. It was nice to see them and they were so great to host us again, for the second time in just a couple weeks. That night when we got back to our hotel, the kids made friends with the girl at the front desk. When I went back down to the front desk to get some extra towels, she said to me, "You've found Jesus haven't you? I can tell." I was not expecting that, but we talked about the light of Christ and I asked her what church she belonged to and if she knew anything about the Mormons. Anyway, long story short, the kids and I all wrote her a note and I took the notes down to her with a Book of Mormon. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I was grateful for the opportunity. That's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me. I was so glad to be able to share the experience with the kids. 

Utah Football Game

Nate, Josh, Kent, Darren, Charlie and Sam all went to the Utah vs. UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. They had a great time! Josh was so cute with Charlie and Sam and Nate always loves being with his dad and brothers and watching a game. The girls went shopping and swimming while they were gone. I don't have any pictures of our day, but we had a fun time as well. 

El Capitan Theater

After Universal Studios, we took the kids to see Hocus Pocus at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. It's a famous old theater where they still do movie premiers (there was one the night before we were there). Every year around Halloween they do a special showing of Hocus Pocus. They had a guy there playing the organ when we came in (like they used to do in old movie houses) and then they also brought in the composer from Hocus Pocus and a small orchestra that played the music from Hocus Pocus. It was very cool and a really fun night!

Universal Studios

Nate told the kids months ago that he would take them to Universal Studios if they read the Harry Potter series. Well, Lia took him up on that challenge and read the whole series in just a couple months. And we decided that her efforts counted for the whole family. I'm glad she did it because we had a great time there! The Harry Potter land was our favorite part. All the rides were pretty cool with the exception of the Mummy ride which made Josh and Megan cry. We told them it wasn't a roller coaster (it was inside a building and we really didn't think it was) and that it wasn't going to be that scary. We were wrong on both things. Josh and Megan don't like roller coasters or scary things. They said through their sobs as we were getting off the ride, "you LIED to us!" I felt really bad because it was, in fact, really scary, but it was also kind of funny and we had to keep ourselves from laughing at their responses. What kind of parents do that?

Fall Break

Over fall break we took another trip down to California. Nate and Josh had tickets the Utah/UCLA game and since it was over fall break, the girls and I decided to join them. Our first stop was the beach in Santa Monica. Watching the kids play in the water together was one of my favorite parts of the trip!