Snow Day!!!

Ok it's not really a snow day, but I tried to convince my boss that it should be... Unfortunately it had stopped snowing by the time I started texting him, so he wasn't buying it. :)

<--Isn't that fun? It snowed all last night, starting at about 7 pm and kept on going. I've been surprised by how much snow we've gotten so far this year.

And last time I talked about how nice it was in Cali and how depressing it is to come back to cold, but the truth is I love it! (More when I don't have the Cali weather to compare it to...) :) If it's going to be so cold anyway, it's much better with snow.

Our house looks super cute in the snow too!

So, yesterday was Tyler's birthday, he turned 24. :) I sent an email to his boss just in case Tyler hadn't told anyone at work that it was his birthday, and his boss went down and sang happy birthday to him in front of the whole shop! I couldn't have planned that one any better myself! :) To celebrate his birthday we went to a movie, and when we got home I had surprised him with a nice romantic dinner (thanks to Olive Garden for the food!). He was a bit suspicious in the morning when I got up and started fixing up the house, doing dishes and stuff... (Yeah, that's right... me doing the dishes was cause for suspicion) My mom and sister helped me out while we were at the movie, they set it all up. The only thing that gave it away were the tire tracks in the snow from when they left because it had started snowing already! Tyler said "Who pulled in to our driveway?" I said "I don't know... that's weird" and he said "I KNEW you were up to something!!!" It was fun. So, Happy Birthday Tyler! and thanks to my mom and sister for helping me pull that one off.

And Hooray for the snow! Let's have more! :)

This last weekend we got a great opportunity to go to California on an errand for the owners of my company that also own a small car dealership. They purchased a couple of cars at the auction in Fontana, CA and needed someone to fly out and drive them back. I jumped at the chance because Fontana is not only right in my mission, but the area that both Tyler and I were assigned when we met. :) It is also very close to the area I was in before that, Rialto.
So we flew out on Friday afternoon and there was a shuttle van waiting to take us over to the auction where we could pick up the cars. Our flight had a stop/switch in Phoenix where our 2nd flight in to Ontario was delayed so we ended up getting to the auction front doors at exactly 4:01, and the auction closes at 4:00 pm on Fridays, so the doors were locked! We didn't know what to do, and staying until Monday wasn't an option, so we ended up going up to some strangers with tags on that looked like they might work there as they were walking out to their cars to go home for the day. We explained the situation and that the shuttle had just barely dropped us off... and luckily they were kind enough to get past the mean security guard keeping watch at the only unlocked door on the whole building... and petition our cause. :) We got in and got our "gate passes" to get in to the lot that had the cars, and then all that was left was.... finding the cars! All they could tell us about the location of the cars was that they were somewhere in that lot over there. So we searched isle by isle until we located both of them, and luckily it didn't take nearly as long as it could have. :)

The rest of the trip was relatively stress-free. We checked in to the hotel, the DoubleTree in Ontario, and got to go to dinner with a couple that Tyler had gotten to be great friends with on his mission. Then, the next morning we had breakfast with another family that he knew, and from there we drove over to Rialto where a couple of families were waiting for us to join them for lunch. If you ever wondered why missionaries in our mission have historically gained a lot of weight... you are probably not wondering that now. But, it was great, they made Chicken with chile colorado and chile verde and they also made mole and fresh homemade tortillas! Here are a few pictures that we took with them:

Later that afternoon we headed to one last home to visit with a family that I got the awesome opportunity to teach. Their kids have grown up so much! Little Danny used to run around pretending like he was a dinosaur and growling like a T-Rex, "Fwah!" He didn't really remember me anymore, but that's ok. :)

Here is a picture with them:

It was such a fun trip. Every time we think about going back, we always think to ourselves that it's been too long, and no one will even remember us... But then we get there and it's like we haven't even been gone a day. I'm glad we got to go, hopefully we can go back soon.

It was especially sad to come back to this cold cold weather!

We basically went from

to

We decided we should visit California more often in the winter time, it's much more pleasant weather!

Ok, so this is my first posting and I've never done anything like this before. But, I have been feeling guilty now for about 2 years that I don't let people know what's going on with my life, and especially in the last year I have thought I should start sending out newsletters or something. But, I also hate imposing on other people, so this way I figure if someone wants to know what is going on, they can check it out here! I will try try try to be good about updating this... feel free to chastize me if it's been a while and there are no new posts. :)

I think that the straw that broke the camel's back here is my good friend Jenny who recently moved to Wisconsin with her husband so he could attend medical school, and she sends out these lovely newsletters weekly!! (see her picture with her dance class over there!) So, as I have been reading them, I consistently have 2 thoughts go through my mind: 1) This is SO fun, I love reading these! and 2) I am such a slacker.

So, in an effort to slack less, here is my official family blog. I will try and get Tyler to participate as well, but no promises there. :) Love you all, hope you get something out of this, but I have a very distinct feeling that I will gain more than all the rest. :)