California Dream'n

Last weekend was our big three day trip to California. Even though it was such a short trip, we had a great time. We left Friday morning and met up with my sister and her husband. We ate a quick dinner at the Macaroni Grill and then headed off to Wicked. It was such an amazing show. I felt really bad that Colin couldn't be there to see it with us, but we have already planned to see it in Phoenix or Salt Lake next year when it is on tour.


Here we are waiting to get in. We walked along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and didn't see a lot of stars we recognized. The Pantages theater was a great place to see Wicked. We had great seats, but really anywhere in the theater would have been fine.
Shell & Kell


Saturday we started off at Santa Monica beach. It was a little cold, but we weren't complaining!! We walked around for awhile and thought we walked into a time warp.
We passed a couple of guys carrying a boom box with the music blasting, old men playing chess and guys working out with tank tops and short shorts. I didn't know people still did that!
And of course the trip wouldn't be a success without running the trucks. Colin and Scott had a great time driving these while the girls sat in the car and talked.
After we parted from Shelly and Scott we headed down to Newport Beach. One thing that I have always wanted to do is ride bikes on the beach. It took A LOT of convincing, but finally my good husband agreed to ride with me and he ended up having fun.

While we were riding bikes Hayden got to spend some quality time with Granny Jo. My mom grew up on Newport Beach so she showed us three of the houses she was raised in. Two of them are right on the beach (lucky). She has really fond memories of California and she absolutely loves the beach so I think she was in heaven being there with Hayden.

Sunday before we left we made a stop at the Newport Beach temple. It is a really interesting temple. We almost didn't even recognize it. It is not white and it has a really interesting steeple.
I guess the city of Newport Beach had stipulations about how the temple would have to look if they wanted to build it there. They wanted the color to be earthly and fit in with the surrounding area. Also they didn't want the steeple to be too high. I was really surprised that the church went along with that, but the temple turned out really pretty and the grounds are gorgeous.!!

I think the Unabomber had an accomplice.

Saturday at the Peach Farm

Saturday we went to a farm called Schnepf Farms. We originally just went because they have peach trees where you can pick your own peaches. It turned out that they were having a festival with rides, a petting zoo, a peach pancake breakfast, a little train ride and a hay ride. Instead of getting the peach pancakes we ate at the little restaurant they have there. The food was really good, but it took us about an hour and a half to get our food. The atmosphere was really quaint and cute so it wasn't too bad of a wait.
We also took the little train ride around a the farm which was a lot of fun. By the time we were done with all of that it was about 100 degrees outside so we bypassed the hay ride and picking our own peaches. Instead we just bought a few that they picked. We made our own peach pancakes this morning and they turned out really good.
If any of you live out here we suggest you check out Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek. They have their festival every weekend in May, its a lot of fun!

New Men on the Block

So I don't know how many of you already know, but New Kids on the Block are making a comeback! When they were popular I was about 7 and I thought I was in-love with Jonathon Knight (hmmmm, he was cute!!!) But the real reason I liked them so much was because my older sister loved them (she was a Joey fan) . Her and her friends saved up their money for a really long time to see them in concert; by the time they had enough money to go they weren't popular anymore. What a waste! Well they better start saving again because for some reason I don't think this time around will last too much longer. I haven't done the math, but I think some of the "New Kids" are in their forty's!!! What are they thinking??? They are in a boy bad at the age of forty!!!!! But I will give it to them they do look pretty good. I haven't looked at a lot of pictures yet, but I think Joey is looking quite handsome in this one...sorry Jonathon!

Fun with the Whitelocks

Hayden's first bike ride.

We ate a restaurant called Matt's Big Breakfast. It is really popular and also the size of our living room, so we had to wait quite awhile to get a seat, but it was defiantly worth it. The food was really good!!

We went to the zoo. I bought a membership so now Hayden and I can go anytime we want.
Hayden's first bike ride.
Drew and Hayden had so much together. They interacted more than I thought they would. Hayden loved to try to do what Drew was doing and Drew loved to grab Hayden's face.
One of the afternoons we went to a Diamond Backs game. It was a lot of fun.
We ate the California Pizza Kitchen. So good!!!
Lots and lots of playing with toys!
Playing at the park.

Mothers Day

Colin and Andy made mine and Audrey's first Mothers day great! It was going to start on Saturday with Audrey and I going to get pedicures, but we didn't take into consideration that other everyone women would be doing the same thing, so we couldn't get an appointment anywhere. We were pretty dissapointed, but Sunday made up for it! Sunday morning Colin and Andy made pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast, then after church we went and BBQ'd steaks. They planned it all, got all the food (I did have to remind them the day before that we would need more than just steaks for the BBQ) and they did all the cooking!! All the food was so good, both of them are really good cooks. It was a great day and so fun to have family here to celebrate with us.

More Visitors

Colin's sister Audrey and her little boy Drew have been visiting since last Wednesday. We have been having a lot of fun with them here. Drew and Hayden have fun playing together and Hayden is learning that you can get places you want to go by watching Drew crawl around. Audrey's husband Andy just got here last night and they will be staying until Monday. Hopefully I will get more pictures from the rest of the trip, but for now here is what we have.
Getting ready to swim!
We put Drew's arm around Hayden, but she took it to the next level!!
Cute little Cousins!