Vacation!!! (Day 1 & 2)

We recently got home from a wonderful vacation to California (San Diego and Huntington Beach). It was so nice and cool and we hated to have to come back to the heat (and laundry). To all 3 of you who are reading this, sorry it is so long, but so that we can keep a record of what we did, I will go into SOME detail. Just be glad I didn't include all 750+ pictures. :)

Day 1-Sunday:
We were all packed Saturday late night so we could leave bright and early Sunday morning (which turned out to be around 6:00). We had primary and read books and watched a couple of "Sunday" movies on the trip. We made it to San Diego in time to go to a sacrament meeting. Then we went to the Mormon Battallion Visitor's Center (with probably every other LDS tourist in San Diego). It was very busy and the kids were not excited about waiting 45 minutes for the tour. But they did enjoy panning for gold and seeing some of the other displays.

We then drove to the San Diego temple, but unfortunately it was covered in scaffolding, and that kinda diminished the effect of seeing it.

We arrived at our hotel in Carlsbad in time to make dinner. (We were so blessed to get to stay at a nice Marriott hotel thanks to Richard's brother, David, who works for one in Park City.) After we ate, we went a few miles to the beach to watch the sunset, but NOT go swimming (yeah right, mom). It was too cloudy to see the sun, but we enjoyed it anyway.








What a wonderful way to start a trip!



Day 2-San Diego Zoo and our 13th Anniversary!
Well, it wasn't quite as romantic as our 10th anniversary trip to Hawaii, seeing as we had 4 kids with us ALL the time, but I am so thankful to be married to my sweetheart for 13 wonderful years. We had a good day and thoroughly enjoyed the zoo. This was the first time for all of us, and the weather was perfect and we were happy to be outside enjoying it. We loved to see so many animals so close to us. The gorillas were a favorite as the whole family came right next to our family to say hi. We also had great seats for the sea lion show (which was better than the sea lion show at Sea World, by the way). It was so fun to see the kids' excitement about different things, even leaves.






We ended the day by going to Coronado Beach and having a picnic and swimming. I was way too cold to bother with the water. But the rest of the family got in. I think they thought it was a little cold too.



Good Day! :)
Tune in soon for more pictures.

Summer Fun

So, it has been a couple of weeks since I have updated the blog. The most exciting news by far, is the arrival of my new niece, who has yet to have a name. My sister Debbie and her husband David welcomed their second girl yesterday at 5:38am. She weighed 8 pounds and is 21 inches long. She looks very much like her older sister, Isabella. Debbie was able to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) without any drugs! I spent several hours at the hospital trying to help Debbie, so David could go home and rest. (Rebecca is a great babysitter!) The baby is having some troubles breathing this morning, so she is in the nursery being monitored. Extra prayers are always welcome!
Here is Cutie Patootie Garza!


In other news, our garden is growing! This is our first year for a garden and it has been fun for the kids (including Emily and Kacy) to see their seeds growing. Unfortunately, the birds and bugs are getting to the tomatoes and strawberries before they are fully ripe. :( Here's the garden after everything was planted:


Here it is this week:

Look at those sunflowers! I am just glad that anything was able to grow. It is so hot, and we really aren't experts at this gardening stuff.

We had a great 4th of July, although it was SO HOT! (Why do we live here again??) We actually celebrated on the 3rd and 5th too. Just look at how excited we are!

Did I mention it was hot?

One last item to mention: our ward swim party/splash contest. Although I didn't get any pictures to prove it (a camera in the pool not the best idea sometimes), Rebecca got first place for making the biggest splash in the kids' division! For the adults, Richard came in second, but was the plucky comic relief as he yelled "I WANT MY MOMMA!" as he jumped off the high dive to do a huge jack-knife. The resulting splash was, from my angle, much bigger than any other splashes of the night. It was entertaining, to say the least. ;)