Spring Break

A few years ago my mom and I decided to take a little cruise together and it was the BEST vacation ever! We did exactly what my ideal dream vacation consists of... laying around drinking soda in the sun and reading books. Best. Vacation. Ever.

So I've been trying to get Clinton to go on a cruise with me, after all- it's not so romantic with my mother. So one day, we're looking up ticket prices and there's an AMAZING deal online and Clint books tickets for the whole family for Spring Break. We were so excited, but the only problem was, it was a year away. Holy cow... a year is a long time to wait when you're so excited about a vacation! What also made it exciting is our trip was planned for a month after Zach got home from his mission, so we were so excited to have a vacation with the whole family together.

To save money, we decided to make the drive to Southern California from Kennewick. The timing was pretty good because my mom lives near Sacramento which is more than halfway. Well, we got so excited about leaving, that we ended up leaving late Thursday night and driving as far as Eugene, Oregon and getting a hotel that night. The next day we stayed in Esparto with my mom and we got there pretty early in the day which made it nice to visit. Then on Saturday, we drove to LA and got there in time to pick up Emily at the LA airport as she was flying in from Rexburg, ID where she was going to school. Unfortunately, her Spring Break didn't coincide with ours (which we didn't know a year out!) so she was a little stressed about assignments she was working on during the week.
The first night in LA, we stayed a hotel near Long Beach where the ship departs from.

It was fun hanging out with Emily and she loved the warmer weather after the cold Spring in Rexburg!

On Sunday, we boarded the  Carnival cruise ship that stopped in Catalina and Ensenada. So remember.. I had been on that exact cruise about 3 years previously and thought it was the best thing since pebble ice was invented! Here's a picture of my kids about 2 seconds after getting on the ship.

No lie... they were like, "I'm bored... what do we do."

I turned around and saw this...

And then turned back around to see this...

Seriously.

So I'd have to say our cruise experience was not exactly what I had envisioned. Both Clinton and my kids were not big fans of the cruise. Zach was sick almost the whole time and everyone else went through little bouts of queasiness and headaches. I'm so sad! I absolutely love cruising and Clint is not a big fan at all- I doubt I'll ever get him on one again! They did enjoy the ports however. First we went to Catalina and walked around the little town there...

Kenzie... enjoying the sun!

Allison... looking cool in the shades!

Zach... still tanned from Brazil!

Rachel and Emily avoiding the paparazzi.

One thing about cruising that's awesome is the food! It's such a smorgasbord of yummy choices! My favorite was the formal dining every night. Each night, we would go to dinner at 6:00 and eat at the same table with the same waiter. He got to know my girls dinner choices each night as they never changed! Chicken breast was the choice of the week. I loved trying all the different foods each night.

Here's some pics on the ship...

The families favorite stop was Ensenada. I was a little concerned originally- when my mom and I went, it was a little creepy with just two woman. But with Clint I felt totally secure. We walked into the main shopping area of the town and walked around the streets. The kids had fun using their money to try to make a deal with the street vendors. Their very favorite thing was holding a lion cub... so cute!

The longest thing was waiting for Rachel's bracelets to be done... took forever! Really, like about 75 minutes of standing on the corner waiting for about 10 bracelets to be made.

After a day of shopping, bargaining, and waiting (and waiting) we headed back to board the ship.

 After the cruise, we still had a couple of days in Southern California to do some fun things. We spent a day at Magic Mountain and it was really GREAT! I say that... but I didn't go on one ride. Not. One. I do not like roller coasters at all!!! But they looked like the best darn roller coasters I've ever seen. And I took lots of pictures! Here are some of them..

 And finally, on our last day, we spent the day at Venice Beach. It was hardly crowded at all since the weather wasn't super warm. We had fun watching the street performers and ended up seeing a movie later that night at a nearby mall.

All in all, it was a great vacation with all of us back together at last. We haven't done a big family vacation ever. Usually, we go see family in Utah, California, and occasionally New Zealand with one or two kids at a time. I had the best time just hanging out with my grumpy, bored, amazing kids and husband! After we dropped Emily off at the airport in LA at 6am we drove home... literally- as in, Clint didn't stop in Esparto to spend the night with my family- he just soared on through Sacramento and on up interstate 5 for 19 hours until we got home. Gotta love that man! And that was our Spring Break of 2014!!

Zach and Brynn!

 Zach returned from his mission in February and decided to go to BYU-I for the Spring semester in April. I have to say, I really had to PUSH him to go to school. I knew that once he did, he would have a great time and get back into the swing of things. He had a great companion on his mission, Elder Lakey and they became great friends. Zach decided to room with him during Spring semester.

(Elder Armitage and Elder Lakey- Curitiba, Brazil mission)

During their time together, Elder Lakey kept encouraging Zach to write to his sister, Brynn. They exchanged a few letters and Ryken kept telling Zach he was going to marry his sister.

So when Zach went to school in April, he was a little nervous about meeting Brynn. He felt a little pressure from Ryken since they were roomates and Ryken kept teasing him about marrying her. They met a few days after Spring semester started and Zach was a little shy and nervous (according to Brynn) when they first met. He called me that day and said he had met her and she was really cute. The first few weeks, they spent a LOT of time running together. I don't think Zach has run so much in his entire life! After a few weeks, they became a "couple"

(This picture was hiking after about a month of dating.)

When Zach came home for summer break, he went to Salem, Oregon (where Brynn is from) for a week to visit. Then, a few weeks later, Brynn came to see us for a week. Then (you probably already guessed it), he went back to Salem to see Brynn- and this time he had a ring in his pocket. He wanted to surprise her on her birthday (Sept 2nd). He had a great plan to take her out on some trails and propose, but she wasn't feeling well that day. Finally, after some convincing, he got her to go for a walk at a nearby park and popped the question. She was really surprised, but obviously happy- since she said YES!

 So now they're planning the big day, December 30th in the Portland, Oregon temple. They will have a reception that night in Salem and then another reception here in Kennewick January 2nd, 2015. Here are some of their cute photos from their engagement session. We love Brynn and are so excited for them to start their new lives together!

Mackenzie's School Project

Kenzie has a child psychology class this year and one of the assignments is to take home a "baby" for the weekend and take care of it. She has a wristband that she keeps on and that shows that she's always near the baby. She was given a diaper bag with a bottle, a change of clothes, and a couple diapers that have monitors that show when it's been changed. Going to Lowes last night was a nice little flashback as we took the carseat in the car and the baby started crying hysterically as soon as we got in the car. Kenzie sat in the car feeding and changing the baby while we did our shopping. I guess "Shaunu DeShaun" (the girls named the baby after the bad guy in Mulan) also was crying multiple times last night. Here's a pictures of the log Kenzie is keeping of how often the baby cries. This is not even 24 hours! I love the part how Mackenzie is feeling... "good, good, annoyed, angry, angry, angry". The angry was the middle of the night.

Emily's Graduation

 Emily graduated from Kamiakin High School in June 2013. She's the first one in our family to spend all her high school years in one school. When we moved to Kennewick, Zach was in the 9th grade, so he ended up going to 2 high schools. What made the weekend really special is that Clint's family came over to surprise her. We found out a few weeks before graduation that Clint's mum and dad would be flying to Utah from New Zealand and spending some time with Karen and her family. So they packed up the family in their motorhome and came for the weekend for graduation.

 Nan and Grandad with Emily!

Funnest family to hang out with ever!

What the Cochrans didn't know is that we had sold our house and were moving the week after graduation, so everything was packed up and in storage except for the big furniture pieces. We were sure happy to have them with us though. It was a crazy weekend! First, I moved classrooms from 5th grade to 3rd grade so I had to pack up everything in my classroom. I was also working on a major certificate for my job, the National Board Certificate. I had to take the 3 hour test in the middle of June. We also were moving homes the same week school was out. Crazy, busy times... but that's how we roll!