Happy Easter!

This year, I decided to spend Easter with my family in Las Vegas. Chris couldn't come because of work and church requirements. We missed him! I managed to get one Easter traditional picture of the kids in their church outfits. It's not the best picture. We were all having a hard time cooperating, but the kids and the outfits are still cute!

The kids had fun with Grandma Chesnik's Easter egg hunt! It was nice to get out of town for a couple of days and enjoy some relaxing time with my parents.

Chesnik's visit for their Spring Break

We love it when we get visitors! The Josh & Kristin and their kids decided to use their Spring Break visiting us. My girls were in school and we missed them during the day activities, but we still had plenty of fun together. Here's some pictures of our zoo day:

Adam and Jakob up in the giraffe observation deck.

Jalie and Adam looking at the monkeys. 

All the cute kids at the Komodo dragon exhibit

Beautiful day!

Thanks Chesnik's for visiting with us!

Bonus Disneyland Trip

Bonus! Chris' parents got an amazing deal on a couple condos in Newport Beach if they would just listen to a little speech about time-shares. Lucky for us, we got to share in the goodness and also lucky that Disneyland isn't too far away from the condos. So, off we went on a super quick fun weekend in Disneyland! Chris didn't have any time off, so we left Friday after work and got into Newport at almost 11pm. Then the next morning we got up bright and early to get into the park. We didn't tell the kids that we were going to Disneyland, so it was a big happy surprise for them. The weather is COLD in January, but that didn't stop us from having a great time. There are 275 pictures of just one day because we had so much fun playing with our new camera!

Wish I could squeeze more in this collage, but just be grateful I didn't use all 275 pictures!

The next day, we attended church in a Newport Beach ward. After church we had to get back to AZ so Chris could go back to work on Monday. Wish we could have stayed longer, but I'll take all I can get of The Happiest Place on Earth.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was spent in Las Vegas with my family and we had a great time! My brother lives in town and my sister was able to bring her family down from Utah so we were all there. And my Grandma Basta got to come too! I love Thanksgiving time. It always means family time to me and I love having everyone together.

One of the kids' favorite things to do at my Mom and Dad's is to play in the backyard.

Sadly, Adam got pink eye on the day of Thanksgiving. That was a nightmare trying to keep him clean and away from everyone else! Eek!

These group of cousins have a great time together. They enjoy putting on mini plays or shows for us almost every time they get together. Here's the Thanksgiving version.

Because everyone was together, my mom requested an updated grandkid picture. We decided with this many kids that it would be easier to go to a park with a nice camera and do the pictures ourselves. I think they turned out great and the kids did a really good job. Big thanks to Kristin the photographer and her brother's camera. They are all such cute little blondies, you almost can't tell who belongs to which parents! We sure love these kids!

Discovering Payson, AZ

For Labor Day weekend this year, we decided to take our little family to Payson, AZ to get away but not have to go too far. Payson is a little less than 2 hours away and about 10 degrees cooler. A welcome feeling this time of year! We enjoyed exploring the small town, staying in a hotel for 2 nights, and going to the Tonto Natural Bridge. There was a small hike down to the bottom of the bridge. The kids did a great job and loved it! It's amazing rock that has been cut out and formed into a bridge by water. It was really nice to get out of town and focus on our family for a couple of days. Who knew the small town of Payson could be so much fun?!

Here's some pictures of our weekend:

We found a duck pond after dinner to work out some energy.

At the trail head, ready to hike!

Cutest kids ever!

Megan with the bridge behind her

Fun family pic with the bridge in the background

This is from inside, underneath the bridge. This time of year the water is just a trickle from the top. 

Small, mighty, and strong!

This is a picture of the bridge from the hiking trail on your way down.

For "quiet time" after our morning hike, we found a lake to go dip out feet in.

Enjoying park fun after a fun, full day!

My Mom's 60th Birthday Celebration

From my Grandma Basta's birthday celebration in Salt Lake City, we traveled on Sunday the 24th to get back to Vegas. My mom wanted a quiet, easy family celebration back at home. Also, my dad was not able to travel to UT for the 80th birthday party, so we needed to get back home for my mom's birthday.

Josh and Kristin opened their home for my mom's party. We enjoyed a great BBQ of steaks for the adults and hot dogs for the kids. We did get a chance to surprise my mom even though it wasn't a surprise party. Her sister Diana and Diana's husband Doug came into town for the party! It was so fun to continue seeing them from our weekend in UT. We got Aunt Diana and Uncle Doug to Josh's house before my mom got there. They were out in the back helping Josh grill. When my mom came she helped in the kitchen a little then looked outside to see how Josh was doing and see the kids playing. She, I think, did a double take when she realized that her sister was there. Then the tears came and she was so happy to have family for her birthday.

After dinner, we played a little game where the kids heard facts about my mom and had to say if they were true or false. It was fun to have them learn some things about her that they did not know before. Even Kristin learned that my mom was quite the thespian in high school!

Then after the game, the kids sang a song for my mom. When these cousins get together, they often like to put together a play to show us. It's always so fun to see their creativeness!

Cousins! They are all here singing to my mom.

We then opened presents. My Aunt gave my mom a cute plaque that says, "Grandkids welcome, parents by appointment."

I think this one is a hit.

For the present from Josh, Missy, and me, I made a photo book of my mom. It had my mom from small growing up, her wedding, us kids small and growing up, our weddings, then all the grandkids. I had each grandkid write a letter to grandma about something they love about grandma. I scanned it into the book so it was in their handwriting with their pictures.

My mom reading and looking at her book. She loved it. Those are happy tears!

Happy 60th birthday Mom! I love you more than I can express. You are my best friend, my example, my go-to person whenever I have a question about anything, and the best mom in the whole world!

Hawaii - Picture Paradise

Hawaii is a beautiful place. And that pretty much explains it all. Everything from the flowers, to the sand, to the water are all amazing. So, naturally some of the 1,000s of pictures are of the scenery. Pictures don't quite do it justice, but they'll have to do until I can get there again.

Hawaii - Family Time

Of course the best part about our vacation is always having family time. The condos we stay in allow for us to not have to eat out for every meal. And it allows enough space for ALL of us to be together. That's a difficult task with how many of us there are! Most evenings are spent together away from the pool and beach. (Did we really bring clothes other than bathing suits?!) Because we were in Hawaii over Father's Day, Amy came up with a great trivia game for us to get to know all the fathers (pictured in the first collage, bottom right). We also spent time trying to keep the kids busy in the evenings so we weren't too loud for other occupants. One fun activity we did was ALOHA Bingo (pictured in the first collage, top right). Also, a favorite evening activity is to go get ice cream after dinner in Whaler Village just next to the condos (pictured with Adam taking a happy big bite of his ice cream cone.) Even with the condos, we always take time to eat at our favorite restaurants on Maui: Cheeseburgers in Paradise (yes, the name is true), and Hard Rock Cafe (also pictured in the collages below). The big group picture was taken after church. What a good looking 'Ohana!

Maui Ocean Center

After we got all packed up, we had several hours before we needed to be at the airport, so we visited an aquarium between Lahaina and Kahului.

Hawaii - Fun in the Water

So if the Partridge clan is not found on the beach, we are in the pool. (Or, my personal favorite - lounging by the pool.) The pool was remodeled from the last time we went, but the kids enjoyed it just as much. We sort of took over one entire stairway entry when all of us were together, but that's the way we like it! Loud and together! Other water activities this trip included Katelyn surfing along with some cousins and Chris scuba diving with his brothers. Katelyn tried being on her own board for her first wave, but that got a little too scary for her. She then rode the rest of the waves with her instructor. Chris of course enjoyed his scuba trip. It's a highlight for him each time.

Beach Time

We just got back from an excellent trip to Maui, Hawaii (big huge mahalo Mom and Dad!).  In spite of our lack of current postings, I  put this together on my new MacBook (from work).  I plan on posting more soon (as well as catching up).

Hawaii - Where's the Beach?!

Of course one of our favorite things about Maui is the beach. It has gorgeous sands and amazing views. The kids all loved playing in the sand. We built sand castles, dug, enjoyed the waves, visited, got some sun, and got our swimming suits full of Maui sand that will never come out!

Hawaiian Summer

I love Hawaii! I love family! I love being with my family in Hawaii! This year we made the trek again across the great waters to Hawaii. We relaxed, had fun, enjoyed each others company, and made memories. As I looked through all the 1,000s of pictures (really), I realized this could be no regular blog entry. So instead, I have grouped the types of things we did in Hawaii and will post that way instead of a travel-log. So here we go!

Point me to the Beach!

Spring Break

We had so much fun for Spring Break this year! It started off with a wedding and ended with a birthday, with a lot of playing with cousins in between. My cousin Crystal got married in St. George and it was so great to go be a part of that. Chris and I drove our family early the morning of the wedding to Vegas. Then we had a couple hour break from being in the car and then caravaned with my family the rest of the way to St. George. The wedding was beautiful and it was so good to see everyone.

The reception ended with some great dancing by the kids! And yes, that's Adam licking a glass.

The rest of Spring Break was spent in Vegas, minus Chris who flew home Sunday to go back to work. One of my favorite things we did was go to this AMAZING park. It was huge and the girls had so much fun! Adam sadly missed out because of nap time, but I'm sure it's not the last time we go there. Thanks to Kristin for pointing it out to us.

Other memorable moments: St. Patrick's day party with all the Chesnik's, impromptu music shows by the kids, eating at Red Lobster (Mmmmmm, thanks Mom and Dad), and Megan's birthday party...twice. Megan will get her own birthday post, but here are some other pictures of the week!

Dancing in Disneyland! (cont...)

So to keep the tradition alive...Saturday had a clothes color assignment too. It was "grey day." To start off the day we got ready to dance! We were so thankful that our time slot to dance was first thing in the morning (well, late morning, but the first show). It made it easy to just get ready in the morning to dance, and then we had the rest of the day to enjoy in the Park. The girls all danced really well. Good job, Katelyn!

Waiting with the group to enter the Park with their Disney escort.

Megan is too young to dance at Disneyland, so she started climbing letters while we waited to drop off Katelyn.

I love this picture of Katelyn and her sassy dance moves. She's the cute one on the right of the picture. Swing those hips, Katelyn!

 The rest of the day was spent enjoying the Park again. Here's the "grey day" collage.

This was a pretty adventurous day for Megan and me. To preface this story, I have to say that I don't do the rides that have a big drop. I don't really like them. As I drop and am in the free-fall state, I kind of hold my breath and stop breathing. Not a good idea, but I'd have to say, better than throwing up! I learned this as a teenager and have avoided those kind of rides ever since. I don't mind going on fast roller coasters, and I don't mind going upside down. It's just that free fall that gets me. So, now the story. One of Megan's favorite rides is the Jumping Jellyfish in California Adventure. It's an easy drop. Just enough to have your stomach do a little jump but not enough to get scared. For some reason, I mentioned to her that the Tower of Terror was like the Jumping Jellyfish, just bigger and faster. Well, then she wanted to go on that ride. We tried to convince her that she would not like the ride and that it would be too fast. I think Chris and I were hoping that she'd be too short to ride the ride, but as it turns out, she's not. There was no good reason to not let her go on the ride, so we said we could try it. So, of course Megan wanted me to go on the ride with her. I told Chris he had to come too to help me! In the end, for me the ride wasn't too bad. Not my idea of fun, but I'm still breathing! Megan on the other hand said she never wants to ride the Tower of Terror ever again. She held on to Chris pretty tight and screamed her way down. I think she'll be sticking with Jumping Jellyfish from here on out.

Dancing in Disneyland!

Katelyn is finally old enough to dance in Disneyland! I know, your thinking, "but weren't you just in Disneyland in August." Yup. Thanks to Jeanne's School of Dance and Katelyn and 2 amazing sister-in-laws who teach dance, we got to do Disneyland a second time this year. The dancers were scheduled to dance on Saturday morning, so we got to the Happiest Place on Earth Thursday night so we could have one whole day in the park. If you know my family, you know we dress in the same color. So much easier to find your group in the crowd! So, Friday was "red day." Then I had the happy surprise to find out that my family had decided to celebrate my birthday. When we met at the fireplace at the Grand Californian, I was given a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse style adventure to collect my presents throughout the day. It was so much fun!

Here's our best family picture as we wait to enter the park. (Megan really was excited to be there even though she's not smiling in this picture, and Adam just wanted out of his stroller already!)

Here's a picture of all the birthday treats and presents I got throughout the day. Thank you Kaley and Amy for your crazy, fun, creative brain! It made me feel special all day!

I just love seeing the kids in Disneyland! Here's a collage of our fabulous "red day."

One of the presents I got was to have 3 hours with just Chris in the park and the rest of the family would watch my kids. We chose to leave just after dinner and enjoy a date! Chris chose to take me to Captain E-O because I had never (to my recollection) seen it before. It was definitely interesting! We then went on some rides. What a difference it is to stand in line without kids!

Let's ROCK! One more day in Disneyland!

We woke up on this day 3 of our celebration weekend and made it to the fireplace early, so there was time for another family picture. Going to Disneyland has got to be the least relaxing, most work, wonderfully awesome vacation there is.  When it's all over, you can't hardly move from being so tired, but it's all worth it for the memories we create together.

Don't let the girls fool you, they're not really tired.

Today is last chance day, so whatever someone missed or didn't go on enough was where we went.  On another round of Autopia, Adam hung back and enjoyed a blueberry muffin.  A new favorite, we've discovered.  I rode with Megan, while Bradley and Katelyn teamed up behind me.

Mmmmm...blueberry!

Ready to ride

Driving Miss Daisy

Adam's not quite feeling the family picture anymore.

Back over in California Adventure, we let the kids kinda guide us to where they wanted to go.  On the way to Paradise Pier, I had to stop and take a picture of the Mickey Ferris Wheel.  You can pretend that we're riding it, but we really aren't. :)

On the way to Toy Story Mania, Katelyn and Megan considered a future as a toy.  Fortunately, they just stayed in the box long enough for some pictures and then rejoined us for the rides.  Adam realized that he can still go on rides even when he's asleep - as long as he just hangs on to Mommy!

We put the 'action' in Action Figures

Just happy to be here!

Who says you have to be awake for the rides?

Kaley and Chase hung with us so we could caravan home together.

Can you guess Megan's favorite mode of transportation?

Adam still enjoyed a few more rides awake too, and then it was time to bid adieu to this vacation.  The kids picked their favorite letters and had a last bit of fun before jumping back in the car for the long ride home.  But hey, at least Adam got to enjoy a Rice Krispy treat on the way!

I'm such a big boy!

'O' Megan

I can do that too!

Best picture of the trip?

Keep these coming and we'll do just fine together.

We love every chance to spend together as a family, and are so grateful for this trip to Big D.  I think you could drop us just about anywhere and we'd all be glad to spend good family time together.  But as Five For Fighting sings, "it's a nice day, when you wake up in Disneyland."  Hope to wake up again there someday!