Orange County

We drove up to Orange County from San Diego. Brendan's uncle and cousin live in Aliso Viejo, and we stayed with them for two days. We went to Laguna Beach to eat, and we went shopping at Irvine Spectrum.

We went out to eat and Hazel loved sucking on this pickle. She also liked sucking on lemons without even making a sour face.

Shopping with Brendan's cousin Lexie.

La Jolla

While in San Diego, the weather was in the mid 70's most of the time and even hit 80 one day. We even had to use the air conditioning. It was a nice getaway considering the weather in Provo had been below freezing. With such warm weather we had to hit the beach.

New Year's

On New Year's Eve we drove to San Diego to be with my family. Two of my sisters live in San Diego and recently had babies about a month apart. They were both having their babies blessed on Jan. 3rd, and nine of the eleven children in my family were able to be there. On New Year's Eve we played games and rocked out with Beatles rock band. On New Year's Day we all went to the San Diego Zoo. It was my first time there, and I really liked it. For the holiday season the zoo was decorated with the theme Jungle Bells.

Hazel just got a new car seat in time for the road trip. She likes it a lot better being upright, but she did have a problem falling asleep at first because her head would flop around.

My sister, Ivy, two nephews, and Brendan singing their hearts out.

My parents with some of my sisters and nieces and nephews on an enormous cougar at the zoo.

My brothers Blake and Bruce with Brendan.

The flamingos. I liked the flamingos, but I think everyone's favorites at the zoo were the hippos and the pandas, but I couldn't get any good shots because they were moving so much.

Christmas

We stayed here in Provo this year for Christmas. We slept in and then Brendan made a nice breakfast. We had eggs benedict and hash browns. It was delicious! After opening gifts at our house, we went to Brendan's parent's house later in the day.

Hazel had a lot of gifts to open from Grandpa and Grandma Rowland. I think she was more interested in chewing on the bows and paper than the actual gifts. Maybe next year she will be a little more interested.

Photo from Anthropologie

My favorite gift Brendan gave me was the new Clothbound Penguin Classics book set. I just started reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.