Beach and Disneyland April 2010

We did a quick trip to Newport Beach in LA and Disneyland last weekend. We went with our good friends the Leethams and had a B L A S T!! We all woke up early Friday, drove straight to Newport Beach and played for a few hours. There were a ton of people there, but the kids were in their own world (as kids so often are) and didn't care. We adults just hung out and tried to make sure the kiddos didn't drown or get made off with by a shark.

The next day was Disneyland. We opened the park at 8am and tore that place up. We did Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain all before 1pm. FASTPASSES RULE!! Then we took it easy in Toontown for a while, then back to the rides until about 8pm, when we started getting ready for the fireworks show. Then we sent the womenfolk back to the hotel with Aubrey, the little boys and Madi. Curt, Mike, Stephen, Luke and Sadie stayed to close the park down. We did the Matterhorn twice more, and Big Thunder. We closed that place down at midnight!!

Thanks Leethams, we had a great time and love spending time with you guys. Let's do it again soon.

Truck Air Conditioning

So... here is a non-family related blog, it is about my truck. A 1998 Toyota Tacoma. I have had it a few years, and I am hoping it lasts until Stephen turns 16. Four years to go. Well, the air conditioning was blowing very weak so I took it in to Fletcher's Auto Repair. He said the evaporative core was all plugged up, and it would cost $620.00 to replace. I said I was thinking more like $350.00. He said that they could do it for $550.00, but that was as low as he could go. I said 'No thanks', paid my $24.95 diagnostic fee and left.

I went and ordered the core from Checker Auto Parts for $169, went home, and began to tear my dash apart. The evaporative core is behind the dash. Three hours later I have the core in my hand. The first two pictures are of my dash torn apart and the evaporative core. Notice how dirty it was, no wonder no air was passing through. The part came from Checker, it didn't fit. So I ordered the $199 core from Checker, it didn't fit either.

While I was waiting for the parts to come in from Checker, I was soaking the original core in a bucket of water and dish detergent. I cleaned it as best as I could, and when the parts from Checker didn't fit, I just put the original back in. Now my A/C blows like a champ.

Lynx Lake

So... I've decided to go old school with this post, and put each photo on individually, instead of a collage. Hopefully then, you can see the boating pictures a bit easier.

Just For You Leslie!

2009 Nelson Family Reunion

Once again we gathered together at Aunt Kathy's condo club house/pool for fun, food and swimming!! It is so fun to watch our family grow and grow and grow!! We all had a great time catching up on our lives, eating yummy food, enjoying the warm St. George sunshine, celebrating the upcoming births of three new babies and of course BINGO!! This year wasn't quite the same though because we were missing our dear patriarch of the family! The family reunion was grandpa's favorite and he was truely missed!!

Thank you everyone for another wonderful summer reunion! We look forward to next year!

Boys Day at Luke Airforce Base

My dad was in town the weekend that the airshow was at Luke Air Force Base, so the boys, Papa, Mike, Stephen and Sawyer and Brent, Michael and Tyler all went and spent the day together enjoying the view! I think they all enjoyed the experience, although I think Sawyer needs to have custom earplugs made!

Well, the pictures are going to have to wait!! I remember now why it takes me so long to update our blog!! I have tried to upload the pictures TWICE and both times it has failed. So, my time is precious and I am not going to try again..................maybe I can get Mike to do one of his fancy collages for this post!!! UGH!!

14th Wedding Anniversary

On March 24, 2009 Mike and I celebrated 14 years of marriage!! It is amazing to me how time flies!! It has been a great 14 years full of wonderful memories and three beautiful children! We are usually good about getting away for our anniversary. This year it seemed that our Disney trip took place of that, but we did get to Hawaii the month before, so that will have to do this year!! (at least there are some benefits for being married to a pilot!!) Thank you Mike for a wonderful 14 years and I look forward to the next 14!!!

Spring Break at Disney World!

For Spring Break this year we decided to take the kids to Disney World!! We have been talking about it for a long time and the timing was finally right!! We checked the flights and it looked like we could get there. Flying standby has its benefits, being FREE and all, but it can also get crazy!! Mike's best friend, John Graham, works for Disney World and so he can get the family in for FREE! The Graham's also have a nice home right behind Disney and they had plenty of room for us to stay for FREE! So, all we had to do was rent a car and pay for food!! That is MIKE'S kind of vacation! He didn't complain about $$ the whole time!! We had a great time and even got Sawyer to go on Space Mountain and a few other big roller coasters! Sadie was our brave one though.....she was the only one who went with mommy and daddy on the Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller coaster, which went 0-60 in 30 seconds, did upside down loops and barrel rolls!! TOTALLY AWESOME! Thanks John and Sam for a wonderful couple of days!!

Girls Weekend in Colorado!!

The first weekend in March Lori Leetham and I went up to Denver, CO to visit our friend Lauri Gardner!! Lauri moved away last summer and so we felt it was time to get the "L"s back together!! Try and say our names together 10 times fast......Laura, Lauri, Lori!!! We had a fun weekend of talking, eating, laughing and crying! We stayed up late and slept in! We went to a comedy show and laughed HARD! We watched a few chick-flicks and CRIED! We ate, ate and ate some more! The last day was very nice, so we decided we need a little exercise and went for a beautiful hike at Red Rocks. All in all it was a wonderful weekend!! Good friends are awesome!!

Rangar Relay!!

On February 27th and 28th me and 11 other friends set out on a crazy adventure! Emily Johnston was our team leader and put together a team, J.A.M. (Just Another Mile) to run a 204 mile relay from Prescott AZ to Mesa AZ in two days or approximately 36 hours! What an adventure this was! We had two vans full of six team members. Each member of the team would be running a total of three legs of this relay. We would start with runner #1 and move through to runner #12 three times! I was in Van #1 and was runner #6. I ran at approximately 11 a.m. and then again at approximately 11 p.m. and again the next morning around 11 a.m. again! My first leg was 6 miles, which I was pretty happy with, second leg was 3.4 miles at night and this was may favorite leg and then my last leg was 6.4 miles and ALL UP HILL, after only about 2 hours of sleep and well, all I can say is that I finished! I thought I did well for the first 5 miles, but the last 1.4 miles was killer......not my best performance. Anyway, we did it and had a GREAT TIME!! At the moment I wasn't sure I would ever do it again, but I am pretty sure if someone puts together another team for next year I will be signing up!!