Disneyland, Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach oh My!

So yes I realize that it's taken a month for me to get these pic's on. But what can I say better late than never. So these are our California pic's. Below is Santa Monica Pier. We had a good time there. We even saw a few dolphins out in the ocean.


Here's us with Minnie it was so cute, Nali ran up to her and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. It was cute to see her excitement.

Nali and Cinderella...ok so I had NO idea that to see the princess's at Disneyland is a near impossible feat....you think o Disneyland princess's everywhere right....NO!!! So I guess they only come out for 20 minute blocks in random places. So you see a line up in the middle of no where you know there's a princess near by. So you run over only to find that the Disneyland "Bouncers" have cut the line off. So you start stalking them. I honestly got a glimpse into the life of the paparazzi. Between Sam standing in line to hold our spot to see Sleeping Beauty while I was with Nali seeing Ariel we managed to get pic's with Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel and Sleeping Beauty. Seeing the reaction on Nali's face was well worth it all.

Sam and Nali at Venice Beach. She LOVED it. We got out of the car at the parking lot and she ran all the way down to the ocean.

Nali and Snow White. It was so cute. The princess's were all very friendly with her. Nali soaked it all up.

Waterton Lakes National Park

So at least a few times a summer we head on out to Waterton Lakes National Park. In the past. Pre-Nali we usually would got on amazing hikes or great mountain bike trails. But because of the little one we started going on little hikes and then spend a good 2-3 hours at the lake shore throwing rocks (the first time there she was eating the rocks). This tradition that started 4 summers ago continues on. Now we even bring out our little BBQ and have a great time. It's wonderful that regardless of what we're doing in the park we have a great time there.

Below is a picture of Nali's first outing to the park 4 summers ago.

(Notice that she's on the same beach)




Below is a picture of the result of these outings. Before we're even out of the park she's out like a light.

A little side note: On Monday we saw Heather and Tory Johnson there. For those of you in Utah in the 105th ward you'll know who they are. What are the chances?!

Our Hometown

So now that we have a blog I thought that I would post a couple of pictures or our home and home town. I guesss that it's not really a town. We have 80 000 people which does qualify us to be a city.The above picture is our wondeful home. We LOVE it. We've put a lot of work into the inside and it looks great and feels like home now. I just finished painting Nali's room and we've ordered carpet for her room and ours. When it's complete I'll post the pictures. We've become even more grateful for our home. We bought it for $155 000. By the time we moved in the housing market in Lethbridge was booming. Our home had appreciated aprox. $20 000 before we even moved in.

The "High Level Bridge" is the train bridge that connects the 2 coulee sides as well. It is just over 1 mile long. It was built 100 years ago. I believe it's 100 year aniversary is next year. It is the highest bridge of it's type in the world. It's beautiful to look at. The sun sets right behind it. There is also a golf course at the bottom of it. Trains still use it. When you're in the river bottom and you here a train coming you can run to the bridge and feel the vibrations on the beams. One of Sams hobbies is collecting old postcards of this bridge from ebay. We have several including the building of it.

This is the view of the river bottom that divides the west side of town from the south side. We love this area. It's refered to as the "coulees". This is where Sam and I do the majority of our biking. The beginning of our trail is about a 5 minute bike ride from our house. A few years ago there was a huge flood that washed out some of our trails. Sam and I feeling ambitious repaired our trails and even put in a new bridge. We've seen deer, rabbits, owls, beavers, snakes and fox's on our rides. It's great to have such a beautiful place so close.

This picture is of a storm we had about 2 months ago here. That odd spaceship shaped building is an old water tower that was in town. It was turned into a resturant about 2 years ago. It's very expensive but offers a great view. We've only ate there once and we all ordered appetizers.

Well here it is my first full entry enjoy!

We have a blog...now what?

Ok, so this will be a work in progress...we'll see what we can get done.