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Thursday, December 31, 2009

HAPPY 2010!!!!

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Well today is the last day of 2009 and I thought I would tell you what we did this year that we hadn't posted about yet. We will TRY to post pictures of everything soon.


In May, Robin, Jason and I took our Mom to the Aquarium of the Pacific. AofP is a HUGE aquarium about the largest ocean in the world. The aquarium in located in Long Beach, across the bay from the Queen Mary. We had a great time seeing the more then 12,500 animals including many varieties of sharks, rays, fish, seals, sea lions and otters (Robins favorite). We got to feed nectar to Lorikeets, pet some sharks and rays. We also saw a laser and light show about Blue Whales.


In September, my cousin Derek married Betsy in Ohio. Grandpa, Dad, Jason, Robin and I flew out for the wedding to join with the ENTIRE Meyerson clan. It was so wonderful to have the entire family together again. It has been YEARS since we have all been together. We were all busy getting ready for the wedding and going to all the social gatherings.


When we weren't busy, we spent time together enjoying each others company. We had a BLAST playing with Lexi, Ashlin, Tayley and Lucy!!!! We also spent a lot of time with the rest of the Meyersons.

One day while we were in Ohio, a group of us went to Kirkland to visit the historical sites. We visited the Kirkland Temple, which now belongs to the Community of Christ Church, and the Whitney Store. Although the temple was BEAUTIFUL, the spirit was defiantly missing. I felt so bad for all the hard work and sacrifice the early Saints put into it and all of it is for naught :( Thank goodness the spirit was amazingly strong at Whitney's Store. I gained a deep love and testimony for Joseph and Emma Smith. I also felt a deep love for the Whitney's and the love, service, sacrifice and friendship they had for the Smiths and to all who were in Kirkland.


In October, Dad, Louise, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I took a 2 week cross country train trip. We went from Los Angeles to Oakland, Oakland to Chicago and Chicago to Alexandria Virgina. We spent 3 days in Alexandria and then took trains from Washington DC to Chicago and Chicago to Seattle. We then took a 4 hour bus ride from Seattle to Vancouver Canada where we spent 3 more days. We then went back to Seattle to take a train back to Los Angeles.


We went through many different types of scenery from oceans to mountains to farm fields to following winding rivers. All the scenery was beautiful in its own way. Louise, Robin and I took well over 1,000 pictures. We were shutter bugs, especially Louise and Robin. We spent all our time on the train in the viewing car. The viewing car has HUGE windows and the seats face the windows. Besides looking at the scenery and taking pictures, Dad, Louise, Robin and I played board and card games.


While we were in Alexandria Virgina, it rained the ENTIRE 3 days we were there. Although it was raining, we spent a lot of time away from the hotel. We took several walks around town and went to Christs Church where George Washington and Robert E. Lee went to church. We also spent a day in Washington DC where we went to the Lincoln Memorial (something I have been wanting to do since I was in Kindergarten) and The Smithsonian Institute. It was a GREAT DAY!!!!


We had a 4 hour layover in Chicago before we had to catch the next train so Dad and Louise took Jason, Robin and I to The Willis Towers (formally known as The Sears Towers). We took an elevator 103 floors up in 60 seconds and saw was on top of the world!!!! The sky was partly cloudy but we were able to see far. On a clear day, people are able to see 5 different states and into Canada. We walked out onto 4 Plexiglas balconies that hang out over the ledge. All that was between our feet and 103 floors down was clear plexiglas. It was a little nerve wracking but so fun!!!!


My favorite part of the trip was Vancouver Canada. We stayed right in Downtown VC and was walking distance of MANY sites. We all did A LOT of walking around town looking at the interesting buildings and beautiful scenery. Robin and I spent HOURS walking around and shopping in historic Gas Town. We also visited the Vancouver Aquarium. Although it was not even close to being as big as Aquarium of the Pacific, it was still very interesting. I CAN NOT WAIT until the Winter Olympics start in February so I can see the beautiful city again.


Starting in the middle of November, we had most of the ceilings in our house replaced. The earthquakes we had earlier this year, created large cracks in the seams. While we got the ceilings replaced we decided we would repaint most of the bedrooms too. Grandpa painted his room a pretty color of light green. In Jason's room, we painted over the sun and rainbow that has been there since before we moved in. His room is now a nice shade of tan. Also, since Jason wanted a Disney themed room, he got the Matterhorn drawn on one wall and his (and Walt's) favorite Disney train on another wall.

For Robin and my room, we got clouds painted on the ceiling with countless glow in the dark stars. The ceiling is beautiful at night with all the stars. It feels like we are outside away from the city lights. Our old bedroom also got a makeover. The wall that has the closet in now the same color green as Grandpa's room. The large main wall is blue with sun, moon, clouds and stars. The window wall is now a pastel purple and the wall with the shelves is 2 shades of pink. The shelves are blue, pink, green and purple. On the bottom half of the walls (except for the wall with the shelves) has white Wyans Coating (wood paneling). All the rooms are GREAT!!!


We had a wonderful Thanksgiving over at Dad and Louises apartment. It was the 1st time in their 17 years of marriage that they have invited us over for a cooked meal. They invited us over 2 other times but that was for cold cut sandwiches and cinnamon rolls. We watched 2 movies while we were over there and we had a wonderful dinner. Louise said she enjoyed having us over so much that she will invite over again soon. We will have to see if that ever happens.


December was filled with many Christmas activities and parties. A group of us from our YSA ward went to the Los Angeles Temple to put up Christmas lights. We spent over 4 hours putting up lights on the LONG front wall and a tree next to the front lawn. It took a long time to untangle the strands of lights. I spent over 45 minutes untangling 1 strand of lights. I was SOOOO proud when I finally got the strand untangled (one group of people worked on the same tangle for only about 10 minutes and gave up). I couldn't wait to show everybody the work I did to make sure the stand of lights was worthy of being on temple grounds.


Several weeks a go, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I went to see the lights at the temple lights at night time. The first lights we saw as we were driving towards the temple was the lights on the front wall (the ones I spent SOOO LONG untangling). They were SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! The white lights were so bright, they took every ones breath away. We spent an hour walking around the grounds seeing all the lights. I was able to show everyone the strand of lights I worked on. I also showed them the tree I worked on too. I was disappointed when we got to the tree to see that not a single light was on. All the other trees were were blazed with lights, but not the tree I worked on. I really wanted to see the tree all lit up because we had to put over 30 BOXES of lights and hanging icicles. It was suppose to be a 'burning bush'.


Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Mike, their dog Dodger and my cousin Jodi came down from Utah for Christmas and spent a week with us. It was great having them here!!!! We have missed not spending Christmas with them for the past 10 years. While they were here, we went shopping, saw Christmas lights and saw a movie among other things. We got to also spend time with Jodi's boyfriend Chris who was also visiting his family in Huntington Beach. (Jodi, Chris is a keeper!!!! :) We are so glad they came for Christmas. We wished they could spend longer. Hopefully they will come for another visit soon. I also hope that the rest of the Meyerson clan visits us soon too.


We hope you all have a WONDERFUL and safe 2010!!!!! We promise to update this blog more often, even if we have nothing to blog about. We love and miss you all!!!!!!