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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Happy 4th Birthday Jake!!!!!
























We're sending you Birthday wishes with ALL of our love!!!!!!





























Thursday, July 8, 2010

Alot of little things

It has been awhile since we have updated our blog and a lot of little things have happened since then. First off another Marine from Yorba Linda was killed in Afghanistan on June 22nd. 22 year-old Cpl. Claudio PatiƱo was on his 3rd tour of duty that he whole heartedly volunteered for. He and his family are members our church and are in the neighboring stake. His funeral was held in his ward building and 1,000's of people lined the streets for his funeral procession.

We had a surprize visitor for a few days. The only other person who knew the person was coming was Dad. They both had been planning the visit for several weeks. On the day of the arrival, Dad came over to our house at 4 PM and asked Jason if he wanted to go to LAX for the day of course Jason agrees and they leave. I thought it was weird that Dad and Jason were going to LAX at 4PM. Usually when they go to LAX they leave around 7 or 8AM. Dad and Jason come home from LAX around 9 and guess who walks in with them? BONNIE!!!!


We really enjoyed having Bonnie spend a few days with us. She came for Grandpa's 82nd birthday, which was on the 28th. On Grandpa's birthday, we all went out to dinner at Polly's Pie Shop. The food was really good and Grandpa got a free piece of pie (he chose Peacan). We then had chocolate cake and icecream back home. For his birthday we gave him 4 walkie talkies that we can use on our trip.


The day after Grandpa's birthday, we all went to see the movie Toy Story 3. The movie was wonderful!!! We all enjoyed the movie very much. Bonnie went home the day after we saw the movie. We all wished she could have stayed longer but we will be seeing her again very soon.


July 1st was Grandpa's and Grandma's 60th Wedding Anniversary and the 1st Anniversary since they were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple. Grandpa said the it is wonderful that not only can we celebrate them being married for 60 years, but now we can celebrate them being married for eternity. To celebrate, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I took flowers over to Grandma. We stayed for about 15 minutes and then we went to Red Lobster for dinner. We had a good day.


Grandpa had a doctors appointment with a neurologist to find out why he blacked out for 4 days last month. The doctor thinks maybe he might have had a mini stroke or a seizer. The doctor wants to run more tests later this month to determin exactly what it was. Grandpa has not had any more blackouts or anxiety attacks.



On July 3rd, our friend Alycia asked if we wanted to see fireowrks with her and her 2 daughters. Robin had a headache but Jason and I met them. We put our lawn chairs on the side of the street in front of the stadium where the fireworks were held. We had a great time playing with Macknzie and Kiley and talking and joking with Alycia. As we were waiting for the fireworks, a person was hit by a car in a parking lot a block up the street. The person ended up being fine and didn't even need to go to the hospital. Although the fireworks show was short (only 5 minutes), it was still a nice show.


On July 4th, Grandpa, Dad, Jason, Robin and I watched the fireworks show at the Yorba Linda park (Louise refused to come with us). There must have been at least 10,000 other people at the park too. Although there were SO MANY people at the park, there was PLENTY of room for people of all ages to play. There were booths to play games and buy food. There was a band that played music and a place for dancing. The fireworks show was AMAZING!!!! It lasted for about 25 minutes and had 2 big finalies.



On Tuesday, a friend of ours (kim), who lives in Seattle, called saying she and her 2 1/2 year old daughter (Kiara) were at Disneyland and wondered if we would like to meet them there. Robin, Jason and I met them and had a WONDERFUL time!!! Although Disneyland was really crowded, we were able to go on 13 rides. There is a little known secret that you can get a stroller pass and use it like a handicapped pass. The pass enables you to get in front of the lines. It was so nice to see and spend time with Kim and Kiara again. Kiara really enjoyed Robin and I and of course we really enjoyed her!!!! We hope we can see them (and Kims' husband Gaylin) again soon.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Ted and I went to Disneyland





Ted called me on Saturday asking if I wanted to go to Disneyland with him. His mom just started working at Disneyland (she works at the entrance gates) and Ted just got a annual pass. On Saturday, Ted decided to take his mom to work and stay while she worked from 3PM until midnight. I was shocked when he called me but I immediately said yes and ran out the door and was on my way.


The entire 20 minutes it took me to get to Disneyland, I was ecstatic and unbelievably happy. When I arrived Ted was in California Adventure. We went on Toy Story Mania and Soaring Over California. We then went across the street to a buffet where Ted bought us dinner. After dinner, we went to Disneyland and went on Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Winnie The Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean and saw the night time show Fantasmic.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Busy Times UPDATED!!!! (Now with pics and slideshows)

I guess we should update what has been going on since our last post (although no one leaves comments).



At the end of March, Robin and my Singles Ward (the Placentia 4th Ward) was involved in a Roadshow. We spent all of February learning the music and all of March learning the script. Our skit was based on what it is truly like in the P4 Ward during the summer.



First let me explain some things about our P4 Ward. 1) every Sunday after church we have what is called Linger Longer. Our former bishop (Bishop Shultz) runs a catering business. Each Sunday before church the Linger Longer Committee goes to his house to pick up the left over food from the parties he catered during the week. During Relief Society/Priesthood and Sunday School the Linger Longer Committee heat up the food and set out the tables, chairs and eating supplies. Robin and I were on that committee for 4 years before we got our current callings. 2) For most of the year our ward is extremely friendly and we get along WONDERFULLY together. We are ALWAYS having activities. There is an activity scheduled at least 5 nights a week. Besides the scheduled activities, we find ANY tiny, little excuse to have a party or get together. Although there is over 150 members in the ward, we all know each other and we all enjoy being together. 3) The friendliness of the ward stops during the summer if the person is in one of 2 groups A) Bug Boys or B) College Girls. The Bug Boys are a group of guys from BYU who are hired by a exterminator company to go door to door to get business for the company. The Regular Guys (the guys who are in the ward year round) HATE the Bug Boys because the Bug Boys date and marry all the Regular Women . The RG even have a I HATE the Bug Boys group on Facebook and all of the RG are members. The Regular Women don't like College Girls that much (but we don't HATE them as nearly much as the RG HATE the Bug Boys) because all of the RG date and marry the College Girls.

The skit was about the 1st Linger Longer of the summer. The RG and the RW are dating and everyone is happy. In walks the BB and the CG and everything falls apart. The RG leave the RW to date the CG. The RW leave the RG to go after the BB. After some drama, the RG and the RW get back together and the BB and the CG get together.

Robin and I were cast as "diners" (extras). This meant that we didnt have to worry about the drama of the love square. Robin and I had a speaking part that we said together. The only guy diner (Ted, not MY TED but a different Ted) acted like he had rude table manners, including chewing with his mouth open. Our line was "Just chew your food like everybody else does, silently and with your mouth closed". It was hard enough trying to keep Ted's tie clean.

It was THE BEST Roadshow out of the entire stake. We all had A BLAST doing it and wished we could do it again!!!!! We hope to have a video of the Road Show on our Blog soon. Watch for updates!!!!!

A few days later, we decided to go spend the day in Hollywood!!!!! We saw ALOT of "stars" as we walked up and down the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME. We stopped at GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATRE, ate lunch at DISNEY'S SODA FOUNTAIN (a soad fountain and restraunt owned by Disney. It's located right next door to the famous movie theatre that Disney also owns called THE EL CAPITAN).

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In the beginning of May, Robin was taking a shower in the master bathroom. As she was showering, I heard water dripping in the kitchen so I went to investigate. Sure enough, the water from the shower was dripping from the kitchen ceiling. We ended up having to replace the entire shower. We spent a few days looking for tile and then it took a tile laying company 8 days to redo the shower. Robin and I LOVE our new shower!!!!!

After we got the master bathroom shower redone, Grandpa decided to redo the downstairs shower. We spent another few days picking out the tile (Jason didn't like our shower) and another 7-10 days to re -tile it. Grandpa and Jason like their new shower too!!!
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The evening before Mother's Day Robin and I went to see a Celtic Women concert. Celtic Women is a group of 5 women from Ireland who sing traditional Celtic music along with singing modern songs. They are on PBS quite a bit. Robin LOVES Celtic Women (and Celtic Thunder, the male version of Celtic Women) and has always wanted to go see them. Robin has seen all of their shows on T.V. and has all of their albums. Just before Christmas, I found out the CW was going to be in town and talked Grandpa into buying her and I tickets to go see them. It was an AMAZING concert and we had EXCELLENT seats. Now Robin is scouring the Internet to figure out when Celtic Thunder is going to be in SoCal.






The day after Mother's Day, Robin and I took a trip with our mom to visit her family in Tulsa Oklahoma. Robin and I surprised our Grandma for her birthday. She about fainted when we walked in the door. We spent 7 days there and got to meet family we had never met before. We stayed with our Grandma and Aunt Laura who we we met 12 years ago when we graduated high school. We got to meet our cousins Bridget (and her 5 year old son JR), Fred and Dan, our 2 uncles Rick and Carlson and our 2 aunts Kim and Jayne. We didn't get to meet 3 of our cousins Richard (because he is on an aircraft carrier training to go to Iraq) and Aaron and Afton (although they live within 1 mile of Grandmas house, they are both introverts and hardly ever leave their rooms)


Grandma has cancer and had a round of chemo. the day after we got there. She was sick and slept all but our last 2 days there. Since Grandma was sick, Bridget was our activities director and tour guide. One night she decided at 12:30 that she was going to take us on a cruise around town. She also took us to the street fair 3 times (she met a guy there that ran one of the food stands), a pow-wow (her mom is 1/2 Cherokee and Bridget is 1/4 Cherokee), the Hard Rock Hotel and the Will Rodgers Museum. Although we had to dodge tornado's and thunderstorms we had a lot of fun running around with Bridget and meeting most of the family. We had SO MUCH FUN with Bridget that she is coming to visit us soon.


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Latley, our indoor cats, Ripley and Cali, have decided that they would rather be outdoor cats. When anyone opens the front door, they both try to race outside. We don't understand why they would trade their lush, carefree indoor life for the dangers that the outdoor life brings.

Speaking of cats, our friend Alycia, just started to volunteer for a cat rescue organization. She is helping with bottle feeding abandoned kittens. She recieved her first kitten, she is between 1-2 weeks old. The next day, Amber and I went with her to pick up 5 more kittens. These kittens are less than a week old (they still have their eyes closed). Now she just recieved 4 more kittens (we havent seen them yet). So now she has 10 small kittens that she is fostering. This is on top of the cat and dog she already has.

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Robin and I will try to update more offten so we don't have soooo much to cram into one post. ENJOY untill next time!!!!!!!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!!

Today would have been Grandma's 82nd Birthday. To celebrate, we took some flowers to the grave site. We brought her roses from our garden. Dad bought her a "cake" made of flowers.






Her last birthday, 3 years ago, fell on Easter Sunday. Since she was also born on Easter Sunday, and it was the first time since the day she was born that her birthday fell on Easter Sunday, Amber and I decided to give her a "First Birthday" party. You can read more about it on this page: http://thethorntontalk.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html (Scroll down to the post entitled "Happy Easter") That was GREAT day. We had SOOOO MUCH fun. We are SOOOO glad that she was able to enjoy it too.

By the way, I dont think we posted pics of her headstone. It arrived just before Christmas. Its red marble, with a color picture of Grandpa and Grandma together, with an image of The Los Angeles Temple on it. It took us almost 3 years to decide what we wanted it to look like.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

2 local Marines are laid to rest




2 Marines from Yorba Linda (Lance Copl Rick Centanni and Sgt. Maj. Robert J. Cottle) were killed by an IED in Afghanistan 2 weeks ago. Today was Centannis' funeral. He was killed a few days before his 20th birthday and he attended the same Elementary, Middle and High Schools we attended. To show our support and gratitude, the town lined the streets as the 5 mile long funeral procession drove past. There were thousands and thousands of people wearing red, white and blue, waving flags of all sizes and holding home made signs.

Dad, Jason and I walked to the corner that was across the street from the church where the funeral was at (Robin was at work but she got to see it and Grandpa was sick). We all wore red, white and blue shirts, we brought 6 flags to wave and I made a sign that read "All Give Some You Gave All. Thank-You". We waved the flags proudly and held the sign up as the white Hurst then the family bus and then the hundreds of police cars from all over Southern California drove past.

Sgt. Maj. Robert Cottle's funeral is tomorrow. His family wants it to be a private affair so there won't be the big procession). He was 47 years old when he was killed. He worked on the Los Angeles/Long Beach Police Department before becoming a Marine. He leaves behind his wife of 2 years and their 9 month old daughter. Thank-you for your sacrifice for protecting our freedom and to help insure the freedom of others.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

long week

Sorry for the weeks we haven't posted. It seems like nothing happens for weeks and then everything happens at once. I guess that is life!!!!! On Thursday of last week, Jason, Robin, our mom and I went to Disneyland for a few hours. We hadn't been to Disneyland since before Christmas because of all the rain we have had. While we were at Disneyland, we literally ran into an old friend of ours (Kim) from church and her 2 year-old daughter Kiara. Robin and I have been friends with Kim since high school but we hadn't seen her in 7 years. Kim married another of our good friends (Gaylyn) shortly after we came home from our missions and moved to Seattle Washington. Kim and Kiara were on a 2 week road trip because Galyyn had A LOT of work he needed to get done. Gaylyn is a software tech at Microsoft.

After running into Kim and Kiara, Kim decided she wanted us to be her and Kiara's personal tour guide around Disneyland. We took her on the best rides that Kiara would like and took her to the best places to eat. While we were on a ride, Kim said it would be so much fun if Robin and I could spend the night with her and Kiara in their hotel room. Robin and I agreed and made arrangements to go to her hotel for the night.

After Disneyland closed, we took mom and Jason home, grabbed the things we would need and went back to the hotel by Disneyland. Robin and I had BLAST playing with Kiara for several hours. Gaylyn and Kim adopted Kiara through LDS Family Services. Kiara also has moderate hearing loss because she was a preemie. Kim could not believe how much Kiara LOVED robin and I. She said that she is usually really shy and standoffish to strangers. Robin and I couldn't see how that is possible considering how well she responded to Robin and I. Robin and I were in heaven as we were the servants to Kiaras every whim.

After Kiara fell asleep, Robin, Kim and I talked for another couple of hours. We talked about EVERYTHING!!!! It was SOOO NICE to get out of the house and spend time with a friend. Before we left to go back home and Kim and Kiara left to drive back to Seattle, we went out to breakfast. We went to Mimi's Cafe by Disneyland and had a wonderful breakfast.

On Saturday, a group of friends from church decided to spend the entire day at California Adventure (the Disney park next door to Disneyland). Both Robin and Jason had to work so they were unable to go. We all met at 9AM and stayed until 9PM. I had so much fun with them. We went on many rides and saw several shows and a parade. There are several rides at California Adventure that I REFUSE to go on because they are WAYYYY too wild for me. My friends talked me into going on 2 of the wild rides (actually they had to drag me on to the rides).

The first ride they dragged me onto is California Scream'n. I had been on this ride once before several years a go with some cousins visiting form Idaho. It starts off by going 0 to 45 MPH in 2 seconds. There are 2 real steep drops (I HATE steep drops) and it goes upside down. As I was anticipating the take-off, I kept saying 'I don't want to do this' over and over again. I continued to scream that phrase throughout the rest of the ride. The upside down part wasn't too bad, I just hated 1 of the drops (one of the drops ended up not being as bad as I had remembered) and the take-off. I was SO GLAD to for that ride to end.

The next ride they had to drag me on was Tower of Terror. I had never been on that ride before (and had NO plans to ever get on that ride). Tower of Terror is based on the Twilight Zone episode where an elevator of a 12 story hotel falls 13 stories and goes back in time. The ride consists of a 12 story drop in complete darkness. At the top of the drop the windows open and you look 12 stories down. You are suspended there for several seconds before the windows close and down you go. One of my friends who also had never been on ToT kept saying 'its not that bad' 'it will be fun' 'look at all the kids standing in line'. I said fine, I will go on the ride as long as I could hide my face behind my friends (the one that said 'its not that bad'...) shoulder. As we got on the ride I made sure I sat by that friend because she was the biggest I could hide behind. I hid behind her shoulder for the ENTIRE ride. I held on to her tight as we kept rising and falling for 3 long minutes. After the ride, the friend I held on to said that she will NEVER go on that ride ever again. She said that was the scariest ride she had EVER been on. I told her 'see wasn't there a great reason why I was so scared to go on it.' She said that she would listen to my reasons from now on. HAHAHAHA

On Sunday I taught Relief Society (with only 2 days notice). The lesson was about the creation (lesson#5 in the Gospel Principals manual). the lessons in the GP manuals are hard to teach because you only have 2 or 3 pages and you are only suppose to use the manual and the scriptures. When I teach out of the manual I have to plan that I am going to ask ALOT of questions and there is going to be A LOT of participation. I was stressing during the lesson because I was over half way through the lesson and had 30 minutes left. Somehow I asked enough questions towards the end and there was enough participation that I ended on time.

After Relief Society, Robin and I left church early because Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I were leaving to go spend 3 days at the Welk Resort in Escondido. We own a time share there and have been going there one week a year for over 20 years. We LOVE it there!!!! It is a nice place to relax. We love to swim in the 5 pools they have. We usually go see the play they have at the theater and we also make sure we spend some time in San Diego while we are there.

This time, we spent 2 full days in the pool, spa and the fun water slide. We also decided to spend a day in Old Town San Diego because I heard that the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center in Old Town, has a new movie. The Visitor Center just opened back up after a year long renovation. The new movie is AMAZING!!!! It goes into the lives of 8 people who were part of the Battalion. It showed the great faith, obedience and miracles that happened to the people of the battalion The movie makes you feel like you are also apart of the Battalion. At each part of the journey, you walk to a different room where it is set up to make it look and feel like what it would have been like to be there. At the end of the movie, there is a room that is filled with interactive activities and authentic artifacts from people from the Battalion. Also there was a place where you can pan for gold. Jason LOVED that part. He could have spent hours panning for gold. I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone visiting San Diego to go and experience the Visitors Center.

It was a long week filled with fun and amazing activities!!!!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Our Birthday

Last week was Robin and my #)th birthday. We really didn't do too much for our birthday because of the economy and also it has been raining off and on all month. For our birthday Jason took us out to breakfast (which wasn't very much because our breakfast was free). Later that day Robin and I went to the mall just to look around (we didn't buy anything). Grandpa made us tatter Tot Casserole for dinner and then our mom, Jason, Robin and I went to Downtown Disney for 2 hours.



The day after our birthday, our Dad took us out to breakfast and then took us to the shops at Knotts for a few hours (we didn't buy anything there either). Later that night, Dad, Louise, our Mom, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I went to a Ribs/Seafood restaurant for dinner. After that, we came home for cake and ice cream. Our mom got us a $25 gift card for Disneyland shopping and our Dad gave us an amethyst (our birthstone) necklace and ear ring set.



The weather has been better this week and both Robin and Jason had the day off, so today we did our birthday gift from Grandpa, WHALE WATCHING!!!! We have never been whale watching before so we thought that would be something fun to do for such a big occasion. We took a whale watching boat out of Newport Beach and was out about 2 1/2 hours. We didn't see very much but it was still a very enjoyable day. We saw 1 whale (just his back), 5-7 dolphins and about 10 Sea Lions. The group that came back about 30 minutes before we left saw 100's and 100's of dolphins but no whales or Sea Lions. The weather was perfect and the Ocean was beautiful and calm.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Alot has happened since the last update: We went out of town for a few days; I went bowling with my co-workers; and we had HEAVY rain for 4 days in a row.


Since Jason and I rarely have 3 days off in a row at the same time, our family decide to get out of town for a few days. We belong to a RV park that has 2 locations: One in the mountains at Oak Glen, and another one in Riverside County. We use to always go to the one in Oak Glen durring the Fall when they had their apple season (Oak Glen is VERY FAMOUS for their apples). Since we have never been to the other one, we decided to go to that one instead. Its called FISHERMAN'S RETREAT.

We didnt bring our motorhome,so we stayed in one of the trailers they have.







It was a nice place. They had 3 lakes for fishing. Since we didnt bring our fishing poles, we didnt go fishing. But we had a nice time walking around them. Durring our walk, I pulled out 2 fishing bobbers and a bouncy ball from the water (3 less things polluting the water)










There were alot of different kinds of birds around the lakes.










This is "Ruccus" and "Sounder". The owners of FR said that if they start charging, you should stand your ground. If you run, they will run after you. As we were talking our walk around the lakes, they started charging at me, so I stood my ground. It didnt work. They started attacking and biting me (it didnt hurt). After a few minutes, they walked away. Amber wanted me to go find them so she could take a picture as they attaced me again. She thought it would be HILLARIOUS to caption the picture "Don't meet them the same way Robin met them. They like to get up close and personal". Everyone thinks Amber is the nice and sweet one. If she's SOOOO SWEET, why did she want me to get attacked again just so she could get a picture????? I told her she should be the one to get an "up close and personal" encounter with them. She didnt like that idea.

Jason LOVED it at FR because we were RIGHT by the rail road tracks. We must have seen at least 50 trains while we were there. He didnt sleep much because he was up all night watching trains.



Next to FR was an old school. It was originally gray. Then they painted it the traditional red. Then they painted it back to the origianl gray.


Durring our getaway, we spent a day in Oak Glen (where we use to go). At OG, they have a shopping village, a small zoo, and a museum with both real and stuffed animals. Durring the Fall, it's busy and full of people. But, since is durring their off season, OG was more like a ghost town. But it was nice seeing it again. We hadn't been up there since before Amber and I went on our missions 8 years ago.







We had a GREAT time on our getaway.

Jason's store (Home Depot) is ALWAYS having parties and events. I have be waiting for over 5 YEARS for my store (Kohl's) to have an activity away from the store. I FINALLY got my wish. The night after we got back from the getaway, my store had a party at a nearby bowling alley. About 60 associates showed up. Although I had praticed bowling on our Wii System for 2 days, I didnt bowl very good (who knew there's a difference between Wii bowling and real bowling). I still had fun though.

Since then, we have been held up in our house because of rain. We have had 4 straight days of HEAVY rain. This is because we are in an El Nino year (occurs once every 5 years) El Nino brings ALOT of HEAVY rain to our area. We have had about 6 inches of rain since Monday. If we didnt have a drain in our back yard, our house would have been flooded. The storm on Tuesday brought tornados and tornado warrings. I learned on the news that durring El Nino years, our area of Southern California has more tornados and tornado warrings then any other place this side of the Continental Divide.

This is our back yard


This is the water flowing down the street in front of our house. The water is above the sidewalk.


This is a picture of a leaf floating in our back yard.


This is what we call "The Waterfall". We love going to see it either durring or after a heavy rain storm. You wouldnt know it by looking at it that the ONLY time there is water here is when it rains. If its not raining, it's COMPLETLY dry.




There was SOOO MUCH water here, these boys were using their surf boards to float down the makeshift river.


All this rain gave Amber and I a chance to work on on hobby and allowed us time to update our websites. Here are links to our websites for our hobby: http://beholdyourlittleonesnursery.blogspot.com/
http://beholdyourlittleones.webs.com/