November 2020

The high school state volleyball tournament was very different this year. Instead of being down at UVU for all of the matches, they ended up having them at the higher seeded schools, and then for 3A and 4A we went to Richfield and did the last few rounds. I got to be the R1 for the 4A final, which was fun. Wes snapped a picture of me on the live stream since he couldn't be there. For the 5 and 6A they had the last two days at Hillcrest High school. I was able to work the 6A semi-final match and then the table for the Final match. That was fun. It's always fun to be with my reffing buddies, doing what I love.

Since early in the summer I have been playing sand volleyball once or twice a week at my friend Jen's courts in her back yard. The weather has been so nice lately that we are still playing, well into November.

Tyson turned 9 years old! What a fun kid he has become. He is usually very happy, and always bouncing around. He is the first to get ready for bed, or to do anything I ask. He loves cold cereal with milk, and he always has his headphones on watching YouTube on his tablet. He is obsessed with gorillas and King Kong, as you can see from them guarding his cereal bowl. This year he got some fun presents, and chose to eat at Waffle Love for his birthday dinner.

We were lucky, because we were able to attend Oakley's football banquet right before the Governor shut everything down for two weeks to try and get the virus back under control. Oak's coach had great things to say about him, and we are so proud of him for working hard this season.

One day, Oakley's school got cancelled because the power went out, so he and I went shopping and did some other things. Then he wanted to scare his brothers and put his funny mask and his glasses on to trick them when they got off the bus. Silly kid.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty low key. It was just Katy's family and ours at grandma's house. We liked the mellowness of the day.

Tyson built another blanket fort downstairs under the foosball table, and him and Dax slept in there one night. They were so cute all snuggled up under the table.

Whenever we go to Target, Dax always makes me take a picture of him in the circle. He is such a funny kid.

Our Christmas tree this year. We are ready for the holidays.

Oceanside 2020

Because we have been stuck at home most of the year and not really able to travel much, we decided to go early to California and spend a few nights in Vegas. We stayed at Circus Circus and had a great time. We were on the very top floor of the hotel and had an awesome view. The first night we just walked around and checked everything out. The next day we bought tickets to the Adventuredome, which is their indoor amusement park, and spent most of the day in there enjoying all the rides. Some of them were pretty crazy and spun you around and turned you upside down. Good thing Wes will go with the boys on those ones.

One of the coolest parts of the day, was that there was a new ride that they had just put in, and they were testing it all morning. We just happened to walk by a little later and a guy told us they were almost done and wondered if we wanted to be the first to ride it. Of course Tyson jumped at the chance. He said he could mark that off his bucket list, haha. Here they are waiting in line and being the first kids to every ride the ride. 

After a few hours of fun, we went on a ride to see the new Raiders stadium. It was pretty sweet. Can't wait to attend a football game there. 

Then we went back and let the kids go to the arcades there and have fun. Overall, it was a pretty cool place to stay, and we didn't ever really have to go anywhere.

On Sunday, we left Las Vegas, and drove the rest of the way to Oceanside. We were able to get there with enough time to go down to the beach while the sun was still up. The first night on the beach is always magical.

Because of Covid, all the amusement parks were closed, and anything that wasn't closed was so busy you couldn't get in, like the San Diego zoo. So we decided right away that we'd just mostly hang out on the beach and stay local the whole week. It turned out great, and the boys loved just being able to play all day in the sand.

These are probably the two best sunset pictures that I've ever taken in Oceanside. The light couldn't have been any better.

Our meal at Ruby's this year was a little different because they could only have outside dining, so we got to eat out on the pier, with the birds. Boy did they want our food.

More time at the beach. We made sure to go out every day, even if it was a little chilly. The boys didn't care. It was warm enough for them.

One night we pulled out Tyson's chocolate fountain and had a little party with everyone. He loves that thing and wants to use it all the time. I'm glad we finally got to put it to use.

We had never taken the boys down to the La Jolla tide pools, so we went one night right before sunset and it was perfect. The boys had fun climbing all over the rocks and looking for crabs and fish in the pools.

It was a little challenging finding places to eat that could accommodate all ten of us, but we found this yummy pub just up on the main street that had outdoor dining. We will definitely be back there to eat. Tyson also found his street on the walk home.

We also found this really good donut shop up on the main street too with the freshest donuts. On our walk back to the condo we saw this flying pigs sign and I had to have a picture.

The boys had never really been over to the harbor either, so we decided to take a trip there one day. It was fun to walk around and see all the sea lions just bathing in the sun and rolling over each other on the docks. One was even in one of the docked boats. It was pretty funny.

Our last day on the beach we traced Oakley in the sand, and made this awesome drip castle with a river running down it and a mote around it. It was pretty epic. We were sad to say goodbye to the sand.

On our drive home, we ended up stopping in St. George since my parents were there with their condo. We stayed the night and got to swim the next morning before we took off for home. It was nice to not have to drive the whole way in one day.