California Weekend

The first weekend in January, we went to California for my niece's baptism. Since the baptism didn't start until late afternoon on Saturday, we headed down to Balboa Park that morning...

... and used our Lowell Observatory membership to get into the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. That membership sure is coming in handy! The family spent a LOT of time making things roll on this spinning table.

Brandon did his own thing most of the time, but it was fun to see him so curious about all the exhibits.

This tornado was really cool.

Kallie liked listening to her voice changing.

I used to do this at home with the mirrored closet door when I was a kid.

This exhibit was a hologram of a spring. When Paige put her hand down inside to try to figure out what was going on, she was startled by a hologram of her hand popping up!

Look guys! A picture of me! Taken by me in the human kaleidoscope.

Brandon loved trying to catch the ball.

Paige has two cousins close to her age, and the one on the left happens to be the one who was baptized that day.

My youngest niece is so adorable!

These two and their ipod touches... they are probably texting each other.

Kyle butted in on this picture of Will and Sam.

The older kids weren't the only ones playing with electronics.

My youngest nephew, Mason.

This little guy has a million different facial expressions, and he's a good conversationalist, too!

Brandon's turn.

It looks like a meeting of the teens, and Erin is the president.

Being goofy.

Sunday morning before church, I wanted to get a picture of Kallie in her cowgirl boots to send to my mom, but all the kids wanted me to take their pictures, too, and so it was.

We went to Grandma, Grandpa, Ian, Katie, Patrick, and Mason's ward, which just so happens to have a small slice of the ward we used to be in when we lived in California. It was fun to see some people from way back when!

After church, we headed back up to my uncle's house for a delicious dinner. My cousin, Laura, set up a cute little tea party for my kids. My girls LOVED staying in Laura's room... it was like the best slumber party ever!

My in-laws live very close to our favorite burger stand, Charley's. We saw it every time we drove to their house, and I was determined to get a chance to eat there! On Monday right before we headed back to Arizona, my wish finally came true.

Mmmm... I want another Charley burger now.