Julene's Wedding Day

Jeff and Julene Wilcock
December 23, 2010
Mesa, Arizona Temple



Kelsey did NOT want to get in the picture of the Hardy cousins

"Some" of the Hardy cousins

The Hardy Girls

Grandma Bobbi made all of these dresses for Jeff and Julene's nieces

All the boys (Nate included) wore green cumberbuns and bow ties.

Julene with all her siblings

Haylee with some cool Arizona cactus

Mackenzie and the cactus

Kelsey with the temple lights

It was so neat to see the Arizona temple lights.  We've never actually gone to the LA temple lights.  The lights were beautiful.  They also had some neat Nativity scenes from all over the world in the visitor's center.

A nice missionary took a picture of our family and Spencer

Julene had her choir students singing Christmas carols outside the reception.  The family stepped in for awhile to give them a break and Haylee had a solo part singing the second verse of Silent Night.

 CUTE KELSEY

Natalee found out that she LOVES to dance.  She had a great time dancing with her cousin Spencer.

The girls also loved dancing with dad.  Here is Daren dancing with Mackenzie.

I think they got off easy with their car decorations.  Rumor has it that nobody thought of it and this was pulled together at the last minute.

The Mesa Temple is SO beautiful!  The inside was gorgeous too.  Julene got married on my birthday and it has to be one of the best birthdays I ever had.  It was so neat to be in this beautiful temple with all of Daren's family in the sealing room.

Thanksgiving Highlights Part 2

     Now that I have 2 cameras, I end up with pictures in 2 different places.  So here are the pictures from my other camera of our Thanksgiving adventures:
     Daren and I took Natalee, Mackenzie, and Spencer hiking on the trail through time.
(Finally! We've been talking about hiking this trail our whole marriage.)




 In the above picture they are actually standing next to the parts of the camarasaurus skeleton as shown below, but it's pretty hard to see.

 I think it's a lot easier to see the parts of the diplodocus skeleton in the picture below.

More cute pictures of Kelsey and Nathan.

     The Turkey Trot didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped.  The weather was great when we first got to Grand Junction.  But Thanksgiving morning it was literally freezing outside.  We decided to leave Kelsey and Nathan home.  Spencer took Kelsey's number.  Haylee wouldn't get into the picture.  When we finally started walking, Mackenzie was crying so much that I decided to turn around and take her back to the car.  Haylee jumped on that plan and came with us.  Then Mackenzie was crying that she wasn't with Daren so we started walking again.  But then we were so far behind that we couldn't catch up so she cried again.  Finally I just took her back and we got donuts at Albertsons and waited for the others to finish and meet us at the car.  I think if we do this again, Daren and I will go alone! :)

There were so many people doing the Turkey Trot!

We went bowling for Spencer's birthday.

Random Cuteness Again

     I can't believe it's already December.  I'm starting to get worried that I'm not going to finish blogging for the whole year.  I never did get caught up on the things that happened before I started this blog.  In fact, I'm even having trouble keeping up with all of the things that are happening currently.  I'll keep at it.  In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures that needed posting.

Haylee and Kelsey by the Christmas tree.  We got a new tree on clearance after Christmas last year.  It's pre-lit, and quite a bit smaller than our old one.  We didn't want one as fat because it seemed like it took up too much space.  This one is just perfect!

Kelsey wearing a new shirt that she got from her cousin Audrey.  She put on her black skirt and sandals (also courtesy of Audrey) and really started strutting around!

The Santa Train-December 2, 2010

     We were so lucky to get tickets to the Santa Train again this Christmas.  This is such a nice service that some families with trains offer to families here in Ridgecrest.  The kids get to see Santa and also go on a very fun train ride.  I almost didn't bother to go grab my camera but Daren insisted.  I was feeling disappointed when my batteries died after just a few pictures.  But Daren reminded me that I almost didn't have any pictures at all.  :)  Here are the ones we got.

Natalee with Santa

Kelsey and Haylee with Santa-Kelsey didn't want to go near Santa alone.

Mackenzie with Santa





Waiting to ride the train!

Thanksgiving Highlights-Part 1

Nathan and Kelsey snuggling.  I love it when she calls him Nathe.  She hasn't quite figured out that his nickname is "NaTe."  P.S.  For any smart-alecks out there, we don't actually spell it with a capital T, I was just emphasizing the 't' sound. :)

I loved this one and the next one.  Couldn't choose.

Nathan adored his Grandma Bobbi.  Here she got him giggling like crazy.  Right until I figured out how to record videos with my new camera.

Nathan also fell asleep on his grandma so many times.  He loved cuddling with her.



A very big highlight was going with Julene to watch her pick out her wedding dress. She looks absolutely stunning in it and we are so excited to go to her wedding in the Mesa, AZ temple on December 23, 2010!



Haylee in the leaves.  The kids loved Grandma's leaves!

Thanksgiving 2010-COUSINS

        It has been a long time since the girls have seen their Fleming cousins.  It was so great to have the whole family in Colorado for Thanksgiving and for Caleb's baptism.  We also got to meet 2 new cousins.  John and Kathleen's baby girl Kyla (Kyla was born 11 days after Nathan), and Jena and Brian's little girl Ashley.  Ashley was born a couple of months after Kyla.  All 3 babies were within 3 months of each other.

Kelsey and Kyla

Nathan and Kyla-I don't know why it made the picture sideways

All 3 new cousins: Kyla, Ashley, and Nathan.  Again, sideways?



Our family with Caleb at his baptism on Thanksgiving day



Diana and Kelsey became the best of friends this trip

Diana holding Nathan

Mackenzie and Grant



Haylee and Caleb



Natalee and Spencer



New Car (or 'Van on Steroids' as some say)

     We had a bit of car trouble on our way to Colorado for Thanksgiving.  We felt very blessed to make it there safely after overheating on the I-70 just east of Salina.  We felt very blessed to have been helped by some very wonderful people as well.  The radiator cap had come off so we were out of fluid.  One of our good samaritans even drove to Salina to buy us some antifreeze.  We got back on the road and thought we had escaped without any major damage.  We made it the rest of the way to Colorado and even drove around a bit for the next few days.  It wasn't until Thanksgiving morning that we started having problems.  The check engine light came on and we could feel a difference in the driving.  We dropped it at the dealership and waited to hear from them the next day.  We thought we lucked out again and just had a burn coil that needed replacing.  But as we pulled out Saturday morning to head back to Ridgecrest, the engine light came on again.  We could smell antifreeze and we just knew we didn't want to risk driving 700 miles on that engine.  Especially with a car full of small children!
     So.....we drove to the Ford dealership and bought our monster van!  It's a 2010 E-350 that had 17,000 miles on it and still had a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.  I feel incredibly old driving it, but it is so roomy!  It's a 12 passenger so we now have plenty of room to drive friends around.  I admit that I cried about losing my Honda Odyssey.  I got really attached after 7 1/2 years.  And I still really miss some things about it.  But I'm learning to like the new van too.

     Pictures of us broken down on the side of the road. The car was steaming so much while Daren was pouring in water.

    One last picture of our Honda Odyssey.  This is when I started to feel teary.  I know, pathetic! 

      The girls absolutely LOVE all the space!

      Here she is!  We need to think of a name for this behemoth.  Something that says giant, white thing.  I'm leaning towards Moby Dick right now unless someone can think of something better.

      Kelsey fell out of the van the day after we got back from Colorado.  Now she won't get out by herself.  I think that's a good thing for now.