Go Fish!!!

So, I'd been noticing that my life had been super lame, as of late, and I needed to change that.  Pronto.  Afterall, I'm a nice girl and I deserve to have a good time, right? Right!  And, thanks to Abraham Lincoln and our lovely Commanders in Chief, I had TWO three day weekends in a row.  The first one was a bust.  I can't even tell you what I did...I don't even know!  So, I was determined to make the second one count.  On Friday night, I started thinking about what I wanted to do and it came to me:  fishing!  Yes, I love to fish.  No, I'm not a hardcore fisher-woman (is that even a word!?!).  In fact, I'm not sure what I would even do if I actually caught something, though, I imagine I would probably scream and run away or something like that.  I mainly love fishing because it's so relaxing and super convenient at the moment, since my brother and his family live right across the street from a lake.  I didn't think that it would be feasible to go fishing that weekend since my brother and sis-in-law have been super busy, so I did what you do with all unrealized dreams: I put it on Facebook (lol).  And, much to my surprise, Melissa, my super awesome sister-in-law responded almost immediately and told me to come up and we could fish the next day!  Yessss!  So, I threw some stuff in a bag and headed up the hill, where I got to hang out with my crazy adorable nephews and, of course, David and Wiss!  The next day, we went fishing! 

Here's my happy reunion with my awesome, pink fishing pole!

My 4 year old nephew, Cy, wanted to use my pole, but it was too big for him to handle, so he said, "Here Auntie Rach.  You cast it and I'll hold it."  and that's exactly what we did. I casted the line a million times and then passed it over to him to hold and reel in!  haha  He's adorable!

Me casting, him holding  : )

Anyhow, it was an awesome day!  We all had a good time and Wiss even got the catch of the day...

A tumbleweed!

Good times!  : )

My New Blog!

I don't really have a favorite movie...can never choose just one...or even 10!  BUT one of the movies I absolutely love is "Dead Poet's Society".  If you haven't seen it, you really should; it's great!  Not a knee slapper or a chick flick, by any means, but good nonetheless.  Every time I watch it, I get the urge to read poetry, write poetry, eat, sleep, drink, and sleep poetry!  So, I headed on over to Pinterest (where else would I go, really!?!) to create a super awesome board for all of my favorite poems.  Unfortunately, you can only "pin" stuff that has a picture with it and most of the pages with my fave poems on them are sans photos.  Sad day.  That's when I decided that I had to have a central location to keep my favorite verses at my fingertips.  Solution:  start a poetry blog and include pictures, just in case I decide to go ahead and make that pin board afterall.

Here's the URL if you're interested:
http://poetrysongsofthesoul.blogspot.com/

It's, by no means, a comprehensive collection of all good poems and it's still a work in progress, but if you're interested and have a few minutes, feel free to check it out!

Flashback: 2011

January

The first outing of the year was a trip to Calico Ghost Town with my parents, Joey, Aaron, and Cy.  We hadn't been there in a long time and it was a ton of fun!

Later that month, the whole family (those that live in California, at least) headed down to Escondido to go to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park).  It was baby Jonathan's first big trip and he spent most of it snuggled up.  I love going places as a family!

February

Thanks to an extremely late Super Bowl, February started with our annual Super Bowl party!  I love this tradition.  It's on a Sunday, so we don't go super crazy, but it's a time where the family gets together to share some time and snacks.  Those who are interested in watching the game watch it on the big screen in the family room; those who don't really care about the game get to hang out, play games, and play with the kiddos, who, this year, put on a show of their own. : )

On February 12th, I celebrated my one year anniversary of being endowed by heading down to the Newport Beach Temple with my mom.  It was a cool experience.  As I write this, it's been nearly 2 years since I chose to take that step and go to the temple and I can honestly say that it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Later that month, my parents and I, along with David, Melissa, and the boys, went down to San Diego to spend a couple of days.  The first day we went to Old Town and also got to visit the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center.  

We all spent the night in a hotel and then went to the zoo and Balboa Park the following day.  We tried to get dinner at Phil's BBQ, which David had heard was a must-try, but they are closed on Mondays (we were there on Monday) : (  Sad day!  BUT the trip in general was awesome!

March

This month we went on a great adventure in which we relied solely on public transportation.  Jacob had planned out the whole thing and he and Nancy were kind enough to invite me to join them and the boys.  We woke up super early and caught the Metrolink-a first for me-to LA. From there we went on foot and took various city buses, express buses, and even the subway to navigate around.  We got to see Grand Central Station, the La Brea Tar Pits and museum, the Miracle Mile, the Santa Monica Pier, among other things, before we headed back home on the Metrolink.  All in all, a pretty cool day!

The Long Beach Aquarium had a couple of week where teachers could get in free, so we took advantage of that.  My parents, Nancy, and I went and had a good day.  We even ran into Gwen Stefani, who was there with her kids.

April

At the beginning of April, we went to General Conference.  It was fun to spend time with Diane, and Daniel and Tyisa.  It also snowed while we were there.  I'm not a huge fan of snow, but it was SO beautiful as it fell and it was pretty cool to wake up to a real winter/spring wonderland.  I have always wanted to see Temple Square in the snow, so that was fun.  : )

At the end of the month, Prince William married Kate Middleton.  You're probably wondering exactly why that has anything to do with me.  The answer:  Nancy and I both called in sick to stay up all night and watch the wedding...wearing tiaras and eating yummy wedding treats, including a real English trifle.  

After staying up ALL night, I hopped on the road to Fresno, with my parents, to go to Scott and Michelle Harmstead's wedding.  They are the cousins I never knew I had...no, really!  And they are awesome!

After the wedding reception, we went to Old Town Clovis where we explored tons of little shops, many of them were antique shops (another first for me).  It turned out to be a really awesome diversion!  Totally a walk down memory lane.

May

May was the month of a million surprises.  As the school year wound down, my dad was informed that he had won the Distinguished Service Award for his District and would be honored at a board meeting/awards night.  My dad never goes to those kinds of things, but was actually really excited about this one.  This is the highest award one can get in his District.  So, of course, we all went to cheer him on on his special night.

After that, my dad, who had planned on retiring the following year, found out that the school district might be offering a deal to long-time teachers to allow them to retire earlier.  My dad submitted paperwork to confirm his interest in taking the deal, but he never, in a million years, thought that the deal would really be accepted.  However, only a few days before the end of the school year, he found out that it was a done deal and that he would be retiring in a bout a week, rather than the year had had planned on.  So surreal for him and all of us.  He had been teaching for about 35 years and his retirement came as a shock to everyone, including him.  So exciting!

June

June was a crazy-busy month.  At the beginning of the month, my parents and I went on a completely unexpected trip to the middle of nowhere Arizona.  Holbrook, to be exact.  It's a dismal place; don't ever go there.  The perk was that we got to do a couple of fun things on the way back.  The Snowflake, AZ Temple was beautiful and we had the pleasure of serving there.

We also got to see the huge meteor crater in Arizona, which was pretty cool.

AND we got to see the real London Bridge at Lake Havasu.  Awesome!

A few days after returning home from Arizona, I had the opportunity to check something off my bucket list as we checked into the Luxor in Las Vegas.  I had never stayed in Vegas before and I had always wanted to stay in the big pyramid hotel, so that's exactly what we did.  We had a great view of the Excalibur right outside our windows.  It was amazing...not gonna lie!  : )

While there, we checked out the Old Mormon Fort and did a session in the Las Vegas Temple, which is SO beautiful!

We stayed one night in Vegas and then headed to Utah for our summer vacay.  There, we did a whole bunch of the stuff that we always do, and some stuff that we've never done.  For example, I attended my first pro soccer game ever.  Diane and I caught a Real Salt Lake game at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy.

I also got to do a session in the beautiful Bountiful Temple.  Awesome!

BUT after so much time away, I missed my little men back home, so on the way back, we stopped by David and Melissa's and picked up the boys for some Auntie Rach time.  We washed my car, which was less about washing the car and more about having a water fight.  We just had a ton of fun and played with random toys, hats, etc.

We also camped in the family room and watched Ernest Goes to Camp at least a million times.  : )

July

July was a very busy month, but it was also a lot of fun!  Mid-month, the LA County Natural History Museum on the USC Campus re-opened its newly re-done dinosaur exhibit.  They did a good job; it was awesome!  Nancy and I drove out there and then Jacob, Anthony, Josh, and Dylan met us there.  

 We spent about half the day there and then raced up to Adelanto where Joey was celebrating his 8th birthday at a Maverick's baseball game.  David and Melissa rented out a skybox and Joey got to invite some friends to join him in the box.  They even got a visit from Wooly Bully, the team's mascot.  It was cute to see Joey with all of his friends, having a great time.

 Later that month my parents and I visited the Getty in LA.  I had been there before, but neither of them had.  So, I was determined to get them there and finally made it happen!  They were definitely impressed by it.

 On the way home, we decided to stop at one of our very favorite restaurants, Northwoods Inn, in Azusa.

 Also, in July, Dylan celebrated his birthday at Rainforest Cafe.  I had never been there before and so it was really cool to experience the atmosphere.

 The following day, I decide that I hadn't taken the boys on an Aunty Rach adventure in a while and that it was time to do so.  I picked them up and took them to Sea World in San Diego.  My mom came along too, which was an awesome added bonus!  We had a great time!  I sure do love those little guys!

 Then, last but not least, we took another trip up to Utah at the very end of the month.  The morning after we got there, we got a big surprise!  Daniel Benjamin Lanford Wheeler Jr. was born on July 30th.  He is so precious and I love him SO much!

August

We ended the month of July and started the month of August in Utah.  We spent time with Diane, Daniel, Tyisa, and Danny.  We also got do a session in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  None of us had been there before so it was very cool to go together. 

We went home on August 3rd, Diane's birthday,  so we got to celebrate with her before we started our trip home.  We went to Brick Oven Pizza in Provo so that Daniel and Tyisa could be there too, while still allowing Daniel enough time to get to class.  We ate at the restaurant and then went to Daniel's place for some BYU Creamery ice cream and cake.  

When they sang happy birthday to Diane, they made her stand on her chair! haha

When we got home, I decided to try and be a little more social than I had been in a while.  My friend, Valerie had a dinner party and invited me, along with a few other people.  Afterwards, I had planned on going to the Rancho dance and was able to convince some friends to go too!

It was a "blast from the past" type of theme and Jana went in 60s garb, while Sara went as an 80s girl.  I had planned on going in 80s fashion, but my hair crimper didn't come in time, so instead I just went as me. : )  That night was super fun!

The next day, August 13th, we went to the circus!!!  I LOVE the circus and Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey is pretty much the creme de la creme of circuses!

On August 20th, my friend Daely, her cousin Eric, and I went to the LA Zoo.  Daely hadn't been to the zoo since elementary school so this was a big MUST!  We had tons of fun!

After the LA Zoo, we went to the LA Temple Visitors Center for awhile, and then headed up to Griffith Observatory for our Ward activity.  We had to park a looooong way away and had to hike up this huge hill.  We were just about to the top of the hill when I stepped to the side to avoid a pipe that was running through the path and I twisted my foot a little bit.  It kinda hurt, but I shook it off and kept walking.  About 5 steps later, I heard a pop and knew that my foot was broken.  Daely walked back down the hill and brought my car to me, then we switched drivers and I drove us home.  I insisted on driving so that I wouldn't have to just sit and focus on the pain and stress of having just broken a bone.  The next morning I went to the doctor and the doctor was sure that it wasn't broken because I had walked on it, but she did an x-ray to appease me and then returned to tell me that it was broken  : (   Therefore, the last part of August kind of sucked, BUT the greatness of the first half of the month nearly made up for it.  : )

September

I spent September in a cast, which meant limited comfort and limited mobility.  The highlight of the month was Joey's baptism!  On September 3rd, Joey was baptized by David and officially became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  What an awesome day!

Joey with his proud parents, David and Melissa!

Most of the family that attended

At the end of the month, I turned 27.  I just had a low-key "party" with just my siblings and parents.

October

The first weekend in October, Nancy and I went to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate my birthday.  She took me to see the amazing Titanic exhibit in the Luxor.  We also stayed at the Luxor and just took the weekend to relax and just hang out.  We didn't go out on the strip, though there was the obligatory trip to Target, of course!  ; )  The exhibit was amazing, as was spending some quality time with my big sis!  <3

 The following week, my mom, Nancy, Jacob, Joshua, Dylan, and I went to Northwoods Inn for my birthday dinner!  Delish!

Also, in October, I got to hang out with my forever friend, Tamara, and her 2 little boys, Scott and Adam.  I happened to be babysitting Josh and Dylan that day, so we took all 4 little boys and went to the Mary Vagle Nature Center in South Fontana.  I love that place!  It was fun for the boys to play together and I always LOVE getting to hang out with Tamara!  She's awesome and I'm lucky to have had her as a friend for 25 years and counting!

This year was the first year in a very long time that I decided to dress up for Halloween.  Daely had a birthday/Halloween party, so I figured it would be a good idea to find a costume.  I was a ladybug.  At Daely's awesome party, we had a silly string war!  It was so much fun!  I had never been in one where everyone was actually prepared; there were colored string everywhere!

I also wore the same costume to the Ward Halloween party!  On Halloween, I had a doctor's appointment for my foot and found out that I would still be in my cast for another couple of weeks, as a result, I was super bummed and decided not to go up the hill for Cy's birthday party...I didn't want to be a downer : )  So I stayed home and carved a pumpkin all by myself!

This is the only picture I got of it and it was taken on my cell phone, so the quality isn't the greatest, but there it is!  Mickey Mouse!

November

November was, again, a busy month.  It always is since it leads right into the official holiday season. On November 11th, I got to go to our Annual YSA Fall Formal.  It was fun getting all dolled up and going out.  I didn't really even think of getting a date for this dance; I figured all of my friends and I would show up and have a great time, but upon arrival, I discovered that ALL of my friends had paired up that night.  So, I decided to call Scott, a guy in my ward, and ask him to be my date for the night.  He was all the way in Redlands, but said he would.  I hadn't known him very long at that point and was worried that he wouldn't even know who I was when I called, but thankfully, he did!  He didn't get there until about 11 (I called him around 10 pm), but we still had a great time.  We all went to BJ's after the dance a had fun.  Here's a picture of the girls at the dance:

 A few days later, November 18th, I found out that they were doing the Christmas Tree lighting at Victoria Gardens, so I invited the family to come.  It was a spur of the moment thing and David was working late, but Melissa brought the boys down and she, the boys, my mom, and I went to the mall to see the tree being lit.  We didn't get to the actual tree until it had already been lit, but we did get there in time for the snow (aka soap bubbles) and a pretty sweet firework show.  Afterwards we played in Bass Pro Shop for a bit.

The next night, Val had a Thanksgiving dinner party at the apartment she shared with Jana and she invited me to come.  It was so much fun!  It had been awhile since I had laughed that hard and it still always amazes me that I'm like...a grown-up...and that I can get together with friends...and that we're capable of putting together a "big kid" meal all on our own!  Here are some of the people that came:

 Jana Olson, Sara Snyder, and me

Me,  Scott McDermott, Carlos Reyes, and Gus Falcon

It was a fun night, for sure!

We had a fairly low key Thanksgiving and then the day after Thanksgiving, Diane and I went to San Diego to spend a night in the Westgate Hotel.  We did this last year too (except it was in September, last year) and it was just as awesome this time around.  

I just love room service because it means that you can be in your jammies and have someone bring dinner right to your room.  Doesn't get much better than that!  On this trip, we also visited the San Diego Temple, Old Town, the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, Cabrillo National Monument, the Point Loma Lighthouse, and tried out Phil's BBQ for the very first time.  I'm not going to go into too much detail here because I wrote all about it when I initially blogged about it.  We had an amazing time!

When we got back from San Diego, we headed straight over to Nancy's new house for her housewarming party.  That night, we found out that it's not a party until the fire department comes!  Here we are, waiting outside, for the firemen to give us the "all clear"!  : )  haha

November was a pretty good month!

December

December always has a rough beginning because, working at a school means that by the first couple weeks of December, you are SO ready for Christmas break and so are all the kids.  It really is just an exercise in survival.  This year I had even more to look forward to than just break; we decided to go to Disney World in Florida for the first week of our break!  Soooo crazy and spontaneous, but lots of fun!  We visited: 

Epcot

 Animal Kingdom

 Hollywood Studios

 Magic Kingdom

AND

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando!

All of them were AMAZING!!!

We got home very, very late on the 23rd and pretty much skipped right to Christmas Eve.  Here we are (except for my parents) sporting our new Team Wheeler shirts that Nancy gave each of us for Christmas!  I love my family!

And last, but not least, we all went to Sea World together at the very end of the month while the parents went to the Holiday Bowl.  Nancy, Jacob, and the boys joined us later.  The only ones missing were Daniel, Tyisa, and Danny.

Overall, 2011 was a good year!  I met some awesome new people, made some new friends, and did some new things.  Hopefully 2012 can top it!