The Rest of the Story...

We spent Wednesday thru Sunday in Fresno visiting with Adam's sisters. His sister Sheri just bought a brand new house and it is beautiful. We helped her stain the wood fence in her back yard in return for letting us stay with her. We had a really good time visiting every one and had lots of yummy food. The one thing I do love about Fresno (besides family:) is all the wonderful things they grow there. It amazes me to see all the lemons, oranges, almonds, and grapes growing every where. If I lived there I would have one of every kind of tree. We took in a movie and swam at Mendi's house but other than that is was mostly just relaxing. Thanks all you Frenso-ites for being so great to us.

P.S. We tried to go to a session at the Fresno Temple but drove around looking for it and missed our scheduled time. We found it an hour later.

Nicklaus standing by Utah's flag. Over 100 states and countries are represented during Jr. World. He missed the parade of flags because he was doing a practice round.

This is Nolan and Mahala at Torrey Pines after Nolan had finished. This is Nolan teeing off on the first hole. Right behind the trees is the ocean. It is breath takingly beautiful and cost a fortune to play.

We left for San Diego on Sunday and went right to Torrey Pines to get Nicklaus registered. Nicklaus did the little putting challenge and then Adam and Nicklaus left us there for him to go do a practice round where he would be playing. Nolan decided to play Torrey Pines which was a chance in a life time. The US Open was held there last year. It is an incredibly beautiful course right on the coast in La Jolla. He was able to hook up with two other men and he even played pretty well, shooting a 4 over. It was pretty boring for Mahala and I, just sitting there waiting for about 3 hours. The next day Adam went to his work conference and Nicklaus did another practice round and Nolan, Mahala and I got dropped off at the beach while Adam went to his conference. The two of them had so much fun playing in the ocean. Mahala was a little scared to go out too far because of sharks but after Nolan told her that they put up shark nets so they couldn't get her she went out in the deep. (She really believed that) Nolan got fried and Mahala did too but not as bad as Nolan.

One of the neatest things was being able to go through a session at the San Diego Temple with Nolan. We have passed by this temple every time we are in San Diego and have never had the opportunity to go but this year my dad was here to watch the kids so we could go. It is the most beautiful temple I have ever been in. Nolan was amazed at being able to go up so high in the temple. It has a big atrium in it and it looks right up next to the angle Moroni. AMAZING.

Ben from England, Marty but his real name was like Chung-Dou from China and Nicklaus

Nicklaus did okay in the tournament. The first day he didn't shoot to well but he came back on the second day and played awesome. The first day he played with a kid from New Zealand and a kid from Columbia who spoke no English. The kid from New Zealand about drove us all nuts. He was too hyperactive to be a golfer. The second day he played with a kid from China and a kid from England. The kid from China had his life coach there yelling at him the whole time, by the 18 hole he was about in tears. It was fun to talk to the parents of the kid from England about the Harry Potter craze. I am really proud of Nicklaus and being able to even qualify to get here. He finished about right in the middle of the pack but next year he says he is going to make it in the top 20.

Okay I am sick of blogging now.

10 DAYS CRAMMED FULL OF FUN

Let me start by saying how this trip began. We had plans on leaving some time Wednesday afternoon and driving maybe to the Nevada state line and staying the night then waking up and finishing the drive to California's Magic Mountain but when you are married to a Britt you find that it is best to never make plans because they are not followed anyways. I got home from work at 5:30 on Monday and was told, yes told that we were leaving at 3:00 the following morning and driving the whole way to California and would get to Magic Mountain just as it opened. I could see disaster written all over this plan, from a tired grumpy husband to 3 onery kids but I happened to get out voted so that is how our vacation started. Luckily for me the kids had all the laundry done and they were completely packed and ready to go. We tried to get some sleep but only managed about 3 hours before we headed out early Tuesday morning. We got to Magic Mountain right as it opened and planned on staying there till it closed at 10:00 but we were pooped by 8:00 and on our way to Fresno by 8:30. But back to Magic Mountain, I can't tell you how much fun we had. Nicklaus isn't quite as brave as Nolan and Mahala and would not ride any of the big thrill rides so we seperated and me and him went to one end of the park, while Adam took Nolan and Mahala to ride all the monster rides. They stood in line for 2 hours for one ride called the X2, which Mahala cried the whole time on. In that time Nicklaus and I rode over 12 rides. Nicklaus got braver as the day went on and finally rode most of the roller coasters. He rode the one that I have pictures, its called the Viper and has 7 loops in it and is extremely high (I chickened out on this one). It's funny the first scarey ride he went on was called Riddlers Revenge and is a stand up roller coaster, it was just me and him and I had to practically drag him through the line. The whole way he just kept saying "I hate you mom, I hate you". To tell you the truth it was pretty scarey but when it was over he looked at me and said "I'm sorry mom, I really love you and that was so fun." The day was a blast and everyone was in just the best of moods. I might add there was one mishap. Nolan lost his cell phone on the roller coaster called the Screamer. Some girl said, "man did you see that cell phone flying through the air?" Nolan felt in his pocket and his was gone. They saw it on the ground under the coaster, (well half of it). That makes 6 cell phones for Nolan in about a year and a half.
I am going to end this post here and will do another one about the rest of the trip because I always end up messing something up and don't want to start over.