My dad started a company called Heritage Makers, which is an online scrapbooking company where you can make books, posters, playing cards, calendars, and all types of fun "heritage-related" items that will warm your heart. They are the perfect gift for Christmas time if you want something unique and personalized. (Check out the website at http://www.heritagemakers.com/.)
They hold a "reunion" every year for all of the distributors in the company, and this year it was in California at the Anaheim Convention Center next to Disneyland. My two brothers and sister work at the home office with my dad, and so they all go to put on the conventions for the company. My brother Brytt invited me to go to and help his wife that's 7 months pregnant with the kids while he was working at the convention. As you can imagine, I was ecstatic! I couldn't wait to go and play at Disneyland with my niece and nephew and spend some good quality time with my sweet sister-in-law and siblings! 
My sister Bryndi and I saying goodbye to our two cousins, Cindy and Erin who took us to the airport!
Here's the view of Disneyland from our hotel balcony.
Shot of Anaheim Convention Center and beautiful sunset from hotel.
After a busy day with the convention, all the distributors had the chance to do a night pass at Disneyland. We went and had a blast! Here's the Heritage Makers group lining up to get a picture with Mickey at the front of the theme park. (hence the huge ladder in the middle of the road)
It's good to see that my mom and dad still have that "spark" after all these years. I snapped this picture without them knowing.
My dad and mom treated us to a nice pot roast or fried chicken dinner at one of the restaraunts in Disneyland. We had great seats and could see the parade between the shrubs in front of us as we ate. After that, my dad and sister left to get some shut eye, and my mom, brother, and me left to enjoy the night out on the disneyland town!
This is my brother Marsh waiting in line for the Indiana Jones ride. I wondered how many people have kissed that same spot through the years... hope he washed his mouth afterwards, but the laugh was worth it!
STILL waiting for the Indiana Jones ride... it was a long line!
We went at the end of September, so everywhere was already decorated for Halloween. Since my husband couldn't come and had to work, I thought that Mr. Jack-O-Lantern could be my date for the night.
The carousel.... my mom's favorite ride! It wouldn't be the same without my brother there doing something crazy and funny at each attraction.
It was late and we were getting tired, but there was no way we were going to quit! We wanted to use every penny of that ticket! This is Marsh and me in front of Jaws??? Or is it Pinnochio's whale?
Spinning on the teacup ride. You always need to do a good ol' fashioned disney beginner, except you can't eat until an hour after this ride.
Mom and son.
Trying to keep us from boredom in the lines with crazy pictures.
They have a formal banquet every year and give out awards and recognition to those distributors who have met goals and reached different levels in the company that year. The theme this year was "The Royal Ball" and puffy princess dresses were encouraged. I was lucky I still had all my old pageant formals to choose from and found my old dress from Miss Spanish Fork float days in the summer hiding away in the back of the closet. I was thrilled I could zip it up since this was a dress I wore when I was 17(THANK YOU half marathon!). My sister and mom both looked stunning in their formals.
It was fun to see my parents in formal wear and to hear my dad comment on how beautiful my mom looked. You should have seen her shoes! They had red and bluelights inside the heels that would flash on and off everytime she took a step. It looked like she had fireworks coming out the bottom of her dress! So cool!
My mom was sweet and snuck upstairs after the banquet to watch the kids so I could go down and see part of the awards ceremony.
Patti, my sister Bryndi, Chris, and my dad all giving out awards and hugs at the ceremony.
Congratulating the first distributor to receive her award.
This is the group of distributors who earned a free cruise for two this year.
My brother Marshyl all dressed shnazzy helping the distributors up the stairs
My brother Brytt was the announcer for the evening and dressed up as a Prince to fit the theme. He did a great job, especially since he got an average of 2 hours of sleep a night.
Babysitting Fun! Aren't these two just the most adorable kids you've ever seen?! I love being an aunt and had such a great time hanging out with these cuties.
My sis-in-law Jinger tickling her daughter Brynlee. As you can see, she has baby #3 on the way! I was so impressed with how well she did considering how close she is to her due date. She is such an incredible mom and I loved asking her parenting questions and soaking in all the knowledge I could. It's unbelievable to me how smart and well-mannered her kids are at such a young age, and it's because of her!
Brynlee is only 1.5 years old, yet she is fearless when it comes to water! She was even jumping in from the sides and her head would go all the way under, and then she would come up smiling and giggling and do it again!
Several people asked how old she was and couldn't believe how brave she was with the water at such a young age! We swam almost everyday we were there.
This is Ireland, her older brother. He also loves the water and likes to jump in!
My sister-in-law Jinger and I took the kiddos to Disneyland while their daddy worked and had so much fun! Here's some pictures from the adventure.
Ireland and me with Mickey.
My sister-in-law Jinger started a fun tradition with her family. Every time they go to Disneyland, they get icecream on Main Street. We got sherbert and boy was it good! Look at Brynlee grinning from ear to ear! She loved it!
Carousel Fun!
Ireland and Me.
Jinger and her daughter Brynnlee.
Jinger with her two cuties. I had so much fun and really enjoyed spending time with family. What a great way to start the fall season. Thank you Brytt and Jinger for giving me such a great experience and opportunity to learn more tricks of the trade on how to be a great parent!
My sister Bryndi and I saying goodbye to our two cousins, Cindy and Erin who took us to the airport!
Here's the view of Disneyland from our hotel balcony.
Shot of Anaheim Convention Center and beautiful sunset from hotel.After a busy day with the convention, all the distributors had the chance to do a night pass at Disneyland. We went and had a blast! Here's the Heritage Makers group lining up to get a picture with Mickey at the front of the theme park. (hence the huge ladder in the middle of the road) It's good to see that my mom and dad still have that "spark" after all these years. I snapped this picture without them knowing. My dad and mom treated us to a nice pot roast or fried chicken dinner at one of the restaraunts in Disneyland. We had great seats and could see the parade between the shrubs in front of us as we ate. After that, my dad and sister left to get some shut eye, and my mom, brother, and me left to enjoy the night out on the disneyland town!
This is my brother Marsh waiting in line for the Indiana Jones ride. I wondered how many people have kissed that same spot through the years... hope he washed his mouth afterwards, but the laugh was worth it!
STILL waiting for the Indiana Jones ride... it was a long line!
We went at the end of September, so everywhere was already decorated for Halloween. Since my husband couldn't come and had to work, I thought that Mr. Jack-O-Lantern could be my date for the night.
The carousel.... my mom's favorite ride! It wouldn't be the same without my brother there doing something crazy and funny at each attraction.
It was late and we were getting tired, but there was no way we were going to quit! We wanted to use every penny of that ticket! This is Marsh and me in front of Jaws??? Or is it Pinnochio's whale?
Spinning on the teacup ride. You always need to do a good ol' fashioned disney beginner, except you can't eat until an hour after this ride.
Mom and son.
Trying to keep us from boredom in the lines with crazy pictures.
They have a formal banquet every year and give out awards and recognition to those distributors who have met goals and reached different levels in the company that year. The theme this year was "The Royal Ball" and puffy princess dresses were encouraged. I was lucky I still had all my old pageant formals to choose from and found my old dress from Miss Spanish Fork float days in the summer hiding away in the back of the closet. I was thrilled I could zip it up since this was a dress I wore when I was 17(THANK YOU half marathon!). My sister and mom both looked stunning in their formals.
It was fun to see my parents in formal wear and to hear my dad comment on how beautiful my mom looked. You should have seen her shoes! They had red and bluelights inside the heels that would flash on and off everytime she took a step. It looked like she had fireworks coming out the bottom of her dress! So cool!
My mom was sweet and snuck upstairs after the banquet to watch the kids so I could go down and see part of the awards ceremony.Patti, my sister Bryndi, Chris, and my dad all giving out awards and hugs at the ceremony.
Congratulating the first distributor to receive her award.
This is the group of distributors who earned a free cruise for two this year.
My brother Marshyl all dressed shnazzy helping the distributors up the stairs
My brother Brytt was the announcer for the evening and dressed up as a Prince to fit the theme. He did a great job, especially since he got an average of 2 hours of sleep a night.
Babysitting Fun! Aren't these two just the most adorable kids you've ever seen?! I love being an aunt and had such a great time hanging out with these cuties.My sis-in-law Jinger tickling her daughter Brynlee. As you can see, she has baby #3 on the way! I was so impressed with how well she did considering how close she is to her due date. She is such an incredible mom and I loved asking her parenting questions and soaking in all the knowledge I could. It's unbelievable to me how smart and well-mannered her kids are at such a young age, and it's because of her!
Brynlee is only 1.5 years old, yet she is fearless when it comes to water! She was even jumping in from the sides and her head would go all the way under, and then she would come up smiling and giggling and do it again!
Several people asked how old she was and couldn't believe how brave she was with the water at such a young age! We swam almost everyday we were there.
This is Ireland, her older brother. He also loves the water and likes to jump in!My sister-in-law Jinger and I took the kiddos to Disneyland while their daddy worked and had so much fun! Here's some pictures from the adventure.
Ireland and me with Mickey.
My sister-in-law Jinger started a fun tradition with her family. Every time they go to Disneyland, they get icecream on Main Street. We got sherbert and boy was it good! Look at Brynlee grinning from ear to ear! She loved it!
Carousel Fun!
Ireland and Me.
Jinger and her daughter Brynnlee.
Jinger with her two cuties. I had so much fun and really enjoyed spending time with family. What a great way to start the fall season. Thank you Brytt and Jinger for giving me such a great experience and opportunity to learn more tricks of the trade on how to be a great parent!
Carson and I decided we should take a vacation to celebrate Carson's graduation and to enjoy some time together before the REAL job starts. We used a couple of free certificates we got from our timeshare we bought last year and partied hard down in fabulous California and Puerto Vallarta! Here's what we did on our trip! Hope you enjoy! DISCLAIMER: You will see more pictures of just me than us together... Carson isn't a big fan of pictures and the only way I could get them sometimes is if I was alone in them! So if you get sick of seeing me, just wait 'till the next post. :)
I must say Carson looks pretty dreamy in this one... maybe it's because he just ate 50,000 calories with me at In-N-Out! That's where the good stuff is!
I don't remember ever going to Hollywood Blvd, so we spent a day down there shopping and enjoying the fake celebrities on the streets. Carson found Dean Martin's square and happily took a picture of his prints! 
This is at the pool right behind the tower we are staying in. It is HUGE! It stretches almost from one of the resort to the other! You can see the beach in the background. You walk a few steps down from the pool and you are right on the sand to the coast! Isn't that great?! We went to Walmart and bouth some squishy balls to throw around in the pool. It was a good way to have some fun right on the resort.
Zoom in on this and you will see an iguana eating the leaves! Carson took this picture from our room balcony.... man he has good eyes! He started yelling, "Nykelle come here quick! Hurry!" I thought that he saw a celebrity or something, but it was even better! He spotted an iguana!
Here's a shot on the boardwalk that stretches along the coast. This is where we spent a lot of time shopping and enjoying the days. We were able to find a couple of mattes that were made out of ground-up cat-tails. They were woven into the shapes of the sun and the moon, and we thought that would be a fun addition/souvenir for our new home! We just need to get them framed with some lights!
We hiked back and around Eden to look at the beautiful greenery and had no one to take pictures for us... So Carson, being the engineer that he is, jimmy rigged our camera on rocks and put it on a self timer so we could get some photos! This one worked first try!
As you can see, we are quite a distant aways from our camera. Again, no help for the picture, so Carson had to fly across an optacle course of rocks and river to get to me in 10 seconds for the picture! He didn't make it on this try....
And he didn't make it on this try......
Finally!
If you look very closely, you will see a white blob curled up in a ball in mid air... this would be me. I decided to be brave and try out a nature-made slide! Maybe this water is the culprit of my parasite infection I enjoyed for two weeks after?
SENIOR PIPI'S! This is our most favorite restaurant from our honeymoon. The food is incredible and the ambience is genuine. If you get a chance, you've gotta try this place! We ate here two times during our week stay to make sure we got a little souvenir on our sides from the food! It's that good!
Look at the size of that margarita! We almost got drunk off of it, but good thing I double checked and asked the waiter if he was sure it was virgin.... it wasn't so they went back and made us a new one alcohol free!
Your eyes are not playing tricks on you... that really is the size of their burritos... You can tell Carson is feeling a little overwhelmed in this picture because he knows he is going to have to eat his plate, plus finish whatever I can't!
Yes... that is my fajita on fire...
We had the chance to go zip-lining in the tree-tops of a semi-tropical rain forest. If your scared of heights, this will definitely cure it! We walked on little one foot planks around the tops of the trees holding on for dear life and not looking down. We were over 100 feet in the air gliding from one tree to the next. What a rush! 
This is the view we enjoyed eating on the beach front! After Eden, we went to Mismoloyas where a mexican made us park in his stall and said, "Follow me I feed you!" Turns out he was a waiter wanting some customers, so we walked along the sandy beach until he planted us down on some beach chairs under a big umbrella and asked if we would like to eat here! It was so much fun! The waves are rolled back in this picture, but when the tide would come in, it would touch our feet!
This is our view to the right from our beach-front eatery spot. We talked about how we would like to own a condo someday down here! Good luck to Carson in getting all the money for that! (Just kidding... I can help teach piano lessons to pay for it) Maybe someday! Just a dream now.
It is official in this picture that we BURN. We decided to do a "booze cruise" for one of our adventures during the week. Don't worry, we didn't drink any booze, it's just nicknamed that because everybody else does! We went to a beach and ate lunch, then to a little island where we hiked up to a waterfall, and went snorkeling. I would NOT recommend the snorkeling.... all we saw was thick green and got caught in the current and had to have the boat pick us up... Maybe this was the culprit of my parasite?
Here's the view from on top of the boat of beautiful Puerto Vallarta!
I was so impressed with how good Carson still looked after a long day of traveling and begged him for a picture. He flashed me his "I'm really tired and you're being annoying" look, but I tend to prefer "GQ" look for the name of this photo.
