9 "girls nights out" in CALIFORNIA

Its already been a year since I was posting about our annual Miller family trip to California. Last year me, Derek and the girls all flew and had quite the adventure. This year Derek couldn't get work off both jobs so I decided short notice that me and the girlies would catch the long 10 hr drive down with Dereks parents and his little brother. We drove through the night there and back so the drive part wasn't too bad other then Taya getting car sick and puking on the way down :(. 9 nights is the longest either of the girls have spent away from Derek, and its been about 4 years sence I've spent more then 2 nights away, so needless to say we were SUPER excited to get Derek hugs when we got home. Anyway, as usual I'll let a million pictures sum up the trip, enjoy! :)

The first thing we did when we got to Carlsbad was go to a Padres game courtesy of GGpa Miller. It was SO fun! It was all 3 of ours, first MLB game and we had an absolute blast!

Tell me that bottom left picture isn't a perfect add pic for the Padres :) Taya was quite the trooper through such a long game. Some worker for the stadium came up and gave her that hat, poor girl has a bit of a noggin though so I had to stretch it before it would fit!

Rylee Loved the game but got a little bored half way through so we were super thankful for fun cousins to sit by! Her and Jacob (above) are a ton a like and talked non stop the whole time they sat by eachother.

This is my favorite! Taya made her way down to Grandpa Jack and Grandma Nadine. We dont see them enough so I LOVE any pictures we get with them. Jack has a few timeshares in Cali  that all of his kids and their kids...and their kids come and stay at once a year. It makes for a huge group of fun people and good family time together! We're lucky to have such a generous set of Grandparents!

Boog and Tonga :) Tonya kinda got to play the roll of "dad" during our vaca :) The first night we stayed at her house before heading to Carlsbad, she even expierenced the joy of Taya puking in her bed and then pooping in her tub first thing in the morning! She wasnt even going to wake me up! she's always so good to help me with the girls anytime I need...all of dereks family was. It made for a much easier and enjoyable trip then me having to do it alone!

Now for the Beach pics! the WHOLE entire week except for a brief couple of hours our last day before heading home, it was cloudy cloudy cloudy! :( Even though we didn't leave with much of a tan, we had TONS of fun!

I'm always so thankful for Dereks awesome parents. They are SO good to our girls and us.. They always jump at the chance to play with Rylee and Taya. I'm so glad my girls have the chance to get to be close with them!

Caden, Avery, Brooklyn, Ry and Tay

Best little buddies, Brooklyn and Rylee

Makayla

The girls had lots of fun playing with cousins they rarely get to see! Rylee loved playing with Makayla and Brooklyn. I wish we didn't live so far from everyone!

Tayas been working on cutting her bottom molars so she hasn't really been herself :( give her the sand and a huge ball though and she was a pretty darn happy camper :)

All in all we had a BLAST, thanks to Dereks parents who let us tag along, to Jack and Nadine for having such a fun place for us to go, and to everyone who helped me with the girls!

My mom came up and stayed the night with us. The second she walked into the door with her massage table Rylee was asking her for a massage! she's starting a little young wanting the finer things of life ;) of course it didn't take Taya long to want to be right up where Rylee was. After the girls went to bed, my mom gave me a heavenly massage and we talked and laughed til Derek got home from work. In the morning she took us to our favorite place to eat...Kneaders. Its always a "special treat" as my mom would say to be able to spend time together :) We loved having some Grandma Neen time :)

RED WHITE AND BLUE...wahoo!

Rylee and Taya looked so cute in their red white and blue! Rylees shirt had the statue of liberty on it and she showed everyone it, telling them it was her July 4th shirt.

Dereks oldest brother Robert, his wife Ashley, and their cute little girl Makayla drove clear from Pheonix to play for the weekend. It was SO fun having them and watching our cute girls all play together, we wish it wasn't such a rare thing to get to hang out together! 3 little girly cousins together...it doesn't get cuter then that!

Rylee LOVED Makayla, they played so cute together, how crazy are their totally opposite eyes!

Taya and Makayla didn't quite play as much together, they're only a month apart in age so they prefered to just get mad at eachother most of the time haha, but I bet money one day they're gunna be best little friends! yes I know Taya has an AWESOME smile ;)!

All of us but dereks sister megan ran to kneaders for their delicious french toast breakfast....if you haven't had it go get it! Its amazing, all you can eat, and its only $5!

After kneaders Megan met us at our house and all of us Millers minus Dereks parents, hung out, laughed, had a BBQ'd picnic and just had lots of fun with eachother! I grew up with all 6 of my siblings living in the same state so its sad to me that getting together with all of Dereks siblings is a rare thing! It really was so fun being with all them and having our little girls be able to play together! Tonya came clear from Riverside CA and Robert, Ashley, and Makayla all made the rotten 10hr drive from Pheonix! We sure were glad they did though cause we loved having everyone here, and we missed them as soon as they were gone!

We also went back and forth to West Valley, Friday and Saturday, to Dereks moms side of the family Jensen reunion. We had fun swimming and eating yummy food, and having uncles and aunts meet our cute little girls.

On Sunday the actual 4th of July, Derek worked, so after Church and naps, me and the girls drove down to Dereks parents house in Heber, to hang out with Tonya and Rob n Ash. We did a few fireworks with the girls and then we headed back home so we could get some good sleep to get ready for.....

LAGOON!

Dereks parents took us all to lagoon, and we had a BLAST! Rylee was on cloud nine other then having to...

wait in line! ha this pic kills me! this girl definatly got mine and dereks lack of patience! plus combining our lack of patience with the fact that she's only 3 made for a sad little girl for the 5 min before every ride. her little kiddie rides never had long lines so she had soo much fun! We got snow cones, and pretzels and had lots and lots of fun!

Robert and Judy were so nice to hang out with the 3 little ones so us big kids could run off to rides. It was funny to see the old and young both out cold! Who am I kidding, I took a little cat nap too!

Taya absolutly LOVES uncle Devin. She was like his little shadow any time he was around her, we all sat and laughed at her trying to feed him grass and giving him loves then giving him strawberries on his stomach. All in all it was a really fun weekend with lots of needed time with siblings!

HAPPY 4th!

Twilight!

I got a text like a month ago from my friend Tara who loves Twilight, it said "to all you twihards (and katie) we're buying tickets to the premier in June, if you want tickets let me know. (its a little paraphrased but you get the idea, she included me :) ha even though I'm not crazy big into all the twilight stuff I had a BLAST with all the fun girls we went with! We went to dinner first and then to the movie. It seriously was so fun! I think we need to do get togethers way more!

These pictures were taken last year on the 4th of July watching fireworks together. Today for some reason was kind of a hard day for me. I looked at this picture and remembered this night being one of the last really fun nights I spent with him. Even though it was a whole year ago, the times of Dad being all there, lessened quickly in the last year of his life. I remember standing by his wheelchair arms around him watching the fireworks go off with the beautiful Manti Temple in the background, and I remember feeling at peace there with my Dad. I remember him telling me he loved me and that he was thankful for me. I remember buying him lots of junk food (sense he loved to eat) and we pigged out on candy and pop. I remember giving him some of my sunflower seeds and he ate them shell and all. :) Usually people have no idea when I'm sad especially not about my Dad. I guess I just figure theres no point in letting people know I'm having a hard time with it all because what can they do. Its been a little over a month sense he passed, everyone else is back to their own lives and are fine, my life still feels completely rocked. I feel sometimes like somethings wrong with me and I need to snap out of it. Today though Dereks sweet grandma was the first person in a while that asked how I was handeling everything, as she asked me we both started to cry. I told her you have no idea how much it means that you thought of me, I kinda feel like everyone else forgot after a week, and I'm still really sad. She told me through tears that her dad passed over 40 years ago and she still gets sad so its ok. I was so thankful for her tonight. What a wonderful woman she is, she was the first person sense my Dad passed who knew exactly what to say. As we drove home tonight we saw fireworks go off in the distance and it made me think of this holiday a year ago. It made me sad that I wasn't in Manti tonight watching big fireworks with my dad. I think from here on out watching the big fireworks is going to me a must. I'm thankful for a good memory tonight. I miss you Dad, hope the fireworks looked awesome from up there.