CaLiForNiA trip :)

So over general conference weekend my mom asked all her kids to take a trip to see our grandparent's at the house in Volcano, California. They needed some help with things around their 10 acre estate and since we have 4 boys and 4 girls who are strong and can easily give their helping hands, we all went out to enjoy a fun, hard-working weekend at Gma and Gpa Forbes' Cali house. We left SLC around 6:45 and started our trek, I drove first. We decided to play a car game, categories, to help time pass by faster. {and it definitely helped, especially for me!} It was pretty amusing to have all of us go through the alphabet and figure out a movie title, fruit, sports team or something with a specific letter {the movie one was the best and q & z are the worst!}. After our 10 hour drive we arrived at their house at 3:30am and slept....for like 5 hours. haha then we had a delicious breakfast and began our day of hard work! {Although it looks like I didn't do anything but take pics of everyone working, I did do work- yard work, moving things to the burn pile and more :) But no one but myself takes pics so no proof of that haha}

Rissa painting

Ty and Scott doin work on the wood pile

Chris getting the porch fixed

Mama and Linds doing some inside work

We had many loads to the dump. Lots of throwing away and organizing. Tyler took it upon himself to revamp my grandparent's newspaper post because it looked old and worn down. So he did and he added a little "Forbes" touch to it. THEN we found a dead squirrel on the road in front of my grandparent's driveway and we decided to bury the poor thing. It was a work filled weekend but don't think we didn't have fun because we did still! Played frisbee golf, played hand & foot, explored their property and watched football.

The finished product with a Forbes plaque added

Marissa being scary with the screwdriver!

Ty getting Doug off the driveway

Burying Doug. RIP.

Ty being a good groundsman for Doug's grave haha

Marissa and I....we are weird :)

Brother....he likes to be scary as well :)

We were having some fun around this time :) 

haha Oh Sam :)

I found this trip very entertaining in all different ways. I really enjoyed getting to show Ty where I have formed a lot of my childhood memories with cousins and siblings. It was also funny when my Gma brought out her book I wrote for her in middle school and told Ty how happy and proud it made her to have me write a book about her. He read it and laughed at me since I wrote it so long ago {let's just say I am sure my writing skills were not up to parr then ;)} Another funny thing was how Ty kept trying to get his hands on my Gpa's tractor...he really wanted to drive it. Well Gpa wasn't having it but I caught a picture of him cruising around by himself on it. He loves that tractor :)

Well we finished helping my grandparents with things needing to be done around their house and yard like the porch and wood piles thrown away etc. {according to them they said we did in 2 days what would have taken them 4+ months to do} Then we enjoyed the rest of the time with our grandparents and each other :) The boys went to priesthood meeting together and the girls went through Gma's old christmas decor and earring collection. I love spending time with my family. It was great to spend time with all of them and the trip back to Utah was just as fun as the one to Cali {but more scenic since we did it in the day on the way back}.

 < the finished porch

My big brothers...creepers :D haha

"You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

During this trip my mom wanted to get some family pictures done and although I am not posting the ones of all of us {my mom probably wants to keep those pics for a Christmas card} I do have one of Ty and I :) 

Our next family vacation is with the Richards in November! 5.5 weeks! Can't wait :)