January ain't so bad after all!

January has always been the looongest month, and it rubs salt in our wounds by lasting 31 days. February is a delicate 28, with Valentine's Day perfectly centered (although this year is leap year, Michael Loosle's birthday); and then March arrives, and through the storms "I feel the earth move under my feet!"and we're on our way to better days!

But I have had so many marvelous experiences this month that I guess I have to change my mind about January for now. One memorable experience was attending the open house for the GORGEOUS Provo City Temple. Here we are above, with Tony's family heading to our cars after the tour, under umbrellas thoughtfully provided by none other than the Temple's next-door-neighbor NuSkin! Made me think of Andrew and Andrea back in the day. Utah has been dumped on this year and we seem to have forgotten how to suffer in silence in the snow, since for the past two years we've hardly had any "moisture." (I thought James Taylor should have changed the lyrics to "I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Rain" when he performed at the Conference Center, and sung"I've seen Fire and I've seen Moisture." It would have brought down the house).

My last photo of "Six" Sweat kids and mom and dad.
 
The Recommend Desk.
 

I got these two photos above from the Internet. I loved every inch of this Temple.

I threw this picture in that was taken one morning while at my "post" at the Conference Center. Pretty special place.

And who would have guessed we would get to welcome another blessed grandchild into our family. Truman George Sweat arrived at 4:00 a.m. on Friday, January 22, 2016. I think 4:00 a.m. is an ideal time to have a baby, don't you? Cindy was to be induced that day, but he decided to take charge of the situation and come on his own terms. 

And he is the most beautiful baby boy. He looks like a total combination of all six of his siblings, depending on when you stare at him. And it's impossible not to stare at him. He is perfectly perfect.

 I love this photo. Calvin and Eli have such a close bond, and I bet Truman will join right in!

 The light is so beautiful in this photo. Calvin looks as angelic as Truman, and Truman just left heaven! (Although 10 minutes earlier Calvin had accidentally dropped a bottle of Coke on the floor and we were all on our hands and knees mopping it up. Ah, life)!

 And the girls. I think Truman looks the most like Lauren, Reagan and Jane. But a boy version!

 The proud mother and her 7th child.

Amy and Dave invited us to go to Disneyland with them this year and it was right around when Truman was due to be born. It was such a joy to be able to be here when he arrived, because we took off the very next day and started our drive to sunny California!

We left this little prince...............

 .....and got to see lots of Princesses! 

And Mickey, who grabbed Macy and Jack by the hand the minute we walked through the gates and walked around with them. That was pretty cool!

 Made Macy feel mighty!

 And yes, it was 75 degrees. "It never rains in California...............!"

Jack, Macy and Carly are the perfect age for Disneyland (although I was shocked at how many adults were there without any children! I was shocked!

 We started out with the classic "Pirates of the Caribbean!"

 The kids also had a great time pin trading!

Amy and Dave made them little fabric swatches for them to keep their pins and it was cute to watch them carefully roll them up like a sleeping bag and wrap the tie around them and put them away after they had made a trade.

It was lots busier this year than when we went on the same week two years ago (and it's supposedly the slowest week of the year). The 60th celebration probably had something to do with this.

These next four pictures are classic! I asked the kids to "jump" and Macy tried to pull Carly over into the frame of the picture and Carly was having none of it! Her face is priceless!

 Nope, not jumping!

But she cheered up when she rode the merry-go-round. I stayed back to be the one that gets to wave to them. You gotta have someone waving at you and to wave at when you're on a merry-go-round!

 And the classic Tea Cups! At night!

We spent a fun, fun day at California Adventure........

 I love Cars Land the most. It feels real to me!

..

 I can see now why the kids giggled when we put on their mouse ears!

Props to Amy and Dave and Carly for looking so fresh and relaxed in this photo. It was taken during our one-hour wait to ride Cars. We learned our tender timers pop after 45 minutes. But we had fast passes the second time, and Dennis and I took advantage of the singles line for one last twilight ride too. My favorite ride.

 Grandpa almost got three strikes!

 Went to the new adventure park which is a fun active venue for the kids.

 I think it's cute how Goofy is making a funny face too!

 Macy had a loose tooth and we kept guessing how long it would be before it came out. It was her first loose tooth too! She ate an apple one day and it really loosened it up a lot so she let Amy try to pull it.

 Amy gave it her best yank...............

 ...and Eureka - It worked! So fun. Jack lost a tooth at Disneyland two years ago. Carly will have a lot of pressure on her when they go to Disneyland again!

 I was so nervous to to the Tower of Terror! So nervous in fact that Macy ditched me for Grandpa when it came down to the nitty gritty. Smart girl. You can't even see her behind the mouse ears in front of her! It wasn't half as bad as I anticipated. Now we just need to get Dave on it! Dennis has retired from the Materrhorn. I have retired from California Screamin'.

 Cars Land is kind of like "The Truman Show." Just seems more real than fake to me, you know?

 Gotta have the iconic photo!!

 And people watching is always a hoot!

It was the Disney princesses that got to me two years ago, and helped me understand why people love Disneyland so much. I get it now. It really is fun, and so fun to watch the kids be enthralled by these princesses. For your viewing pleasure, look at Jack in these next few photos. He was pretty enthralled himself, and the princesses gave him a run for his 9-year-old money too!

 Cinderella used "tough love!"

 Grandpa didn't need to use "tough love" to get lots of hugs from Carly!

Amy read about the Magic Shop at Disneyland on Main Street. She said Steve Martin worked there back in the day! Jack bought some new magic tricks to learn and enjoyed listening to instruction from the store magician!

 And Holy Cow, the parade and light show was fabulous!!

 Day four photo. Everyone is wearing such eye-popping colors, and we're all still good to go too! We figured we walked about nine miles a day. And Dennis and I figured we each gained five pounds. Go figure!! Okay, so I bought three churros every day.........

 Love Splash Mountain!

 And we know where every restroom is at Disneyland!

 Small World has been closed both times we've gone these last two years. And I LOVE Small World. Notice Dennis is not in this photo crying his eyes out with us. He HATES Small World!

 Those EYES!

 On our last day in California, we went to the Beach! Sunny, blue skies, unbelievable!

Macy perfecting a beachside handstand! That's hard to pull off on a slope!

We went to Newport Beach which is surrounded by houses that are so ritzy they could be owned by movie stars. It's a perfect little beach, with some tide pools, and tons of soft sand to bury yourself in or nap on. The kids caught some little crabs and raced them and it was such fun! I wish I was better at thinking ahead because I could have brought beach toys and blankets, etc. So we went to Target and bought sand toys and two Star Wars plastic table cloths to improvise as blankets. It worked great!

Unbelievably, Andrea had texted me while we were there and mentioned that Andrew was in California on business and was staying at Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach, as in 10 minutes away! What a cool chain of events that we got to see him. This is Huntington Beach which stretches on forever and EVER and you can see Los Angeles in the distance (although not in this photo). Andrew was staying right on the beach in the swanky Hyatt Regency and he offered to let us use his room to change our clothes, and Dennis and I considered it, but we looked and felt like the Joads in our sandy clothes carrying plastic Target bags full of Pringles. Dennis was "the man" and ventured into the lobby to get the room key Andrew left us, but when we discovered parking was $20 so we decided instead of traipsing through the lobby, we would wait for Andrew hang out at the beach.

And I'm so glad we did because it's a sweeping beach, and it's called Surf City USA. Really! The actual place the Beach Boys wrote about. The surf was high and the surfers were putting on a show. Wow, talented. And we were highly entertained!

Sunset was at 5:17 and people begin gathering on these steps as the time draws near.

 So beautiful.

 And then we were off to the Cheesecake Factory to meet up with handsome Uncle Andrew!!

 We had such a fun dinner with him. We're so lucky we got to meet up with him!! Loved it!

And then we headed back to Utah, which was being blasted with a winter storm throughout the Central and Southern parts of the State. And it was only through the blessing of being gently chauffeured by Parnelli Sweat that we made it through. Three straight hours in the dark of mountain roads, snow coming at us in hypnotic swirls, semis passing on the right and left, oh lions and tigers and bears, oh my. But we made it. Thank you Dennis darling.

 But FIRST we stopped in Springville to look at the angelic Truman G. Sweat now 8 days old. Oh he's a peach.

 I think he looks like Jane in this profile shot.

 Maybe he was kissing grandma?

And muslin blankets are the thing now. Who knew? They're light and soft and organic and perfect!
When we got home that night, around almost 11:00 p.m., Dennis immediately unpacked his suitcase as he always does, and we trundled off to bed. Only to be awakened at 1:00 a.m. by the stupid fire alarm beeping....and again at 1:20..........and again at 1:40.............Dennis had his ear plugs in. I went and got a broom and whacked around it to see if there were cobwebs, but then Dennis took out his ear plugs, got up and removed the battery and we finally went to bed again. And this morning we had more snow, and our garage door was iced shut and so he had to spring the red handle and lift it up himself, and then re-attach it. I told Dennis were it not for him, I'd still be stranded by the roadside in the snow somewhere outside Beaver, Utah, or at home listening to non-stop fire alarm beeping and homebound because of my  frozen garage door. He is a handy man, that daddy man!

What a January! And I had to throw in this cute photo of little Reagan, surrounded by her tall teammates.
XO
Mom