THE FEW. THE PROUD. THE MARINES!

Warning, this is a long post with lots of pictures.
(Tim is the 2nd from the right in the 1st row)

Last week, Manny and I were able to go to San Diego for my younger brother, Tim's graduation from Marine boot camp. If you ever get a chance to go to something like this, you should. It's a neat experience. They make such a big deal out of it, and it's cool to see them, all the different things that they do. It's a whole different world inside the base. They had Family Day on Thursday. We were able to walk around the base and watch them march, run, do drills, and all sorts of other things.

This is right after they got done running 4 miles in about 18 minutes

The picture below is of them marching.

They finally let them have a break to visit with their families for a few hours, but we had to stay on the base. We did go and eat at where they went to church on the base. The missionaries that serve on the base were holding a luncheon for the LDS members and their families, and for anyone else who weren't members, but had been going to the LDS church. It was funny because the missionary couple who were in charge of it, Elder and Sister Gourdin, were from our old ward in Orem. It was nice to see them and visit with them. They totally knew who we were. It's a small world after all.

Not all of my family was able to go, but a lot of us did. There was me, Manny, my brother Paul, my brother Joseph (in the sunglasses), his wife Erika (in the pink), his 2 kids Jakson and Xander, my sister Julie, and my mom and dad.

Here's an obstacle course that they train on.

This is the parade deck where they practice marching. We can't walk on it or anything, if we did, we'd get yelled at.

We went to the museum that was on the base. Manny is sitting in front of an ambulence that was used in WWI.

Here we are on Friday, Graduation day.

They stood at attention for the whole graduation, which was almost 2 hours long.

Tim (on the left), and his buddy, Morris

After the graduation, we took everyone to Mission Beach. For the most part, none of my family had ever been to San Diego, so Manny and I tried to take them to some fun places. We played at the beach for hours.

Me and Xander pictured below. We're jumping over a wave.

Oh, my precious dockers. I think this is one of the first times I've ever seen my dad in water.

After the beach, we walked around Old Town for a very long time, and then we ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant. My dad absolutely love Old Town, and the restaurant. While we were in Old Town, we thought about joining a new church.

Everyone left Saturday, but Manny and I stayed with Tim. He hadn't been around San Diego, so we took him to some more places. We went to the Gaslamp district, Seaport Village, Coranado, and La Jolla Beach.

The tide pools at the beach were so much fun, and it was such a nice, beautiful day.

There were tons of seals lounging on the beach.

Later that night we ate at Phil's BBQ, the best ribs place ever. Tim was dying to eat some good food. He chowed down so quick on EVERYTHING he ate. It had been quite a while that he had eaten something good. You could tell too, because while he was at boot camp, he lost 36 pounds!

We went home on Sunday, and on the way home, we stopped in Vegas to play for about 2 1/2 hours. We lost big time! I don't know how we'll survive after losing those $4.

I did forget to mention that we stayed with Manny's grandparents on Wednesday night when we first got there. It was so nice to see them. They live in the middle of an Indian reservation called Aguanga, that's about an hour away from San Diego. We love it when we can visit them.

It was such a quick trip, but we packed in as much as possible, and had such a blast. To my family in CA, sorry we didn't call you or anything, but we really didn't have to time to visit or anything, we spent most of our time on the base. Sorry!

On a side note, my birthday was Tuesday, the 9th (which by the way, a policeman gave me a wonderful birthday present as I was headed to work).

I consider this trip as my birthday present. I turned 26, and I couldn't have asked for a better gift. Thanks Manny, for making this trip possible.

SCOFIELD RES

It was cold yesterday out on the ice! It wouldn't stop snowing and the wind kept howling.

This video doesn't really capture how cold and snowy it was, but it'll give you a little bit of an idea.

Surprisingly, we stayed warm the whole time and were just fine. The fishing was so good that we ended up staying out there for 5 hours. We caught a total of 27 fish (and one crawdad), and not a single one of them were chubbs. This is the first catch of the day. This was litterally about 2 minutes after I started fishing. Manny hadn't even had a chance to drill a hole for himself yet.

We caught all cutthroats and rainbows. I caught 14, Manny caught 13. It's always a competition between us, (ok, so it's usually just me that wants it to be a competition) so when I do beat him, I have to write about it. It doesn't happen very often. EVERY single time we would drop our lines, we would instantly start getting bites. That's why we stayed for so long, because we just kept getting bite after bite.

Here's a tiny one that Manny caught.

We finally left because my back and neck were starting to get really sore from bending over the hole.

The picture below is of the 17 inch fish I caught. It was the biggest of the day. I was pretty proud of myself. I don't like to touch the fish or get close to them because they flop around and just give me the willies.

Here's a close up of it. It was a cutthroat. It startled me when I hooked it because it was so much bigger than the others and when I saw it, I didn't think I was going to get it out of the hole. I started yelling for Manny to come help me, but I was able to get it out without him.

We had tons of fun!

UPDATE

I figured I should do a quick little update of what's been going on so far this year...except nothing has really happened and that's why I haven't posted in a month.
*We have done a few ice fishing trips and froze our fingers and toes just about off.
*My younger brother, Stephen had his farewell. He leaves to Eugene, OR on the 17th of February.
*My niece, Chelsea was blessed.
*My other younger brother, Tim is doing very well in the Marine boot camp in San Diego and will be graduating in about a month. He's at the top of his class. We're going for his graduation and I can't wait!
*I was called back into Primary...can you guess which position?...the 1st Counselor...again. I should be an expert at this position, but going from about 30 kids to 80 is a little bit different.
*We were able to see our friends Dan and Jedda while they were in town for and have dinner with them. It's always nice to see them. Too bad they live so far away.
*Manny's been sick, hopefully he'll get better soon. And he's dying to go out fishing a few more times before the ice melts, so if anyone would like to go, please give him a call. I think he gets tired of going with me because I freak out every time I hear the ice crack. It's frightening to see and feel it happen right under my feet, even though they're superficial cracks. It freaks me out so I have to stand the whole time just in case I need to make a run for it.
Hopefully I'll have better things to post soon. And pictures. I really need to carry my camera around with me much more often.

SCARY THINGS YOU SEE IN PUBLIC

Have you ever been driving down the road and then all of the suddend been completely shocked because you see a big picture of your dad on the public transportation bus next to you? Yeah, I'd be surprised too.
My brother, Joe, was driving in Orem when his wife suddenly says, "OH MY GOSH! Isn't that your dad?!"

Yep, it sure is. What the...?

A Very Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We started out by sleeping in, and then when we got up, we made a big breakfast (this is one of the few times a year we actually eat something besides cereal) and then we opened up presents. Manny outdoes himself each year and always gives me a wonderful Christmas.

Here I am with some of my spoils.

Here's Manny with his, although he didn't want to take anything out of the boxes.

This year, we decided to the ugliest Christmas tree ever. I wish the picture was better. If you came to our house, you would be able to see how ugly it it. We had a good laugh every time we plugged in the lights.

After, we went to my parents house to drop off presents. I was able to see my sister and her kids who were there at the time.

Ashlyn, Colleen, Nick, Mekel, Ryan

Later that day, we went to have dinner at Manny's parents' house. After dinner we exchanged gifts. Manny's nephew, Jared was the MC for the night. He would annouce extremely loud to everyone who the gift was from, who it was to, and what they got. He is a real crack up everytime we see him. He's one of Manny's best buds.

After a fun-filled, long day. We finally went home to relax. Just when I thought the day was as good as it was going to get, Manny surprised me with one last gift. A Kindle! I've been wanting one forever. I just about jumped through the roof with excitement. I'm so excited to start using it.

I know that Christmas isn't about the gifts or what I got, it's definitely a nice added bonus. I'm greatful that I was able to spend time with our families and enjoy each other. I;m especially greatful for a wonderful husband who goes out of his way to always make Christmas such a special time for us. I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas!

BUSY WEEKEND

Ryan and Manny

Last weekend we had a bunch going on. First off, Manny baptized my nephew Ryan( my older sister's son). Ryan was so excited. Manny had to dunk him in the water a total of three times because he kept having a foot or a knee pop up. It was pretty funny, but I felt bad for them because the water was freezing cold.

My family NEVER takes any pictures together, so we decided that after the baptism would be a good time to take a bunch of pictures.

For some reason, all the grandkids wanted to take a picture with Manny. The tall redhead, and the kid in the white shirt on the far right actually aren't part of our family.

From far left: my Mom, Michaela, Paul (holding Solomon), Me, Joseph, my Dad, Colleen, Tim, and Julie. I'm actually missing my brother Stephen.

my sister's Julie, Colleen, me, Michaela, and my niece Ashlyn just happen to get in the shot.

This is my nephew Xander, I don't know what he was crying about.

My brother Paul and his son Solomon.

Later that night, we had a Christmas party at Manny's parents' house. We ate some good food and Santa visited us later. The grandkids were excited to get presents from Santa early this year.

Here we are enjoying the Christmas party. I cant' get Manny to ever take a normal picture. He always has to make some sort of face.

On Sunday, we had a dinner for my younger brother, Tim. He left for the Marines on Monday. It was really sad to say goodbye. I'm glad that he will be serving our country, but it makes me nervous. Manny and I went over to my parents' house while they were at church so we could put a new dishwasher in for them. Theirs broke a little while ago, so me and all my siblings decided to chip in and give them on for Christmas. And then Manny was volunteered to put it in since he's the plumber.

Then on Monday night, my brother Paul, his wife gave birth to their 4th child. They were expecting a boy, but when it came out, it was a girl! Everyone was absolutely shocked! They had to hurry and think of a new name for her. She is such a little doll. She has tons of dark hair. They ended up naming her Chelsea Bryce Gonzalez. Bryce is my brother Tim's(the one who just left for the Marines) middle name. They were going to name the baby after him, but when it came out a girl, they had to do some rearranging. I wish I had gotten a picture, she is beautiful.

Kids Say Such Funny Things

Today at school I heard a boy ask a teacher whose hair is going gray, "Where did all the color in your hair go?"


PS, does anyone know how to make the main picture of me and Manny smaller. I pushed the button 'shrink to fit,' but it's still huge and looks fuzzy.