Yay for Hunter!

 Hunter has been doing all the right things!  He decided to put in his papers for his mission and we were surprised we got his call on December 23 (we didn't think he would get it until after New Years due to the holidays!)  We were shocked!  New Zealand Hamilton Mission, leaving for Aukland MTC on April 9!  It has been so fun learning about New Zealand and I wish I could go with him!

Hunter got ordained as an Elder on Dec 22...

Then got his call on Dec 23!  Calls usually come on Tuesday, so we were shocked it came on Monday!  We got carolers as we were waiting for people to gather to open his call..

Here is are the guesses friends and family made...

Ladd and our neighbor Malia got closest by guessing Australia! Ladd had been saying for months he thought he would go international but English speaking!

Here is a link to the video of his mission call

It was a whirlwind with Christmas, then our Cancun trip, but when we got back, Hunter went to the temple.  Ladd and I, Jayme, Lee, and Brayden were all there to support him.  It was a great night and Hunter is going to be a temple worker once a week until he leaves...

There were also quite a few things to do to get his visa going.  We had to spend $500 to go to a "New Zealand approved" doctor in San Diego to get a basic physical done.  Apparently the one he did at Kaiser for his mission papers wasn't good enough for New Zealand.  But, there are quite a few New Zealand restaurant in San Diego, so we had a yummy lunch at a cute restaurant, "Raglans".  So Hunter had his first taste of meat pies!

We walked along the beach while we were down there, and Hunter caught a crab which pinched him and left the pincher behind and scurried back to the water!

Anyways, we are so proud of Hunter and the Man he is becoming!

First Gymnastics Meet!

Charity has found a passion for Gymnastics!  A few years ago, she set a goal of making a gymnastics team.  She has worked very hard towards this goal.  She made the team at the gym she had worked out at last spring, but they would not take her when we said we could not commit to Sunday competitions.  So we found another gym that was ok with that, she made that team, but ALL the competitions so far have been on Sunday.  Finally, a competition landed on a Saturday, and we were so excited!  She did great!

Click on the links to watch her routines!

Vault 8.65

Beam 8.825-6th Place

Bars 8.825-4th Place

Floor 9.1-Second Place

All Around-3rd Place with a score of 35.6-Great Job Charity!!

The meet was in Pasadena, and the theme was "Rose Queen" and so she got a little tiara and scepter, so cute!

Tropical New Year

For Christmas, we gave the kids a trip to Cancun!  We wanted to take a big family trip before Hunter leaves for 2 years! We took a red eye a few days after Christmas and had a great time.  We stayed at Moon Palace-Sunset.  Same place Ladd and I stayed on our honeymoon 23 years ago!  It was a good mix of relaxing and adventure!

Drinking Pina Coladas on the beach and by the pool...

Beach time!

The Moon Palace is huge!  We took golf cart rides around the resort..

Explored the pools, game rooms, restaurants, and beautiful scenery!

Felicity enjoyed the in room spa and little stuffed turtle given to her by the resort...

Felicity was feeling "Cookie-sick" as opposed to "home-sick" but luckily grandma was taking good care of Cookie and sent Felicity plenty of pictures of Cookie which helped!

We spent a day at Xel-Ha.  

Ladd and kids started the day swimming with dolphins.  It was hard to get good pics (we didn't pay for dolphin picture package)!  But they had a great time, especially Felicity who had never done it before!

Enjoying random wild animals around the park...

Cave snorkeling...

Cliff Jumping....

Ropes Course...

And just enjoying some good family time in a very beautiful place!

Exhausted after a full day at Xel-Ha...

The resort had "ice skating". It was so funny.  The rink was made of plastic, not ice.  Made gliding across the rink a little difficult.  We called it Mexican Ice skating and it did not last long!

Ladd took the big kids to Xplore Fuego-cave swimming, zip-lining, the biggest water slide in North America, and driving polaris' through the jungle.  They all loved it and was their favorite part of the trip.  

Since Felicity was too light to do the zip lining, we decided not to pay for her and I to go, so we stayed back and explored the kids area in the resort...

They had face painting there and she looked like the cutest puppy!  

We took lots of pictures with her face paint around the resort after that!

Last day of the trip, this little teenager was exhausted!

So much love for Cookie when we finally got home!