Christmas 2007

CHRISTMAS 2007!!!

We had a really nice Christmas this year. We were unable to make the journey to the frigid north and stayed here in Bakersfield and had our first California Christmas.

This is our humble little tree. That is our "First Christmas" ornament.

The beautifully finished tree. The pumpkin ornament is really a Halloween decoration that my mom (Janet) sent down with our Christmas gifts. It is an unofficial tradition to get decor for holidays other than the holiday it really is (plus my mom just likes to get us decorations and when you see each other only 3 times a year that is when you give them).

Natalie's parents Sheri and Garth were able to make the trek to come visit us.

The traditional pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Natalie liked the ones that we got Sheri so much that she had to get herself a matching pair. She was SOOO excited to have matching pajamas with her mom. It was actually pretty funny because Natalie was wearing them and Sheri commented on how cute they were.

Natalie made me this U of U bath robe. She was able to hide the fact that she was making it from me for an entire month. She would take the scraps to work and throw them away to keep it a secret. She would also go over to her friend Stacie's house at lunch and get help and pointers. She spent as much time picking up every little red thread as she did sewing it. I was impressed when I opened it, then my jaw hit the ground when she said "I made that."

Sheri and Garth opening our gift to them. We got them the family crest and origin of the name Thornock. We have been planning to give it to them since September when we found the crest at the county fair.

My mom has been very busy working on genealogy and gave us both a 4 generation picture. It was very awesome! (Nat got teary eyed) Thank you for the great gift mom.

Manders got me a new Yoda shirt!

The day after Christmas we all piled into the car and headed over to the coast to look at the ocean. This is a picture of Nattie enjoying her car trip (note the sarcasm).

The Madonna Inn. The Madonna Inn is a rather famous themed Inn. The decor is VERY floral! The banisters are all carved to look like grapes and flowers. If people are nice to us and we like you, we may just book you a night in the Pony Room, Traveler's Yacht, or Irish Hills. In the men's room the urinal is a giant rock waterfall that takes up half the wall and is activated when you step up to it. Classy!!!

The pier at Pismo Beach.

I started to feed the Seagulls and they swarmed the car.

I was holding up a Cheez-it trying to get the bird to take it out of my hand and got bitten. It actually kind of hurt and left a red mark on my thumb for almost 2 days.

Go WILDCATS!!!

Tonight California State University Bakersfield played the Weber State Wildcats. I am technically currently a student at Cal State, but Weber is my real college! Some friends of ours had 2nd row seats to tonight's game and invited us. The four of us screamed our lungs out cheering for Weber State. We literally were the only people cheering for Weber in the whole arena. Some people were getting in to it and having fun with it. I heard one lady complaining that we were ruining the game for her. Come on, there were four of us and about 500 of them, besides there were about 10,000 empty seats in the arena, she didn't have to sit behind us. Hearing her huff and puff was half the fun, never give Quin any power to control you!

I have never done anything like that! It was a rush! I was slightly afraid we would be met in the parking lot after the game, especially since Weber won 61 to 56. I highly recommend going to a game and cheering for the other team, as for now, we have to let our voices heal! WEBER STATE, WEBER STATE, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT!!!

THE Smith Halloween Party 2007

This year was the first annual THE Smith Halloween Party. We had been debating on whether or not to have a Halloween party this year. Quin and I both LOVE Halloween; it's our favorite holiday. We love decorating and dressing up. We had planned to have a Halloween party when we lived in Vegas, but we moved at the beginning of October 2006. We were so busy this month we wondered if we could pull it off. Plus our apartment really can't hold that many people. Someone recommended hosting it in the apartment complex's rec room. We decided that scaring the evil spirits away for the year was much more important than sleep or anything else we could be doing and decided to do it. Plus it was a good excuse to get me (Quin) a fog machine finally!!! I have always wanted one. Fog machines are awesome! After we got it, Natalie came home and of course the place was full of fog. The party was complete with a costume contest and prizes. The entry way into the party was supposed to be SPOOKY SPOOKY with fog and spooky music and a strobe light. Of course, setting everything else up first allowed the guest to get there before the entry was ready. Next year's will be better.

This year we went as Princess Leia and Han Solo from Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. Yes we made the costumes ourselves. (I tried to make the Han Solo outfit as authentic as possible, which it was, minus the blaster. Unfortunately the $300 blaster and holster replica set wouldn't have arrived in time. Due to my obsession with Star Wars, Natalie had to take several attempts at the pockets on the vest for me, which resulted in a valuable yet frustrating lesson of don't try to sew late at night. Adding the Corellian Bloodstripes to the pants took forever.)

President Rodriguez made this cake especially for our party. It was SOOOO good!!!

Pres. Manuel Rodriguez (Hawaiian clown/cake maker) and Hannah Montana (Heidi Schmidt)

Steve and Gera (or at least the back of her head) Bahr.

Our favorite Amber McArthur

Steve Johnson

Shelly Carter

Jaime, Rebbeca, and Esperanza Barroteran our new BFF's from the Mexican Hat Dance


Monte Priebe--Most Humorous Costume for Cuban Mafia. Prize: Laffy Taffy

Gail and youngest Glende, Shelly, and Kayleen Nelson. Kayleen--Tie for Least Effort Costume. Prize: Stick on mustache for next year's costume.

Byron and Jeanette McArthur. Byron--Coolest Costume. Prize: Stephen's Hot Cocoa

The famous Stacie (from previous posts) and Alan Dartnell

Rebecca Barroteran (Vampire)--Scariest Costume. Prize: Bottle of Martinellis'

Kate and Burt Van Meter. Burt--Creepiest Costume for ???. Prize: Bottle of Martinellis'

Robert Garcia (Q's co-worker) and his wife Greer. Robert (Shawn from Shawn of the Dead)--Most Original Costume. Prize: Wurther's Originals. Greer--Tie for Least Effort. Prize: Stick on beard for next year's costume.

Al and Shelly Carter winners in 2 categories--Best Pair. Prize: Uno; Honorable Mention (in case the best overall can't fulfill their duties throughout the year). Prize: Martinellis'

Yes, we won Best Overall Costumes. Prize: Martinellis' and Trans-fat free brownie mix. No we did not rig the ballot, we didn't even vote.

We had so much fun with all of our friends. We were sad that our family wasn't here for the first annual THE Smith Halloween Party. Next time we won't accept the "we are 1000 miles away" excuse. Only 361 more days until THE Smith Halloween Party 2008!!!

Crazy October

So one might notice that our blog is a little bit out of date. This month has been crazy busy! We were in a golf tournament, participated in our stake LA Temple 50th year commemoration and had a wild Halloween party. Plus all of the other responsibilities we have we were pretty preoccupied. I think we sat down at our table for may be 5 meals the whole month. We'll catch you all up on it soon.

Natalie

Wild Hogs

The Bakersfield LDS Brothers ride again.

I was officially "jumped" into my gang on Sept 21, 2007. We rode over to Morro Bay and spent the night at Steve Johnson's condo. I learned something very important about touring on a motorcycle, make sure you have a VERY comfortable seat (a new one is on my Christmas list, hint hint hint Natalie, Mom, or Momma Bear). We had planned on leaving at 3:30, but of course every plan regarding a trip of some sort made by a Smith is made to be broken. I was planning on leaving work around 1:30, but noooooo I got stuck working on something that needed to go out by 5:00. Well, the guy I was working with was stuck in meetings all day and wasn't able to get around to my stuff until about 2:30. This made me really nervous. So of course there is lots to do. I ask him if he thinks we would be done by 3:15 and he looked at me and chuckled. So, very disappointedly I called Byron (gang member) and let him know of my dire predicament, and that they could go ahead and leave me if they needed to, because I wouldn't be ready to go til about 4:30. He said he would talk to everyone and get their opinion. Then at about 3:30 my boss came in and asked why I was still there. I let him know that I wasn't done with the project that he was having me do. He was nice enough to tell me to finish first thing Monday morning. I REALLY like working here. Byron called back and let me know that everyone else was also running late and that I didn't miss the ride. So I sped (or um drove safely) home, kissed Natalie goodbye and rode off.

Left to right: Lanny Logue, Byron McArthur, me, Larry Schmidt, and Steve Johnson.

Near Cambria and Hearst Castle

I was truly initiated in the fact that we rode in every condition possible: Strong gusty winds, night, rain at night, bright sunny day, construction zone, LOTS of rain (picture shows everyone suiting up), construction zone in the rain, and a muddy dirt road.

Cheap rain pants and high speeds don't work so well together.

This is a picture of elephant seals sunning themselves near Hearst Castle.

This was the part of the view as we rode up the PCH (Highway 1 for those none coastal dwellers). I can't wait to take Natalie on the next ride.

Dizzyland!!!

On my birthday, we were supposed to fly back to Burbank (where our car was parked) and then drive to Anaheim (where Disneyland is). It wasn't that simple. There was a MASSIVE rain storm in Utah and all the flights were grounded and those in the air were put in a holding pattern, including the airplane we were supposed to be on. The plane eventually ran low on fuel and had to fly to Las Vegas to refuel (where we were supposed to change planes). So we watched our flight leave us in the Salt Lake airport. There was NO way we were going to make our connecting flight. I had visions of spending the night of my birthday in the airport! Fortunately, Quin wasn't going to take NO for an answer. He got us on a flight to Los Angeles (only thirty miles from Burbank). We then shared a limo with a guy who was going in that direction. The limo dropped us off at our car and we drove to our hotel in Anaheim. The next day, we went to Disneyland!Our first day at the park! We slept in a little because we had had so much fun the day before. It was kind of neat because my first time to Disneyland was on my ninth birthday and 16 years later, almost to the day, Quin went for his first time. This picture is at the entrance. Notice the great bag! my parents got it for me for my birthday.
Here we are in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.
We went to Lilo and Stitch's Aloha Breakfast. We got lais and learned how to hula and played around with the characters, it was great!

Quin was perfectly dressed for the occasion!




One of the coolest rides was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. It was like being in a video game, It was SO much fun! You get those little blasters and you try to shoot Zurg. As you can see, Quin was a little bit better at it than I was.

We took a ride around on a paddle boat called the "Mark Twain" it was really pretty!
This is the view of the stroller parking from the Mark Twain. This shot really doesn't do it justice as to how many strollers are in the park.

Not a great picture of us (especially me), but Quin was trying to snap it as the Disneyland Train was pulling up.

This is an action shot, we were on the teacups spinning when we took this. Turned out pretty good.

Quin on the Carousel

This is the Sleeping Beauty carousel, it kind of means a lot to me. I didn't get to go on it the first time I was there because my cousin Jonathan wanted to go on It's a Small World again and he is an only child and gets everything he wants even though it was my birthday. Anyway, I was glad to go on it with Quin!

These two pictures are probably our favorite from the trip. We were just goofing around in this building called Innovations. It is full of the latest technology you can try out. Apparently these cardboard cutouts are cutting edge.

This guy was amazing! If I didn't know better, I would have sworn Captain Jack Sparrow had stepped out of the movie. We were coming back from Pirates Island when he stepped on the raft with us. He looked like him, he sounded like him, and acted like him, it was awesome! He even performed an impromtu marriage on the raft for a couple of guests (he is a captain and can do that when you are at sea). We are still talking about how amazing and believable he was!

Our final night ended in a spectacular fireworks show, Quin was even impressed. It was a great trip and we are so glad that we were able to see our families and to have such a fun experience.

Natalie vs the screen door

So today was a beautiful fall day here in Bakersfield, so I opened the sliding patio door and closed the screen door to keep bugs out. We went to the grocery store and we closed and locked the sliding door. When we got home I had to run back out to the car and when I came in I saw one of the funniest things ever. Natalie had decided to go out on to the patio because that is where the washer and dryer are. She opened the sliding glass door and proceeded to walk out. Well, she had forgotten that the screen was still closed and tried to go through it. Boing!!! The look of utter shock and confusion was priceless! I thought I was going to fall over from laughing so hard. It was hilarious. But of course I was informed that "it wasn't that funny".