the Thornton's Talk!!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Jake!!!!!

2010-08-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

We're sending you Birthday wishes with ALL of our love!!!!!!

Alot of little things

2010-07-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since we have updated our blog and a lot of little things have happened since then. First off another Marine from Yorba Linda was killed in Afghanistan on June 22nd. 22 year-old Cpl. Claudio Patiño was on his 3rd tour of duty that he whole heartedly volunteered for. He and his family are members our church and are in the neighboring stake. His funeral was held in his ward building and 1,000's of people lined the streets for his funeral procession.

We had a surprize visitor for a few days. The only other person who knew the person was coming was Dad. They both had been planning the visit for several weeks. On the day of the arrival, Dad came over to our house at 4 PM and asked Jason if he wanted to go to LAX for the day of course Jason agrees and they leave. I thought it was weird that Dad and Jason were going to LAX at 4PM. Usually when they go to LAX they leave around 7 or 8AM. Dad and Jason come home from LAX around 9 and guess who walks in with them? BONNIE!!!!

We really enjoyed having Bonnie spend a few days with us. She came for Grandpa's 82nd birthday, which was on the 28th. On Grandpa's birthday, we all went out to dinner at Polly's Pie Shop. The food was really good and Grandpa got a free piece of pie (he chose Peacan). We then had chocolate cake and icecream back home. For his birthday we gave him 4 walkie talkies that we can use on our trip.

The day after Grandpa's birthday, we all went to see the movie Toy Story 3. The movie was wonderful!!! We all enjoyed the movie very much. Bonnie went home the day after we saw the movie. We all wished she could have stayed longer but we will be seeing her again very soon.

July 1st was Grandpa's and Grandma's 60th Wedding Anniversary and the 1st Anniversary since they were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple. Grandpa said the it is wonderful that not only can we celebrate them being married for 60 years, but now we can celebrate them being married for eternity. To celebrate, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I took flowers over to Grandma. We stayed for about 15 minutes and then we went to Red Lobster for dinner. We had a good day.

Grandpa had a doctors appointment with a neurologist to find out why he blacked out for 4 days last month. The doctor thinks maybe he might have had a mini stroke or a seizer. The doctor wants to run more tests later this month to determin exactly what it was. Grandpa has not had any more blackouts or anxiety attacks.

On July 3rd, our friend Alycia asked if we wanted to see fireowrks with her and her 2 daughters. Robin had a headache but Jason and I met them. We put our lawn chairs on the side of the street in front of the stadium where the fireworks were held. We had a great time playing with Macknzie and Kiley and talking and joking with Alycia. As we were waiting for the fireworks, a person was hit by a car in a parking lot a block up the street. The person ended up being fine and didn't even need to go to the hospital. Although the fireworks show was short (only 5 minutes), it was still a nice show.

On July 4th, Grandpa, Dad, Jason, Robin and I watched the fireworks show at the Yorba Linda park (Louise refused to come with us). There must have been at least 10,000 other people at the park too. Although there were SO MANY people at the park, there was PLENTY of room for people of all ages to play. There were booths to play games and buy food. There was a band that played music and a place for dancing. The fireworks show was AMAZING!!!! It lasted for about 25 minutes and had 2 big finalies.

On Tuesday, a friend of ours (kim), who lives in Seattle, called saying she and her 2 1/2 year old daughter (Kiara) were at Disneyland and wondered if we would like to meet them there. Robin, Jason and I met them and had a WONDERFUL time!!! Although Disneyland was really crowded, we were able to go on 13 rides. There is a little known secret that you can get a stroller pass and use it like a handicapped pass. The pass enables you to get in front of the lines. It was so nice to see and spend time with Kim and Kiara again. Kiara really enjoyed Robin and I and of course we really enjoyed her!!!! We hope we can see them (and Kims' husband Gaylin) again soon.

Ted and I went to Disneyland

2010-06-15T00:46:00.000-07:00

Ted called me on Saturday asking if I wanted to go to Disneyland with him. His mom just started working at Disneyland (she works at the entrance gates) and Ted just got a annual pass. On Saturday, Ted decided to take his mom to work and stay while she worked from 3PM until midnight. I was shocked when he called me but I immediately said yes and ran out the door and was on my way.

The entire 20 minutes it took me to get to Disneyland, I was ecstatic and unbelievably happy. When I arrived Ted was in California Adventure. We went on Toy Story Mania and Soaring Over California. We then went across the street to a buffet where Ted bought us dinner. After dinner, we went to Disneyland and went on Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Winnie The Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean and saw the night time show Fantasmic.

Busy Times UPDATED!!!! (Now with pics and slideshows)

2010-05-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

I guess we should update what has been going on since our last post (although no one leaves comments).

At the end of March, Robin and my Singles Ward (the Placentia 4th Ward) was involved in a Roadshow. We spent all of February learning the music and all of March learning the script. Our skit was based on what it is truly like in the P4 Ward during the summer.

First let me explain some things about our P4 Ward. 1) every Sunday after church we have what is called Linger Longer. Our former bishop (Bishop Shultz) runs a catering business. Each Sunday before church the Linger Longer Committee goes to his house to pick up the left over food from the parties he catered during the week. During Relief Society/Priesthood and Sunday School the Linger Longer Committee heat up the food and set out the tables, chairs and eating supplies. Robin and I were on that committee for 4 years before we got our current callings. 2) For most of the year our ward is extremely friendly and we get along WONDERFULLY together. We are ALWAYS having activities. There is an activity scheduled at least 5 nights a week. Besides the scheduled activities, we find ANY tiny, little excuse to have a party or get together. Although there is over 150 members in the ward, we all know each other and we all enjoy being together. 3) The friendliness of the ward stops during the summer if the person is in one of 2 groups A) Bug Boys or B) College Girls. The Bug Boys are a group of guys from BYU who are hired by a exterminator company to go door to door to get business for the company. The Regular Guys (the guys who are in the ward year round) HATE the Bug Boys because the Bug Boys date and marry all the Regular Women . The RG even have a I HATE the Bug Boys group on Facebook and all of the RG are members. The Regular Women don't like College Girls that much (but we don't HATE them as nearly much as the RG HATE the Bug Boys) because all of the RG date and marry the College Girls.

The skit was about the 1st Linger Longer of the summer. The RG and the RW are dating and everyone is happy. In walks the BB and the CG and everything falls apart. The RG leave the RW to date the CG. The RW leave the RG to go after the BB. After some drama, the RG and the RW get back together and the BB and the CG get together.

Robin and I were cast as "diners" (extras). This meant that we didnt have to worry about the drama of the love square. Robin and I had a speaking part that we said together. The only guy diner (Ted, not MY TED but a different Ted) acted like he had rude table manners, including chewing with his mouth open. Our line was "Just chew your food like everybody else does, silently and with your mouth closed". It was hard enough trying to keep Ted's tie clean.

It was THE BEST Roadshow out of the entire stake. We all had A BLAST doing it and wished we could do it again!!!!! We hope to have a video of the Road Show on our Blog soon. Watch for updates!!!!!

A few days later, we decided to go spend the day in Hollywood!!!!! We saw ALOT of "stars" as we walked up and down the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME. We stopped at GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATRE, ate lunch at DISNEY'S SODA FOUNTAIN (a soad fountain and restraunt owned by Disney. It's located right next door to the famous movie theatre that Disney also owns called THE EL CAPITAN).

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In the beginning of May, Robin was taking a shower in the master bathroom. As she was showering, I heard water dripping in the kitchen so I went to investigate. Sure enough, the water from the shower was dripping from the kitchen ceiling. We ended up having to replace the entire shower. We spent a few days looking for tile and then it took a tile laying company 8 days to redo the shower. Robin and I LOVE our new shower!!!!!

After we got the master bathroom shower redone, Grandpa decided to redo the downstairs shower. We spent another few days picking out the tile (Jason didn't like our shower) and another 7-10 days to re -tile it. Grandpa and Jason like their new shower too!!!

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The evening before Mother's Day Robin and I went to see a Celtic Women concert. Celtic Women is a group of 5 women from Ireland who sing traditional Celtic music along with singing modern songs. They are on PBS quite a bit. Robin LOVES Celtic Women (and Celtic Thunder, the male version of Celtic Women) and has always wanted to go see them. Robin has seen all of their shows on T.V. and has all of their albums. Just before Christmas, I found out the CW was going to be in town and talked Grandpa into buying her and I tickets to go see them. It was an AMAZING concert and we had EXCELLENT seats. Now Robin is scouring the Internet to figure out when Celtic Thunder is going to be in SoCal.

The day after Mother's Day, Robin and I took a trip with our mom to visit her family in Tulsa Oklahoma. Robin and I surprised our Grandma for her birthday. She about fainted when we walked in the door. We spent 7 days there and got to meet family we had never met before. We stayed with our Grandma and Aunt Laura who we we met 12 years ago when we graduated high school. We got to meet our cousins Bridget (and her 5 year old son JR), Fred and Dan, our 2 uncles Rick and Carlson and our 2 aunts Kim and Jayne. We didn't get to meet 3 of our cousins Richard (because he is on an aircraft carrier training to go to Iraq) and Aaron and Afton (although they live within 1 mile of Grandmas house, they are both introverts and hardly ever leave their rooms)

Grandma has cancer and had a round of chemo. the day after we got there. She was sick and slept all but our last 2 days there. Since Grandma was sick, Bridget was our activities director and tour guide. One night she decided at 12:30 that she was going to take us on a cruise around town. She also took us to the street fair 3 times (she met a guy there that ran one of the food stands), a pow-wow (her mom is 1/2 Cherokee and Bridget is 1/4 Cherokee), the Hard Rock Hotel and the Will Rodgers Museum. Although we had to dodge tornado's and thunderstorms we had a lot of fun running around with Bridget and meeting most of the family. We had SO MUCH FUN with Bridget that she is coming to visit us soon.

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Latley, our indoor cats, Ripley and Cali, have decided that they would rather be outdoor cats. When anyone opens the front door, they both try to race outside. We don't understand why they would trade their lush, carefree indoor life for the dangers that the outdoor life brings.

Speaking of cats, our friend Alycia, just started to volunteer for a cat rescue organization. She is helping with bottle feeding abandoned kittens. She recieved her first kitten, she is between 1-2 weeks old. The next day, Amber and I went with her to pick up 5 more kittens. These kittens are less than a week old (they still have their eyes closed). Now she just recieved 4 more kittens (we havent seen them yet). So now she has 10 small kittens that she is fostering. This is on top of the cat and dog she already has.

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Robin and I will try to update more offten so we don't have soooo much to cram into one post. ENJOY untill next time!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!!

2010-04-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Today would have been Grandma's 82nd Birthday. To celebrate, we took some flowers to the grave site. We brought her roses from our garden. Dad bought her a "cake" made of flowers.

Her last birthday, 3 years ago, fell on Easter Sunday. Since she was also born on Easter Sunday, and it was the first time since the day she was born that her birthday fell on Easter Sunday, Amber and I decided to give her a "First Birthday" party. You can read more about it on this page: http://thethorntontalk.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html (Scroll down to the post entitled "Happy Easter") That was GREAT day. We had SOOOO MUCH fun. We are SOOOO glad that she was able to enjoy it too.

By the way, I dont think we posted pics of her headstone. It arrived just before Christmas. Its red marble, with a color picture of Grandpa and Grandma together, with an image of The Los Angeles Temple on it. It took us almost 3 years to decide what we wanted it to look like.

2 local Marines are laid to rest

2010-04-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

2 Marines from Yorba Linda (Lance Copl Rick Centanni and Sgt. Maj. Robert J. Cottle) were killed by an IED in Afghanistan 2 weeks ago. Today was Centannis' funeral. He was killed a few days before his 20th birthday and he attended the same Elementary, Middle and High Schools we attended. To show our support and gratitude, the town lined the streets as the 5 mile long funeral procession drove past. There were thousands and thousands of people wearing red, white and blue, waving flags of all sizes and holding home made signs.

Dad, Jason and I walked to the corner that was across the street from the church where the funeral was at (Robin was at work but she got to see it and Grandpa was sick). We all wore red, white and blue shirts, we brought 6 flags to wave and I made a sign that read "All Give Some You Gave All. Thank-You". We waved the flags proudly and held the sign up as the white Hurst then the family bus and then the hundreds of police cars from all over Southern California drove past.

Sgt. Maj. Robert Cottle's funeral is tomorrow. His family wants it to be a private affair so there won't be the big procession). He was 47 years old when he was killed. He worked on the Los Angeles/Long Beach Police Department before becoming a Marine. He leaves behind his wife of 2 years and their 9 month old daughter. Thank-you for your sacrifice for protecting our freedom and to help insure the freedom of others.

long week

2010-03-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the weeks we haven't posted. It seems like nothing happens for weeks and then everything happens at once. I guess that is life!!!!! On Thursday of last week, Jason, Robin, our mom and I went to Disneyland for a few hours. We hadn't been to Disneyland since before Christmas because of all the rain we have had. While we were at Disneyland, we literally ran into an old friend of ours (Kim) from church and her 2 year-old daughter Kiara. Robin and I have been friends with Kim since high school but we hadn't seen her in 7 years. Kim married another of our good friends (Gaylyn) shortly after we came home from our missions and moved to Seattle Washington. Kim and Kiara were on a 2 week road trip because Galyyn had A LOT of work he needed to get done. Gaylyn is a software tech at Microsoft.

After running into Kim and Kiara, Kim decided she wanted us to be her and Kiara's personal tour guide around Disneyland. We took her on the best rides that Kiara would like and took her to the best places to eat. While we were on a ride, Kim said it would be so much fun if Robin and I could spend the night with her and Kiara in their hotel room. Robin and I agreed and made arrangements to go to her hotel for the night.

After Disneyland closed, we took mom and Jason home, grabbed the things we would need and went back to the hotel by Disneyland. Robin and I had BLAST playing with Kiara for several hours. Gaylyn and Kim adopted Kiara through LDS Family Services. Kiara also has moderate hearing loss because she was a preemie. Kim could not believe how much Kiara LOVED robin and I. She said that she is usually really shy and standoffish to strangers. Robin and I couldn't see how that is possible considering how well she responded to Robin and I. Robin and I were in heaven as we were the servants to Kiaras every whim.

After Kiara fell asleep, Robin, Kim and I talked for another couple of hours. We talked about EVERYTHING!!!! It was SOOO NICE to get out of the house and spend time with a friend. Before we left to go back home and Kim and Kiara left to drive back to Seattle, we went out to breakfast. We went to Mimi's Cafe by Disneyland and had a wonderful breakfast.

On Saturday, a group of friends from church decided to spend the entire day at California Adventure (the Disney park next door to Disneyland). Both Robin and Jason had to work so they were unable to go. We all met at 9AM and stayed until 9PM. I had so much fun with them. We went on many rides and saw several shows and a parade. There are several rides at California Adventure that I REFUSE to go on because they are WAYYYY too wild for me. My friends talked me into going on 2 of the wild rides (actually they had to drag me on to the rides).

The first ride they dragged me onto is California Scream'n. I had been on this ride once before several years a go with some cousins visiting form Idaho. It starts off by going 0 to 45 MPH in 2 seconds. There are 2 real steep drops (I HATE steep drops) and it goes upside down. As I was anticipating the take-off, I kept saying 'I don't want to do this' over and over again. I continued to scream that phrase throughout the rest of the ride. The upside down part wasn't too bad, I just hated 1 of the drops (one of the drops ended up not being as bad as I had remembered) and the take-off. I was SO GLAD to for that ride to end.

The next ride they had to drag me on was Tower of Terror. I had never been on that ride before (and had NO plans to ever get on that ride). Tower of Terror is based on the Twilight Zone episode where an elevator of a 12 story hotel falls 13 stories and goes back in time. The ride consists of a 12 story drop in complete darkness. At the top of the drop the windows open and you look 12 stories down. You are suspended there for several seconds before the windows close and down you go. One of my friends who also had never been on ToT kept saying 'its not that bad' 'it will be fun' 'look at all the kids standing in line'. I said fine, I will go on the ride as long as I could hide my face behind my friends (the one that said 'its not that bad'...) shoulder. As we got on the ride I made sure I sat by that friend because she was the biggest I could hide behind. I hid behind her shoulder for the ENTIRE ride. I held on to her tight as we kept rising and falling for 3 long minutes. After the ride, the friend I held on to said that she will NEVER go on that ride ever again. She said that was the scariest ride she had EVER been on. I told her 'see wasn't there a great reason why I was so scared to go on it.' She said that she would listen to my reasons from now on. HAHAHAHA

On Sunday I taught Relief Society (with only 2 days notice). The lesson was about the creation (lesson#5 in the Gospel Principals manual). the lessons in the GP manuals are hard to teach because you only have 2 or 3 pages and you are only suppose to use the manual and the scriptures. When I teach out of the manual I have to plan that I am going to ask ALOT of questions and there is going to be A LOT of participation. I was stressing during the lesson because I was over half way through the lesson and had 30 minutes left. Somehow I asked enough questions towards the end and there was enough participation that I ended on time.

After Relief Society, Robin and I left church early because Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I were leaving to go spend 3 days at the Welk Resort in Escondido. We own a time share there and have been going there one week a year for over 20 years. We LOVE it there!!!! It is a nice place to relax. We love to swim in the 5 pools they have. We usually go see the play they have at the theater and we also make sure we spend some time in San Diego while we are there.

This time, we spent 2 full days in the pool, spa and the fun water slide. We also decided to spend a day in Old Town San Diego because I heard that the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center in Old Town, has a new movie. The Visitor Center just opened back up after a year long renovation. The new movie is AMAZING!!!! It goes into the lives of 8 people who were part of the Battalion. It showed the great faith, obedience and miracles that happened to the people of the battalion The movie makes you feel like you are also apart of the Battalion. At each part of the journey, you walk to a different room where it is set up to make it look and feel like what it would have been like to be there. At the end of the movie, there is a room that is filled with interactive activities and authentic artifacts from people from the Battalion. Also there was a place where you can pan for gold. Jason LOVED that part. He could have spent hours panning for gold. I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone visiting San Diego to go and experience the Visitors Center.

It was a long week filled with fun and amazing activities!!!!

Our Birthday

2010-02-16T20:03:00.001-08:00

Last week was Robin and my #)th birthday. We really didn't do too much for our birthday because of the economy and also it has been raining off and on all month. For our birthday Jason took us out to breakfast (which wasn't very much because our breakfast was free). Later that day Robin and I went to the mall just to look around (we didn't buy anything). Grandpa made us tatter Tot Casserole for dinner and then our mom, Jason, Robin and I went to Downtown Disney for 2 hours.

The day after our birthday, our Dad took us out to breakfast and then took us to the shops at Knotts for a few hours (we didn't buy anything there either). Later that night, Dad, Louise, our Mom, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I went to a Ribs/Seafood restaurant for dinner. After that, we came home for cake and ice cream. Our mom got us a $25 gift card for Disneyland shopping and our Dad gave us an amethyst (our birthstone) necklace and ear ring set.

The weather has been better this week and both Robin and Jason had the day off, so today we did our birthday gift from Grandpa, WHALE WATCHING!!!! We have never been whale watching before so we thought that would be something fun to do for such a big occasion. We took a whale watching boat out of Newport Beach and was out about 2 1/2 hours. We didn't see very much but it was still a very enjoyable day. We saw 1 whale (just his back), 5-7 dolphins and about 10 Sea Lions. The group that came back about 30 minutes before we left saw 100's and 100's of dolphins but no whales or Sea Lions. The weather was perfect and the Ocean was beautiful and calm.

2010-01-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

Alot has happened since the last update: We went out of town for a few days; I went bowling with my co-workers; and we had HEAVY rain for 4 days in a row.

Since Jason and I rarely have 3 days off in a row at the same time, our family decide to get out of town for a few days. We belong to a RV park that has 2 locations: One in the mountains at Oak Glen, and another one in Riverside County. We use to always go to the one in Oak Glen durring the Fall when they had their apple season (Oak Glen is VERY FAMOUS for their apples). Since we have never been to the other one, we decided to go to that one instead. Its called FISHERMAN'S RETREAT.

We didnt bring our motorhome,so we stayed in one of the trailers they have.

It was a nice place. They had 3 lakes for fishing. Since we didnt bring our fishing poles, we didnt go fishing. But we had a nice time walking around them. Durring our walk, I pulled out 2 fishing bobbers and a bouncy ball from the water (3 less things polluting the water)

There were alot of different kinds of birds around the lakes.

This is "Ruccus" and "Sounder". The owners of FR said that if they start charging, you should stand your ground. If you run, they will run after you. As we were talking our walk around the lakes, they started charging at me, so I stood my ground. It didnt work. They started attacking and biting me (it didnt hurt). After a few minutes, they walked away. Amber wanted me to go find them so she could take a picture as they attaced me again. She thought it would be HILLARIOUS to caption the picture "Don't meet them the same way Robin met them. They like to get up close and personal". Everyone thinks Amber is the nice and sweet one. If she's SOOOO SWEET, why did she want me to get attacked again just so she could get a picture????? I told her she should be the one to get an "up close and personal" encounter with them. She didnt like that idea.

Jason LOVED it at FR because we were RIGHT by the rail road tracks. We must have seen at least 50 trains while we were there. He didnt sleep much because he was up all night watching trains.

Next to FR was an old school. It was originally gray. Then they painted it the traditional red. Then they painted it back to the origianl gray.

Durring our getaway, we spent a day in Oak Glen (where we use to go). At OG, they have a shopping village, a small zoo, and a museum with both real and stuffed animals. Durring the Fall, it's busy and full of people. But, since is durring their off season, OG was more like a ghost town. But it was nice seeing it again. We hadn't been up there since before Amber and I went on our missions 8 years ago.

We had a GREAT time on our getaway.

Jason's store (Home Depot) is ALWAYS having parties and events. I have be waiting for over 5 YEARS for my store (Kohl's) to have an activity away from the store. I FINALLY got my wish. The night after we got back from the getaway, my store had a party at a nearby bowling alley. About 60 associates showed up. Although I had praticed bowling on our Wii System for 2 days, I didnt bowl very good (who knew there's a difference between Wii bowling and real bowling). I still had fun though.

Since then, we have been held up in our house because of rain. We have had 4 straight days of HEAVY rain. This is because we are in an El Nino year (occurs once every 5 years) El Nino brings ALOT of HEAVY rain to our area. We have had about 6 inches of rain since Monday. If we didnt have a drain in our back yard, our house would have been flooded. The storm on Tuesday brought tornados and tornado warrings. I learned on the news that durring El Nino years, our area of Southern California has more tornados and tornado warrings then any other place this side of the Continental Divide.

This is our back yard

This is the water flowing down the street in front of our house. The water is above the sidewalk.

This is a picture of a leaf floating in our back yard.

This is what we call "The Waterfall". We love going to see it either durring or after a heavy rain storm. You wouldnt know it by looking at it that the ONLY time there is water here is when it rains. If its not raining, it's COMPLETLY dry.

There was SOOO MUCH water here, these boys were using their surf boards to float down the makeshift river.

All this rain gave Amber and I a chance to work on on hobby and allowed us time to update our websites. Here are links to our websites for our hobby: http://beholdyourlittleonesnursery.blogspot.com/
http://beholdyourlittleones.webs.com/

We had a busy but fun week!!!!

2010-01-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!!! Alot has happened since we posted last week. We have been having fun with activities with family and our YSA ward. On Moday, Louise (our step-mom) decided she wanted to have a girls night out with Robin and I. Although she has been married to our Dad for 17 years, this is the first time she has wanted to do something with us. We went out to dinner and then walked around Downtown Disney for a few hours. We had an enjoyable time. Louise bought a pretty new skirt to wear to church.

On Tuesday, Grandpa, Dad, Jason, Robin and I went and saw Avatar in 3-D. Avatar was a FANTASTIC movie!!!! The movie was entertaining, it didn't seem like it was 3 hours long. After the movie, we went out to lunch.

On Wednesday, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I went to both Knotts and Disneyland. Our mom works at Knotts and although it was her day off, she had some things she needed to do at Knotts. Since she was there also, she tagged along at Knotts and Disneyland. The first thing we did at Knotts was ride the stage coach around the park. I hadn't done that since I was little. It was so much fun!!!! Robin and I got to ride up front with the 2 drivers while the rest were inside. The next thing we did was take the train around the park. Then we went on the mine train ride. We then had lunch, then went on Jaguar and Poney Express.

It was then off to Disneyland for a few hours. We saw the new Great Moments with Abraham Linclon show, It's a Small World (it was still all decorated for Christmas), Mr. Toads Wild Ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was nice to get to go to 2 parks in 1 day.

We didn't do anything on Thursday (how boring) but on Friday, Jason, Robin and I went to the movies with Mom. She had 4 movie passes and wanted to take us to Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was a cute movie!!! Robin and I were singing along to most of the songs they played.

On Saturday night, Robin and I went iceskating for the first time with our YSA ward. It was a multi stake activity and over 150 people showing up. Although Robin and I were the only ones holding on to the wall, we still had a very fun evening. I made 8 laps around the arena and only falling once (I didn't get hurt at all). Robin made it around a couple of times too and also only falling once (she also did not get hurt). We both did alot better then I thought we would at our fist time iceskating. I can't wait to go again, next time I will try to come away from the wall (or maybe not)

HAPPY 2010!!!!

2009-12-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

Well today is the last day of 2009 and I thought I would tell you what we did this year that we hadn't posted about yet. We will TRY to post pictures of everything soon.

In May, Robin, Jason and I took our Mom to the Aquarium of the Pacific. AofP is a HUGE aquarium about the largest ocean in the world. The aquarium in located in Long Beach, across the bay from the Queen Mary. We had a great time seeing the more then 12,500 animals including many varieties of sharks, rays, fish, seals, sea lions and otters (Robins favorite). We got to feed nectar to Lorikeets, pet some sharks and rays. We also saw a laser and light show about Blue Whales.

In September, my cousin Derek married Betsy in Ohio. Grandpa, Dad, Jason, Robin and I flew out for the wedding to join with the ENTIRE Meyerson clan. It was so wonderful to have the entire family together again. It has been YEARS since we have all been together. We were all busy getting ready for the wedding and going to all the social gatherings.

When we weren't busy, we spent time together enjoying each others company. We had a BLAST playing with Lexi, Ashlin, Tayley and Lucy!!!! We also spent a lot of time with the rest of the Meyersons.

One day while we were in Ohio, a group of us went to Kirkland to visit the historical sites. We visited the Kirkland Temple, which now belongs to the Community of Christ Church, and the Whitney Store. Although the temple was BEAUTIFUL, the spirit was defiantly missing. I felt so bad for all the hard work and sacrifice the early Saints put into it and all of it is for naught :( Thank goodness the spirit was amazingly strong at Whitney's Store. I gained a deep love and testimony for Joseph and Emma Smith. I also felt a deep love for the Whitney's and the love, service, sacrifice and friendship they had for the Smiths and to all who were in Kirkland.

In October, Dad, Louise, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I took a 2 week cross country train trip. We went from Los Angeles to Oakland, Oakland to Chicago and Chicago to Alexandria Virgina. We spent 3 days in Alexandria and then took trains from Washington DC to Chicago and Chicago to Seattle. We then took a 4 hour bus ride from Seattle to Vancouver Canada where we spent 3 more days. We then went back to Seattle to take a train back to Los Angeles.

We went through many different types of scenery from oceans to mountains to farm fields to following winding rivers. All the scenery was beautiful in its own way. Louise, Robin and I took well over 1,000 pictures. We were shutter bugs, especially Louise and Robin. We spent all our time on the train in the viewing car. The viewing car has HUGE windows and the seats face the windows. Besides looking at the scenery and taking pictures, Dad, Louise, Robin and I played board and card games.

While we were in Alexandria Virgina, it rained the ENTIRE 3 days we were there. Although it was raining, we spent a lot of time away from the hotel. We took several walks around town and went to Christs Church where George Washington and Robert E. Lee went to church. We also spent a day in Washington DC where we went to the Lincoln Memorial (something I have been wanting to do since I was in Kindergarten) and The Smithsonian Institute. It was a GREAT DAY!!!!

We had a 4 hour layover in Chicago before we had to catch the next train so Dad and Louise took Jason, Robin and I to The Willis Towers (formally known as The Sears Towers). We took an elevator 103 floors up in 60 seconds and saw was on top of the world!!!! The sky was partly cloudy but we were able to see far. On a clear day, people are able to see 5 different states and into Canada. We walked out onto 4 Plexiglas balconies that hang out over the ledge. All that was between our feet and 103 floors down was clear plexiglas. It was a little nerve wracking but so fun!!!!

My favorite part of the trip was Vancouver Canada. We stayed right in Downtown VC and was walking distance of MANY sites. We all did A LOT of walking around town looking at the interesting buildings and beautiful scenery. Robin and I spent HOURS walking around and shopping in historic Gas Town. We also visited the Vancouver Aquarium. Although it was not even close to being as big as Aquarium of the Pacific, it was still very interesting. I CAN NOT WAIT until the Winter Olympics start in February so I can see the beautiful city again.

Starting in the middle of November, we had most of the ceilings in our house replaced. The earthquakes we had earlier this year, created large cracks in the seams. While we got the ceilings replaced we decided we would repaint most of the bedrooms too. Grandpa painted his room a pretty color of light green. In Jason's room, we painted over the sun and rainbow that has been there since before we moved in. His room is now a nice shade of tan. Also, since Jason wanted a Disney themed room, he got the Matterhorn drawn on one wall and his (and Walt's) favorite Disney train on another wall.

For Robin and my room, we got clouds painted on the ceiling with countless glow in the dark stars. The ceiling is beautiful at night with all the stars. It feels like we are outside away from the city lights. Our old bedroom also got a makeover. The wall that has the closet in now the same color green as Grandpa's room. The large main wall is blue with sun, moon, clouds and stars. The window wall is now a pastel purple and the wall with the shelves is 2 shades of pink. The shelves are blue, pink, green and purple. On the bottom half of the walls (except for the wall with the shelves) has white Wyans Coating (wood paneling). All the rooms are GREAT!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving over at Dad and Louises apartment. It was the 1st time in their 17 years of marriage that they have invited us over for a cooked meal. They invited us over 2 other times but that was for cold cut sandwiches and cinnamon rolls. We watched 2 movies while we were over there and we had a wonderful dinner. Louise said she enjoyed having us over so much that she will invite over again soon. We will have to see if that ever happens.

December was filled with many Christmas activities and parties. A group of us from our YSA ward went to the Los Angeles Temple to put up Christmas lights. We spent over 4 hours putting up lights on the LONG front wall and a tree next to the front lawn. It took a long time to untangle the strands of lights. I spent over 45 minutes untangling 1 strand of lights. I was SOOOO proud when I finally got the strand untangled (one group of people worked on the same tangle for only about 10 minutes and gave up). I couldn't wait to show everybody the work I did to make sure the stand of lights was worthy of being on temple grounds.

Several weeks a go, Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I went to see the lights at the temple lights at night time. The first lights we saw as we were driving towards the temple was the lights on the front wall (the ones I spent SOOO LONG untangling). They were SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! The white lights were so bright, they took every ones breath away. We spent an hour walking around the grounds seeing all the lights. I was able to show everyone the strand of lights I worked on. I also showed them the tree I worked on too. I was disappointed when we got to the tree to see that not a single light was on. All the other trees were were blazed with lights, but not the tree I worked on. I really wanted to see the tree all lit up because we had to put over 30 BOXES of lights and hanging icicles. It was suppose to be a 'burning bush'.

Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Mike, their dog Dodger and my cousin Jodi came down from Utah for Christmas and spent a week with us. It was great having them here!!!! We have missed not spending Christmas with them for the past 10 years. While they were here, we went shopping, saw Christmas lights and saw a movie among other things. We got to also spend time with Jodi's boyfriend Chris who was also visiting his family in Huntington Beach. (Jodi, Chris is a keeper!!!! :) We are so glad they came for Christmas. We wished they could spend longer. Hopefully they will come for another visit soon. I also hope that the rest of the Meyerson clan visits us soon too.

We hope you all have a WONDERFUL and safe 2010!!!!! We promise to update this blog more often, even if we have nothing to blog about. We love and miss you all!!!!!!

What an AMAZING couple of months!!!!

2009-08-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long time without updateing. We have had extremely busy, but fun couple of months!!!!! We will update with more posts and pictures within the next 2 weeks. PLEASE keep checking back and PLEASE post comments!!! We all love and miss you!!!

On Friday Aug. 7th, we went to an Angels Baseball game. It was the 15th Annual Mormon Night at Angels Stadium. They played against the Texas Rangers. Although the Angels lost (9 to 3) it was still a GREAT night!!!!!

On Saturday morning Aug, 8th Robin and I had to wake up really early so we could get to the All California State YSA Conference by 9 AM. The Conference was held near each of the 7 Temples in California and was attended by 12,000 Young Single Adults. Robin and I went to the Newport Beach location where 1,800 people attended. The day was filled with 4 workshops, a service project (tying 150 quilts), different recreational activities, food and a dance that lasted until 11:30 PM.

On Sunday morning Aug. 9th, we arrived at the Conference early again because our ward and another ward sang during the Sacrament Meeting portion of the Conference. We sang a medley of 3 hymns (Where Can I Turn for Peace/Be Still My Soul/Our Saviors Love) which overwhelmingly brought the spirit to the meeting. We had several speakers including the area 70 and his wife Elder and Sister Dalton whom we have known our entire lives. Our final speaker to end the AMAZING fireside was a broadcast from Elder and Sister Perry.

This Conference was a historic event and was closely watched by the General Authorities of the church to see if it would succeed in all of the goals they set. BOY DID IT SUCCEED!!!! The General Authorities goals included 10,000 YSA attend the conference and 10,000 temple ordinances performed in 3 months. Almost 12,000 YSA attended the conference and 69,612 temple ordinances were performed in the 12 weeks before the conference (thats almost 7 times the amount the goal that was set for). All the temples in California were FLOODED with YSA, and we were told the temple workers were "frazzled" trying to keep up with us. The temple work portion of the Conference was such a success that all the Temples in California will have the 8 PM session Tues-Fri reserved just for the YSA. I hope the temple workers during those session will be just as frazzled as they were for the past 12 weeks.

I KNOW that this Conference will spread country and world wide!!!! We felt so honored to be apart of this life changing event!!! This Conference and 12 weeks leading up to it, was designed to strengthen our personal relationship with Christ, gain a deep testimony for missionary and fellowship work and to make personal life improvements.

A VERY Special Day!!!!!

2009-07-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

On July 1st, a VERY Special event occurred in our family. To celebrate what would have been their 59th wedding anniversary, Grandpa, Grandma, Dad and Bonnie were sealed for Time and All Eternity in the Los Angeles Temple.

Before the Sealing, we did Grandma's Temple Work. Amber did her Initiatory and was her Proxy while Dad and Bonnie were Sealed to Gandma and Grandpa. I was able to do her Endowment. Bonnie was Grandma's Proxy while she was Sealed to Grandpa. It was an AMAZING expierience to be a Proxy to someone who you knew and loved.

There were many people who came to help us celebrate this special occasion: Aunt Bonnie (of course) Uncle Mike and Chad came from Utah; Aunt Elaine (Grandma's sister) came from Chula Vista (near San Diego); and there were MANY friends from the Yorba Linda 5 Ward.

After the Sealing, we all went out for lunch at a restraunt called "Juniors".

It was a WONDERFUL day.

HAPPY 81ST BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

It was 81 years a go today when a 3rd child, and 1st son, joined the Thornton Family in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The boy is tiny when he is born because he wasn't due until September (3 months early). But then the boy grew, married and had a family and became the Stanley Levi Thornton we all know and love!!!! HAPPY 81ST BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!!!! We hope you have a FUNTASTIC day!!!!!! Thank-you for ALL that you have done for us!!!!! Thank-you for all the love and laughter you gave for all these years!!!! You are THE BEST GRANDPA (and dad) IN HISTORY!!!!! WE LOVE YOU and are SO GLAD you are in our lives!!!!!!!

A Historic California YSA Conference

2009-05-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

On August 8th and 9th, 10,000 YSA's from all over the state of California will gather at each of the 7 temples for a historic state wide conference. They are expecting 1,800 YSA to be at the Newport Beach Temple. Last night we had a Conference kick-off fireside to explain what will happen in the next 12 weeks leading up to the conference and the actual conference. In two weeks, we all will be divided into companionships and be set apart for a 10 week mini mission. We will spend the next 10 weeks focusing on finding, activating and inviting the less-active to this conference. We also be focusing on missionary work. All the YSA state wide are encouraged to do temple ordinances at least 3 times before August 8th.

We have State goals, Ward goals and Personal goals that we will be focusing on also. These goals are designed to improve us physically as well as spiritually. The State goals include: To have 80% of all YSA's attend the Conference. Have 30% of all YSA's bring a friend or a less active to the Conference. Have 10,000 Ordinances performed by August 8th. The Ward Goals include: Identify and visit every less active YSA in the ward. Challenge every less active to attend the Conference. Be Temple Worthy and perform at least 3 ordinances by August 8th.

On Saturday August 8th, we will all gather at the nearest temple (for us it is the Newport Beach Temple) at 5 in the morning to do sessions, sealings, inititories, baptisms and confirmations. After spending several hours in the temple, we will have several workshops to attend. In the afternoon, we will have a service project where we will be making 1,000 quilts (yes even the guys will be doing it too) state wide in 2 1/2 hours. The quilts will be donated to families in need. In the evening, we will have a dance.

On Sunday August 9th, we will gather for a special fireside where we will take the sacrament and have Elder L. Tom Perry as a special speaker. Robin and I are SO EXCITED for this conference. It will be an AMAZING experience!!!!

Fun with the Meyersons!!!! Now with pictures

2009-04-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

On Monday Grandpa, Jason and I had the amazing privilege of watching Ashlin and Tayley!!!!!! Chad, Meagan and the girls flew down from Salt Lake to Los Angeles to watch the Lakers eliminate the Jazz . When we got to the hotel Chad and Meagan were staying in, we walked in the room and Tayley was crawling all over the room. I went to pick her up and she smiled at me. She had no problem with me holding her. I took her over to Grandpa so he could see her, but she began to cry (poor Grandpa). Ashlin came running up to Grandpa Jason and I and gave us lots of hugs and kisses!!!!!

Everyone but Grandpa got ready to swim in the hotel pool before Chad and Meagan had to leave for the game. We spent about an hour swimming and having a goodtime. Tayley was just chilling in her float ring while Ashlin was a real fish swimming all around the pool. Ashlin and I had fun racing each other and playing tag. Tayley was mesmerized by me. She just stared at me and when I swam by her she smiled. I think she liked me.

After we got out, Grandpa and Chad went across the street to Taco Bell to get dinner. As we were eating and Chad and Meagan were getting ready for the game, Tayley was crawling all around the room again and had no desire to eat. I finally picked her up and fed her some rice. She enjoyed sitting on my lap and I got her to eat some dinner.

It was then time for Tayley to go to bed and Chad and Meagan to leave for the game. Grandpa and Jason watched TV while I played with Ashlin. I had a WONDERFUL time playing Princesses with Ashlin. I was Belle and she was Cinderella. We pretended that the evil queen was after us so we had to keep running from one side of the room to the other. When we were on one side of the room we would play with some magnetic cutouts and play sets of the Princesses at a ball. We had to dance with each other so we would be ready to dance with the princes. As we were dancing it reminded me of the chorus of a song by Steven Curtis Chapman called Cinderella. "I will dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms. Cause I know something the prince never knew. I'll dance with Cinderella. I don't want to miss even one song. Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone."

When we were on the other side we watched the planes fly into LAX. As we were watching the planes, Ashlin and I had to call Wonder Pets to see if they could help us get away from the evil queen. The Wonder Pets would say they were too busy so we had to get help form the planes.

Ashlin had such a large imagination!!!! I was privileged to take part in it!!!!! I had so much fun playing with Ashlin and Tayley and enjoyed every moment I spent with them. I was so sad when I had to put Ashlin to bed. I can't wait to see them again.

Me with Ashlin and Tayley

Ashlin with Grandpa

Chad, Meagan, Ashlin and Tayley

Chad throwing Ashlin in the air

Meagan and Tayley enjoying the water

Ashlin and Tayley

Grandpa catching an Ashlin fish

Grandpa and Tayley

Jason with Ashlin

I thought Robin needed to have a picture too, so this is the bruise she got when she fell during one of the earthquakes last week.

EarthShake, Rattle and Roll!!!!!

2009-04-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yorba Linda was really shaking, rattling and rolling yesterday!!!! Just before 5 PM 2 strong jolts hit Yorba Linda (about 8 months a go we also had a 5.8 jolt). Robin and I were out and about and was stopped at a red light when our car began shaking. I thought it was the car behind us bumping into us. After a few moments we realized it was an earthquake. We immediately called home and Grandpa answered with "WOW, that was a jolt!!!" He told us that it sounded like an entire army shot of rifles in the house. It was 2 extremely strong and loud bangs. Jason was walking when it hit and it knocked him off his feet. When Robin and I got home we looked it up on the computer and saw that the quake was 3.8, 3 miles deep (most quakes are at least 10 miles deep) and centered 2 miles from our house. We pin-pointed the spot where it happened and found out that Robin and I was 1 block away from the epicenter. Thank goodness only a few things fell down and nothing broke. The pets were sure scared the rest of the day, especially Ripley, Kodi and Koda. Cali didn't seem to be scared.

At 8:30 PM we were hit with an even bigger quake. Robin was taking a bath, Jason was upstairs watching t.v. and Grandpa and I were watching the Lakers and Jazz game. All of the sudden there was another HUGE jolt. Robin was stepping out of the tub when it hit and it made her fall down. She has a huge knot and bruise on her leg. 1 minute after the jolt there was another big jolt. The biggest of the jolts measured 4.0, was 1 FOOT (right on the surface) and was 1 mile from the house. The 2nd jolt was only 2.6 and was 2 miles deep. Once again just a few things fell but some of them broke.

Grandpa thought it would be safer for us to sleep in the motor home in case we got more quakes. We wouldn't have to worry about anything falling on us and the metal frame of the motor home wouldn't shake as bad as the wood frame of our house. We had 3 smaller quakes (measuring 2.5-1.8) though out the rest of the night but we barely felt them. I think Yorba Linda got its fill of earthquakes for quite awhile. Hopefully we won't have any more jolts.

A Day in LA

2009-04-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dad needed to go to the Los Angeles Union Train Station to fix something for our train trip in October. Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I decided to tag along. We arrived at the Fullerton station at 9:30 in the morning to catch an Amtrak train for the 30 minute trip to the LA station. After Dad got everything fixed, we decided to go across the street to historic Olvera Street.

Olvera Street is the oldest street in Los Angeles (it is known as the birthplace of Los Angeles). It was first settled in 1781 by 44 Mexican settlers. Olvera Street is one block long filled with many shops selling handcrafted souvenirs and clothing and 27 historic buildings. There were also many authentic Mexican Restaurants. We had lunch at restaurant that opened in 1924. The food was SOOOOOO GOOD!!! The weather was also very nice. For the past 3 days it has been 103-105 but today it had cooled down to 72. It was perfect weather to spend the day outside and walk around the old street.

As we were waiting for the train to go back to Fullerton, we had time to walk around the Union Station. The Los Angeles Union Station opened on May 7, 1939 (it will celebrate it's 70th birthday in a few weeks). The interior of the Station was breathtaking!!!! The ceilings were 50 high with beautiful wood carvings. The 30 old ticket booths also had intricate wood carvings. Grandpa told us that in the 1940's and 50's the station was always busy!!! Many celebraties could be found walking around and getting on and off trains. The Station is HUGE with more then 20 tracks coming into it. We all had a wonderful time!!!! We are planning to go to Chinatown (also by train) which is about a block away from Olvera Street.

This is the Fullerton Train Station, about 10 miles from our house

This is the Los Angeles Union Train Station.

A flower cart announcing you are on Olvera Street

A view of Olvera Street

Another view of Olvera Street

The 4 of us eating lunch

a view inside the LA Union Station

another view inside the station

the last view inside the station

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

2009-04-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

You have been gone now for 15 months. We wanted to do something special for your birthday. Since you are not here we couldn't make or buy you anything. There was only one thing that we could think of that you would want more then anything. We finally decided to set a date to get your temple work done and for you and Grandpa, Dad and Bonnie to be sealed for time and all eternity!!!! The date we have chosen is July 1st 2009, which would have been your 59th Wedding Anniversary. We are going to have it done in the Los Angeles Temple, which is a special temple for you and Grandpa. We are going to invite many family and friends for this much waited for event. We are counting down the days until we are all truly an eternal family!!!!

Our St. Patrick's Day!!!!

2009-03-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We've been Busy!!!!!

2009-02-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long wait for an update. PICS WILL BE COMING SOON (Amber and I are planning on going through them tomorrow)!!!!!!!!! Here is whats been going on in our family since the last update.

On January 11th, Chad and his family were in town from Utah due to a JetBlue meeting. The goup had tickets to a Clippers Basketball game. Since they had extra tickets, Grandpa, Jason, and I were able to go with them (Amber couldnt go because she had to teach the Relief Society lesson that day). It was alot of fun (but I hope, someday, to go to a Lakers game)

The month of February has been busy so far:

Amber and I had a birthday earlier this month, so there has been alot of parties (and cake)!!!!!!!

The fist party was 2 days before our birthday. It was put on by our friend, Leanne.There were quite a few people who showed up. We had a GAME NIGHT. We played a fun game called APPLES TO APPLES and DISNEY SCEEN IT. After everyone left, Amber and I spent about 2 hours just talking to Leanne. It was GREAT!!!!!

The next night Grandpa took us out to eat at TONY ROMA'S!!!!! They have are famous for their ribs. They are EXCELLENT (and messy).

Later that night, we went to a party for a friend who was moving. Since she LOVES pie, instead of it being a good-bye party, it was a good- PIE party. Everyone brought pies. It was alot of fun.

Since Amber and I were going to Disneyland for our birthday the next day, Amber and I opened our presents: Amber gave me a book ONE SINGLE VOICE (it was written by Elder Oaks wife. Its about how to find joy and contentment in being single in a family oriented church), and 2 CD's. One CD is called A CHILD'S PRAYER. It is the CD that Travis and Jenny used as the soundtrack to Jake's memorial dvd (We LOVE and miss you Jake). The other CD is about women and the important role they play.

I got her a Buxton bag (the ones you see on tv), the same CD I got her A CHILD'S PRAYER, and a painting called I WILL NOT FAIL THEE. It shows a girl kneeling against the lap of Jesus (you don't see his face). Amber calls it HER picture. She calls it her picture because the phrase I WILL NOT FAIL THEE is in her Pat. Blessing.

Since Amber and I LOVE to read, grandpa bought us each a Sony e-book reader. Its a electronic device that you can download HUNDREDS of e-books onto. This allows us to read LOTS of books without lugging around all thoes books. We LOVE them!!!!! They get LOTS of use!!!!

The next day was our birthday. Amber, our mom and I spent the day at Disneyland. This year at the Disney Parks, you can get in free on your birthday. But since Amber and I have Annual Passes that let us in free evveryday, we got a gift card worth $69 (the price of a one day ticket) to use toward purchases. I used my gift card to buy a blanket of IT'S A SMALL WORLD and a shirt. Amber used hers to buy 2 figures.

Friday night Grandpa made a cake and we had Dad and Louise and Mom over.

Tomorrow night Amber and I are going over to our friends house. She is going to make us a birthday dinner. That will be last birthday party.

In other news.... We got a new garage door. We couldnt open or close our other garage door due to our new roof. When they put on our new roof, they put the shingles down too far.

Earlier this week I had to get a new laptop because my old one quit working. The guy said that it would cost at least $200 to fix. Grandpa said that we could get a brand new one for a little bit more money. So.....Hello New Laptop!!!!!!!

Last night, Grandpa, Dad, Louise, Jason, Amber and I went to go see the HARLEM GLOBE TROTTERS!!!! It was a WONDERFUL show. It was AMAZING to see all the tricks they could do with a basketball.

It was also REALY funny to see the tricks they pulled on eachother, their opponents THE GENERALS, and on the audience.

In a few weeks Grandpa goes in to have surgery. Because he has REALLY bad knee pain, he is having a pain pump put in. Hopefully this will relieve his pain.

There has also been news of 2 new members joining the family, and the 16th marks 2 years of when we had to say goodbye, for now, to one. First the new additions:

In May Travis, Jenny, Lexi and Jake will be adding Lucy to the family. Welcome Little Lucy!!!!! We can't WAIT to see you!!!!!!

Today we learned that my cousin Derek and his long time girlfriend, Betsy, are engaged. Welcome to the crazy family Betsy. I hope that we will be able to get to know eachother better.

Two years ago,on the 16th, we lost a very special member of the family: Jake. Jake was born with a birth defect called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). CDH is a devestating birth defect where the diaphragm fails to close all the way. This allows the organs that are suppose to be in the abdomin, to escape into the chest cavity. This prevents the lungs and heart to be underdeveloped due to lack of room. He fought for 5 months and 25 days. He spent his ENTIRE life in the NICU. Even though we didnt get a chace to see you, know that we will ALWAYS LOVE and MISS you. We were planning on seeing you after you got out of the hospital, but, sadly, that didnt happen. We LOVE You OUR LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD!!!!!!!

The past 3 months. Pics will come in the next post.

2009-01-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

Once again we are so sorry for the delay in posts. A lot has happened in the past 3 months. Stay tuned for the next post to see picturs of all our activities. First off in October Grandpa, Jason, Robin, Dad and Louise and I went on a 16 day road trip to visit Northern California and family in Idaho and Utah. We spent one week driving through the redwoods. It was AMAZING to see the GIANT trees, I now know how ants feel when they are by us. These trees are more then 5,000 years old and over 300 feet high and each tree drinks more then 200 gallons of water a day (I'm glad I don't have to pay that water bill. HAHAHA). We really enjoyed walking around them and seeing all the touristy things along the way including The Skunk Train.

We also really enjoyed all the family we got to see. In Utah we got to see my Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Mike, my cousins Chad, his wife Meagan and their 2 daughters Ashlin (3) and Tayley (4 months) and my other cousin Jodi. We also visited one on my Grandmas brothers family. We did a lot of fun things including the Heber Creeper and the Kennecott Copper Mine. We also visited a wild mustang and burro ranch, went to Gardners Village and went to one of Ashlins dance recital (she did such a great job). We spent 2 days visiting my Grandpa's family in Idaho. We saw more then 75 relatives living in and around Rigby. It was SO nice to see everyone again.

4 days into our trip, our outside water main pipe broke, allowing water to get into our living room and dining room. It was a HUGE mess. Luckily we had neighbors and members of our ward who cleaned up the mess which allowed us to continue on our vacation. They vacuumed up the water, moved all the furniture, pulled up the carpets and had high powered fans going.

When we got back, we spent the next 6 weeks getting the house back together. We had to repaint the walls, get new carpet and move the furniture out of the family room and kitchen back to where they belonged. Thank goodness the same people who helped clean up the mess while we were gone, helped us get the house back together.

On November 15th, 4 devastating wildfires swept through Southern California, including Yorba Linda. Robin and I were out to lunch at Disneyland with one of our church friends for her birthday. When we first arrived at Disneyland, ash began to fall like snow. After lunch not only was the ground covered in ash, but the sky was the overcast with dark brown smoke. We immediatly left and went home. We learned that there was a fire in Brea (about 8 miles away) and there was another fire at the Yorba Linda/Corona border (3 miles away).

Roads were shut down except for emergency vehicles and 100,000's of people were evacuated, including us. Dad and Louise took our 2 cats and 2 birds while we spent the night in a hotel. While we were leaving our neighborhood we saw flames coming over the hills that was 1/2 mile away from our house. The hotel was filled to capacity with fire evacuees and their pets. We spent the entire night watching the news, seeing streets we know engulfed in flames.

Our house and all the houses in our neighborhood withstood the fire (even though when we got back home live emberes were still in our yard). 118 families in Yorba Linda were not that lucky, including a bishop in our stake. The rest of Yorba Linda are doing all we can to help and support those who lost everything.

The radio station Robin and I listen to was having a private Christmas party at Disneyland on the 20th. For the entire month of December Robin and I had tried everyday trying to get tickets for the party. We went several places where they were holding raffles to win tickets. Finally at the last raffle holding (which was held the day before the party) I was the first name that was pulled and won 4 tickets to the party. Robin and I surprised Jason with the tickets. Robin, Jason, Mom and I had a wonderful time playing at Disneyland from 9 PM-1AM. We can't wait to do it next year.

On Nov. 22, Jason turned 30. We had a family get together with cake and ice cream. We all chipped in to buy Jason an i-Pod. Robin and I put about 50 songs on it for him and a Mickey Mouse skin for it. We taught Jason how to put songs on it and now he has over 100 songs on it. He really likes his i-Pod. He also got some games for his gaming systems.

Robin and I went to our 1st concert (I know... we are almost 29 years old and going to our 1st concert. How sad!). We went to see Celine Dion. We had a WONDERFUL time!!! We thought Celine Dion was great on the radio but she is even more AMAZING in person.

We had a great Christmas!!!! As usual, Dad and Louise came over Christmas Eve and had dinner. After dinner, Robin and I read stories that share the true spirit of Christmas. We also read a poem we found on the internet entitled "Christmas In Heaven". We dedicated it to all the family members we have lost especially Jacob and Grandma. Then we spent several hours unwrapping presents.

We also had a great new year so far. Dad and Louise invited us over to their house (the 1st time they have ever invited us over to their house in 16 years). G-pa, Robin and I (Jason was at work) got there around 9:30 so we could watch the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. We had hot chocolate and Cinnamon rolls YUMMY!!!! There were BEAUTIFUL floats (as always) this year and USC won the bowl game.

The 2nd is Grandmas 1 year anniversary since she died. It has been a year full of ups and downs with out her but we know that once we get her temple work done (which will probably be in the summer) we will be together with her again. Grandpa has been stuggleing with is knee pain a lot more then usual. The pain is not only in his knees but in his entire legs and hips. He can barely walk without using a walker now. His pain wears him out and spends days on the couch because he cant walk or is too dizzy to move. He has had several testings for a pain pump to be inserted in his spine which will give a contestant flow of heavy pain medication into his spine. All the kinks have been ironed out for him to receive the pain pump on Feb. 27th. Please keep him in your prayers that the pain pump will work and he will be able to enjoy life again.

2008-09-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

A lot as happened since our last post. Grandpa and I spent some time up in Utah for a family gathering and baby blessing. Grandpa and I really enjoyed spending time with Bonnie, Mike, Travis, Lexi, Chad, Meagan, Ashlin, Tayley, Derek and Jodi. While we were there we went to 2 picnics, the Utah State Fair and the girls had their pictures taken. At the fair, Lexi and Ashlin went fishing. Grandpa is SO EXCITED to have a new generation to teach fishing to :)!

After we got back from Utah, I went on another date with Ted. This time we spent the day at a time share with his family in Newport Beach. We met at the Newport Beach temple and did a session then Ted and i spent some time at the beach called Crystal Cove. We ate at a beach front cafe and walked around the tide pools. Ted's family and I then spent about an hour swimming in the time-share pool. We then we all got dressed to go to a ward dinner. I had a wonderful time with Ted and his family.

Its A Jungle Out There

2008-08-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

Robin and & I had dates lastnight!!! Our Singles Ward had a girl ask guy dance. The theme of the dance was "It's a jungle out there" and we were asked to dress in a jungle theme.

Before the dance, my date, Ted, and I went miniture golfing with another couple, Becky and Brad. Ted is almost as good as a pro golfer, it was no suprise he won the game.

After miniture golfing, the 4 of us went to dinner at a restaraunt called "The Rainforest Cafe". The restaraunt makes you feel as if you were eating in an actual rainforest.

Then we went to the dance. We all had fun dancing and mingleing with the other Young Single Adults.

Since Robin had to work until 6 and then had to pick up her date, Johnny, who lived 20 miles away, they were only able to go to dinner before the dance.

Ted and I had such a great time at the dance, Ted has asked me out for Friday. I will let you all know about that date later.

Happy 5th Birthday, Kiley!!!!!!!

2008-06-03T18:38:00.001-07:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2008-05-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy CDH Awarness Day!!!!

2008-03-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy CDH Awareness Day to you All, especially to you Jakey,

I hope I have enough CDH Awareness Day items:

Shirt:

Pins:

Wrist Band:

Even with ALL these things...

It seems like something is missing...

Oh, I know what I forgot...

I forgot the shirts for

Ripley and Cali

Now they can help us

spread the word

about CDH

Happy Birthday to you too, Meagan!!!!!!!!!!

busy days

2008-03-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

I have been busy for the past 5 days doing fun things. On Friday night, I went to the Newport Beach Temple with my ward. I hadn't been to the temple for MANY months so it felt wonderful to go. The spirit is so peaceful and warm in the temple. The temple brought much comfort and peace into my heart. I am grateful and blessed to have a temple so close. Now that things are settled at home more, I will go there often.

On Saturday night my Young Adult ward had an activity where we played a life-sized Clue game. If you know the board game Clue, the activity was JUST like the game but in a life-size form. We all dressed in formal gowns and the men came in their nicest suits. We had a wonderful dinner where the cultural hall was decorated as if we were in a fine restaurant with candlelight and even name plates. The hosts and hostesses were also dressed up in the characters of the board game (Prof. Plumb, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Col. Mustard, Mr. Green, ect.) During the dinner a "murder" accrued and we had to solve the crime. We had to figure out who the killer was, what room the murder took place in and what weapon was used. We had 35 minutes to search for clues in the several rooms that were decorated to look like the rooms on the board game (ball room, billiards room, kitchen, library, ect.). In the end it was Mrs. White, with the knife in the billiards room (I got 2 out of the 3 correct (I thought the weapon was the revolver). After the game we went to a members home to watch the movie Clue. It was a FANTASTIC night!!!!!

After church on Sunday, Robin and I went over to our friends house for a birthday dinner (I know our birthday was over a month ago but we had been so busy we hadn't gotten around to doing it) better late then never. Our friend made us lasagna that she made from scratch. It was SOOOOO good (lasagna is Robin's FAVORITE food). It was so nice to spend a few hours with our friend and her 2 daughters, Mackenzie 6 years old and Kiley 4 years old. Mackenzie read to Robin and I all evening from her book Cat in the Hat. It is SO wonderful to see Mackenzie read and begin to love books like Robin and I. Our friend doesn't like to read at all and doesn't enjoy reading to her kids. Robin and I vow to continue to encourage Mackenzies love of reading. Kiley kept drawing us pictures all evening and kept asking us how to spell I Love You Aunt Amber (or Robin) which she wrote on all of the pictures she drew for us. I LOVE those girls!!!!!

On Monday night the Older Single Adults invited the family to a waffle cook-out. They had waffles of every kind you could think of. The only waffles they didn't have, that Jason was really bummed about, was Mickey Mouse shaped waffles. Grandpa had a good, although difficult time at the dinner. He cried a few times when people asked how he was doing. He is kind of upset that he is considered single. Although Grandma is gone, he is still very much a married man. It was nice to see a lot of our church friends at the dinner. All in all it was a very nice evening. G-pa is talking about going to some of their upcoming activities (although he isn't single).

Tuesday night Robin and Jason both had the day off so we went to see a movie, Dad came along too. Bonnie really recommended Enchanted so we saw it. The only place where it was still showing around us (since it comes out on DVD in less then a week) was at Downtown Disney (a shopping strip at Disneyland). After the movie, we wanted to ride the Monorail around Disneyland. We thought that you could ride on it round trip but we ended up having to get off inside Disneyland (bummer). Since we had to get off anyways, we decided to go on a ride. After we rode the ride twice we got back on the Monorail and went out to dinner. It was a nice evening.

Well now that I'm a social butterfly, I have to figure out what to do for the next 2 evenings. Any suggestions????? Oh wait, I'm having Visiting Teachers coming over Thursday night so I need suggestions for Wednesday night.

2008-02-13T16:17:00.000-08:00

We haven't updated our blog for awhile so I guess I will do it now. On February 2nd was G-mas one month since she passed away. We went to the cemetary to put more flowers on her grave. When we got there we noticed that the flowers we put there 3 weeks before were still fresh and BEAUTIFUL!!!! Although the weather had a lot to do with the flowers condition, we said G-ma must have been taken care of them and that the flowers must know she loved roses. We ended up putting the flowers we brought on a family friends grave.

On Feb. 8th was a one month anniversary since G-mas funeral. It also happened to be Robin and I's @*th birthday. G-pa said he needed to do something to keep his mind off the date so we all went to Disneyland. Robin, our mom and I got to Disneyland when it opened (9AM). Dad and Louise came about an hour later and G-pa and Jason arrived at 1PM. We had SO MUCH fun. We went on MANY rides and saw several shows. It was the 1st time we all went to Disneyland as a family in A LONG time. My favorite part of the day was G-pas reaction at seeing the fireworks show for the 1st time. He was enthrawled with the fireworks. Now he finally got to see the show that we could hear from out house everynight.

The night after our birthday, a group of our friends from our YSA ward threw Robin and I a birthday party. It was an absolute blast!!!! There were about 50 people there with food, music, games and laughter. They made us a birthday cake and gave us many gift certificates to places. Robin and I were shocked about how many people showed up. It is so wonderful to belong to such a great ward.

Remembering Donna Thornton

2008-01-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

Donna Jean Pinnock Thornton April 8, 1928~Jan. 2, 2008

Here is her obituary that was in the newspaper:
Thornton, Donna Pinnock, 79, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away on Jan. 2, 2008 in Anaheim, CA. She was born on April 8, 1928 in Rigby, Idaho to Grant Pinnock and Millie Glenn Pinnock. She lived there until the age of 18, when she moved to Los Angeles, CA. Shortly thereafter, she was hired to be the personal secretary to the Governor of California, Governor Knight. She remained in the position for four years, during which time she married her high school sweetheart, Stanley Levi Thornton. They were married on July 1, 1950. She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Stanley L. Thornton; children, Stanley Ronald Thornton and Bonnie Thornton Meyerson, seven grandchildren, Jason, Amber, and Robin Thornton; Travis, Chad, Derek, and Jodi Meyerson; two great-grandchildren, Alexis and Ashlin Meyerson; sister, Elaine Amonette; brothers, Bill and Frank, and many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents; brother, Lyle, and great-grandson, Jacob. Services will be held at the LDS Chapel, 5550 Ohio Street, Yorba Linda on Jan. 8 at 10:00 a.m. A viewing will start at 9:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made to The Alzheimer's Association of Orange County.

Things are slowly getting back to normal. We went to the cemetery the other day for the first time. It was difficult because it was the first reality that she is actually gone. Hopefully the more we visit the easier it will be. We are also all getting over being sick for 2 weeks.

She did it again

2007-12-13T15:18:00.000-08:00

Grandma did it again!!!!! For the past 3 years, between Thanksgiving and New Years Grandmas health deteriorates to where the doctors say that she won't live through the night. Well, she has proved the doctors wrong... AGAIN!!!!! I hope this annual tradition does not continue next year. Grandma is going to out live us all.

Grandma was released from the hospital today to go back to the care center. She still has some pneumonia but it should clear up soon. The rest of her infections are cleared too.

Grandmas update

2007-12-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

We just talked to Grandmas doctor and he said that she has between 2 days to 2 weeks to live. Her entire body, including her skin, is filled with infection. The infection is completely resistant to all of the medications that the hospital is giving her.

Two nights ago Grandpa and I spent 6 hours with her. She cried the entire time we were there, she never woke up but she just cried in her sleep. When she cried it made her coughing really bad. She had to be suctioned out a lot because she couldn't spit the gunk out. G-pa and I tried to comfort her but she would just cry harder if we touched her or talked. The only comfort that would work for a few moments was when I would hum (not sing) to her. We spent the entire 6 hours listening to her cry and cough with no way to comfort her. G-pa and I did a lot of crying too.

2007-11-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

Grandma was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Everyone thinks she was released too soon. She was still terrible yesterday and through the night. She had a hard time breathing. She needed complete oxygen, breathing treatments and needed to be suctioned out every half hour.

This morning the care center called saying that they were going to rush her to another hospital. The nurse in the care center didn't expect her to live through the day (again). A couple hours after G-pa, Dad and I arrived at the hospital, the doctor told us that they did a lot of tests on G-ma and they all came back normal. She has all the symptoms of pneumonia but her lungs are completely clear in x-rays only. But, every hour she has 1 cup of fluid drained from her lungs. G-ma will stay in the hospital until they can figure out what is wrong and get it all cleared up. We left the hospital at 8:30 and she seemed to be doing a tiny bit better, but not much.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING????

2007-11-24T00:09:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone. We hope everyone had a FUNtastic Thanksgiving. Ours was great!!! Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Mike flew down to spend Thanksgiving with us. Dad and Louise also came over. It was Jasons 29th birthday so we had a little party for him. Robin and I put together a train puzzle of the steam engine we took in Durango and Silverton (interestingly the puzzle was the EXACT same engine (there are 6 different ones that take that route) we took and it had the car we rode in on it too). Robin and I also made Jason a shirt of him standing in front of the steam engine wearing a Conductors outfit. G-pa gave him some train videos and a train car to go to his Polar Express train. Dad gave him $50. Bonnie was going to take Jason out to lunch to his favorite restaurant The Spaghetti Factory.

We had a FANTASTIC dinner. We all pitched in to make the dinner. We had turkey, cheesy potato's, green bean casserole, rolls, home-made stuffing and apple pie. YUMMY!!!

The day after Thanksgiving was not a good day. Robin had to be at work at 3:30 in the morning because Kohls opened at 4; we got a call at 5:30 from the care center G-ma is at to tell us she was jerking violently; we called the care center back at 9 to see how G-ma was doing only to find out that the care center called 9-1-1 because her oxygen levels were almost non-existent. we asked what hospital 9-1-1 took her to but the care center didn't know.; 4 hours later we track G-ma down and find out that she has double pneumonia a kidney and urinary tract infections. Each November-January of the past 3 years she has gotten the EXACT same thing. Each time G-ma is just moments away from dying for several weeks but somehow rallies and pulls through. Right now G-ma is getting anti-biotics and breathing treatments but she is still in very bad shape. PLEASE keep her in your prayers. We will update everyone on her condition.

Dads Birthday

2007-10-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

Friday was my Dads 55th Birthday and he retires from his job on the 29th. For his birthday all of us took him to a special Halloween party at Disneyland. We had A LOT of fun!!!!! We got to Disneyland in the middle of the afternoon and spent most of the day going on rides and stuff. Then at 7 that night we went over to Disney's California Adventure (next door to Disneyland) where the Halloween party was being held. We spent until midnight going on rides, dancing and getting candy.

We all dressed up (except for G-pa) for the party. Dad and Louise wore Hawaiian shirts and lays. Jason went as a Disney Pin Trader, which isn't all that difficult for him to pull off considering that he has over 700 Disney pins. Jason was all decked out with his pin trading bag and hat and he had Disney shirts on. Robin and I decided that we would go as our favorite Disney character (Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore). I wore Eeyore pj's and slippers and a Eeyore purse that looks like a stuffed animal. Robin wore the same thing but with Pooh. It might have been childish wearing character pj's but when we didn't get home until 1 AM it was nice that all we had to do was climb into bed HEHEHE!!!!!

On Sunday we are going over to Dad and Louise's apartment to have cake and ice cream and give him the rest of his birthday/retirement present. We got him a record player/radio/CD player/tape player. It is REALLY nice. It looks like an old-fashioned oak radio. He has been wanting a record player for awhile now. He has A LOT of records that he hasn't been able to play, now he can. HAPPY BIRTHDAY & RETIREMENT DAD!!!!!!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-10-08T02:20:00.001-07:00

Family Road Trip

2007-10-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

We just returned from our 1,918.0 mile road trip. We traveled through the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Our first stop was Lake Powell. Grandpa fished Lake Powell twice each year for 23 years. He wanted to see it again before he became completely blind. He also wanted Amber, Jason and I to experience it too since we haven't seen it yet. We took a 7 1/2 hour boat ride all the way to Rainbow Bridge and back. The water was about 100 feet below the full capacity mark. The scenry was breathtaking with all the beautiful rock formations. We also toured the the large dam that seperates Lake Powell from the Colorado River.

On our way to Colorado, we stoped off at Monument Valley, Mesa Verde and Four Corners. Monument Valley has many interesting and unique rock formations. Mesa Verde is a collection of many cliff dwelings where ancient people lived. Four Corners is where 4 states (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado) meet together. This is the ONLY place in the US where 4 states meet together in one spot.

Then it was off to Durango, Colorado. This is where we went to catch a steam engine train to Silverton, Colorado. We spent 3 1/2 hours on the train going through the most spectacular sceanery in the country. Then we were able to spend 2 hours exploring the historic town of Silverton. It was beautiful. Then we spent another 3 1/2 hours on the train going back to Durango. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!! The tain followed the Animas River, a BEAUTIFUL river that was mostly an emerald green color. On our way out of Durango, we stopped and got our pictures taken at an old west picture studio. It was SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!! Amber and I dressed up as old west gun slingers. Grandpa was dressed as a getleman. Can you guess what Jason was dressed as???? He (of course) was dressed as a train conductor (Amber and I robbed his train).

Our last stop before arriving home was a trip to the Grand Canyon. Amber and I haven't been to the Grand Canyon since we were about 10. It was SOOO AMAZING how the Colorado River made such a HUGE canyon like that.

That night we stayed in Williams, Arizona. We wanted to see the town where my mom and her husband are gong to move to in about 3 years. It was a nice little town.

Then it was time to come home again (Amber and I couldn't talk Grandpa and Jason into staying gone longer) Oh well. We need to get home to grandma, and our birds and cats.

So untill next time... Enjoy some of the pictures we took.

A VERY BUSY (but FUN) WEEK

2007-09-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

Grandpas niece, Patsy, from Idaho came and spent 5 days with us. While she was here, she wanted to go to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Medieval Times, Universal Studios and the beach.

On Tuesday Robin, Jason and Patsy and I went to Knotts. Since my mom works at Knotts, she came too. We had A LOT of fun riding the rides seeing the shows and shopping. We really liked the old west section. After we left Knotts, we went to Medieval Times which is a dinner show where knights in shining armor battle for the right to be king. There are 6 knights and when you enter, you are assigned a knight to cheer for. OUR KNIGHT WON. There were beautiful horses that did tricks and there even was a falcon flying around. It was a GREAT show. The food was just as great!!! If anyone has the opportunity to see it, we highly reccomend it.

On Wednesday, we all went to Disneyland including G-pa, Dad and Louise. Chad, Meagan Ashlin and one of Meagans nieces also came along. It was a FANTASTIC day. We went on MANY rides and saw several shows. It was great being around so many family members. It was so great that Dad, Louise and Grandpa each got passes and think we should go to Disneyland at least once a month as a family. Also another good thing was that Grandpas knees did not hurt him at all during Disneyland and the entire next day.

On Thursday, Robin and I took Patsy to Universal Studios. We had fun seeing the shows and riding the 2 thrill rides. One of the shows we saw was based upon the movie Water World. We sat in the 1st row and was SOAKED even before the show started. There were people in the show throwing buckets and buckets of water at the audience. We got even wetter during the show. The 2 thrill rides we went was a water ride based on Jurrasic Park and a rollercoaster based on the movie Revenge of the Mummy. Jurrasic Park has a steep, tall drop that gets riders drenched. The rollercoaster is in the dark and goes REALLY fast then stops suddenly then goes backwards. They were great rides.

Friday we wanted to take an easy day so we went to the beach for a couple of hours, went out to dinner, went to Downtown Disney for a few hours and came home to watch a movie on our home movie projector. Patsy wanted to take some seashells home to her 14 grandchildren. Patsy and I waded in the water up to our waist to get the best shells. We also walked along the pier. It was fun once we got past all the sand in our clothes. Once we got home and showerd we went out to dinner to Red Lobster, Patsys favorite restraunt. Patsy then wanted to go pearl diving at Downtown Disney. We thought it would be fun if Robin Jason and I also could get pearls too, so we did. After Downtown Disney we came home and watched a movie projected above our fireplace. We watched Firehouse Dog. It was a cute movie.

Patsy went home today. We are sorry to see her go. We love having family and friends stay over and spend time with us. We hope other family will come and enjoy the accomidations of our "hotel". Bonnie, we bet you are jealous that Patsy got to see the cats before you did.

Next week Robin, Jason, Grandpa and I are going on our own vacation. We are going to spend a week touring Lake Powell and Durango Colorado. Grandpa wants to see Lake Powell one more time before he goes blind and Jason wants to go on the Durango Train. We will write more about this trip on our next blog.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY JAKE

2007-08-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!!!! I can't believe it has been 1 year since you have touched, blessed and changed our lives forever. Although we never got to meet you while you were here on earth, you are still a HUGE part of us. There isn't a day that goes by that Robin and I don't think and talk about you. You were strong, couragouse, brave, loving and happy even though your short 6 months of life was filled with pain and heartbreak. You fought the Good Fight and won The Prize!!!!! We love you and we will NEVER forget you!!!! Love your great-grandparents and your 2nd cousins

2007-08-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

For the 3 people who actually read our blog, we have had a busy couple of weeks. Robin and I went on a YSA camp out. There were 5 YSA wards there so there were lots of people, food and games. Robin and I were up until 3 AM playing games with a few of the other campers. One of the games had to be played on a big field so 16 of us squeezed into a mini van and drove to a field in the park we were staying at. It took us 2 hours to play and we didn't get back until 2 AM and then we sat and taked and played Moffia for another hour. On Saterday morning we had a BIG waterfight and other games. We had A LOT of fun!!!!!!!

Last week our family and about 5,000 other LDS people went to the 10th Annual Mormon Night with the Angels (the local pro baseball team). The Angels POUNCED the Detroit Tigers 13-6. The Angels got 6 of their runs in the 1st Inning. After the game, there was a great fireworks show. We all had a lot of fun and the family got to meet alot of the people in our YSA group.

The kittens are doing great!!! They LOVE being together. They keep each other entertained and out of trouble (sometimes)!!!! Ripley LOVES to chase 2 certain balls around the house. She chases thoes 2 balls around for hours. For a while the 2 balls were missing and Ripley was REALLY sad. Ripley wouldn't play or eat much. She would just lay around looking sad. Then last night she found the balls and she has been a little tornado ever since. Cali does everything she can to get Ripley to play with her and as soon as Ripley touches her she starts mewoing like Ripley is killing her. She is SUCH a WHINER!!!! Cali is also fearless. The only thing we have found that she is scared of is the vaccume. She LOVES jumping off high things and she LOVES to play rough and tumble with Ripley. For one so small she sure has a brave and tough spirit.

Welcome Ripley

2007-07-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

We have Ripley now. Jason came up with the name Ripley because it is his (and Walt Disney's) favorite train at Disneyland. If you know Jason at all you know that his life revolves around trains and Disneyland. Ripley is about 4 months old and was a stray. She is SUPER SWEET as long as Cali and the birds aren't around. Ripley will literally plop in your lap to be cuddled. If you hold her she will scoot up to your shoulder and go to sleep.

The first few days, Ripley and Cali have not been getting along AT ALL. They have been fighting like well... like cats. It seems like one long cat fight. Last night the fighting seemed to have changed. Although there is still some hissing, it seems that they are playing roughly now. This morning when Robin and I brought Cali down, Jason and Ripley were already downstairs. Ripley was with Jason but as soon as she saw Cali she came racing over to find Cali. We hope they will be friends.

Meet Cali

2007-07-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

As Amber said in her last post, we added 2 new members to our family!!!! Yesterday Grandpa, Dad, Jason, Amber and I went to the animal shelter to adopt 2 kittens!!!!!! Their names are "Cali" and "Ripley". This post will be about "Cali" because we only have pictures of her right now. This is due to the fact that "Ripley" is still at the shelter, waiting to be spayed.We will talk about Ripley in the next post. We have "Cali" right now because she was deemed too much under weight to have the surgery. So we will take her back in about a month or so to have her spayed too.

Amber and I named our kitten "Cali" because it is short for "California". Cali is 2 months old and SOOOOOO CUTE!!!!!!! Not only is she cute but she is also THE SWEETEST cat I know. She would much rather be with you than down on the ground playing.

Lastnight Grandpa was sitting on the couch and he felt something at his feet. When he looked down, Cali had come to lay at his feet and fell asleep. About 15 minutes later he put his feet up on the couch. After a few minutes, Amber heard him say "You little stinker". Cali had jumped up on the couch and got between his legs and fell asleep again!!!! It was SOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!!

"There is nothing like a Home Sweet Home!!!"

"What RU look'n @?"

"Aren't I SOOOOOOO Sweet?"

"My family hopes I won't be a handful when I get bigger"

"Don't you wish you all could be a Cali girl?"

"This play gym is for the birds, but I'm taking over"

Hope all had a great 4th

2007-07-07T00:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry its been a long while since we posted last. I was sick for a week and then we were on vacation for a week. We went to our time share near San Diego. We had a lot of fun. We went swimming, Downtown San Diego twice and the Wild Animal Park.

We had a lot of events the past couple of weeks. It was Fathers Day, Grandpas 79th Birthday , Grandma and Grandpas 57th Wedding Anniversary and 4th of July. Busy time for G-pa to receive gifts. He got a mattress pad for his bed, a big calculator so he can see it, several books and a web-cam from Bonnie and Mike.

Bonnie came down and spent a week with us. It was nice having her around. It was so nice that she had a hard time getting back home (HEHEHE). First, she kept having to change the date and time she would be able to get on a plane. She ended up having to make arrangements to fly on a Southwest flight leaving OC Airport (about a half hour south of us) @ 10 AM. We get to the airort and it turns out Bonnies pass is for Skywest (not Southwest) so she was unable to fly out of OC. We had to take her the the Long Beach Airport (about an hour west from us) for a 4 o'clock flight. She finally made it home in time for 4th of July festivities.

In a few hours G-pa, Robin, Jason and I are going to the local animal shelter to adopt two new members to the family. Watch for the next post to see what we get and to meet them.

Jason has a kidney infection

2007-06-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Grandpa allowed Jason and I to spend a few hours at Disneyland while he was visiting Grandma. As Jason and I were arriving at Disneyland, Jason got a sever pain on his right side. After a few minutes he was in agony. I immediately called Grandpa to ask what I should do. Grandpa told me to take him to the hospital so I did. Dad met me there a few minutes later.

The ER found out he had kidney stones but he also had a bad kidney infection. Jason spent the night in the hospital. He was released earlier today and is feeling fine now. He has some medication for his infection and he is suppose to take it easy for a couple of weeks.

While in the hospital all Jason was worried about was his Disneyland 50th Anniversary T-shirt he was wearing and getting about 40 Disney pins that our mom had for him. That's just like Jason!!!

P.S. Louise is recovering well from her surgery. Even the doctor is amazed about how well she is doing. Thank-you for keeping her in your prayers.

Louise's surgery

2007-06-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

Lousie had surgery today. Everything went ok and she is doing fine. She is spending the night in the hospital and going home tomorrow morning. She is off work for 4 weeks for recovery. Keep her in your prayers that she will recover fast and there will be no complications.

An eventful week for Mackenzie and Kiley

2007-06-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

It has been an eventful week for our nieces (our best friends daughters). On Wednesday Robin and I went to our friends daughter's 4th birthday party. Kiley received several books, crayons, a coloring book, 200 stickers, a ball, a play house and a stick horse. Although the party only had 9 people and just dinner, presents and cake, we had a lot of fun. I still can't believe that Kiley is 4 and Mackenzie will be 6 next month (YIKES).

On Thursday night Alycia called us saying that Mackenzie had fallen and broke her arm (POOR KENZIE). She was playing on the monkey bars at the park and lost her grip and landed on her arm. Alycia ran over to her and said her arm looked like a golf ball was dangling from her wrist. Alycia took her to the hospital and the X-rays showed that she broke her arm just above the wrist. The X-rays showed that her growth plate had also shifted to the left side. Mackenzie's arm was too swollen to put a cast on it for another week. It's going to be terrible to have a broken arm during summer.

G-pa wants another race

2007-05-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

By the way, Grandpa also wants to race Ashlin in her hot Jeep. He says that is more of his speed. The winner still gets a sundae paid for by the loser. Since G-pa will get a head start with Jennys race, either Chad or Meagan can help Ashlin drive her Jeep for this race. HAHAHA

Grandpa's New Ride!!!!

2007-05-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

Grandpa became jealous when he heard that Jenny recieved a cool new pink bike for her birthday, SOOOO....he decided to buy himself a cool new blue scooter.

Jenny, Grandpa wants you to bring your bike to California so that the 2 of you can have a race between your "cool new rides" (he says that he needs a head start). The winner recieves a hot fudge sundae courtesy of the looser. You will probablly win because his scooter can only go as fast as 8 mph, but he says thats ok because he won't be as tired at the end of the race as you will be.

Our Buick is sick

2007-05-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

Our Buick has not been feeling well at all this week. On Monday we took the Buick in to get the gas gage fixed because it was being weird. We picked it up Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon the gas gage went back to being weird so we took it back. G-pa picked it up Wednesday morning and on his way home from picking the Buick up and running a few errands, the battery went dead. Luckily we had a car charger to charge it up. G-pa took the Buick back to the shop to get a new battery for it. The Buick worked fine but we noticed the air conditioner wasn't working so on Friday we took it back to the shop so they could get the air conditioning to work. Friday afternoon the shop called us to let us know that when they put the new battery in, it messed up the computer that controls everything in the Buick so they would have to probably rebuild the entire computer system. The shop called today saying that they got it all fixed now. Hopefully the Buick is feeling much better now and nothing else will go wrong.

2007-05-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry (again) for the long time no update. It would be easier to update the blog if there were actually things to write about, but there isn't. Its the same ol same ol. Robin works most nights and the rest of us spend our days with G-ma. G-ma is doing ok, she just cries a lot because she thinks that she still hurts and she wants to come home.

Louise is having surgery on June 12th. She will spend the night in the hospital and then recoperate at home for one month. Please keep her in your prayers.

G-pas knees are still hurting. He has gone to 2 doctors about them but they can't do anything for them. G-pa is also upset because he has been unable to get some of his medication. The medical company (Medco) has been calling us everyday this month saying that they can't fill his perscription because they have been unable to get a hold of his doctor (Dr. Hess). They said that there was some information missing on the perscription and needed Dr. Hess to fix it. Dr. Hess has called Medco at least 4 times and has sent 3 faxes and has even sent them all new perscriptions. Medco still calls saying that they have no record of Dr. Hess speaking to or sending any faxes to them. G-pa has gone this entire month without some of his medication (including his pain pills) just because Medco can't get their act together. Dr Hess says that if G-pa doesn't recieve his medication today then he will press legal action against Medco. HAHAHA!!! I hope Dr. Hess gives it to them.

We're back

2007-05-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

We are back from our family vacation. We had a blast being around all the family. Aunt Bonnie took Robin and I to Park City to spend the whole day shopping at an outlet center. We got hats, a purse, shoes and some books. Aunt Bonnie bought us a book on how to find a guy and get married in less then a year (we think she is trying to tell us something).

We looked at some houses while we were up there. There were several houses that we really liked but G-pa still isn't willing to buy a house until we get this one sold. Boo-hoo!!

Travis, Jenny and Lexi, we hope you really enjoyed your Disney Cruise Vacation. Hope you took lots of pictures and post them on the Internet. We are glad you got to go and that some of Jenny's family were there also. HOW FUN!!!!!

Well we have to go see G-ma now, but we will post again soon. Love ya. Bye.

still on the trip

2007-04-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. We are still on vacation in Utah and Idaho. We spent a few days in Utah with our Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Mike and cousins. On Friday we (along with Aunt Bonnie) drove up to Idaho Falls and Rigby to see some family there. Friday night we arrived at Aunt Elaine (G-pas sister) and Uncle Evans house in Idaho Falls. G-pas other sister Kerri and husband Bob came over for dinner. It was really nice to talk to them.

The next day, we all went over to Bob and Kerri's for a HUGE family picnic. When Elaine and Kerri found out we were coming up, they called all their kids and their families to invited them to the picnic. Over 114 family members arrived. It was a BLAST being around SOOOOO MANY family members. It was the 1st time in 30 years that Aunt Bonnie had seen most of her cousins. She really enjoyed seeing them again and meeting MANY more for the 1st time. Robin and I had a lot of fun hanging out with our4 cousins that we haven't seen in 3 years.

We are back in Utah for a few days, we leave on Wednesday and arrive back home Thursday night. Today we are going to my cousins daughters 2nd birthday party. It will be fun to see her and interact with her. Well, we have to go now. We will update the blog later. Bye.

been busy

2007-04-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

,We are sorry for the long time without updating. We have been really busy. Last week Robin Jason and I took G-pa to Disneyland for the day. We all had A LOT of fun. Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Mike spent a few days with us. They came down for a family funeral of Bonnies uncle, Jim Amonette. Jim was a great man who will be missed by MANY people.

An interesting thing happened to me last week. I was sitting in the family room when i heard a bird fly into the window. I went to check to see if the bird was alright. As I opened the sliding glass door, I saw a Humming Bird laying on the ground. I picked the Hummimg Bird up and held and stroked the Humming Bird for about 10 minutes. It was amazing to hold a Humming Bird what is more amazing was that exactly 3 years to the day another Humming Bird flew into our window and I got to hold that one for 15 minutes.

Jason is on extended sick-leave for work because he is having complications with his siezier medication. The doctors are trying to figure out the best dose for him but until then he can't go to work. Hopefully they will get it straightend out soon.

G-pas knees are hurting him worse then they ever have before. He is in agoney every moment and nothing helps. He has an appointment with his knee surgon soon and maybe he can come up with something to help G-pa.

We are all planning a trip to Utah for awhile to look at houses and to visit family. We are also planning on visiting family in Idaho while we there. It will be a fun trip. We hope we will find a house that will live up to G-pas high expectations but I doubt it.

Hope everyone had a happy easter

2007-04-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

we hope everyone had a "Hoppy" Easter, we sure did. Robin and I spent several months planning a special birthday party for Grandma. Grandma was born on Easter Sunday in 1928 and this was the 1st time since she was born that her birthday fell on Easter. Since we are sure that Grandma never had a 1st birthday party and it was also the 1st time that Easter was on the 8th, we decided to throw her a 1st Bithday party. We decorated her entire room with 1st birthday and fun to be 1 decoratons and banners. Robin and I also gave her an easter egg hunt on her back patio. We also had a pin the egg on the rabbit game and The dice game. The party was a blast!!!!!

Robin and I also went all out on buying her presents. We got her a cute Princess hat that she can wear when she goes outside; a Build-a-Bear that says 6 different things; a ball that she can throw (which she did several times yesterday); several books that we can read to her when we visit her; an MP3 player that we downloaded music that she use to listen to when she was a teenager; a picture frame that says "Then and Now" that has a picture of Grandma when she was 1 year old and a picture of her that was taken of her on the 7th ;and many things that went in her Easter basket. Grandpa bought her several outfits and he and Bonnie and Chad bought her over 6 dozzen roses. They are absolutley beautiful!!!!

There were many people who came to the party. 10 people from the ward dropped by, Our best friend and her 2 daughters, Dad and Lousie came by for and hour, and of course Grandpa, Jason and Robin and I. We all had a lot of fun.

Long time no post

2007-03-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

We thought it was about time we updated our blog. I am adjusting to wearing contacts instead of glasses (now people are going to have to find a new way of telling us apart). On Monday and Tuesday it took me an hour to put them in and about 45 minutes taking them out. Yesterday it took me 1/2 an hour putting them in and 5 minutes taking them out. Today it only took 5 minutes to put them in. Hopefully I will keep getting better.

We are busy planning a special party for G-mas B-Day. She was born on Easter Sunday back in 1928 and this is the 1st time her B-Day has fallen on Easter since the day she was born. She has been waiting and hoping that she would be around for her B-Day to fall on Easter again. Since it will be her 1st B-Day/Easter we are giving her a 1st B-Day themed party. We are giving her 1st B-Day cards, balloons and put signs up. We hope she will have a good day so she will be able to enjoy and remember it.

On Monday G-ma had the best day she has had in years. When G-pa and I went into her room she said "I sure was mad today" and I asked her why she was mad and she thought for a while and responded "I don't know, but I was sure mad about something". Later on, G-pa was shaving off G-mas whiskers and trimming her eyebrows. During the trimming G-ma sneezed and it scared G-pa. G-ma burst out laughing and laughed for a good 15 minutes. she hasn't laughed so hard for so long in a very long time. She was also talking really good and understood all that G-pa and I were telling her. we told her about her party and she is getting excited for it.

G-pa recently took a trip to Utah to look at homes and property. There are several homes that he likes. Soon, we all are going to drive to Utah for a few days to look at the homes he likes and look at others. Hopefully we will be in Utah in the next couple of months (but we have been saying that for the past 3 years). Well that is all the news from the Thorntons. We will update again soon.

2007-03-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

We have been busy the past couple of days with work, doctors appointments, errands and visiting G-ma. G-pa and I had eye appointments a few days a go. G-pas eyes are holding on but may give out any time. My eyesight has gotten a lot worse. But instead of getting different glasses, I have decided to change to contacts. That's right, I can FINALLY stop wearing glasses after 19 years. My contacts have to be special made since I have Astigmatism. I should be getting them sometime this week.

Jason had an appointment with his neurologist today. The tests he took last week shows that he still has mini seizers several times a day. He has to double up on his medication and go back in 2 months. The doctor also says that Jason shouldn't be left alone for more then 4 hours. We have to record on a calender the times and dates when Jason blanks out (when he doesn't respond to our questions or his eyes and his face freeze).

G-ma either sleeps all day or she doesn't sleep at all. On Saturday night G-pa and I were with G-ma for 6 hours. We left at 8:30 that night and she we still wide awake trying to climb out of bed. Yesterday G-pa and I left at 6 because she had been sleeping for about 4 hours.

G-pa is going to be in Utah for a few days to look at homes and property. He leaves tomorrow and comes home on Saturday. Robin and I are going to the Newport Beach Temple for a ward sealings assignment on Saturday. we are excited. We haven't been to the temple in along time because we have had to take care of G-pa and G-ma. Bonnie will be down to visit us soon. We are happy when she visits. Well, that's all the news today. We will probably write more tomorrow. Bye, Love you all.

1 month Anniversary

2007-03-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

It has been 1 month since Jacob has been gone. He was such miracle the 6 months he was on earth. He was an inspiration to all who loved him. He showed us all how to love, find joy and how to endure. Although he couldn't talk, sit up, or even breath on his own, he touched countless lives and was a true hero. Even though he is gone he is still changing others lives by making us want to live better and be like him. We miss you Jacob and we promise we will meet you and be able to spend eternity with you.

2007-03-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Nothing much has gone on in the Thornton house since the last post. Yesterday G-pa started feeling dizzy again so he was on the couch all day again. Today Robin had an in-grown toenail removed. Jason also has toenail problems and we are waiting for a referral from his doctor to have it taken care of. Bonnie was suppose to have come down from Utah for a visit but she is feeling miserable so she will come later. We hope she feels better soon. G-pa had the same thing that she has and after one month he still isn't over it yet.

The weather here in SoCal is HOT!!!! It has been in the high 90's for several days. The hot and dry Santa Ana winds are creating trouble. There is a big brush fire about 3-4 miles away that started on Sunday morning. The fire started when someone stole a car and then set the car on fire to destroy evidence. Hopefully the fire will be contained today or tomorrow. We hope everyone has a good week. We will post soon. Love you all!!!!!

2007-03-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

We have been busy the past couple of days with running errands and visiting G-ma. G-ma had a great day yesterday. She talked quite a bit, more then she has for the past year, and she remembered several trips we took in the past. G-pa asked G-ma if she wanted to move to Utah to be closer to family and to be able to come home. Her response was "Oh, that would be wonderful". So we are all praying that someone will buy our hose soon so we can get up there.

Grandpa has been severely congested for several weeks now and he doesn't seem to be getting much better. He has been to the doctors TWICE (and like most guys it takes a lot of forcing to get him to go once so he must be feeling horrible to go 2 times willingly). Today he also has vertigo to contend with so he has spent the entire day on the couch. Hopefully, he will feel better tomorrow.

Dad and Louise are hanging on too. Louise went to a doctors appointment yesterday and the doctor wants Louise to have surgery in the next couple of weeks. She will probably have to stay home from work for a month. For those who are reading this please pray for her so the surgery will go smoothly and she will recover quickly.

Well that's all the news for today. We hope all is going well with everyone. We love you and hope to hear from you soon.

2007-03-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

WOW!!! This is SOOOO COOL!!!