Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving

We shared Thanksgiving day with the Score family. We have been friends with the Score's since they were investigating the church about 16 or 17 years ago. We have had a lot of fun times with the Score's, including several Thanksgivings. We usually start with the main turkey meal at our house. We then either go to the movies or watch a movie in the Score's home theater. Della knocks herself out serving us dessert at their house with homemade candy, pies galore, ice cream and whipped cream, cheesecake, and sherbet punch. This year we went to see the movie "New Moon." Last Thanksgiving we saw "Twilight".

Halloween was really fun this year. As per our tradition, we went to the Biancur's Halloween party and also passed out candy at the ward party. Jamie was an Indian (age 11), Mandie, a girl from the 60's or a "James Bond" girl, Christian, Emily and Rachel dressed up like characters from Lord of the Rings. The topper was when Meagan and John brought Macie up to our house to trick or treat.

I'M A GRANDMA!

Macie Kensington Zuniga was born at 8:26 p.m. last night. She weighed 7lb.s 7 oz. and is 19 inches long. She has pretty black eyelashes and dark hair. We think she is perfect!

Last Saturday we drove down to San Diego for the BYU/San Diego game. We ate Cafe Rio Salad in the parking lot before the game. Christian painted Mandie's face blue and white and painted a BYU on Jamie's cheeks and forhead. BYU handily beat them, but it was a fun game to watch. We especially were glad our friends Scott and Karen Murray, from Provo could come down for the game and spend some time with us. It was fun to have the Baker's, Robbins, Avarells, Ewells and some other friends with us also.

Owl City Concert

Adam Young performing as Owl City. The picture below of Rachel and he turned out blurry--oh well--at least they got his autograph!

On Thursday, immediately after seminary, I picked up Rachel and her friend Jamie Robbins and drove to the House of Blues in downtown Disney to wait in line for the Owl City concert . (For those of you who have not heard of Owl City, I will just say that his song, "Fireflies" is #1 on I-tunes. All of his lyrics are spotlessly clean and somewhat "punny". I quite enjoy their music.) Nothing but being first in line would satisfy these two girls. They wanted to be there at 1:00 a.m. but I held my ground. We set up camp at the front door at about 8:30 a.m. The second people to get in line didn't arrive until about 3:00 p.m. so it was quite a peaceful day. I left the two girls in line to meet my mother for lunch. While we were enjoying our curry chicken and mongolian beef, my cell phone rang. It was Rachel, who told me that Adam Young (who basically IS Owl City) had walked by and they had stopped him. He allowed them to have their picture taken with them and and autographed the tee-shirts they had especially made for the concert. They were so excited. We were indeed the first to get into the theater that night. We stood right in the middle on the front row and had a GREAT time. Definately worth the wait. We were told while we were standing in line that they were making a music video of tonight's performance. The camera man filmed Jamie and Rachel a lot, so we'll see if they are in the final edited copy. A fun day for a mom of teenagers.

On October 10, 2009, we had a get-together at our home in the mountains with my Heywood cousins that live in So. Cal.

In attendance were my mother, Janice Bagley, all of my children--Meagan, Christian, Lauren, Emily, Rachel Amanda, Jamie, husband Andrew, son-in-law John Zuniga, my sister Karen, my cousin Dan Stevenson, his wife Anne-Marie, and son Bryce, my cousin Jim Stevenson, wife Pattie, and daughter Megan, my cousin Jannell Hall and her husband Eric and son Jed, and my cousin Christian Heywood who just moved out here from Washington D.C.

We ate traditional family desserts (chocolate cookies and applesauce pinneapple pie) and Cafe Rio salad and build your own burritoes. We watched a video compiled by Uncle Joe of grandpa Heywood's home movies from the 1950's to the 1970's. Anne Marie and Pattie shared family recipes and we made plans to see each other more often. It was a happy day for me.

For those of you who came up to the mountains, for the Heywood cousin reunion, but chickened out on the hike, here are a couple of views you missed! This hike is very close to our house. You can see the burn marks on the base of the trees from the "Old Waterman Canyon" Fire a few years ago.

On October 1, 2009, we had a baby shower for Meagan at Suzie McKuen's house in Fontana. Meagan's baby is due Oct. 30th. In the above picture to the right are Paula Huff and Della Score.

(Above left)My sister Karen, Kylene Muir in back of her, my mom, Donna and Colleen Baker.
(Above right) In front, Gina Moser, Kristy Phillips, Paula Huff, at the table in the back, Kelly Hoover and the back of her mom, Nila Caulder and Carol Adams.

(Below ) A view of the gorgeous cake that John's aunt made for the shower along with sisters and cousins of Meagan.

It was a wonderful evening. Thank you for your kindness and generousity!

Thank you Judie and Janene, my dear friends, for organizing this wonderful trip to Utah. Andrew and I had such a great time. Let's do it again next year, okay? Can't wait for our trip to the Big Apple in March!

GO BYU! Last year we had such a fun time going to parents weekend at BYU, we went again this year, even though we had no children attending this semester! Andrew and I finally got away ALONE and had a wonderful time meeting up with our Provo friends (the Brown's the Lord's and the Murray's), doing sealings at the Provo temple, fixing breakfast for our niece and nephew, (Hannah Bagley and Travis Washburn) and going out to dinner at the Pizza Factory. We also made it over to Cafe Rio twice, for my sake! I love those barbeque pork salads! Even better than the pork salads were being with the friends I cherish.

Last weekend,

Andrew and I flew to Utah to meet up with our long time friends, Janene and Craig Zimmerman from Torrance, California and Judie and Elton Cribbs from Houston Texas. The first day we were there we hiked to Stuart Falls near Sundance Resort. The weather was perfect, the sky was blue, and the leaves were changing into beautiful fall colors.

Meagan and Christian on the Redondo Beach Pier. Meagan's baby is due next month!

Christian, Meagan and I went to visit my old home town in Torrance and then to Redondo Beach where I used to play while i was growing up. These pictures are on the pier. You can see Palos Verdes in the distance.

Last week our family took a trip to the state of Washington. Here are some of the highlights of our vacation.