Duplex in Provo

We purchased a duplex about a month ago in Provo as an investment. It is an older home that needs a lot of work. It is south of BYU campus and we want to keep it as a rental property and we hope that being close to campus that it will always be easy to rent out.
We came out in May to finish the paperwork and moved in at the beginning of June to start renovations. We plan to work on it all summer and hopefully have it ready to be rented out.
A lot of our family has sacrificed a lot of their time to help us paint and patch the roof of the place for which we are very grateful There was a swamp cooler on the roof that had leaked and caused roof damage and damage to the kitchen ceiling. We got a really good deal on shingles that didn't match our roof and since we are planning on replacing the whole roof in a few years, we just patched it with mismatched shingles.
On the inside we are making a lot of changes to the bathroom, painting throughout and repairing the kitchen ceiling.
On the outside we power washed and painted the outside, patched the roof and have been trying to work on the yard.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but we are starting to see a lot of progress.

Hawaii

We were able to go to Hawaii in March. We stayed at the condo for a week and also stayed with my sister and her family for a while. WE LOVE HAWAII!! We went on a ton of new and exciting hikes, scuba dived and just enjoyed Hawaii. We got there the day before the big earthquake in Japan and there was fear of a tsunami hitting Hawaii, but not much happened. There was a little flooding, but that was all.
While scuba diving we saw a few sea turtles, a monk seal, lobster, all kinds of fish and an eel. We dove a new place that was hard to get to but had some nice corral. We had to hike down a hill to where we were going to enter and had to carry all of our gear down the hill. We also went on a whale watching boat tour where we saw a female whale and her baby breach right in front of us and a helicopter ride that took us to West Maui Mountains. In the mountains is a place called the wall of tears. It is beautiful and you can't get close enough to it hiking. It is an area of green mountain cliffs with quite a few waterfalls flowing down them. It is really breath-taking. We've hiked up and seen it from a distance, but it is much more spectacular from the air!

Disneyland Again

My sister, her husband and daughter came to visit us in March. We had fun getting to see them!! We were able to go to Disneyland with them for a day. We finally went on the Toy Story ride in California Adventure that we haven't been on yet since the line is always too long. It was still a long line, but we waited it out.

Cloth table playhouse

For one of A's presents, I made her a playhouse to put over our table. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I don't sew often, so I was pleased with the result.

Christmas

Fleeing to Egypt with the baby and the gifts



We had a great Christmas in Sunny California. All of B's family came to visit and we did a lot of fun activities together.





One of the days we spent at the Santa Barbara Zoo.
We didn't have the annual ski trip, so B was disappointed, but I was glad not to be in the cold and snow. I enjoyed the nice weather!
It was fun to send time with the family!

Christmas Party

Our ward put on a nice Christmas party complete with pancakes made by the Bishopric and a hot chocolate station! After we ate pancakes and drank hot chocolate, the Primary put on a short program singing songs and dressing up as the Nativity. We then sang Christmas songs followed by a visit from Santa. A was excited to sit on his lap. She gave him a big hug and told him that she loved him.
B and I helped with some of the setup and cleanup for the activity. What a job! Our activities committee put a lot of work into the activity, and it was a great success!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in LA with B's extended family. We have spent the last couple of Thanksgivings there and have enjoyed spending time with the family. I didn't take a lot of pictures of Thanksgiving and so the ones I took aren't the best, but oh well...