Welcome to Mesa

Where did Tamara go now?



Mesa, Arizona! Since I love the temple, my Aunt JoAnn and I were able to attend a session there. It was the 7th Temple Built in the Latter-Days!



I also got to see my cousin Jessica Kubie and her adorable kiddos DJ. He make look cute, but he chucked that lemon wedge and hit me right on the forehead!


And then we went to the park. I taught Jessica and old elementary school trick with the swings. She caught on real quick!


So glad I am blessed to be able to travel and see family. Jessica is part of the FAB 4 with me. (The first 4 super cool grandkids on the Hutchison side. Myself, Beth, Tyler, and Jessica. Then so many cool cousins kept coming, we had to expand the club...When there are over 20 grandkids and almost a dozen great-grandkids, the what do you call the club?)


Here are Jacob and Jayden, my 4 (almost 5) year old cousins. They couldn't say Tamara very well. It came out Tanner. So I told them to call me "T". That worked well. They were super excited to put up all the Halloween decorations.


Then there is my 10 year old cousin Jocelyn. She is adorable and gosh darn it, she knows it! She is a girlie girl after my own heart. We enjoyed our photo shoot.



Then we got her super cute sister Jessica involved.

And then we pulled in there fabulous mom. Look, we all wore pink!


Boys don't wear pink though.

And finally, this is what the twins taught me...


Standing on your sister helps her do her homework better.

And standing on your dad is just plain fun!

I hope to have adorable kiddos myself one day!

Thanks Arizona, I had a great time!

I Choose Happiness!

"You

Are

Absolutely

Brilliant!"

(quote by Jay the DJ from the cruise karaoke, and recently reminded by
the lovely Larissa Stalinsky)

I was driving home from watching General Conference today (mormon.org) and thought to myself- I am happy! Do I have all my hearts desires? No, but that doesn't change the fact that I am happy. We are ultimately responsible for our happiness. We choose how we react to what life throws at us.

This is me being happy on the escalator in the middle of the San Diego Zoo.

To choose happiness I have to ...

Love God

Love others

Love myself

The rest in life will then fall into place.

SAN DIEGO!

The San Diego Temple. (In La Jolla) It was a miracle making it here on time.

There is the Lovely Michelle Clements! My fabulous traveling partner!

Ask us, we learned a lesson in not loosing hope as we barely made it inside!

Lunch in La Jolla. That is the ocean behind me.
Yep, been to both coasts in the past 3 months.
(A friend recently pointed out just how much I flex in pics,
so I decided to make it my theme this trip!)

Visiting the California Kelms. Warren and Misty (aunt and uncle) and their kids Halle, Conan, and Maddie.
Nothing says I love you like a goofy pose!

In honor of Star Wars!

Two sexy chicks!


Lion's "Chuffle" vs "Growl" vs "Roar". A "Roar" means "I'm looking for a mate." Hmmm, maybe I need to practice my roar!

Who doesn't like seeing the Pandas?

Father and son, just chilling. The baby was actually really playful, when he ran around he would do some random spins. It was cool.


Reminds me of another Paul I know, handsome, flirtatious, and charismatic!

Michelle's first every ride on a tram. It was way higher than Lagoon's and fast. Wow, San Diego Zoo is huge! We spent three hours there and saw almost all of it. We were told it could not be done, but then again, we are young and single...
no kids to drag around!

Yep, I'm tough and I know it !

Koala Bears! So cute and cuddly looking. They actually looked really fake.

Shout out to Physical Therapy! The pond in Balboa Park was used in WWII for wounded soldiers.



And finally...on to the beach!

Our toes at Del Mar Beach!

Michelle deciding how to conquer the ocean.

Tamara saying- I think that is as far as I want to go.

Michelle at Mission Beach. She looked at the water and said- Bring it!

Yep, we are awesome!

And tough!

Searching for the world's best burrito... Roberto's was pretty dang good!

Carne Asada and Shrimp- Mar Tierra, with a yummy tomatillo sauce!

And as if the burrito wasn't enough, we decided on topping lunch off with a monster waffle cone!
...which ended in one final adventure...the seagulls. I couldn't finish my cone, so I tossed it in the sand. I figured a bird would eat it. Little did I know, they were watching and instantly they attacked! Then, before Michelle could toss hers a seagull grabbed it right out of her hand. Yikes! Thank goodness we made it out alive to tell the tale.

So San Diego was awesome! Now on to Mesa, Arizona! ...

7 year old wisdom- "He was eaten by a fish!"

Conversation that occurred in the pool during a physical therapy session with a 7 year old boy.


Boy: Do you have kids?
Me: No, I am not married.
Boy: You aren't married? I know a 17 year old who is married and has a baby.
Me: Nope, not married. The love of my life is lost.
Boy: Really? What happened to him?
Me: Well he hasn't showed up yet, so he must be lost somewhere.
Boy: I know what happened to him.
Me: What?
Boy: He got eaten by a big fish!
Me: Really, eaten by a fish?
Boy: Yep, my dad and I went fishing and we saw a really big catfish. And you know what? One time a man was swimming and a catfish came and swallowed him up.

There you have it folks. The love of my life is lost because he was eaten by a really big catfish. I sure hope he has learned his lesson and gets spit out soon!