What We've Been Up To The Last 3 Months...It's a lot to read but it's worth it!

Wow, it has been a long time since I really updated my blog. Over the last 3 months a lot has happened in our little family. Back in June, we moved from Page, Arizona to Boulder City, Nevada. That's only 4 miles from Las Vegas, for you geographically challenged (heehee). Yes, for all concerned, we are out of the teeny tiny camper and into a real house!!!Trenity got a great job opportunity flying a bigger plane for a small local airline. He mostly flies scenic tours over the Grand Canyon. I gotta say he has an AMAZING view from his office every day!!

I also started working again. I haven't worked in over 10 years. Back in May I decided to get back in shape (not just lose weight) and get certified again as a lifeguard and WSI swim instructor. I worked at the pool back in the day for 8 years and I really wanted to get back into it. So I started swimming 1000 yards a day to get ready for my lifeguard class. And trust me, I FELT IT! But I survived, got stronger, and passed my class with flying colors! After we moved, I continued to get my teaching certs and now I work at the Boulder City Pool both guarding and teaching. Back in June I found out I was pregnant and started planning for our 5th child, but it was not meant to be. I had a miscarriage a month later which was really tough on every member of our family not just me. But life goes on and we are doing better now. Maybe we will try again someday but for now we are content to wait. Before the pregnancy and the lifeguarding I had been working hard to lose weight and reach my pre-baby size again. I had already made lots of progress when I started my swim program for my class (which is how I could even dream of doing such a thing!) The pregnancy set me back for a couple months (regaining some weight too) but I am happy to announce that as of my birthday on September 1st........drum roll please.......I have reach my pre-baby weight!!!!!!! Not just from the last one but from ALL 5! YEA!!!!!!! But now that I have reached some level of normalcy for myself in the body realm I have become greedy and have decided, "WHY STOP THERE?" So as of yesterday I decided to take the Jillian Michaels' 30 DAY SHRED CHALLENGE. I bought the home workout DVD (only $9) and started shredding. My goal...lose 15-20#s more and get toned in 30 days! It's an ambitious goal I know but I just lost 20#s in the last 2 months since the miscarriage on an easy diet with mild to moderate exercises 3-4 times a week. If I continue my already successful diet (I've lost over 50#s!!) and bump up the exercise to Jillian's 30 Day Shred DVD 6 times a week on top of swimming a half mile 2-3 times a week when I'm at work.....YOU DO THE MATH! I CAN DO IT! So check back because I WILL be filling everyone in with updates!

Besides that, the kids are back in school. They just started on Monday this week and they are having a great time already. They all love their classes and teachers and Mom is happy with the schools here! New for us this year-Joselyn started Kindergarten and Natalia has moved up to Middle School (6th). Actually it is called Junior High here! Ugh...she too old way too fast! Harley is in 4th. And they are each in a different school! Crazy crazy crazy! So it's just Canyon at home with Dad 2 mornings a week when I work and with mom the other days. Daddy even got to get all those girls ready for their first day of school alone. I had to work at 6am. I am proud to report they were all on time to their buses, they had everything they needed, and they all looked great right down to fancy hairdos! He is the best Dad! He even followed Jossi's bus to school to take her to class and get pictures. What a guy!

O, and by the way, we got some new family pictures taken!

Whew! What a full life. We are so blessed and wouldn't have it any other way!

New Family Photo!

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Hey friends and followers! We just had our family portraits taken I don't have the official prints yet but to get a rough preview just click on the Olan Mills links and you can get a sneak peek!

DISNEYLAND!!!

After 5 years of hoping, 3 years of saving (the kids too), and 6 months of planning...we just had the best family vacation ever!!! We took the kids to Disneyland for the first time ever. At 11, 9, 5, and almost 2 years old they were at the perfect age to enjoy all the magic that Disneyland has to offer!

We stayed at the fabulous Dolphins Cove Resort. Compliments of Grandma Bergstrom and her wonderful travel club. Without this generous gift this trip never would have been possible this year. We love you grandma. Thank you for making our dreams come true!

April 25-29, 2010.

Sunday-We left home with excitement in our hearts to stay in Las Vegas with Trenity's brother Heath. The kids got to visit some cousins and we only had a 4 hour drive the next day.

Monday-Up a 4:30 a.m. too excited to sleep in we got ready and headed out by 6 a.m. so we could have almost a full day at the park. I called ahead and was able to get the only room available for early check in so we didn't have to leave the park after 4 or do it all at 10 p. m. when we were tired from the park. Yea for mom!! So by 10:30 a.m. we were all settled into our hotel with cribs and couch bed ready for that night and off to the park! This was the most crowded day we had at the park but we still had a wonderful time! We collapsed into bed at 11 pm with smiles on our faces.

Tuesday-Up at 6 a.m. for our Magic Morning early entry into the park one hour before the park opens to the rest of the public. All day at Disneyland can be very exhausting but somehow we managed with energy to spare. Good planning on mom's part kept the kids happy, the lines short, the snacks coming, and the budget intact, without missing out on anything. The kids still got souvenirs, ice cream, cotton candy, and a picture from splash mountain. We even ate our meals in the park and didn't break the bank. Including a fabulous character dinner on Wednesday with amazing food. Joselyn even went on Splash Mountain twice! At 5 years old that is saying something. She was fearless! And can I just say INDIANA JONES!!!!!!!!!! DON'T MISS THIS RIDE NEXT TIME YOU GO...in fact go on it over and over again (and use Fastpass!) Hands down my new favorite...after Dumbo the Flying Elephant of course!



So at 11 p.m. we once again collapsed into bed after a nice hot soak in the tub for our tired feet.

Wednesday-Slept in an extra hour today. Whew! We planned on spending half the day at Disney's California Adventure Park and the other half back at Disneyland. But we were having so much fun that we stayed right to closing time at 7 p.m. before heading over to Disneyland for the rest of the evening. Almost NO lines today! The Soaring over California ride was amazing! We got soaked on the Grizzly River Run.

The girls wanted to ride the biggest scariest roller coaster in the park and did...over and over again!!

We ate an amazing dinner at Ariel's Grotto and met 5 princesses.

And Canyon couldn't get enough of King Triton's Carousel..."Fishies!!!"

After closing we headed over to Disneyland one last time for 3 more hours of fun. Rode all the rides we thought we were going to miss and some of our favorites one more time. We all got to spend the last of our personal souvenir funds and we stayed late enough to miss the last shuttle to our hotel and had to walk back (less than one mile but grueling with tired feet). But in the end everyone was happy anyway.

Now that we have been home for 2 days I am happy to report my feet have recovered and I even unpacked already. Quite an accomplishment for anyone who knows me!

What an amazing trip. I have 90 picture posted on my facebook photos so go check them out. I'll just put a few highlights here!

Love,

The Fullmers

ZION NATIONAL PARK WITH GRANDMA AND KEITH

In September Grandma and Uncle Keith came down to vacation in Saint George for a couple weeks of much needed rest and relaxation (this was right after mom's worst time with her brain issues). The kids and I were able to come up for a weekend to play with grandma at her hotel and the next weekend before they went home, we were all able to meet at Zion's National Park for a day of fun.

Standing in front of the Three Patriarchs (from left to right Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) Most the peaks in the Park have biblical names or significance.

We went on a couple really short hikes. This was the beginning of out biggest one which took one hour round trip.

The kids loved exploring the neat geological features of the park.

A very short hike at the end of the day brought us to this little waterfall.

We had a GREAT TIME!!!

THE GRAND CANYON WITH THE COLEMANS

In July Jenny and the kids stayed with us for a couple days on their way home to Texas from there summer vacation in Idaho. We went to the Grand Canyon (less than 2 hours away) and had a great time. Unfortunately Trenity had to work that day and couldn't come with us but we live close enough to take him later.

I wish I could put all the pictures on here but there's too many. We saw ancient Indian ruins, the kids all earned there Junior Ranger Badges, and we saw the Canyon from every angle (even at Sunset!)

The Watchtower at Desert Point. We had fun climbing up to get our first view of the Canyon from the top!

Goofing around after our picnic lunch.

Getting sworn in as Junior Rangers. They had to complete lots of fun educational activities about the Canyon's geology, wildlife, and history throughout the day to earn these. They had a blast and learned stuff too!

Sunset!

Canyon at the Grand Canyon!!! And both Canyons are just as AWESOME!!!

Lions, and tigers, and DINOSAURS?...Oh MY!

This area is rich in dinosaur history and fossils. The kids have had a great time discovering all our local treasures and Trenity and I have had fun finding so many wonderful free things to do with the family!

This is at the museum in Big Water just 10 minutes north of Page. It's a small museum/ranger station for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

These dinosaur tracks are not from any museum. We found these still out in nature! We'll the tour guide showed us anyways. We thought they were just as cool as if we'd discovered them ourselves. There were huge chunks of the rock cut out in sections where scientists have removed the best tracks to display in museums around the world, but these ones were left behind.

Dilophasaurus tracks. This is a smaller dinosaur only 15 feet tall, 30 feet long, and 1500 pounds (I still wouldn't have wanted to run into one). There were hundreds of these tracks. We could see adults and tons of babies running around. Sometimes the claw marks were very defined it was pretty cool.


The T-Rex! I wish I had a picture of this one with a kid in it so you could see just how big it was.


Fossil bones by the track area.

LONE ROCK BEACH

In July and August this beach is stacked five deep with camper trailers and families right to the waters edge. But the rest of the year we can enjoy a semi private beach.

We had a campfire weinie roast this evening and had the entire beach to ourselves!

Canyon's absolute favorite place. He could play in the sand for hours.

LIFE ON LAKE POWELL

One of our favorite things to do on the lake is to go swimming at Antelope Point. There's always a private cove just for our family with lots of fun rocks to jump from and snorkling.

Canyon is a climber and he loves it here. I however have to watch him like a hawk so he doesn't get himself into trouble because he can climb really high sometimes.

LOTS OF PICTURES COMING!

So the other day I FINALLY got around to downloading my camera pictures onto my computer. There were over 1400 pictures. I did not add a lot to my blog last year because I did not have these pics off of my camera but look out now because here they come! These next several blog posts may be late but better late than never. So here is what our family was up to last spring until now. Enjoy!

Online and Open for Business

As most of you know, along with being a terrific pilot, Trenity is also a Flight Instructor. But what most of you don't know is that he is also an online entrepreneur. He just started his very own online Flight Training website. We just launched Phase One a few days ago and are currently working on the next phase. It is a work in progress and will eventually host complete online ground school training courses to fully accompany any local flight training and count towards receiving a pilots license. Check us out at flighttrainingnow.com. And wish us luck for a profitable venture!

Since we are on the subject of aviation, I thought I would add some more photos of what Trenity loves about his job!

How many of you would love to see this kind of view even once? Trenity took these at work one day. The other plane you see is his buddy Derrick who also flys with him on the tours. In fact Derrick was one of Trenity's first students when he worked for the flight school in Cedar City. We love seeing his own students suceed at getting jobs flying and loving it.