So after Christmas Mark and I went to see my familia in AZ. here are a few pictures from the trip. i tried to put them in order, but it didn't exactly turn out. so here we go.
here is most of us before dinner on some night.

Now that Mark has been in the family for some time now, I thought it would be safe to introduce him to St. David. that is the town i was raised in until i was 13. very small.
Mark met my Grandpa (papa) for the first time. pretty sad, but true.

we paid my dad a visit

A grand event occurred during this trip. Mark tried sushi for the first time.

it was also my sister Tara's first time as well. here they are with their first bite! can you see the fear in Mark's face? He didnt really care for it, but i figure it takes a couple times to convince him right?

We took several trips to the movie theater. i'm not sure why because we actually only saw one movie while we were there. (we had bad luck, it was sold it so we went early the next day to buy tickets in advance) Anyway, we kept seeing these stupid speed limit signs that were ridiculous speeds. in this same little complex there was this one as well as one that was 13 mph.
and, you can't see it in this picture, but directly above the speed limit sign there is a no parking sign. and yes, we are in a parking lot.

The grandest event that took place this trip was decorating my mom's bedroom as a surprise for her. we did the ENTIRE thing in about 8 hours while she was at work. And it was a lot of work. My mom has lived in her house for 10 years and has never done anything to her bedroom.
I'm really upset that we didnt get a good before picture with her previous furniture in there, but its not all that much different without the furniture. just picture very outdated things lying around.
Anyway, this picture was taken right after we had removed the nasty wall paper border that was going along the ceiling. when we took it down it revealed the previous color of the wall, that hideous pink.

Sanya, getting exciting to see some color on these walls!

Tamra, painting away

Mark and my brother-in-law Calvin spent the entire day spray painting (not in this picture obviously). but they spray painted a dresser, an armoir, a table, a mirror, and a frame. very busy boys.

The finished product. needless to say my mom was stunned!



right before we had to leave for the airport we all met at 5 guys for lunch. Mark and I love it and try to go there often, but none of my AZ family had been there before, so we introduced them. 5 guys didnt disappoint!
Me and TK

Mark me and Dally Pally

Me and Tama-lama

The girls minus one: mom, sany, tk, and me

all of us

It was a great trip! It was so fun to see and hand out with everyone! and we got to be out of the cold for a while!