Palm Spring Vacation Part 1 & 2

We had such a fun vacation the past week! The perfect refresher to get us ready for this fall. Part 1 of our trip we headed up to Palm Springs ( last Friday Aug 22 with kids). Then on Monday we came back to SC to take care of a few school things and drop the kids off with my parents. Part 2 of our trip James and I got away by ourselves for the first time since the beginning of parenthood, I had a lot of anxiety about leaving the kids for more than a few hours, and even though I missed them a ton, it was SO NICE to take a break!!

Part 1

The weather was over a 100 degrees the whole time we were in Palm Springs so we decided to take the Aerial Tram up into to the mountains where it was only about 70 degrees, the tram ride up was fun and Luke thought it was really cool.

The not so smart thing we did was to take Luke hiking at nap time which pretty much turned into a nightmare and by time we finished hiking and road the tram back down to our car Luke was just crying, no reason, just crying. As soon as we set him in his car seat he was immediately asleep. Above is a picture of us at the end of the hiking trail which overlooks Palm Springs. Can't you see the joy on our faces

The best thing about the resort we stayed at was the pools which we spent several hours at each day. Luke is just like a fish in water now, he is even starting to learn to paddle his arms and kick his feet a little. Every time we would walk by one he would say "pool pease, pease" he was so cute and is completely efficient at holding his breath underwater. We even got him a little pair of goggles so he could open his eyes.

Our last day there with the kids we made a big family dinner, Bella got to experience spaghetti for the first time (she loved it) and Luke got to try Sparkling cider (not so much, but he liked the cool cups we put it in)

Part 2

Getting away from the kids was really bitter sweet (more sweet than bitter ). We had so much fun, it really made me remember all the goofy fun things we used to do. I don't know why but becoming a parent made us a lot more serious as individual and as a couple when we were dating we used to be really spontanious and silly. On this trip we got a refresher on that and it was fun! The other thing that was really cool was that if we wanted to go somewhere or do something we just grabbed our shoes and went it didn't take us a half an hour to get out the door and that was so nice, but it finally got a to a point after about a day and a half the we were just sitting there like, wow, I am really board I don't know what to do with myself because we are so used to going a million miles a minute changing diapers, feeding, laying down for naps and comforting, we weren't used to having a ton of time to ourselves. We also had a lot of fun staying up till 1 am the sad part was neither of us could sleep in much past 7 (darn those internal alarm clocks). Some of the things we did while we were there: Soak City (fun but over priced), Shopping (yay for no kids), Played games, watched TV, and James finally got to see the new Batman movie which was really good (we hadn't been to the theatre alone since before Luke was born).

I love the Olive Garden right now they have their never ending pasta bowl and we ate way to much. I think my favorite was Asiago Alfredo Garlic Sauce with Penne. We were goofing off in the movie theatre cause we were the only ones in there. James decided he wanted to train to be Batman and did a few laps around the theatre (Sounds weird I know but I'm not joking)

We have to give a big Thanks To James and my parents for making this trip possible. Thanks for the graduation present! Love you guys!

Summer Fun

In the quest of finding a job James often has to travel all over Orange County for job fairs, interviews, ect. Well the kids and I have taken up going with him on these trips and after he takes care of whatever responsibility he has we do something fun that we wouldn't usually get to do (because its to far away or to much gas). Even though James has been working hard we have had a ton of fun this summer! Here are some pics of our adventures

We went to Irvine Regional Park and road the train which Luke of course loved since he is obsessed with anything with wheels

They had ponies there and a little duck pond where you could rent paddle boats. It would also be really fun to take bikes up there and go for a ride.

They have hiking which sounded like a lot of fun so we attempted to hike, It was probably about 90 degrees and this was the outcome after about 10 minutes of hiking.

Bella is fully mobile now, not quite walking but crawling and pulling herself up and getting into whatever she can get her hands on. She also has about 10 bruises on her forehead and head from whacking it on stuff (her black eye has healed). Poor thing.

They have a baby beach in Huntington, we met up with James sister Shari and her three boys. Luke had a lot of fun playing with his cousins (as always) and it was good catching up with Shari. I do prefer the sand at the baby beach in Dana Point though (it was really hard here).

On a total whim we went to the Discovery Science Museum in LA. Luke loved this contraption he probably spent 15 minutes talking to whoever would listen to him. It was a really cool museum, it even had a area specially designed for kids under 8 and a cool toddler area where we just let Bella go and crawl around. The best part about it was that it was admission is Free!

Here is Luke being the little social butterfly that we know and love. He loves making friends especially with older kids who can show him cool new things to do

Bella's bottom two teeth finally broke through (after I swear months of teething). She is starting to get the hang of the biting thing but she keeps making goofy faces like this (she also bit her lip [it bled] and her own thumb today which she got pretty upset about)

They had a giant rose garden right next to the museum with a huge fountain in the middle. So beautiful.

Luke's 2 Year Old Pics

I wanted to get pictures of Luke now that he is 2 so we went down to the beach and had some crazy fun. More crazy than fun as is the usual when trying to take pics of babies and toddlers. Here are the results of our little outing


I have a pic of Luke very similar to this when he was about the same age

Handsome little man

Our little sand eater

Such a cutie

Little Composers

Here are a few pics of the kids I snapped down at grandpa's the other day. A few months ago I had a similar picture of Luke and his buddy Samson.You have to love the chubby butts

Bella is really enjoying herself

How could anyone ever say no to that face.

Summer Update

We went down to the beach yesterday and in an attempt to get Luke engaged in something other than the water I started burying James in the sand. Well I guess Luke thought this was pretty cool cause he decided to lay down next to James and have me bury him to. If you know Luke he is not the kind of kid who like to sit still for more than a few seconds let only long enough for me to bury him and his dad and then take pictures, but it happened and I was amazed at his patience (I told him to pretend he was taking a nap). He is such a funny kid, full of surprises! Luke is under the Yellow baseball cap. I put in on his face to keep the sun out of his eyes
Here he is pretending to be taking a nap

Keeping his feet covered was the hardest part cause he kept wiggling his toes

After he was done being buried he decided to help me finish his dad off. He is throwing sand on James face in this picture (it makes sense it was the only part of him that wasn't buried)

Luke has become such a good brother to his little sister. Its really cute to watch be attentive to her needs. When she is sad or crying he will try to give her his toys, snacks or a sippy cup/baba. He has become a master at switching toys out. If he wants the car she is playing with he has learned she is easily distracted by the another toy and will trade her. Its so interesting to watch his mind develop as he is able to understand more complex emotions and situations.

They have also started to interact a lot more. It seems like whatever Bella is doing is the cool thing so Luke tends to want follow her lead. If Bella is eating, Luke wants to eat (not only does he want to eat but he wants to have whatever Bella is eating). If Bella is having a baba Luke wants one. If Bella plays in the Jumperoo Luke want to (he actually tried to climb in it with her one day and got stuck, Bella was pretty upset about it!). In the pic above I sat Bella down to watch a show with some snacks while I made dinner. Luke went down and plopped himself next to her and I luckily caught it on camera.

Berry Smoothies

So the Berry Smoothies at Costco are pretty much famous. Anyone who shops at Costco should know what I am talking about. Both of my kids are addicts!!! They both learned how to use a straw through the temptation of a Berry Smoothie. On one of our recent trips to Costco we found that we could no Longer just have one cup with smoothie we have to split into 2 due to the high volume of requests. Below is documentation of one of our experience.

As you can see Bella totally has us in check

Earthquake

We just experienced our first earthquake and it was really frightening. I guess it hit up north further near Fullerton but we felt it here, in our home, in San Clemente. James was downstairs working on homework and I was doing my hair when out of no where our apartment just started shaking back and forth and the furniture was rattling. It was so bad it made it hard to walk. I just froze, I had never felt one before so I just stood there thinking... is this an earthquake? Luckily it was just the aftershocks rippling down. Hopefully if I am ever in one again I will be better prepared and move a little faster to protect my kids.

Anyways it scared me so bad my hands were shaking for about 10 minute (I know I'm a pansy) I am just glad no one in our home got hurt!

Happy Happy Birthday Luke!

Luke's second birthday was a success we had lots and lots of birthday fun, so much so that Luke and Bella didn't want to fall asleep until 9pm (they usually go to bed at 7pm) I'm not sure if it was the sugar or the excitement. Either way thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make this a special day for our little boy!

Bella's on the move

Bella has started the army crawl, something Luke never did so its new to me and I love it. She has actually gotten a lot faster since this movie (its from about a week ago) plus she has been getting up on her hands and knees a lot so I figure in no time she will be crawling (the end of life as we know it). Its so funny how with Luke I couldn't wait till he crawled and with Bella I am perfectly happy with her being stationary.

Casanova

Luke has been making the rounds this summer

We went to the baby beach a couple weeks ago with our friends Adam, Rachelle and their little girl Tori. Luke and Tori usually play well together but on this outing they were especially friendly.

This is Luke and his cousin Brenna showing some love

This is why the ladies love him.

Luke with his smoothie uni brow, mustache, goatee and brain freeze (the outcome of drinking a whole glass of smoothie is less than 60 second).

Manic Depressive Luke

Luke and I were goofing off the other day and he thought it was hilarious when I would pretend to sneeze the play dough out at him. The moment I stopped he got super emotional and burst into tears, then as soon as I started sneezing again he would mid crying start laughing histerically. It was so funny! Not to mention the mad scientist figure twiddling he has going on.

This one mostly just shows him cracking up and twiddling his fingures.

Watch closely see if you can tell when the crying stops and laughing begins.

Utah Family Pics June 2008

Here are some of the family pics we took when we were in Utah. Of course Luke was being a little turkey and we couldn't force a smile out of him but hey at least we got some good ones of Buzz.

Happy 4th of July in Bisbee, Az

We went out to my dads house for the forth of July in Bisbee, Az. You can see Mexico from where his house and we had a lot of fun. The highlights of the trip were going off roading hunting for rabbits, riding the four wheeler, seeing the four foot rattle snake my dad killed right outside his front door, and hanging out in Tombstone, Oh and of course seeing my family:)

Luke discovered he has a new talent, curling up his bottom lip, he thinks its hilarious. Thats his cousing Dylan in the pic with him.

Here a pic of us out hunting rabbits, James killed a poor little cotton tail (so sad, I couldn't help but think of Thumper) and a jack rabbit, he's a pretty good shot. The ginormous cowboy is Mario my sisters husband, he was right at home out there. Then there is my brother Travis his fiance Jenny, James and a couple of the kiddos in the back of the truck.

Were at the boot hills cemetery in Tombstone, The grave said here lie lesser more four slugs from a 44 no less no more.

My dad with Ashlyn and Bells (they are only 2 weeks apart in age)

A picture of my dads ranch and house in the middle of no where