Sunday, July 25, 2010

Owen's One

Owen had a birthday on the thirteenth.  We were in San Diego and spent his birthday at Sea World.  He seemed to have a good day at Sea World at least.  A couple of days ago we had our family over for his party.

We borrowed the baby gate from some friends and bought some balls to go in it for a ball party.

Banner...

Birthday cake...


Cousins...

Family...

We're so grateful for our family and how many awesome people our boys have to love them.

My little Owen.  I was really happy that at Owen's last doctor visit he weighed in the 5th percentile.  The last couple of visits he has been below the charts and I have been worried about making sure he eats enough.  He's still scrawny, but gaining weight.  He is not walking yet, but he is just starting to try and sign one or two things.  He shakes his hands for "all done" and says, "dah dah" although so far he's just copying me when I do it.  When I sign more he claps his hands and says, "mah."  He is good at throwing and likes to grab a ball out of the ball pit, stand up, and throw it and repeat.  He is eating mostly table foods now and loves beans, salmon, bread, cheese, and berries.  When we hold a sippy cup or bottle for him to drink he will take a few swallows then swat the cup out of his face really fast, look around, then he's ready for some more until he swats it away again.  Mark and I like to joke he's saying, "Get that thing outta my face!" from Nacho Libre.

And because I couldn't resist, a few more cake shots.  It's my favorite part of a first birthday, can you blame me?

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Kindergarten!

Dallin started school today.  He was so excited and so ready.  And so cute.  He chose to wear his shirt we bought in San Diego so when I did his hair I told him I'd make it look like a wave to go with his San Diego shirt.
Dallin is such a smart kid and I am looking forward to him getting the opportunity to learn some new things at school.  He loves to learn.  His preschool years he has either been taught by me or in joy school where other moms have rotated turns to teach.  This is his first experience getting outside of the home for school.  It was easy to see him go to school though because we actually considered putting him in kindergarten last year since his birthday is in September.  We decided to wait another year so kindergarten has been on my mind and his mind for a long time now.  It's time.  Plus, it's only half day: 2 1/2 hours.

Here are Dallin and Adam in front of the school:


We got out of the car and started walking across the front of the campus toward the kindergarten playground and Adam started yelling into space, "Get out of here you crazy neighborhood!!"  I've heard him yell this before a long while ago but hadn't heard it since.  Pretty soon both Dallin and Adam were yelling pretty loudly, "Get out of here you crazy neighborhood!!"  Other parents that were walking their kids into school were laughing at us.  I asked Dallin what that was suppose to mean and he reminded me that they were yelling at the cicada bugs that were really loud around the school.  That must have been the last time I heard it: last cicada season.

Gotta love these kids.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

San Diego 2010

It's funny how it says "San Diego 2010."  Apparently I am trying to make it sound like we go there more often than twice in my life ever.

We had a great time on our family vacation last week!!  Here's the lowdown.

Monday: Mark and I woke up early.  Our goal was to be out the door about 6am and we pulled away at 6:15.  It felt very much like a win.  We drove straight to Balboa Park in San Diego and got there about 12:15.  The boys got out of the car and felt the breezy 70 degree weather and demanded their jackets.  They did look a little silly at the park as the only ones wearing jackets.  After a picnic at the park we drove to our hotel to check in then headed to La Jolla.  We saw seals hanging out in one cove and although we weren't dressed for playing at the beach the boys couldn't help themselves but play in the other cove.  La Jolla was beautiful and pretty ritzy.  The coastline there is gorgeous with the rocks and cliffs.

Tuesday: This was Owen's first birthday.  My sister Dawn her husband and four kids met up with us in San Diego after their visit to Disneyland for a few days.  They live in Dallas which is a 14 hour drive from here and San Diego is only 6.  So when Dawn told me they were going to San Diego this summer I knew we had to make it.  We went to Sea World that day and Owen actually sat and watched the animal shows.  He loved the animals so that was quite nice.  Dallin's favorite was the Atlantis ride which he went on twice.  Adam loved everything--especially the aquariums.
Wednesday: Beach day.  These days were the best.  I had to keep reminding myself after we got to the beach on Wednesday that we didn't have someplace to be or anything to do and really, I didn't even need to know what time it was.  The weather was PERFECT for us.  The ladies at the hotel kept telling us it was going to be a hot day. Hot for San Diego is 80 degrees--HA!  So, it was not freezing cold at the beach like normal--thank goodness.  I was so grateful for that because I am sure we all had more fun--especially the kids.  We went to Pacific Beach and spent our time playing in the water and sand, boogey boarding, and flying kites.  It turns out I am quite good at boogey boarding, by the way.  I was totally schooling most of the other folks out there.  The kids had fun boogey boarding too.  Jack and Wyatt went several times (14 and 12) and Savannah (7) and Dallin (5) got in on the action too.  Mark and I would hold a board for them and tow it in as the wave pushed them to shore.
Thursday: The McHalffeys (my sister's fam) went to the zoo and we took our kids to Legoland.  It is a fun park for little kids with actually a lot to see and do.  There was even a baby care area where I could go and warm up some baby food for Owen and use a high chair, change his diaper, etc.  The kids had a great time at Legoland, I think it was Dallin's favorite part of the trip.  My favorite part about Legoland was seeing MiniLand with all of the lego buildings.  That was awesome.  Lots of things at Legoland are interactive, either there are guns for shooting targets on the rides or pedals to keep your skyride moving faster, or the fountain below which was playing music.  Whatever instrument you stood in front, it would add that part to the music already playing.  We just finished waiting 45 minutes in line and riding the skyride when they closed it and many other rides down because of lightning.  So we went to a shop and an indoor activity.  By the time we were done with that many people had left the park and some of the rides opened up again for the last hour til they closed.  We still hadn't eaten dinner by the time Legoland closed so we drove around Carlsbad looking for a kid-friendly place that was open.  Mark somehow found us a Denny's and Owen was asleep so it worked out perfectly.  The boys had hot chocolate and macaroni and cheese.  During his meal Dallin kept putting his thumbs up and muttering things like, "Yeah.  Definitely two thumbs up."  Kraft mac and cheese at its finest apparently. 


Friday: Another beach day.  We started at La Jolla again.  We wanted to show the McHalffeys the seals, but the seals were all lounging on a rock a further distance out into the water.  So we played for a while and enjoyed the beautiful, clean water there and managed to find a juice and sandwich shop that wasn't so hoity toity.  After lunch we drove to Oceanside Beach where we finished the day lounging and playing.  There were a lot of families at Oceanside and even several playgrounds right on the beach.  The kids had a great time here boogey boarding and playing and finding sand crabs in the wet sand.  Owen was ecstatic about the wet sand.  He loved how it felt and had so much fun moving it around and playing in it.  We walked out on the pier where at the end, about 1/2 mile down is Ruby's Diner where we had dinner too late that night.  From here on I have to credit my sister Dawn, because I got lazy with my camera and so I stole several of her pictures from Facebook.

Saturday: We went to the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town San Diego.  It is quite an impressive museum and the tour is amazing.  After the tour we panned for gold and checked out the other stuff they had outside.  Then since we were in Old Town San Diego which is jam packed with great-looking Mexican restaurants we had to have Mexican food for lunch.  It was good too.  The McHalffeys were happy to have Mexican food and not Tex-Mex.  After lunch we gave hugs and said goodbye.  We headed back home to Arizona and the McHalffeys stayed in CA for another couple of days.

It was a great week, but it is nice to be home where baby Owen can sleep in his own bed.  He did well on the trip, excluding sleeping, which actually accounts for a lot.  I finished my Mexican food in the car on the way out of town because I spent my time in the restaurant holding little Owen who had just had more than he could take. 

We were in route to arrive home Saturday night about 8:30 or so.  A couple of hours outside of San Diego, "in the hottest region of the entire country" (Mark's quote) is where our car's air conditioning went out.  We kept driving while the kids sweated in the backseat.  It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to worry about the little guys getting warm.  It was 5:30 on Saturday night so it just made the most sense to just drive home in the heat.  But we decided to stop in Yuma and find an ice cream shop.  Mark and I were a little frustrated at the delay in our travel home but as we walked towards the shops Adam starting singing, "We LOVE eachother  so MUCH!" over and over.  How could that not lighten the mood?  The Cold Stone Creamery was right by a movie theater which happened to be showing Toy Story 3 which we hadn't seen yet and it was going to start in 15 minutes.  It seemed too perfect to pass up.  We bought tickets and watched the movie.  I was out in the halls with Owen for a while but eventually he fell asleep so I got to see most of it.  When the movie was over it was dark and only 99 degrees instead of 112.  The boys slept most of the way after that.

We miss the McHalffeys already.  Dallin was so funny because he couldn't keep his arms off Savannah and Madeline.  He had his arms around them or was hugging them nearly nonstop.  If they weren't his cousins I'd have told him to chill out.  I'm glad we bothered someone on the Oceanside Pier to stop and take this one and only picture of all of us:


We love you guys!!