Why Can't we Live Here?

Dave and I ask ourselves that question every time we visit Southern California. I know CA has it's problems...but I can't get over the beautiful weather, the gorgeous scenery, the beautiful and unique flowers and foliage, the amazing beaches and gorgeous ocean, and of course...the delicious Mexican food. We took a very short trip to San Diego last weekend and we were able to get a taste of all of these wonderful things while we were there. :)

We left last Friday, visited SeaWorld on Saturday and came home on Sunday...like I said, it was very short. But oh so fun!

The grounds at SeaWorld are so beautiful!

(let's see how many times I can use the words

beautiful, gorgeous, and amazing in this post ;))

Our first show of the day...the Dolphin Discovery!

Emily and Eden were so excited.

So where are Justin and David during the show, you ask?
They were actually IN the show!
Before it started a SeaWorld worker asked
Justin if he'd like to be in the show, and he said yes!
It was so cool, he and Dave got to meet and feed the
dolphins and were totally part of everything.
Justin did so awesome...the video of his performance
is at the bottom of the post. It's so funny.

Here are some actual pictures of Justin and Dave...

And here are the dolphins...

these animals are so amazing!


After the show, Eden took a little nap...

and we went to see the sharks!
(The exhibit was very dark, so none of the pictures I took
inside turned out...but the sharks were very scary and cool.)




We saw Flamingos, visited with the sea stars (the correct name for
star fish we found out) and fed the sting rays.

Emily is saying...

"Look Justin, this is where the mouth is."

Emily's favorite part of the trip was feeding the

sting rays. They were very cute and friendly.

Eden just kickin' it at SeaWorld...

The Sesame Street kid area was so much fun.

It had this huge fort with nets everywhere to climb,

the most amazing bounce house ever, and a few rides.

(I think this picture is so cool, they are both flying)

Fun rides...

Waiting for the Shamu show...

Justin said this was his favorite part of SeaWorld.

It was awesome.

Our camera battery died about 3/4 of the way through

the day which was a huge bummer. A few things we

did/saw that aren't pictured are: fed the dolphins, saw the

penguins, polar bears, and beluga whales. Went to the

sea lion/seal show, and Justin went on his first ever scary

roller coaster. Good job buddy!

We were at our hotel 2 nights and the kids went

swimming both of them. We really milked this

trip for everything and got so much out of it even though

it was so, super short! The kids loved swimming in the dark!

The morning we left we took a drive

across the Coronado Bridge and went to fly

kites at the beach. It was perfect kite weather...

Emily and Justin loved it.

They played in the sand for a bit and then we headed home.

We drove by my favorite temple on the way out.

Isn't the San Diego temple so beautiful?!

Here's the video of Justin in the Dolphin show.

Keep in mind I was holding a very wiggly baby

in one arm and trying to video with the other. It's

a little shaky but turned out o.k. overall.

I'm so proud of my little guy!

Eden update

Alright, here we go again. I think it's impossible for me to do a post about Eden without posting an excessive amount of pictures. I really try, but it's too hard. Eden is 8 1/2 months old now. Not a whole lot has changed about her since the last update. The big thing we are working on right now is crawling. She is so close, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. She tries so hard, it's really pretty funny and sweet. I personally don't mind that she hasn't quite figured it out yet. I mostly just want her to learn for her own sake because I know how much she would love it. She is so curious, and so active and full of energy...I just know she'd love being able to get around and explore. I guess that is something I should be dreading...but I'm actually looking forward to it! She is such a fun baby...here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

8-months-old and loving it...

(I just love babies in white jammies!)

One of the best parts of my day...

when Eden wakes up from her naps.

(I must admit, her going down for her naps

is pretty nice too. Isn't it funny how that is?)

I love how excited she is when she first sees me!
Being a mom is awesome.

Just cute.

Just happy.


Crawling practice...

Crawling practice usually turns into rolling practice...

Cracking up at her silly brother...

Up close and personal...

Last picture...I just think she has a sweet little profile. :)

Love Day

I just wanted to document some of our Valentine's Day celebrations. (We love celebrating everything...and I really love Valentine's day. I think the only holiday I don't care too much for is St. Patty's day. I just don't get that one.)

The big job of writing out the Valentine's for their classes...

for Emily it was a piece of cake.

Poor Justin was bored and "so tired" after writing out about

three for his class. Emily eventually took over for him. :)

We had friends over to make these cute heart shaped crayons.
I can't take any credit for the idea...check out my friend Becca's
wonderful blog for instructions. We had so much fun making them!

Hard at work making Valentine's with their new crayons...

Emily and Justin woke up Saturday morning to a date with Daddy

to Krispy Kreme. What could be better?

Me? I enjoyed a lovely breakfast in bed, courtesy of Miss Emily.

It consisted of: A bowl of honey nut cheerios, a delectable

heart shaped pastry made by Hostess, and the

best part...a love note from my girl.

The kids enjoyed a game of Valentine's Day Bingo.

Thank you (again) Becca!

The cute bead necklace Emily made from Grandma.

Why I'm so lucky...

Celebrating January

In some ways the month of January can be kind of a let down. The holidays are over and it's back to work, back to school, and back to everyday life. But I was thinking about it, and the truth is that I LOVE my everyday life...so getting back to it is not such a bad thing. While I miss my kids and Dave like crazy while they are away at school and work...we end up having so much fun when we are together it makes it all O.K.
So our January was awesome. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather (most of the month the temps were between 65-70 degrees) and spent a ton of time outside. We took a couple of day-trips to some cool places in our area, did a lot of bike riding, and spent a lot of time at the park.

Oh, and Eden had her first bubble bath...
Like I said, this month was awesome.

Day-trip #1: Lake Las Vegas

Pretty cool...

This picture is funny to me because it is so bright...we

are staring strait into the sun. If you notice Emily is literally

holding her eye-lids open for the picture...and Justin is doing the

smart thing and just looking the other direction.

The view

Sad that we couldn't go ice skating.

There were cool fountains all over this place.

Emily is such a poser...she didn't even have money to

throw in...she just saw that I was about to take a picture of her

and she pulled this pose really quick. She's funny like that.

Day-trip #2: Hoover Dam

Very cool...

Holy cow, that's steep.

Awwwww.

Dave showing Justin where Megatron used to live.

(Justin hasn't seen the movie, but he has a picture

book based on it so he knows all about how the U.S.

government hid Megatron in Hoover Dam until he escaped

and was eventually "befeated" by the Autobots.)

Family picture. (Thank you Nice Stranger for offering.

Dave and I would never get family pics if it weren't for

people like you...we never like to ask. :) )

This bridge is going to span that huge gap that runs

parallel to the dam. It is gonna be so freaky to drive

across when it's done! We can hardly wait.

We took this picture of the same bridge two years ago.

It's kind of cool to see the progress...

The kids got their first real bikes in December.

They've had so much fun riding...

Emily didn't get training wheels with her new bike. We

told her she was 7 and needed to learn how to ride without them.

I expected it to take awhile for her to figure it out...but she

learned within half-an-hour. Dave and I were so proud.

(The whole stopping and starting thing can still be a little tricky for her though.)

We took A LOT of trips to the park this month.

Here are a few pictures from just one of them.

Eden flying at our favorite "butterfly park."

She really loves to swing.

Monkey

Airplane

Angel