Disneyland/Big Bear Vacation

Seth had his vacation week the first week of February. We decided to do a stay-cation of sorts again, and did a couple of days at Disneyland, followed by a couple of nights in Big Bear. 

We had talked about taking Taft to Disneyland for his birthday, but ended up buying annual passes to Disneyland instead. (Gulp. They were not the cheapest thing we ever purchased.) I think it will end up being a good thing. We've already spent a total of 3 days at Disneyland, and I'm sure we'll go enough to make it worth the price. 

The boys both had a blast. We did California Adventure the first day, and checked out the new Cars Land first thing. It is SO adorable. They've completely recreated the town from Radiator Springs and I just died at all the detail. The boys liked seeing the Cars characters, but didn't go nuts for them either. In fact, they didn't really care too much about any of the characters in all of Disneyland. The would point them out, but didn't want to have their picture taken with any of them. 

I must say, I think I have a love-hate relationship with Disneyland. I love that all the workers are over the top happy, that it's a magical place, but I super hate crowds and boy, does Disneyland have crowds. I just think it is completely unreasonable to expect a small child (or even parents for that matter) to wait 45 minutes for a silly Dumbo ride that last 2 minutes. I know, Bah Humbug right? What I'm saying is, if we didn't live so close, I don't know if I'd make a trip just for Disneyland for my kids. Unless they had a crazy Disney obsession and going there would make all their dreams come true. In that case, I'd go. Probably. 

However, I love that Disneyland lets one parent ride with two kids on a lot of the rides. This makes it so much better when I go by myself with the boys. Legoland is not like this, which makes it pointless to go without Seth. 

Anyway, enough about me. Here are some pictures of the day. 

Taft laughed hysterically on this ride. I wish I had it on video.

The Toy Story ride. A family favorite.

These crazy boys. Throwing their hands up on the ferris wheel.

Day 2: Disneyland side. The happiest place on Earth right? It is pretty happy there, I must admit.

Are they not twins?

Luke insisted on being with Seth on every ride. Taft was nice enough not to complain, even though we all know he would have had some turns with Dad. 

After two days in Disneyland, we headed to Big Bear Mountain outside of the L.A. area. We got in to town in the evening, settled in to our hotel, rented skis and such, and got some grub. Bright and early we headed to Bear Mountain Resort so Taft could start his snowboard camp. We had signed Taft up for an all-day group class from 8:30 to 3:30. I was hesitant to sign him up for such a long day, but we decided we'd just check on him at lunch and if he was over it we'd take him out. He ended up being the only kid in the class so he had a private lesson all day and had an absolute blast. He loved his instructor, Adam, and just had a great time. It was really cute watching Taft get pumped about snowboarding once he tried on all his gear at the rental shop. We would have rather had him take ski lessons since that's what we'll do as a family, but he had to be four. Yes, only a month shy and they still said no. 

Seth and I took turns going on runs. It was the firs time I had skied in 5 years! I was a little rusty but took it easy and stayed on greens and blues. The weather was PERFECT for my kind of skiing. Sunny and mid to high 40s. This was the first time I've been skiing that I haven't been miserable with painful fingers and toes. 

Against our better judgement, we took Luke up on a couple of runs in the hiking backpack. Eventually someone told us we weren't allowed to do that, so we stopped. We decided to get Luke some skis and Seth took him down the bunny hill a few times. Luke was content just to be pushed around on the flat snow wearing his skis and helmet. 

I have several videos from our ski day, but turns out that my camera is too new for our version of iMovie so I can't upload it. Normally I could just upgrade iMovie, but apparently our computer is too old for the new version of iMovie. Grrrrrrr. 

There was a story that happened in Riverside that made national news while we were in Big Bear. Some of you probably heard about it. A disgruntled former LAPD officer shot and killed three people over the course of a couple of days, one of them being a police officer. The shooter, Christopher Dorner, was trying to "clear his name" for the reasons why he was let go from the LAPD force. He wrote a super long manifesto and said he was planning to kill multiple officers from the LAPD. The morning we were leaving we saw this "breaking news" in our room on the news and that there was a multi-county manhunt for this guy. As we were driving down the mountain heading home, we saw multiple police cars, armored vehicles, etc. heading up the mountain. We wondered if they thought the shooter was hiding in Big Bear. When we got to the bottom of the hill we saw police cars parked, with officers out of their car holding rifles!! It was crazy! Later we found out he was in fact up there. Police were unable to locate him exactly for a few days, but did eventually find him in Big Bear. CRAZY. 

We finished off the week with a half-marathon that I had been training for. The training paid off and I beat last years time by 8 minutes. Woop woop! That night we got a sitter and had an early Valentine's dinner and movie. So basically, we had a really great week.

Luke is Two!!

Lukie turned two on Dec. 31. We were in Utah at the time so we had a mini celebration. We went out for pizza with my family and opened gifts and had cake. Lukie got one of those big basketball hoop stands from Nana and Grandpa. It's being shipped to us, but I think Taft and Luke will have a blast with it.

We had Lukie's Birthday Celebration Part II when we were back home with Seth. We took him for games at Chuck E Cheese and then to In 'n Out for a healthy dinner of cheeseburgers and fries. We gave Lukie a scooter, which he isn't quite ready for. Taft has gladly taken over the job as "scooter-rider" until Lukie is ready.

Not looking like a baby anymore! 

Ready whack a shark

We love, love, love our little Lukie. He is funny, cuddly, crazy, silly, dramatic, and sweet. His vocabulary is really coming along, although most people need an interpreter. My favorite thing he says right now is "Low-lit" for "blow it" when his food is hot. It's just the cutest the way he says it. He still loves trains (choochoos), loves fire engines, and helicopters and airplanes (both known as "hellos"). He will settle for cars if need be.  He is a decent eater, but is slowly becoming pickier like his big bro. Lukie loves to play with Taft. He is becoming Taft's little shadow and will do exactly what he does and is constantly mimicking what he says.

Lukie no longer uses a binky. He was getting a rash around his mouth and though the binky might be the culprit. Not so, he still has the rash.  Regardless, Luke is now binky-free. I thought I'd slowly cut the binky down, but even after the first little snip Luke no longer wanted it. Sometimes I really wish we still had it. He can still have a pretty impressive meltdown.

He finally likes nursery and doesn't cry when I drop him off at the gym day care. It helps if Taft is with him, but he does really well on his own now too.

Luke loves to sing songs and knows a lot of tunes to different songs we sing. A friend of mine is a speech therapist and said Luke is learning to talk "whole to part" which means he learns phrases before individual words. This might explain why one of the first things he clearly said was, "I don't want to". Most kids perfect single words and then put them together in phrases. Luke puts hard to understand phrases together and will eventually say the individual words more clearly. It's kind of a game figuring out what he's trying to say, but I kind of like it. He clearest word is definitely, "Yeah".

Luke can still be shy around some people and gets very embarrassed when told not to do something or is scolded. He'll hide his face, bury his face with blankets, or will just face plant on to the floor. Overall, he is much less fussy than he has been in the last two years.

We love, love, love Lukie. LOVE.

Winter Weddings

 The little boys and I headed to Utah on Christmas Eve. Like I said in my other post, Seth wasn't able to come with us at all. We celebrated our Christmas Eve and Christmas a day ahead of everyone else. Lucky for the boys, they got two Christmases.

The boys were unbelievably good on the first flight. Like, I read a magazine. It was the in-flight magazine, but still. They just happily played with their trains on the tray table. The second flight was  a different story. They weren't bad, but I was feeling more and more sick as the flight went on. I seem to always get a cold right as I'm heading to Utah or get one within the first couple of days of being there. As I felt progressively crappier, the boys got progressively more hyper. It wasn't the best combo. But, we made it.

The boys opened their second set of Christmas jammies from Nana and Grandpa. We tried to get a cute picture but it wasn't happening.

We opened gifts the next morning, had a delicious brunch, and some of us took off for sledding. Taft had a good time, but Lukie fell off on his first run and WOULD NOT have any of it for the rest of the time. 

Jayda is such a good big cousin. She played with the boys non-stop. I feel so lucky that my boys have such great older cousins on both sides who actually seem to like playing with them. 

Isn't she the cutest?

Pretty soon after the spill. Doesn't he look so sad?

The REAL reason we were even in Utah in the first place was because Lanx got married!! I am so glad we could be there. Lanx looked so beautiful, the sealing was peaceful, the reception was gorgeous and fun, and Travis and her make a great couple. My boys love, love, love Travis. We all think he's great. 

I did shoot a couple of shots when they came out of the the temple but they are blurry. It was absolutely freezing and since I figured they had a professional photog they didn't need me to snap any. I'll post some when she gets them back. I'm sure they'll be stunning. 

Sadly, the best photo of the night. I wish I had shots of the inside of the reception. It was so beautifully done.

Cute Jay, Butter (aka Alex), and Taft. Luke refused. 

I also had another wedding to attend to while in Utah. Jamie and I have been friends since 1st grade. She had a small wedding with just family and a few friends. I was honored that she wanted me there. The wedding day was a nice break for me from the kids. My parents was so nice and watched them ALL day long. I got to hang out all day with my other dear friend, Amber, who Jamie and I have known since 7th grade.

It was so great to be with my family for an extended period of time, but we (the boys and I) really, really missed Seth. We were gone for 2 weeks which is just too long to be apart. 

Highlights of the trip not photographed:

1. Playing with the Herway cousins

2. Meeting up with a few friends 

3. My friend, turned personal trainer, who kicked my butt one day

4. Staying up late with my family

5. Visiting my grandma in St. George

6. Celebrating Lukie's 2nd birthday! (more on that in another post)

Christmas Season 2012

Our Christmas season was kicked off the same as last year. Santa arrived in Coronado via the ferry. There were lots of activities for kids at the Ferry Landing, visiting Santa, painting ornaments, playing on a snow hill (real snow), and hot chocolate and cookies.

Dane and Taft. Dane's family used to live on our street but moved a little north a couple of months ago. We've missed having them on our street so it was fun to run into them here. 

I don't know what it is with Taft and Santa, but he is always SO serious when he talks to him. 

Following the activities at the Ferry Landing, there's a parade along Orange Avenue. 

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House making

We visited the Temple on a Sunday night to see the lights. The night we went they had performers singing Christmas carols. The boys went in their pajamas to this because we're classy like that.

Speaking of classy, check out our neighbors.

Taft was a sheep in our ward's Christmas Nativity program. Seth had to work this night so he had to miss it. It was adorable!

Instagram quality, sorry. Seth's work threw a very nice Christmas party at a hotel downtown. While everyone very much enjoyed the cocktail hour, we enjoyed a Cranberry Spritzer. People got really nice, friendly, and quite happy as the night went on...if you know what I mean. 

This picture makes me laugh. This was our Christmas Eve dinner. Seth and I are overly smiley because we were trying to get the boys to smile.

Since the boys and I were headed to Utah for my sister's wedding, we had our Christmas Eve on the 23rd and our Christmas morning on the 24th. We had a nice dinner Christmas Eve, the boys opened their jammies and a Christmas story from The Elves, and we headed out for a walk to see Christmas lights. The boys fell asleep on the walk, but we made sure to leave cookies and milk out for Santa.

Santa brought a gift for the boys to share this year. They got a fully loaded train table and it has been the best thing Santa ever spent his money on...er...made.

I went to load some video, but turns out our version of iMovie is too old for our new camera. Grrrr. So, until I upgrade iMovie we'll just have to keep our movies to ourselves.

Central Coast Vacay

Seth had a week of vacation the first week of December, so we had a little mini-trip to check out the Central Coast area. We made it to La Jolla (20 minutes) before we needed a stop at Jamba Juice. We were starting to feel a little sick in our family so thought a boost of Vitamin C was in order. That, and because it's so delicious. 

When did this kid get enormous?

He's just so cute. And we neeeeed to get rid of the binky.

Beautiful coastline. It was a grey, rainy drive but still very pretty I thought. 

We stopped in Oxnard for lunch at, wait for it....Cafe Rio. They have one! Holla! We might have stopped there on our way home too. 

Best brothers

We stayed in the darling town of Solvang. It's a Danish settled town in the Central Coast area, but a little inland. The town was full of cute shops, Danish restaurants and bakeries, with workers dressed in Danish clothing. It reminded us a bit of Leavenworth, WA, the little German town we visited around Christmas time when we lived in Spokane. These little towns are cute, but make you really homesick for real-deal European towns. Can I say homesick if it's not my home? The landscape around the valley was gorgeous and I'm sure it's even better in the spring. It's definitely worth a day trip. 

Can you believe the building on the right dates all the way back to 1976? ;) 

We stopped at a fun park that had play equipment set up like a small town complete with houses, ships, castles, and a jail. We also visited a miniature horse farm, which is kind of random but it was really cute. 

I had to add this because Seth asking these guys about what it took to keep a miniature horse. Like, because he thought it would be fun to have one. Doesn't want a dog but does want a mini-horse?

I call this "Bored in a hotel room" 

Solvang shops at night

The second day we drove about 45 minutes to Pismo Beach and visited yet another park. The boys had a blast here. Just behind the park were beautiful (and dangerous) cliffs. 

Captain of the USS Imagination. I'm jealous of Taft's imagination. I don't think I was nearly as imaginative as him ever. 

Lukie likes to give a lot of things "loves".  He always says, "Ohhhhh" while hugging. So sweet. 

We checked out a bit of the town, ate at a recommended restaurant for lunch, and walked along the pier. The town wasn't too impressive, but we think there are some big sand dunes that are really popular  for whatever you do on sand dunes. 

Seth the travel-agent teaching Taft how to plan awesome vacations. Seriously, Seth plans all our trips and I just show up. It's really nice. 

After our day in Pismo Beach as we were headed back to the hotel we stopped at a butterfly grove. There were thousands and thousands of Monarch butterflies in the trees. The picture doesn't show it well, but it really was pretty cool. 

I had to.

The cute blue eyed boys

It needs to be noted that Seth felt absolutely terrible on this trip. The day before we left he had his flu shot. The next 3 days he felt like he had the flu. He still played tour guide despite feeling awful. I would have laid in bed and ordered people around if it had been me. And you all know that's true. Seth is a better person than me on a lot of levels. 

It should also be noted that Luke does NOT sleep well in new places. This trip was no exception. 

Wednesday morning Seth was starting to feel better and it was also my birthday.  I woke up to a hot breakfast and homemade cards. Taft was really excited that it was my birthday. Probably because he knew there would be cake at some point. 

Due to Luke's lack of sleep and subsequent crankiness we decided to head home a day early. We planned to stay the day in Santa Barbara before heading home. First off, I want to move to Santa Barbara one day. It's the cutest town wedged between mountains and the ocean. The town itself is so clean, well-maintained, and so classy looking! We visited a gorgeous mission-style courthouse and went up the tower to get a view of the city. We also visited a very old Spanish mission. It was after the mission that everything went downhill. Luke and Taft refused to walk and we didn't have a stroller (our fault). Luke cried over anything and everything. Taft said in reference to Santa Barbara, "I hate the bells! And I hate the buildings! And I hate this city! And I hate this world!" They obviously had forgotten that it was my birthday or they would have never acted this way. We had spent about 2 hours in Santa Barbara and called it a day. I wished we could have stayed all day because there seemed to be a lot to see and do. 

View from top of courthouse

We made it home safely that evening. Taft remembered it was my birthday again (oh yeah! Cake!) and insisted on me staying in my room so he could decorate the house. It really was so cute. Definitely cute enough to forgive him for his earlier shenanigans. Seth made dinner which was  followed by delicious ice cream cake. 

Solvang- take a day trip, not much to do otherwise

Santa Barbara- could definitely spend the weekend, preferably with Seth and without our dear children

Pismo Beach- Had good clam chowder