Crazy Idaho Fun

To kick off the 4th of July weekend, we headed to my uncle's in Idaho and had a wild time feeding fish, playing in the water, picnicking, barbequing, and trying to keep out of the way of the 200 or so boys and dogs that were running all over the place! (I may have stretched the number by a bit, but it seemed like that many)

I'll just say that I'm glad that my cousins have kids for my boys to play with, since they may be pretty old before they have any cousins on my side!

A Birthday & Father's Day

This year for DH's birthday we had a rock band party. It was fun hearing & watching everyone play! He wanted a cruiser and he got one! Complete with a horn just like M's & E's and a basket on the front. We had lasagna, Olive Garden salad, and Italian Cream Sodas. It was a fun time! Sorry to say, due to the exhaustion from the 2 kinds of Lasagna, I bought his cake for the first time ever. It was really good though, and he liked it even though it wasn't the traditional betty-crocker-yellow-bowl-cake-with-buttercream-icing-made-into-something-cute-and-creative. He still successfully turned 32 and we love him a lot!








Father's Day weekend we went to Bear Lake with some of our good friends. They had access to a family condo and it was just perfect for our 2 families. They have kids about the same ages and they all had a lot of fun together. We did Minnetonka cave, which was pretty exhausting for me because I was wearing C in a front-pack and he gets heavy while climbing up and down 888 stairs! I even had to nurse him while walking on slippery uneven stairs and carrying him in a front pack. Add that to my claustraphobia and fear of E jumping into a crack and you can see why my cave experience was mostly a panic attack! We also swam a lot, played outside and inside, ate raspberry shakes, played mini-golf, went out to dinner, and had a father-son t-ball game. A big thanks to the Jones family for this fun getaway!

Oceanside Trip Part 4

On Thursday and Friday we went to Old Town and the San Diego Zoo (just our family did the zoo) We had to make our visit to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, the kids love that. They had a fun time and we ate at The Coyote Cafe out of tradition (we had gone there twice before).

Chillin at the park with Grandpa. We were glad to have this nearby, as we had time to kill in the mornings with our early-risers.

For fun, some of us rode the "coaster" train home from Old Town.

We had visited the San Diego Zoo once before when M was almost 2 and E was 5 mos. so they did not remember it! It was fun and I'm glad we went, although we were pretty worn out from the rest of the week and it was a lot of walking! The plus was it was a cool day, so we could stand to hike more.


My favorite was watching M take pictures- he loved it.

C seemed to really enjoy the moving ramps. He was laughing a lot!

Me checking out my "relatives" as my family jokes these Orangutans are. (the hair color I suppose?)

We love the "mouse house" made of a giant loaf of bread!

M refused to touch any animals, but E is always brave!

Oceanside Trip Part 3

Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Disneyland and the beach. It was a fun time! We didn't realize that it was the last day of Spring Break for local schools, so Disneyland was a bit on the crowded side. It was crazy late for Spring Break, we were almost out for the year by then! I fun time was had anyway, and we got to do all the favorites and a bit more.

I didn't have a lot of time when I finally decided to make Disney shirts for the boys, so I slapped together these tie shirts using a blanket I had made for E years ago.

We can't ever miss this, it's E's favorite little known part of Disneyland- making Woody dance!

Mmmm! Dole Whip floats!

We spent an afternoon at the beach after going to some antique shops and out to lunch in Carlsbad.

Oceanside Trip Part 2

Monday of our trip was spent in a few places as well. DH, my brothers, and M & E all enjoyed a day at Legoland. My brothers had never been so they were curious to see it. The boys had been the year before but loved it again and enjoyed the new Star Wars exhibits. They got a lot of comments on the matching shirts I made them all to wear.

The rest of us went on a 2 hour harbor cruise followed by a yummy seafood lunch and shopping. It was fun and even a bit relaxing!

We ended the day at Ruby's for dinner at the end of the Oceanside Pier.

Oceanside Trip Part 1

My parents took us all on a wonderful family vacation this year in celebration of my brother Riley returning from his mission. We went back to Oceanside (where we stayed last February) and stayed at a condo there. We had a great time and were able to take in a lot of sights. Here are the first few days.

Myself, C, and my sister Whit flew while the rest drove. Since it was C's first flight, I had to document!

As soon as we got there, we walked down to the beach to fly kites and play!

That night, some of us went for pedis. It was a first for DH and Riley!

The next day was Mother's day. We went out that morning and took a bunch of family pictures. We just did them ourselves with a tripod and they turned out great!


Later on we were able to take the kids to The New Children's Museum, a Children's art museum in downtown San Diego. It was a free day, but not too crowded, so we were lucky.


Wind tunnel they could jump in

These two pictures are from a workshop the boys participated in on perspective. They were given materials to create something and then were photographed so that it looked as though they were on their creation. E's is a church and M's is a catapult. We have experimented with doing it at home since then, the boys love it!


Really cool climbing wall and ropes to climb. Everything is surrounded by art by a different artist and you can read about their interpretations of the area they were given to create. It was really well done.


They LOVED doing these little chariots.

They got to help paint a giant whale with giant brushes. So funny!

After all this, I traded DH for my mom and while DH, my siblings, and my dad attended a Padres game, we went to the international houses at Balboa Park. They are only open on Sundays from 12-4, so we had never been able to visit the insides. It was really interesting. That week, it was Italy's turn to host, so they sponsored a band, food, and other displays. The music was really good, we all enjoyed "Mambo Italiano!"

The boys in front of some of their favorite houses.

We met up with the rest in Old Town and had a great Mexican dinner. Great Mother's Day!