The Beach

Bailey

Annie

Lucy

Kyler Flying a Kite on the beach




Maxwell in the ocean with Grandpa, his buddy

Dan & Kyler warming up

Megan and Max by Andrew buried in the sand

I don't think I like any place better than the beach. It is so peaceful and beautiful. Kyler loves the ocean. Maxwell does now too. It took him a couple of days and then he didn't want to get out of the water. We went out on the beach almost every morning to look for sea shells and sand dollars. I think we came home with about 100. Now what to do with them...anyway. The boys loved it and that's why we did it. Kyler took up boogie boarding while we were there and loved it. He couldn't get enough of it. When he got cold he would go sit in the sand with a towel and then 20 min later he would be back out in the ocean. Maxwell was hesitant about the ocean at first. He loved the big "sandbox" and playing with Katelyn on the beach. That seemed to be good enough for him until one day he decided he wanted to jump the waves with me. I had to hold him at first and then after a few times he wanted to do it himself. From then on he loved the ocean. He got in all the way too. He was such a cutie.
Our last night my aunt Julie and her husband Jason and their 3 darling girls came to the beach with us and stayed and had dinner and played with us until about 10 pm. Talk about a fun night. The boys loved having the girls there to play with. Bailey and Annie loved the ocean as much as kyler and Max. Lucy was happy in the sand like max was at first. Julie & Jason just happened to be on a family vacation too and came over after they had been to sea world that day. We are so glad they could share that time with us. The next morning Kyler asked if he could play with his friends Bailey,Annie & Lucy on the beach again. It was a fun time!
The sunsets are amazing on the beach and everything just seems perfect while you are there. I miss it already and we all want to go back again soon. We have been fortunate to be there two different times this year. Mom & dad you are the greatest for getting us together and for giving us this wonderful opportunity. We can't wait to do it again.

Sea World

We went to Sea World as well. I am so glad we decided to go. The boys thought this place was amazing. We left the park to go to dinner and Kyler cried he wanted to stay and see more shows. We started the day off with a bang... Shamu!! I don't think the boys took their eyes off the water. I don't think we did either. Itis amazing how something so massive in size can get so far out of the water. The show was called "Believe" and although it was a little cheesy I found myself tearing up during the show. We loved the sea lion show even though it was hot, definately worth it. Thanks for the great seats mom & dad! Kyler couldn't wait to see the Sharks. That was what he was waiting for. It was really intense to have them swimming all around you in the tunnel. Kyler said it was "very cool, but sharks are mean". We also had the opportunity to feed the dolphins. Max wanted nothing to do with that, but Kyler thought it was so the greatest thing ever. He also loved touching the bat rays and feeling how slippery they were. Maxwell did like holding the starfish and counting how many he could see in the tide pools. Maxwell loved the dolphin show he would have gotten wet, but i sheilded him and i got soaked once again. That was ok though. The Baluga Whales were also a favorite. They move so gracefully. That night we went on the Atlantis ride. We got soaked once again. It was a fun ride but it was all about getting wet and at night once the sun had gone down...needless to say we were freezing. The kids had a blast in the Sesame street kids play land. They had Quinn and I crawling through nets and tubes and going down slides. It was another fun day! We ended the night watching the big "Shamu Rocks" show. A fantastic ending to a great day. They even had fireworks at the end. Both the boys feel asleep after the show. That was great too.

"The Happiest Place on Earth"

We just got back from a fun filled 10 day vacation with my family. What a blast we had. We spent 2 days in Disneyland and loved almost every minute of it...leaving was not very fun. Then we spent a week in a beach house on Imperial Beach in San Diego.
DISNEYLAND: Watching Kyler and Maxwell run from place to place so excited to see what was next was worth it. Max loved Mickey Mouse, Kyler loved the Buzz Lightyear ride. In fact we rode that about 10 times if not more. Quinn loved that one too. He was determined to beat my brother Andrews record but ended up just shy of him in the end. We couldn't get enough of Dumbo either. Kyler even went on Space Mountain... definitely not his favorite but he wanted to go on it. He loved Peter Pan with Grandpa. Max loved all the characters too, I thought he would be afraid of them but he wasn't. He even liked MR. Toads Wild Ride with Grandma. The rockets were a favorite as well as the cars. Max thought the cars were super fun. Nemo was cool, glad we didn't have to wait very long for it. We went on Splash Mountain, I was in front, then Quinn, then Kim, Dan, Megs, and Andrew. We got SOAKED. In fact our camera was in Quinns Pocket and we got so wet it stopped working for 2 days. It was so much fun. Fantasmic was amazing. There is something about this place that makes you feel like a kid again. Thanks Mom & Dad for your help and everyone else. We had such a great time.

Because we had camera problems I don't Have amny pictures of Disneyland. But no need to worry we had 3 other camers there. When I get the pictures I will post them.

We Love to Golf

A couple of weeks ago we took the boys to the driving range for family night. Kyler and I had new golf clubs and we needed to try them out. I didn't think Maxwell would have been as good as he was. He just loved every minute of it. Kyler got upset because he couldn't hit the ball to the red flag that was 150 yards away. He spent most of the night hitting the balls farther than me. I loved when he would come over and tell me to keep my eyes on the ball and hit it harder. I was also reminded by him several times to bend my knees. He is just like his daddy. He has loved to watch golf on TV since he was 18 months old. I certainly don't like to watch it. He gets it from his dad of course. We had a great time together until it was time to go then the tantrums began.I wish Quinn would not do that so much in front of our kids!

California or Bust

This year was mine and Quinn's 10 year High School Reunion. Even though we graduated from Hillcrest my Skyline friends decided it was okay to invite us to the "way better than the reunion" trip to California.(Quinn knows them through soccer, but thats another story too) It was so much fun. Thanks to Chad & Amanda we stayed at a beach house and "hung out" with friends for 5 days. You may think we were a little crazy because we had 10 kids under the age of 4 running around, but it was amazingly fun! We were able to go to the San Diego Zoo with Chad and Talmage and that was a blast. The boys loved the ocean... well Kyler loved being in the Ocean, Max loved looking at the ocean from the porch of the beach house. He loved the big "sand box" he got to play in. We had lots of time to catch up and laugh at the good old days of High School and even Jr. High. Wow! That goes back a long ways. What a great trip. We are now going through serious friend withdrawals. Thanks guys for making this such a great adventure.
Let me mention as well that we drove and not knowing before we left that the clutch in the car was getting bad after 13 hours ( supposed to be 10) when we got to our destination we had to take our car in to get a new clutch. Fantastic!
My Favorite part of the trip though had to be when the girls got lost trying to find a Target. Newport Beach anyone?

Cabin Fever

We had our cousin night up at the cabin Saturday night. It was so much fun to get up into the mountains and away from the city. Kyler & Maxwell had a blast exploring the outdoors. They loved throwing rocks in the stream. We enjoyed the company of almost all our cousins. To our surprise Kyler actually licked a hot dog. This is a huge deal if you know Kyler. We had delicious smores and had many laughs. Thanks for such a fun night and thanks Katie for getting us all together.