California Family Vacation

Let the adventure begin!!! We wanted to do something fun with the boys before this baby arrives in June. I have been preparing and planning forever to make sure everything goes as well as possible. So Wednesday afternoon, we picked Ian up from school and began our five and a half our drive to our first stop in Henderson, Nevada. The boys were excited to finally be leaving. 

We had been in the car for a mer twenty minutes (not even out of Utah County) when Ian asked if we were there yet. After some explaining we thankfully did not hear that question again. The boys did great in the car and both had a nice long nap. They also loved coloring and eating all the yummy snacks they could! Ian drew pictures in his notebook of things he spotted along the way and throughout our vacation. I will post a few a my favorite pictures. We got into Nevada late that night and headed to bed, woke up enjoyed breakfast, and hit the road for another five hour drive to Carlsbad California. 

Ian's drawings from our long drive (clockwise): digger, moutain with bushes, electric poles

The boys were so excited to be somewhere and not have to drive. We made it to Carlsbad mid afternoon and Tim took the boys down to the pool to swim and get out some built up energy. 

We all loved the hotel! Plus, on the weekdays they had a complementary dinner which Aaron may have enjoyed a little too much! 

That night after swimming and dinner we headed to the beach for the first time!

Ian thought the waves were amazing but he could not understand why the water tasted so disgusting. Aaron loved playing in the waves too until he was completely soaked. We were thinking they would be fine in their clothes and maybe get a little wet, no...they were soaked from head to toe. Aaron then realized he was surrounded by sand and was entertained forever.

We stayed and played on the beach and watched the sunset then headed back to our hotel for bed. 

Ian's pictures from the day: apple, breakfast lounge, cactus, beach.

Friday, April 26th -Legoland

Apparently Aaron did not get the memo that a vacation does not mean sleeping in all the time. This poor little boy was already exhausted and it was our first full vacation day. Tim and Ian headed down to the delicious complimentary breakfast (the boys favorite part out of our vacation) and I stayed in the room while Aaron slept. I finally had to wake him up and we still managed to miss breakfast (thankfully Tim realized it and was able to save us some).  

We then headed off to Legoland! 

The boys were in heaven! Tim and I were looking at the crowds of people and the rows of school buses wondering what on earth we had gotten ourselves into. Yes, school buses :( We jumped into line on our first ride of the day -lego safari and after a 30 minutes wait the ride broke down. So we headed to a couple other rides then jumped into line on another popular ride. I will admit Legoland was great for the boys. A lot of the rides have play zones filled with legos that the line wraps around. The kids can play with legos while the parents wait in line. Since the line wraps around the play area you can always see your child- we all loved it! 

After lunch we headed to the Star Wars section of the park. Then by about 2:30 we realized that park seemed nearly empty. All the school kids had left!!! We enjoyed going back through the park and riding some of our favorite rides again. Ian loved riding the big dragon roller coaster with Tim, while Aaron and I rode the smaller airplane ride over and over.

I was pleasantly surprised how much Aaron loved riding the rides. Thankfully he is just over 36 inches which is the minimum height requirement for majority of the rides. Yes, I clearly looked into that before we decided to go on vacation. So while they checked his height every ride he always passed and was excited to go!

We ended the day at the big lego shop. The boys have been doing extra chores around the house for the last month earning money for Legoland. Ian has been working extra hard because he wanted to earn a huge lego set. When we started shopping he decided he would rather get a couple medium size ones -he decided to hold up his star wars set for the picture. Aaron was happy with the big bin of legos (I think because it had a handle and he could carry it by himself). 

Saturday, April 27th -Relaxing

After a busy day at Legoland both the boys slept in.  We nearly missed breakfast (which was served until 10) again. They were even going to be early. We spent the morning relaxing at the hotel and playing at the pool.

We spent the rest of the day building our new lego sets, making dinner, and having a family movie. It was a nice relaxing day. I spent most of the day laying down with my feet up :)

Sunday, April 28th -Legoland Day 2

We started off our day heading to the Legoland sea life aquarium. The boys enjoyed seeing some ocean life they had not seen before but mostly wanted to go into Legoland and play with legos.  

The rest of the morning we spent going on some of the rides we had missed the previous day. 

We had planned on taking the boys to the Legoland waterpark but as you can see it was a little chilly. So we road some more rides and enjoyed playing some games. 

Tim and Ian won this giant minion for Aaron. Yes, we carried that around the park the rest of the day. Plus Ian won a star wars stuffed Angry Bird. 

The sun finally decided to come out later that afternoon so we lathered up in sunscreen to head to the Legoland water park. Poor Aaron has the worlds most sensitive skin. We are always battling eczema and about 30 minutes after putting on the hypoallergenic sensitive baby aveeno sunscreen (the only sunscreen that worked last year) he started having what appeared to be an allergic reaction or something. I brought non drowsy benedryl with me since we notice he was starting with hives after putting sunscreen on the day before. I am at a loss what to do with this poor boy. Clearly he needs sunscreen but everything seems to cause some type of reaction. 

The water park was great! What kid would not love playing with giant legos in the water. Plus there were lifeguards everywhere! Not that I don't watch my children but an extra set of eyes is always nice when dealing with water. The teeter-totter pictured at the bottom right was hilarious. It had a small fountain of water spraying out the top then once the kids began teetering and tottering it shot water everywhere. They thought it was pretty funny too!

While the park stayed open late that night we were all exhausted. So we collected our prizes and drove to our next destination... Coronado Island in San Diego. 

Here are some of my favorite drawings that Ian did of Legoland from the week. If you look closely at the Dragon roller coaster picture Ian is in the third row. You can see the side of his head and blonde hair -he is also the smallest one on the ride.

Monday, April 29th -Coronado Beach

We had one thing planned for Coronado and that was to play on the beach and relax the entire time. It sounded perfect. However, we woke up Monday morning and opened the curtains to see dark gray clouds and blowing trees. So we pulled out a Lego set and began building. 

 I think we checked the weather forcast every couple of minutes. We decided to go ahead and get ready for the beach since the sun was supposed to make an appearance late that afternoon. We made sandwiches, packed our beach bag, lathered up in sunscreen (with a dose of Benadryl for Aaron) then headed out the door.

As soon as the boys set foot in the sand they began looking for seashells. Then enjoyed playing in the nice soft sand. Aaron even took a little cat nap under the umbrella.

After lunch we had a blast running and jumping around in the waves.

One thing we did not expect was an air show directly above our heads. The US Naval Air Station is located on the North side of Coronado Island. It was not an actual airshow but there were times they would fly into the base in formation. It was great to watch and Aaron loved pointing out every single jet and plane that flew over our heads. However, after an hour and all the loud jet noises Aaron decided he  had heard enough (as seen in the far left picture). 

We spent a good hour trying to get all of the sand off our bodies that evening. Then walked down the beach walk to dinner. 

The boys spotted this orange boat on our walk (not like it was hiding). It looks bigger than downtown San Diego.

They wanted their picture taken by it and were very cooperative ;)

After dinner the boys were able to pick what they wanted for dessert. With plenty of options they decided on overpriced marshmallows covered in sprinkles on a stick. Both of them ate the sprinkles off the marshmallows and were done.  

 

 Tuesday, April 30th -Coronado Beach

We woke up to see dark clouds again.  It was a little frustrating especially because we knew back in Utah it was in the 70's and 80's. But we put on our jackets and decided to go walk along the beach looking for seashells. Wow -did we find some great shells. We even found a sand dollar! Which we had no idea what to do with because it looked like it was alive. Thanks to google we found that since it had washed up on shore it was dying, so we followed google's instructions and it is soaking in a container somewhere in the garage :/ 

That afternoon we headed back to our hotel for a quick swim and some downtime. It was a little cold with the wind blowing so we did not last very long at the pool. The boys still enjoyed jumping in.

That night we ate at the Coronado Brewery because on Tuesdays kids eat free! It ended up being the perfect place to go -full of families with kids, and a guy coming around making balloon animals for the children. Then we headed to La Jolla cove near downtown San Diego to watch the seals and sea lions. 

It sprinkled on us a little but it wasn't too bad. The boys thought that the seals and sea lions were amazing. We even saw little baby seals.

That night we started packing up and preparing for our journey home. Which neither of us were looking forward too :(

Wednesday, May 1st -Homeward bound 

We had loaded everything in the car the night before. So Tim and I woke up just before 4 am, had both the boys use the restroom then headed to the car for our 5 hour drive to Vegas. We arrived in Vegas just after 9 am. The boys did great and slept most of the way plus they were still a little drowsy and happily watch a movie till we reach Vegas. Tim's dad was in Vegas at the time for work and the boys were beyond excited that we got to see Papa. 

We all enjoyed breakfast together. The boys were in heaven to have waffles covered in strawberries again like in Carlsbad. Aaron was also overly entertained with the kid wax sticks at the table. 

After breakfast Papa had to head to a meeting for work so before we jumped back on the road for another 6 hour drive home we decided to take the boys to M&M world. As you can see they loved it!

We let each of the boys make their own small bag of colored M&M's. Ian choose yellow, gold, and silver. Aaron choose blue, purple. and gray. Then it was back to the car :/

 

I was amazed how great the boys did in the car- they do better driving then flying! Not long after being on the road for the second time did they both fall asleep. Originally we had planned to stay in Vegas Wednesday night and finish the drive on Thursday but we just wanted to be home and the boys were doing great so we continued our journey. 

 The second half of our journey was a little intense with 30 mile per hour winds pushing and pulling us on the road. We played dodge the sagebrush on the highway and still ended up getting hit a few times. The kids though it was hilarious and fun, us...not so much. We finally pulled in the driveway and Ian's first comment was we are home already? With driving time, food and potty breaks we had been traveling for around 16 hours! 

I was sitting here realizing we did not get one picture of the four of us together. Then I remember the one picture I bought at Legoland and Tim thought I was crazy for getting it. We were all looking at the camera and actually smiling, that does not happen very often. Sorry I did not straighten the picture- it is late.

We had so much fun together as a family. Ian is already talking to Aaron about plan our next trip to Legoland and the beach. He keeps asking us when we get to go again. But that we should only go if we drive the same why we came home because it was really fast, and not the way we went there. Little does he know we went the same way both times :) He just slept most of the drive on the way home! Hopefully someday in the near future we'll be able to go again as a family of five!

Life and Tulips

Nothing to exciting to report. I am now just over 30 weeks along in my pregnancy and the end cannot come soon enough. At least I say that now :) Ian insisted on a picture of me in my superman shirt. Both the boys thought that it was the best shirt ever. In pregnancy news nothing excited to report. All is going well -I still am taking zofran for nausea 24/7. Somedays I think "I am 30 weeks I am sure I will be just fine without it." I am quickly reminded that is not the case. 

The weather in Utah has been everywhere. Snow. sunny, windy (very windy) so we have been spending a lot of time indoors. I think the boys are starting to go stir crazy. Little do they know this is just preparing them for this summer when baby sister arrives.

Ian surprises me everyday. The other day Ian and I sat down and finished some of the homework he will be missing while we are gone next week. I had no idea he could read and spell so well. I mean, I knew that he could read to some extent but he was amazing! He can count to 30 without any help. If you remind him of forty, fifty....then he can count what seems forever or at least until he gets bored. We decided to go ahead and put him into Kindergarten against all "utah county" rules. The class size is very small this year and lets face it he is already going to be bored out of his mind. So we'll put him into Kindergarten and try to challenge him more at home.  

Finally this last weekend the sun came out and the wind stopped so we loaded the boys in the car and headed to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. The boys were not very excited to see the flowers but we told them we would take them to the dinosaur museum after and they were ok with that. 

They loved rolling down any hill they could find. Aaron was unsure about the grass touching his legs but he slowly got used to it. 

 We tried countless times to get a good picture of the boys together. Most of the time it turned into a wrestling match. This is the one that turned out not too bad!

Yep, tried to get one with the boys too. This was the end of our night- they were sick of flowers. Ian is trying to give me bunny ears and Aaron is trying to knock me over. Oh the joys! 

Spring

I have never really cared too much for Spring. Probably because I have always lived in Utah, and lets be honest Spring does not really exist here. However this year it has been quite exciting! We have been getting a lot of rain (mixed with snow here and there) and are loving watching the tulips and trees begin to bloom. Thanks to a good ole college friend we even planted a couple raspberry bushes this year! 

The boys and I are so excited. They loved helping Tim dig the holes and then prepare the ground for the new bushes to go in. Even better is we will get good and edible raspberries this year! While I would love to have a garden (although I do not know what I would eat out of it besides lettuce and carrots) our location does not really make it easy. I am already trying to figure out how to keep the neighborhood kids out of my raspberry bushes. I think I will tell them they are poisonous or possibly some kind of an electric fence device. As you can see I am still working on it :) We even planted some wheat grass in indoor planters to use for smoothies in the morning. If all goes well this year (and I don't manage to kill everything) hopefully next year we will be brave enough to try growing a few more things.

Ian has discovered long boarding/skateboarding. I am not sure how I feel about this (mostly because we live on the mountain side) but he is really good. He does not have enough weight to turn the board but enjoys jumping and trying to. The first time he stepped on it he turned to me and said, "Mom, I think I should put my helmet on." After about two runs down the driveway he found his confidence and decided he no longer needed the helmet. Too bad mom makes him wear it anyway :)

We headed out to eat for family night to a place called Chubby's Restaurant in town. The food was really good. Tim decided to go for the Chubby's challenge...which you see below. Grilled cheese, two burgers and all the fixings, grilled cheese, hamburger, fixings, and topped with another grilled cheese. The catch was you only had 15 minutes to finish the entire meal.

While I really had no doubt that Tim could do it, I was just worried I might puke watching him. Much to our surprise he had 15 seconds left and about 20 french fries. At which point he decided it was simply not worth it. I was still impressed considering he also helped Aaron with his dinner while eating. However just looking at this picture makes me want to puke....gross...end of story!

As I mentioned earlier it has been raining a lot. Sometimes the boys just need a better outlet to release all of their energy. They love Kangaroo Zoo! It is a giant warehouse with inflatable toys everywhere- and surprisingly clean! Plus during the day we are usually the only ones there, which is even better. 

As you can see Ian still has no fear....

Aaron is just happy to be able to go up and down all by himself now!

Our old neighbors came down for a visit this last week. Aaron and Trace are just 6 months apart and they got along so well! It was great having them come and stay. All of the kids had fun playing. We even went swimming one morning (with the rest of Utah County since it was spring break) and they all had a blast. Hopefully we will get to see them again soon!

In other news as of April 1st Tim can only wear Navy Blue scrubs to work. Tim's mom found a pair of navy blue scrubs for the boys. They do all look rather handsome in their matching clothes. As you can see the boys love pretending they are just like daddy. 

As soon as they put on their scrubs they tell me good-bye and headed to daddy's car to go to work.

These boys have been "growing like weeds." Aaron's vocabulary improves daily and Ian seems so grown up to me. Plus, what post would be complete without mentioning superheroes,  as you can see Ian has taught Aaron well.  

Easter Weekend

Easter Weekend was beautiful! The sun was shining and it was the perfect weekend to celebrate Easter! Tim's parents were in town for the week so we decided take them out to the Larry Miller Motorsport track. Tim and his dad had fun doing a couple races and the boys loved watching them on the bleachers in the sun. 

On Saturday we woke up early and headed to the Easter Extravaganza at Thanksgiving Point. The boys headed straight for the tracker/train ride. Ian wanted to sit right behind the tracker (great for his lungs I am sure). The driver even showed him how to drive the tracker after they finished the ride. It was definitely one of the highlights of his day. 

Aaron practically blended in with the cows and just smiled the whole ride.

What better to do after a tracker/train ride than getting your faces painted. The boys both wanted spiders and were very happy with the results. 

Then it was time for the egg hunts (not much of a hunt involved but still fun). The have four different egg hunts going on at the same time with different age groups and they do them every half hour. Ian went first and we all got a good laugh. We were not aware that he was only going to pick up the orange eggs, he decided that all on his own. Orange is now his favorite color. Aaron went the next round and had fun picking up all different colors plus a couple bags of chips :) 

We headed over to see the farm animals next. Both of the boys loved the pony rides. Aaron is usually afraid of getting on the ponies but was really excited this time. Another highlight was seeing the white peacock. I believe the boys were hoping it would start kung fu fighting just like the evil white peacock on Kung Fu Panda 2.

The boys then enjoyed making bunny ears, decorating cupcakes, and making superhero stuffed animals. I also thought it was funny we took a picture with the chick-fil-a cow and not the easter bunny :) Oh well, they still look cute!

The boys had so much fun and we had so much fun watching them. It is definitely something that we will look forward to doing again next year!

That night we had our own Easter egg hunt outside with baskets the boys made with Tim's mom before they fly back home. 

Easter morning the boys woke up and found easter eggs hidden throughout the house with a surprise from the Easter bunny. I was not feeling well and unfortunately missed most of the morning. In normal Easter tradition they did not get new Sunday dress clothes. They are both growing like crazy and got all new church clothes about a month ago. So we changed it up and found the boys matching ironman swimsuits. 

Later that week my family came down. The boys were so excited for more Easter presents and loved the new slip n'slide my parents found them. 

This was one of my highlights of the week. Ian asking my mom in great confusion, "What does this do?" As you can see he was holding up the blue easter grass from the bottom of his Easter bucket. Due to the mess I do not use "easter grass" anywhere.  After my mom put some in their baskets I now know why... weeks later and I am still finding pieces of it throughout the house. 

 I am so grateful for the joy the gospel brings to our lives. We have been loving reading our scriptures together as a family. The other night Ian asked, "Does Jesus live with Thor? Since Thor lives in Asgard, which is up there (pointing to the sky)." While it made me laugh, it also made me realize that we could do a better job of making Christ the center of our home. If only the boys knew their scriptures like they do superheroes. Elder Richard G Scott spoke on that exact topic in General Conference that next weekend. If you get a moment take the time to read through his talk (linked here). I will close my blog with a portion of that talk that I found helpful.

"We need not worry if we can’t simultaneously do all of the things that the Lord has counseled us to do. He has spoken of a time and a season for all things. In response to our sincere prayers for guidance, He will direct us in what should be emphasized at each phase of our life. We can learn, grow, and become like Him one consistent step at a time."

Together

The first of March was rather exciting for the boys. To prepare and make room for this new baby we moved the boys into the same room! We waited until Tim had his long stretch of eight days off of work knowing that the task might be frustrating. The boys are actually in this picture you just can't see them -they are hiding in Ian's bed. 

There room is superhero themed. What else could it possibly be? They absolutely love it!

Yes some bins are missing logos, that's what happens with a two year old on the loose. The logos are stuck on with glue dots. As they get older and one day outgrow the superhero theme they can easily be removed without damaging all the bins. The downside to this...Aaron knows they can easily be removed.  Yes, Pike stands in the boys room and waits for me to open the curtains in the morning to enjoy the sun rays. 

As for how the boys did...the first night they talked and laughed for just a few minutes and then were both fast asleep. The rest of the week went the exact same! It was too easy -which is what made it scary. Wouldn't you know the next week (when Tim returned to work) let just say I thought I was going to pull out all of my hair. They were driving me absolutely crazy...talking, yelling, screaming, spiting, teasing, taunting... I thought I was going to lose my mind. Normally if a child gets out of bed or does not behave in bed they get a warning, if it happens again then their door is shut the rest of the night. Our door locks are reversed so I can lock them in -best advice our pediatrician ever gave us! If you are struggling with bedtime try it- so much easier than the countless hours of putting them back into bed until you feel like you are going to throw them through the bed. So now the dilemma -you can't exactly close the door with both of them in the room, especially if only one child is the problem. After of few days, and a lot of hair loss, I finally figured it out. Aaron needs a couple minutes on his own to settle down for the night. So I put Aaron to bed first and allow Ian to read another book or two. Then Ian heads to bed. While this method is not flawless it seems to help. They tend to go in phases, one good week of bedtime, one bad week of bedtime. We are currently on "one bad week." I really hope all the kinks are worked out by June when this baby arrives, but something tells me it will not be the case. 

Other than attempting to get ready for this baby to arrive we have been loving the weather. Just this last week it was in the high 60's. We had the bikes out and were riding around the neighborhood enjoying the sun. Then one morning we woke up and there was about four inches of snow on the ground. I discovered this when Aaron come running in our bedroom from the deck in his underwear. snow boots, with a snowball in his hand ready to fire. So we put on our snowsuits did a little sledding and then Ian decided he would make a snowman. 

Aaron helped for a little while, then decided he was done. Sometimes I am not quite sure what to think of this boy. He just decided to rest for a few minutes laying in the driveway.

The finished product! He did the entire thing all by himself and was so proud! Can you tell he got tired of making snowballs. The head of the snowman is quite funny. 

Next week it is supposed to be warm again! Who know what the weather will be here in good ole Utah!