Beachhouse Vacation Day 3

We met up w/ Carter's brother and sister at the beachhouse Sunday afternoon. Before dinner, right at sunset, we usually go down to the beach to put our toes in the sand and the kids are told not to get wet. However, this never works and they are drenched within minutes.

Carter and Clayton (Carter's brother) showing off their "muscles" :).

Me, Chelsea (Carter's sister) and baby Corbin

London & Alex loving the waves!

Kennedy, drenched!


Syd trying to assure me she wasn't going to get wet. ha.ha.

Entertainment Carter and I provide for each other. ;) (His pose had me laughing..loved it!)

Love this guy!


Syd ranting about how she needs to be carried home because she is all wet and cannot possibly walk another step! We love the beach!

Beachhouse Vacation Day 1 & 2

We made our annual trip to San Diego last week to meet up with Carter's family for the week. I am going to attempt to break the trip down by day so I am not overwhelmed by a huge long post. As usual, we left a couple days early to make some stops along the way......

First up ........Vegas

Of course the kids wanted to visit M&M World so we went right when it opened and avoided all the garbage that is passed around and the crowds. phew.


We can't leave w/out making a stop to my favorite store...


We took the escalator up to what is left of Coca-Coca World (they are currently remodeling) and I hear Carter from the top whispering my name "Sandra, Sandra, Sandra". I look up and there stands Brad Garret from Everybody loves Raymond. I nod to acknowledge it and then we both pretend we have no idea who he is, though my first instinct was to ask for a picture. Carter probably would have died of embarassement so I didn't and instead took this pic from afar when he turned his back...totally lame I know. Oh well, what's a girl to do?? I didn't want to intrude. I must say it added to the excitement of the day.


As you can tell from Syd's face...we had a great time!

Next Stop.....the Dixon's!

Our friends the Dixon's live just outside San Diego. We love to spend a night w/ the Dixon's every year and they are so kind to host us. Shannon is one of my best friends and is one of the kindest people I know. Our kids have such a great time, so much so that they are already asking when we can go back.
I am realizing that I just took pics of the all the girls (sorry Drew & baby Gavin)...notice Carter in the background..he hid behind that door and popped out just in time to get in the pic. :)

Thank you Dixon's for sharing your home w/ us! We love you guys!

SYTYCD

Last night Susie and I went to the So You Think You Can Dance concert. I know, call us cheesy (and other names if you wish) but we love that show ( and let's be honest we heart Will, Joshua, and Twitch)! There is a part of us that wants to be the one dancing on stage and so we indulge ourselves a little bit. It was a blast! We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and had some extra time afterward so we decided to do a little shopping at the mall. As we are leaving Nordstroms Susie grabs my arm and exclaims "SANDRA, LOOK!" I am not going to lie..she scared me when she said it and I was thinking she saw someone famous so I prepared myself to look stupid and be the one to ask for a picture/autograph or something. As I looked the direction she was looking I stood in a dead stare w/ someone whom I knew we knew...our eyes locked and then boom it registered and there were big hugs all around...it was our roomate from BYU Lori Hale. We haven't seen her in almost 12 years!! Her family is from Northern California and last I knew she was back living there. We learned she has been back here for about 3 years. We tried to give the synopsis of what we had each been up to then Sus and I had get going to catch the concert in time. Luckily, I had my camera so I was able to get a pic of all of us together. It was so good to see her I love running into people I haven't seen in a long time, it makes me happy!

As we approached the concert venue we were surprised by how many others shared our love of sytycd and realized we need to find some sort of secret ninja route around all the traffic to get there on time. Luck was on our side and we passed all traffic and ended up w/ front row parking. We stopped to look at the merchandise and realized that neither one of us would look good in any of it but it would be fun to own and wear secretly around the house. We didn't end up buying anything and headed to our seats...just in time! It started as we were trying to find our portal...if the ticket says 7:30pm they meant 7:30pm sharp! Anyway, it was three hours of pure entertainment and we were both surprised by how quickly the time passed. Good times!

This is the we are excited to be here pose....

and could you believe that dance??!!?? pose.......

I know..we might still think we are eighteen...but it was fun for one night!

First Day of School

Kennedy could not wait to start Kindergarten, though by the third day she was wanting to stay home with me because she missed me. :) However, I think we are now over "missing mom" and she looks forward to playing with friends and seeing her teacher. She comes home singing songs and wanting to read.

Syd started her second year in preschool. She goes w/ her friend Zach and Chiarra. She loves to go to socialize w/ her friends and is perfecting writing her name. She can hardly wait for it to be preschool day...that means a day free of running errands w/ me. :)

Alex is in 3rd grade this year and boy does she love it! She loves math, art and of course her teacher! She loves to play with her friends and is learning cursive....I am impressed w/her penmanship it is so elegant. She is excited that she now knows how to write like the grown ups!

Marni's Baby Shower

I am so behind in blogging, I don't even know where to start. In an attempt to catch up I will try to do one post a day..possibly two. :)ha ha. So here it goes.. I hosted a baby shower 2 weeks ago to honor Marni (one of my best friends) having another sweet baby girl. She wanted to keep it small so there were only six of us, all from our old neighborhood. I called Brittany to see if she wanted to help me create a diaper cake and this is what we came up with...impressive, right?

Creating the diaper cake set the theme for the shower...pink and brown....

She received some adorable gifts. It is great to have these girls over because we don't get to see them as much as we used to. Having such fun friends is such a blessing....overall it was such a great night!

Triumph!

The little girls learned to ride their bikes w/ no training wheels today! Wahoo! They learned that their cousin Lauren had learned to ride w/ no trainers and so they were excited to do the same. Syd woke up early this morning, dressed herself, made her bed then asked me to do her hair so dad could teach her how to ride a two-wheeler! They were out early in the morning and she did it!!!

This afternoon it was Kennedy's turn (not to be outdone by her little sister) and she did it on the first try! Wahoo! They rode bikes for the rest of the afternoon! It has been a very exciting day around here. It has been fun to see the girls confidence grow and to learn a new skill!

Then later today, my family then came over for a little bbq and all the girls rode the bikes until dark. It was a great way to spend the holiday!