Legoland's splash area is a great place to beat the heat and cool off. We met up with Nicole and Pete this morning and had a fun time running around the water. The kids were soaked from head to toe and they loved every minute of it. Now they are napping blissfully which means some rest time for me, yippee!
The four of us are going through a rash of obsessions. Brian is obsessed with playing tennis several times a week. And especially after watching Wimbledon, he wants to crank it up another notch. I have become obsessed with my new favorite website Splitcoast Stampers. Everyday I'm looking at the latest cards to be uploaded as well as uploading my own. I've even been trying the daily challenges. It's been so much fun for me to get my creative juices flowing. Paige's recent obsession is her Ariel bathing suit and anything to do with swimming. She even wears it around the house. And as for Nick, he is having a love affair with the vacuum. He will strongly let me know that he wants to have control over it, so I let the little guy go to town on certain areas of the house. Will he be like this as a teenager? Oh, I hope so.
Once again, we had a fantastic Fourth of July at Bob & Melody's house. The kids could not get enough swimming in and I couldn't get enough girl chat time with my buddies. Then there's the shots. I only had one, mind you. There's just too much chasing around to do and diaper changes and getting mouths fed...well, the list goes on. But, any chance to spend time at their house is quality time and we enjoyed it so much. After swimming and eating some tasty burgers, we sped home to watch fireworks up the hill from our house. Paige, mostly, was enthralled by them and it's those moments I cherish the most, her wide eyes and her oohs and aahs. And thank you to Terry for taking some fantastic photos...again! I couldn't ask for a better best friend-in-law.
Playa de la Casa sounds like a warm sandy beach with plenty of surf, but in reality it's right here at home. Paige has turned our little courtyard into a "beach" complete with an umbrella, chairs, table, and plenty of sand. The only thing missing is the sound of crashing waves and our cabana boy serving up daiquiris. Maybe I should start training Nick early on that, but by the looks of this picture there might be a lot of resting on the job.
It's been almost two weeks since my last post and I never go that long, but it's all for good reason. We were out of town celebrating Brian's milestone birthday. The couple days prior was spent getting ready and the couple days after were spent cleaning up. As soon as I receive pictures from our trip, I will put them up. Like many busy moms, I ended up only taking two pictures the entire trip so I'm waiting for kind family members to send me theirs. In the meantime, there were two other birthdays in June besides mine, my mom's and Brian's (the big 4-0). I took the kids to my parents' house and made her breakfast for her birthday. It was a mellow way to celebrate, but we all had fun. For Brian's birthday, fourteen family members and two dogs took the trip to Santa Barbara County wine country; after we returned we also celebrated here at the house with some of his buddies and cherry pie.
Since Paige is the quiet one, it would only be fitting that Nick is the loud one. Now that his vocabulary is increasing each day, he is becoming Mr. Chatterbox. If you don't respond to him immediately, he gets louder and louder and louder. So now when he's napping, I escape to the garage and my crafts where it's nice and quiet. On our way to pick up Paige at school the following one-sided conversation took place. I threw in a couple of "aha", "really?", "wow" throughout. During the drive, I was keeping mental track of all the new words he knows. As soon as we got in the car, it started with, "Mama, where's DeeDee (Paigey)?" "Mama, car." "Mama, truck." "Mama, garbage truck." "Mama, bird." "Mama, fly." "Mama, flower." "Mama, police car." "Mama, bus." "Mama, book." "Mama, cup." Can you see why I need the peace and quiet during sleep times?
To gear up for our vacation, everyone has had some type of service to their hair. Brian buzzed his, the usual. I colored mine to get out those stubborn grays. And, the kids got cuts yesterday. I took Nick in this time rather than have Brian do it. A professional was needed to get around his little ears. I then paid close attention to the stylist as she gave Paige the headband braid. I'm crossing my fingers I can do this myself. All I need is for Paige to sit still so that I can actually practice.
Yesterday morning, we took the bikes out for a spin. We decided to check out the recently built stress ribbon bridge at Lake Hodges. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice easy bike trail that eases around the lake. The only eyesore is the I-15 and the noise that brings with it. Overall, a good place to ride with wildlife swirling about. The day ended with some family pool time. I'm still recovering from all the exercise yesterday and can't seem to stop yawning. Better get my catnap in while the kids are resting.
We cannot seem to get enough bubbles around here. Bubbles in the backyard, bubbles in the bath, and even bubbles in the toilet after it's been cleaned can be enticing, well to Nick that is. I broke down and picked up a bubble machine at the store yesterday. I popped in some batteries, turned it on and away it went. It's fabulous and, best of all, the kids love it. It'll be great for playdates and parties. So, if you have some money to invest, you might want to put it into the company that makes bubble solution.
We celebrated my birthday with a day trip to Disneyland. As soon as the kids were up, we were out the door. The kids were so good the entire day and had so much fun. They lasted eleven hours! I still can't believe it. Some of the highlights were: The new Finding Nemo submarine ride: Paige was a little scared, but she made it through. And today, she said that it was her favorite ride. It's A Small World: twice. Tom Sawyer's Island: mazes, bridges, and even pirate treasure Meeting Minnie at her house Dinner with Woody & Jessie Paige doing the conga during the parade: see video.
These were some of my favorite pictures from the day, but if you'd like to see more click on: Disney Pics
Video of Paige's Conga The bonus part is we got 2fer tickets, so we'll be going back to visit California Adventure in a couple weeks. Yay!
We've been married for seven years and have two small children, Paige and Nicolas, and a rambunctious black Labrador named Nemo. We work well as a family and enjoy our time together very much. Brian's brother Kris cleverly named us The Unit when we married and it stuck!
These were some of my favorite pictures from the day, but if you'd like to see more click on: 
