Soccer Star!

June 7, 2008

Karson is our soccer star! This is her second season playing and really improved from last time. She is quick, aggressive, and smart! She is learning the "game" quickly and it helps when dad can do a little one on one coaching!

Family Photo Shoot

May 26, 2008

This is why our family pictures are sometimes few and far between...

We attempted to take a family picture on Memorial Day... Some things made it a bit of a challenge: rain, Brody never wanting to look at the camera, rain, Benny always saying cheese like he's Mater, rain, and a little bit of mud! But of course we still love each other and we were able to get at least one nice family picture and one of each of the kids for our walls. :)

Our Preschool Graduate (his first year atleast :)

June 19, 2008

Brody finished his first year of Preschool. Moms in the neighborhood took turns taking a week to introduce letters, numbers, and different concepts to our children. Brody liked "playing" with his Preschool friends the best. But he is now starting to want to know what letters are and identifying a few. On the last day of Preschool he was interviewed about what he learned at preschool and what he liked. Here were his answers...

What did you learn at preschool? To make a flower for my momma. (it was actually what they did the last day... smart answer :)

What was your favorite thing about Preschool? Playing downstairs (see.... he likes playing the most! :)

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Storm Trooper so I can be on Star Wars.

How many years of school do you have to go to be this? 2 years.

Starting in September Brody will be attending another Preschool (one we have to pay for monthly...oh it's going to hurt mom to do this :). Brody needs a little more "focus" and hopefully Mrs. Butterfield can do that better than mom :). However he does know he has a "Pirate Letter" in his name.... rrrrrrrrr!

Hopefully Mrs. Butterfield can smile about all his pirates and star wars, and, guns, and, swords, and, his crazy imagination too.

Our Last Day Creating Memories!

May 3, 2008 This is our last day in sunny California! We spent the morning at a San Diego Beach. The morning was the time to go... if we stayed much later, the beaches would have been busier. Of course a Sand Castle was on the agenda and book reading for mom and Grandma.

Here are Karson and Brody testing out the Pacific Ocean water for the very first time in their lives :).

Grandma "forgot" to put on sun screen! She was enjoying her book so much, she probably didn't realize she was "frying." She probably wasn't "enjoying" this as much :). We ended the beach time with some "fish and chips" and then played at the hotel pool the rest of the afternoon. It was difficult to think our California Adventure was ending :(. We had a lot of fun and created many great memories... We also loved having Grandma with us. It was good for the kids to spend some quality time with her.

Our next "family Adventure"... We're going to OREGON!... to be cowboys (according to Brody) and to see our first Rodeo.

Creating Memories... Part Five!

SeaWorld Highlights: May 2, 2008

On day five we planned to go to SeaWorld. Mom spent a lot of time prior to the trip planning a lot of the agenda and details for the whole trip, so when we just started "walking" at SeaWorld with no "plan", mom got a little "uncomfortable". And dad thought "let's just go!". But when we finally figured out the "plan", things went a lot more smoothly :).

So... first stop: Feeding the Sea Lions and Seals. We ended up buying a plate of five fish for five bucks. The employee slipped us two big fish instead of just one :). But Brody was the only one that would actually touch the "slimy" fish.

Here is Brody "preparing" himself to hold the food...

Here's Brody tempting the sea lion with the food...
And here's the Sea Lion begging for more food!

Start humming the Jaws music...duh,du..duh,du..duh,du..

Next we saw the SHARKS!

Here we are watching the Dolphin Show. We were looking forward to this. Last year we didn't get to see a real show because of remodeling of the Dolphin area. A family (mom, dad, daughter) was invited to come and be a part of the show. The daughter was able to feed and touch a dolphin. The mom held a rope for the dolphins to jump over and then she was on a bridge watching her daughter feed a dolphin while the "host" of the show took pictures and then he backed up and knocked the mom into the water!!! She started screaming and trying to swim away from a dolphin that was coming over to her. The trainers kept telling her to calm down and to relax... that the dolphins wouldn't hurt her, but she just kept screaming! And then when the dolphin came up to her, she grabbed the dolphin and started "swimming" with it!!!... Wow, what a show!

Of course the "mom" was actually a dolphin trainer! It was pretty funny and it took the kids a few seconds to figure "it" out. And we liked laughing about it afterwards :). Brody said he wanted to do that just like Diego! Before going to the Shamu Show we ate lunch and went to Shamu's Happy Harbor and watched from underneath.

The kids LOVE Shamu! They loved doing the "Shamu Splash" Right, Left, Together... Shamu, Shamu, Shamu... The kids said they wanted to be in the SOAK ZONE, but the adults knew better! We didn't want to have to hear them complain about being all wet and cold the rest of the day. It was a nice warm day... but we still would have heard the complaints :).

Sea world could very well be the kids' favorite... they talk about Shamu all the time!

Something else that makes it their favorite is the Sea Lion show, "Clyde and Seamore's Risky Rescue". Clyde and Seamore have to rescue Admiral Biggenbottom from "anemone territory."

The time at SeaWorld was quickly coming to an end, but that was ok with us. By this time Benny was asleep, and Karson wanted to rest too. But, believe it or not, our Brody was up for photo opp and he even looked at the camera :).

Creating Memories...Part Four

San Diego Zoo Highlights: May 1, 2008
Day four of our "California Adventure" we went to the San Diego Zoo. We, of course, wanted to do our "favorites" from last year... The Sea Lion Show, Panda, Elephants, and Tigers. We also did a few different things: We took the sky tram and also saw the Polar Bears.


Karson, Brody and Bennett:


Oops!... This is Bennett:

He just "acts" like a "Monkey":). Right now, Bennett's motto is "monkey see, monkey do!" Anything, Brody does Bennett will do it too...good, bad, EVERYTHING!

Creating Memories Part Three!

April 30, 2008 - We're "Park Hopping" today! We are at California Adventure. We first went to Playhouse Disney Live on Stage! The kids enjoyed dancing around and seeing Mickey and his gang. We then went to the Monster's Inc. ride. We didn't have much of a wait and again the kids didn't have any complaints :).

We then headed over to "A Bug's Land". They have very "kid friendly" rides. Perhaps "Heimlich's Chew Chew Train" and "Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies" were a little too tame (maybe the reason for Karson's expression :)Either way, we went on them and had the experience! "Francis' Ladybug Boogie" was the best ride. It knocked Benny all over the place and mom had to try hard to help him while laughing the whole time. Of course, this one was also too much of a ride for dad :), but not for Brody!.The highlight was definitely "It's Tough to Be a Bug" 3D movie. We had bugs spraying stuff on us (including something stinky), running under our seats, coming too close for comfort, and scaring Brody a little :).

We also walked a little around the "Golden State" area, had some photo opps and ate lunch. We packed our lunch and a variety of snacks in a soft cooler for each day in the parks. This worked out well and saved a little cash. However, it does say on the websites no coolers and picnic lunches, but they also have "bigger fish to fry" so they say. It's hard to believe mom broke the rules, but then again, it would also be hard to believe mom spending $50.00 on lunch. Unfortunately, Mom still has a difficult time eating meat sandwiches :).

Next on the agenda was Disney's Aladdin -Muscial Spectacular. We saw carpets fly, Elephants parade around, Genie's disappear and reappear, it was fantastic!

We also saw Sully and made a stop at souvenir shops. The souvenirs we ended up collecting over the three days in the Parks included: 2 pairs of earrings for Karson, necklace/bracelet (all Mickey), headband, and Tinkerbell Pjs (Grandma had a matching set :). Spotting Scopes and Blasters and Cars T-Shirts for Brody and Bennett. Suckers for kids and carmel apples for mom and grandma. And "1st Visit to Disneyland" and "Honorary Citizen of Disneyland" Pins. We also purchased a DisneyLand 2008 Christmas Ornament to add to all our other "Christmas ornaments with meaning." We then "park hopped" over to Disneyland and rode a few of our favorite rides and viewed the Jedi Training again. We then came back to CA for the Pixar Parade. Again, a definite highlight... the kids loved it!

This was a definite A+ Day!