Birthdays

I set a goal for myself that I would post something at least once a month.  It's the last day of September, so post I shall.  A couple months ago Logan and Lauren had birthdays.  They had friends over, water games, and yummy cakes.  Luckily for me, my sister was in town and made both cakes this year.  That leaves one left for me to make in October.  Speaking of October, I'm not sure if it's because his birthday is in October, or just a coincidence, but Easton LOVES all things Halloween.  He's been talking about it for months now, and finally he is starting to see the decorations up and the temporary Halloween stores popping up.  He is begging to go see the Halloween stuff.  The other day he stole a Michaels ad off the table and took it to his room telling me he wanted to keep it.  Then he informed me that he wanted me to save all the ads with Halloween stuff in them for him to look at.  When we walk into any store he points out every Halloween decoration the store has, then repeats it until you acknowledge. There were cardboard Halloween cutouts in the nursery at the gym the other day, and he couldn't wait to tell Lauren and Logan about it when they got home from school. The kid is hooked on Halloween.  Lauren prefers Christmas because, "you get candy AND presents".

Perhaps our recent family vacation inspired her birthday theme?

Meet Henry . . .

or Charlie or Grover or Bob or Axel or George.

Four against one.  I lost.

P.S.  It's Axel

Do you know what this post is???

Family Vacation

This year my dad rented a house in Carmel, CA for the family reunion.  Since Yosemite is on the way to Carmel, we decided to stop by and see the sights.  It's fun to add on a little family vacation before the extended family vacation.  We drove to Tonopah, NV the first day, through Yosemite to Merced, CA the second day, then on to Carmel for the next four days.  My dad and his wife, all of my siblings and their spouses and children came to the reunion.  While we were there we went to Point Lobos State Beach, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and spent time swimming in the pool at the house, playing games, visiting, etc.  After Carmel we drove to Simi Valley, CA for a day to go hear my nephews speak in church, one who just got home from his mission, the other about to go.  That night we drove to Santa Monica to spend the night at Richard & Kim's.  The next day we hung out, ate at Campos and went to the beach.  The next day we drove home.  GOOD TIMES!!

Enjoying the car trip

Enjoying Yosemite

Easton really liked collecting rocks and throwing them into the water

Logan

Lauren holding a sea star

Cousins swimming

While we were there, we also had some family pictures taken.  Here are some of my favorites:

 

Dad with his 5 kids

With spouses

The grandsons

The granddaughters 

Sisters

Our family

Kiddos

Disney

So, according to my brother, my trip to Disney World didn't really happen because I haven't blogged about it yet . . .

WE FINALLY WENT TO WALT DISNEY WORLD!!!

The towels on our bed when we got there.

  

David, Logan, Lauren and I spent 5 full days and 6 nights in Orlando at the Disney resort and we had a wonderful time. We've been planning this trip for about 2 years, and we did it! Easton got to stay home and go on a Grandma Vacation. I think he had more fun than he would have if he came with us. After we'd been home for a few hours he asked us when he was going on another Grandma Vacation. We are very grateful for Grandma and Grandpa and their care of our little man.

We spent the first day at Hollywood Studios.

We started the day with the Tower of Terror and I loved it! It was one of my favorite rides of the whole trip. Then we rode the Rock'n'Roller Coaster (without Logan, he was too nervous). Then we saw shows, rode rides, saw shows, rode rides, repeat every day.

The second day we went to Magic Kingdom.

Logan in the blue car, David & Lauren in the yellow car behind Logan

We also met up with my dad and Liz there, and watched a parade with them.

The third day we went to Animal Kingdom and also spent time with Dad and Liz there.

Lauren (in her 3-D bug glasses) and Logan

When we rode the Dinosaur ride, it was pretty dark and loud, scary and intense. I told Lauren that if she was scared she could plug her ears and close her eyes. After it was over I asked her what she thought and she said it was GREAT! She had her eyes closed and ears plugged for 95% of the ride!

On the fourth day we went to Epcot.

Lauren & Logan with a troll in Norway

Then we went over to Hollywood Studios for Fantasmic! We waited for over two hours for the show. It was good, I'm just not sure it was 2+ hours of wait, good. We did get to visit with Dad and Liz while we waited, so that was a bonus, since they were leaving the next morning.

Grandpa, Logan, Lauren & Grandma Liz in front of a huge drum set at their hotel

The fifth day was spent at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

One of my favorites was taking Lauren to story time with Belle. If you know Lauren, you know that Belle is her favorite princess. And, we totally lucked out. Lauren got to help act out the story as Cogsworth, and meet Belle. It was adorable.

Lauren as Cogsworth

Belle & Lauren

At Hollywood Studios we tried to go back to the Rock'n'Roller Coaster since Logan had worked up his nerve, but the line was too long. I don't think Logan minded. He didn't seem too upset.
The whole trip was great. David and I really appreciated the time we got to spend with Logan and Lauren. Lauren is a TROOPER! It was so hot and humid, the days were long, and she just kept going. She NEVER complained. One night I carried her to our bus because she looked so tired, but she didn't ask to be carried then or again. She loved the roller coasters.

Lauren's face before every big ride (this was just before we got on Thunder Mountain)

I was worried that Logan would complain about the heat, but he really didn't. The lines weren't too long, and we had a great time. Logan and Lauren had fun together, which doesn't happen very often anymore, so that was good. They laid in bed giggling the first few nights (after that they were too tired and went right to sleep). 

I love to see my kids get along. And David's favorite part was our dining plan. We got to eat plenty and there was surprisingly a good variety of food. We all enjoyed our afternoon cold treat.

So there. It happened. And we loved it.

Strawberries are worth the wait!

When we were planting our garden this year Easton asked me what some plants were.  I told him they were strawberry plants.  I pointed out the little white flowers and told him that strawberries would grow there in a month or so.  He squatted right down and said, "I'm going to watch them grow.  Then I'm going to eat them."

Belated

Jessica is a wonderful girl.  

Jessica has enough hair to twirl.

Jessica's birthday was yesterday,

I'm late with this post, sad to say.

I had it on my calendar, it's true,

My day got busy, what's an aunt to do?

Apologize profusely, and wish it one day late,

Happy Birthday yesterday, I hope that it was great!!!!!!!