Valentines Day 2012

I have been pretty sick with this pregnancy so we had a bit of a low key Valentines Day this year :(

The boys still had a good time, I think probably I was the only one who noticed or cared about a few missing traditions!

Layton's valentines were a toy airplane and fruit snacks

Parker's valentines were, what he calls a "pop up monster" and fruit snacks

Lance wasn't home so we waited until evening to do our valentines presents.
Layton's on the left, Lance's in the middle, Parker's on the right, and the beautiful roses were mine from Lance!

                                    

Layton, opening his presents :)

The high school does a fundraiser where they make these huge sugar cookies with a message on them, so I got one for each of the boys (Lance too :).

Layton got, his cookie, new (badly needed) rainboots, pajamas, a spiderman DVD, 2 small toys, and a sucker!

Parker, opening hi presents...

Parker got the same things as Layton, but got the Rio dvd instead :)



I love these boys with all my heart. I love having these memories with them, and I love that on Valentines I get to say "Yes, these things are from Mom and Dad!" Its nice to get some credit sometime :)

Cali trip - Days 1,2,3 Disneyland!!!

At the end of January we went on a trip to California for the week with our good friends the Brodericks, and the Alders. We had such a great time! We wanted to get a Disneyland trip in before the baby comes and January is the very best time to go. We never waited in a line for more than 15 minutes, and the weather was a perfect 65-70 degrees the whole time.

The boys had such a great time, I love this age they are at. They are big enough for most rides and willing to go on them all, but small enough to really love it and have fun with us.

We are finally here!

 First ride we went on, Pirates of the Caribbean.

 I really wanted them get cute Mickey hats, but they wanted these big Mickey hands... They won, but they did love them and wear them pretty much the whole trip :)

 One of their very favorite rides was the kids roller coaster in Toon Town. They are in the front in the white shirts (and Lance is behind them in the gray shirt) Layton would keep his hands up the whole time, Parker would wait until the end and then put his hands up with Layton. There was no line for this so they went on it about 5 times in a row :)

 They were very very daring and went on rides that were really fast and scary. This first picture is of the Tower of Terror, the next one is of space mountain.

After the tower of terror I expected them to be scared but Parker said "That was just perfect" and Layton said "I loved it" :) They had about the same reaction after space mountain, which was pretty darn intense even for me in my old age!

 Of course Buzz Lightyear is always a favorite

 The train ride around the park, which I thought was nice and the kids liked. But Lance said he was never wasting his time on it again :)

 waiting in line

 This is Parker, looking out the window of the Finding Nemo submarine. I have no idea how they make these rides at Disneyland, it is so amazing to see!

 Another favorite one is the Toy Story ride in California adventure!

 Of course the Parades and light shows were amazing as always

It was a super packed and fun filled three days in Disney, we loved every second of it and slept very well every night :)

Cali trip - Day 4, Knotts Berry Farm!

On Our 4th day in California, we went to Knotts Berry Farm. It only about 10 minutes from Disneyland, and we hadn't ever been before so we thought we would try it. There were for sure pros and cons :)

It was basically abandoned, so there was never any kind of wait and the boys rode most of the rides by themselves, which was awesome.

They have some really cool roller coasters, but the height requirements are taller than at Disney so my boys could only ride things that are meant for little kids. They were pretty disappointed :(

We might go again when the boys are much older, because the big rides really did look like fun... We will see! 

Even though it wasn't quite what I had hoped for, we still had a good day. I wasn't feeling very well on this day, so that could have something to do with my attitude about the park. Lance was amazing and took me back to the hotel to rest, and then he went back to the Knotts Berry Farm with the boys. What a good guy :)

Cali trip - Day 5 Seaworld!

On the 5th day of our California trip we went down to San Diego to Seaworld! The boys were really excited for it, and couldn't wait to see everything.

When we first got there the trainers were feeding and playing with the dolphins, that was then first thing the boys saw and they could have watched it forever.

They have several indoor aquariums too, I think this one was Beluga Whales

The Shamu show with the killer whales was really neat, they boys loved it!



These are the darling Broderick and Alder girls that were on the trip with us :)

Their very favorite show was the sea otter and sea lion show, the boys thought the tiny little sea otter was the funniest thing they had ever seen :)

They have a Skyride that is a lot like a ski lift, but it takes you out over the ocean quite a ways and then brings you back, this is just about the only picture of our family all together, so of course I had to buy it :)



We loved our day at Seaworld, I could have done with the extreme number of seagulls swarming everywhere at lunch time though! I saw one swoop down and steal a lady's burger right off her tray while she was walking to her table! Besides that though, it was a perfect day that I hope the boys remember forever :)

Cali trip - Day 6 The Beach!!!

We spent the night in San Diego and woke up the next day to go to the beach! It was about 75 degrees, but a little windy so I was kind of chilly. But a chilly day at the beach is better than any day back home right :)

The boys didn't care at all, as soon as we put our stuff down the boys ran right to the water and played and played.

Lance tryed out surfing with our friend Thomas :)



Ahhhh, I love the beach so much!

We left around 2, by then the boys and Lance were freezing cold from playing in the water. We had our hotel reserved for another night, but after going back and showering we decided to head home, rather than waste a day just hanging out with nothing planned. It was really nice, we ate before we left and had the boys in jammies so we just had to stop once for a potty break. Then the boys fell asleep and it was smooth sailing clear home. I am so grateful for the chance to go on this trip. I hope I can remember it forever!!!