That's a Wrap!

Welp....I'm shutting down the ol' blog. I was doing some posts and got a message saying I had exceeded my photo storage limit. I really don't want to pay for more storage or anything like that, so we're done. It's been real! See ya!

Emily

Sea World!!

 We spent 2 days at Sea World. It was so fun! The kids loved every minute of it, especially the Sesame Street Bay of Play with all the kid rides and activities. Beckam loved the giant trampoline, and Saylor loved the obstacle course.

Hayden couldn't contain herself whenever she saw an animal. Here, she's looking at the penguins that were about 3 feet from her.

 My polar bears in their ice cave...

Funny story. While watching the Shamu show, I was holding Hayden and Adam was holding Beckam. Saylor was seated in between us. One of the whales splashed the audience, so Adam and I picked up the kid on our lap and turned our back to protect them from the spray. But Saylor just sat there and took the giant splash to the face! We got soaked!

 Beck was bouncing back and forth in this crazy thing. He was totally hysterical.

 The kids got to meet Elmo, Ernie, the Count, and Big Bird!

 Beckam and Adam touched the start fish, and Saylor was thrilled to see a purple sea urchin, since that's what she did her science fair project on!

 We loved watching the shows. Saylor liked the dolphin one best. Beckam liked the sea lions. And Hayden went nuts during the pet show.

 We went down and watched Shamu swimming around for a while. It was just going around in circles again and again. Saylor and Beckam started racing it and had so much fun. It was really cute!

 Saylor went and met this otter friend, and then they danced for like 5 minutes. She was in heaven.

 That is a ginormous fish. Just try and tell me you've seen a fish that big.

Another funny story (that I didn't get a picture of. But if I would have gotten it on film, I would have won $10,000 on AFV). We were petting the dolphins, which was so cool, and watching them spit water at the birds because they steal their fish. We were all leaning over the wall with our hands in the water, petting a dolphin, when another sneaky dolphin popped it's head up and spit a mouthful of water right at us! We got spit in the faces by a dolphin! Hayden included. It was so funny!

I think Sea World was the highlight of the trip, but after our Disneyland experience, how could we not enjoy 2 days in sunny 70 degree weather? It was so perfect!! Thank you, Adam, for working so hard and making this fun vacation possible for us!! We can't wait to go back!

Disneyland!

This post will make you feel very sad for us. Our trip to The Happiest Place on Earth was so not that happy. :( It poured and rained and rained buckets on us. And we were ill-prepared. Adam and I are firm believers that you choose your attitude, so we used this experience to teach that to our kids. But, I'm afraid, I needed the lesson the most. Saylor and Beckam, and even Hayden, were such troopers the whole day. They didn't complain once. I kept all my complaints to myself, but Adam and I were heart-broken that Disneyland was not all that it could have been for our kids. We got there at 9 am, in the pouring rain, and left at 2 pm, in the pouring rain, because we just couldn't handle it anymore! We could see our breath! About half of the things we wanted to do were closed, and what we did do just wasn't the same wearing a poncho.

 Hayden couldn't get enough of Pluto! She just wanted to pant at him and grab him!

 Cruella DeVil was awesome. She was treating Saylor like a puppy, asking her if she could sit and shake and speak, etc. Saylor played right along and loved it. Beckam, on the other hand, got a little defensive of his sister and was completely offended when Cruella said she wanted to make a fur coat out of Saylor!

 Both Saylor and Beckam were really excited to meet the princesses (maybe because we actually got out of the rain for this part of the day)! They were bummed because they really wanted to meet Rapunzel, but they understood after I explained that there wasn't enough detangler in the entire Magic Kingdom to make her come down from that tower in that weather!

 Okay. I had to include this picture of my beautiful Hayden. Yes, it is blurry because there is A RAINDROP RUNNING DOWN THE LENS. That's how miserable it was.

When we finally got back to our hotel, we got warm and dry and just watched movies. The kids were still all smiles, though!

Vegas and the Beach!

We took an awesome family vacation to California! We had so many adventures so I'm going to break this up into pieces. First...our travel days.

We couldn't go all the way to California and not stop at the beach! The kids (and Adam) loved playing in the sand and waves. The kids collected sea shells and got so wet and sandy that we had to do a wardrobe change for the drive home! San Diego is so beautiful!

We love Ruby's Diner so we made it our last stop in California. Wish we had one at home!!

Driving to CA with 3 children age 5 and under is not ideal. So we split up the drive by staying a night in Las Vegas both on the way there and back. And since getting there is half the fun.....

We stopped at our favorite, Bellagio. Adam proposed in front of the fountains almost 10 years ago(!) so being there with him again, and this time with my 3 beautiful children, did my heart good. We visited the beautiful conservatory, too. Saylor loved the horse.

Another horse, but this time at Caesar's...

 The M&M Factory was a big hit. We watched a 3d movie...

 Excalibur...

And a special thanks to my Uncle Larry and Aunt Marianne for making us feel so at home with them!

Soccer with Beckam (Dahl, not David)

 We signed Beckam up for soccer this year, and he was so excited to play! That is, until he saw the color of his jersey. He was hoping for red like Iron Man but got stuck with girly purple, instead. After an impressive fit at his first practice, and seeing his sister try on his jersey, he got over it and decided he wanted to be "a soccer boy" after all.
 He and Adam kicked the ball around and practiced the fundamentals before his first game to get him all prepared. And when I explained that the other team would try to take the ball from him, he replied "That's okay. I can share!" Sweet kid.
 At his first game, he was excited and even got to do the first kick off! He did great! But he got bored after about 2 minutes....seriously.....and wanted to come out. Then we couldn't get him to go back in. He cried on the sidelines for the remainder of that game, and all but 25 seconds of the next one. We debated whether we should keep bringing him or just bag it. We decided to teach him to finish what he started. We explained that, regardless of if he played or not, he was on a team and they needed him. He could choose to play or sit and cheer for his team. No pressure. That's all it took! He played the entire third game and loved it!
 He's not even slightly competitive (he gets that from me), so he spends his time tickling the other kids, watching his shadow while he runs, teasing the coach, and laying in the grass watching airplanes. To be fair, sometimes he follows the herd around and he throws it in occasionally, and he has kicked it a time or two. We're just glad he's in the game! GO BECKAM!!

His cousin, Reese, is on the team. They are only 2 weeks apart in age so they're pretty fun when they're together. They were having a conversation on the field during a game. So cute!!

Little Miss Mischief

Hayden is fascinated by the dishwasher and the dishes in it, especially when they're dirty. Every time she hears me loading it, she crawls over as fast as she can to "help".

Look at her funny little face!

 She knows she shouldn't be up there.