Fall Break: Part II

 After the cruise we got together with our friends. There were also about 16 kids too playing and having a lot of fun.

 We enjoyed an afternoon at Huntington Beach. Jordyn enjoyed playing a mermaid for 10 minutes.

Chasing the waves, finding shells, and digging in the sand consumed you guys for hours.

 

 So right after, I mean RIGHT AFTER, we got off the cruise. We drove to Knott's Berry Farm. We surprised the kids with that and meeting the lamonts, gammie, and uncle ryan. Jeff dropped us off, took Macie home to rest, and met us back at the park later.

 After the park, as if we weren't tired enough, we went out to dinner for more fun. Jonas and Levi being silly, I mean, scary.

 The Rylisen's (ryan and allisen) were nice and gave the tickets lots of tokens to play all sorts of games. They had so much fun.

 This is JEff's first selfie. Him and Jordyn on the swings at Knott's.

 Macie and Levi spent some time at Camp Snoopy. Macie loved this ride. She was so happy and giddy and cried as soon as it was over. The worker let us stay on the bus a few more times.

 Macie spending some quality with Finn and taking care of him.

 The log ride with Uncle Ryan. It broke down right when we got there so we waited awhile. The kids also enjoyed big foot rapids and ghostrider.

 Sydney posing

 All the kids posing

 Montezuma's Revenge was the very first ride they rode on together. They were so excited and hyper.

 This ride was fun to take with all the girls.

 This was when they first realized they actually saw each other. They couldn't believe. They were in shock... an elated shock.

 bear hug with levi and jonas

 The kids met some friends right before they saw rowan and jonas.

 Here were the shots when we first told the kids we were going to Knott's Berry Farm. They couldn't believe it! They thought we were going home especially since we just got off the cruise ship.

 They still didn't even know we were gonna meet up with the Lamonts and Gammie and Uncle Ryan.

The next day I was so tired, I woke up with a migraine and threw up. All of us were utterly exhausted from a crazy week.

Fall Break: Part I

 All these pictures are mixed up. We went on a our first family cruise. It was 4 days and we left out of Long Beach and our ports were Catalina and Ensenada. The Gers went with us too and there room was right across our room.

We had lots of fun. We went to a class to learn how to make towel animals. We also played Bingo.

 We got off at Ensenada and drove to the blow hole. Sydney fell asleep on my shoulder on the way back.

 Here's the blowhole. The tour guide said there's 3 in the world: Hawaii, Ensenada, and Australia. We've been to 2 of the 3.

 Ensenada was an eye opener for the kids. They didn't understand why kids were out of school and trying to sell stuff with their parents.

 In our state room they loved the bunk beds and towel animals. To give us a little more space the girls slept in the bunk beds in the Gers room one night and then next night Levi would get to sleep in the Gers room. They were so exhausted by the end of the day, the second their heads hit the pillow, they were out.

 This picture was taken before we boarded the ship. All of us so excited.

 The kids with their cousins: Jake and Drew. We hung out with them a lot.

 Getting on the ship was amazing to the kids. Levi couldn't believe how big it was. They were all mesmerized by the enormity and all the things inside the ship.

 Just a pretty view.

 Checking the ship out before we could go to our rooms.

We enjoyed the jacuzzi, pools, and water slides.

 We loved getting fresh air and seeing the view and the birds. We didn't see any dolphins.

 We soaked up some sun while at the pool area.

 The kids had fun being on the lido deck and dancing.

 We drank hot chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This picture we were up really early at Ensenada. I had just ran 5 miles on the treadmill which was a weird feeling on a moving ship.

 Macie crashed in the backpack in Ensenada while we were walking around. When she woke up on the shuttle she was beside herself and we did everything we could to calm her down with everyone else having to endure a crying baby.

 She also liked walking around on the boat too. One time we took advantage of the free day care so Jeff and I could enjoy a few hours of relaxing.

 In the street by the blow hole. Levi is wear a Nacho Libre mask. They each got one souvenir. Levi picked that, Jordyn got a mexican dress, and Sydney chose a chair hammock that is currently in her room.

 A little bit of relaxing in Great Grandma Marianne's room before our next thing to do. Macie took naps during the day and slept well at night, except for the very last night :/

 All of us enjoying cooler weather than Arizona.

 Lot of fun on the water slides. The water was freezing but it didn't stop the kids.

 

It was a great vacation! The kids tried all the fancy food at night: lobster, escargot, braised rabbit, and frog legs. Their favorite was the all you can eat ice cream. The kids loved being in another country and we had the best time--so many memories.

Macie turns 18 months

 Were these pictures difficult to take. Macie had a hard time staying still long enough to snap a picture. I must have taken 100 and got a select few. It's even hard to bribe her. I think she knows I'm forcing something upon her which makes her resist even more.

 But just look at her face. She's the cutest! Very loving, follows directions well, and wanting to help. We'll ask where things are and she'll look around trying to find whatever it is. She'll hand me my glasses, and she finally started calling me "mama" instead of "dada." She does get into everything. She can take the baby lock off the kitchen sink and gets into everything down there. She managed to get baking soda in the pantry and spill that everywhere and also the yellow food coloring and spilled that all over her clothes and skin. She loves exploring the van. One time I was cleaning it out and let her play inside and within a minute she found a yellow highlighter and drew some art all over the dashboard, passenger seat, and side panel...within a minute! She also moves chairs around to climb on counters and uses the toilet as a stepping stool to get onto the bathroom sinks. She keeps us on our toes.

 Her language is coming along saying quite a bit of words and mimicking what we say. She also knows about 20 signs. She loves looking and reading books. She's been my biggest dancer so far. When she hears any music she starts moving around or bobbin' her head.

I love this picture!

I tried putting her on the bed as a way to contain her but she ended up rolling around and around. She's great and started nursery too! She went right in and they've never had to call us out. I think leaving her at the gym has helped out a lot. We already have been through the the leaving and coming back to pick her up drama. We love her lots!

General Women's Conference

The church as recently encouraged girls that are 8 and older to attend conference. I don't remember why Sydney and I didn't attend last conference but we went this time. I gave her the choice of going out to dinner before conference or getting dessert after conference. She chose dessert. As we left it started POURING rain. It's a bad picture, but I wanted to remember this day. Time to spend just with Sydney. We had fun running into the church trying to stay dry but failing. We brought paper to take notes. Sydney was good at taking notes and many times we smiled when we realized we wrote down the same things. We held hands at times and tickled each others back. She seemed thrilled to just be with me. After we talked about what we listened to while eating a blizzard from Dairy Queen and I of course took the opportunity to to tell her how much I love her and what a wonderful person she is and will become.