Carlsbad Day 2

These are the condos we stayed in... well, the main part of it anyway. Our actual condo was to the left of this main house.
Day 2 started at the beach with an early morning walk in the sand and running away from waves.

Sometimes the boys ran away fast enough and other times they didn't. We didn't realize that before heading out for the day we would have to return to the condo and change clothes once again so the boys didn't have to wear soaking wet shorts all day.

Man these boys loved the beach. They ask on a daily basis when we can go back.

The second half of our day took us to Legoland. I highly recommend it for little boys. They loved it. And not just because of the maps.
Porter LOVES maps and was so excited to get one of Legoland (we still have it and he looks at it almost daily). He loved to figure out where we were and what we should head to next.

These boys love Star Wars, and there was an entire section dedicated to Star Wars.I don't think the boys were as impressed with some of the statues as Kyle and I were. I am amazed at what they can make with a bunch of Legos... and don't ask what Bridger is looking at... cause I do not know.

They were excited to see the Las Vegas Strip since we had just been down it a few days before. I was shocked at the detail, it was impressive to say the least.

We played games and went on rides and ran from statue to statue. It is a pretty cool park. My favorite was the random parks that they had sporadically throughout Legoland. The have huge playgrounds where the kids can play and the best part is that there is only one way in and one way out. So you could let your kids loose and sit near the entrance and not worry that they had gotten out. I didn't get any great pictures of them, but the playgrounds were huge!

Right next to the park was an aquarium which we were able to go and see. The boys enjoyed it, but they were ready to head back to the park pretty quick.

I loved the life-size Harry Potter and Hagrid. And the New York City Skyline was impressive.

Also a brilliant move by the makers of Legoland... play-stations in the middle of the lines for rides. We climbed into line for this ride and the boys went into the big play area that is filled with Legos. The line for the ride wraps around the play area. We thought it was pretty ingenious... until we lost Bridger. About 2 minutes after I took this picture, I was busy adjusting settings on my camera and Kyle and I moved forward in the line. After looking through a couple of the pictures I had taken for the day I looked up and couldn't see Bridger. I searched everywhere for him and couldn't find him.

I started to panic. I ran to a ride operator and told him he was missing and they sent out a call around the park. I waited to hear back with the operator if he had been found anywhere while Kyle and Porter ran around to try and find him. About 10 minutes later (it felt like hours, but I know it wasn't that long) the ride operator got a phone call saying they found him. He was in a completely different section of the park. In fact, he was in the store with the Harry Potter and Hagrid statues. I ran as fast as I could and when I was in sight of the store a very nice woman stopped me and asked if I had lost a little boy. She told me that she had found him crying and took him to the store.
Apparently when Kyle and I moved forward in line, he didn't see that we had moved forward and since he didn't see us where he had last seen us, he thought we had left him. So he took off to try and find us. He made it quite a ways before he said the woman had stopped and asked him where his Mommy was.
I've lost this kid twice now. Once at Seven Peaks and once at Legoland. The little boy just wanders off, but not anymore. This time scared him. It scared his Mommy too. I don't know what I would do if I lost him. I keep pretty close tabs on him and I was shocked at how quickly I lost him. I was taking pictures of him one minute and the next he was gone. I was so happy to have found him safe and sound, and I'm grateful to the kind woman who stopped to help him.
We decided to ride a few more rides, but after that it was time for the park to close, so we headed home and back to the beach.

Kyle and I took turns figuring out the boogie board... and we got pretty good if I do say so myself. We buried little boys in the sand and built sand castles and dug for treasure until it was dark.
Such a relaxing vacation. (minus the whole losing Bridger part... I could have done without that)

a little catching up

So, it may be a while, but I will catch up on this blog... I swear. As for the 365 blog... well, I think that's going to be turning into a Project 52 blog at the beginning of the year. Angie and I talked about the 365 thing quite a bit before we decided to do it, and we said that we didn't want anyone feeling bad if they couldn't finish... so here I am, not feeling bad. I admit that it was too much to take on for me.

I figure that 52 pictures (1 per week) is a little more manageable for me right now, and although I wish I could keep up with the 365, I'm not going to let myself feel bad that I couldn't complete it. This year has been a busy one for our family and I'm just happy that I got some pictures in, period.

So, here we are backing up to September... that's right, September. Better late than never right?

Kyle's boss has been very impressed with him and the hard work he does. If you've met Kyle you would know that he's one of the hardest working men alive. He gives more than 110% every day that he goes to work... and I think in the entire 8 1/2 years that we've been married, he's called in sick once (whether it was work or school). He even went back to work the day after he broke his collar-bone... to do construction work.
He's a good one. And lucky for us, his boss knows it. It didn't take long for them to figure out what kind of a person Kyle was and they have been trying to show him their appreciation since he started working for them.
As a token of their appreciation, they decided to send Kyle and me and the boys on a trip.

The location: Carlsbad, CA.

And may I say that it is a lovely place to visit at the end of September. We were put in a condo just a block away from the beach and the vacation was lovely.

 Porter's first view of the ocean. He was so excited to try out the boogie boards.

 Bridger was excited too, but was a little more hesitant than Porter.

 He thought it was pretty funny when he'd write something in the sand and the water would wash it away. We spent hours doing this... the boys gave up on the boogie boards pretty quickly.

I just realized how many pictures I got of Porter and how few I got of Bridger. All this time that Porter was playing in the ocean, Bridger was chasing seagulls. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a decent shot of him and the birds.

 As the sun started to set the boys got a little chilled, so Kyle buried them in the sand. The boys loved it, and asked for it again and again.

 It was a gorgeous first day at the beach.

Halloween

We had two defenders join our family this year.

One, a public defender, keeping us safe here at home.

And the second, an intergalactic defender, keeping our planet safe from the Evil Emperer Zurg.

 While this one was practicing his flying.

 This one was protecting us from bad guys... and trees. He's handcuffing that one right there.

 I have to admit that I've never liked Halloween, but man it's fun to watch these sweet boys go trick-or-treating.

Bridger, I mean Buzz, has been sick for the last few days. We made it just around the block before he wanted to go home. He has an ear infection and hasn't been feeling very well. Porter was just so excited that people were handing out candy. He loved it.
It's becoming a better holiday the older I get!

3rd of July

 I worked on the 4th of July this year, so we decided to go camping on the 3rd. A possible new tradition. These boys love camping. We headed through the campground and had to stop and wade through the creek.

 Which meant throwing rocks and making big splashes.

The campground was beautiful and so close to home that when Bridger spiked a fever at 11pm, we were able to run home and grab some Tylenol.
In the morning we sat down and made some paper airplanes.

It was a really fun night. The boys haven't stopped asking when we can go camping again.

five

He's huge.
It's like overnight he became this huge kid.
A huge kid who turned five.
It's been a little while since the birthday, but let's just say that this summer has been a bit hectic, chaotic and busy. So I'm sorry that it's late, but at least it's here.
Here he is in all his 5 year old glory.

1. What's your favorite thing to eat?  Peanut butter and honey sandwich
2. What do you want to be when you grow up? A daddy and a doctor, to take care of your heart.
3. What do you not like to eat? strawberries
4. What makes you laugh? Funny things. Like what funny things? umm, I don't know. Funny things.
5. What's your favorite thing to do? play with toys and help you cook and clean
6. What's your favorite movie? Kung Fu Panda
7. What's your favorite show? Curious George
8. What's your favorite color? Green
9. What's your favorite book? My map book!
10. What's your favorite song? You are my sunshine
11. What's your favorite fruit? Watermelon!
12. What's your favorite game? Angry birds.
13. What's your favorite game to play with me? Slap jack
14.What's your favorite animal? Rattlesnakes. I thought you were scared of Rattlesnakes? No, I like them.
15. What's your favorite drink? apple juice
16.What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Oatmeal.

-This kid is just full of personality. He's so cute and sweet and helpful. He loves to help me clean anything and willingly does his chores everyday. 
-He love to go hiking and climbing, he's a big fan of being outside and doing anything that is physically challenging.
-Porter loves motorcycles and loves dirt bikes, I'm sure he'll be riding them on his own before too long.
-He is so excited for preschool to start again next week, he loves his teacher (he had her a few times last year) and so do I. He's also really excited to go to school with Bridger (going at the same time, different classes).
-He's a good big brother. When he's not teasing his brother, he loves to read Bridger stories and they play really well together most of the time. 
-He's a little obsessed with anything that has to do with Angry Birds. 
-I've been listening to the soundtrack to Wicked ever since I went to the play and I just realized yesterday that Porter sings every word. He knows the entire thing.
-This kids memory is impressive. He's awesome at memorizing sight words and anything else he sees.
-We love to watch Phineas and Ferb... partially because it's one of the cartoons that I really enjoy too (there aren't many of those) and since it streams on Netflix, it's pretty easy to watch when I'm trying to get a little sleep after a night shift. We've made it through all 3 seasons twice now in the last year and are on the third go around.
Not only can Porter tell me everything that will happen in the episodes that are playing as soon as he sees the first few seconds of the show, but at the same time he can tell me what will happen in the next episodes if we were to keep on watching. He knows the order of all the shows. It's really cool, and a little creepy.
-Not sure where the obsession with maps came from, but he loves them. He loves to know where we are and where we are going and where every city is and what roads we need to get there. He loves the atlas that we got him and he now has maps from Lagoon and the zoo that have been added to the collection.

He is just too cute. Such a sweet five year old. 

365

A while ago I did a 30 day challenge, a photo a day for 30 days. Because I can't ever do anything on my own (ie... this) I was discussing my plan to do the challenge with Angie and we decided it would work better if we did it together.
I made it a solid 30 days, while Angie went on for a whole year.
I've always wished I had been able to do it too. Looking back on it, I realize that it would have been impossible to do at that time.
I was working full time and I was away from home for almost 8 days in a row, two times a month. It was not the best set up for taking a photo a day.
After seeing Angie's post I thought that it might be a good time to give it a go again. I want to improve my photography and I want to document our lives more. What better way to do that than a 365 challenge?
Angie and I chatted for a little while and decided we should do it and invite/challenge our other sisters to join in.
They happily said yes.
So here we go.
For the next 365 days I will take a photo each day and post it on a separate blog. I will continue to post on this blog as well, but if you wish to see my daily pictures you can follow the link to the right.
Today was day one...