California!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I have been writing this post since January 3rd... but life with an almost 2 year old, a new super cute puppy, a full time job, and a crazy busy life has made actually finising this post pretty hard... but I did it (yay me!) Anyway, here is :)

After 4 months of constant planning we finally got to surprise Justin with a fun trip to California. Christmas morning he woke up to find his stoking full and new suitcases packed. He had a letter that he read aloud stating that he and his whole family were going to DISNEYLAND!! With careful planning between Mark and I and Santa Clause we were able to put together a fun filled trip to California which included trips to Disneyland, California Adventure, Lego Land, USS Midway, and Huntington Beach!!
Our flight left at 11:02 and being Christmas Day we thought we'd better get there early; especially since we were traveling with Ashton and all of his "things". My mom came to pick us up at 8:30 (of course we weren't quite ready to go...). We finally got to the airport and realized that I had left Justin's Lego Land ticket at home. So my mom then turned around to pick it up and bring it back to us. She is AWESOME! What Justin didn't know is that there was another surprise in store for him. Soon after arriving at Salt Lake International he saw a few familiar faces... his good friends Bubba and Kaleb and their parents (who happen to be our GOOD friends) were coming with us! After spending the morning in SLC where the temperature was a balmy 8 degrees, it was very VERY nice to walk off the plane in Long Beach where the weather was to hit about 67 that day! The only bad thing about the weather was that my whole allergy system was hibernating in the Utah cold weather. All of a sudden I felt like Melman on Madagascar... "NATURE!! It's all over me!! Get it off!!"... my allergies went NUTS!

We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott which was a pretty nice hotel. We were happy with it. It was within walking (LONG) distance from Disneyland. We went to the Park on Christmas day and apparently so did ALL OF CALIFORNIA. It was SOOOO busy, but we had fun and it was exciting for the kids to be there.

Day 2 was spent "hanging out". We went to my favorite restaurant, El Torito, in Dana Point and walked on the harbor. The boys went through a gate they weren't supposed to and got stuck... it was VERY comical!!

Day 3 was spent at Lego Land. None of us had ever been there before. I have to say it was probably one of the prettiest parks I've ever been to... but pretty boring. The rides were geared towards young kids (most of them) and the lines were very long. The coolest part was mini land where they made entire cities out of Lego's, very cool.
Day 4 was a long day. We traveled to San Diego to visit the USS Midway museum. The museum was very interesting and I think the boys had a lot of fun. I had no idea that the tour would take as long as it did, but it was self guided so that was nice. We got some pretty cute pictures too! I would recommend anyone who enjoys history to check it out.

Day 5 we were back at Disneyland and California adventure for the day and a good time was had by all. The park reached capacity by 10 am... note to self... NEVER visit Disneyland around the holidays again.

Day 6 we were supposed to go to the beach. Everyday had been beautiful so we had high hopes until we woke up to major rain fall for the entire day :( BOO! So we had cabin fever in our hotel and I thought I'd go nuts!!

Day 7 was New Years Eve. We woke up and went to Disneyland. I took Ashton on the kiddie rides and he was terrified. I laughed! I'm so mean... We went home for lunch and returned to California adventure where we stayed for the remainder of the day. This day was by far my favorite. The new years eve party there was incredible!! There were dance parties all over the park and lots of loud music that Ashton loved! The lines on this day weren't nearly as bad as they had been on days past. Mark and Justin stayed in the park to ride rides after the new years countdown. They were able to walk on to all the rides and had SO much fun!

Day 8 was our go home day. It had been such a long week and I think everyone was ready to go home. Since we missed our beach day we decided to hit Huntington Beach before our flight home. It was BEAUTIFUL! They boys played in the ocean and Ashton jumped in the waves. We went to Ruby's on pier for lunch which was good food, but HORRIBLE service. Hopefully the girl working the take out window was just having a bad day...

All in all we had a wonderful trip! It was so much fun to be with adult friends while the kids had each other. I can't wait until we can go again! We're already planning our next vacation... to the Caribbean...NO KIDS! lol :)

Ginger

We have a new family member. Her name is Ginger. She is a 5 month old Red Nose Pitbull Terrier. She is the most loving and mellow dog. We love her SO much. Zero our Pekingese seems very happy to have a friend in the house again. They love to snuggle together on the couch. We got Ginger from a family in Pocatello Idaho. She was one of nine puppies! They had been calling her Bella... Mark said he couldn't keep the name Bella because it was too close to a Disney name and also fed my Twilight addiction... LOL... Plus we have a few neighbor dogs named Bella and that could get confusing. Anyhow ~ It just so happened that my sister and her husband were on there way down from Pocatello to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving when I came across this puppy on ksl.com. We had just watched the movie Marley and Me for the first time as a family and it pulled on our heart strings to have another puppy in the house. My mom whacked me on the head with a menu when we went out to lunch the next day for getting a 2nd dog, but I'm really REALLY happy with our decision. We didn't tell Justin about the puppy. Mark and I wanted to keep it a surprise. We just kept telling him we had something special for him but he had to wait until the end of the day. Justin got a few tears in his eyes with Ginger finally showed up. It was perfect.

Family Pictures

My brother Stefan was kind enough to take some pics of our little family up in Mueller Park Canyon today. I got re-inspired to have some cute pictures after seeing my brother and his family post some super cute one's!! Ashton, of course, decided that today was a good day to skip his nap. He was NOT cooperative. Other than some major Ashton frustrations I think most of the pics turned out pretty cute! Thanks Stefan!

Happy Halloween!

Back from Idaho

We had a great (short) trip...apart from my camera breaking (boo hoo!!), loosing my car keys in the football stadium (and then finding them 20 minutes and a heart attack later), and gaining at least 10 lbs from the muffins and Cheetos we ate in the car. I have to say that for the crazy day that Ashton had (2.5 hour drive to Pocatello, going to a 3.5 hour football game, immediately over to the 2 hour volleyball game and then on to an amazing dinner at Ruby Tuesdays) he did amazingly well... yes there was a short time during the football game that he transformed into a little devil child and screamed like a banshee... but other than that, he was great! We met Katie at her office and drove over to the stadium together to watch Per's game. My mom decided to come as well and met us at the game. Unfortunately neither Per or Katie's teams won (Katie's was SO close!!) But it's always fun to go watch! After dinner with Katie and Per and Per's cute parents we went to sleep at Katie and Per's cute house in Old Town Pocatello. I love Katie and Per! I love my boys :~) Enjoy some pics of our trip~~~