California Part Two

After our drive south with the girls, and a pretty decent night sleep, we headed out to meet up with my brother, Tim, his wife (Beth) and daughter (Addie). Kayley was super excited about seeing Addie. She had been talking about flying to go play with her cousin for over a week. We met at a park so the girls could play and we all could catch up. Shilo was happy to meet her uncle and aunt for the first time.  

All the girls on the slide with Tim

After some park play we had some lunch at a place that had fountains outside to play in. Shilo wasn’t too thrilled about getting splashed, but Kayley and Addie ran around with glee getting soaking wet. After all the excitement, Kayley got to have her first cousin sleepover for nap time at Tim’s. We weren’t really sure how Kayley would handle it, but I guess both girls were so tired that they fell asleep pretty fast. 

Cousin play!

I actually left at this point to have a girl’s night with my friend Courtney. The whole reason for us making our trip to Cali was to celebrate Courtney getting married. I’m honored to say I had the privilege to be her matron of honor. ^_^ But for our ladies’ night out we got our nails ready for her special day, had a fabulous dinner at Benihana, and had fun playing miniature golf at Boomers. I heard Andrew and the girls had a fun time having dinner at In N’ Out and having a night time playtime at a park with Tim, Beth and Addie.

 

The next day was Courtney’s big day. Kayley was excited to see me all dressed up, and see Courtney dressed up like a princess. I’m happy I FINALLY got to meet Josh and give him the traditional “best friend talk.” And then we all got to celebrate Courtney and Josh’s marriage!

Congrats Courtney and Josh!

All dressed up

Since this was our last night in town, we ended our evening with frozen yogurt with Tim, Beth and Addie. It was so good to see them again. I can’t wait for their little baby boy to be born sometime around October.

Cousin love

All the girls!

Our trip home went pretty smooth considering Kayley didn’t nap all day… She was whiny off and on during our flight, but thankfully not too loud. She was just so tired so didn’t know what she wanted to do, but too excited about our flight and being on an airplane to relax enough to take a nap. Shilo on the other hand easily fell asleep in my arms and was happy for the whole flight. Both girls were excited to see their Maimie who picked us up from the airport.

Sleepy baby

Pouting toddler

Over all we had a great trip to California. Yes the whole flying down, having a road trip and then flying home was a little crazy, but it allowed us to see more family and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Andrew and I are both surprised at how well the girls did. I think we owe much thanks to God for answering prayers about that!

With the Maimie

California Part One

We had a whirlwind of a trip down to the Golden State earlier this month. Our flight down was pleasant and both girls did amazing on our flight. Us girls all wore Little Mermaid shirts to make our take-off adventure more fun. After landing in SJ, we were able to have a brief visit with my best friend, Alison, and her two kids. We finally got to meet baby Asher, born just a few days before Shilo, and Shilo got to meet her “extended” family.

 After that it was straight to Andrew’s folk’s place where we spent a few enjoyable days with them enjoying the sun, ocean and sea life. We had a fun picnic at a park, played at the beach, explored the Monterey Bay Aquarium, watched a parade, lit sparklers, and hung out at the house. Andrew and I also went on a date to celebrate our 3^rd anniversary.

While at the beach Kayley discovered she loved to run in the surf, but was unsure about crabs and kelp. Shilo decided she hated the ocean water (probably too cold for her taste), but loved to eat sand. You couldn’t stop the girl from stuffing fists full of it into her mouth. Kayley had a fun time building sand castles with her daddy and grandparents; a much better use of sand in my opinion. 

Running on the beach

Daddy! Save me from the crab!

Yummy sand!

 The aquarium was a blast! Andrew and I love going to it, and our girls really enjoyed their experience too. Both girls were amazed at the fish and other creatures we got to see swimming around. The turtle really caught Shilo’s attention so we ended up buying Shilo a little turtle we named Monty (Kayley has a seahorse from her first MBA visit). Kayley loved everything. If you were to ask her what she liked the most, she just started listing everything we say: fish, turtle, otter, etc. 

Checking out the sea life

Looking out at the bay

Fun times with grandpa and grandma

For the fourth of July, the city of Monterey celebrated our 3^rd anniversary by throwing a parade. Okay so the parade was for celebrating Independence Day, but we were there celebrating both. Kayley loved that the parade opened with a helicopter leading the way. Her favorite float though way the Ariel themed one. She really liked the fire truck too, and waved and blew kisses when it went by. Shilo I think just loved watching all the floats and people around us. She was wide-eyed the whole time.

Helicopter!

Watching the parade

Andrew and I had a lovely date on Cannery Row. We had an early dinner at Bubba Gumps where many shrimp were consumed with great pleasure, had some fresh makes cookies at the Toll House store, and had fun in a few of the knickknack stores. We ended the evening with our girls and their first sparkler experience.

 

The next day we packed up, let the girls play and have lunch with their grandparents one last time, and then hopped in a rental car and drove south to Irvine/OC. Our drive took a little longer than we guessed it would, but that’s primarily because we took two long stops to let the girls get out and stretch. We are thankful to McDonalds that have a play place, and for Chick-fil-A for making delicious food (and having the best service I’ve ever had at a fast food joint inside the states). We got to our hotel well after bedtime, but the girls did great and went to sleep in the hotel’s pack-n-plays really quickly. 

Happy 4th!

Kayley's sparkler

Looking out the window on our drive

Reading her books on our drive

 And that concludes part one of our California crazy adventure. Stay tuned for part two!

So over it!

People say when you have young children your household gets sick more often. And the more people you have in your household, the longer a sickness takes to enter and leave it. We have discovered this is so true! You’d think the last bit of spring and the first start of summer you wouldn’t get a cold that makes you feel like it’s fall or winter. But our household had two in the last 5 weeks that took us out of commission for 4.  

The last cold that hit us made Shilo the most sick. It was the first time we had to deal with high temperatures and really keep a close eye on it. Poor Shilo had a moderately high fever for just over three days. Thankfully it never got high enough that we had to go to the ER, but it was still pretty bad. Seeing and caring for a baby that is so sick is miserable. And I’m not referring to the constant crying and getting barely any sleep. It’s having to see this look in their eyes that says “help me! I don’t know what’s wrong. Why do I feel like this? How come I don’t feel better when you hold me, love on me or feed me?” It was so sad and depressing.

I am so thankful Shilo is getting back to being 100% healthy. She’s nearly there! She just has a cough and a very slight runny nose. Kayley is almost all the way better too. Her nose is looking much better. Please pray that all of us are 100% healthy for our trip that is coming up. Flying when congested is never fun, and I’m sure flying with children that are congested would be horrible not only for us but everyone else on the plane…

We hope we’ll be able to get back to a “normal” life too. Being sick has worn us out and we feel so disconnected from the world around us. I don’t think we’ve seen friends in over 6 weeks! We’re happy family doesn’t mind if you’re sick around them (especially when they have the same cold) so we were able to see my niece graduate from high school and hang out with my nephew home from war before he had to go back to base.

Thank you, God for getting us through these two colds! 

Happy graduation!

We love you, Derek!

Comparison

I took this picture of Shilo

Shilo 7 months

And remembered I had this one of Kayley

Kayley 5 months

I guess they both like sleeping the same way. It's hard to tell them apart and yet they're so different.

Mommy

It happened on Tuesday while at the zoo. Kayley had climbed up on a bench that was near the gorillas and I just finished parking the stroller with Shilo right next to it. The bench was high and Kayley wanted down so she could look for the gorillas in the exhibit. She turned to me and said “Mommy! Mommy, help!”

My heart melted.

It was the first time Kayley had called me “Mommy.” I think I nearly cried.

Oh to be a Mommy. It is so special!