Vacation Part 2

We just got home last night from California.   The kids had so much fun!   Here are some pictures from our trip.  I’m just warning you that there are a lot but I took 423. :)

The first morning we had to make a birthday cake for Titi!  Ella wanted to celebrate even though her birthday was two weeks prior.

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Titi and Grammy Jojo had a dress-up chest of old stuff for Ella to play with.  It didn’t take long for her to get started.

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The kids swam almost every day at Papa Mo’s house.  Ella became quite the fish and Bennett loves to float around in the water and splash on the steps.   Bennett modeling before splashing around.

Ella really enjoyed the hot tub; jumping in and out of it.

We had family come over to my dad’s on Saturday.  Chris’ flight was rearranged due to a typhoon headed to Hong Kong so he ended up making it to the tail end of the day.

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We spent a day at the beach!  The kids had a ball.  Ella was certainly timid and never touched the water but Bennett was totally fearless.  He loved the sand, the water and most of all the freedom!

  

I’m here!

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm…what do we do now?

 

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She may not like the water but she loved daddy burying her!

 

 

 

Sandy bottom!!

 

 

 

 

Ella & Titi – as close as Ella got to touching the water.

 

 

The next morning we took the kids to Balboa Park in downtown San Diego.  The temperature might have been 80 but if you were in the sun it felt like 98.  Not much of a break from Dallas.  The park is great and the kids loved it!  We also walked through a museum very quickly (probably not smart to take a 13 month old to a museum).

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As we were getting ready to leave the Marines came jogging through Balboa.  You could hear one of the men from a distance as he was chanting some song or something.  It was really neat.

Our last evening we spent swimming but this time Uncle Dave & Aunt Lauren got in the pool.  What a treat that was.  Ella got to be tossed from daddy to Uncle Dave and she got to jump in the hot tub with Papa Mo.  What a perfect ending to her trip!

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  As you can see we all had a wonderful time!  The kids have adjusted pretty well back to Texas time.  Bennett must have eaten something bad before we left so I’ve been dealing with an upset tummy (cleaning up his messes).  Ella starts Princess Dance camp tomorrow.  Hopefully she won’t be bored this week!

Testing

I’m testing out a new blog program, well, it’s new to me.  My friend, Missy, told me about Live Writer so I thought I’d give it a try.

This is an outfit my mom made for Ella.

Vacation Part 1 - San Antonio

Last week we headed down to SA for a few days.  First stop, BB's house.  Thankfully Brooke rode with us so I had an extra set of hands but I'm sure she was wishing she had driven herself, at least on the way home because if Bennett was awake, Bennett was ticked off!  The poor boy has never cried so much and so hard.  I sure hope this wasn't an indicator for our flight on Wednesday.  SA was great.  Ella woke up Wednesday and was asking if it was time to go and probably asked a hundred times if we were there yet in the car.  We might rethink our plans of driving to CO in December.  The princess might get her way afterall.  Thursday we had a playdate at my friend Leslie's house with her kids, Amanda and Liam and then Brooke and her mom came over too.  I forgot my camera so no cute kid pictures to post from that playdate.  Friday my mom took off and we went to the Witte Museum after lunch at Alamo Cafe for old times sake.  The museum was lots of fun for the kiddos.  Saturday was a full day with a swim party at Lisa's house for some friends and kids and then a reunion party for the adults that evening.  Ella was in the pool for at least 3 hours and had so much fun.  She made instant friends with Mallory and Scarlett and already loves Hudson.  Those girls had so much fun playing and swimming in pool.  They barely got out to eat or even snack that is until they found out there were brownies!  Ella got in the car, took one sip of water and instantly fell asleep - successful day!  The girls (adults) had fun catching up by the pool and then lots of fun Saturday night kid-free.  We saw a variety of different people from high school that we hadn't seen in so long.  It was fun to see so many faces.

Playing at Grandma VeVe's

markers & play-doh - doesn't get much better

Witte Museum

B loved this

He loved this too and figured out that if he kept pushing the button the air would keep coming back out.  He's very smart!

Bye bye Witte

Lisa's pool party

Ella & Hudson ready to swim

Ella & Mallory

Eating snacks

crumb face

swimming with BB

BB has control over the kids

Ella & Scarlett

CUTE girls

Almost time to leave but it was fun while it lasted!

One year photos

I've been meaning to get Bennett in for his one year photos.  Yes, I realize he just turned 13 months.  I was going to include a wallet in his thank you cards but that just didn't happen.  He seemed to keep bruising his face because he is all over the place and bumping into things like tables and chairs and EVERYTHING.  Last week I decided to take the kids over to Watters Creek across the street from our neighborhood and try to get some shots myself.  Here are a few I like.  Now keep my mind my lens crapped out in St. Thomas so this is not my best work.  But, I was given permission from my loving husband to order my new lens - YEA!!  It should be arriving to my dad's this week so I'll take hundreds of pictures on vacation and probably fill up my memory card. :)

Check out my killer lashes

Wait for me sister