Sea World Bay of Play

After getting home at 11:30 pm on Monday night from Palm Springs, and spending ALL day Tuesday running over town getting things ready for our upcoming trip to Tahoe, I decided to throw all my parental responsibilities to the wind and took the girls to play at Sea World yesterday. It was so much fun! The new Bay of Play just opened on Saturday, and of course we had to ride the new rides multiple times. We also met Cookie monster, Ernie and Bert (all of which Maddy was scared of!), played at the playground, saw the new Sesame Street 4-D movie and just had so much fun being together! Let's just say that today I am definitely paying for my irresponsibility--better run and start my packing!!

Wild Animals on the loose!

One of Ellie's best friends turned 4 and she took a bunch of us to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to celebrate. The kids ran as wild as the animals, played at the water park and playground, pigged out on cotton candy and had a great time being together!

Not a baby anymore...

This past Sunday was a big milestone for our sweet Madelyn....now that she is 18 months old, she can finally attend nursery at church! (Mark is STILL celebrating!) I just pray that she is watched over --she is the smallest kid in there and there are a lot more kids than teachers. I really worry about her getting mauled in there by the older kids. I am lucky though, that my VTer is in there to make sure she comes home safe and sound (and w.o./ bruises!). What a big day for our baby--she is growing up way too fast!

Auntie M, Auntie M!!!

My sister, Mandy was able to come spend some time with us for the past week and a half! We had such a blast visiting with her. We went to Orange County for the weekend and met up with my dad and step mom and hit the swap meet and Laguna Beach with them. Then we hit the SD Wild Animal Park, where Mandy even got to be a part of one of the animal shows (and got a kiss from a camel!!). We went up to visit dad and Nancy in Palm Springs at their new place for a couple of days and hung out at their pool, went shopping, stuffed ourselves eating out and took a day trip to hike around Joshua Tree National Park. While she was here, she even got to attend a famous nickel auction! Mark had been in Florida for most of her trip, but then he got to join in on the fun and go to Balboa park and Old Town with us. Before the airport, we got to spend a little time at Seaport Village--and even rode the carousel! We had such a fabulous visit with her, and even though she only left yesterday, we miss her already! We love you Auntie M!!!

We're Jammin'...

And I hope you like jammin' too!! Because...I "slightly" overshot buying strawberries by about 10 pounds to make freezer jam and some may be headed your way...

Strawberries were on sale at Henry's for 75 cents/lb, so my friend and I went crazy buying out the store to make some delicious jam for our families. I bought 16 pounds of it!! (what can I say--I like jam) But as you can imagine, 37 jars of jam is WAY too much for us, (and our little tiny freezer), especially since Ellie won't even try it, so we have been giving this stuff away like crazy! Boy, oh boy is it ever so yummy!! So if you're lucky enough, some of this heavenly delight may end up in your very own freezer, OR you should just make some yourself--so easy and WAY better than anything you can buy at the store!

The process below...

In the words of Bob Marley...

"Ooh, yeah! all right!

We're jammin;

I wanna jam it wid you.

We're jammin, jammin

And I hope you like jammin, too...."

Free Ben and Jerry's Cone Day is TODAY!!!

If I were closer to a B & J, I would get myself a chubby hubby cone--YUMMY!!

Rocky Mountain High--COLORADO!!

The beautiful Rocky Mountains

The capital building in Denver

My sister and her husband were so wonderful to let me and the girls crash at their place for 10 days! Mark had business in Utah, and since my sister has lived in CO for nearly five years and we had never been to visit, I thought it was way overdue to finally grace them with our presence (haha!). We had such a great time--and our other two sisters, niece and their friend got to come hang out with us for one of the weekends we were there.

We were able to take in many of the wonderful sites of Colorado--we spent a couple of days playing in Denver, toured the U.S. mint and a candy factory, visited the famous Denver zoo, enjoyed a Butterfly pavilion/Children's museum (where Ellie and Ryker bravely held "Rosie" the tarantula--ewww!!), went on prairie dog hunts, went swimming, did some shopping, visited our cousins, stayed up way too late EVERY night, played in the snow and built a cute snowman (much to Ellie's delight--at least for the first 20 minutes anyway until she was "frozen to death"!!), flew kites, jumped on the trampoline for hours, pigged out on junk food, and most importantly we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. And in the mist of all that craziness, we were even able to squeeze in some organizing time (Angie is due with boy #2 in July, and I wanted to come out and help her get ready for his arrival). Ellie, Maddy and cousin Ryker were joined at the hip the entire time--they had such a blast together! Thanks guys!!

My sisters and all 4 of the cousins at the Denver zoo

BANG BANG CHOO-CHOO TRAIN!!

Come on Leasha do your thang!!

Ok... So, I got my haircut/trim tonight--do we like the bangs or not--it's been 13 years since I've had them!!

Maddy's 1st haircut

Over the weekend, we took Maddy to get her first real haircut. She was anything but thrilled about the whole experience. As soon as we arrived at the salon, she started crying, so I had to hop up on the little carousel horse chair with her as she got her haircut. I think it turned out really cute! At this age, she has more hair than Ellie did at 2--her first haircut was at 2 1/2 yrs!