The Redwoods

On our first day of sightseeing, my family (my Uncle Rob who is my dad's brother, his wife who is my aunt Nancy and my cousin Eric-- Mike stayed home this day) took us to see the Redwoods.  These are not the huge giant redwoods, but they were still quite large and tall!  The scenery was so beautiful.  I am not really an outdoorsy/woodsy person but I could have stayed there all day.  Last time I saw the redwoods was the last time I was in California when I was about 8 years old.

Bad lighting, but this is my cousin Eric and I.

My Uncle Rob looking at a tree that was about 1400 years old.

Mags and I INSIDE a tree.

Daniel did not want to take this picture... I told him to hug the tree and he refused, this is the best I could get out of him. :)

These are some pretty nice pictures, but it really doesn't do justice to these beauties!

Dan's first trip to In N Out Burger

I spent some of my childhood on the west coast so In N Out burger is nothing new to me, but Daniel had never been to one before.  All of his friends at BYU always talked about it so on the drive up to my aunt and uncle's place in Roseville, we stopped off for lunch.

Maggie's First Plane Ride

Daniel had a conference that he was presenting at in San Jose last week.  Since his trip was paid for we decided to make a little vacation out of it and get a trip for 50% off.  Not too shabby.  Anyway, since Maggie is still pretty reliant on me, she came along.  This was her first plane ride and she did wonderful!  Besides the full diaper that I had to change in the 2 x 2 foot lavatory on my lap, she was sleeping or happy the entire time.  This made me happy since we always get looks like, "oh crap! not a baby!" when we board an aircraft.  Each time I have flown my kids have been perfect! (Thankfully, I haven't had the pleasure of flying with Owen yet).

Maggie was so well behaved that several people (who were even sitting near us) said that they either didn't know there was a baby on the plane or that she was surprisingly well behaved.  This is great, but really it was because she was being held most of the time by me... her favorite thing to do.

We've been on vacation...

...more to come soon.

Owen is AFRAID of His Room

A couple weeks ago, out of the blue, Owen started being scared of his room. As he went to bed he started saying that his bed was scary. I was confused but thought it was probably some sort of pretend play that he and Ellie had done and he had carried it over to bed time. Well, he was genuinely scared of the grates/headboard on his bed. He would say, "It's reawy scary". So, I did what any good mom would do and showed him behind his bed, under his bed, looked all around the covers to show him that there was nothing to be afraid of. Finally, I covered his headboard with blankets and that is how he has been sleeping since then.

Then, a couple nights ago as I was laying in bed with him, he pointed to the shadows above his bed and said "I'm reawy scared". So, I showed him how it was just his night light casting a shadow and made some funny shadow shapes for him. I was getting concerned that he was just afraid to be in his room anymore.

Then yesterday, Elise said she wanted to watch Monsters, Inc. Again. She really loves the movie, thinks it is hilarious and often requests to watch it. I've watched it several times myself and it doesn't have any swears, has a good message, etc.

A couple minutes after putting the movie on, I found Owen in the play room by himself playing. I asked him, "Don't you want to go watch Monsters, Inc. with Ellie?". He replied, "No, It's too scary". OOOOOOOOOHHHHH I thought. That's it!

Monsters Inc. as the culprit was confirmed as I asked him if he wanted to come help me clean my closet instead. He said, "No, it's monsters in der". Poor kid. He's been traumatized by the cartoon. I think I just thought since Ellie was 'mature' enough for it that Owen would follow suit (after all, they seem to be much the same most the time). Poor Owen.
So, not really sure what we are going to do about this. I suppose we are going to have to have some talks about what is pretend and maybe even how the monsters are nice. Well, at least it is nice to know why the boy is afraid of his room.

CROP WALK 2009

This year, we decided to participate in the CROP Hunger Walk that our area church is involved in every year.  It is about a mile walk that participants take after raising money for people across our nation and the world who suffer from hunger and also goes to help refugees.

As our children are starting to get older, as parents we are trying to find more and more things that we can do to help people less fortunate than we are and to really get the kids involved.  I volunteered for several organizations in college and it really has caused me to have a greater awareness at those who do not enjoy lives as easy as we do.  It is our hope that our kids will be able to gain that same awareness, have giving spirits and a desire to help those around them.

Here are the kids right before the walk began.

Here we are after the walk was over.  Overall, a great experience for our family!

Rub a Dub Dub, Babies in the Tub!

It seems like bath time in our house has grown to twice a day on most days.  They have their regular baths in the mornings and then by the time the evening comes they are messy from dinner or filthy from playing outside that they desperately need another.  That's ok, they all love bath time.

Surprisingly, they all fit in the tub together and are usually pretty nice to one another and are very careful of Maggie while she is in the tub.

Maggie really enjoys her baths and doesn't pass up an opportunity to cheese it up for the camera.

Owen is usually the one who is still in the tub even after all the bath water has gone down the drain and we have to make him get out.  I think he just really likes getting some bath time by himself.

Ellie is always a helper in the tub, making sure that Maggie has everything she needs.  Elise and Owen also take showers from time to time... they love that, but it does mean that water gets all over the place.

They're pretty cute if you ask me.

Magdalyn has been especially funny the last few weeks as she has really discovered the bath.  Many times when I can't find her, I realize she has crawled off to the bathroom and I find her hanging on the tub.  Our favorite is when I turn on the bath water and she stops whatever she is doing and goes into hysterics until she gets into the tub.  She loves baths!

Opening Day at Sea World

We've anxiously been waiting the re-opening of Sea World and this Saturday was the day!  Though it was a little chilly and really windy, we bundled up the kids and headed to San Antonio.  We didn't get out the camera too much, but I did snap a few pictures of our trip.

Ellie and Owen patiently waiting in line for a ride.

Mom, Owen and Ellie on the Ferris wheel ride.

Elise.

Mom and Mags.

Owen and Ellie feeding the dolphins.

Ellie wanted to touch a dolphin so bad, but they just weren't coming up to her this day.  Though, even if it came right up to her hand, I doubt she would have been brave enough to touch one.

Dad and Ells.

Mom and Maggie.

At the end of the day, the kids had wind-burned and Owen just wanted to sit in the stroller and eat snacks.  We love Sea World and the kids are always excited to go.  It always surprises me that we end up being there the whole entire day.  The kids always keep busy all day long.

After Sea World, we went out to eat at Bennigans...even though it has closed, apparently there are a bunch of franchises still open.  The kids were really hungry and pretty happy.

Our next trip will be over Spring Break with my whole family.  It should be really fun and we are looking forward to it.