A fresh start

We went up the canyon last week to shoot some new pictures of everybody with my new camera. While I am badly behind in posting what we have done for the last year, at least you can see what we are doing now. The family shot on the self-timer actually turned out decent!
I must say it is impossible to get a picture where all four children will stay in their right position and look at the camera at the same time. This is the closest I got.
Here's our beautiful Lexie, about to go into 3rd grade. These are the official 8-year old portraits.



Here is Gavin, big 6-year old about to go into 1st grade.


Here is Cole. He is a bouncing, smart kiddo ready to begin his first year of preschool! This is his 3-year old portrait.


And our darling little Avery. She is 9 months old and moves 90 miles an hour all the time. I did manage to catch a few candid shots of her...





I must say they are cute kids! (Not biased, here, or anything.) I have been trying to do a little of my own photography, so this is my first official "shoot." Hopefully they'll do instead of the Target portraits!

Cali-forn-i-a!

We finished the summer with a whopping trip to Southern California! Danny's parents treated the family to a fun-filled time in Disneyland and LA area, and we went a bit early to see San Diego, too. We used to live in San Diego, in fact it was where Lexie was born, so we thought it would be fun to reminisce. Here we are in Old Town San Diego, where there is always fun stuff and yummy Mexican food.
We went by our old apartment complex to show Lexie her first home. Wow, I can't believe that was over 7 years ago!
And here is Lexie at the hospital where she was born!
The kids had fun playing at Old Town and seeing the sights.
We also stopped at the Visitor Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The kids got to try some pioneer activities, like pumping water...
...and building with bricks!
We loved to visit Coronado Beach when we lived here, so stopped by there after dinner to enjoy the sunset. (You can see the famous Hotel del Coronado behind us.)
The water was a bit cold! But Lexie and Gavin enjoyed getting in the waves anyway.
Cole liked to watch the waves from a distance, but thought the sand was more fun.
Wasn't the sky gorgeous?
We stayed in a fancy-schmancy hotel in San Diego called the Westgate Hotel. It was very ornate and quite enjoyable.
The next day we had a blast at Sea World with the kids. They have a fun Sesame Street kids' area, as you can see them on Abby Cadabby's Spinning Sea Star ride.
The ocean animals were definitely the highlight of Sea World. We loved learning about all the animals and had some fun hands-on exposure too. (Like here where the kids got to pet the sting rays.)
They swam right by! There were also some fun rides, and if Lexie and Gavin look wet, it's because they just got off the log ride and got soaked!
It was a fun day, the weather was perfect, and we enjoyed our time at Sea World.
The most favorite things at Sea World were the Shamu show and the dolphin show. Cole still does the actions to "Shamu! Shamu!" and my kids are now obsessed with whales and dolphins. It is so cool to see how the trainers work with these neat animals. I think both Lexie and Gavin want to be sea animal trainers now.
And there is even a Shamu car...pretty neat. It was a great day, and we maximized it all we could!
After Sea World, we headed up to Anaheim and met with Danny's family at the hotel. The kids were very excited to see their grandparents and cousins! We even got there in time for the nightly Disneyland fireworks display. The next day (Tuesday) we rounded up the troops to get to Disneyland and experience everything! Here's our group right when we entered the gates, in front of the Disneyland train station.Here are all the girl cousins: Emi, Lexie, Kayley, Camryn and my niece Kayley's friend Sarah, in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. It was magical! The girls loved it.And all the boy cousins in front of the Pirate Ship in Critter Country: Devan, Dylan, Cole, and Gavin. The boys were so excited to do everything and ride all the rides at Disneyland!
Cole and I hung out a lot while the older kids went on rides. Here, Cole had a kick out of spraying Carrie's mom Lee with my mister fan.
Dylan, Emi and Cole got to ride on the cute Winnie the Pooh ride while everyone else did Splash Mountain.Most of the group had a fun little exploration on the Davey Crockett canoe ride. The guide was hilarious, I'm told, and cracked some jokes about the "crazy lady with a camera." (That would be me!)
After lots of rides and fun, we took a lunch break at Downtown Disney for some yummy Mexican food.
Cole loved driving Mr. Toad's car in Fantasyland.
Here's our little family on the Pinocchio ride.
And more fun on King Arthur's Carousel.
There were a lot of rides I could go on, even though I was 7 months pregnant! I enjoyed our Disney vacation, too!
Cute kids and grandmas in the tea cup.
Wednesday of our vacation we spent relaxing by the pool and beach. All the cousins had tons of fun playing in the hotel pool together.
Cole didn't really want to get in the water, but he still had lots of fun.
The kids loved the hot tub, Lexie and Camryn got foam from the bubbles all over them.
Gavin hanging out with Uncle Tyson.
My nephew Devan is so cute with Cole and always looks out for him.
Lexie doing her mermaid thing!
The adults trying not to overheat...


After the pool in the morning, we needed some beach time at Huntington Beach. Everybody had lots of fun, and we stayed in or near the water to keep cool. Here Gavin and Dylan were trying to save the pyramid from the waves.
Cole needed to snuggle with Grammy.
The girls loved jumping in the waves.


Dylan and Gavin are such good buddies!

Papa with Cole and Emi.
Bonnie and Danny with the pier behind us.That night we went to dinner at a gourmet pizza place in Downtown Disney. We paid the Disneyland price for our meal! (That is 3 to 4 times more than you would pay anywhere else.) But the kids got these awesome balloon creations.
Our last day (Thursday,) Grammy and Nana Lee got more matching shirts for the cousins to wear to Disneyland. The kids also are sporting their cute Mickey ears. (Cole did not want to be in the cousin picture.) This shot is taken in front of our hotel, it was literally across the street from Disneyland and it was great!
For two days Gavin and Dylan wanted so badly to go on the Haunted Mansion ride. (It was all they talked about.) After it was over, they didn't know if it was as great as they had thought! They still liked to talk about the ghosts that hitchhiked along with us, though.
For lunch that day, we had special reservations at the restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, called the Blue Bayou. It was a special place to Danny's parents when they were dating, and Danny's dad almost proposed there!

It was a yummy lunch, and fun to see all the people float by on the ride.
Here's our whole group shot on the last day. What a fun group! Thank you, thank you, thank you to Danny's parents for giving us such a fun trip and so many memories!
Camryn, Kayley, and Lexie enjoyed Sleeping Beauty's castle tour.
And Gavin loves all things knights-castles-dragons.
Caged wild animals!
As night fell, the boys all got these light-up light sabers and had fun playing Jedi Knights.
Cole wore his Mickey ears long enough to get a picture.

We found Goofy and got a family picture!
So did Danny's sister Jenna with her three kids.
And we were able to meet Mickey Mouse! Yea for Disneyland!
It was a wonderful time, the kids' first trip to Disneyland. What a fun vacation to celebrate Danny finishing law school and the bar exam, as well as Danny's sister Jenna graduating from nursing school. It was a great way to say goodbye to summer, just in time to drive home and get ready for school beginning on Monday for Lexie! Happy summer!