Mother's Day at Huntington Beach

This year for Mother's Day I couldn't decide if I wanted to throw the kids in the car and head somewhere as a family, or take advantage of the Holiday and sleep in and enjoy quiet/lazy time around the house. I ended up deciding that I felt like driving to the beach. So we did! It was a beautiful day, and the kids had a blast. We didn't really play in the water too much. Heck, Travis and I didn't even wear our swimsuits. California beaches are COLD, and we knew that being May we'd not be anywhere near that water!

Travis helped the kids build sandcastles, while I took a few pictures, and people-watched! I swear I can sit and watch people all day every day!



Brynne had a particularly traumatising moment. A wave came up, a bit higher than normal, and wiped out the sandcastle Daddy had helped her build. She started crying so hard and literally did not know what to do! It was so funny, Travis and I were laughing so hard and the fact that we were laughing made her cry even harder. She was so mad at that darn ocean!

I snuck this picture of her sweet tears...

Daddy to the rescue once again...He built her a bigger, better sandcastle, in the shape of a heart nonetheless!

After that Brynne was happy as could be! She played in that sandcastle for an hour with her ponies, as Daddy and Landon played football on the beach. Landon was having the time of his life!

 

The boys worked up an appetite with all that running so we packed up and let the kids ride their scooters along the beach as we decided on a place to stop for lunch.

We stopped into Johnny Rockets and had sandwiches and chocolate shakes for dessert! Such a fun way to end a relaxing day! SO excited for summer, and many more trips to the beach.

SO tired after our fun day!

Halloween 2011

4 years of Halloween celebrations, and each and every year gets better!

This was the first year that I did not get to choose (and match) the kids' Halloween costumes. Brynne wanted to be "Tangled" from very early on and Landon changed his mind every few days leading up to October, before he finally settled on being a hunter "like daddy and poppy."

We had a great time trick-or-treating with our friends and really enjoyed Halloween this year! True to their personalities Brynne was the first one to approach each door while Landon was cautious and held back a bit until he saw it was safe, too funny. Can't wait to see what the kids come up with for 2012!

Aquarium of the Pacific

Back in May we took the kids, and met up with some friends, at The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Ca. We picked a great day to go as the weather was perfect! Not too hot, or humid and mostly cloudy. The kids had the BEST time. The aquarium isn't the biggest place so we couldn't have spent more than a few hours there, not to mention a few of the major exhibits were closed. We ended up staying about 2 hours and then walked along the water and had a nice lunch. I took a ton of pictures, here are some of our favorites.

Landon and Brynne watching the wave fountain~

Running off a little energy as we were waiting for the aquarium to open~

Time out for a picture...barely~

The kids loved looking for "Nemo" and "Dory" in this huge fish tank~

Love this picture of Landon~

He was amazed at all of the fish and sea creatures~

Checking out the sting rays~

During feeding time you can watch a brief informative show about the sea lions. It was great and the kids LOVED to watch the sea lions playing in the water and catching the fish in their mouths. Definitely the hit of the day for them!

Landon was pretty nervous at first~

It was so cool how the sea lions swam right up to the glass. Our little animal lover was in Heaven!

Next we went to check out the sharks~

Then we made our way over to "feed" the lorikeet birds. This actually turned out to be a big fat waste of $4 because the birds were not hungry at all and it was nearly impossible to get them to land on us. Luckily Daddy managed to attract one and the kids got to see one close up!~

Daddy and Landon~

Brynne and our friends' daughter Lillie~

Landon doing a little climbing before lunch~