San Diego Zoo - day 6

We Cruised on down the coast to San Diego for a day, and visited the San Diego zoo. That place is ginormous! We rode the tram thing over the top of the zoo, the bus tour that takes you around, walked, and walked, and walked, and still didn't see everything. It was so beautiful! Not only to they have endangered and unusual animals, but they have incredible exotic plants and flowers. Craig, being the closet plantologist he is, enjoyed the plants more then the animals. The kids, on the other and, are very much into animal life right now. Half the time Layla is pretending to be one, so they ate the whole zoo experience up.

Disney Land - day 3&4

We spent day 3 & 4 at Disney Land. It was my first time going, and I couldn't believe how big it was. There was just sooo much to see and do, we almost wish we had 1 or 2 more days to spend at the parks. The first day we all did rides and stuff together all day(it was sooo fun), and headed back to the hotel for dinner around 6. Craig and I got the kids settled after dinner, and then the two of us headed back to the parks. We ran from ride to ride like we were little kids again....SO. MUCH. FUN! I love my Guy so much. The time we get to spend together is few and far between, so I treasure every moment we have. He works LLLOOOOOONG, hard hours at the Dealership, plus his responsibilities in the Bishopric, and all the other stuff he has going on, it just doesn't leave time for us to hang out. He works SO hard for us, and we love and appreciate him so much for doing it.

The second day we got a little later start. A. because we planned on being at the park late with the kids, & B. because Craig and I were tired. That day we rode on the rides all day again, went back to the hotel for dinner, and we all came back for the "world of Color" show in California Adventure. It was A to the Mazing!
Water, lasers, lights, fire, music, this show had it all. The kids loved it. After the show Craig was still feeling a tid bit sick from the tea cups, so he decided to turn in for the night with Layla and Benson. Carter, Lisa and I stayed until the park kicked us out around midnight. I loved the special attention Carter got that night from me, since he was the only kid there. We laughed until my sides hurt, he is the funniest kid ever.

I have a bazillion pictures that I want to post, so enjoy:)


I love this family Picture


happy Benson at the start of the day





...as the giant grasshopper prepares to eat their cute little heads off.



This was Carters favorite movie for at least 2 years of the 6 he has been alive, so it was fun to see him with his favorites.


Layla, you just gotta LOVE her.



I think this is such a cute picture


Grumpy Benson at the end of the day,this makes me laugh hard! "what are you lookin at"



sweet!


one of the few times I got to hold Layla


Layla and Lisa. Layla LOVES Lisa so much, she wouldn't even let me and Craig hold her hand or carry her most of the time. When I tried she would say "Oh, sorry Mom, Lisa is MY parter" as she ran back to Lisa.



This was one of my favorite moments. The kids were Sooooo excited to meet Mickey Mouse, and I loved the look on their faces when we walked into the room. I wish I had gotten a picture of their faces when they first saw him.


This is Laylas "I need a bathroom REALLY bad, but I don't want to miss anything fun" face.


Layla and HER partner.

April Fools?

One thing I've learned in my life is that God had a sense of Humor...and so should I. We woke up on April 1st to find snow, and we thought that was a great April fools joke. The kids rolled up almost every single little tiny piece of snow in our yard to make this snow man, but seeing how it was officially spring we just couldn't dress him in the typical scarf and had. Our snow man quickly became a snow lady when I broke out the luau decor which seemed more appropriate to me. At least we gave the passer buys something to smile about on that cold April fools day:)

It's a party

Last summer the kids and I decided to make one last trek to Boise before Baby Benson made his grand debut. During the course of our visit Carter discovered that Boise had a Chuck E. Cheeses. Not only did they have one, but his oldest cousin worked there. That was it, his mind was set, he was going to spend his next birthday at Chuck E. Cheeses in Boise. If you know Carter at all, you know determination and persistence are two of his strong areas.
Month after month Carter would talk about how great his 6th birthday was going to be in Boise, with his cousins, at Chuckies. Craig and I tried talking him into going to outer limits here in town, or having a friend party, or going to Idaho Falls chukies, all without success.

Carter got his wish, we went to Boise, and chuck e cheese. Lucky for us, biggest cousin was working that night (and part of his job is to wear the mouse costume), so Carter got lots of extra attention...and tokens:) And as if that weren't all great enough, all of his cousins gave him their tickets...so he hat LOTS, and got some fun prizes. He was in Heaven, and kept saying over and over "that was the best birthday EVER" with emphasis on the "EVER". Thank you to all of you that helped make that night so magical for Carter. It is one I think he'll always remember.

While we were in Boise we went rock climbing at the Y, and to my surprise Carter climbed all the way to the tippy top of the rope ladder. Layla saw that little bell at the top of the wall, and looked up at me with big eyes while she exclaimed "I'm going to ring that bell MOM"....she did. It was absolutely unbelievable! the room of people waiting to climb was filled with cheers as we all watched this amazing little 3 year old girl, with the focus of a tiger on the prowl, climb to her goal...the bell. She rang that bell with pride, and then she looked down for the first time from the top of the 35 foot wall. Layla kept her composure, but she definitely didn't know what to do, she froze. After a few minutes and coaxing she made it back down, and I was one proud little Mama. What amazing children I get to spend my life with.

side note: notice the red ribbon Carter is wearing in all the pictures. It says "I am 6" he wore that ribbon ALL WEEK, it was Hill-a-rious. He was SO proud of himself for turning 6:)