San Diego Beach Edition

McKay had never been to the beach. It was a sad fact of life. Then Loren got this really wonderful opportunity to give a presentation in San Diego. We; of course; jumped at the chance to accompany him.

Our hotel was right on the beach; so the boys were able to walk outside and play in the sand. You might not be able to tell from the photos; but they are covered in sand. It took me a good fifteen minutes to clean everyone's clothes from this little excursion.

Loren looks so happy! By this time he had finished his presentation and was footloose and fancy free. His presentation was very well received; by the way.
It was slightly difficult to get them to slow down long enough to take pictures. I got them some bubble guns at a swap meet; and they covered the beach in bubbles.

Natural History Museum

Loren decided to take off a few days around Christmas; so we felt like we got a little vacation. I got a Culture Pass from the library and took everyone to the Natural History Museum; followed by seeing the lights at the Mesa Temple.

While there; you got to pan for gold. The boys went crazy over this; and carried their gold around in their pockets for days. There was a dinosaur section they particularly liked as well.
This is just disgusting. Which is why McKay likes it so much. It makes me want to shudder. Besides getting lost in Mesa we had a great time.

Christmas

Arg! How do I get so behind on these things? Wasn't it just Logan's birthday? So for Christmas we actually stayed home; which may be the first time in eleven years we have not gone somewhere over the holidays. Crazy.

Logan and McKay were not too impressed with Santa. Although they saw different versions several times; so I think the luster was off.
McKay was quite impressed with his $1 garage sale train transformer. I swear that thing kept him busy for hours.
Sigh. I hate this. The ONLY thing Logan asked for this year was a shot gun. I think because he went clay target shooting with his grandparents and wasn't able to actually shoot a gun. He loved it. I think Loren secretly did as well.

Ah; my cute little shepherd holding a star. Love. Him. Even though he asks for a shotgun.

Harry Potter

Yes; I am a nerd. I know that. While we were in Orlando we of course stopped at Universal Studios to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The castle was actually a big rollercoster. You got to wind your way through and see offices and dungeons; classrooms and artifacts. It was fun. We only had to wait fifteen minutes in line; which let us hang out and check out everything. Because it was animated and fast I was very proud of myself for going on it and not being a big baby.

We also liked shopping at Hogsmead's village. Butterbeer was delicious and tasted like a melted sucker. The pumpkin juice was disgusting. Julie said it was like french kissing a pumpkin pie. I don't like pumpkin pie so my Mom had to finish it.

I think my Mom was just humoring us since she had never read the books; but she was a good sport and came along for the ride. Julie and I had a great time; although we do wish it were a lot bigger.

Good times.

Disney!

While Julie was in Afghanistan she made Chief! Yes; I know; she is awesome. While she was stationed for so long; and going through the process; she decided she needed something to look forward to. Thus the trip to DisneyWorld was born. My mom; Julie; and I took off for five fabulous kid free days in Orlando.

We flew out of Phoenix after Thanksgiving and left the boys home with Loren. We chose to stay in a Disney hotel and do the meal plan--which was fabulous. We had great meals at grown up restaurants and didn't have to break down a stroller once. We got to sleep in and leisurely stroll. The kind people at Disney also heard about Julie's service and gave us tickets to Cirque Du Soleil.
I love my girls! It was so fun to hang out with my favorite women ever. We actually didn't spend much time in Disney World; preferring to go to Epcot and the Animal Kingdom.
The Finding Nemo show was amazing. The costumes were just unreal. I wasn't really looking forward to the Animal Kingdom; and just went because my Mom wanted to go. But it ended up being great fun. The safari was interesting and the shows were fabulous.

My Mom liked the Lion King show the best; it was also very entertaining. We brought home a little Mickey for McKay; it has surpassed brown bear as his new lovey. It was hard to come back to reality but I sure did miss my boys!

Balloon Festival

A balloon festival is on my Mom's bucket list. It has been as long as I can remember. So I was thinking we were pretty lucky when there was a balloon festival in south Phoenix the week before Thanksgiving. Sounds like a good reason for everyone to come visit!

McKay and Julie were checking them out. We had to leave at four in the morning to get there for the dawn launch; but the boys were surprisingly interested. Logan was really into it. We got there early and did some shopping; and stayed late and jumped on bouncies.
It was pretty cool seeing a bunch of them go off as the sun came up. I tried to get close just because I was cold and there was fire. They didn't appreciate that so much. One more thing crossed off!

Soccer Fun

I don't remember if I have posted about soccer or not. Logan played in the 3-4 year old division this year; and he loved being one of the big boys. He always scored each game; I think his highest was 8 goals. We loved; loved; loved our coach. For some reason; only boys ended up on his team.

What? You want a piece of me?
Bend it like who now?
I love the tiny cleats. I mean "tacos."
Gooooooaaaaaaallllllllllll!
Ah. Hanging out with his team after a particularly muddy and grueling match. McKay can't wait to play next year.