Mimi & Tia Visit and A Little Palm Springs Vacation

Mimi and Tia came to visit from Texas for about two weeks and we were able to squeeze in a lot of fun during that time.  A sneaky little leperchaun came to visit our house on St. Patty's Day.  Apparently he went to the bathroom while he was here.

 Can I just say how much Wyatt loved this, he just giggled and giggled and thought it was hilarious.

We ate rainbow waffles and had green milk for breakfast, well at least everyone did but Luke, he wasn't sure about the rainbow colors and just licked the whipped cream off then asked for cereal.  Wyatt really was in awe though, not sure if it's because I NEVER make waffles or he just thought the leperchaun left them for us.

On St. Patty's Day I dressed the boys in green and we headed out with Mimi on the ferry to Coronado, it was a beautiful day.  Unfortunately Tia didn't feel well and wasn't able to come with us.

Just hanging in Coronado.

They had fun playing on this rock in somebody's yard. 

Luke likes to sneak attack Wyatt and boy does Wyatt get angry and Luke just laughs, he is such a tease.

Nobody was on the ferry, very strange, but quite nice.

Mimi had one request while she was here, the Fish Market for lunch.  So after we got off the ferry, we went to lunch at the market and sat out on the back deck.  It was so beautiful we ate lunch, watched the boats go by, and we even had a huge California sea lion swim right by.  

Kevin and I went on a little getaway to Palm Springs for a few days.  Here we are at the art walk Thursday evening.

We had to get a picture with the giant Marilyn because she is getting moved to who knows where next month.

After laying by the pool Thursday and Friday, we decided on Saturday morning we would take a trip up the tram to San Jacinto mountain range for some early morning hiking.  It was cold, about 45, but the sun was out and it was a very peaceful hike.  The whole morning we were the only ones on the trail I picked out.

Right after we took this picture I got up, grabbed my water bottle and tripped over a rock.  As I was recovering from my stumble, I dropped the water bottle then immediately stepped on it, thus leading to what looked like a barrel rolling contest, my sunglasses went flying off my head.  Miraculously I caught my sunglasses mid air and recovered from the barrel roll without hitting the ground all while Kevin watched on in complete shock and hilarity.  Wow, good thing I've been taking that yoga class, my balancing skills have surely improved.

There were four overlooks and the views down to the valley were just incredible.

 We decided to celebrate Luke's second birthday while Mimi and Tia were here.  We just had a small family party at home with a BBQ.  Wyatt helped me decorate the cupcakes and Luke's Mickey cake.

Here he is deciding what decorations to put on everyone's cupcake.

Luke loves Mickey and especially Pluto, so he really appreciated the little plastic figurines he could play with right away.

He just opened the giant dump truck from us then started to work on Mimi and Tia's gift...

Wyatt wanted to help him out and explain what is was, a digger, and boy were they both thrilled.

He wasn't really sure what to do with the smash cake I made him, he just licked the frosting a bit and laughed.  He loved all the attention and just lit up when we all sang happy birthday to him.  I finally decided to feed him some cake from a fork and he ate it and smiled and said "mmmm", Mom remind you of me?

He was so careful and just ate with his fork.  What manners!

Wyatt loving the cupcake he decorated.

Let's ride!

Happy Birthday little man!

Traveling Fools

My mom and Dad were kind enough to watch the kids while Kevin and I headed off to Austin for our friends Greg and Robyn's wedding.  We arrived Thursday evening and met up with some friends for dinner then headed to the hotel to get some sleep.

Friday was exceptionally cold!  We still decided to brave the freezing temperatures and headed out to explore downtown Austin.  Here we are in front of the UT tower.

We also went into the State Capital, which is a really cool building.

Love these door jams of the State Supreme Court.

Kevin was apart of the wedding party, here's just the grooms side!

Hanging with buddies...

The happy couple...

And more buddies.

The reception was so much fun, it was at a German House that served schnitzel and brawts and they even hired an Elvis impersonator.  What a great weekend, thanks mom and dad for watching the kids.

It's Valentine's Day and Wyatt was so happy with all of his cards he received from his school friends.  He said something like, "Mom people must really love me, because I got a lot of cards!"  

Kevin and I celebrated a day early to beat the crowds, we went to a favorite of ours, Benihana, to celebrate, as always it was an entertaining night.

The last week of February Kevin had to go to Detroit for work, so I decided to take the kids to Vegas for four days using Carlee and Kathleen's timeshare that was about to expire.  My friend Stacey and her son Austin stayed with us and we were also able to visit Andy and Jamie and their little guys.  It was a fun getaway.  Unfortunately I did not take the camera, so therefore no pictures to posts.  But we did a lot of sight seeing, the Bellagio gardens and fountains, which they loved, the Shark Reef, again loved, the Mirage volcano show, which they did not love, I heard several "Mom this is too scary" from Wyatt, and the Miracle Mile of Shops.  We also did a lot of swimming at the hotel pool, I'm glad it was nice weather so we could enjoy everything.

The first weekend Kevin got back we drove up to Laguna for the day to visit friends.  It was fun just to hang out at their beautiful beach rental for the day and enjoy a BBQ.  Of course the kids didn't mind the luke warm hot tub either.

And finally...we went to Disneyland for a day.  Kevin took a random Thursday off and we loved every minute of it.  The kids had so much fun and were so well behaved all day!  Luke took a nap at the park but Wyatt passed out in the car on the ride home around five and slept until seven the next morning!

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show is always a big hit.  Luke particularly enjoyed it, he sang and danced the entire half hour.

Having fun dancing with Mickey and Friends.

It was a pretty empty day, walking over to Bug's Land, as you can see lately Luke is not a big fan of sitting in the stroller.

Bumper Bugs!  Wyatt always wanted to ride with Daddy of course.

Enjoying the caterpillar slow coaster.

On this part I'm probably enjoying the delicious smells, this part smells like cookies or watermelon, this caterpillar like to eat everything.  Luke kept sniffing and saying "yummy."

We all ate corn dogs for lunch, man they're good, it's been awhile.

Wyatt was so excited to see Lightening McQueen driving by.

Wyatt and Daddy going on a "big kid ride", the jumping jelly fish.

It's a family event saying hi to Woody.

Kevin took the boys on the carousel.

Luke loves Donald, he was beyond thrilled.

Wyatt didn't want to dance to much or be on display, but Luke was happy to jump in and be part of the show at Cars Land.

I can't believe he actually wanted to ride Radiator Springs, he is finally tall enough and I think he was terrified, but he went on it twice, once with Kevin and once with me.  He did love the fact that it's a convertible, he always asks if we can buy a convertible car, because those are his favorites.

Just a quick hi to Mater.

As we were walking into Disneyland we saw Pluto, Pluto is definitely Luke's favorite.  They were both so excited and he was so cute with the kids.  He even stole Wyatt's hat, which they both thought was hilarious.

Luke checking out Mr. Toad's car while Wyatt and Kevin went on the tea cups.

Kevin said he liked the tea cups and tried to steer the wheel to make it spin more.

That day it really was the happiest place of Earth.