Mother's Day

Marty and the kids created a very nice Mother's Day for me. The day before, Marty took both kids for a few hours to "run errands"

What that translated into were three beautifully framed photos which were creatively wrapped and decorated by Josie.

Later in the day we went down to Alki and spent some time at the park and ate dinner at Pegasus.

Josie finished off the day with a scoop of her new favorite ice cream, Maui Zowie.

What a great day! I feel so lucky to be their mom (and his wfe)

Vacation Part 1 - Redondo Beach

Josie was ready to go on vacation the day before we left. She got her goggles out and wore them most of the night.

Josie is becoming such a great traveler. She always helps Marty get our luggage out of baggage claim and is getting really good at pulling even a medium to large sized bag.

We didn't to a whole lot at Redondo Beach other than play at the pool and walk along the pier and play in the sand. No photos of the beach, unfortunately. But both kids LOVED the pool. Benjamin is such a water baby and Josie's swimming skill really improved after so many days and hours in the pool.

Benjamin praticing his 'high 5's"

Julie and her parents spent 3 weeks traveling in an RV from Seattle to LA. We finally reunite with them in Redondo Beach and all pile in the RV to drive to Anaheim.

Vacation Part 2 - Disneyland

The "Happiest Place on Earth" wasn't so happy the first few hours of our visit. It rained.. in Southern California, in mid May, the only day out of 7 of our vacation, it RAINED. It wasn't a downpour but a consistent light rain where you are drenched after being in it for more than 5 minutes.
Our first stop on our walk to Disneyland was to get a couple of rain ponchos. Crazy that I didn't think to pack rain gear :)
But we made the best of it.

Benjamin wasn't ever too sure about any of the rides but he went along each time and, for the most part, enjoyed himself. Marty and Benjamin on Dumbo.

Josie's first ride is the carousel

We decided to take refuge from the rain in the "It's a Small World" ride

As if Walt Disney was trying to mock us himself, this was one of the wall decorations. We laughed, kind of, as we were soaking wet and trying to make the best of it.

The sound machine in Benjamin's room is almost always set to the sound of rain.... he felt right at home and settled in for his first nap of the day.

while Josie waited in line to drive the cars at Autotopia

She had a ball!! Marty said that he hasn't heard her giggle like that is a very long time.

Waiting in line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

And then the sun came out. Happy, happy, happy. You would not haven't wanted to see my face before. The rain ponchos were put over the stroller and thankfully not needed again for the rest of the vacation.

Josie was mesmerized by Goofy

And got big hugs from Pluto

We took a break and left the park for lunch. The entrance sign looked so much happier in the sun.

After lunch, Benjamin settles in for his second nap of the day.

The Tea Cups were closed in the morning due to rain. Thankfully, they reopened after lunch.


Right after she got off with us she wanted to go back on again with Julie.

Near the end of the day was her highlight. She was able to see and get her photo taken with 3 different princesses. I don't even know who this one is. Josie says it is Sleeping Beauty but I'm not so sure. We'll have to ask Bryn :)

Jasmine

Cinderella

All in all, it was a very fun day. A bit overwhelming and loud but very exciting for both kids. We came home to the hotel exhausted. But, of course, they were up and ready to go again at the crack of dawn the next day.

Vacation Part 3 - San Diego

After Disneyland we headed to catch the train to our final destination, San Diego. We decided to walk to the train station to get some excerise... it turned out to be about a 2 mile walk which would've been nice had we not had all of our luggage and the route was a six-lane, busy freeway. We made it and Benjamin LOVED everything about the train and the tracks and the station.

On the way we spotted Benjamin's namesake :) Marty's grandfather or a Gentlemen's club in Anaheim??

Josie did great and took turns pulling a bag.

However, once it was discovered that she could ride on Julie's bag, that soon became her ride of choice.



Waving bye-bye to the train... he hated to get off.

We had a great time in San Diego. We even decided to hop the trolley and head to Mexico for a short visit.


"Short" is really an understatement. We stayed for maybe 15 minutes. The border has dissolved into a handful of barely standing shacks, we were the only non-Mexicans and it was all very dismal. After spending so much of my life in and around Tijuana, it was heartbreaking to see what has become of it these days.
The way back took much longer than our stay unfortunately, This is the car traffic but the pedestrian crossing was not much lighter. It took us nearly an hour to cross the border on foot.

On the trip Benjamin disovered "honking" noses. He does it to everyone now.

Julie even took a day trip to Sea World. We were done with the big amusement park scene so we hung out by the pool.

And no trip to San Diego would be complete without a visit to our favorite breakfast spot - Hash House a Go-Go. They have insanely huge portions and a ton of fresh fruit -yum.

I promise I didn't mean to match Benjamin to Marty but they do look pretty cute, don't they?

Easter and More Birthday Fun

Josie and I had a lot of fun getting the eggs ready for Easter. She takes it (and ALL things artistic) VERY seriously.

We continued celebrating Benjamin's birthday the following day with a combined Easter and family birthday party. And because I'm the second born and somehow us second borns always feel cheated in some way I made sure I made the same cake for Benjamin's first birthday as I made for Josie's. So, here is proof little Ben. Same cake just different fruit.


And 3+ years ago, the same cake for little miss Josie Marie as we celebrate her birthday a couple weeks early down in Bend with Grandma and Papa. I've been thinking that the kids look and a lot alike at this age and well, the photos speak for themselves.


And back to 2011... we had a great time eating, drinking, talking and hunting for chocolate filled Easter baskets.








Josie wanted to put on a little show for all of us... and of course, she wanted to take a picture of the audience.

And after a long day and a longer weekend we all collapse after Josie's show... all except Fritzy. He is alway raring to go.