It's over already?

Time goes by WAY too fast. My little boy is done with Kindergarten! Where did the year go!? In just a short time, he will be in school all day. I think I may actually miss him. :(

I haven't been to many Kindergarten graduations, but I thought his was AWESOME! Maybe its just because I think my kid is so cute and I love to hear him sing. I was so proud of him!
Hope you enjoy the video. (or maybe this is one of those ones that is only cool for moms to watch.) Yes, its long, but I already cut a bunch out and I just couldn't cut it any more! Corbin was very serious about his performance, although he did crack a smile once. I just love him! Congratulations, Corbin!
(Scroll to the bottom of this page and pause the music first!)

It's been a year?

I swear time goes by faster and faster with each kid. I cannot believe Colton is already one! He was a very lucky boy this year and got to celebrate his birthday on three occasions.

The first was a joint party with the Jensen family for Corbin (b-day April 18) and cousin Cyra (May 6).

My sister in law made these yummy cake pops, which Colton devoured in like two bites.

Colton and I were in Denver on his actual birthday (May 17), so of course we had to have a little celebration there. Thanks Megan for hosting us! My best friend and I had babies only 14 hours apart, so we were so happy that Amee could come celebrate with us too. One year old and already found his soul-mate, what a lucky boy!

Colton enjoyed his "king for a day" chair and opening presents for about 3 minutes, but it was fun while it lasted.

The best part of a one year old birthday party is, of course, the cake. And two one year olds is even more fun.
Amee was such a lady, she daintily nibbled the frosting while Colton dove right in and left no part untouched.

Amee eventually figured it out.

We all knew it would end this way . . .

And finally, we had a little birthday party with some friends at our house. It was supposed to be at the park, but about an hour before, the wind started blowing and dark clouds started rolling in. So I made the quick decision to hurry and clean my house and just do it there. Of course, in the end it turned out to be a nice calm night. Oh well, better safe then sorry, I guess. I think it was fun anyway. This time we had ice cream cone cupcakes. Yum!

Thought I'd add a quick video so you can see Colton on his first birthday!

Happy Birthday Colton! We love you and are so glad you came to join our family!

Bring a poncho!

If you want to sit close enough that you can see well and get good pictures, you either have to be prepared to get wet (uh, soaked) or you have to have a poncho. They sell them there for eight dollars, or you could bring your own which probably cost less than a dollar. We didn't have ponchos. I dont mind being wet, but I prefer not to have my cameras doused in water - which then means I had to sit way up high. Oh well. The boys on the other hand, had no problem getting completely soaked - part of the fun I suppose.

So here's the Sea World breakdown:
Corbin loved Journey to Atlantis - a roller coaster with a big splash at the end.
Cody loved most everything, and was totally entralled with all the shows.
Colton loved the tide pools, which he exhibited by throwing a screaming fit when we tried to take him away.
We all loved the Sea Lion and Otter Show the best.

All in all, awesome day. A good end to our trip.

San Diego in a Day

Part of Corbin's prize package was tickets for the Old Town Trolley Tour. It basically goes ALL OVER San Diego and you can get on and off as you please all day. There are about 11 different stops - we had time for four of them. If you are familiar with The city and want to see where we went, you can check it out here. Otherwise, here is the shortened version of our fun San Diego day.

Maritime Museum - we toured a couple boats and a submarine. One of the boats was the one used to film Master and Commander, so there were pictures of Russell Crowe all over. That was a plus. The boys like the submarine. I'm pretty sure I couldn't stay in there longer than it took for me to walk through it though. I am way too claustrophobic and don't think I could share 3 bathrooms with 97 other people.

Fish & chips at Anthony's on the water. (I have no idea why they had their hands up)

Huge aircraft carrier, which we opted not to tour since it was like $20 a person. It was really cool to see it though.

Colton and Cody were obviously totally intrigued. They slept while we walked around the shops and got ice cream at Seaport Village.

Next stop: Coronado Island. The boys loved the short time we stopped to play on the beach. That's the Hotel del Coronado in the background. It was old, famous and really cool. Too bad it is only for the seriously rich.

This is the view of San Diego as our trolley crossed the San Diego/Coronado Bay Bridge.

The tour started and ended in Old Town. I wish we could have spent more time here, but it was fun to walk around for a little while. This was the original beginning of San Diego, so they had all the old time shops, etc. Now it has all kinds of outdoor shops and restaurants, etc.

We also got to see much of Balboa park on our ride through, it was really gorgeous. It has museums, Japanese gardens, an outdoor theater and the San Diego zoo. It was past 5 pm by the time we passed through there, so we decided not to disembark. We had had plenty of fun for the day. The tour was a good way to see many different parts of San Diego, although, I don't know if I would reccommend for those traveling with a one year old. Riding on mom's lap in the trolley was exciting for about the first 15 minutes, then the little pieces of trash, etc on the floor looked much more exciting. All in all it was fun, and hey, it was free, so we really can't complain. We actually loved everything we did. What a beautiful and fun town!

Ahh, spring!

Spring is supposed to be a time of warmer weather and beautiful blooming flowers, but since we have no trees or flowers in our yard (yet) - this is what spring looks like at our house . . .

I did try to spray them off, but hopefully my neighbor will forgive me for sending her kids home wet and dirty. :)

Why is he pointing?

A couple weeks ago, Corbin and I participated in this "Cultural Celebration" fair at our church. It was really pretty cool. I helped do a booth for Guatemala. I put together a slide show and we had lots of yummy food made by some wonderful Guatemalan ladies. Corbin really enjoyed going to all the booths, trying the food, etc. I was impressed, we have quite the variety of backgrounds and experience in our little community. Along one wall, they had these chalk map drawing that one guy did. They were really cool.

photos by Corbin:

All of the above pictures are pretty self explanantory, but the big question is, What exactly is Corbin pointing at and why???

Hopefully you can tell what continent it is, but since you probably can't read it, even if you click on it and enlarge it -he is pointing at Uganda. Why you ask? (Or maybe you have already guessed) Yes, I am going to Africa! Por fin! (oops, guess my Spanish won't get me very far there) Finally! I will be going for two short weeks this summer with HELP International, the non-profit development organization I have been working with for a few years.

I will post more details soon (when I have nothing else to write about), but for now I wanted to share my excitement! This is not for everyone, I realize, but I have been wanting to go for the last three years, and it is finally going to work out! I can't wait!

cold is relative

So when we were in San Diego, of course we had to visit the beach. It was barely 70 degrees, but since we had had snow in Utah just the week before, it seemed like perfect weather for putting on swimsuits and getting wet. It turned out great, because the beach was fairly uncrowded and I think there were only two other people (in wetsuits) getting in the water. I think it did get a little chilly, but the kids didn't notice, and I had so much fun watching them that I didn't really notice, so really, it was perfect.

Did I mention that the boys LOVED it?

Oh, and I took lots of video of them playing in the waves, so hopefully I will get that loaded soon. :)

How many does it take?

Our first day in California was Legoland, of course. That was what the boys were most excited about, so we couldn't wait another day. So I just have to say, if you have already been to Legoland, you may get bored with these pictures, but hopefully you thought it was as cool and fun as we did. If you have not been to Legoland, it was TOTALLY AWESOME. Obviously I loved it because my kids loved it so much. It was perfect for Corbin and Cody's age. Corbin could ride all of the rides and Cody could ride about half. There was so many different things to do and see and no lines, so the boys never got bored or whiny. Russ rode several of the roller coasters with Corbin and actually said they were really cool. So if you are ever in Southern California and have kids between the ages of 2 and 12 - I would DEFINITELY recommend it.

Corbin's favorites were the Dragon, Lego Racers, and the Lost Kingdom of Adventure. You can check out all the rides on this cool interactive map. Cody loved the Cargo Ace planes and Lost Kingdom of Adventure (the Indiana Jones ride where everyone has laser guns and gets to see who gets the most points shooting targets), and of course Cody loved the water stuff. I liked watching the boys try to drive their own cars and thought Miniland was totally cool. All over the park there was stuff made of Legos, all day I thought "I wonder how many Legos and how much time it took to make that". Some very creative people have spent alot of time on some of the attractions and exhibits. It was seriously cool and fun to see such a unique place.

So like I said before, tons of pics, which I realize might not be as fun for you to look at as they are for me, but just realize this is the reduced version and it is so hard to eliminate pictures! Hopefully you can get a good feel for how much fun it was!

We couldn't have done it without your vote!

We just got back from our awesome San Diego trip. Thanks to all who voted for Corbin! We had such a good time and we couldn't have done it without each and every vote. Thank you! Here's the basic overview of our vacation, but with at least a hundred pictures each day, I'm sure I will have to do a few more posts. ;)

Here we are, on our way - all excited, full of energy. I was grateful for the plane ride instead of a whole day of driving, but I am still undecided of whether or not airports, security, planes, renting car, etc. is easier than driving.
This was our ride for the week. For all you van lovers, although I may need a bigger car, I am still not convinced. One, it makes me drive like a grandma, two, I am vain, I can't get over the image (sorry to 90% of my friends - it's just not me). The other thing though is that, ya know how they say "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" - I think it is the same way with children. Some of them are much better off if they are within arm's reach of mom. It worked fine for this trip though and I decided that renting a car is going to be the best way to decide what kind of car I really want - eventually (but the Ford mini van is out). Anyhow, the boys thought it was fun to have a "new car".

So our hotel was totally cool, and within walking distance from Legoland, so that was awesome. Part of Corbin's package was two nights at the Grand Pacific Palisades Hotel and Resort, we added one night so it didn't seem so short and then stayed with friends two other nights (thanks Tara and Yannick!), so we were in SoCal almost a week. It was great!

Our hotel was also right above the Carlsbad Flower Fields. Here is our hotel:

This is the view from our hotel. Notice the beach in the background as well. :)

Hanging in our hotel room. We got upgraded to the deluxe room, which had a fridge, microwave, dishes etc. The first night there we picked up our breakfast goods for the next few days. It was so nice not to have to eat out every meal.

Corbin got his Nintendo DS just before the trip (another story to come soon)

So stay tuned all the fun yet to come: Legoland, Beach, Coronado Island, and Seaworld. And yes, there will be lots of pics, but that's the fun part, right?