So the day after a quiet family Christmas at home, we packed up and headed to California for a visit.  We saw Erik's family during the summer at Brian Head, and we saw most of them in October for Emmett's blessing, but we hadn't actually been to California since February!  Even though the trip was long overdue, I was still dreading the drive.  Owen is not the greatest in the car (at least he wasn't 10 months ago) and I had no idea what to expect out of Em.  Erik, however, is phenomenal, and drives through the night.  So we left our home at 4:00 in the afternoon and got to Fullerton almost exactly 10 hours later.  I was so impressed with how well the drive went.  There was whining, crying, maybe even a bit of screaming, and a vomit incident.  But how could there not be in 10 hours?!  Overall, everyone did so so great.

Owen got really sick one evening, out of nowhere really.  It hit him fast and hard.  Right in time for cousin Tyler's baptism.  I was just finishing up feeding the baby while Erik loaded the boys into the car to head to the church.  We could tell that O wasn't at his best, and as I was about to walk out the door, Erik was walking back in with Owen in his arms, both of them covered in barf.  Erik and Sam still barely made it on time to the baptism while Emmett and I stayed back to tend to O.  He got a high fever and barfed three more times before crashing for the night.  He woke up in the morning still burning hot and not happy.  Owen fell asleep on the sofa at 9 (crazy!!!) so we moved him to bed where he slept for almost 3 hours.  He woke up much better, and was almost entirely better by the afternoon . . . just in time for Medieval Times!!!!!

So Santa brought us tickets to go to Medieval Times while we were in California.  I was so so excited for it.  I thought the boys would love it, too.  And they were pretty excited, too . . . at first . . . then the actual show started, booming loud, dark and spooky.  Owen covered his ears and hid his face, Samuel covered his ears and whimpered he didn't like it and wanted to leave.  Erik and I were exchanging glances and I seriously was about to cry because it was all my idea and no one was happy and I felt like such an idiot.  Then the fog cleared, the lights came on, we got our chicken, the horses came out, and all was good.  The boys LOOOOOOVED it!!  We cheered and waved our banner for the Yellow Knight.  Our seats were awesome, first row and up higher in the corner of the ring, so the horses noses were right at our table height.  When the Yellow Knight came to throw flowers, the boys were pointing to me, Sam was shouting, "Give one to my mom!!" and I might have been waving for one, too.  The knight looked me right in the eye, smiled, and shook his head no!!!!!!  Ouch!  But still the night was so awesome, without a single picture to prove it.  But lots of memories.  The boys are still playing knights, dueling, riding their horses, and chanting, "Yellow Knight, Yellow Knight!"

While we were there we also spent lots of time with family and cousins.  You'd think the boys might have overloaded, but they really couldn't get enough.  Especially Samuel.  Nevermind that they played hard all day every day and stayed up till almost 10 every night, they were still banging down the doors by 6:30 am.  We got to spend lots of time outside, exploring the never ending adventures in Grandpa B's jungle, going on hikes, and visiting parks.

Seriously, isn't he the cutest?!

Ok, well these two are pretty cute, too, I guess.

So once again it was a really great trip to California.  Usually, I'm ready to head home by the end.  But this time I felt like I wanted to stay longer.  I was not ready to leave, and I even tried to talk Erik into the idea of us staying for another day.  The boys were sad to go, too, but that just means we will be that much more excited to go back again! 

February 4-February 9, 2011

Samuel finally got his wish.  We went to California.  We drove down to Vegas Friday night and got to go to cousin Sariah’s baptism Saturday morning.  After a lovely morning and afternoon with family, we threw Grandma B into the van with us and drove the rest of the way to California.

It was such a NICE WARM BEAUTIFUL little vacation.  It’s never long enough.  But we enjoyed our time there with cousins, park trips, backyard adventures, and a few field trips.  We once again came home wondering, Why the heck don’t we just live there?  Maybe one day.

The boys were up before 7 every morning.  I loved that we could spend it in the backyard picking and eating oranges in our pajamas.  And we could always count on Grandma B joining us while everyone else slept.

Monarch butterflies in the backyard.  Sam excitedly crouched down and began spouting out facts.  “This is the monarch butterfly.  He likes milkweed.  Right now he is migrating to Mexico.”  He sat there and watched it quietly for several minutes.  And later, “Oh, this butterfly has hatched from his chrysalis.  Don’t touch him yet, he needs to dry his wings all by himself.”

All of Sam’s studying made O curious.

Rolling Hills Elementary School park with the Mutters, which apparently turned into a photo shoot for Owen.  No pics of Samuel.  Oops.  He was way too busy playing Kratt Brothers with Tyler.  “You know about the Kratts, too?!”

Beautiful little boy of mine.

And look at this gorgeous little gal.

Rubik’s cube genious.  Before and After.

O pointing to the helicopter and making his helicopter noise.

O got mad at me for something, so into Daddy’s arms he went.  Cuties.

Playing soccer with Daddy.

This picture makes my heart warm.  Two awesome daddys.

Bastanchury Park a little further down the road the next day.

I so so love that these two are such good buddies.

Owen LOVES the swing, which is so funny, because until late last fall, he wouldn’t stay in one longer than 2 pushes.

Erik and O did this about 12 times.  (And again, it’s turned into an exclusive photo shoot of just Owen.  Sam was very busy running around with a 7 year old girl who was very very fond of him.)

This makes me heart warm, too.  I hope my boys realize how blessed they are to be so loved.

Fer cuteness!  Brothers and Brothers.

Our big adventure this trip was a whale watching expedition.  Everyone was concerned about the preggo lady getting sick.  I did mostly ok.  Samuel did not.  He spent most of the 3 hours with his head in the bucket.  We kept yelling, “SAM SAM, LOOK LOOK!” when there was something cool.  He had a hard time spotting the common dolphins swimming by the other boat, and he was totally over the pelicans and the seals by this point.  But when we were right in the middle of a huge pod of bottle nose dolphins, it was a bit frustrating for Sam to not see them.  There were several RIGHT by the boat.  “SAM!!  Do you see them?!?!”  And he’d mutter, “Yeah yeah yeah” from the bucket.  Argh!  But he finally picked his head up long enough to catch sight of one right in front of us.  “Whoa, coooool!!  I just saw a real dolphin!!  Did you see that huge dolphin right there?!”  Yay!  We got our money’s worth for Sam’s ticket.   Then both boys fell asleep for the rest of the ride back to harbor.

Cutest munches ever.  (Who say Cheeeese but never actually look at the camera.)

Pelicans in the harbor, seals (or sea lions? We saw both.) waving goodbye as we left the harbor, lots of birds mean dolphins, hard to see but there are common dolphins in the pictures of the boats, and then a bottlenose fin.

Between manning the boys, the bucket, and the camera, we got very limited pics.  This is the best one of a the bottlenoses swimming right by our boat.

After the tour, we were ready for some walking and some food.  We walked around beautiful Balboa, and I seriously could’ve just spent all day there.  After a much needed lunch at BJs, we took the boys to play on the beach for a little bit before it was time to head back.  Grandma gave each boy a toy for the ride home; a whale we named Barfy for Sam, and a seal for Owen that he named Shark.  Perfectly perfect day!

Leaving Wednesday morning with sunburned and blistered cheeks.  Yeah, I felt great about that one.  But still a smile on his face.  California will do that to you.

January 18, 2011

Samuel asks tells me EVERY day that he is ready to go to California.  His backpack is always stuffed full and he usually has his pillow and monkey in hand.  So every time I tell him, “Sam!  We are NOT going to California today,” he replies, “We can go when Daddy gets home from work.”  One day, he took his packing to the extreme.  I heard him and Owen rummaging around and playing upstairs, but didn’t think much of it while I did my best just to stay conscious on the sofa.  I remember Sam telling me he and Owen were all ready to go to California.  Again, didn’t think much of it.  Until later when I tried to go upstairs.  Every bin from Sam’s room was piled on the landing, full of clothes, shoes, pillows, and toys.  “Samuel!!!  What on earth did you do?!”  “Oh that’s just me and Owen all ready to go.  We’re so packed!” 

I would say so.

Yo.  I have lots o lots o lots to post.  But I can’t find my card reader.  And when I use the camera cord it literally takes hours.  At this point I have so much I need to get off my camera it would take hours upon hours of hours.  Bleh.  So in the meantime, please enjoy this delicious little taste of Munchity Shmunch to tide you over.

One evening in California, I helped Linda put together the root beer floats for the kiddos.  I challenged her with the age old question, “Root beer first, or ice cream first?”  Linda said ice cream first.  I said root beer first.  Samuel had his own idea.  And he refused to eat it any other way.

We were due for a trip to California, so with Conference weekend coming up Erik and I had zero Sunday responsiblities, and the fact that it was Easter, we decided no better time!  We left Friday late afternoon and stayed through Wednesday.  This time we didn’t have any big adventures planned, but we still enjoyed the break from every day life, the visits with friends and family, and the beautiful warm sunshine.

The drive.  Samuel travels amazingly well.  Owen not so much.  But he was a trooper.  It helps that Erik is a trooper, too, and willingly drives until 3 am so the boys can sleep a good chunk of the time.

Easter morning.  The Easter bunny found us in California.  We figured Santa told him how to get there.  The boys had a basket to share with a few fun things inside.

The Easter egg hunt.  Grandma B set up a great hunt for us and the Mutters.  Afterwards, it was so cute to watch the kids trade goodies.  Sam got a ton of little toys, so he was more than happy to pass off his multiple frogs and yo-yos for jellybeans and M&Ms.

The Loot.

The Window.  It was Owen’s favorite place to hang out.

The backyard.  Also called Grandpa’s Jungle.  Sam loved going out there to play.  Owen loved it when Grandpa would scoop him up and take him out for a tour.  Erik loved playing with his camera out there.  One afternoon when we were out there, Samuel told me, “I need to get my camera and take pictures of the butterflies like Daddy.”

The playing.  It’s so fun for the boys (and US!) just to have a change of pace.  Plus, Grandma has some of the best toys.  Owen found a whole basket full of dolls when Daddy wasn’t looking that totally kept him entertained in the corner.

The cousins.  Sam’s favorite part of every trip, hands down!  He talks the whole way there and the whole way back about them, and every time they aren’t around at Grandma and Grandpa’s house Sam is asking where they are and when he gets to play with them.  I was lousy about taking pictures when we were with them, but I did grab a couple when we stopped in Vegas on our way home to visit some OTHER cousins!  (Owen and Michael are about 5 weeks apart . . . and O is the older one, that little pipsqueak!)

Erik has a schload more pictures (including Sam holding a lizard he found!) so check ‘em out . . . http://erik.briggsfam.com/2010/04/09/easter-in-the-promised-land/

We had one more adventure left during our Christmas vacation in Fullerton.  We left early Saturday morning for a day at the zoo!  It was cool, a bit cloudy, and not too many people were there at all.  Compared to our past experiences at Hogle Zoo, this zoo was HUGE!  I asked Sam if he remembered going to the zoo with Emma and Marianne after Thanksgiving, and then I told him that the zoo we were going to this time would be much bigger.  This was thrilling news to Samuel, “Yeah, I want to go to the bigger zoo and see DINOSAURS!”  Well, there weren’t any dinosaurs, but we still had a great time and every single one of us was completely and entirely pooped by the time we left. 

Samuel adoooores his cousins!

Sam’s favorite zoo finds: “Santa’s reindeer,” “A big silverback gorilla!” and “Russel’s snipe!”

Some pictures I stole from Rob.

The past several week all built up to this.  Christmas morning!  The grown ups had lots of fun staying up late wrapping presents and putting everything together.  I told Erik not to let Samuel out the next morning until I was there to watch his reaction, but he was too quick.  By the time I had thrown my clothes on, Sam had gone through his stocking and was ready for more.  The two big hits were a Micro Machine Hummer that folds out into a race track from Daddy, and a castle (knights, horses, cannons, and dragon included) from Grandma B.

The Christmas morning aftermath.

Once the initial Christmas buzz wore off, we just happened to find something that Santa had left outside.  (And I cannot even tell you how sick I am about the fact that I deleted the video we took of it.)

Sam spent the rest of our trip in California asking for more presents, snooping around the tree for more presents, where are the other presents, I need Santa to bring me presents again, etc etc.

And Owen pretty much slept through the whole thing.

After our traditional Christmas Eve El Torito, Samuel was excited to learn he got to open a present before going to bed.  He tore off the paper, ripped open the box, saw his pajamas, and said, “Hey, that’s not my green truck from Santa!” 

After we reminded him that Santa wasn’t coming until he was asleep, Sam was happy to show off his monkey jamas and slippers.

Owen got in on the fun, too.

Samuel showing off his slippers.

“Merry Christmas, Baby Owen!”

Open the sliding door, and he’s off . . .

All sorts of adventures await in Grandpa B’s backyard, the place of jungle explorations.  A few extra jungle animals certainly don’t hurt.

And who needs clothes in the jungle, anyway?

Well, party pooper Mom thinks sooome clothes might be appropriate in the jungle.  It went a little like this . . .

Party Pooper Mom: Samuel, you may not run around outside naked.

Samuel of the Jungle: Ok, I put my undies on.

PPM: No, you need more than just undies.

SotJ: I have my shoes, Mom!

PPM:  Sam!  You need clothes on!

SofJ: I not Sam, I a giraffe.

PPM: Fine, but you still need clothes on.

SofJ: No, giraffes don’t need clothes.  I a giraffe, see?  I eat the tall leaves with my long tongue.

Yeah.  He really ate the leaves.