On the road again, destination: Beach

Radley is the cutest little boy in the whole world. I love to listen to him, he is hilarious! Libby is pretty fond of him too.
Soon after returning home from MO, a 21 hour drive mind you, we piled back in the car (I may have been kicking and screaming) to go to San Clemente Beach, California, a 6 and 1/2 hour drive (oh the things we do for our family). It was so fun. This is our only week at the beach so we try to live it up, and indeed we did! My two sisters and their families, and my Mom and step Dad were all there too- which totally made the drive worth it (or maybe it was that I actually got to wear a sweatshirt that made it worth it...? Hallelujah!). We hit the beach everyday, as well as went to a fun park and went on bike rides everyday.

Its kind of funny we found out this year that if you are camping at a state park you get to park for free at the state beach. So all those quarters that I have been feeding the parking meter, I could have been using on a longer shower! (the showers are a quarter for every two minutes!) on the upside Libby and I became quite efficient in our showering, only three quarters!

Our only hiccup was that Hayden got sick, and slept all day Friday, and even threw up in the middle of the night. Not fun when you are camping and have a limited supplies. But lucky for him my Mom and Darryl took really good care of him, earning them major brownie grandma and grandpa points! Thanks Mom for taking such good care of us, it was so fun.

A celebration for a beautiful new baby

So this may be old news. But I still wanted to share, my sister had a beautiful baby girl back in June. I was lucky enough to be there to welcome her into the world. It is always such an amazing experience to witness this special miracle. Although I am glad I was on the other side this time, whew! Amberly did an amazing job, and made it look like a piece of cake. But anyhow my Mom and I wanted to throw a baby celebration party for Analea. Amberly wanted it to be all about Analea, so we had the party soon after they got home to give her close friends a chance to all come over at once to see her.

It was a book themed party. We invited everyone to bring their favorite children's story, and included in the in invite a bookplate to inscribe why this is their favorite book. I found everything online at Martha Stewart. I didn't have to come up anything, I just copied everything she had, gotta love that Martha Stewart. But it turned out beautiful, if I do say so myself! I was pretty pleased, but it helps that Amberly has such an amazing house to begin with (as you can see). Since I live so far I did everything at home and brought it all out with me, so that when I got there I could spend as much time as possible with my sis, and niece. It was such a special week, and am so grateful that I could be there to bond with them. I love you Amb, I love you Analea.

Zona Rosa

Zona Rosa is a gorgeous outdoor mall. It is huge, probably 4 blocks by 3 blocks long. There are several of my favorite shops, as well as lots of great dinning options. I could spend several days there, and be one happy lady. My incentive for the kids to go with me is that they have a really yummy noodle restaurant, with the best mac 'n cheese. There also is this beautiful fountain that the kids can play in. Ethan is the best big big brother and held Libby in the fountain. That was the only way she would go in.

Last week Shawn started work late so he was able to go play with us there. It was fun, we don't get a lot of family time, so when we get a few hours to ourselves we treasure it! Libby is so in love with her Daddy.

The Fourth

Fireworks...huh? All I care about is this yummy funnel cake!

For the fourth of July we went to Worlds of Fun. We had a blast. The boys were pumped on going on the roller coasters, but after getting there they decided they were not ready for that. So we took turns going on kid rides and letting Mommy and Daddy go on a fun ride. It worked out, everyone was happy. Libby went on her first carousel horse, and thought that was the funnest thing ever. Although she didn't understand that she had to hold on the whole time, don't worry Mama was right there! At ten, which I was surprised we even made it till then, they had a big firework show. But the kids weren't that into it, they were more interested in the funnel cake we were sharing, but who could blame them! I guess if you've seen one firework show, you've seen them all!

Happy Fourth of July

Choo Choo!

The food being delivered to our table by train. Hmmmm, do I need to tip the train??

A friend that I met at church suggested to check out this little hamburger joint, she said its must do! So after looking it up I decided we did have to check it out. This restaurant was really cool, the kids thought it was so fun. After being seated you are instructed to order your food through a phone that is at your table. Then you wait for your food to be delivered...by train! They have a train that goes around the entire restaurant on a track near the ceiling. When the food gets to the right table there is an arm that sticks out and stops the food, and the train keeps going. It probably makes more sense by looking at the pictures (Sorry I know my pictures are not in order! They are backwards, look from the bottom up!). It is such a clever idea. Throughout your meal the trains keep going around the room, delivering food to other tables. Even Libby enjoyed it!

MO

Libby is helping me bake. She loves to be where the action is. We have been doing lots of baking. Chocolate cake, lemon cake, chocolate cookies, and even snickerdoodles! Yummo!
There is a tiny stream that runs next to the apartment. It is filled with tadpoles and frogs!
I brought pictures of cousins and aunts and uncles, etc. to hang on the wall. We love sharing memories (mostly silly ones, the cousins are a pretty entertaining group!) while looking at the pictures.
Here is the pool that we go to almost everyday. Libby hasn't decided if she likes the water or not. She mostly likes to walk around the pool (and make me a nervous wreck!) This pool is fun though because it has a beach front entrance so Libby can sit there and sort of be in the water, but not to deep!

We have been doing a little sight seeing. We visited the Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith was imprisoned. We went to downtown Kansas City and looked at all the really old buildings, that are amazing. We have found several really cool parks. Hayden's favorite was a park that has a 2o foot penguin and 4 merry go rounds, that he played on until he was sick! Ethan has even joined the eleven year scout group for the summer, and got to go on their camp out with his new friends. We went to St. Joseph and visited a museum about the history of the town, including the pony express and the civil war.

There are still lots left on my to do list. I want to visit the library in downtown, mostly because it is in the coolest building. I want to visit the local farmers market, and maybe find some fun flea markets. So much to do! But it is so hot here (I was hoping to escape the heat, but no such luck!)

I hope you are enjoying your summer, too!!

The dreaded drive

Our journey started bright and early. We were excited to embark on our little adventure. We hadn't seen Shawn in seven weeks, so Dad was a novelty and definitely took the edge off of the drive, just being together was a treasure and made something as boring as a drive fun. The kids were amazing, even if Hayden did ask about a billion times "how much longer" or "are we there yet". We stayed the night somewhere in Texas. Shawn was tempted to drive all the way through, but I wanted the drive to feel like part of our vacation, so we checked ourselves into a hotel. We swam in the hotel pool, and watched TV curled up in bed together. The drive was beautiful, but admittedly I missed a lot of it because I had my nose in a book. We have a tradition to listen to book on tape from the library on a long drive. But since we will be gone for so long I couldn't check out anything, so I actually read a book aloud. It was fun, and really helped to pass the time. My favorite state that we drove through was Kansas. It is flat and one green field after another. I loved all the cute little farm houses, and all the tiny quaint towns, where I am sure you know everyone. I decided in my next life I want to be a farmer. But anyway, we made it to our destination. And was relieved to see that we have a super Target, and a Chipotle close by, I might survive. The drive here was great, but I am glad that the drive home isn't anytime soon! Two days of driving is plenty enough for me!