Gone Fishing

This turned out to be a super fun & cheap FHE activity so I thought I'd share.  We cut out some fish, made some fishing poles (out of rolled up paper, yarn and paperclips) and then let the boys "fish" over the counter.  Each fish had something written on it (i.e. hug, kiss, high 5, jelly belly) so every time they caught a fish they got something.  The boys LOVED it and have been asking to do it every day since.  I love how excited they get about things!  Its so fun to watch!  

 Cast that line buddy!

Our 2 happy fishermen!

Good Book, Chocolate, Bubble Bath =

A very relaxing night!

San Antonio Girls Weekend

I would venture to say that every Mom needs one of these once a year!  My Mom, sisters. and I headed to San Antonio for a fun-filled girls weekend packed with shopping, eating, shopping, and more eating.  Really, there is no better combination!  I used to not be a fan of shopping but shopping with out kids and with your mom & sisters is a whole different story!  Here's the weekend in pictures.

Started off with some earrings from my mom.  She's a sweetie and is always thinking of us when she goes on her amazing adventures to far away places.  These were from Chile.

Wouldn't be complete without a session of laughing so hard your crying...well, we had a couple of those.

A little morning exercise along the riverwalk right in back of the Hotel we were staying at.  It was beautiful.

Swimming and Hot tubbing at the pool on top of the hotel.

Heading out to shop

Remember the Alamo!

There was this awesome Mexican restaurant that had tons of decorations hanging from the ceiling and the food was delicious!

  

We went and saw Westside Story...lets just say the director of this specific one chose to make it rated R.  Too bad really, it could have been good.  Oh well, we had fun dressing up for it!

The Contessa, a little on the scary side!

San Antonio Temple

 Cheesecake Factory

This was another time we laughed so hard we cried.  Mindy brought up the idea of taking a picture while blowing out your lips so they slap together.  Before you judge, go get your camera and try it, then tell me you didn't die laughing when you saw youself!  

And some better pictures to redeem ourselves ;-)

 Pedicures (of course) and a unique little Bar-B-Q place.  Yummy cream corn!

Our spoils after 2 full days of shopping.  (Hugging Mom because she funded it!)

Giving Mom her bracelet from all 3 of us.  It has 9 beads, one for each family member.

Our last breakfast together before we went our separate ways.

A seriously good time!  Can't wait for the next one!

Luck o' the Irish to ya!

...a couple days late ;-)

Our First Family Vacation

I'm not a writer so I choose to document with pictures.  And if a picture's worth a thousand words, I must be a really good writer after all;-) Here is our family vacation in pictures.

First stop in San Diego...

Sea World!

(Its really a toss up for who enjoyed it more...us or the boys.)

We hit up all the shows and loved them!

Coop thought this guy was pretty funny and so did we.  Really, the guy was hilarious!

Elmo's Playland was probably the boys favorite part since they could get involved.  It was a nice break for us...except for getting sick on all the spinning rides, yuck!

I think this picture is hilarious.  You can see how excited they were to see Elmo and the funniest part it, they don't even watch Elmo.  (Good thing Elmo didn't know that!)

Sharks

Can't leave without seeing the shamu show.  Carter was enthralled the whole time which is odd but we'll take it!

More spinny rides...ugh!

La Jolla Beach

I could not get enough of watching the boys run away from the water.  Their genuinely giddy faces kept me smiling the whole time...even when carter slipped and fell leaving his pants soaked.

As you can see, they are in pants and sweatshirts which means the weather was pretty chilly most of the time.  Too bad really but it didn't stop us.

Oh ya, and there were a bunch of seals there too...

 ...but the boys were much more fun to watch!

 This may look like he ate it in the water but he saved himself and didn't even get wet!

The Beach next to our timeshare...don't know the name.

It was a little warmer this day which is why we donned the shorts.  However, still cold enough that long sleeves were needed.

Once again the boys spent a majority of their time running from the water.  You see here that Coop and Daddy are the only ones running.   That is only because (once again) Carter ate it big time and got covered with sand and water.  Lucky daddy was right there to save him cuz even in just a foot of water he was covered and came up spluttering.

Poor guy was freezing after his fall and a little traumatized but came out ok.

Here we are packing up and Carter thought he found a great hiding place to play Daddy's i-pod.

After San Diego, we decided last minute to head over to New Mexico to visit family.  We stayed for a day and then headed out.  Not very long but totally worth it!

Had some singing time with Great-Grandma Alby, Grandma AJ, & Caleb

Some trampoline time

Basketball time

Grandma AJ play time

Frisbee time

And some uno with Uncle Kip.

Life is good!