Sandy Eggo Trip

Yes, that's still how Morgan spells it.  And, since she insists on spelling everything else correctly, I haven't told her that she's slaughtering the spelling on this one.  I'm just hanging onto that little, tiny, bit of baby I have left in her.  So, until she figures it out on her own... 

We spent a week down in San Diego, enjoying the wonderful weather and company.  We left Colorado when it was -2 degrees, arrived into San Diego at night, and it was 60 degrees!  After a week of beautiful sunshine, leaving our jackets packed away, we were welcomed home with 5 inches of snow to shovel!  

Here are some highlights from our trip.

To say Sadie was excited to be at Grandma Tammy and Papa Dale's house, is a HUGE understatement.  We woke up each morning to a cheerful "Wake up, Mommy!  Wake up, Daddy!  It's Sunny!"  Indeed, it was!

Playtime:
Grandma Tammy has a little kitchen and Sadie cooked up all sorts of meals for everyone!  Her favorite dish--macaroni cheese!

Morgan made sure to write Auntie Logan another letter while we were on vacation.  She was excited to use Grandma's pink paper (i.e. grocery list notepad).

Someday, hopefully soon, we'll have a piano at our house.  These girls spent lots of time playing and singing songs!  Morgan has a list of instruments she'd like to learn, but we have to start with the piano!

Cheese!  Sadie and Grandma just hanging out.

A few weeks ago, a friend introduced us to Crayola Window Crayons, via her blog.  Not completely certain they truly are "mess free", I bought a pack and decided to test it out at Grandma and Grandpa's.

They're a huge hit!  The girls (mostly Morgan) spent hours decorating the back door!  And, the chickens spent hours hoping to come inside!

The Chickens:
Morgan couldn't wait to see the chickens again!  She followed (i.e. chased) them all around the yard!

The chickens like to hide in the bushes sometimes.  Morgan and Sadie would wait patiently for them to come out, saying, "Ladies, come out now!  Ladies, let's play!" (three of them are golden, and are referred to as "the Ladies".)

Feeding the chickens with Grandpa.

Sadie was eager to feed the chickens.  She would get a very full handful out of the feed bucket and put her fist right up to the chickens, who would then try to eat out of her hand.  When she was done, she just opened her hand and dumped all the food!  The chickens liked that part best!

Morgan didn't want to feed the chickens, but she liked petting them.

Sadie and Papa Dale feeding the chickens.  You can't see her fist full of food in this picture!

Disneyland:


We spent a day at Disneyland and had a blast!  It's so much different going as a parent and watching your kids soak in all the "magic" that you remember loving as a kid.  Oh, the nostalgia...

Morgan danced her way down Main Street, on our way to her first selection: Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough.  When we entered the park, the ticket lady gave her a map, which she immediately opened and started reading.  I directed her to the Fantasyland area and she read it for a minute and then said, "Mom, let's go do Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough." I didn't know you could walk through the castle.  You walk through and "read" the story, depicted in still scenes throughout.

At the end of Main Street, Morgan found some open space and stopped to dance to the music!  What more could a little girl want?  Princesses and music for dancing!

Posing before her grand turn!

Sadie joined in on the fun and the two girls danced and danced!

Smile!

Getting ready to fly on Dumbo.  The girls don't even know who Dumbo is, they just wanted to ride the flying elephants!

Don't know why Sadie's making this face on the Jungle Cruise, but she really liked all the elephants!

Meeting Princess Belle.  Morgan has decided that Sadie's favorite Princess is Belle and hers is Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty).

We happened to be in just the right spot when all the characters came out!  Within about 5 minutes' time, we met Mickey, Goofy and Pluto!

Notice Sadie's trying to put her foot like Goofy's.  Who cares if we're trying to get a picture!

After asking to go meet Pluto, Sadie quickly changed her mind.

Overall, the girls LOVED the Happiest Place on Earth!  

The only part Morgan didn't like: the Haunted Mansion.  When we got off, she said, "We're NEVER going on that ride again!"  Looking back, it probably didn't help that we went after dark.  Oops.

 Sea World:


The girls walking across the bridge after climbing the rope net.  I didn't go up, but Morgan definitely didn't like the nets.  Brian said she kept saying, "I hate this!  I'm never climbing up this again!"  And, she did only do it one time.

Daddy and Grandpa following behind.

Morgan and Sadie with Zoe and Elmo.

The Beach:
What trip to San Diego would be complete without the beach??  Here's Sadie and Papa Dale headed out to the water.

Morgan and Sadie playing in the water.

Coming Home:

Such a great trip just wore Sadie out!  Good thing it wasn't a full flight!

Morgan spent the duration of the flight writing a letter/birthday card for Papa Dale.

Getting Home:


5 inches of snow on the ground, a completely empty fridge, piles of laundry, and Sadie simply asks as she walks in the door, "Where did Grandma and Grandpa go??"
Even today, a week later, she asked, "Mommy, when do we see Grandpa and Grandma again?"

I'd say they (and Brian and I, too!) had a great trip!

My Favorite Things

I love lying in bed, early in the morning, listening to my girls giggle and sing.

This morning, Sadie came running down the hall into our room, only to tell me, "Mommy!  I'm sharing my bed with Morgan!"  Then, she ran back to her room--to continue singing with her sister.

They've been downstairs "cooking" for about 45 minutes now.  I don't dare bother them.  They'll come up when they're hungry for breakfast.

Oh, how I love my girls!

Quote of the Day

I know I haven't posted anything from our trip--that will come soon (maybe).  However, as I was preparing my Primary Lesson for tomorrow, I read this quote from the lesson and thought it's worth sharing.

“Habits are easily formed. It is just as easy to form good habits as it is to form evil ones.”

--Joseph Fielding Smith

Washing the Car

This afternoon, we decided to wash the cars.  No pics, thanks to Morgan breaking the camera a few weeks ago.  I'm miserable without it, but she's earning the money to replace it (well, part of the money) and being a pretty good sport about some of the grunt work I'm paying her 50 cents to do.  She's almost earned $15, which is what we decided her portion should be.  So, pictures returning soon!

Back to the post:

After getting each of the girls a bucket of freezing, but soapy, water and a rag, Brian started to explain to them how to "scrub" the car.  Morgan quickly interrupted him, saying, "Dad,  I already know how to wash a car.  I've seen Racing Stripes."  For those of you that may not know, Racing Stripes is about a Zebra in the horse races, NOT washing cars.  Still not quite connecting the two...

And, as far as pictures go, imagine Sadie running through the hose in 55 degree weather!  A little cold, but she kept going back for more!!  Crazy kid!

Sadie at "Gym"

Morgan's in a dance class at the rec center and it conveniently meets at the same time as tiny tot gym hour (kids under 5 can go with their parents).  For more info, click here.  So, Sadie and I go to "gym" every week while Morgan goes to dance class.  I think it really is the highlight of her week!  Her face lights up every Thursday morning when I tell her it's time to get ready for gym!  

Her favorite two things are the trampoline and the jumpy house (with a slide!), but she's getting really good at the balance beam and likes to swing the the parallel bars, too!

Papa Dale, We're Coming!

A couple of weeks ago, Morgan asked when she would see Papa Dale and Grandma Tammy again.  I told her we would be going to visit in a few weeks.  To be expected, she then asked, "Can we make a chain calendar to count down to our vacation?"  So, we did.  And just as she flashed this excited smile, she said, "Papa Dale, We're Coming!"  

Quote of the Day

I get a quote emailed to me everyday from RealSimple magazine.  This one describes our house exactly!!  PB & J everyday for lunch!  (On occasion, Morgan requests PB & H) “Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.”

― James A. Garfield

Holidays 2010

Christmas

Here's this year's Gingerbread House.  I attempted to do it myself with the girls.  Next year, we'll save it for family night!

Here's the Christmas Tree--ready for "Christmas" morning (we actually celebrated on the 19th so we didn't have to fly with presents).

Grandma Tammy and Papa Dale (bet you didn't know that's what you got them, Dad!) got Morgan and Sadie lots of new food for their kitchen.  Morgan especially loves the salad dressing and sugar.

Sadie's new baby came with a backpack, which she wouldn't take off the entire day!

Here are the girls in their Christmas dresses--thanks Grandma Tammy!

Great-Grandma Ginos gave the girls cupcake baking sets so we had to try them out!  They're a big hit!

Here's Sadie filling her cupcakes.

The first day of our trip we spent in Vegas with Freida.  

We went to Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and saw lots of fun fish and sharks!

We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe in MGM Grand.  Morgan really liked the volcano/waterfall.

M & M World (which, I'm disappointed to say that it's just 4 floors of M & M shopping) has a 3-D movie.  While the show was cute, the better entertainment came from the girls trying to reach the 3-D objects!  They loved it!!

Sadie, singing Frosty the Snowman in her new echo microphone.

When we got to Grandma and Grandpa Boring's house, the girls would have NOTHING to do with the cats or the dog.  Here's what 5 days around them does.  (Oh, and Morgan really did enjoy them, I just didn't get a shot with her smiling)

New Years

We celebrated the new year with our usual family-friendly party.  While all the adults were enjoying a game of Apples to Apples upstairs, the kids found the rice table (we filled our water table with rice for the winter) and proceeded to have a rice fight.  Nobody knows exactly what happened (they were actually not too loud), but we came down to a basement that looked like this:

Here's what all the carpets looked like:

After about 20 minutes of sweeping and vacuuming, we decided to celebrate the new year (we made it to just about 9:00 this year--a new record!).  Brian showered everyone with silly string, so we also vacuumed and swept upstairs.  

We finally got our first snow (well snow that was measurable) just before New Years so the girls went sledding.  They came inside with red noses, cheeks, and chins, grinning from ear to ear.  I think they had fun!

Here's to a great 2011!!  Happy New Year!

Why Haven't I Posted in a Month???

Because I've been sick.  Really, really, really sick.  Just ask Brian how much I've whined and complained about how sick I've been.  Did I mention I've been sick??

Due to our recent luck in the baby department, we decided to wait until we knew for sure (actually saw a baby in an ultrasound) before telling anybody.  So don't feel like we don't care about you if this is the first you've heard.  It's news to everyone.

We're expecting baby #3 in July!!  So, this time, sick is a good thing!

Georgetown 2010

In early December, we went up to the little mountain town of Georgetown, CO for their annual Winter Festival.  For those of you in my family, think Julian with snow.  It's the cutest little town and we loved it!

We started the day with a horse-drawn wagon ride through the town.  Our tour guide pointed out lots of fun facts about the town's history.  

 There's a museum in Georgetown, the Hotel de Paris, from the 19th century.  It's got lots of really neat artifacts and I really enjoyed the history behind it.  Go figure that the only picture we took was in the lobby, in front of an artificial Christmas tree.  You'll have to check out the link to see more.

Morgan is still talking about meeting Prancer, the reindeer.  She's hoping we can meet Rudolph when we go up next year.