Sea World

We headed down to San Diego for a week long family vacation.  We had a blast and we all came home exhausted as well!  Our first stop was Sea World!  We had it all planned out that we would wake up around 7:30, get ready, eat breakfast and then head to Sea World.  When we got to our room the radio on the alarm clock was on so Easton was playing around with it trying to figure out how to turn it off.  I'm assuming during this time he somehow managed to turn the clock ahead 2 hours.  When Nathan woke up around what he thought was 7:30 he woke the whole family up too!  It turned out that it was really 5:30 in the morning!  I guess that explains why it was still dark outside and why we all were so tired.  It probably wouldn't have been a problem if we hadn't woke Dyer up.  Once that boy is up, he is up, and there is no way to get him back to sleep.  On the bright side we were one of the first people to get to the breakfast room so there were no lines and we also got to make a stop to the beach before the park opened!

Playing in the sand/ocean.

Dyer checking out the water (of course) with Dad.

Easton got drenched by the time we left.

Blair was more content playing in the sand.  

Video of the kids:

This shows exactly how the kids are.  Dyer is all about the water, Easton's right in the middle (enjoys both the water and the sand), and then there is Blair who wants nothing to do with the water.

Video of Dyer trying to play in the water:

Easton petting a legless lizard.

Touching a crab.

Polar Bear

Walrus  

Dyer was screaming when this guy came swimming by.  I'm pretty sure it was a very excited scream!  One where finger pointing and dancing was accompanied with it.  I wish that I would have gotten it on tape because it was rather cute and entertaining.  

Beluga Whale

Yes, they were fighting over the wheel.  I love their facial expressions (especially Blair's).

I guess Blair won!  She probably used one of her favorite lines, "Ladies first, Easton!"

We saw the killer whale show!

We sat in the splash zone.  Luckily we didn't get wet since Dyer was fast asleep in my arms.  I'm sure that would have been a rude awakening to get drenched in your sleep.

Touching the sting rays.

It helped that the people beside us bought food to feed them so the rays kept coming close to us.

Dyer still asleep!  He was one tired little guy but I don't blame him since he was up at 5:30 that morning!

These little guys cracked me up with the loud noises they made to beg for food.

Video of the seals begging for food:

We also watched the dolphin show!  I thought this was the best show!

Video of the dolphins pushing the swimmers:

Video of the divers:

The kids really enjoyed the Sesame Street area.  Dyer had fun in the little toddler area playing with the soft blocks.

Video of Dyer:

He is such a little bully!

Blair and Easton had fun on the obstacle course. 

Easton jumping

Blair jumping

The boys riding Abby's starfish ride.

The girls riding together.

Nathan and Easton on the Elmo ride.

Blair and Nathan

Dyer of course loved the splash zone!  

The people across the way thought Dyer was the cutest thing ever.  They couldn't help but laugh every time the water shot up into Dyer's face.  The water shut off for a little bit and they all kept trying to figure out how to turn it back on because they enjoyed watching Dyer so much.  The water didn't end up coming back on until sometime after we left and got Dyer changed out of his swimsuit. 

Nathan and I took turns going on the Manta ride.  Definitely a must if you ever go to Sea World!  Easton really liked the sky tower ride and he wanted something like that for every park we went to after that.

Random Stuff

We went to Chuck E Cheese with Valerie and my friend Rachel and her kids.  We had a great time!  For some reason I only managed to take a couple of pictures and the ones that came out the best were only of Blair.  Haha!  Kind of funny how that works out.

Blair on the huge rocking horse.

Blair on the swing.  She LOVED this thing.  I swear she spent the majority of her tokens on this thing.  If you look closely Valerie and Dyer are in the background.  

I wanted to take family pictures before church, but of course that didn't work out so we tried to get some after church.  This happened to be the best one:

Silly Easton!

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Easton!

Easton and Blair are in gymnastics together this time!  Luckily for Easton there is another boy in the class.  I was a little worried that he would be the only boy.The first class was really crazy since there were double the amount of kids and they were a lot younger than the kids Blair was with the first time.  There should be two teachers next time the meet.

Video of Blair on the balance beam with a little help:

She is getting a lot better!

Video of Easton on the beam :

Video of Easton doing high kicks on the beam:

Not sure what was going on with my camera.

Video of Blair doing high kicks:

Video of Easton doing the beam all by himself:

Video of Blair doing the beam by herself:

Video of Easton jumping on the trampoline: 

Video of Blair jumping on the trampoline:

I'm constantly shutting the bathroom doors and telling Easton and Blair all the time to shut the door to the bathroom because Dyer LOVES to play with/in the toilet.  He loves to splash in the water.  He loves to put anything and everything (especially toilet paper) in the toilet.  And apparently his new not so favorite thing is to put himself into the toilet!  Luckily once he somehow manages to get himself into the toilet he's not a huge fan!  This was the second time I caught him in the toilet so I had to get it on film since I didn't the first time.  Here's Dyer in all his glory:

Wouldn't you think if you didn't like it the first time that you probably shouldn't do it again?  I guess he just had to make sure!  He hasn't done it since so maybe he has learned his lesson.

 Such good helpers!

 Blair rolling out her dough for her own pizza!

Easton putting cheese on his own pizza!

Children's Museum

We took the kids to the children's museum just outside San Francisco.  We thought most of the museum would be inside but we were wrong.  We all looked and felt rather silly in short sleeves and shorts when the weather outside was below 60 degrees.  We saw many people walking around with scarfs and coats.  It was that cold!  We still managed to have a good time despite the fact that we were freezing.

Nathan and Dyer walking to the Children's Museum.

See how cold my kids are?

Easton's face says it all!  Do you notice the wind blowing the grass?

Dyer checking things out!

Easton and Blair drawing with chalk.

Blair found a xylophone.

 Video of Easton and Blair playing the xylophones together:

Dyer got in on the action too!

Easton and Dyer playing with the foam blocks and noodles.

Dyer loved this!

Video of Dyer:

Dyer enjoyed crawling through Easton's road.  Easton however wasn't a huge fan.

Easton with his finished road/tunnels.  

Do you notice all the people in the background?  They all were smart and wore pants and long sleeves.

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the museum.

Blair chilling out in a tunnel.

Blair and Dyer playing in the rocks/construction zone.

Blair climbing on top of the boat.

Easton and Blair climbing to the crow's nest.

Easton's first day of Kindergarten!!!

Easton started Kindergarten on August 22nd.  I know he was really excited to go to Kindergarten but I could tell that he was pretty nervous about it too.  He got to meet his teacher (Ms. Crummey-Smith) two days before school started and I think that helped a lot.  He found out that one of his good friends from preschool/church was going to be in his class.  I could tell that he was really excited about this and I was glad that he had at least one person he knew pretty well in his class. 

Video of Easton the morning of his first day of kindergarten:

We went out the day before school started and bought him some clothes and his back pack.  I don't generally wait until the last minute but I didn't realize until we met his teacher (two days before school started) that he needed a BIG back pack so off we went!

Easton

Dinosaur back pack!  

I had to get a picture of his bag because it cracks me up how big it is on him.  I wouldn't be surprised if we could squish Easton up in a ball and fit him inside of it.

Attempt #2 at getting all the kids in a group shot.  Dyer is still not cooperating.  

Of course we had to do a silly one!

I'm excited that I get to start volunteering in Easton's class this week.  Valerie said she would take Dyer for me so I could help out so I'm helping out twice a month when Blair's at preschool.  

After the first week of school I asked Easton if he still liked school and he said, "Not a whole lot because I don't like to get up early, I don't like to walk to school, and I REALLY don't like to work!"  Haha!  Well Mr. Easton you better get used to it because you have 9 1/2 more months of kindergarten and at least 13+ years of school left!  Wish us luck this year!

Blair's first day of pre-school

Blair finally started her first official day of preschool on the 14th of August.  She was so excited and is still excited about preschool.  She only goes twice a week (Tues. and Thurs.) but she asks everyday if she gets to go to "PEE-school".  She gets upset when it's not her day to go.  Speaking of PEE...Blair is officially potty trained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Did you notice all the exclamation marks? Ya, you could say that I'm pretty excited about this.  I kept telling her that she couldn't go to preschool until she was potty trained (this was my rule not Valerie's.  Valerie would have let Blair go anyways).  Almost everyday for a whole month I was counting down the days for her.  Seriously two days before preschool started was when she finally decided to go full time on the toilet.  Not sure what to label this one....clever, stubborn, turkey....maybe all the above!  In any case I finally found something that motivated her enough, even if she waited until the last minute.  About a week later she was night time potty trained as well.  WAY TO GO BLAIR!!!

Happy little girl!

Thanks to gymnastics Blair likes to pose like this too!

Tried to get pictures of all the kids together.  Ya, that didn't work out all that well.

I thought standing in the windows might work well for Dyer since he generally loves looking and playing in the windows.  That didn't last long enough.

One in the middle together...

Dyer's gone but these two sure are cute!

Best Big Brother Award here!  

Easton was insistent that he carry Blair's back pack for her.

And he's ready to go...

One more group shot!

Blair started school a week before Easton so while she was at school the boys and I took a trial run to see how long it would take us to walk/ride to Easton's school.

Easton rode his bike and it actually takes him longer to ride his bike then to walk.

Easton standing outside his school.

The 14th also marked mine and Nathan's 8th anniversary.  We celebrated with the kids by eating cake.

Happy Anniversary Handsome!  Love you always!

Gymnastics

Blair had tons of fun with gymnastics (nastics-as Blair calls it) and can't wait until her next set of classes to start.

"Swimming through the foam pit"

Video of Blair on the beam:

Blair on the beam

 Video of Blair doing a somersault:

Video of Blair doing a back somersault:

End of a back somersault

Hanging on the bars

Last day of nastics

Waving!

Video:

Blair's supposed to run, jump, and land on both feet in a continuous motion.   She is, however, doing a lot better than the last time they worked on this.

Video:

I just had to include this one because it makes me laugh/smile to see her twirl around.