Sea World

One thing we did while in San Diego other than enjoy the beach was Sea World.

We had a fun time visiting Sea World.

Ella Jane was pumped for her day!  She's looking too cute for Sea World!

It was a fun day with this sweet girl!

The kids picked a clam to find a pearl.

We got a blue pearl and decided to make Kiersten a turtle necklace with it.  I forgot to take a picture of the necklace but it was pretty.  Expensive of course but pretty.

This is the kids going on the Atlantis ride.

Grant was thrilled that he was big enough to ride it.

Pretty fun ride.

One day I hope to swim with dolphins.  They are such beautiful animals!

We got stuck on the Manta ride for about 15 minutes.  Made for a good story.

Logan balled that he didn't want to go on this ride.  We eventually forced him to go and he LOVED it!  He rode it about 4 more times because he loved it so much.  Silly kid.........I knew he would love it.

Silvio and Kirsten were stuck on the ride with us.  we enjoyed talking to all the people down below waving at us as we sat stuck on the ride.

Grant was sure happy to find the "best" stuffed animal ever.  A momma turtle with her baby!

It was a pretty exhausting day for little Ella!

Waiting for the dolphin show to start.  It was pretty hot sitting up there in the bleachers.  After awhile Ella had enough of the direct heat.

Justin usually gets pooped on by a bird at Sea World but this trip he was spared :)

Look at those arm rolls.  What a pretty baby Ella is!

Watching the dolphins do their jumps and flips is pretty darn cool.

The Shamu show is a must.

Justin and I still remember when they use to let the trainers swim with the whales in the show.  Until one trainer was drowned by a whale.  It was a pretty impressive show back then.  

The kids all wanted to sit in the soak zone and so we did.  It got two thumbs up from Grant.  We all got wet and smelt a bit fishy but it was fun none the less!

It was a fun day at Sea World!

Board Walk

It really was a relaxing vacation being able to stay right on the boardwalk.  We didn't have to load stuff up to go to the beach.  When Ella needed a nap we were right there.  We even let the kids go out and play on the beach and could watch them from the front patio of the house.  It was awesome!

What great kids these are!  They made great beach bums for sure!

Kiersten was so sweet and gave me a side braid to rock my beach look!

It's great having a teenage girl to help me with my style!

I am so grateful that Justin was able to get away with us for the week.  It was the day before we were leaving and he was telling me he wasn't sure if he could get away.  I have gone on plenty of trip with the kids by myself.  But this was one I was not willing to go on without him.  I expressed to him the anxiety I was having of taking 6 kids to the beach for the week by myself and he kindly agreed he would put us first and work second this time.  My heart was full of love and appreciation for him. He  did spend some time during the week working remotely from my laptop, taking lots of phone calls, emailing, helping workers back home finish a bid and much more.  I was understanding of him doing that and never mentioned a word to him about the time he spent working while on vacation.

I am thankful to be married to such a wonderful man!

The boys all spent the money they had earned on skateboards while in Cali.

Grant had such a good time riding his skateboard up and down the boardwalk.  Having so many people tell him how cute he looked doing it didn't hurt :)

I mean look at him he is pretty darn cute if you ask me!

Mission Beach, San Diego

This was the first year Pima had a Fall Break.  We decided to check something off my bucket list.  We rented a gorgeous beach house right on the boardwalk on Mission Beach!  Boy it didn't disappiont!

The whole wall of windows retracted so you could really enjoy the beach view.

We was such a great beach house!  

The kids were in heaven the whole time!

Ella is a pretty big fan of the beach herself.  She had several handfuls of sand over the course of the week.

I love getting away with my little family.

The beach is one of my favorite placed to get away to.

We sure enjoyed the weather.  The water was the warmest it's ever been.  Even all the locals were telling us that we came at a great time because the water was nice and warm.

Sure love my girls!

Hunter decided to build a place for Ella to play.

Grant LOVES Silvio!

Looking good........he made seats and everything!

Look at that adorable sandy face!

Looks like a perfect place to relax.  Great job Hunter!

How did I get so lucky to have these handsome men in my life?

Kirsten laid on the beach and fell asleep just like this.  I think this picture shows her love of the beach and ocean!

I am pretty sure Silvio is fond of his baby sister Ella Jane!

And I think Ella feels the same way about him!

Mr. Grant loved feeding all the seagulls.  In a matter of seconds he had 30 or more of them practically eating out of his hand.  He thought it was the coolest thing ever!

I love this beach baby of mine!

Hunter is such a thoughtful big brother.  He made Ella her own little oasis.  He gave her a bucket of water which kept her totally entertained!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

I love our tradition of dressing up for Halloween. This year we had the perfect number of people to do the Wizard of Oz.   I have to say I was super excited about our costumes this year!!

Justin- Flying Monkey

Becky- Glinda the Good Witch

Silvio- Lolipop Kid

Kiersten- Dororthy

Hunter- Tin Man 

Logan- Scarecrow

Grant- Cowardly Lion (just don't tell him he was cowardly...lol)

Ella Jane- Toto

When we were deciding on costumes this year I explained to Silvio about our whole tradition.  I asked him if he wanted to dress up with us and he DID!!! YAY!  I showed him different costumes he could pick from and he decided he wanted to be a Flying Monkey.  And Justin was suppose to be the lollipop kid.  When the costumes arrived it was immediately apparent that the lollipop kid costume WAS NOT going to fit Justin even though it was an adult large.  So being the good sport that Silvio is, he said it was fine and he would be the lollipop kid!

Kiersten was super excited for her and Ella to have these costumes.  I sure love my girls and I love that I get to experience having two girls.  What a great blessing in my life!

I Love my Toto!!!

Ella was such a good sport to wear this costume.  She did a great job and is the cutest Toto in history!

It was such a fun Halloween season!

U of A Showcase

The first morning we were over in Tuscon I was able to meet my sweet cousin Sabra for brunch at Ghinis Caffe.  The food was delicious and the company even better!

I wish I would have taken a picture with her.  She is such a great person and I wish I got to see her more often.

Kirsten's dance group was invited to attend the U of A dance showcase this year.  They performed their contemporary number Go Down Singing.  It was so beautiful and they totally nailed it.  Jenny has never had such a young group of dancers be accepted into that showcase so it was a proud moment for Kiersten.

We did a little target shopping.  We acted like a couple of teenagers and it was so much fun!

The girl had lots of classes, besides dancing in the showcase.  So while they were in classes Wendy and I played!  It was a blast!  We watched a movie at the newRoadhouse Cinemas.

It was awesome.  Recliners, food delivered right to you during the movie.  All you had to do is press a button and write down on a piece of paper what you wanted and they would bring it to you.  At the end of the movie they brought you your check and you paid for you food.

Such a beautiful group of dancers!

This is Kirsten's group known as Dance Extreme!

They are all such great girls and Kirsten loves being a part of their group!

Not only are they fun but they are wicked talented!

Yep acting like teenagers and loving it! 

#wearetotallycoolandweknowit

Wendy was pretending to take a picture of me but was really taking a selfie of because her and they guy behind her had matching shirts on.  It was so funny!

Thanks for the fun Wendy!

I sure love you!

And I really love my weekends away with my sweet Kiersten for dance events!

Worker Boy!

To say Grant LOVES tractors is a huge understatement!!!

This kid will sit and watch tractors working for hours and hours!

Justin had 3 workers at our house today working on getting the pad ready for our new pool.  

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Grant sat in his "foreman chair" and watched them for hours on end.

He was suppose to go to preschool today but, "the guys needed him!"

I could not argue with that!  One of the workers put a vest on him and let him be the flagger.

He told the worker, "okay I can do that, but I am still the foreman!"

Grant is in pure heaven today!

He loved every minute of his day!

Pretty sure the bare feet are against MSHA though.  

Grant was thrilled when his daddy paid him $5 and a kit lat for his hard days work!

One day the workers were at our house again digging and moving the retention pond behind the storage unit.  The tractor operator accidentally hit the storage unit and Grant was right there to see it! He ran in the house yelling, " I have to call dad! I have to call dad!"

So he explained to me what had happened and I let him call Justin.  It was so cute to hear Grant being a good foreman and letting his boss know what had happened!  I guess before Justin had left for work early that morning Grant told him, "Dad I'll watch the workers and tell you if you need to fire any!"

Justin got quite a kick out of that.  When Grant had him on the phone he asked Justin if he was going to fire that worker.  Hahaha!  So cute!  

He is going to make a great boss one day!  He even went and got the workers gatorades from the fridge when they were taking their break!