Trip to the Zoo

The last activity for our day in Santa Barbara was a trip to the zoo. You can tell it's been a long and fun day by looking at Lillie's hair in the photo. The kids favorite activity at the zoo is to slide down the artificial hill on cardboard. This is how Californian's go sledding...at you don't even get cold! We watched the "How to Train Your Dinosaur" show, which was pretty drawn out until the t-rex came out, then it was really cool! Henry thought the t-rex was real and tried to run up on stage. It was quite realistic. After the show, we went around to a few of our favorite animals, only getting pictures of two. No worries, we've got passes so we'll be back.

500!

The last post I did was the 500th post on this blog.  Phew!  That's a lot.  But it does make me so happy knowing that most of those posts represent memories of our family and that we will always have these posts to refer to.  I don't always love posting on the blog, it usually feels like a chore, but I do know that it is worth it to take the time.

Santa Barbara Pier and Pizza

After the butterfly preserve, we headed in Santa Barbara for lunch at the pizza place with the lighthouse across from the beach. I don't even know what it's called, we just looked for the lighthouse. We had eaten there a couple times back when Lillie was two and we had come up to Santa Barbara on a weekend vacation with friends. After our bellies were full, we crossed the street and set up camp on the beach. The kids played in the sand, Lillie and Eric went to find shells and cool rocks and I soaked up the sun. It was so hot for January! I guess I could have cooled off in the ocean, but it is WAY too cold. Henry is so awesome at the beach. Give him a shovel and a bucket and you won't hear another thing out of him.  He is definitely a beach bum!

Coronado Butterfly Preserve

Last Saturday we went to visit the monarchs! Every winter, monarch butterflies west of the Rocky Mts. come to the central coast to "overwinter". They congregate in eucalyptus forests near the beaches.  It was a very warm weekend and so the butterflies were very active, flying all around you while you walked.  It was really neat and beautiful.

American Girl Craft Birthday Party

Lillie turned 5 on the 16th and to celebrate, she invited over 3 of her friends and their dolls. Lillie had SO MUCH FUN! This girl loves playing with friends. It's fun to see her interacting with others, I felt like I got a glimpse of what Lillie in ten years will be like. My baby is growing up!

Lillie's American Girl Craft Party

Chocolate cupcakes are a pain to clean out of the carpet. Lesson learned.

The dolls had their own table with mini cupcakes

Molly wearing her new outfit bought with birthday money from Eric's parents.

Party crew. Such cute little girls!

A handmade birthday card, such great drawings.

The girls decorated mini tiaras for the dolls, party bags and frames that will hold a picture of them with their doll. But their favorite thing: jumping on the trampoline with balloons. I shouldn't have planned for anything else.

32

Eric's 32nd birthday was on Friday, the 11th. I made him breakfast (which never happens), took cupcakes to work, took him out to lunch and we went out for dinner as a family. A friend had offered to watch our kids in the evening so the plan was to go to the Hobbit, playing in town. Well, I guess I had checked too far in advance at what was playing because it wasn't there on Friday night. There were four movies playing, but nothing we'd want to see. So I decided that we should head out to the base to go bowling, since there really is nothing else to do in in town. Well, when we got there we found out that they were all booked for the night, since there really is nothing to do around there. Anyway, so we went back and picked up our kids and called it a night. A birthday flop. Ugh, frustrating.

We showed up at Eric's work with cupcakes and picked him up for lunch.

Eric's thoughts on turning 32.

Fantastic Five Year Old

This little girl made me a mama five years ago. They have been the best five years of my life. I love this girl! Happy Birthday, Lillie! I told her the other day that I didn't want her grow up, that I didn't want her to turn five. And her reply was, "I know why you don't want me to turn five, because then I'll be smarter than you!"

Bill's Island 2012

The day after Christmas we headed up to the cabin at Island Park despite snowy roads. We spent the next four days snowmobiling, sledding, playing in the snow, playing games and eating. Lots of eating. It was a really fun time, I'm so glad that we got to go up there. It was our first time going to the new cabin and since it's so far from where we live, who knows when we'll get to go up there again.

The last picture was taken on Sunday morning, the day that we left and drove ALL DAY back to California (that is why Lillie is crying in the photo, she did not want to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa). Seriously, we left at 7:45 am and got to our house at 2:30 am. We hit some bad roads around Beaver and Cedar City, which slowed us down a bit. We were fish tailing with our bald tires going 35 mph. But other than that, it was a pretty easy trip. Surprisingly easy, the kids were pretty good, for which, I am very grateful! I know that was a blessing from Heavenly Father. Of course I still wish that we could have gone to Washington, we haven't been there for Christmas since before we had children, but I am so grateful that we had a wonderful plan B and got to spend time with Eric's family: great grandparents, grandparents, cousins, etc. They are such great people, we are so blessed. DISCLAIMER: I know some day Henry will hate looking at these photos with him wearing pink and purple snow clothes. Eric's cousin was nice enough to lend us them, she's got three daughters. Henry, it's better than freezing to death or staying inside!