Our Big Vacation, Part 3 - Carah

I have REALLY been slacking in the blogging department lately! I apologize for everyone who has been waiting to see these pictures! I have been really busy at work and just haven't found the time to type out all of the fun details from our vacation. Be sure to scroll down to look over the past few blogs to see all the pictures. It was too much to do all at once!


This was the last leg of our vacation in early August. Grandma Linda, Shane, and I drove from Southern CA over to Las Vegas to visit with Uncle Cory, Aunt Janice, and baby Carah. Shane did great in the car until he woke up from his nap and we were in the middle of the desert with NO WHERE to pull over. We listened to hysterical crying for about half an hour before we finally reached the only rest stop. It was awful, but check out the great mood he was in when we finally made it to his cousin's house.





Carah is now 7 months and is OH SO CUTE! Auntie Jill was able to get all the cute smiles from her.








Shane likes to talk about "Baby Carah" a lot, but once we actually got to see her he didn't want anything to do with her. She was checking out all his toys and drooling over his cheese puffs and NO WAY was he going to share! This was probably the closest he got to her the entire trip!




I convinced my brother that we needed to go out Friday night. After all it was the weekend...in Las Vegas...and I drove alllll that way to see them! It was Janice's first night out in almost 2 years since becoming pregnant. Her sister came along with us and we danced the night away at Pure at Caesar's Palace. It was lots of fun...but don't ask how everyone was feeling the next morning :)




Due to all the fun we had the night before, we kept our last night simple and ate at our hotel and went bowling. Shane became very jealous of "his Gramma" holding baby Carah so we tried once again to get them to sit together, but it was not very successful. Look how much Carah loves her big cousin though!



Shane always has a great time hanging out with his Uncle Cory.



It was already 92 degrees at 9am on the morning we left. We had a great visit, but it was way too hot and I was ready to get the show on the road. I bribed Shane with toys and tried to get him to take a picture with Carah and I before we left...semi-successful!



We left at 10am and I didn't walk into the house until 10pm. It was the most driving I have ever done in my life! Shane did soooo very well for how long of a drive it was. Thank goodness for Grandma Linda to take care of Shane in the back seat. And we wouldn't have survived the trip without the portable DVD player because all the wanted to do was watch Cars the whole way home!! I was cranky, tired, and sore, but we finally made it back. We really had a wonderful time and can't wait to see everyone again! Preferably up at our house :)

Our Big Vacation, Part 2 - Samantha

I took an entire week off of work to visit both of my brothers. Our big vacation started with Grandma Linda, Shane, and I driving down to Southern CA to visit my brother Kevin, his wife Kathy, and my niece Samantha. I was really looking forward to this trip since I had never been to my brother's house before and we so rarely get to see them. It was a 7 hour car ride and Shane did so good. I was really impressed that we didn't have one single meltdown or temper tantrum the whole way there!!

Kevin and Kathy have a beautiful house and yard. It was so nice to be outside on the patio enjoying the beautiful Southern CA weather. Samantha and Shane may not look like they are having too much fun in this picture, but they were!





Samantha LOVES cats and she let Shane help her line them all up so they could count how many she has. Samantha was being really sweet with Shane. He loves to be a big helper! She had over 70!!

ALL MINE!!!

The next day we went drove about an hour to go to the Los Angeles Zoo. We were really looking forward to it since Shane had never been to the zoo before. We left the beautiful 85 degree weather to venture into 100 degrees. Shane refused to sit in the stroller after the first 5 minutes and demanded that Mama be the only one to carry him. Then we walked really far up hill to get to the train, only to find out it was closed. It was smelly and hot and there were bees everywhere. Needless to say it was pretty miserable, we didn't take any pictures and left after having lunch...and a beer or two! Here is the only photo we had taken at the front gate...Samantha already looked miserable!




Once we got back to the house we busted out the slip 'n slide and Shane had fun pretending to shoot the hose.





The next day we went to the beach and it was wonderful! Southern CA beaches are soo much nicer than Northern CA beaches. We brought a couple other kids with us that day and they all had a blast digging holes and running up and down the beach. Shane even played in the ocean for the very first time. He LOVED it and kept saying "MORE, MORE!" I wish we could have gotten that on video!

My surfer boy!

Let's see if this sand tastes like the sand back home...

Shane's first sand castle

Uncle Kevin and Shane taking a break in the shade

Checking out the BIG hole the kids made

We got back to the house and all the big kids were really sweet to Shane and included him in all the fun they were having. They even took turns pulling him around in a tiny wagon. He thought it was great!



Thank you Kevin, Kathy, and Samantha for having us at your beautiful house and for being such great hosts! We can't wait to see you guys again!!

Our Big Vacation, Part 1 - Cooper

We took a little trip up to Redding to visit with my cousin Monika and her family who were visiting from WA. It was 112 degrees while we were up there!!! HOT! We spent most of the time in the house or at the poor nearby. Cooper and Shane got to hang out last Thanksgiving, but boy how they have changed since then! We had a great time hanging out with them and watching the boys interact. Here they are playing with Whitney the turtle.

They liked to do all the same things...we called this bucket head.

Good morning!

Shane saw this cool "motorcycle" out in front of the pool and had to sit on it...so did Cooper!

Checking out the patio at the pool

The Grandmas and their boys

We tried to get the boys in the pool,
but neither one of them lasted very long.

Daddy and Shane lounging at the pool

Niki got a TON of toys for the boys to play with while there were visiting. Only a Grandma would get this much stuff for only a few days of vacation. They loved it :)







There is lots of wildlife to explore around Niki's house. The boys always get so excited when the deer show up!

Of course they both had to sit on this little deer.
Shane was confused I think!

Playing with Whitney one last time before we left!