California, Part 2

We spent another two days in California after Disneyland.  It was the perfect way to end the trip.  Saturday, I got to go for a nice, long run (where I was THIS close to being hit by a car! but never mind), we went to Laguna Beach for a delicious breakfast and beach time, we swam at the hotel, and we ate dinner at Downtown Disney.  Cameron and I got to go out to a late movie with Brendan. It was POURING rain the entire mile walk home from Downtown Disney, but we survived.  

An artistic breakfast shot by Andy 

Sweet Maxy loved the beach 

Andy's pants stayed semi-dry for the first two minutes.

Then he ditched his pants to chase the waves with Dad. 

Andy did a self-portrait then wrote his name.

Sunday we got breakfast, walked around the Santa Monica Pier for a bit, then headed to the airport. 

Too bad Andy has no personality.

Max got lots of practice walking with Grandma.

Many thanks to Greg and Kathy for the best trip EVER!

Disneyland!!!

Cameron's parents took us to Disneyland a couple of weeks ago.  It was SO FUN.  Andy can't stop talking about it.  And I can't stop thinking about it.  We did a little countdown chain leading up to the trip, so Andy was absolutely bursting with excitement when it was finally the day to go.  We flew out on a Wednesday night.  Andy LOVED flying.  He still says that was the best part of Disneyland.  :) Max did great too.  

It's crazy to me that he thinks this was his first flight. I had the pleasure of flying with baby Andy 25+ times before he was 2.  And when I say "pleasure," I say it with complete sarcasm. Those flights with him were the WORST. Guess he loves it now. :)

Kathy bought Andy the cutest little Peter Pan costume to wear the first day of Disneyland.  He LOVED it.  (In fact, he peed his pants mid-day, and like the great parents we are, we let him keep wearing it because he was so devastated at the prospect of taking it off.)  He was like a celebrity that day!  People were taking pictures with him, everyone was saying, "Hello Peter!" (even the characters in the Parade!).  It was magical.  I think I'm converted to costume wearing while in Disneyland.  (For my kids.  I'm not that brave.)

We spent two days in the parks.  It was perfect.  Both boys were SO good.  Max is a dream.  He misses naps like a champ.  He gets a little loopy and sweet when he's tired, but he doesn't really get mad.  Max seemed to like the rides.  Andy loved the rides.  He loves fast rides and is tall enough for almost every ride.  In fact, I made the mistake of taking him on Tower of Terror.  (Worst Mom of the Year Award goes to me.)  The poor thing was scared to death.  He still talks about how scary the Alligator Ride was.  (alligator=elevator=tower of terror) In fact, the other night he prayed that he could go back to Disneyland, but not the Alligator Ride.  HA. He also did not like Pirates of the Caribbean.  Other than that, he loved every ride.  I think his favorites were the Mickey Ferris Wheel, the swings in California Adventure, the Teacups, Alice in Wonderland (he's obsessed with his movie for some strange reason)...and pretty much everything else.

Our first ride was the Finding Nemo Submarine.  

Poor Greg has had some health challenges lately, so he got to ride this super cool scooter while he was there.  And Andy got to steer sometimes.  Somehow he never crashed into anything. Or anyone.

Teacups Selfie!

Andy having tea with Grandma at Minnie's House.

Andy's favorite part was the "Hoorays." (AKA Parades) We went to the Disneyland Parade one day and the California Adventure Parade the next.  I'm not sure I've ever seen him so excited.  He also LOVED Fantasmic later that night.  He kept saying he wanted to watch the movie in the sky again.

Day 1 left him pretty exhausted. I think he peed his pants (again) on the way home.  Let's just say that costume was ready to be retired after Day 1.

Day 2, here we come! 

Here we are, waiting to go in California Adventure.  I got the opening times wrong BOTH days, so we ended up walking around killing time both mornings.  Ha!  I'm not sure Cameron will ever let me live it down. 

Max did SO well in the carrier waiting in lines. 

Andy on the Mickey Ferris Wheel.  His face would change from delight to terror as the cart would slide.

I think the Zephyr was Max's favorite ride.  He got to sit by himself and had this sweet look on his face the whole time. 

I spy Kathy, Andy, Cameron, and Brendan. 

Brendan made it for our second day of Disney.  My goodness, Andy loves him.

I'm not sure who this lady is, but she loved Andy.  And Max loved her stuffed dog.

The three of us got to hang out in the parks Friday night while Greg and Kathy stayed back with the sleeping boys.  Here we are on Space Mountain, which apparently didn't phase Brendan at all.  We also did California Screamin', Toy Story, and we "enjoyed" the line for Indiana Jones for 40 minutes before we gave up.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our trip! :)

Andy, 3 years 8 months

It's time to give a quick update on Andy!  This age is the BEST.  There are so many facets to Andy now, it's hard to really do a summary post about what he's like.  But I'll try. Andy continues to be the most excited person on the planet.  He makes everything so fun.  The lows are very low, but the highs are high.  He's headstrong.  He's tender.  He's a wonderful friend. 

A picture of the cutie on his first day of primary.

• Andy loves to do so many things.  If I ask him what he wants to do, his ideas are usually "the musideum" (Discovery Gateway), "the hot dog store" (Costco...samples, and of course, hot dogs.  What more could you want?), the park, or going to Grandma's and Grandpa's house.  He also loves going on walks and pointing out all sorts of things as we walk.  He's obsessed with doing puzzles lately.  And he's so good at them! He loves to go to school.  And as always, he loves to, "watch something."  He loves to cook with me.  He will stop whatever he's doing (even watching TV!), to grab his stool and come help me.  
• He is fearlessly social.  He thinks he's an adult.  We walked into McDonald's the other day, he walked straight up to the counter and told the worker he wanted "a cheese han-ga-bur."  He does this kind of stuff all the time.  His newest thing is that he likes to direct traffic.  He motions to cars when they can go.  Even grocery cart traffic at the store--he tells people, "Okay, wait!  Okay, now your turn!" He also marches up to people (kids or adults) and says, "What is your name?!" He says it almost accusingly?  It's pretty funny.  What a big personality he has. :)
• One thing that I love about him is how brave he is.  In the rare occasion that something might seem a little scary, he looks at me just to make sure everything is okay, gathers his courage, and just goes for it.  And usually gives me a thumbs up. :) I've seen it with swimming lessons and soccer.  A few weeks ago, he did the scripture in primary.  It was the first article of faith.  He had it memorized by the time he was supposed to say it.  I could tell he was slightly nervous when it was his turn, but he marched up there and said it so clearly in the microphone.  I was so proud. :) 
• He continues to have a crazy appetite.  He eats SO much food.  He loves eggs, pizza, tortillas (quesadillas), hot dogs, apples, and bananas.  He tends to like all breakfast and lunch food.  Dinner is a battle of wills.  He usually tells me he doesn't like whatever it is I've made.  I tell him that's what we're eating, and he can't have any other food until he finishes his dinner.  And there are many nights he ends up not eating anything.  :) Don't worry--he's still huge.  39 lbs and 42 inches.  
• My goodness, he's smart.  It's been so fun to see him become so academically interested lately!  I guess I always thought I'd hold him back a year since he has a summer birthday, but now I'm thinking not.  He loves to write his name (first and last!).  He loves to do his "learning book" with me.  (It's a pre-school book that preps for kindergarten.) Lately he's into figuring out which letter everything starts with.  He'll sit and say the word a few times, figure out what sound it starts with, and tell me which letter he thinks it is.  And he's usually right!  He loves to practice writing all his letters. I've also started doing "music lessons" with him.  Basically, it's me teaching him solfege for a couple minutes until he gets bored.  But he's done so well with it! It's so cute to see him do the hand signals.  And he gets the intervals right most of the time! 

  

  He loves to write his name. He's recently started to add his last name.

• He's the cutest little singer.  He loves primary songs--especially Follow the Prophet.  And I Love to See the Temple.  He loves to listen to music too.  He loves Frozen.  And "Cinderella" (AKA Into The Woods, which makes me very happy).  
• He always says to me, "What's next?" He always wants to know what our plans are for the day and for the next day.  He is so my child.  He's also obsessed with holidays and is constantly talking about whichever one is coming up.
• He's said some funny things lately.  The other day in church he tapped the a boy on the shoulder and said, "I'm getting baptized next Wednesday!" ??? No idea where that came from.  Also, he's always talking about how he dreams about Jesus.  I think it happened once, and I think I gave a positive reaction so he always talks about dreaming about Jesus now.  I'm not sure where he picked this up, but he's always saying "in the nearby town."  It doesn't make any sense.  The other day he told Cameron, "I love you in the nearby town." He also has a fascination with his birthday, even though it's still a few months away.  "I want a reindeer for my birthday." "I want a girl for my birthday so I can squeeze her." ??? He's a crazy kid, but we sure love him. :)

Silly guy.

His favorite part of baking with me. :)

He LOVES the kid carts at Smith's. I must admit I'm not all that disappointed when there are none available. ;)

Puzzle genius!

Eating a hot dog at the Hot Dog Store.  Pretty much the best-case scenario in his little life.