Haircut Facade!

It amazes me how a haircut can change a child so much! It's crazy the difference! He looks so much older now!

Nolan on 3/5/09


1 week later after a haircut!

Our never-ending vacation 2009!

At Sea World

We have been so busy since the last time I posted. Mid March me and the kids headed to California to visit my Sis-in-Law. My brother is deployed and Joe was supposed to be in ALS so it was going to work out perfectly. Well, come to find out, Joe was told the wrong date for ALS and he actually wasn't scheduled to go until the following month. I already had tickets and I wasn't going to change my trip. So, after 2 weeks into my trip, he came out to join us. We traveled all over California once he got there. We went down to stay with his Aunt for a week. She lives in between San Diego and L.A. It was so fun to be around so much to do! We went to Sea World with the kids this time. Joe and I went last year and it was a lot of fun so we thought we would share it with our kids this year! We're so nice aren't we! The kids didn't like Shamu splashing them. The weather was a little cool to be getting splashed

Lauren wasn't sure whether to smile or cry after Shamu splashed us!

Nolan was so shocked we would do that to him!



by 52 degree water! We all dried and enjoyed the rest of our day there. The next day we went to Disneyland. It was hard to go with such young kids. It's hard to have a stroller we figured out b/c you can't take strollers in line with you....and there are lines for everything! The second day, we met Joe's brother and his family there. That second day we a lot more fun for us. It was very chilly, but it seemed like we were able to go on a lot more rides with more adults around. We decided to tackle the never-ending princess line first that day. It really wasn't too bad. Lauren was shy at first, but warmed up towards the end. We met Snow White, Aurora, and Pocohantas. She really didn't know who Pocohantas was, but that gives us another movie to introduce her to. We met Mickey afterwards. Nolan enjoyed playing with his big nose! That line actually wasn't too bad. Lauren went on a couple roller coasters. As you'll see on the pictures she loved them! Both Joe and I get really motion sick on rides so we always flip a coin to see who has to go on the rides with her! We both ended up getting a little sick by the end of the night! I hate rides! I don't know how we used to do it as kids. I remember loving the feeling when I was dizzy! So weird how our equilibrium changes as we get older!






Told you Lauren loved the roller coasters!

The oh so famous Mickey Mouse!

Snow White loved Joe's idea to bring the apple! Lauren was very shy with the princesses!

We had one more day to go to Disney, but we were so tired that we decided not to go back this trip! We decided that we will not be back until Lauren is about 8-10 years old! That will make our other kids old/tall enough to ride all the rides and to walk by themselves! The last couple days of our trip we just relaxed. We needed it after 3 days of theme parks! I think our favorite part of our vacation was the beach! We traveled down the coast on hwy 1 and saw some amazing views! As we traveled down by Tori Pines Golf Coarse ( I guess the US Open was held there last year...so my dad tells me), Lauren said something so funny! I was telling my dad on the phone that we just went to Tori Pines and Lauren overheard me say that and said said,"No mommy, Lauren Pines!" It was so funny b/c her cousin that we had been staying with is named Tori and she thought that we were using her name. I dont know if you were there it would have been more funny! The kids did so great on this entire trip. I will admit the beginning of our trip was rough. Me traveling alone all day with 2 kids and one shrinking lap with a baby on the way was a challenge! Nauseous and all, I made it through 2 connections and 10 hours of traveling on airlines! Never again though!!!!! The way home was so much better with Joe helping! I feel like Im leaving so much out, but I feel like we did so much that it's impossible to tell about everything! I feel very satisfied with this year's family vacation. Even though it wasn't planned, we are counting it for the year! Early in our marriage we decided that family vacations were important to us. We have done a good job so far at keeping our word to ourselves. Next year I think we are headed back to Florida. We really enjoyed that trip a lot. We would like to take the kids this time. They loved the beach so much. We would love to live near a beach someday!


Nolan kept resisting the hand-holding, but it still turned out cute!

Courtesy of Dan Capel

Lauren and Daddy building sand castles

It was so cool to see a live star fish!




Nolan loved pushing this truck around!