Thanksgiving!

It's hard to believe it's already Thanksgiving again, right? It seems like we were just going to be beach and the SD Fair, now it's already November! We decided to stay in San Diego for the holiday and have a few military pals over for lunch. I spent most of the day preparing everything for tomorrow, so no real cooking will be happening in the morning just a lot of putting things in the oven. 

As I type there are three pies cooling on the counter. I'll have to get back to you on how that actually turns out after they are cut and sampled. I've never made a pie before tonight and I'm pretty sure I just invented a scrambled egg pecan pie... I have delusions of grandeur because my mom is maybe the best cook in North America, so after my pecan pie fiasco I think I've been knocked back into reality. The recipe said brown the butter, then add other ingredients. I added eggs first and they started to cook before I could add the other things in, so it was like egg drop pecan pie filling. Like I said, I'll just have to report back about that... 

Happy Thanksgiving from Gray! 

I may not say it enough, but I have so many things to be thankful for and I love having a holiday just to reflect on those things one day every year. I am most thankful for having the most wonderful husband on Earth, a crazy/perfect little boy, fabulous family, amazing friends, good health, a nice home, a warm bed, plenty of food to eat, and a Heavenly Father that loves me more than I can imagine. How can I not be thankful today? Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Boyz II Men!

I heard about a Boyz II Men concert coming to San Diego several months before it actually happened. It was the weekend after my birthday, so I thought maybe Josh and I would go together. The USMC had other plans, and sent him to Yuma for a month, which left Gray and I to do something fun all on our own. Luckily he is too little to have any opinions so I got to plan a super fun birth-week celebration which included a 3 day trip back to Disney and a Boys II Men concert in Oceanside! 

A friend wanted to go with us to the concert, so we got in line and accidentally found he house from Top Gun!! It's all fenced up so you can't go in, but it was still pretty neat to see. I did a little google research to see if it was the actual house and found out that the other houses on the street had been torn down or moved, but this one was saved due to its 15 minutes of fame. There are plans to move it to another location, but it hasn't been moved yet. 

On to the concert! It was in an open air concert venue, right next to the water. The Oceanside pier doesn't give good concert views, but I'm sure it still sounded nice to those lucky people who were on the pier that night. They sang for close to two hours, and they sounded amazing in concert. I was also impressed that after 20+ years, they still have all those fancy choreographed dance moves! 

Passing out roses. The 40-50 year olds were loving it! 

Gray on stage after the concert ended.

The venue has stadium seats, so we sat down with Gray instead of fighting the crowd for a closer view. Gray danced, ran, drank lots of water, and whined because it was hot, but I think he did a pretty well at the concert. We did go stand close to the stage (within a few feet of the Boyz) a few times, but Gray was more interested in dancing than watching the concert. Not a bad first concert experience for the Monkey.

Summer Fun!

How about a random post with a bunch of pictures that totally don't match? OK! 

Josh celebrated a birthday, and Gray picked out the cake. There were so many dirt movers on the cake, we almost didn't have enough room for all of the candles. Gray still talks about this cake! 

We stopped by the Pacific Beach firehouse because Gray saw a firetruck come back and was dying to check it out. The firemen were so nice, they let Gray get on one of the trucks and try on one of their super heavy hats! 

Gray got a new hat from the Padre's store, and he wore it constantly until he lost it. Luckily they had not sold out of them before the next game we went to and he got a replacement (that I quickly tagged with my phone number)! He is very serious about coloring in this picture. Or returning crayons to the box.

Fun times at the Safari Park!

Gray lined his boots up by his Daddy's. Awww.
Had to get a shot of that! 

Gray is officially a big boy. No more crib in his room! 

Leaving a Padre's game with Daddy! 

He is so cute, but I'm so scared this is going to end in the ER. 

He is getting TOO big! 

Babysitting two big girls. Fletch is dating both sisters on the sly.  

Skateboarding in the neighborhood! 

Josh taught him how to ride on his bottom. Much less scary for me! 

Sprinkler time! 

Rinse off after playing at the beach! 

Walking Fletch in the neighborhood.  

Beach Day! 

Fletch recovering from a walk. 

Gray gets a hideous hair cut/style.
He looks in the mirror and says 'My hair looks stupid.' 

Bike rides to dinner in Pacific Beach. 

Worst Blogger Award goes to... ME!!

It seems like a million years since my last post (I'm back dating this and a few others so they will show up in the right place time-wise. Don't judge me.), but I'd like to blame a fun filled summer for part of my absence. We went to the San Diego State Fair, celebrated Christmas in July, spent time at the beach, and a lot of other things I plan to fill you in on as fast as I can post. Gray also played soccer on base. I think I shared one picture a few months back, but here are a few more from his final game.  

This is misleading because normally Gray ran the opposite direction
or simply sat in the grass and refused to participate. 

Half-time photos.
(Josh had just shaved his head for a costume the night before in case you were wondering.) 

Gray and his GF. They are in a very serious relationship. 

Gray's trophy!!  

End of the season party. 

Sit tight, because I've got loads more to update the blog with and tons of pictures to share!  

Busy Weekend.

Several Marines from Josh's squadron came home from a 7 month deployment last Thursday. I couldn't miss my friend's spouses homecoming, so Gray and I went to the squadron to join the festivities. Gray was wearing his cammies and his Daddy's wings, so as Gray left the house he waved and said "I'm going to work."

Too cool for pics with Mommy. 

If you ever have the chance to go to a military homecoming, I would highly recommend it. I haven't ever been to a homecoming where I didn't cry. I tend to be a cryer anyway, but how can you NOT get a little misty when seeing people reunited for the first time in months? I know how excited I was the day Josh got home, but seeing my friends reunited with their husbands is almost as good as if it were my own day to celebrate. There is nothing more special than that first hug and kiss after so much time apart. The days before Josh came home felt like I was getting ready for our wedding with all of the anticipation and excitement in the air. Deployments aren't fun, but homecomings are so amazing they almost make you forget about all the things that he missed or that you had to deal with alone. Almost. 

Legoland!

At the last minute we backed out of our plans to go to the SD Fair because it was a beautiful Saturday and I didn't really want to brave the crowds. We opted for Gray's favorite place on earth, Legoland. This kid loves Legoland almost as much as he loves us. It's nice to have something that he loves so much just 25 minutes up the road. He has been begging to go back since before we got to the parking lot Saturday afternoon. 

Leaving church. 

We left church Sunday afternoon and Gray just HAD to "sit on the rock." He made this crown in Sunday School (which people in California have apparently never heard of before) and wore it for an extended amount of time Sunday and he continues to talk about it. Josh and I are still driving inland to an amazing church a friend told me about just before Josh deployed. Oh man is it the best church ever! It takes us around 30 minutes to get there from our new place, but we always learn something and get so much out of the services that we just can't switch to a closer church. If you are looking for a place to worship in San Diego, look no farther! 

First ride on the beach cruiser! 

And finally, we bought beach cruisers a couple of weeks ago. We were waiting to ride them until Gray had a seat and helmet. I finally picked them out and placed an order. Josh installed the seat and as soon as Gray got on it he decided it was a death mobile. He started screaming that he wanted to ride in the car. He wanted to walk. He was "so scared." I told Josh we should just ride around for a minute and see if he warmed to the idea that we weren't going to kill him and within a few minutes he was laughing and having a blast. We rode down to the beach and once we got home Gray said riding the bike was his "favorite." 

Maybe this coming weekend we will hit the SD Fair and try something fried, like deep fried cereal...

Gray's Pirate Party!

I am sitting down to write this blog post and I am wondering where the time has gone. I can't believe my 'baby' is 3 years old! We had his birthday party the weekend before his birthday, so Mom, Jennifer, and Claire could be here to celebrate with us.

For the second year in a row, San Diego weather foiled our attempts at an outdoor party. It is generally nice outside, with little rainfall every month (and an average of 11.25" a year in the 90's) but somehow Gray's birthday weekend hasn't been so great for outside celebrating. Next year we are going to plan for an inside party and it will probably be beautiful. After the party was all said and done, the 70% chance of rain turned out to be a really bad guess because besides the wind, the weather was fine. 

Josh got a smaller (non-pirate) bounce house than we had originally rented and set it up in the living room. The kids didn't mind jumping indoors, so I guess that turned out alright too. Besides planning for a party in the park and therefore having no real activities for the kiddos, I think everything went pretty smoothly. 

Remove a little furniture and you have an indoor bouncy house!

Gray and Claire jumping pre-party! 

A friend of mine received a cake pop maker for her birthday last month, and she wanted to try it out. We spend about 5 hours that weekend making pirate cake pops. They were a hit with everyone, even though some adults didn't want to eat them because they were so cute. :) I'll be the first to admit that the cake pops were super delicious because we had a few mess-ups that needed to be sampled the night we made them. 

I decided to make the cake myself again this year. I swore last year that I would never do it again, but I guess I had forgotten about how much of a pain it was... This year I had a little more advice on the how to's of cake decorating, so it was a little easier but I had to freeze it at least three times to make the icing cooperate. In the end, I think it turned out ok but I'm going to swear again that I'll never decorate another cake! Maybe this year I can find a cake place in SD that doesn't want $70+ for a cake.... If you know of anyone, I'm open to suggestions. 

Pirate Pops! 

The problem was finding something cute to put them on, so I came up with this solution. 

Pirate Cake! 

Blowing out the candles.

Gray says 'Rrrr Mateys!

As far as Gray was concerned, he had a super party with some of his favorite friends (plus got some awesome gifts)! He is still talking about his pirate party, so I think it was a success!

Now that Gray is three, I think he is more fun than ever. He says so many funny things now and is so much more creative than I ever expected a three year old to be. He loves trains, cars/trucks, dinosaurs, rockets, Cars, Wall-E, and Toy Story. He is potty trained and will tell you that he is Mommy's "big boy" not Mommy's "baby." He continues to amaze me every day with the things he learns and says. Josh and I never realized how lucky we would be to have him in our lives until he actually arrived. We are so thankful for every wonderful minute we have with our little Monkey. Sometimes it's sad that he is growing up so quickly but then again he just keeps getting better with time. I'm sure that all parents are crazy about their kids, but this one is pretty amazing.

Happy 3rd Birthday Gray!