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. 

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! 

Dirty Thirty?

I'll be the first to admit I was a little apprehensive about turning 30. First we celebrated New Year's 2011. As the months passed, the Class of '99 began to be composed of more 30-somethings than 20-somethings. I have always had one of the last birthdays in my class, but usually it wasn't something to be excited about. 

Until this year. 

As the last few months of my 20's kept getting closer, I thought it would be great to spend my 30th doing something memorable. 

The idea of going to Las Vegas became a real possibility when a few friends said they were in and excited about making the trip. As the time got closer I needed a head count, and a few friends had to back out for valid reasons. A child custody battle, surgery, taking care of businesses (as owners not employees), not able to get a babysitter (with a deployed husband), Marine Corps functions, etc. Seriously, six of my BFFs couldn't make it for one reason or another, and I was a little concerned that I would be spending the weekend alone instead of in Vegas with some of my favorite friends. In the end it worked out that only 3 of us were able to go because of the issues with 5-8 women deciding where to go, what to do, what to eat, and splitting hotel rooms up may have been more drama than it was worth. 

One friend flew into San Diego at the same time as Mom and I did, so we met in the airport. She and I headed out the next morning and picked up the third member of our party from the Vegas airport that evening. As I'm sure you have heard that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." so I'll give you the short version...  

We stayed at the Paris Las Vegas. 

We had a great view of the pool and the Bellagio. 

Not that you can really see the pool, but I promise we had a great view of that too. 

We went out. We danced. Our feet hurt. I took incriminating photos. We went to bed really late. We saw a Cirque Du Soleil show. We gambled. I lost $4.75 (out of $5). We watched the Bellagio fountain 'show.' 

We had an amazing dinner at Fiamma in the MGM Grand. We made toasts with complimentary champagne. We toured the Strip. We came back to San Diego. 

My 20s are officially over but my 30s started in an amazing way because two of my dear friends put their lives on hold for one weekend to celebrate it with me (since Josh wasn't able to). I had a great time in my 20's. I had a lot of fun in college. I made tons of new friends. I earned a BS in Elementary Education, met Josh, and earned my MA in Speech Language Pathology. Josh and I got married, moved to Florida, welcomed Gray into our lives, moved to North Carolina, moved to California, and jumped out of a plane. 

I won't ever look back with sadness, because I lived it up in my 20s. I learned a lot about myself and the world. I developed feelings and opinions about all sorts of things. I grew up in so many ways big and small, but mostly I came into 'me' more than I have ever been in the past. I hope every decade is filled with as much happiness, love, and laughter. I wish that everyone could have as many positive experiences and even less negative ones, because in the end turning 30 for me was just another number. 

If you are as old as you feel, I'm still 23 anyway. Cheers to the next 30! 

Happy Birthday!

Today is Josh's birthday! Luckily, he made it back home from 3 weeks of desert training to celebrate with everyone! His mom, step-dad, and little sister flew in for the occasion so we have been enjoying some family time for the last couple days. Tonight we are taking him to a nice dinner at a local place in Downtown San Diego. 

While everyone is napping, I'm going to go put some icing on the cake. I hope it's as tasty as Gray's birthday cake, but I'm not even going to attempt to decorate it. :) 

Happy Birthday Josh!

Dang. I should have gotten candles like this...

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

We see hot air balloons all the time out here, so anytime I would see one flying around I would tell Josh that I was jealous. I was in New Mexico last year on my birthday, but when I got home I received two tickets for a hot air balloon ride. 

I was pumped. 

After scheduling and re-scheduling a minimum of four times for various reasons, we finally made it to Temecula! We met at a winery in Temecula before sunrise, where they served everyone pastries, coffee, and mimosas while we were waiting for the balloons to be ready. We walked through the grapevines down to the balloons, took a few pictures, and got in the baskets. We were in the air about an hour, going up to about 1,500 ft. It was a very relaxing ride and the scenery (with lots of other hot air balloons in the air) was pretty fantastic. Once we landed, they took everyone back to the winery and served more mimosas, coffee, and cheesecake. It was a very relaxing, pleasant morning, minus the 4:20am wake up. 

In the balloon before take-off.

Pre-flight champagne

Beginning our trip over an orange grove.  

Self portraits at 1,000 ft. 

I'm so glad that Josh was listening to my constant whining wanting to go up in a hot air balloon because we both had a great time.  I think it was one of those things that everyone should try once, but it's not necessarily something you have to do more than once (like parasailing or zip lining).

Now I just need to go deep sea fishing. Maybe we can do that for my next birthday...

Robot Birthday Party!

Maybe I went a little craft overboard with Gray's birthday party, but I think it turned out pretty cute! The weather was a little sketchy that morning so we switched to our house from the park at the last minute. It barely sprinkled all of 3 minutes, but I think we were better safe than sorry. The house worked out fine as we were inside and outside and our friends brought over their small bouncy house. The kids loved it while they were outside and they played with Gray's toys inside. 

Robot invites from Etsy.com
If you haven't discovered etsy.com, please go now!

Snacks.

Drinks.

Josh grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone and Mom made some delish pulled pork too so the food was good. We had a few snacks and cake. Mom and I made the cake. It was more drama-filled than I thought it would be, but I learned not to cut a chocolate cake and try to ice it. Just buy white cake and life will be easier. I'm not sure how the professionals do it, but I think we tried harder than they do because they are bound to know some tricks to prevent the extra effort. 

Robot Cake. 

Goodie bags.

 

Some of the goodies in the bags.
Robot rubber duckies, robot bubbles, robot crayons, etc!

Part of the birthday banner!

Giant robot! He was about Gray's size!

Birthday boy!

Robot Birthday Shirt!
My last craft mission before the party!

Opening gifts with Dada!

Reading his Curious George book from Grammy!

Blowing out the candle!

Sharing cake with Mommy!

Such a sweet birthday boy!

The weather ended up being beautiful and every one had fun. Gray had a great time with the kids that came to party with him, and he got some really fantastic presents. He hasn't quite figured out the birthday party is all about him, but I think next year he will totally understand! 

If I plan to be this crafty next year, I'm going to need to start on theme ideas. Any suggestions?