March iPhone Pics

We keep carseats in the garage in case Addie needs to sit down.

Watching her big sister's soccer game.

 Syd LOVES the secret diary Ms. Candice gave her for Christmas

This is how Daddy watches the kids

New Sandbox

We got a new sandbox....and Addie really likes it!

And another random cute one

Jason turns the BIG 40

Hard to believe my big brother turned forty! I feel like my dad's horrific 40th party was just yesterday. I tried REALLLLLYYY hard to get my brother a midget singing telegram for this party, but absolutely none were available in Tucson. What kinda awful luck is that?!? But we did plan something kinda fun. My parents friends were in town, so Mr. Peacock said he'd dress up like a clown, which Jason has ALWAYS been afraid of. We even had Mr. Peacock come in to the same tune that Dad's 40th birthday party stripper entered the room to

4th Ave Street Fair

After a long drive back home, I learned that the 4th Ave Street Fair was going on this very weekend. We all know that I'm obsessed with the yearly silhouettes of the girls. It was exceptionally crowded, hot and lacked even the smallest amount of a breeze. The girls were troopers though, but did lose any kind of appetite to eat street food. Syd did have the gusto for a face painting. Elsa's face on her face. Interesting choice, but she loved it!

The finished Elsa

Brian and Emil Visit

We were all pretty excited for our next visitors, Brian and Emil to show up. The kids ADORE both of them, they're so good with the kids. Emil would play legos with Syd and Addison would randomly interact. So cute. Always love having our friends from home come to visit and it's hard saying goodbye. Hoping they come back again next year!

Spring Break: Carlsbad Flower Fields

Our last adventure over Spring Break was to head to the Carlsbad Flower Fields, which completely exceeded my expectations. I wish I would've had my gym shoes and my Bob stroller though because it was hard walking and pushing the Bugaboo in the dirt! Needless to say, our feet were filthy! That all being said, the flowers were absolutely beautiful and the small treasures they have for kids is wonderful. They have Flower Passports where you have to look for flags all around the Fields and at each station you have to stamp your passport. Not only does this make sure that you see everything that the Fields have to offer, but keeps the kiddos completely excited about ever area.

First stop was Santa's playground.

These goofballs had so much fun playing inside all of the little houses.  All the little homes and mushrooms are from Santa's Village in Lake Arrowhead from years ago.

The kids were pretty bummed when it was time to move on from the playground, but thankfully we had A LOT more fun things we had to do!

Addison LOVED the chickens and birds. She just stood there yelling "BIRDIEEEE"

"Birdiiiieeee"

How cute are these two!

Oh look, Addison found even more birds. :)

My girls

Ok, so maybe it was just a little bright

Sydney and her Lala

Off on the tractor for a ride through the fields

Truly makes you feel like you're on top of the rainbow with the Pacific Ocean at the end of it!

One of Sydney's passport stations was at the top of the hill. Lala offered to go with her. I think she regretted that decision after she got back. haha

Once our passports were completed, we headed over to the Gem station. You pay $3 and pick your favorite bucket off of the shelf and dump it into your grate. Swish your grate around a few times and all of your gems are left clean and shiny.

It was pretty cool, the lady in charge of the station explained what each of the stones are and what they mean.

Sydney begged for just one more bucket. She's a rock lover. So, of course, I let her do it (sucker). She chooses the smallest bucket all the way on the right side. The lady flipped it over and seriously freaked out.

There were so many gems just clumped together on the bottom, she was shocked and ignored all the other people there so she could help Sydney.

She counted them up and Sydney had 49 in the one tiny bucket! She said that in the 12 years that she's worked there, she's never seen that happen...EVER! Good things come in small packages is what Sydney told me her strategy was.

A small little peek into our daily hotel room shenanigans. We may travel with a TON of stuff, but we were able to have snacks for the kids all the time since Syd is a bit of a picky eater. This really helped us, plus I got to have my morning smoothies!

One last dip in the pool before it was time to wrap up our last night in Carlsbad. Papa photobomb

Livin' the good life!

Spring Break: Old Town San Diego

We were all pretty excited to head to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. It's actually a state protected historical park in San Diego. It commemorates the early days of the town of San Diego and includes many historic buildings from the period 1820 to 1870. The park was established in 1968 and is pretty fun and educational to walk through.

Here's a pretty cool Old Town Timeline

First stop was a potty break up on the third floor of this cool old shop

Next was the old printing shop. The rooms were closed off, but you could still peek in for a little view into the past.

 

Lala checking out the first Printing room

How cool is this other room?

Addison definitely thought it was pretty neat!

Next was the old Jail/Courthouse and Wells Fargo. Very interesting seeing the bank and the jail next to each other. The jail cell was a tall metal box in the backyard! All it had was a little bench in it. Definitely would not want to be in there at all.

 

Sydney with a very old, very tall tree in the town center

A lovely cannon also in the middle of the center! Never know when you need to fire a cannon.

The troops

Love the covered wagons.

Then we headed over to watch the Blacksmiths

Showing us all the cool stuff they make. The one man was making a helmet for the first time.

Addison was completely mesmerized

These two....

We were all pretty hungry, so we went to the Mexican restaurant right in the middle of Old Town

Papa lovin' some guacamoleeee

Mama and Addie

Last stop was to learn about the Mormon Battalion. I have to say that this was probably one of our favorite activities. Started off with them showing a few pictures on the wall and then suddenly the pictures came to life (which really impressed Sydney). We moved to different rooms in the building and each room was decorated to show the different stops for the Mormon Battalion.

The Mormon Battalion was the only religiously based unit in United States military history, and it served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular US army officers. During its service, the battalion made a grueling march nearly 2,000 miles long from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego. The cool part was hearing that they marched through Tucson, literally less than a mile from my parents house. Our whole ride home from Carlsbad, we were right along the tracks, which almost exactly matches their journey. It was very cool for us to talk about how hard that journey must've been for them as we drove.

Sydney was asked to volunteer to head out to war. It was all fun and games until she was dressed up and was told to say good bye to her family for a year or so. She said "ok, I'm a little bit scared" The poor girl thought she was really going to war!

At the end, they took our group picture. :)

Then we got to head out back where we saw how they used to create bricks. Sydney even got to wash some clothes on an old washing board. Then they taught up all how to pan for gold!

Everyone was able to keep their favorite two pieces that they found. Syd lucked out and everyone gave her their "gold" :) Sydney asked if we could go back to the Mormon Battalion museum the next day. Great experience!

It was time to head back to the hotel. Addison loved just sitting out on the porch eating Lala's snacks after waking up from a two hour nap. Living the dream!