One Busy December

Ack!!!! Here it is MAY and I'm just now finishing posting of December? I gotta get on the ball! With that said, here are some of the things we did in December!!! Slapjack and Checkers, the boys' mischevious little elf friends, came to visit us for several days over the holidays. They only sleep one hour a night and the rest of the night they seem to make messes.

Who else visited us this December? Nana and Papa!!! They came to make cookies, wrap packages, decorate gingerbreak houses and just soak up our last wonderful Christmas in Hermosa Beach.

We took Nana and Papa to the Science Museum and Papa was brave enough to try riding a bike over 50 feet in the air across a cable - yikes!

The elves had a snowball fight in our living room with marshmallows, those crazy little guys! Tyler and Tristan were more than happy to eat the evidence.

Get used to it, kids. It actually rained in Hermosa, and hard! Afterward the boys went out and splashed around, getting their boots, pants, socks, underwear, everything, wet. Good practice for the upcoming move.

Does frosting count as a beard? What is Santa's made of?

Again, Slapjack and Checkers tried to make Tyler's room into a winter wonderland by using, you guessed it, TP.

That cute little elf at the top is Tyler in his Christmas pageant. His class sang at the Salvation Army and it was adorable!

Daddy's birthday always takes a bit of a backseat to Christmas, but we at least baked him a cake, made him make a wish and blow out his candles.

Glorious beach!!!! We've been in Hermosa how long and have never been to Abalone Cove? I started looking for places we've never been to this fall and we finally got up to this wonderful, deserted beach with tons of soft sand, beach stones and wonderful tide pools. Plus it was 80 degrees in December - who doesn't love that?????

Neither one of the kids were fooled by this particular Santa. Only in Hermosa....

We may not have snow, but we've got sand and a lot of it. Our sand snowman might not have won any prizes, but it was admired by many an onlooker - and it was quite fun to make!!!

Hunting for the perfect Christmas tree! Thank goodness the lot is fenced in because these boys had me looking all over for them!

Gingerbread architects at school. What is this? Modern? Classical? Mediterranean?

I love this photo! Tristan and Tyler both ran up and down the sand berm probably 200 times in December. Nothing feels so good and free as sand under your feet and salty air in your hair. What adorable little boys I have!!!!

Sufficiently Stuffed

In November we headed up to Seattle to meet with the contractor who talked us into gutting the house. We then took a side trip up to Snoqualmie (sp?) Falls for a little R&R. The town is a one-horse town and the best fun we could find was glow-in-the dark bowling, which the kids just loved.

We also stayed at the very romantic Snoqualmie Inn, perched right above the falls. Needless to say, we were about the only ones with kids running the halls; not very romantic for us, but the boys loved it, especially the icicles on the handrailings the next morning (he was decked out in his new ultra-warm snow coat, I was the idiot SoCal girl freezing in my sweatshirt).

At school, Tyler earned his feathers by perfoming good deeds. His native American name this year was Jumping Frog.

Desperate to get in as many cool play-area attractions before we moved, I loaded the boys up on field trips including this one to the Peterson Automotive Museum. Here Tristan tries to set a new trend for hat-wearing for the firefighters.

I said "Boo!!"

"Let's carve our pumpkins now, Tyler!" I said enthusiastically. Tristan was sleeping, it was the perfect afternoon activity for a five-year-old to focus on before heading out to get a plastic pumpkin full of loot. "No, that's okay. You can do it, I don't want to waste my time," he responded. What a party pooper! I ended up carving all of them, even the ones I had painted to look like ghosts the night before. Luckily, when Tristan woke up he was more than happy to get gooey with me.

Happily stuffed with sloppy joes, the boys are ready to hit the 'hood! Batman did not bring his blankie along for the ride.

We covered the walk streets of Hermosa closest to the beach. The folks there are so friendly and practically every house is well-done up in over-the-top decorations with parties galore. It gets horribly crowded later in the night but we went early and all the folks oohed and ahed over my two little goblins. We did two short streets before we had to take a candy break, as seen here. Only a few more houses later Tyler was ready to head home to take stock of his loot.

Grandpa visits!

So we have a new little cousin, Sierra, up in Belmont and Grandpa drove all the way out to see us and then up to see her in his big, red truck. Knowing that he likes to keep busy and not sit around the house taking naps, we decided to take him to as many places as possible. Our first stop was the annual "Pumpkins in the Park" up at Fort-Lots-o-Fun. Tyler was a race car driver who became a tiger at the park and now refuses to let me take his pictures while....

Tristan was a very hungry batman who liked to snack on popcorn instead of saving people which is really overrated in the first place. Here he is clutching his popcorn bag to his chest like its his most precious treasure.

We also took him to the world's most ridiculously over-priced vacant parking lot-turned-pumpkin patch in the world where we fed the goats, bounced in the bounce house and met the most unfriendly pony ride attendant in the free world. Regardless of all the ugly grouches, both real and fake, we had a fun time running around.

Then we chose the cloudiest day ever to go to the observatory. Not much to observe when you're in a cloud, but we learned some stuff anyway (like clouds are cold!).

Then we made the trip down to Legoland where everything is constructed of Legos and there are rides and fun galore! We love this place and wish we could go there every day to see the mini-city, ride the roller coaster, and build, build, build with Legos!

The two-hour drive home in Friday afternoon traffic was well worth it for this super fun day!

Tyler turns 5!

Every year on Tyler's birthday I take a picture of him in John's swim trunks. He still has a lot of growing to do to fit into them (especially around the middle) but my goodness he's getting big quickly! Can I buy something to make him stop growing and just remain my perfect little boy forever????

Hey, you swash-bucklin' rum-drinkers! Git yer lousy stinkin' hands off my cake! Tyler's party was, as you can see, a pirate party. There's nothing quite like eight little boys going back and forth between a trampoline and a bounce house jacked up on sugar and wearing pirate gear. Even Tristan got into the mode and would threaten me with a sword.

Happy birthday pancakes? Of course! We had candles on everything from pancakes to sandwiches on his big day. By the end of he day he had completely run out of wishes.

Tyler's big surprise was going to be taking him to Disneyland on his birthday. Who would have guess that it would have rained on that day, and not just rain, we're talking monsoon-style rain! Instead we played with his new toys and took him to AdventurePlex and gave him a raincheck for another day at Disney. He was a mighty happy camper and so were we. How lucky are we to have such a sweet, funny five-year-old running (along with his brother) our household?

School Days, School Days

With September approaching fast (or is it here already? I can't keep track) we tried to squeeze in as much summer as possible when we got back from our last summer trip. That included quite a lot of beach time spent splashing in the overly (and oddly) foamy water, making "swimming pools," building and promply destroying castles, writing Tristan and Tyler's names in the sand so Tristan could jump on the letters and trying to avoid being pushed down into the water by Tyler.

The Hermosa Beach Fair came over Labor Day and we hit it at least twice. This lemonade must have been rather sour, I'm guessing!

After picking virtually every turtle in the pool, the boys were finally ready to try their skills at fishing for one and getting their junky, over-priced toy that will never be played with.

Rides! Tristan is a big fan of getting on them, but not a big fan once they start (unless it's a roller coaster, then we can't get him off without a serious tantrum). This one they had to stop in mid-ride to get him off since he looked like he was going to jump.

After all these activities, sometimes it's nice to just be home with your favorite blanket, Bluey.

And sometimes it's nice to have a whipped cream beard, especially if that whipped cream has been whipped up by....

your very own brother, Chef Tyler, who, incidentally, loves to help out in the kitchen and can crack an egg all by himself (those little pieces of shell won't hurt anybody!).

Then it was off to school for Tristan. He's going to preschool two days a week at our club. Here he is not only showing off his brute strength, but also his vast knowledge of all things bunny.

"Hmmmm, comfy chairs, playdough, trains, snacks, and books. This place might suit me well for five minutes."

Then it was Tyler's turn to start school. He dropped off his little brother and headed to his new Pre-K class with Mrs. Cataldo.

Tyler checks out the other kids in his class (two sets of twins!). This is only about 1/5 the class, when everyone is there, it can be chaos!

Yay! Schools out and we can play! What fun to ride a gigantic sloth in the tarpits of Los Angeles!

Summer heats up

What is the date? August 22nd already? Really? Where did summer go? It feels like it just got here because a) we've been traveling so much and b) the weather in Hermosa just this week became summeresque. School starts next week for many of the kids here, lucky for us we have another two weeks to hit the beach and all the hot spots of SoCal that we didn't get to yet. The boys have been such fantastic travelers this summer, totally going with the flow. They have been on 11 airplanes, stayed in six hotels, hung with grandparents, aunts and uncles, visited the Space Needle, swam in Puget Sound, the hot tub at the Four Seasons and Kalahari's water park in Wisconsin Dells. They have weathered one canceled flight resulting in two irritated parents, one random stay in Dallas without so much as a toothbrush and as Tyler put it, "We had to sleep in shirts, we didn't even have pants!" So true, and sadly the shirts read, "Here Comes Trouble, Dallas." Lucky for us, they have embraced the whole thing as an adventure, especially our pending move to Seattle. Tyler made us feel better when he stated, "This Seattle thing just keeps getting better and better!" Tristan just romps around, happy to be going places and meeting new friends. While Tyler hangs back, Tristan is the first one out there and can always be counted on to run down the jetway with his hair on fire giving his father a heart attack (mom knows going down the jetway is no problem, he can't escape, it's going up and out the jetway you have to watch out for). So, here are a few photos from our summer adventures to Seattle (twice!), Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin Dells. Whew!

Butterflies and other crawly insects with Grandpa at the Butterfly Pavillion outside of Boulder, cool!

Tristan driving Grandpa's "Big Red Truck!"

Tyler catches a fish with Papa over the 4th of July in Grand Lake.

Tristan gets psyched abou the beautiful mountains and freezing lake water in Lake Grandby.

We could have spent all afternoon throwing rocks into the lake. Tristan kept giving us heartattacks since he would go so close to the water.

Go-Karts at Heritage Square in Golden - woo hoo! Tristan had a MAJOR meltdown when he was not allowed to ride the rollercoaster more than five times in a row. We're talking MAJOR.

Tristan and Elliot ride the arcade rides. I think it's fair to say our rates will be going way up when Tristan turns 16.

Fun at the Children's Museum with Elliott, Uncle Matt and Aunt Kristin.

Our budding scientist, Tyler becomes "Dr. Bubble!"

The three little cousins in their bubble house.

Back home between trips we chilled out on the patio with the tools from Handy Manny and a tea party or two.

Back in Seattle Tristan tries to warm up to the freezing waters of Puget Sound.

Tyler and Daddy meanwhile have no problem loosing all feeling in their numb feet. They even find some dead jellyfish, hooray!

We meet Uncle Ed in Bainbridge Island and tour the town with him.

Back in Hermosa, we tried at art class. The boys complained the entire time and I had to cancel us out of there. Too bad, Tristan looks like he could be really good!

Happy Birthday to Uncle Ed! Make a wish for no headwinds because shortly afterwards, he rode his bike from L.A. to Seattle!

Grandpa and Kookie found time to visit us this summer. The boys love trying to bury their grandparents in the sand.

Bacon on Bainbridge Island tastes good!!!

Tristan on the ferry to Bainbridge. He loved running around the decks and checking out the boats.

Have movie, will travel.
Back in Hermosa, we take the time to check out Wilderness Park and their overly fed turtles and ducks. We also say hi to five of the "Uncle Ed" squirrels that were caught at our house and brought here.

Tyler: "Dude, those waves look epic."

Tristan: "Rock on, man. I took a gnarly faceplant on my longboard this morning. Practically broke my skull."

Tyler: "That is so totally radical."

Then it was off to Iowa for fun in the sun with Grandma and the gang.

We even took a long road trip to Wisconsin Dells, the waterpark capital of the world, where you can play all day on waterslides and never do one twice, or just use air hockey paddles to make yourself look like a manaical Mickey Mouse.

On our way to Iowa, our flight was delayed and we had to stay in Dallas for the night. Tyler is so good at rolling with the punches, he was just excited that we had to sleep in our clothes and freshly purchased T-shirts that read, "Here Comes Trouble, Dallas."

Knee high by the Fourth of July, eh? By August, this stuff is way over our heads! They couldn' believe that there was actual corn growing on these plants literally everywhere we went. This stuff was maybe 50 feet from he airport.







Back, home, safe and sound. Whew!