Last Days of Summer

To all of you loyal readers out there I have to apologize for my tardiness in blogging. I would love to say that I have been too busy to blog, but it has just been pure laziness on my part. We have been enjoying the last few weeks of summer before Ethan starts preschool 3 days a week. He has been attending just 2 days and he has definitely shown me that he needs more structured activities and interaction with kids his age. Although I'm sad he's growing up too fast, I'm excited for him.

Earlier this week I took Ethan to the Lied's Discovery Children's Museum in North Las Vegas. I have been wanting to take him for a long time and I got the chance to meet up with some other moms and their kids. We started off on a bit of a scary note when Ethan decided to take off into the museum by himself. We immediately alerted security and they locked the building and began the search. After what felt like an eternity, we found him playing on one of the exhibits upstairs without a care in the world. I have never been so scared and felt so nauseous in my entire life! After that little incident, we spent about 2 hours in the museum. Ethan's favorite thing was the mini recording studio of course. He sang two songs and loved hearing himself when they played it back. What do you think? American Idol 2009?

That same afternoon, we took the boys to Esselmont Park to burn off some energy. The boys are all over the place now which of course makes it 100 times more challenging to keep up with them. We got several cute shots of them playing in the big tunnel together.

The next day we met some friends at the Artful Potter. It's a little paint your own pottery place. Ethan loves anything that has to do with music and art, so this was a perfect activity for him.

I took this photo this evening when the twins were finishing dinner. I thought it captured their playful sides. They are such good buddies and it has been so fun to watch them interact and play with one another. I can't believe they are already 15 months old!

Sharing an Apple

San Diego 2008

All San Diego pics

San Diego in the Summer

Our annual summer trip to San Diego was extra special this year because all three kiddoes were able to go. We left the twins behind last August because they were still too little. All three were great travelers and it was so nice to escape the heat! We had a weekend packed full of the zoo, the beach, and tons of yummy authentic mexican food. We have been really missing that in Vegas! Although the trip was a ton of fun, we were actually glad to get back to our home in the desert. I think the boys felt the same way too. They missed all of their toys and the puppies most of all.

Eric and the boys relaxing in the sun in La Jolla.

Once the twins finally figured out that the sand wasn't going to hurt them, we couldn't get them to stay put. They were all over the place!

After a morning at the beach, we decided to return to La Jolla that evening to see the seals and go to dinner. Such a blast!

More Fun at the Beach

Eric and Ethan enjoying some evening beach fun on our second night in San Diego. Ethan couldn't get enough of the sand!

The rare occasion that we get all five of us in a picture together.

More goofing around at the beach!

Ethan helped me bury my feet in the sand on our third day at the beach. We discovered a great family beach in La Jolla. It was a perfect place for the kids to explore.

Lions and Tigers and... Going Potty? Oh My!

While we are so thrilled that Ethan has learned to recognize when he needs to go potty, we realize he still needs to learn a couple of basic rules. Rule #1 - Public urination is not okay unless you are a four legged furry creature. The look on my face captures it all. At this point it was too late. Ethan joined in with all of the other beach bums and relieved himself right there on the beach.

The zoo really does get more fun for Ethan each year. This year it was all about the monkeys. He would have been just fine skipping all of the other exhibits and just going in circles looking at the monkeys.

I had Eric take this picture because I didn't want to forget our extremely long walk uphill to see the elephants. It would have been helpful if this sign was posted at the bottom of the hill to save us the trouble. Pushing 45 pounds of baby plus the stroller is not my idea of fun! I also had the pleasure of feeling like my knees were going to break on the way down the hill. We should have just paid the $10 and taken the sky tram to the bottom. Oh well, at least we got our exercise!

Eric and Carson getting ready to eat what seemed like our 50th mexican food meal during our trip. It was so yummy!