We love visitors!

It's been almost a year to the day that we've lived here now in San Diego.

I've said it before, but one of the perks about living here is that people actually WANT to come and visit you. I mean, I would hope that the appeal of spending quality time with the Parsons would be enough to tempt those friends to get on a flight with kids, but who am I kidding?

It helps to have things like the beach, Sea World, a really cool zoo, Legoland, & Disney on our side.

Last week, our old neighbors, The Kemmerly's came out for a long weekend.

We squeezed a whole lot in just a short amount of time.

I borrowed some of these pictures from Kurt, and love that he shared them...especially this one.

Doesn't this face just say, "stinker"....I mean, cute stinker of course.

I almost peed my pants when I saw this one.

What is Miss Sass doing?

Holy cow this girl...

Addison had an absolute blast hanging out with Margeaux for four days.

Another way to see the zoo....

This helps, since we have seen it 15 times since we've been here.

I kid you not. We have more than gotten our money out of our annual pass.

Then on Sunday we headed off to Disneyland.

It was so fun seeing the whole place decked out for Halloween.

Not so fun dealing with "fall break" crowds.

The Kemmerly's treated us to Breakfast with Minnie, which was so fun.

Addison was all about seeing the characters.

Graham wasn't so sure....

I mean, to the guy's credit, I've never introduced him to Winnie the Pooh, so for all her knew this was just a really tall creepy yellow bear who didn't talk.

Dale from Chip n Dale played a little hide & seek, and Graham started to warm up.

Addison really enjoyed Minnie. When we went last year for her birthday, she honestly didn't even know who Minnie or Mickey were.

But we've racked up a lot of hours of Mickey Mouse clubhouse since then,

so she was well prepared.

We plowed through naptime.

another "celebrity" sighting

spent some time at California Adventure

and while not the most natural smile, we're working on it.

Instead of her saying "cheese", she is now just "showing me her teeth"

Whatever works.

Graham was a little overwhelmed by Buzz, but at the same time probably trying to figure out which button to push to get him to actually speak.

and then for the real celebrity sighting.

Graham is OBSESSED with Cars.

They are building a "Cars Land" at Disney, but it won't be ready until next summer.

He just saw the sign and went ballistic.

I don't know how we'll ever get him out of the park when it does open.

Since his birthday party this year is going to be cars themed, I though I could maybe snap a quick pic for his invitation.

The bottom picture is what I got when I asked Andy to help me "situate" him.

and looks like I'll still be working on that invite....

riding the Nemo submarine

we had split up with the Kemmerly's the majority of the day so they could do everything on their list. One was visiting the Bippity Boppity Boutique, where Miss Margeaux got made over into Sleeping Beauty. When we met up with them on the bus back to the parking lot, Addison was in awe and just kept telling Margeaux how beautiful she looked. So cute!

We had such a great time with Kurt, Trina & Margeaux.

October is the month for company. Andy's parents got here last Thursday and will be here through Saturday and then my mom comes on Sunday!

We are so thankful that our family is willing to travel....

not just because we miss them so much but more importantly, our kids LOVE getting to spend extended time with their grandparents.

AND.....

those wonderful grandparents were willing to keep our kids for three days so that Andy and I could get away and spend some much needed time with each other.

It was amazing....post to come soon!

Camping at the beach

A few months back some of the dad's started planning a camping trip.

They wisely decided this would be a guys only trip, but even better, decided to include the kids.

I was TOTALLY supportive of this.

Us girls showed up to bring the pizza and s'mores supplies, take some pictures, and then kissed the boys and oldest kids good night.

We did get to all hang out and enjoy the sunset, which was gorgeous as always.

Pizza came from Giant Pizza, and they weren't lying ...it was huge.

Graham's car obsession has carried over to airplanes now. Ever since that tour we took of Palomar airport a few weeks ago, the boy points out every plane he sees or hears.

He loved getting to run around with the big kids, and when I wasn't tackling him to ensure he didn't run head first into the ocean, he was a piece of cake.

Trina, Kurt & Margeaux joined us. We had just picked them up from the airport a few hours earlier, and so they were kind of forced to "camp" for an hour or so before we went home and crawled into warm, DRY, clean beds.

I don't think they minded.

It's so funny to watch boys vs. girls.

The boys loved nothing more than diving head first into the sand, while the girls preferred to construct neat sand castles and wanted to wash off their hands as soon as they were done.

Another example of the boys' love of sand

The youngest ones had fun playing and then we took them home to dry cribs.

Partly for their benefit, but mostly for the benefit of their dads.

Multi-tasking at its finest.

Reason #4, 285 why I really like living here.

And then, it was time for the moms to leave and the real camping to begin.

"See you later suckers dads!"

But if camping really is your thing, which it IS SO NOT mine....

What better place to camp, than here?

This guy

This guy came running into the kitchen today grinning ear from ear. I greeted him warmly and went back to cleaning. Then I snapped back to reality and realized that it was in fact nap time, and THIS GUY had scaled his crib, opened his door, climbed down the stairs and declared that naptime was officially over.

And, I'm off to work on his big boy room.

Just the Girls

My blog has had to take a back seat to life lately.

We have had a crazy, busy, but fun few weeks.

I'll be catching up over the next few days, and then my blog might get some love again.

Thursday night Addison and I had a date.

She was very pleased when she found out that it was going to be a "girls only" night,

meaning not Graham, and not daddy.

She made that clear plenty of times.

She became even more pleased when she realized that we were going to the "Disney Show".

Although, you can't so much tell from the smile in this picture.

Ah, love the natural smile. We actually made great strides in this over the weekend.

Onto the show. We had great seats, especially since we got them super cheap!

May have been because it was a 7pm show on a Thursday night.

But then again, we're talking about my kid, so this was not really so much of a problem since sleeping is not one of her favorite things.

It is mine, for the record.

The show was UH...mazing.

If Treasure Trove comes to you, go see it if you're a Disney fan.

It was pretty incredible.

I was picturing a little ice skating to Disney soundtracks.

It was closer to a Broadway show.

Maybe that's a stretch, but remember, I don't get out much, so I was impressed.

And seeing Mickey & Minnie was good prep for the weekend to come....more on that later.

It was great to just have some one on one time with Addison.

I think she was more excited about the show than having deep discussions with mom, but it was so nice to get to talk to her without the crazy distractions of life going on.

When Toy Story comes in January, it may be little man's turn.

An (Almost) perfect weekend

This picture was taken at 9am Saturday.

I was not wearing that smile (or that shirt) 4 hours later.

Yes, the only downfall to the weekend was that the Aggies forgot my birthday.

Everyone else made it beyond wonderful.

Saturday, after we all decked out in maroon anticipating a win, we headed to our favorite donut shop.

Behold. The most amazing donut ever.

Thank you VGs for introducing me to the maple donut.

Clearly this guy is a fan as well.

Then we enjoyed some good playtime at the park.

See? Andy even supported the Aggies for a few hours.

This guy makes me laugh....and makes me crazy at times, let's be honest...but mostly laugh.

Then, let's just fast forward 4 hours or so.

I may have actually shed tears over the game.

Good thing, I got to meet some great friends to celebrate Baby Cooper!

Me, Amanda, Jamie, Karen (Cooper's momma), Amanda, Soula, Annie, & Paige

at the nail salon...., super place for a shower

Those same amazing friends worked with my husband to create a surprise birthday date just a few hours later.

Friends that are not only willing, but won't take no for an answer, to taking your kids so you and your husband can get a night out, are pretty amazing.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Andy and I have been beyond blessed with the relationships & friendships we have formed in just under a year.

God is good.

Andy and I went to eat at an amazing restaurant in Balboa Park.

The whole area was gorgeous. Besides going to the zoo, I haven't spent much time in Balboa, but I believe I will be back...a lot.

And the weekend just kept coming.

A few families got together for a football watching party.

I have to say, that besides checking my fantasy score....

I didn't watch any. But I did get to hang out with my girlfriends and their cute kiddos.

Birthday have perks.

Dad steps up and is pretty much on "duty" all day.

I have an awesome husband.

Then we ended the weekend by heading to the beach.

The part of the beach where you can sit on a bench, take in the beautiful view, and leave sand free.

Some friends had told us about this phenomenon called red tide.

I don't know much about it other than it means in a nutshell there are a bagillion (plankton?)

in the water that give off a chemical reaction when the waves crash.

It's a little hard to see, but it may have been on my top 10 list of coolest things I've ever seen.

When the sun went down, all of the waves "lit up", and turned sparkly before giving off the bright blue light.

It was so awesome.

When I was younger, I remember how old "firty free", as Addison would say, seemed.

My mom was 33 when she had me.

But I am so blessed and thankful for where God has me and the family he has blessed me with.

I think I sometimes worry or spend way too much time thinking about what's to come,

instead of enjoying the moments that are so fleeting.

So this year, I'm looking forward to living in the moments...

Because it all goes by too fast.