Our Vacation, Part 3

Hello again. Figured I would finish up the trip for you. We left Thad's apartment the morning of Sun, June 18th. We headed to the Grand Canyon! Very exciting. I was there in the mid-80's and Michael had only seen it from the air. It was quite impressive to say the lease! We had such a good time, we were only there for a couple of hours, but it was amazing. The views are utterly unbelievable to me!!! These pictures kind of speak for themselves!!!

That night we headed to Williams, AZ for a night in a bed and breakfast, The Red Garter Inn. It is a saloon/bordello from the 1890's. It is an historic building now. We heard some interesting stories there from the now owner. It was all pretty interesting.

June 19th--our 7th wedding anniversary! Congrats to us. We left the bed and breakfast and spent a glorious 13 1/2 hours in the car on our way to Oklahoma City. It was a long drive that was made longer because of all the insane road construction, ugh. But we figured to push it to OKC and stay with family then stop at a hotel. So thanks to Kelly for letting us crash the night at your apartment. It was so wonderful to see you, it had been too long! (over 2 1/2 years too long!!!)

We got to St. Louis and back to our kiddos on June 20th. They were all more then excited to see their Daddy. Luke just hugged and hugged him, Kaden burst out into tears, he was just completely overwhelmed at having his Daddy there, it took him a few minutes of holding onto me before he could go over to Michael. Then he was all laughs, and hugs, and kisses. The baby (I need to stop calling him that, he's almost a year and a half old!), Gabriel went right to Michael as if no time had passed! It was a marvelous reunion and boy were we glad to be back with our precious children.

Thank you to Grandmom, Great Granny, Aunt Debbie, Aunt LeeAnn, Samantha, Peter, Ben, and Jack for helping to watch and entertain our kiddos so that Michael and I could enjoy our vacation and celebrate being together again. We appreciate more then you will ever know!

Our Vacation, Part 2

Alrighty, so the fun continues...we left San Diego Wild Animal Park to head up to my brother's apartment in Sherman Oaks (LA). Can I just say that LA traffic is absolutely unbelievable and I do not know how my brother, Mr. Impatience, survives there! We got there safely and chilled for the night.

The next morning bright and early we headed for Disneyland, it took us about 1 hour and 20 minutes to go less then 40 miles! Crazy traffic I tell you! We spent the day at Magic Kingdom and got to ride everything, even though every major attraction was shut down for one reason or another. We had a blast! I love being there. That night we ate at the Rainforest Cafe before heading to our hotel. (we got a hotel so we wouldn't have to make the drive to and from Thad's both days!)

On the teacups, by myself but oh so fun :)

Here's the man, well the mouse anyways

On Friday (June 16th) we went to California Adventure, you know the other side of Disneyland. Had a blast there too. I love the roller coaster there, very fun! We didn't wait longer then 10 minutes for any of the rides! That is nuts, I guess everyone was hanging over at Disneyland.

I may look scared, but my hands are up!!!

Tower of Terror, so much fun!!!!

Darth with a Lego Darth, that store was awesome!

We drove back to Thad's on Friday afternoon---it took us 3 hours and 10 minutes to go 37 miles!!!! Yep, not joking, that was REALLY terrible!!! But we made it back and went to Thad and Jackie's favorite little Italian place for dinner, quite yummy!

On Saturday we spent the day with my brother's friends, we watched the USA/Italy World Cup game, that was fun. But Saturday night was the best! Jackie, Thad's wonderful, beautiful girlfriend had planned a huge surprise party for my brother's 30th birthday! We were at Red Rocks bar on Sunset! He was genuinely surprised and there was about 50 people there to celebrate my wonderful brother! We had a blast. Thank you Jackie for throwing the party when Mike and I could attend, and Happy 30th again Thaddeus!

We left LA on Sunday morning---and oh yes, there's more to our trip. I will certainly be back :)

Our Vacation, Part 1

Hello all! Just wanted to fill you in on the vacation Michael and I took after his graduation. (I still need to post the graduation, don't I---I'll get there, I promise!) So we left Vegas on the 11th of June heading for San Diego. We stayed there for 3 days and had an amazing time.

The first day we went to SeaWorld--thank you Anheuser-Busch for the free tickets! We had a blast. We had Breakfast with Shamu, sat around his pool with a buffet, very nice. Orcas are HUGE!!!!! We saw all the shows and stayed from open to close. The manatees were my favorite. Michael liked the sharks, of course...

This was our view for breakfast.

Awesome dolphin show.

Yeah, I took this picture, about scared me to death!

The next day it was the San Diego Zoo. WOW, that place is pretty amazing. We walked around for most of the morning and then rode the double decker bus in the early afternoon. It was not an easy walk by any means, it seemed all uphill to me. My favorite part was definately seeing the Panda Bears. They are so cool, so beautiful. I am not sure what Michael liked the most, though we did go and see the snakes twice!!!! (yuck)

Momma Panda hanging out.

Could Koalas be any cuter??

After the Zoo we went downtown to the Gaslamp District, it's full of shops and restaurants. We had amazing mexican food, then Ghirardelli's for dessert (yummy). We went to the movies and saw "The Break Up".

Our last day there we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. That was so much fun as well. We walked all around that place, it is a mixture between a zoo and large open areas. They have lots of animals. We were so close to the lions, it was AWESOME! They are such huge cats! I am so glad that we got to go and visit San Diego, I had never been and it had been years and years since Michael was there.

Nothing between us but the glass, how cool is that?

"Africa" at the park, quite an amazing view, huh?

We left the park and headed up to Thad and Jackie's in LA. Hollywood here we come! I will finish another day, more fun pictures to come!

Happy Birthday America!!!

Happy Birthday America! Happy 4th of July! We had such a wonderful day! We started out with a BBQ for lunch. Then after naptime we headed off to the beach! We were so blessed with a beautiful day. It was a little windy and that cooled it off for us! Also, it gave us GREAT waves, we got knocked around pretty good. It was so much fun.

Luke stayed in the water almost the whole time. He LOVED those waves, they would knock him over and he would get up giggling! Kaden would run toward the water when it was down and then let the waves chase him back up the beach. He is so funny to watch. Gabriel had a good time in the water, but really loved crawling around the sand.

We were there for just under 6 hours and the kids were all but perfect! All 5 of them, yep, cousins were still with us. It was a blast to watch them play together. Right now they are 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1! Pretty cool, huh?

God bless America and our troops! Always remember how blessed we are to live in this country!

Luke's Birthday Party!

The kiddos waiting patiently.


We celebrated Luke's birthday again on the 3rd! We invited the Belmears over (friends who were family for Gabriel's and Kaden's b-days earlier this year---seems we can't have a party without them!!!!) So there were 6 adults and 7 kiddos. We had lots of fun and lots of laughs.

Luke picked out his own Darth Vader birthday cake much to the delight of his Daddy! I still cannot believe he is 5 years old and the impending school year is already starting to stress me out. Luke going to Kindergarten on a bus, wow, I don't know if I am ready for all of that!!! I will deal with that another day. Happy Birthday Luke Thomas, we love you so!

What a happy smile!!!

Good night birthday boy!

Luke, Logan, and Jedi.

Kaden-man and Aurora.

Good night angel boy! What a lucky guy. It turned out to be sleepover fun here. Logan and Jedi bunked in with Luke, and Aurora climbed in the race car with Kaden. Now will they sleep???? That is the question!

Happy Birthday Luke Thomas!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Luke!

Look at my new bike and pads!!!

Loving my Daddy home!

Happy Birthday to my first born!!!! I cannot believe he is 5 years old. Wow! We had such a fun day. First Luke got up and went outside to ride his new bike! Bike from Mom and Dad and the helmet and pads from Grandmom Baker. He opened some presents today, got some Superman cars and a Super Friends DVD, they were a hit! Then his cousins Logan and Aurora, Uncle James and Aunt Belva came over to celebrate! They had a blast playing outside together. Tomorrow (3rd) we are having a little party with a cake and all. There will be more pictures soon!!!! We love you Luke.