First Camping Trip Of 2011

This weekend we were off to the beach for a fun camping weekend. The first camping trip of 2011. We have only had it planned for the past 7 months, since booking it. We were off to our favorite beach camping in Carpinteria. The weather looked great for the three days.
Here ont eh first night they were busy watching 101 Dalmatians waiting for dinner to be ready. It was kinda chilly out when we got there at 5.
That next morning we woke up to a beautiful day. Mary and Papa were off for a bike ride.

Teresa juts wanted to wear her helmet and play with the remote control car.

The beach was fabulous. A slight breeze, but still warm enough to wear a t-shirt. The kids were happy playing in the sand. We have not been to the beach since last August and Teresa was so much for fun in just that little bit of time being older.

Mary and Nana having fun. Picture perfect!

Teresa was busy building her castle.

My each babe model. Having a good time.

Teresa was getting good at filling the bucket up with sand.

Daddy got Mary to go out and put her feet in the water. She was loving it. Running in the waves and playing in the wet sand.

It was a fun weekend. Great weather and fun times. = )

Big Girl Teresa

We are trying to get Teresa potty trained. She is ready, but only when she wants to be. We, I, am trying my best. Today she pushed the potty out of the bathroom, more playing with it. Then she said potty and was pulling down her pants. OK, that works for me. I made sure the potty was on the tile, not the carpet, and let her go for it. She peed. Good Girl! Now she was into what was on tv and was not getting off. She kept saying more pee. Ok, whatever, sit there and try to pee more. She did not want to get off. Just wanted to sit there and watch tv. She got up for a moment and the potty seat was stuck to her cute butt. That was silly. So I am trying to get her to come over and put her pull up on, but she refuses and keeps saying there is more pee. Then she changes to stinky, poop. Ok, so she sits down and pushed out a bunch of stinky marbles. Hey Hey, we are on a roll. So I will leave the potty in the middle of the tile floor for today and see what happens. She doesn't seem to be very consistent, only when it is convenient or fun for her. We shall see. Mary was fully trained during the day at 2 years 2 months and 2 days. So we will see how Teresa competes with that. She has until February 19th to be with mary's date.

This is Teresa's pirate smile. For some reason she closes that one eye when we ask her to smile for a picture. Silly girl.

Disneyland 2011

Sunday morning, bright and early, mom came to pick Teresa up and we were off for a fun two day at Disneyland!! We were ready. We got down to the hotel a little after 8. We got our room right away. Mary was very impressed with the towels on the beds shaped into swans.
The park was to open at 9, so we got ready and headed over. We were NOT the first ones there. Lines were already long to get in. So we picked a line and stood. They opened the gates a little early, so we got excited. We walked and and down main street to find a rope and everyone waiting until it was 9:00 and time to open. Ok, not nice. So we wait again and stand there with the sweet smells of pop corn, candy, and corn dogs. Finally they take the rope down and we are off. First stop Dumbo.

Next ride we come to is the Tea Cups. We hop on there and take a ride.

After that was Alice In Wonderland. She wanted to ride the caterpillar. Then on the way out we stopped to knock on the rabbits door.

Now we were off to Mickey and Minnie's house. Last year Mary would not have anything to do with the characters. This year she was shy for the first part of the day, but got better as we saw more of them.

Kevin saw a food show on the best food at Disneyland. One of the things was the hot dog cart. We had never seen the hot dog cart before. Well, we did this time and had to stop for one. The show was SOOO right. That hot dog was awesome.

With our Visa Disney card we got to go to a meet and greet with a character. The character was Goofy, which we love. He was the best one around.

Now we had hopped over to California Adventure for some fun over there. First ride was the other caterpillar ride.

Next stop, bumper cars. Mary was really into that ride, as you can see.

Off to the twirly lady bugs.

I opted to stay off and be the picture taker, and let Kevin ride the rides. But, I got to ride a couple rides with her.

On our way around towards the Toy Story ride we ran into Jesse.

Here is Kevin as a n action figure to buy.

Mary really wanted some cotton candy. Every time we walked by a stand she would beg us for some. Finally we got her some and she was one happy girl.

That night we saw the water color show at California Adventure. It was really cool and worth waiting for. The show was not until 8, which was a little tough for Mary. She normally goes to bed at that time. But she made it.

When the show was over we rushed back over to Disneyland to see the fireworks, which were just about to start. We made it over just in time. Mary fell asleep half way through. She was passed out HARD.

We got back to the room after the fireworks. Got her up and into her pj's. She crawled into her bed and fell asleep like a ton of bricks. Kevin and I watched a little tv and she didn't even move.

The next morning we got up and headed over to Denny's for breakfast. Mary and daddy played a couple games of tic tac toe while waiting for our food. I think Mary won a couple games.

The parks did not open until 10 today. I wanted to go to California Adventure first to get in line for the new Toy Story ride. It was the longest wait time for any ride there so I wanted to ride it. Well, when the gates opened everyone was going there too. We walked as fast as we could, since we were told NOT to run. We got there, with everyone else, and waited. The ride was in 3D, like a lot of things they have there now.

We got on our cars, and were trying to figure out what the ride was going to be. We had no clue what it was. But we were ready. It turned out to be a fun video game like ride. You went through and shot at targets to get points.

We then went walking around to find more cool things to do. We ran into Mar Incredible. Kevin REALLY wanted his picture with him.

Mary really wanted to see the fairies and Tinkerbell. So we headed back to Disneyland to Pixy Land. For some reason we only got the picture of her with one fairy and not Tinkerbell.

Then it was off to see Pooh bear and his friends.

Tigger is Kevin's favorite.

We couldn't seem to stay in one park for too long, so we were headed back to California Adventure to do more. We headed to the Bug's Life show, in 3D.

We then found an Aladdin stage show, which was really cute. Then a really cute show with Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo. Then we had ONE more ride we did not do that Mary really wanted to do. SO, we were on our way back over to Disneyland for the train around the park.

We had a really fun two days. Mary enjoyed herself. Next year we will take Teresa for the fun.

Ok, my Indiana family, do not laugh at our excitement over this.
Sunday we came home to it snowing at home. Crazy for our town. We got a good two inches stuck to the ground at our house. It was really cool to see.

My Val Verde homy-g snow man with a celery stick nose

the snow on the fence top was really neat looking

We still have snow this morning, but no new snow. It is all starting to melt slowly.

Ringing in 2011

HOLY COW, how can it be 2011 already?????

New years eve we headed down to San Diego to celebrate with Sal and Steph. On our way down we met Kevin's sister in Temecula for lunch to drop off her daughter, Brianna. Brie stayed up with the family for the week after Christmas. It just happened we were going that way so we could drop her off on our way. We love having Brie around.

THEN the most wonderful thing happened. Kevin's sister, Margeaux, offered to take the girls home with her and watch them for the night. So, of course, we took her up on that. We were kid free for a night! So we were off to Sal's for some fun. We hung out, played cards, and acted silly. And I rung in the new year by.....................

I was passed out on the couch by 10:30. Steph went to bed before me and the guys stayed up until about 12:10. The new year still arrived even if I did not see it.

The next day we went and met Margeaux and picked up the girls. They were excellent kids for her and had a great time. They even slept in until 7:45, which they have never done for us. So nice to know we can drop them off spur of the moment for a night and not have to worry. Thank you Margeaux.

Next we were back to Sal's for some more fun with the kids. Uncle Sal played dolls with Mary.

We left bright and early to beat the New Years traffic on Sunday. We had a fun time bringing in the new year. Now off to more memories to be made in 2011. BRING IT ON!