5 Years!

Five years ago today, February 26, Kevin and I were married in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace. It was quite a fun day. It has been a fun five years too. Many memories made, along with two kids.

Oh, and my goal was to fit back into my dress for my 5 year anniversary and walk around Vegas. Well, we are not making it to Vegas for our anniversary this year, which is a good thing. I can get my dress on, but only zip it up half way. Maybe for our 6th anniversary. Hey, I've had two kids, I"m working on it. = )

Beach Camping in February

This weekend we went camping up in Carpenteria. We have had these reservations for 7 months, not knowing what the weather would be like. We have lucked out in both January and February to get great weather. This time we were a little scared with the forecast. They were calling for rain. Well we were not going to believe it and we went anyway. It turned out to be a fabulous weekend. It rained Friday night, but that was it. We had sun and a few clouds the rest of the weekend. I even got a little bit of a raccoon eye tan from the sun. A sign that summer is on the horizon!!

Mom took the girls to the shore, where there were really only a ton of rocks. So they started a 'rock' band. It was cute. They were all banging rocks together to make music.

Mary then collected her rocks she was going to paint. She LOVES to paint rocks when we are camping.

Then it was time to make our walk to town to get a burger and a beer. The best part about camping here, in my opinion!

Mary was a bit tired on the ride and was trying to lay down on her side of the wagon.We have figured out how to be able to sit down and relax and contain the kids and not need to chase them all over camp, We gate them in like wild animals. Hey, it worked, UNTIL Teresa figured out how to escape. She was so funny when she'd do it. She'd slip out and then start to run. Then she'd stop and turn around to see if we saw her and make a funny face and then keep on running. SO then we would have to take our posts and sit on the ends of the gate to keep her in.

Teresa enjoying a french fry and ketchup.

Valentines 2010

This Valentines Day was real low key. The girls have both been sick. The day was also combined with NASCAR Daytona race day. So, either way I looked at it, it was going to be watching that race. Usually we would go up to a big party in Santa Barbara with mom and dad, but this year we decided to stay home and keep it low key with the kids. Mary had her little valentines party at school last week, so she pretty much thought the whole idea of it was gone. And what does Teresa know yet. haha
Kevin and I exchanged cards. He got me a perfect talking Homer Simpson card. On the front it says "When you've been in a relationship as long as we have, you reach a certain level of comfort......" when you open the is a picture of Homer in the bathroom getting ready to pee and the door open and he says "I'm wizzin' with the door open, and I like it!" It explains us totally. haha Then we both wrote the same exact thing in each other's card 'Love you babe!" I think we were made for each other!
For my gift I was able to go out to the mall by myself w/out kids and shop. It was wonderful. I found clothes for myself, and the girls of course, and bought a valentines/anniversary gift for Kevin. Our anniversary is the 26th of this month, so we kinda don't do Valentines day for that reason. I'd rather save it up and get something good for our anniversary. THEN I went to Fridays and sat at the bar and had a beer and ordered hot wings to take home to Kevin. It was fabulous!! The sun was shining, it was hot out, and all was good!
When I got home we all lounged around and watched the race. Then Kevin bbq'd dinner. A good V-day it was!!

Bean's Beautiful Beach Birthday

Here is Mary helping decorate my birthday cupcakes before our beach weekend. She had to make sure each one had the right amount of sprinkles and two m&m's each.

Friday morning/afternoon, when Kevin could get out of work, we were off to Carpenteria for some camping fun. It's become a tradition to camp on my birthday. And we have the greatest weather each year too. This year we were getting scared for rain, but mother nature turned a corner and brought us our beautiful sun.

The first night we went to dinner for my birthday dinner at the Palms. I made sure they sang for my birthday, and they did, the whole section of the restaurant.
Mary enjoyed some of my cake too

Saturday morning the tide was super high and the waves were crazy high. It was really neat to see. It was the normal chilly, overcast, morning. But as the day grew the sun came out and we were able to put on our t-shirts and enjoy the day.

. So then we were all off to The Spot for burgers and then take them to the brewery for a beer or two. Our good family friend, Linda, showed up to spend the day with us as well as Kevin's parents. When my sister and I would go camping when we were little my mom would bring paints and paint brushes and we'd find rocks to paint. Well, I had bought some for Mary for when we went to Zion, but they never got used. So I brought them out this time. I think my sister was more excited than Mary was, Kevin too. So Kevin and Mary went out to find some painting rocks. They came back and the three of them decorated rocks together. Then out came Mr Potato head. Again, I think my sister was more excited than Mary to play with this. It doesn't take much to entertain Amy I guess. haha Well she's going to nursing school a lot lately and so a break to do something w/out think is a good time for her.
Teresa enjoyed coloring at breakfast the next day. My two fisted drawing girl.

It was a fun weekend. Another year has come and gone, really quick. Another year older. It's ok. I'm still breathing. Off to another year of fun memories to be made!

Fun Friend Weekend

This weekend we made a quick trip down to San Diego to visit Sal and Stephanie. We had not seen them in a while so it was good to go down and hang out. The girls love seeing their Aunt Stephy and Uncle Sal. Mary runs Sal around like crazy. He was trying to watch the football game and Mary kept spinning him in his chair. It was pretty funny to watch. Teresa did really well. They have two big greyhound dogs and Teresa was ok with them from afar, but not so much up close. They are BIG dogs compared to her. But really sweet dogs.

The dogs love stuffed animals. We brought Teresa's favorite doggy. Well one of the big doggies got ahold of her doggy and got it all slobbery. She looked at it and touched it and then looked back at me like, "what is wrong here?" It was pretty funny.

The dogs have such little hair and little body fat that they get cold really easy. They each had their own blanket to lay with.

Uncle Sal and Mary made peanut butter ice cream. Mary had fun doing that.

On the way home we stopped in Riverside to see my friend Suzanne. They had just finished remodeling their house and we had not seen it yet. It was beautiful. They have a daughter who is 6 months older than Teresa. Teresa is the same height, if not bigger, than her. But they were pretty cute together, as you can see.

Disney Part TWO

I could not post ALL the pictures I wanted to in the last post, so this is a continuation.

We bought Mary Mickey ears, of course. We are at Disneyland, that is the thing to do. We waited and waited for her to pick out what ears she wanted. SO we finally picked them out. She said she wanted 'Mary Rose' on the hat. Ok, so we get it all done. She puts them on. I take pictures.....she wears them for a ride and .......................................................

Now.......................................Mommy is wearing them. She did NOT want to wear them. She said they were too tight. Well, her head is so tiny that the infant ones fit best and the adult ones were like wings over her ears. Oh well, I looked cute in them too.............. This was on the train ride around the park. That was a fun ride. Ok, a story for you. haha............we were going in and out of the stores near the hotel. She kept grabbing this Pooh doll and we kept telling her no. Well she showed us. We were in line to go through security and we look down at her and there in her lap was this Pooh doll. HELLO my klepto child here. She must have grabbed it as we ran out and put it under her arm. What a little thief. So the rest of the day it was the game to keep this bear around. She was NOT letting it out of her sight. SO this is the face we got when we noticed it in her arms......... Kevin was very happy to have a beer over at California Adventure. It was a nice break for him, ok, me too.

= )

Magical Mary Moments

Sunday morning we left bright and early for Mary's first trip to Disneyland. Mom and dad watched Teresa so we could go enjoy two full days of Disneyland fun with Mary. We got down to the hotel, Main Gate Ramada, at 8. Got checked in and walked our way over to Disneyland. We were a half hour early, but not the first ones there, of course. We found a new line opening and got first in line for that one. Mary was getting anxious and kept saying she wanted to go in. It cute how excited she was. When we finally got in there wasn't much of a reaction. I don't think she really understood the whole thing yet. We walked down main street and she could see the castle ahead. She thought that was pretty cool. We made our way into Fantasy land to start with those rides. We started with Pete Pan. She did not like it. It was too dark for her. So then we went to Snow White. Again, she did not like it. All those rides are too dark for her. She is scared of the dark, so that didn't help. So we decided to do the carousel, she loves that at the mall. Her and daddy rode that. That was a hit.

We then did Dumbo. That was one of her favorite rides she says.

After that we did It's A Small World. She LOVED that one. She had a smile on her face and danced in her seat for that one. So, we ended up doing that one twice. By that time we were hungry so we headed to Country Bear for lunch and ride the Pooh ride. She liked the pooh ride.

We then went on the Jungle Boat ride. She loved that one too. Anything not dark and noisy she loved. She also loved the Tiki Room. I love that one too, so that was good. We did that one both days, along with the Jungle Boat.

We went and met Mickey and Minnie. Mickey she wasn't too keene on, but she ran up and gave Minie a great big hug. Of course, I did not have my camera ready in time for the big hug. It was super cute though. We walked through Minie's house. She sat on her bed. And then she loved her kitchen. She spent lotsa minutes in there playing with all the cool stuff. After that we headed over to California Adventure. It wasn't as crowded over there. The lines for the kiddie rides were a bit long, but we were able to get on the Monsters Inc. ride quickly. She didn't care for that one either. Boy this kid is hard to please. haha

By the time all that was done her eyes were barely open. So we went back to the room to take a family nap. Boy we needed that. After our nap we ate dinner and then back to the park to get ready for fire works. Before first works we did It's A Small World again and drove cars in Autopia. The fireworks didn't start until after 9, so it was a bit tough to keep the little one awake. But once they started she was awake. Then she asked to leave half way through because it was too loud. Again, my sensitive child. We made it to the end, which was a fabulous show, and went back to the hotel for bed. That day, my favorite ride was my head hitting the pillow for the night. We all slept hard that night. Mary slept with Daddy. Ended up falling off the bed. After she fell off, somehow, she climbed back on and slept as close to Kevin as she possibly could. She was NOT going to fall off again.

Monday morning she had more of the concept of Disneyland and was ready to go back. We got some yummy breakfast and was off for more Disney fun. She kept saying she wanted to go on more rides. The first thing we did was head to the new Nemo ride. We were close to first in line, BUT, the ride was not ready to be open yet. So we had to wait for them to get ready and then we got to ride. She wasn't too big on that one either. Again, it was dark and enclosed. It was cute overall though.
After that we went and saw Tinkerbell and her friends. That was really cute. They really spent their time with eatch kid and made it personable. Mary was caring her new toy purse around and Tinkerbell went through the purse with her and put on her sunglasses' and talked on her phone. It was pretty cute.

We then went on Story Book Island boat ride. She liked that and wanted to back again. It seemed she liked all the boring rides. haha I hope she gets braver for next time around.

We were able to get her to go on Pirates. We caught her in a good mood and got her on. At first she did not like it because of the dark. Then because of the first drop, in the dark. Kevin was holding Mary and she turned to him and said "hold me tighter daddy". How cute is that?! Then because of the scary skeletons. Once the pirates were fighting and Yo Ho music came on she was happy again. In the end she made it through the ride and was happy about it. So, we got one 'adult' ride in.

After that we had to do Jungle Boat and Tiki Room again. = )

Then we were off to California Adventure. It was a lot less crowded over there. We got on all the rides really quick. We went on the Farris wheel. Well Kevin chose the bucked that swings. BAD choice. Mary and I didn't like that when it happened. I was queasy for a few hours after that .

On the way to the next ride Mary saw cotton candy. Ok, we got her that. She loved it, of course.

About the time we were walking down Downtown Disney is when that half a thing of Cotton Candy kicked in. She was running and hopping all the way to dinner.

The next ride I was not going since my tummy was still iffy. They went on some swinging bullet ride. Looked fun, but not for me now.

Bugs life area was next. There were three fun little rides for her to do. We were able to go on all those w/out any wait. Nice and slow rides to keep her happy.

We then went to downtown Disney for dinner then back to the park for the parade and then home. We went to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. They sat us next to a fish tank, which was nice to entertain Mary. But there was a gorilla, which scared Mary every time it went off. So, we made it through dinner and back to the park we went to get a seat for the parade. Mary fell asleep in the stroller on the way back to the park. A long day w/out a nap, she was exhausted. So we found a seat on the curb. Kevin went to go get me hot chocolate while I kept our seats. Well it kept getting more crowded and more crowded and it soon became a war to keep my seats. He came back with my hot chocolate and then wante to go get popcorn. REALLY? I'm fighting for these seats! Oh well, I made it and his seat was there when he came back. The parade started. We got Mary to wake up for it in time. It was a totally awesome parade. So glad we stayed for it. Singing and dancing and lotsa fun. At one point they pulled kids out to dance with them. Mary even went out. So brave. My camera's battery died just at that time so I didn't get any pictures of that. But I took 90 pictures overall, so it made it up until the very end.

We made it home in record time. Mary slept all the way home, of course. She had all her toys in her car seat with her. She had a great time. Hopefully she will remember it. What a fun fun magical time it was. I can't wait to do it in a couple years for Teresa's first time.

After finishing the blog, I thought, I noticed more pictures I did not put in. SOOO, I'm just going to post them below with captions. = )

Our Goofy meeting!

Yes, I was there. I was not in any pictures, but this one, but I WAS there. = )

I think this was going on Snow White.

Mary sitting in Mickey's chair in his house.

Looking at all the stuff going through one of the fantasy land rides.