First Day of School

THE KIDS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL!!!!  HOORAY!!!  Last week the kids started school again and we were ready.  It was a long summer without Dad around, so now that he's back, we're ready for routine again.  Mia is in the 4th grade, and Cole is in 2nd.

 I walked the kids to the bus on the first day.  I love to get the photos and see all the excited kids.

 Ella rode in the wagon.

 And Luke ran all over the place with his buddy Ammon.

Mia and one of her BFFs, Aspen.

 Off they go.  Ready for another year of learning.

Then one week later, little Luke started his first day of Pre-school.  Don't let this photo fool you.  He was really excited.  I told him to give me a big smile for the picture and this is what he gave me.  Little stinker!  He's always making me laugh.

 He was a little nervous but Miss Patricia and Miss Naomie are so sweet that he really had a great day.

Surprise trip to California

Drew is a really fun Dad.  He always loves to take the kids fun places and watch them have a blast.  So it was hard this summer when (due to the deployment) he missed out on all the fun trips we took and the days at Lagoon.  So he decided to squeeze in one last trip before the kids started school.

We drove to San Diego on the Tuesday before school started.  We left early enough in the morning, to get to Sea World that afternoon.  The kids had a lot of fun.  I had taken them to Sea World last October, but Drew couldn't come with us.  So this was his first time back to Sea World since we went there on our honeymoon 14 years ago.

Ella did a whole lot of sitting in the stroller.  We let her out several times, and she had fun running all over the place.

That night we drove up to Carlsbad and spent the night.  The next morning we went to LegoLand.  It was our first time at this park and the kids had a great time.

 They have several cities built out of legos.  The kids we THRILLED to see Las Vegas!  And I must admit, it did look pretty amazing.

 Luke was so nervous at first to drive the little cars, but once he got a hang of it, that was all he wanted to do.

 They all earned a "drivers license" and proudly wore it the rest of the trip.

And it wouldn't be a vacation without a trip to the beach.

Welcome Home Weekend!

We had the most AMAZING weekend!  Drew's best friends from his home town, came for a visit to celebrate his homecoming.  Dave and Jaime and Cody and Nikki, have been close friends of Drew's, as long as I've known him.  And I must say, they are the funnest people in the world.

They drove down Friday morning and arrived in the early afternoon.  At 5pm we headed to the movies and saw "Crazy Stupid Love".  Next it was off to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris.  We love this restaurant and were lucky enough to sit out on the patio to watch the fountain at the Bellagio across the street and do one of my favorite things ever...people watch.  The dinner was FANTASTIC!  Then we just hung out on the strip, checking out the different casinos.

I took all the photos on my iPhone at night, so the quality isn't the best.  Oh well.  Here's the group outside of the Sugar Factory.

The guys played some games and the girls went dancing at Studio 54 for a little while, because ladies always get in free ;)  We stayed up late talking and laughing and didn't get to bed until around 2am , so the next morning was a little crazy, but we managed.  Drew, Cody, and I got up and ran 4 miles (because apparently we are now doing a Ragnar...hmmmm)  Then the guys went golfing and the ladies went shopping for a couple of hours.  We came back to the house and had a BBQ for lunch, then we went to our community pool to go swimming for an hour.  The babysitters came back at 5pm and we headed downtown once again.  This time we went to the Venetian and had dinner at the Grand Lux (one of my favorites).  Dinner was amazing, of course.  Then we walked all over the strip, checking out different casinos.  One of our stops was in Treasure Island at Gillies, a country swing bar.  We didn't do any country dancing, we did have some fun with their mechanical bull though.  Cody was our willing participant and we had a great time watching him.

Drew and I in Treasure Island

We ended the night at Tabu, dancing and having a blast.  I'm so glad that Drew is home again.  We have so much fun together and life just isn't the same when he's away.  

Here are a couple of photos of us old married people, dancing our hearts out at Tabu.  Thanks to our wonderful friends for the best weekend EVER!

Drew's Return!

Drew finished his 3rd deployment and arrived home from Afghanistan at 1:47AM.  Yes... in the middle of the night he called me to tell me that he was in the garage.  I can't believe I didn't hear the garage door open, but I DIDN'T.  Anyway, he didn't have his keys and the door between the garage and the house was locked, so he had no choice but to call me to unlock it.

The kids (and I) thought he was going to arrive today around noon, so they had no idea.  They woke up that morning and went downstairs for breakfast.  That's when we surprised them.  A little groggy, but still thrilled to see their Dad.

We took the kids swimming in the morning, then to Chilis for lunch.  We are so glad to have Drew home again.

Ella on the Slide

Mia taught Ella how to go down the slide at the McDonald's PlayPlace this afternoon.  She can climb the stairs herself, and goes head-first down the slide.  Here's the video.


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Mia's 9th Birthday

Today is Mia's 9th Birthday!  It's been a really crazy and busy summer, so planning a big birthday bash was not something I was looking forward to.  That being said, my wonderful and sweet daughter Mia was kind enough to agree on a smaller celebration, to help Mom out a bit.  It was an impromptu lunch date.  And it ended up being a huge success.

She wanted to invite lots of friends, but I told her that two would have to be the limit.  So she invited her two best friends to join her.  Yesterday we picked up Aspen and Katelyn (and dropped off the little kids in the process) at 11:00am.  We headed to BJ's Restaurant for lunch.  All three girls ordered Fettuccini  Alfredo with a salad and it was wonderful!

The server brought out a Pizookie with a candle in it.  Basically it's a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top.  So yummy.  We sang happy birthday to her, then all three of the girls shared it.

Mia opened her presents at the restaurant.  She got some wonderful gifts and was really exited!

 Then we headed to the nail salon for pedicures.   This was a first time experience for all three of them and they LOVED it!

 I couldn't stop laughing because the massage chairs were making the girls look like they were having seizures.  It was so funny!

 The end result!  So beautiful!

I took the girls to Target and they picked out a nail polish to take home.  Then we went to the frozen yogurt shop and had dessert.  It was such a fun day.  Happy Birthday my beautiful baby girl!