... the best Disney day ever!

 ^ Waiting for Thunder Mountain Railroad. He took it very seriously & wanted me to hold his glasses and hat... He loved the ride, too!

^Luca was the happiest playing in the baby room & snoozing in his stroller 

It was just your average Wednesday. The boys and I were going to run to the mall to check out the summer gap sale, grab a few things at Target, and maybe stop by the splash pad. Then I get a call from Jordan that he needs me to pick him up from work. He had something hit him in the eye and his co-workers were insistent that he needed to have it looked at, so we changed our plans. I grabbed the bike rack and we headed to Burbank to pick up Jordan. When we picked him up his eye was a little red, but nothing to alarming. His co-workers practically forced him to go home and get his eye examined. So he made an appointment for that afternoon and headed to the mall with me and the boys. By the time we were walking around the mall he felt 99% better and said he wasn't going to waste his money on a doctor co-pay, which was fine by me. So since he had the day off unexpectedly, we decided to head to Disneyland! We hurried home, fed Luca, packed up some snacks, and headed down to Anaheim. We knew it might be hot and busy but we went for it anyways and luckily for us the weather was perfect and the crowds were pretty low. On the way down we were able to convince Ted and Maggie to meet us after work, too! and it was extra fun this time because Milo is now 40" and able to ride so many rides that he couldn't before, cheesy but it was extra magical to watch him get so excited about the new rides. He loved "The Fast Train" and Radiator Springs Racers. Toward the end of the night Ted and Jordan got on the Grizzly Rapid Ride and we waited for them on the observation deck, after a few rafts came by one dropped down and landed just right, drenching Maggie and Milo. Milo instantly started crying and exclaiming, "It's not nice to get people wet when they are standing on the rocks" and he wanted his wet clothes off! Luckily I had a change of shorts and shoes, because I was expecting him to play in the splash pad but no new shirt, so we made a makeshift toga for him so that he could keep riding, his silly outfit didn't slow him down one bit. Our family has had so many fun memories at Disneyland, that place is seriously the happiest!

One Chocolate, Please

Some friends from our ward have two little boys who were going to be spending their spring break alone at home, as both parents have to work. So I volunteered to take them out a couple of the days. We went to the zoo one day and then to the park and to get ice cream on another day. It made me really grateful that I am able to stay home with my children, even though some days are long. Milo thought it was the greatest thing to be able to play with the big boys, he loves them. He also loves getting ice cream, his favorite is Chocolate... I couldn't resist taking a picture of this happy little chocolate face!

AZ Trip

^ Jordan walked us to our gate since I was flying solo with the boys. Check out the matching father son duo in the background... They were matching from the shoes all the way to their pens and pocket protectors, no joke!

 ^ I was amazed, both boys slept like little angels and I watched a TV show. Best flight in a long time!

Jordan had a business trip and so the boys decided to hit the road, too! We headed to Arizona for the week to enjoy some sun and time with Grandma & Grandpa Flake. This was Luca's first time flying, so my first time flying solo with the two boys, they did awesome... both fell asleep! We had a great time once we got to AZ too ... We loved getting spoiled with good food, rest, and lots of fun. We went to a carnival in Mesa, the Butterfly Wonderland exhibit in Scottsdale, we ate out a lot, got Sweet Tooth Fairy treats, and we were able to see our friends, Tori & Isla and Ali & Leo. Milo enjoyed hours on the trampoline and Debbie was kind enough to watch the boys so I could go and work out each morning, take naps in the afternoons, and go to the new Gilbert Temple. So it was an amazing trip for all of us, can't wait to get back!

Disneyland

 

^ This pic with Mickey is terrible but we waited in line FOREVER, so I had to share

 Our Disneyland passes expired in January. So before they did we packed in a few trips to the Happiest Place on Earth. We were able to meet up with both Shari & Mike, Ted & Maggie on one Saturday. Then Jordan took off Monday so that we could go with Laraine, Corinn, Charli, and the Pullmans and then we went the next Saturday for our last trip to Disneyland for awhile. It has been such a fun year to be able to go to the park when ever we have wanted. It has been such a fun place for us to take Milo. We have all really loved being able to go and play there. It was fun to take Luca for his first visit, but having a newborn at Disneyland sure complicates it, hopefully when he's a tad older we will be back for some more annual pass holder action. We love you Disneyland! 

Halloween

^^ Milo has become very non-cooperative for photos, this is the best I got of him with his friends 

After our action packed day of celebrating on Saturday, I was ready to just call Halloween over. Especially since Milo isn't super into wearing his costume. But, Jordan talked me out of that crazy thinking and we had a fun night celebrating Halloween. We had a delicious dinner of mini mummy pizzas and then headed out trick or treating with some friends from our ward. A few streets up from ours is a street that is pretty famous for trick-or-treating in the area, the road gets blocked off from cars and the streets were full of all ages of people and costumes. It was absolutely nuts, to give you an idea our bishop & his wife live on this street and they said they handed out 5,700 pieces of candy last Halloween. After our stroll around the neighborhood we headed home & called it a night ...just like that Halloween is over for another year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween!

Milo isn't big on dressing up, even his regular clothes are sometimes a battle to get him into. So, Halloween's past haven't always gone super smoothly, which makes it hard to want to spend a lot of time figuring out a costume for him. But this year my mom sent Milo a giraffe costume in the mail and Milo seemed to be excited about wearing it. He would tell everyone that he was going to be a giraffe for Halloween, and seemed pretty set on it. I had to modify the costume for him because he kept complaining about having a wedgie, so I cut the legs off and just made it a Giraffe top and then he was able to wear regular pants. We had the most action packed weekend celebrating Halloween. We usually don't have a whole lot going on during the weekends, but this weekend was go...go...go! Friday night,  we were invited to a Halloween Party. Some friends of ours, who have some older boys, throw a Halloween Party for their kids & their friends every year. We had fun eating, visiting, and playing at the park. When they started the Halloween games we left and headed to the next party. We went to a BSU vs. BYU football party with some people from our ward. Milo and I were the only ones wearing any BSU gear (Jordan would've he still needs a BSU shirt), it definitely a BYU crowd,  but unfortunately for us BSU lost!  In the morning we took Milo to Boo at the Zoo. They had Trick or Treat stations, "Stomp and Chomp" where they gave some animals pumpkins to break open & eat, and some other Halloween activities. It was pretty fun, we invited our friends the Satko's to join us. Milo refused to wear his costume until we got to the Giraffe's and Jordan asked him if he wanted to go inside the cage. He got really excited about it, so Jordan told him that he had to wear his costume otherwise they would know he was a boy. It worked ... for about 5 minutes. Then we took it back off and Milo's friend Evelyn wore it around the zoo, and she looked darling. Directly after leaving the zoo we went to a Halloween themed birthday party for two little boys in our ward. Then we headed home tried to rest for a few minutes and began getting ready for Trunk or Treat. Milo loved Trick or Treating and actually wore his costume (with the hood off) to walk around and Trick or Treat and Jordan dressed up like a Safari Guide.

Camberlango's at Disneyland

My friends from high school, the Camberlango's and their three cute kids came to California last week on family vacation. We were able to go to the LA Zoo and Disneyland with them on two different days. Jordan was able to come with us on Saturday and then Milo and I went back on Tuesday for some more fun. It took Milo awhile to warm up to all the kids, but he definitely had so much fun having other kids to play with at Disneyland and he keeps asking if to play with them. Hopefully one day we will live closer to this cute family!

Tori & Isla's Visit

Tori's Disneyland pass from their trip in May still had one day left to use up before the summer was over and we wanted to see her of course, too! So, Tori and Isla drove over to visit for a few days while James had to stay behind and start his semester of school. We were able to go to the LA Zoo, go to the fabric district for leather (Tori makes awesome leather moccasins and sells them on instagram @isla_and_i), and of course go to Disneyland. This visit was so fun because Milo and Isla were able to interact a little bit better and sweet little Isla had just started walking. We love these cute friends of ours!

The Price's Visit

It's been awhile since I've done any kind of post on this blog, so I have a lot to catch up on. Since we are having a new baby and this was the best place for me to keep track & update family on Milo's growth and adorable-ness ... I knew I had to start this blog back up for the baby's sake or we'd never have any record of him aside from cell phone pics. So it's time for me to pick it up and bring this blog back to life. I am going to try and catch up on the summer events that I missed out on blogging on. Part of the reason that I stopped blogging was there was literally never a spare minute to sit down and do it. We had an action packed summer, and it all started back in May (about the time that I quit blogging) we had some of our best friends, the Price's, out to visit us for the Memorial Day Weekend. James and Tori both went to my high school in Boise. We all grew up moved out of Boise but kept in touch and as luck would have it James ended up attending Midwestern Medical School, which is just down the road from Thunderbird. So we convinced them to move into our same apartment complex. We had a lot of fun living near this cute family and we were sad to move away... but it was so fun to have them come and visit us. We were able to go to the observatory, Disneyland, the beach, some bike riding, and the LA Zoo. Hopefully one day both of our little families will end up back in Boise and be neighbors again!

Easter Celebrations + Visit from the Flakes

We started our celebrations by dying Easter eggs. Milo was less interested in it than I thought that he might be. I took him to Target to pick out a dying kit and he of course picked out a "Cars" kit, so we had Mater & Lightning McQueen eggs. He really wanted to eat one of the eggs, so I let him try and he was very disappointed. Our ward also had an Easter primary activity, held at a ward members beautiful home in the hills north of us. Milo got to play on the playground, decorate sugar cookies, make a homemade peep, eat pizza, and do an egg hunt. He had a ball! Larry, Debbie, and Erika drove over on Saturday to celebrate Easter with us, but their visit turned out a little differently than expected. On Saturday evening just after they arrived we ate a homemade Cafe Rio dinner (yum) and then walked down to the park to let Milo play. We all came home and crashed. It had been a long day of traveling for them & playing in Hollywood for us. Erika woke up Easter morning in a lot of pain, so they decided to take her to urgent care while we went to church. While at church we got a text message that they were heading to the ER to do imaging because urgent care didn't know what was going on. After spending hours in the ER, they discovered that she has a baseball sized cyst on her ovary, that was possibly twisted and might require surgery. Erika was admitted to the hospital and unfortunately spent all of Easter and most of Monday in the hospital. Luckily she didn't need surgery and she got out of the hospital in time to make the flight home, but it was a total bummer way to spend the vacation. We had also invited over Ted & Maggie to eat Easter dinner with us, so they drove up from Laguna Niguel and we had a great time visiting with them. Milo has a big crush on Maggie and they were so sweet to bring him some Easter treats. Debbie and Larry took shifts between our house and the hospital with Erika. On Monday, Larry worked to try and get Erika discharged from the hospital and Debbie, Milo, and I headed to the LA Zoo. Things were a little chaotic to say the least but it was fun to spend the little time together that we could. The Easter bunny did leave Milo basket of goodies & he looked darling in his Seersucker Easter suit, we just didn't snap very many photos. 

Weekend Recap [03.23.12]

On Saturday morning we headed to Disneyland for just a few hours. When Milo wants to go to Disneyland he always asks to ride the tram & for a churro, but who can blame him they are so yummy. After we finished up at Disney, we headed down to Laguna Niguel to meet up with Ted & Maggie and hit the beach. One of the couples at the beach with us brought their bird to the beach, Jordan was loving it. Milo had such a great time playing in the sand and exploring the beach with Maggie. After a day at the beach we grabbed some treats and watched the sunset, then headed to the Davis' for some yummy homemade pizza.

Celebrating Milo!

 

Birthday celebrating this year was a little bit different, I decided to not throw a party since we are not living near family and we are still working on making friends here. But party or not we had so much fun this weekend, and I drug the celebrating out all weekend long because that's how I love to do it! On Thursday, Jordan took a half day from work and we went to Disneyland (one day we will do something different). We met up with Jordan's cousins and we all had a ball with them. Milo loved being with the other kids, they gave him so much attention and he loved every second of it. At the end of the evening Milo got to pick out a toy for his birthday from the gift shop, he chose a stuffed Lightning McQueen. He loves it so much he thought he needed three. On Friday (Milo's Birthday) we kept it pretty low key. Milo and I went on a walk in the morning to pick up some eggs, then we made his birthday cupcakes, he loved helping. When Jordan came home from work, the boys went swimming for awhile, then came back inside for some presents and cupcakes. We FaceTimed with Grandpa and Grandma from Idaho so they could sing to him and see him open his gifts. Milo got spoiled like usual with lots of trains, Thomas train book, a rolling suitcase, the cutest clothes you've ever seen, monster bowling, a wooden MILO puzzle, Yo Gabba Gabba coloring book, cars, some money.... so spoiled! On Saturday morning we decided to head back to Disneyland for some more fun, we met up with Ted & Maggie (Maggie & Milo share the same birthday). We partied all morning with them, then met our friend Clark Tanner for lunch at Downtown Disney while Milo napped in his stroller, and then we headed back into the park to catch the Parade and eat some churros. It's probably a good indication that we take Milo to Disney too much when he raises his hands and screams as we go down the ramp at the parking garage. We had a great weekend and loved celebrating Milo, I still can't believe he's TWO!