2009-10-29

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2009-10-31

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Eliana gets creative

I love this! We only have one set of magnetic letters which means that there are only one of each letter. The other night when I was cooking dinner, Eliana was happily working on spelling her name on the fridge. This is what I found... :)

Trip to Annapolis

Last weekend we drove up to Annapolis for Jon's 10 year reunion from the Naval Academy. We were able to meet up with some of Jon's classmates and their families for dinner Friday night and then saw some again the next day at the game. I was so looking forward to seeing some Navy football. As much of a football fanatic as I am, I have never been to a game before (high school, college, or pro)so I was really excited to watch a game live. Unfortunately the weather had other plans, and we got totally rained out of the game.:( I was really bummed about that! Since it was raining we left the game and got to explore Annapolis a bit, and find a fun place to eat, that we don't have where we live. Over the weekend we had delicious Italian, Thai, and Indian foods... all of which we cannot get where we are... so we were spoiled in that way!:) On Sunday we got to stop in and see our dear friends, the Feists, and meet the newest Princess to join their family, little Simone. Kate looked AMAZING for just having had a baby and Simone is a gorgeous little peanut. She was so so tiny and sweet. It was so funny to see Kai next to her... my chunky monkey boy and this little teeny sweet pea!:) It was so fun to see how the older girls interacted as well. Sure wish that we lived closer so that playdates could be a regular thing for them. On our way home we spent some time in D.C. with Jon's college roommate and his family. We toured some museums and walked the mall a bit. Our kids are almost identical in age, and it was especially fun to watch the almost 4 year olds, Daniel and Eliana, together. Lastly, before we left the D.C. area, we were able to meet up for dinner with some dear friends from Hawaii, Spence and Midge Kawamoto. It was SO good to see them again, and to be able to introduce Kai to them. They were in the Bible study that was kind of responsible for Jon and I meeting in the first place, so our relationship with them is pretty special. Overall it was a great trip!! The best part was definitely being able to see old friends again, even if it was for a very brief amount of time.

Kai

Here are just some recent pictures of Kai. He is growing so fast and is such a good baby. He seems to have his Daddy's laid back personality, which of course makes me so happy. He is getting so much more interactive, and loves to watch his big sister at play. She,of course, loves to entertain him. It is so cute to watch the two of them together. He loves to play on his playmat and has been grabbing the toys lately and trying to put them in his mouth. He is also getting much more vocal and I can tell that he loves to hear the noises that he is making. It is fun to sing to him and then hear him "try" to sing back.:) Overall, we are just thoroughly enjoying our little man.

Huntington Beach and a cow...

Eliana had been so excited to go to the beach so that her Daddy could teach her how to surf. The waves were a bit big, about 6-7 ft. faces, so she didn't actually venture into the water. Daddy got her on the boogie board as her surfboard and she "surfed" the water as it washed in and out of the shore. She had a blast and so did Daddy helping her. Kai was all decked out for his first trip to the beach, compliments of the adorable board shorts that G-ma and G-pa U found for him. He just chilled out under his little tent listening to the ocean. We know that he will love it when he is bigger though, after all, his name does mean ocean.:)
Funny store about the cow... our local Chick Fil'A was running a contest this summer that we decided to enter. You got a little stuffed CFA cow and then were supposed to take him on vacation with you and photograph him in interesting places. We decided that the cow needed to go to the beach and try his hoof at surfing. We strapped him on the boogie board and then snapped some pictures. We sent them in and actually won the runners up prize! We couldn't believe it!:) We received coupons for like $30 worth of free food... it is mostly for their original chicken sandwich meal, which isn't the one we normally get... but hey, it is free, and we won it, so we will take it!:) After winning the Skype contest when Jon was deployed and now this one, we have decided that we need to enter EVERY contest that has the grand prize of a Hawaii trip. It seems were destined to win at least one!:)

Disneyland!!

Eliana was so excited to go to Disneyland on this trip! She couldn't wait to see the castle and meet the princesses. She was also excited to ride the rides... in the past she has been afraid to... so we couldn't wait for our Disney trip to watch her enjoying it. She got a little autograph book and we waited in lines to meet the characters. The longest line we waited in for anything was actually the line to meet the Disney Princesses.:) She met more of the princesses than just Belle, but I put Belle's picture, because she did the best job, in my opinion, of playing a princess and interacting with Eliana. You could always tell by watching Eliana's face, which ones were really doing a good job at their jobs. I also included the picture of TinkerBell, because she did a great job too! She gave Eliana a hug and Eliana came running back to us with the cutest smile on her face. I wish that I would have had the camera ready to capture the look on her face... it just represented to me all that they say about Disneyland being such a magical place... that was the smile on her face. I will never forget it... It was a great day and Eliana is still talking about it!:)