Memorial Weekend

What a fun weekend!  Saturday we celebrated Brooklyn's birthday, and then Sunday we set up the tent and watched Tangled in the backyard.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  The girls thought it was the coolest thing ever.  We had tons of snacks and got comfortable on the blow-up mattress with the blankets.

On Monday, for Memorial Day, we got together with the fam and went swimming and had a BBQ at the Fosters!  The water actually was still chilly from the cooler weather but that didn't stop us. 

T.W.O

 This picture captures her personality so much!  She is one goofy girl. :)

Our "baby" Brooklyn is now TWO and boy did she know it!  She was hilarious on her birthday.  She woke up to a door decorated with streamers and balloons and from then on out she knew it was her special day.  We had a yummy breakfast with her favorite banana chocolate chip muffins along with some eggs.  She can pound the eggs like no other!  Then we headed off to the park.  The weather was unusually cool, so we had to take advantage of it.  We opened presents, she took a nap, and then we met up with the cousins for dinner at The Habit.  It was a fun day and she was so happy the whole day.  I was shocked she caught onto the birthday thing so quickly, and would not hesitate that she was now "two"!

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!  We love you!!!!

Mommy- Daddy Getaway!

 Jeff and I were able to have a getaway the first week of May.  It was fabulous and absolutely perfect!  Jeff was already there for work, so he picked me up from the airport on Tuesday night and we headed  down to Monterey for the night.  Wednesday we stopped by Cannery Row, Pebble Beach, and then made a stop in Carmel before heading down to Big Sur. 

 (The Point Pinos Lighthouse was closed, but I have some kind of fascination with them, so even seeing it just from the outside was fun for me.)

Oh, yes, we made it to Pebble Beach.  We did the 17 mile drive and then some.  Gotta keep the hubby happy! :)  Someday my Jeffrey will play here.

Here is a part of the 17 mile drive.  It is the Lone Cypress.

 

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!  The drive down to our hotel in Big Sur was breathtaking.  The road went right along the coast.  

 We ate dinner at the River Inn in Big Sur.  Food was overpriced and not too impressive, but the environment was great.  After eating, we walked down the property to the river and they had all these chairs and benches in the water. Fun!

 

 We went for a sunset drive along the coast and stopped at a viewpoint.  We heard all these seals barking away.  Jeff gave me a heart attack as he peered over the edge to see the seals.  I couldn't see them so I zoomed in with the camera and just took a pic- we had no idea how many seals were down there!  No wonder it was so loud. :)  If you look hard you will see tons!

McWay Falls

 Yes, this is a real shot that Jeff took.  This hike was incredible.  I guess that is what makes Big Sur so amazing.  One minute you are on the beach and the next you are walking through trees that stretch up as high as you can see.  The sun breaking through the trees makes it even better :) .  The hike followed the river, so of course, this was Jeff's favorite hike of the day.

 

We did another couple of short hikes that went to the coast.  You walked through this tunnel to see a view like this:

 Of course, my handsome hubby made my view even better! :)

 

Nepenthe.  This place went on my top list.  After all that hiking, we were hungry!  We sat on the edge of the cliff overlooking the forest and ocean.  The food was good too (that is always nice)!

Oh, the trolleys.  I love the trolleys!  They are so fun.  I could ride on them all day... but we didn't! :)

 Biking the bridge.  It was more of a workout than I expected, but hey, I was 4 months pregnant!  It was so fun- something I wanted to do when we were in San Fran before but didn't have the chance.

I'm so grateful that we had the chance to take this trip together.  Thank you mom and dad for watching the girls!  We had a blast and enjoyed every minute- especially the quite car rides and dinners! :)

Desert Botanical Gardens

 This striped butterfly was our favorite!

For one of our playdates this month, we got passes to the Botanical Garden at the library.  They were having their butterfly exhibit.  The exhibit did not disappoint!  There were butterflies everywhere.  Some kids even got them to land on their fingers.  It was a pretty warm day, so we didn't look around the rest of the gardens for too long, but the butterflies made it all worth it. 

Easter

Saturday night the girls decorated a few eggs.  Brooklyn mostly watched Maylee dye the eggs.  Nothing fancy, but they still thought it was cool.

The Easter Bunny made it to our house Easter morning!  The girls found the eggs and their baskets pretty quick.  Brooklyn knew just what to do this year!  And it didn't take her long at all to bust an egg open and dig in!

For breakfast, I made cinnamon rolls from scratch.  I don't do this often, hmmmm... actually I think I have only done it once before.  They were so yummy!  It is a good thing I don't make them more often because I ate most of them myself!  I had some strawberries with them so that makes a healthy breakfast, right? :)

A sweet day

(Maylee took this picture of me and Brooklyn!  I love it!)

We had to meet Jeff out in Mesa to sign some papers, and made a day out of it.  It really was the perfect little day.  After the signing, we went straight to the temple.  The weather was perfect so it gave us time to wander around the gardens for a bit and then we went inside the visitors center to see the statue of Christ.  I love the sweet spirits of children- they were so reverant as we listened to the short clip.  I really felt the spirit sitting with my two sweet girls.

Then we walked around downtown Mesa for a bit and grabbed some lunch.  We went to a place called Urban Picnic, which Maylee was disappointed with because she thought it would really be a "picnic" type place where you grab your food and sit on the grass (I might have been confused as well) but the food ended up being fantastic and the big purple chair on the sidewalk made it better as well.

Disney on Ice

On April 12, daddy stayed home with Brooklyn so Maylee and I could go out on a "Mommy-Daugther" Date with all the other girls in my family.  We went to Disney on Ice.  We met downtown, grabbed some pizza for dinner, and went to the show.  The show was good, but the last show we saw was Princess on Ice... and with a group full of girls only it is hard to compete with that.  Maylee kept waiting for Rapunzel to come on the ice, which she did not. :(  Darn.  We still had fun and I'm sure you can guess that I had one sweet, little girl fast asleep by the time we got home. :)