It's all over now

There's no fighting it now. It won't be long before she is walking for sure. She just isn't happy unless she's up and holding on to something or walking along the furniture. She has discovered the magnets on the fridge and just when we thought they were safe to put away for awhile, here she came and plays happily with them, taking them all down while dinner is made.

I was just caught.

I can't get enough of this smile. She knows she's making a mess and is quite pleased with herself too.

Addison's latest find

Thanks to Aunt Kaylene and swimming lessons, Addison has discovered the greatest thing in the world - Dum Dum suckers.

It truly is her new love and the girls love to share them with her. She is the biggest sticky mess when she's done (and used them as a teething stick too) but she is happy and content for about 20 minutes. It's the quietest she's been since she figured out how to talk and get people's attention from across the room.

Kelsey is 6

Kelsey turned 6 a few weeks ago and since we were headed to Girls Camp (yes, both of us since he's in the bishopric and I am Beehive advisor) on her actual birthday, she chose to have her party the day before. With a summer birthday it's kind of a bummer to not have school friends come, but she had a few that have kept in touch so it was fun to have them come. Even with a lot of people out of town that she wanted to have come, she still had 4 friends come and it made for just the perfect group.

She decided on a swim party again and I love that because it is just so easy and the best way to cool off from this hot, miserable weather we've been having lately. It made it even nicer that Dave had the day off from work in observance of the 4th so he was able to take Addison while I was outside with the rest of the kids.

All the moms cooling off by the step.

Kelsey and her dear friend Riley. They were two peas in a pod in kindergarten together.
Elizabeth and Samuel. He was the only boy to make it and found out that he and another friend she invited from school, but couldn't make it will both be in her 1st grade class this next year. She is looking forward to school much more since we found that out.
Kelsey's other good friend and sister that although they live far away always make up for it playing and getting together in the summer.Happy Birthday Kelsey!! We are so proud of you and all you can do. You are growing so big and into quite a beautiful girl. Thanks for always being such a big help around the house and playing with your little sisters. You are so friendly to everyone around you and get along with everyone. We love you. Love Mom and Dad

Happy 4th of July

I've been trying to get the pictures off the camera for quite some time now and have been having some computer issues lately so it's taken much longer than anticipated but well worth the wait. Now that we are officially done with all our trips summer is more than half over and we're headed into the few weeks left before school starts up again. Summer just isn't long enough like I remember it being when I was a kid. But anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now and on with the show.

The whole 4th of July weekend was spent in the pool. We had a bbq both days and Kaylene came to spend the time with us and the girls. With it being so hot, we had to have some way too cool off in this heat - it's just been nasty this summer. Or maybe it is every summer and I just forget till it gets this hot again each year!!
This is definitely not Addison's first time in the pool - she's practically in it everyday and just has a ball playing and splashing with her two older sisters. Swimming lessons next year for sure.

This swimsuit is just the cutest thing ever!!

Addison's first 4th of July - and just like Katelyn she isn't afraid of them at all. So far, the only one with a birthday around the 4th is terrified of the fireworks. Still.

Katelyn loved the sparklers. Then Dave let her and Kelsey start lighting some little "safe & sane" fireworks in the street. Here's the scenario: Kelsey set them up and Katelyn would light them. She even got to the point of lighting them and then throwing them in the street to go off. No fear at all, that one.

We went on vacation and...

...came back to this.

Addison has a tooth and now, two weeks later, she has too. We got a text from Kimber the day before we came home saying she had a tooth and when I told Dave we missed it, all he said was, "It'll be there when we get home." If she wasn't the third baby I might have been a little more upset about missing it. So to hear Kimber say she would still swap children after dealing with a teething baby, that wasn't even hers is so fabulous.

Well no wonder she was not happy at the end of last month. All we can say is FINALLY. She's been gnawing on everything she can get her hands on, even the teething rings Heather got for her for Christmas. She loves those things. She also discovered dum dum suckers and when she started bleeding from using the stick as a chew toy, the next day she got her second tooth.

San Francisco Day 4: California Academy of Sciences, Presidio

In the morning we hit the California Academy of Sciences which has an aquarium, planetarium, rain forest and natural history museum all inside. It was pretty cool to see it all and if we take the girls back this is one place they would love to go. In the rain forest they had birds and butterflies flying everywhere and some would just land right on you. After we spent a few hours there, we headed over to the Presidio which is just at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an old fort that Dave wanted to see and despite it being extremely windy that afternoon, we still managed to snap a few photos. I didn't read many of the signs so I'm sure Dave got more out of it than I did but it was still cool to see all the cannons and ammo they had there.

It was so windy up on top and if we had the girls with us, Katelyn would've for sure fallen in the ocean from the third story!!
Dave's just trying to figure out how to get his hands on one of these!!

One thing I loved about the city is there were walking trails everywhere, winding and lined with trees so there were always people biking, running, and walking anytime of the day. I could so live there. For a week. Until the money ran out!! So for now, I'll just have to visit instead.

On our last day we went back into the city and went to the Museum of Modern Art, which my mom would be so proud. I think we may have spent a total of an hour there and then left to hit Union Square (which is much more our comfort zone), to do some last minute shopping and lunch before it was time to head for home. We went into a 4 story William-Sonoma which was absolutely amazing and had a fabulous lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. And so ends our San Francisco tour. We had such a wonderful, relaxing trip that we might opt for leaving the kids on all our vacations now!!

A huge thanks goes out to Kimber for watching our girls and hopefully they weren't too horrible for you. Although I was so pleased to hear her say that she would be willing and wants to swap kids for vacation again. Where are we going next?!

San Francisco Day 3: Oakland, Alameda, Half Moon Bay

On Sunday we decided we wanted to see more of the outlying city than be in the thick of it since Saturday was crowded and busy enough so we headed over to Oakland to see the temple. The grounds were so beautiful with the lawns, flowers and fountains (something we miss here at the Las Vegas Temple).



The view from the visitor's center. Wouldn't that just make you want to come to the temple all the time?

If you look closely you can actually walk up on the second level where the hand rails are. They had it open so we went up and the flower beds were so pretty up there too.

This is the view from up top and there is actually water running down the middle between the two fountains.


After that, we drove over to Alameda and took a tour of the USS Hornet which is an aircraft carrier that served in World War II. We took a tour of the engine room and Dave having done the USS Midway in San Diego too, said we could see and do a lot more on this carrier than what they had open to the public on the Midway. Unfortunately we left without getting any pictures of how big it really was so I guess we just have to go back again.

I thought this was interesting, the stats of the ship.

Down in the engine room

Up on the flight deck.
Looking over to San Francisco off the back of the ship.

When we finished up the tour we drove down to Half Moon Bay, which we were told we had to go see and drive back along the coast. I'm sure it would've been beautiful to see, but since we left too late in the day, it was already fogged back over in the late afternoon to actually enjoy it.

As a side note, when we made it back to the city, we went to see Iron Man 2 since we already had a babysitter, why pay for another one?! I loved it and thought it was just as good as the first. Dave on the other hand, liked it, but didn't love it like the first one. But still a great movie.

We've recovered, I think!!!

Well, it's a week later and I can honestly say I think we've recovered from having 5 kids and I'm just glad we don't have 5 kids under the age of 6. I think it is almost better having them the same age rather than 5, 4, 3, almost 2 and almost 1 because you can have twins but when they are all clearly not the same age, people just think you're insane. Anyone that cared at all to actually ask how I did it, got the same response: "They're not all mine and after a week two go back to their parents." After last week, 3 seems like a breeze and will be a piece of cake, even with Dave gone to scout camp and then on a business trip, again. If nothing else, it really made me love our girls and how good they really are.

A slight delay

We interrupt this vacation log because I have had 2 extra kids since last Friday and will continue to have them until late Saturday night. So I will resume posting about our wonderful vacation after they have returned to their rightful parents!!

San Francisco Day 2: Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge

Our second day was just as busy as the first and it was the only day we headed out bright and early to catch the first boat over to Alcatraz Island. Today we actually saw the sun and the sky was so blue.

Coit Tower. We drove to the top, but didn't go in because we'd had enough walking for one day.
The Transamerica Building.

Alcatraz Island
The Lighthouse
All the cells were this small. We took the audio tour and it was so fascinating to see how they lived.
What is left of the wardon's house. The fact that there were actually families living on the island while it was a prison is so hard to comprehend.

The Golden Gate Bridge fogged over, again. Only this time you can see the top poking through the cloud cover.
The Oakland Bay Bridge.
At the edge of the island.
Another view of the city.
It was a bit windy and I just gave up brushing my hair out of my face for the pictures. After finishing up at Alcatraz we headed back to the Pier for a crab sandwich for lunch that was to die for. Then we headed over to the Embarcadero and financial district where we hit the farmer's market and then up over to Chinatown.
Driving down Lombard Street

The Palace of Fine Arts/Exploratorium. This museum was a lot of fun inside, all about how things work and if we ever take the girls back, this is one place they would've loved to go to. A lot like the Lied Discovery Museum here, but on a much larger scale.

We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and over to Sausalito. If we lived in San Francisco, we'd be broke so fast with all the fun little shops, great food and transportation/parking everywhere!! But it sure was a great place to visit.

San Francisco Trip: Day 1 Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz

Our trip to San Francisco was wonderful. We took tons of pictures and did all the touristy stuff and walked and walked everywhere. The weather was beautiful and fabulous, you couldn't help but love it there. Nothing like a 50 degree change in weather when we came home to make us want to go right back. We didn't really have an itinerary as far as what we would do when, just what we wanted to do and had time to do. The only thing we had tickets for was Alcatraz and other than that we just went at our own pace and spent as much time as we wanted seeing and doing everything.

This was the view from our room, right on the water, so peaceful and beautiful.

On our first day we started with Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. Although we rented a car, we were right next to the BART station so we took that into downtown on our first day. We got off right in the heart of downtown and Union Square and the passes we got were good for all the muni buses, and cable car rides we could fit into our trip. At the pier we went to the Aquarium, ate at the Boudin Sourdough Bread Company, and picked up some stuff for the girls. I knew they wouldn't appreciate anything with San Francisco on it so why not a little bling for them instead.

Out at the end of Pier 39

And of course since we were right there, we had to walk over to see the Sea Lions. I know Dave didn't appreciate them, but there were two that kept fighting and pushing each other back into the water. Prime Realstate, I guess!!

After Pier 39 we took a cruise on the Blue & Gold fleet that took us out under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz island. It was fogged over and windy but still worth it.
The San Francisco skyline
Alcatraz island, on our way to the bridge. We didn't get any pictures of the bridge, well because it was covered in fog, but plenty of it the rest of the trip.Alcatraz island

This sign is posted on the perimeter of the island warning anyone not to help the prisoners to escape.
Leaving Alcatraz.
Heading back to the shore, still really windy at sea.
Back to Pier 39

The destroyer ship, Jeremiah O'Brien from World War II. We just walked down to it, but didn't take the tour. The size of these ships in real life is amazing to see.The USS Pampanito from World War II. The fact that this is still afloat is incredible. We took this tour and to see how small the spaces were that those men lived in is just mind blowing. Pretty incredible.

The cable cars. These were pretty cool to ride on, especially up and down the steep streets in the city.

The cable car museum. Dave especially like seeing how the cable cars work and run and to see that they are still run on cables today. Pretty cool. It was actually really noisy in here with them all running at once.