Children's Discovery Museum Adventure

I had been wanting to go check out the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert in Rancho Mirage for a while and finally the opportunity arose to go with our friends. It was an incentive that it didn't cost anything for kids that are under 2 years old so it was important that we went before Makenna hit her birthday:-) So two weeks before we loaded up and headed out for the 45-minute drive to the Palm Springs area.

We went on a weekday and got there just a few minutes after opening so we were the only ones in the museum for a little while; which was wonderful. They have all kinds of hands-on exhibits to play in. We saw the laser harp, the rope maze climbing area (one of Makenna's favorites),

paper plate pictures, block tower building,

archaeology digs, dress up (another favorite; I mean who wouldn't like shoes and purses),

pizza parlor, grocery shopping (always her favorite),

outdoor play, and joy rides.

We had a marvelous time. We hope to go back again sometime.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Halloween

Our first pumpkin stop was to the pumpkin patch with our nieces, nephews, and Toby's sisters. We had a lot of fun perusing through the pumpkins,

examining the pumpkins and gourds,

petting the horses,

and climbing the hay structure.

We went on a weekday which was so nice and not crowded like it is on the weekends.

After the kids were thoroughly worn out we headed back to our house for dinner, talking, and playing. It was so fun to get together.

Next up was pumpkin carving. Since we weren't too fond of spending a fortune on a pumpkin patch pumpkin, call us cheap, we decided to wait until really last second, the day before Halloween, to go out and get our grocery store pumpkin for carving. We managed to find a decent one even though it was slim pickings. The problem was finding the gourds. So we decided to head back to the pumpkin patch again to get the perfect gourds for our pumpkin decorating. We got a great selection and got to take Makenna out to the actual pumpkin patch area for some photos.

Last year Makenna was gung-ho about scooping out the guts of the pumpkin but had reservations about it this year. She would reach in her hand and then pull it back out again.

She really didn't want the slimy stuff on her hands. Although she didn't want to scoop, she was a HUGE helper when it came to separating the seeds from the orange stringiness.

She was very meticulous about making sure that all of the orange was off of the seeds before placing them in the bowl of water.

After all of the scooping and carving here is our finished pumpkin jack-o-lantern.

It was supposed to be a Viking but looks like a muscle man too:-) Either way, it turned out awesome! Toby did a great job!

Finally, Halloween! We dressed Makenna up in her little flower costume and headed over to downtown Redlands where the businesses give out candy.

It was the perfect first Trick-or-Treating experience for Makenna because it wasn't a crazy amount of walking, there was little downtime in between for her to get restless, it started at 3:00pm, and she got to go with her best friend.

And what I mean by Makenna didn't have to walk very much I mean that she walked up to get the candy, because we made her, and then she walked back to daddy or grandma to be held until the next candy opportunity:-)

The two girls had a great time and we are looking forward to doing it again next year!!

Proud New Skills

Makenna had gotten a rag doll the other day from the store and it has yarn, pigtail hair. So Toby decided that he was going to learn how to braid hair using the doll. He said that he knew that by watching me it was split into three different sections and then it was just a matter of him figuring out the pattern. I didn't know that he even knew how to do this. I was thoroughly impressed! He now can, in the future when Makenna gets enough hair, braid Makenna's hair if I can't:-) Here is a picture to commemorate that awesome skill:

Fall Time in Oak Glen & BBQ

Oak Glen is just 10-minutes away from our house, yet we don't take advantage enough of it being so close. Now that it is apple picking season we wanted to go up and experience the crowds fun:-) We were so excited that my grandparents, my mom, Jim, and my mom's cousin Bob (from Alaska) were also able to go with us up there.

We walked through shopping and tasting all of the yummy bread, apples, and apple cider. When we had gone to the L.A. County Fair Makenna had fallen in love with the baskets that she used to harvest her crops and she found one in the store. She knew what it was for but, luckily she was a good listener and didn't try to put anything that she wasn't supposed to in the basket. My mom and Jim did however end up purchasing the basket for her and she absolutely loved it. Next we took Makenna and her basket down to the picnic area where she collected acorns and their "hats" along the way.

Luckily she "spilled" them before they had to come home with us:-) We then drove down to another area where we enjoyed eating apple danishes and picking up pies for the celebration of Toby and Scott's birthdays.

After Oak Glen we headed back down the hill and had a bbq at my mom and Jim's house. We have been craving shish kabobs for a while now and since we don't currently have a working barbeque at our house it was truly a treat. It was so nice to get to spend time with the family.

Happy Birthday Daddy Day

Toby has really wanted to go to the indoor K-1 go-cart race track, so he decided that the perfect time to go was on his birthday. It definitely helped make it even more appealing when we found out that you get a free race on your birthday:-) We went with our friends Daniel, Brian, Beth (Toby's sister), Wyatt (Our nephew), and of course Makenna and I. The guys had to get all suited up...

They got into their cars...

And they were off, racing around the track!!

Makenna and Wyatt cheered on their daddy/uncle and also had fun eating and running around the building. The guys competed in two races (17-laps each), the second one they got to race with just the three of them, which was so awesome. They were exhausted after no power steering, fierce competition, and a relatively warm day in an un-air conditioned warehouse building. But, they had fun...

Even if they all couldn't finish in first place:-)

Not everyone can be number one!! But don't tell the babies that:-)

After racing the guys went to fill up their "growlers" (aka. huge beer bottle receptacles) at the local brewery, Hanger 24. Then it was time for board games. I think everyone had a great time on Toby's birthday!!

Dancing Girl

Makenna is in a stage right now where she loves to dance. If you can't get her to smile then all you have to do is turn on music and have an area big enough for her dance expression. She askes every night for us to turn to the music channel on TV so she can dance. She then proceeds to tell Toby and I that we need to dance too. And then if we accidentally step onto the tile floor off of the carpet she reminds us that the dance floor is on the carpet. She also does not hesitate to tell us if we are doing dancing that she doesn't like.  Apparently dancing like a teapot or the pharaoh dance is not an approved dance.  I can't wait until I can get her into dance class!

San Diego Zoo Birthday Bash

We had the awesome priveledge of getting to go to the San Diego Zoo with Beth (Toby's sister), Jason (Our brother-in-law), and Wyatt (Our nephew). We were going for Wyatt's first birthday. So we all crammed into one car to save on gas and got the opportunity to spend more time together. It was Wyatt's first time to the zoo, so it was so exciting to see how interested he was in the animals. He loved looking at the animals and I will have to say that Makenna actually enjoyed the animals way more then she ever has before. Although we didn't stay as long as everyone had hoped, we got to see all of the important/big animals: the giraffes, zebras, elephants,

vultures and other birds,

panda bears, flamingos,

polar bears, camels

and oh so much more (I won't bore you by listing any more animals). Taking a short break to eat and play on one of the play areas was nice too.

We had such a fun time and felt so blessed that we got to experience this time with Wyatt, Beth, and Jason. Happy birthday little one year old!!

Terrifying L.A. County Fair

Makenna and I got the privilege of going on two separate occasions to the L.A. County Fair. So here are how our days went:

Day 1
We loaded up my mom and Jim's car with all of our stuff, Makenna, Toby, my mom, Jim, and me and headed on the road to the fair. When we got there, we decided to give Makenna a few minutes to wake up since she had been sleeping in the car so we headed over to the dinosaur exhibit hall first. Let's just say that she was thoroughly terrified even after assuring here that they were pretend. She didn't appreciate the exhibit until the very end when they had a dinosaur nest to play in with eggs (balls). And she actually warmed up enough to go and get a picture on the big dinosaur too.

Next we headed over to the almost as terrifying princess and knights area...hehe. Makenna didn't want to dress up in a princess costume, but she enjoyed wearing the high heels and purse. But because Toby longed to fight with swords and battle dragons over in the knights area, we decided to let Makenna decide what she would prefer. Wisely she decided to wear high heals, a purse, and wield a sword. The best of both worlds:-)

Now that Makenna was awake enough, we headed over to the animal area. She was appreciating her time and identifying the animals when we thought it would be fun to take her into the petting zoo area. She thought she wanted to go in and pet the animals until she was actually in there. She hated it...she got upset every time that the animals came near her, refused to pet any, and was convinced that the goats were trying to eat her...hehe. Terrifying experience number 3. So that didn't last long and could possible have scared her for a life of no more petting zoos. I feel awful for saying this but, it was pretty funny! Even days after she would say "goats eat" with a terrified look on her face. On from our horrible petting zoo experience we tried to watch the pig races but I think Makenna was the only one that actually got to see anything. We finished walking through the rest of the animal exhibits and found a little Dude Ranch section where she wasn't afrait to ride the horse...

Okay, so it is only a rocking horse, but it counts:-) The highlight of the trip though was when Makenna got to do this hands-on exhibit showing the stages of planting, harvesting, and shopping. She started off planting the seeds,

milking the cow, 

and collecting an egg. 

Then she got to the next section where she picked the fruit,

harvested the vegetables, and sold them. 

She then received play money to go to the next section and buy groceries at the store. The store had a shopping cart and Makenna grabbed that cart so fast and went running down those aisles to get her supplies. Apparently she is mimicking my shopping...how fast can I get it done with a toddler in my cart:-) She chose her items carefully (Styrofoam plates, ice cream, and bread) and then she paid for the food at the end.

She loved it so much that we sent her back a second time only this time instead of going with mommy and grandma she went with daddy and grandpa. She showed them exactly what she was supposed to do.  Excepts this time she planted one of the seeds inside of herself...this picture was taken right after she swallowed it.

So a total terrifying fair experience was averted!  Saved by the shopping cart.

Day 2
Since we had such a great day when we went with my family, we decided that we should go again with some friends who had never been to the L.A. County Fair. The details are about the same as the first trip so instead I will just show you some cute pictures. These girls love being together...and the kids love it too:-)

Our Baby Dinosaurs

Milking Maidens

Our Brave Crew

We always had a family tradition of going to the fair every year and I hope this will continue on into the future.