Kyler's Huntington Library Introduction

As you all are probably aware of now, we LOVE going to the gardens.  And the Huntington Library is one of our absolute favorites.  So naturally we wanted to take Kyler to experience the joy with us.  Makenna had been several times before and of course she went with us too!

Our first stop was to the Japanese Garden area.  The last time we had gone it was not yet open, so we were anxious to see it.  Makenna and Kyler both enjoyed the waterfall.

Then Makenna showed off her ninja skills with daddy's help.

 And her diva dance skills:-)

We posed for a quick picture before heading off to the children's garden area.  (Yes, yes...mommy needs to do a better job at looking in the background of photos before she takes them...they were draining the lake/pond)

Kyler took a little snooze in the stroller so Makenna and daddy went off playing at the Children's Garden.  Makenna's favorite part was finding all of her "houses".  Here are a few them:

She had the blue house that was cleverly named for the blue doorway (which, by the way, was her favorite house!).  She also had fun going into this huge fog area where it produces so much fog that you can hardly see.  She got scared the first time that daddy walked in there and she couldn't see where he went.  The second time she was prepared though and had fun in there and came out laughing and soaked.

Daddy and Makenna ran around on the grass area and looked for pretend cats while I fed Kyler and then we hopped in the car and went home.  Such a fun day!

Halloween 2012

I was so excited to get to dress up my TWO kids this year for Halloween!  Knowing that it will probably be one of the last years that I will have any say over Makenna's costume, I made the most of it and went with a theme for the four of us: Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Makenna was of course Goldilocks, Kyler was Baby Bear, Toby was Papa Bear, and I was Mama Bear.

But before I get ahead of myself...We began with our yearly pumpkin carving the day before Halloween (Maybe next year we will actually get pumpkins carved earlier...I won't hold my breath about that though).  I had planted pumpkins in our home garden this year and I planted them a bit late, so we had to buy a pumpkin after all.  But, the small green one that Wyatt carved was from our garden:-)

Makenna still didn't much care for the mess of scooping out the pumpkin guts.

Wyatt was there to carve pumpkins with us this year and, unlike Makenna, he had SOOO much fun scooping out the pumpkin guts.

Daddy helped to finish the scooping and do the carving of the pumpkins.

 And here is our finished jack-o-lantern behind bars:-)

Then on Halloween day we got all dressed and first went to daddy's work to show off the kids.  Next year we will know to go earlier because they actually had trick-or-treating at his work, which was such a wonderful idea.  Then we met our friends in downtown Redlands for trick-or-treating at the businesses there.  We had done this last year and had really enjoyed it.  Last year Makenna had to be held the whole time and gladly allowed her friend to say trick-or-treat while she reaped the benefits without saying anything.  This year however she was prepared and knew exactly what to do.  She boldly went up to the people with the candy, held up her bucket, and said "trick-or-treat"!  She and her friend enjoyed having each other there.

And who can forget the two little ones.  They watched sisters go up and get candy and schemed with each other about how they will totally be able to get more candy then their sisters next Halloween.

After downtown Redlands we headed back home for a quick bite to eat before heading out one more time to Wyatt's house for...well...of course...more trick-or treating!!  We went around Wyatt's neighborhood because the houses on our street don't even bother handing out candy because there isn't enough kids that come by to bother.

They got sooo much candy by the end of the night.  And it was Makenna's first experience with trick-or-treating around houses.  It was a little difficult to get across the concept of only going up to the doors that had their lights on.  She proudly said trick-or-treat for her and for Wyatt when they went up to the doors.  It was so funny because Wyatt wouldn't say trick-or-treat but would hold up his basket and say "put in here":-)    We were so glad that they invited us to trick-or-treat with them!  Since it was late, we stopped by my mom and Jim's house to show off our costumes and then headed on home to get the kiddos in bed.

And one would think that is enough Halloween for anyone, but of course the next weekend we had a Halloween party.  I mean, we really get use out of our costumes:-)

Goldilocks the bear and owl wrangler

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Yes, that is all of the Halloween adventures for this year:-)

Our Very Own Swing Set

We are so blessed that Jim is so very good at building things!  He decided that for a gift for Makenna he was going to maker her a swing set.  Toby and he set about building it from scratch.  Makenna was so excited when they brought the swing set over to the house on the back of their friend's truck.

She was even more excited when it was set up in the backyard and she could swing on it.

And Kyler had his very first experience on the swing and he liked it too!

Thanks Papa for the wonderful swing set!!

Campland On The Bay

Both Toby and my family camped a lot growing up and we have many fond memories.  We definitely wanted to introduce camping to our kids too!  With Makenna, we didn't take her on her first camping trip until she was two years old, but were determined to take Kyler at a much younger age.  We took him for the first time up to Dogwood campground in our local mountains.  We again got the opportunity to go on another camping trip to one of my favorite campgrounds from my childhood weekend trips: Campland On The Bay.  This campground is so much fun and is located in San Diego.  It has all kinds of special activities to do, has wonderful parks, used to have a frisbee golf course (I was saddened to see it was no longer there), and is located right on the bay.

Since Toby and I are brave enough to go camping for one night, we still weren't ready to go camping for two nights with the baby and since Jim wasn't able to go with my mom, we decided to send Makenna with my mom for Friday night and then would join them Saturday morning.  It was the first time that Makenna had ever really been away from us, so I have to be honest with you, I was a little nervous, although I knew she would have so much fun with grandma.  Plus, shipping off one child and all of her stuff with my mom was a pretty good car packing solution for us:-)  We found we had plenty of room...and for some reason it was a VERY quiet evening and car-ride the next morning...hehe (Yes, Makenna can talk, and talk, and talk...she takes after me).

Makenna did great with grandma on Friday night, although it was quite chilly so my mom gave us the heads up to bring some warmer clothes for sleeping.  Who knew that San Diego could actually get frigidly cold at night?  Makenna got her first Happy Meal on the way down to the campground with my mom and now will ask me when we go to McDonalds if she gets a toy.  I tell her that it is only for when she goes with grandma. (Hmm...I wonder how long I will be able to get away with her thinking that?)  And she slept well in the tent with my mom.

When we got down there the next morning Makenna wasn't ecstatic to see us like I had hoped expected, but instead was more interested in getting ready to jump in the swimming pool with great grandpa.  Makenna had such a great time splashing around the pool with great grandpa while Toby and I constructed our tent.  We then had to go over to the AMAZING playground.  It was way nicer then when I was younger.  Makenna had fun climbing on the play structure, but she stuck to the smaller slides.  And of course she loved the swings.

We had lunch, attempted to put the kids down for a nap (tents aren't too nap friendly), and then we went down to the water.  Much to my surprise, Makenna loved the ocean water and was even alright with the sand this time.  We hadn't bothered to put her in her swimsuit because we were certain that there was no way that she would go into that water as soon as she felt how cold it was, and honestly none of the adults wanted to go into that freezing water with her.  So we were so shocked when she went right into the water and kept going deeper and deeper.  We ended up having to tuck her dress up so it didn't get too wet.  Next time we will be prepared with a swim suit:-)

My mom and Toby attempted to help Makenna build a sand castle but she wasn't too interested.

Kyler had fun laying on the blanket while great grandma played with him and shaded him from the sun.

We tried letting Kyler feel the water too, but he really didn't like how cold it was...poor baby.

One of my other favorite parts about the campground is that they have an ice cream shop.  So, of course Makenna had to get some ice cream with great grandpa and daddy.

We had a yummy steak dinner and s'mores for dessert.  Makenna was excited to do s'mores until we actually did them and then she decided that she would rather just eat a piece of chocolate and go to bed.  She was exhausted from the day.  We made some new friends with the campers next to us and they came and joined us for s'mores also.  Then it was off to bed.

That night let's just say that none of us slept well.  It was REALLY cold so the baby was up every hour even though we had him wrapped up really warm (He hates being cold).  Makenna slept alright, but we had to keep tucking her back under the blankets because she likes to kick them off all night.  Toby and I were cold and kept waking up every hour when Kyler did.  So, our sleeping experience while camping didn't go as well as the first time, but we survived.  We had fun camping, now the long haul through the fall and winter months without camping because tent camping isn't fun in the cold and rain.