Idaho Falls

Jared was in one of his friend's wedding on July 28th.  It was originally planned that Jared would go alone since he was in the wedding and I knew he wouldn't be able to hang with me much, but last minute he bought me a ticket and convinced me to go.  I also hadn't originally wanted to go because I hate to fly and plus the plane tickets there were outrageous.  It worked out that I went and my mom was able to watch the kids.  I really hate to leave the kids, but I'm quickly learning that the few days away has proven to do great things for Jared and I.  We definitely need that time alone.  My birthday happened to be the 27th so when we headed out on the 26th, Jared told me he was taking me to Jackson Hole.  I had never heard of it, but I'm sure glad I got to experience it. 

We got there super late on the 26th to Idaho Falls.  I think like 1 am.  After we chatted up a little with the wedding party we went to sleep because we knew we needed to get moving in the morning because Jared had to be back by 5 for the rehearsal dinner.  Garrett and Lexi Lucero were also there for the wedding because Garrett was in the wedding party as well and they came along to Jackson Hole with us, along with their baby Jillian.  I'm so glad they came, It was a great birthday I will never forget.  That night we had the rehearsal dinner and just hung with everyone, it was a lot of fun.  Everyone was super sweet wishing my a happy birthday the whole weekend.  Saturday we just hung out all day at our cabin.  I watched all the crazy boys be boys and then it was time to get ready for the wedding.  It was a super cute wedding out in the open field.  Jared was cracking me up, he was having a little too much fun and he looked super handsome.  We kept glancing over at each other as the lady was saying the vows.  It rekindled a little something in us and reminded us of our wedding day.  The rest of the night we just partied with everyone, had some great food, and some delicious cake.  I may or may not have had 2 or 3 slices.  LOL.  We went to bed super late and had to get up at 7am to get to the airport by 9.  We missed our babies.  We were so excited to see them and my mom had put on a delicious roast, so we had a home made dinner when we got home.  I'm super glad I went and I had a great birthday.  Jared even got me a beautiful Ruby necklace, which is my birth stone.  I haven't taken it off since.  I absolutely loved it, he made my birthday very special.  Here's to the last year in my 20's.  So surreal.  I can't even believe it.





Crazies, jumping into the freezing cold pond

 The happy couple

So proud

I have to write about Kade today.  I am so proud of my little boy.  Recently Kade has proven what a quick learner he is.  I always thought he was so easy because of how quickly he potty trained or how easy he transitioned to not having a binky, and even how he transitioned to moving from his crib to a big boy bed.  Lately, however he has blown my mind.  My big boy has learned to swim in one summer and just this past weekend (August 4th to be exact) learned to ride his bike with no training wheels.  These are major milestones in my opinion.  These are the things that make them go from being a little boy to a big boy.  For so long I would see some of my friends boys already know how to ride a bike and I kept telling Jared that he really needed to work on this with him and it didn't take much that my baby was kicking butt and learned in no time.  I am incredibly proud as you can tell.  I can't believe how quickly Kade has grown up and in just 1 week my boy will be officially starting preschool.  I'm so excited for him.  He is quickly learning how to spell KADE.  Before I know it, he will be reading me a book.  I have such an overwhelming feeling of proudness right now as I type this and I can't help the tears from welling up.  He is an unremarkable little guy.  There is nothing more fulfilling in the entire world than seeing your own child learn things for the first time.  I love you Kade.  I hope one day you can realize and see the amazing boy you  truly are and always know your full potential, because I've seen it is just the 4 short years we have been blessed with you. 

 Giving Kade five for being awesome

Happy Birthday Taylor

This Princess turns 2 today.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives and we will never be able to say that enough.  She has the best personality and I can tell she will be just fine in life.  She is a strong little girl and knows exactly what she wants.  God has blessed us in the most incredible way by giving her and Kade to us.  Happy Birthday to our little beauty.  We love you always and forever!!!

San Diego

June 29th-July 7th

It's taken me forever to write about our trip to San Diego.  It was bitter sweet for a lot of reasons not worth mentioning, but definitely glad we went ahead with the trip.  I think the kids really enjoyed it and that made it all worth it.  I had planned on taking all sorts of pictures with my nice camera, and even lugged it around, but never once did I pull it out.  I wasn't in the mood at all to be constantly behind the camera, so my iPhone did the job.  Overall the trip consisted of us going to beaches, SeaWorld, Legoland,  a professional baseball game, and of course we indulged in some shopping.  I don't have my whole trip chronologically ordered out exactly, but these pictures are enough for us.  

When we first started planning this trip we looked and searched for hotels and frankly the ones that I wanted to stay at were extremely expensive, and everything else affordable in my opinion was a piece of crap.  It just so happened that when we started inquiring about which hotels to stay at we purchased our camper, so when we found the camper we liked I told Jared, lets just take this to San Diego, so that's what we did.  I was impressed with Jared because he pulled that thing 14 hours, drove on the freeway with that honker and did a really good job.  He did tell me his hands were sweaty on the freeway part of it, I can't say I blame him.  I love being a passenger with Jared because I never have to pay attention to directions or worry about anything, I just sit back and play on my phone and he gets us from point A to point B.  He's the best at directions (It's just one of the things I love about him).  I was also happy with the KOA campground Jared found us because it was pretty centralized to all the places we wanted to go.  It was a very family oriented place and all our neighbors were super friendly.  It was so nice having our own clean sheets and towels, and going to sleep at night felt like we were at our second home.  Plus we saved a ton of money doing it that way. 

We arrived in San Diego early afternoon on June 30th, got our camper all set up, went shopping at this great outdoor mall, ate at PF Changs, and headed to the beach.  It was a lot of fun seeing the kids run around.  They were so hyper, and I could tell they were in Heaven.  I can say that we all love the ocean so much.  Only downfall is/was getting all the sand out from every crack and crevice.  I think the kids loved the beach more than anything. 
The next day or two we headed to Sea World.  We zipped thru this place pretty fast.  We weren't extremely impressed with it, but we did love the Sea Lion Show, and the Shamu show; those were super cool.  We were just above the splash zone while watching the Shamu show, and seeing all those people get soaked was hilarious.   
Next up was Lego Land.  This day was fun and thankfully it was overcast.  We got there and did some rides and went straight to get the kids faces drawn in characters.  Taylor of course was a princess and Kade was Batman.  They were super ready to move on from this so we went a rode more rides and Kade got to ride his first roller coaster with Jared.  It was so convenient that Taylor was the exact height needed to ride the rides.  It couldn't have worked out more perfectly.  After lunch and a few more rides we decided we better head over to the water park because the weather was looking super cloudy.  We stayed there for about an hour and called it a day.  The kids were pooped and I was freezing.  Lego land would definitely be a recommendation of mine. 
The next few days we hung out at Coronado beach, hit up a baseball game, went to La Jolla for the day and did the whole firework show.  The baseball game was a lot of fun, I think we bought every snack they sold there.  Taylor was in heaven.  She ended up just picking up the popcorn box from the people behind us and just sat there and ate away.  The guy was so nice and told us she could have the rest.  They were a really nice family, that's why I let her continue to eat it.  Hahaha!!! The fireworks however were a bomb.  We set up shop early in the day right after breakfast in the Gas Lamp district and some shopping in one of the best places to watch.  Our friend Chenza drove down from LA to hang with us and have dinner, the kids were really excited to see her, as was Jared and I.  After dinner Jared was trying to kill some time so he took the kids to get some balloons made and they headed back just in time for the show.  At 5 minutes till 9, the fireworks all went off and it was amazing.  The sky lit up and everyone was screaming.  We were in a great spot where you could see all the fireworks go off at all the bays at the exact same time.  Come 9:00 there was nothing and a guy next to us mentioned he goes every year and they are always punctual.  So after about 40 minutes people started packing up and leaving and we were extremely disappointed.  We kept sitting there, thinking they were just running super late.  Finally I told Jared we better get the kids back to the camper, becuase they were getting cranky.  The next morning we found out there was some type of glitch and they all fired at the same time, that 20 seconds was amazing though.  We all thought it was a pre show.  It was called the big bay boom, it was all over the news.  I had to chuckle at the fact we drove all the way to San Diego for the 4th of July and that is what we got.  HA! Typical.

Overall I'm very glad we went on this trip.  Jared and I did make the comment that we weren't too impressed with certain areas of California.  Some of it is just very run down.  We decided we will pass on California for a while since we have gone there the last few vacations.  We did have a great time and I won't ever forget walking down the boardwalk with my family late at night, watching all the people live their lives and listening to the ocean, I also won't ever forget seeing Taylor run around the beach like she was right at home, or sitting in the beach chairs holding Jared's hand while watching our babies dig sand at Coronado beach, or sitting outside with Jared at night just talking about everything right after we cleaned our babies up and put them down to sleep, or watching Taylor stand up against the glass watching the Polar bear mama play with her baby cub, or the proud look on Kade's face when he did his first roller coaster with his dad and kept his hands in the air the whole time, or admiring Kade's chubby little fingers play with the star fish Jared assured him he could take out of the water,  or the little Mexican restaurant we found down the street and ate there 3 times because we loved it so much and found out the people were from the same place as me, Guadalajara.  I loved every minute of it, I hope Kade at least will remember some of it.  Can't wait for our next annual family vacation. 

   

Sea World

Lego Land

  

Coronado Beach

4th of July- Sea Port Village

 Baseball Game

La Jolla

  A few random pictures

(Gas Lamp District)

 (Yes, we got a flat while in Cali, thank goodness for Discount Tire)

The end.....Till next time!!!!