Train Park

Baby Brooklyn out in her stroller, what a good girl for a day out.
Parker, david, lily, and cullen trying to drive the train.
3 kids messing around!


One day in January it was so warm and it was a holiday so the kids and james had the day off. we decided to take advantage of the good day and go down to the train park, and griffith park to play. the kids loved it and it was all free. we met up with the fletchers down there and had some fun playing on all the old trains taking a train ride and walking around. then we went up to the observatory (closed) and looked at all of the city right at sunset. it was tons of fun. we went out to ihop to eat and the kids just had a super day away from the cold.

Florida

When our cruise was over we had to get off the boat by 9 am but our flight home was not till the next morning so we spent a day in fort lauderdale. it was kinda hard to be there because at that point i was ready to go home and see the kids. it was funny to see everyone on their cell phones again right when we docked because we had been without them all week. i think ryan had almost 100 messages on his phone. crazy! i just wanted to call my kids, and i did talk to them right when we got off but it was hard the rest of the day because i wanted to be home. but we spent our time taking one of those air boat tours where we could see alligators and we did see 4-5, which better than the rest of the boats there. we also went to see a crazy guy play with big alligators. we went to lunch at this crazy "captain somethings" seafood place, and walked around downtown. we ended up at cheesecake factory for dessert and stayed at a place called "red carpet inn". i know scary right? kinda.but good for a relaxing day in florida.
Ryan eating a big blob of whip cream. since we were so dessert deprived on the boat we were happy to get some good ones in Florida.
Krista paid to hold this baby alligator and kiss it, no way i would do that. she looks happy doing it though.
The crazy alligator guy that pretty much put his whole head in his mouth. CRAZY!
One of the Alligators we saw on the side of our boat, we got pretty darn close.
James, pretending to be happy to take a picture with our boat. SMILE!

Cruise

The first week of January James and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary a bit early on a cruise to the Caribbean. We asked our good friends Krista and Ryan to come along, and it sure was fun. we loved cruising, and plan on doing it again. krista and ryan already have another one booked. (lucky) We went on Holland America, i chose this line because it hit alot of different islands for diving (james) and had cooking classes on the boat (me). We had paid in advance to do 2 cooking classes but there ended up only being one so we were pretty sad. James got to dive at each place. I forget all the islands, but the Bahama island was my favorite. i loved the 80 degree weather every day, sitting on the beach relaxing, eating anytime i wanted, sleeping in everyday, watching movies, time with James and laughing with friends. We had a great time eating the food was good, not top notch like I expected but there were a few nights where we really loved some things like the Thai Lime soup, and the goat cheese salad. We were all very disappointed in the desserts, there were alot to choose from but all really dry. except for this chocolate cake with ganuche filling, chocolate fudge icing with ice cream that i got a couple of time. (i don't usually like chocolate but hey i'm pregnant!) it was a great vacation and i did miss my kids alot. but i can't wait till the next trip.

James and I in Grand Turk (i think) loved the blue water and the perfect soft sand it was like powder.
one of the nights the boat had a dessert show, they had everything made out of chocolate, sugar, bread, and more chocolate. this is the choc Eiffel tower and a white chocolate swan, they also had awesome ice sculptures. but have to say we didn't find one dessert that really tasted that good, most just looked good.
More pictures of the beautiful beaches there. loved it!
This is our boat. we were in the middle, somewhere. but a huge ship with 5 restaurants, 3 pools, theatre, movie room, cooking demo kitchen, casino, shops, and more.
This is Biplop. my chef on the cruise. he is the executive chef on the fine dining restaurant on the boat, we never could get reservations. (and i asked if we could eat in the kitchen). i pretty much saw him every day. there were little cooking demos every day that he did, he was very entertaining and likable. (i don't know about a good teacher though) Also for our class that we got to cook at he was the teacher, well kinda he just gave us a recipe and told us to get to it. i was kinda disappointed with it. especially because there were just people walking by that would sit and watch, and take picture that we had to tell we paid for the private class, and this couple from canada who thought they knew everything about cooking that were annoying me. (they tried forcefully to tell me the Gorgonzola was not a bleu cheese) come on people! anyways i really liked my time with Biplop.

Christmas 2010

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mario brothers... i mean and sister

for halloween this year cullen wanted to be mario (ofcourse) so him and his buddy brady thought that they would be the mario bros. cullen mario and brady luigi. then sophia said she wanted to be princess peach. luckily my niece madie was peach a few years back and we got to use her costume which we loved all we had to get was the crown and the jewelry. but mario was definitely a hard one. there really is no such thing as overalls for 7-8 year old boys. there are baby and little boy ones or grown men ones but not for boys cullen's age. so after looking forever and deciding not to pay 20+ dollars for used ones on ebay, decided to make them. i think they came out better after we finally found a pattern started making them but rally didn't need one with my mom around. we just whipped it out (she did) and made a hat too. best mario by far. they looked so cute together on Halloween but even better with there trick or treat bags everyone knew who they were. lily was minnie (pic to follow) fell asleep and missed all of Halloween, shhh don't tell her that. but i was a little scared on Halloween because it was the first time i put makeup on sophia and man what a bombshell. she is anyways but her green eyes really popped. we had a fun halloween.

Wicked

Daddy and Sophia all ready for the show. (funny thing... james and i saw wicked last year in australia very late at night come to find out after seeing it again with sophia james had fallen asleep and never saw the end and thought that elphaba had melted and that was the end)
At the ophemeum in San Fran
Mama and Sophia so excited.
Saw the posters for the first time. so happy to be there.

For sophia's birthday (witch *get it* is in November) we planned on taking her to see wicked. Her pretty much favorite thing in the world. but they had already left la but were still in San Fran. So we planned to go out to NOR CAL for Olivia's bday and go to wicked at the same time. it was hard for us to get tickets, but we ended up with partial view seats. At first when i told james about the idea of Sophia going to Wicked he said NAAAAHHH, why would she like to see wicked, she doesn't even know anything about it. Then a few days later we were in the car listening to Wicked and James saw or heard first hand that she knows alllllll the words. then he said yeah, we should take her and i wanna go. We took the Bart to the theatre but got there early and ate first but couldn't go far because it was freezing that day. our seat were on the fourth row, but on the far right, not the last seats but they were good. Sophia had a booster so she could see everything. everyone thought she looked like a princess. It was kinda funny how she would ask questions about what was going on because she had only heard the music like: why are they being so mean to Elphaba? She loved the dragon and the lights, and i had to tell her she couldn't sing all the songs out loud. but mostly everyone around us was happy with her there. Sad to say that soon after intermission she fell asleep, dead to the world asleep. that's what happened when it's a 8 pm show. so i guess we have to go back one day. the best thing was seeing her face she loved it. and Glinda was beyond awesome, off the charts best popular ever. (sophia's fav song)

aquatic center (summer)

sorry for all these summer posts but i have to catch up sometime. we went down for a day trip to the valencia aquatic center (thanks Kelsi)and had a blast. a great deal and just as good (if you have little kids) as dry town. the kids loved it. they loved playing in all the splash places and going down the slides. cullen loved the high dive. i didn't think he would do it but kept going back. he had to take a swimming test first which was good because sometimes places put height and age limits on things even if they can't swim they can do it. but cullen can swim... very well so he was happy to take the test and very proud that he passed. it was a great adventure and i know we will be back next summer.
Lily in all the splash
Cullen and Lily... holding in the water.
Waiting for the water to pop out.
Cullen ready to high dive.
Sophia is in there... somewhere in all the splashes of water.