Vintage Family Picture

I came across this lovely photo of our little family from 9 years ago. Thank goodness I don't have those pants anymore...or that haircut. But looking at it made me realize just how much our lives have changed from this picture. And you never truly know how easy you have it until it gets harder! That Andrea would have a lot more time to invest in a blog, facebook, pinterest, and any other hobby of choice. She also kept a MUCH cleaner/organized house. Of course, to be fair, we also didn't have very much then! 9 years doesn't seem that long ago when I say it out loud, but looking at this picture, it is clear that it's long enough to have moved twice, change jobs thrice, finish college, and have 3 more kids! When I think about what happened to my twenties (because they flew by), I'll remember that as much as I loved that old Andrea and her new wonderful life with McKay and ONE child, I would never want those days back. Life is so much sweeter and rewarding now....hectic, crazy, and challenging too. But really, I wouldn't have it any other way! Except maybe a more organized house.... :) ahh well! This too shall pass!

I'm Baaaaack!

You can thank the new social site Pinterest for my return. I have been dying to get on there and start "pinning" away, but I felt it would be ridiculous for me to do that while it's been 7 months since I last posted on this here blog. So here I am. For the 2 or 3 people that don't see us often and still look at our blog, here's a little rundown on our new addition, who is now not so new :)

McKay Drew was born in July. He is the new light of our lives, the apple of my eye, and the bright new hope to carry on McKay's awesomeness (in his words).

Our girls are thrilled to have a new victim, er....playmate! :)

My two favorite guys, sound asleep! p.s. This doesn't happen anymore. McKay still sleeps, but Drew would rather chew on his toes...

My friend Christie was kind enough to take lots of cute pictures with her fancy camera when he was 2 months-ish. This was when his hair was still dark and still lay nicely on his head!

I really hope he keeps his Baby Blues. Eyes, that is, not to be confused with a slight depression!

This is my munchkin now. Just as cute, maybe cuter. The jury is still out as to whether or not he is our cutest kid! EVER!

He likes to play with, or chew on our woody dolls so I had to get some close ups. Look at those cute wittle hands. Yes I meant to say Wittle....

I have some really cute pics on my phone, but since this post took me a total of 2 hours, 34 min and approx. 20 secs to complete, I think you can all see why uploading more pictures was not high on my list. A new computer, however, is!!!!

I have to admit, it's nice to be back!

Disneyland Part 2/ San Diego & Sea World

I figured this is as good a picture as any to get this second post started! Emmie had two things on her mind that day...When can I buy a big sucker? And How many fast rides are we going on today?

I spent a lot of time with the two wee ones since none of us could ride the cool rides. This is Kole, Jandi's youngest. He spent most of his time playing fruit ninja on the Ipad.

And on the other side of me was this little munchkin. She always had her minnie mouse phone in hand with plenty of important business to take care of!

This day was spent mostly at California Adventure. After watching a show about Aladdin, we came out to an impromptu parade by the Incredibles. We couldn't decide if Elastigirl really does have all that junk in her trunk or if it was just the costume. We're still in debate. Can you imagine the cast call for that?!

This was after we got off the Mosnsters Inc. ride which we were lucky to ride. They shut it down right after us because something broke down. Whew!

For dinner, Jandi and I met up with an old friend. Marcie (not to be confused with our other good friend Marcee), was my bestest buddy as a kid. She lives in Cali now with her husband. So I gave her a call to see if we could meet up at all and she drove through horrible LA traffic to meet us right across from Disneyland. It was good to catch up with her and super nice of her to be so flexible with our crazy schedule and kids!

When Morgan is done, She's DONE! And she makes sure that everyone knows and feels it too. But we were determined to keep going.

Emmie was absolutely NOT done. That kid can go forever!

This was McKay's ultimatum face to Morgan. Do you believe him? Ya, me neither! But it got Morgan's attention. She was less whiny after that.

The Mickey Ferris Wheel on Paradise Pier was the background for the Color Wonder show. Which, was the best show we saw! It puts the Las Vegas water show at that one casino to shame! Or at least, that's what I hear. Never saw the Las Vegas one.

The next day we made a trek down to San Diego. We made a fruitless and expensive stop at an aquarium. As nice as it was, it was LAME! Then we found a seal park, kinda. It was more like a stinky napping place for, what looked like, small beached whales.

They act like the smell was coming from the other one and not the 60 plus seals behind them.

Emmie, Morgan, and Kinlie looking lovingly at the seals.

Seriously! What do seals do if not at Sea World? This apparently, Sad!

This is the view Jandi, Rhyan, and I had from our car of the pier that McKay and the girls wanted to walk out on. Looks pretty enough...

This was their point of view...still pretty. But there is more in store for them!

This was the wave that went up and over the entire pier and therefore completely drenched McKay and the girls! It was HIlArious!

Kinlie was funny. As soon as the wave subsided, she darted. Jandi was laughing, she said, "I know what she's thinking, 'My mom is gonna kill me'"! Which didn't happen, but it sure was hard to dry them off when we didn't have extra clothes! Darn ocean, it got our kids twice!

Our next stop was the beautiful San Diego Temple! It almost looks fake doesn't it?

Sea World was the next day! Over all the favorite show was the dolphin show, but I didn't have much chance to take pictures because we kept getting drenched. So these next pics are of the Shamu show.

Morgan and Emmie were hoping to pet the baby dolphins while they practiced their skills. Morgan loved Sea World! She wants to save up enough money so she can swim with the dolphins next time we go. I say go for it. I have PLENTY she could help me with to earn it!

The sea lion show was super funny. I think the parents enjoyed it more than the kids. The show was a bunch of spoofs like "Saturday night live", except it was "sea lions live." They used a ton of old music and such that the kids didn't catch on to as much. I'm a poet and didn't know it!

After the shows, we had to ride some rides of course. This was the one Rhyan was just dying to go on. The Elmo ride...Morgan decided to join us too.

All Done! There were soooo many pictures I didn't post (mostly because they were crappy), and soooo many more fun stories and favorites I skipped over. Our trip was just a lot of fun! I want to be able to do this every couple years. Especially when I'm NOT pregnant! :) I would highly suggest such a trip to any family!