Fuller Disney Vacation

Let's just start off with, How cool is this picture?! Not photo-shopped one bit, in fact it's straight off a phone. Just some classic desert landscape for ya. Nate and the scouts spent a day out at these Pinnacles, about 25 minutes from Ridgecrest. They are just some crazy random rock formations. Planet of the Apes and Holes were filmed here. Looks like at least Nate enjoyed himself!

After church one day, we realized we matched. I guess I subconsciously base our outfits off each others :)

After spending an entire weekend painting Evan's big boy bed, I decided I needed to "paint" my hair. And Evan took his first picture! Taken with my phone, even. I'd say he's got a bright future ahead of him.

Now that Evan sleeps in a big boy bed, it takes him awhile to settle down for nap time. Way too much freedom. They need to make cribs taller, like cages, so that little boys can't figure out how to climb out of them. Ever. (sigh). I heard him one afternoon for almost an hour, just playing and talking to himself. I finally decided to go be the enforcer, and this is what I walked in on. I laughed so hard, and couldn't be mad he hadn't gone to sleep yet. He was just too dang cute!

I left Nate and Evan early one morning to go have my glucose test done. I was gone for about an hour and a half, and came home to this. Nate asleep on the floor, and Evan making himself mighty comfortable watching cartoons.

The infamous big boy bed. There are three cubbies at the bottom of the bed also, painted red, orange, and yellow. The only thing we paid for with this entire ensemble was the paint. (It looked like a dollhouse before) All three of us are pretty pleased with how everything turned out.

Last week, Nate spent 4 days in Texas (College Station, to be specific) recruiting for the base. So Evan and I headed down to my sisters. As always, Evan's favorite activity is to do homework with the kids every night.

What do you think all those things in the water are? Cause from far away, I could not figure out what it could be.

They were surfers!! Can you believe that? Jenni and I decided to go down to the beach for a stroll one morning, and we could not believe this! Do all of these people not have jobs? It was just a Wednesday. And we didn't see a single one catch any waves, so it's not like the water was awesome and that's why they were all out. Weird.

Evan constantly asks me to go to the beach. Constantly. This particular day, he was mesmerized by the amount of birds on the sand. 

The weather was ridiculously perfect at Jenni's house. We played outside in flip flops and short sleeved shirts, and even need a hat! 80 degrees in January, sorry Utah and Idaho!

Nate's family (his parents, brother, sister-in-law, nephews and niece) planned a little vacation to come out to SoCal. Evan and I decided to head over to Disneyland one morning for a practice run on getting to the park and finding our way around by ourselves, since we would be the "guides" when the Fuller's came. Not a rough way to spend a couple of hours on a beautiful morning.

I love being able to hit up all of my favorite spots when I'm down at my sister's house, such as Costco, Trader Joe's, In N Out, Chipotle, and of course, Target. This dang cute onesie from Target just about melted me, but it was too expensive for my taste ;)

Like always, when I am at Disneyland and California Adventure, I am having way too much fun and never thinking about taking pictures, so I rarely have proof that we go. But this time, with the Fuller's, my hands weren't quite as full, and I had more time to stop and take it all in. Evan nearly dove out of his stroller when we were walking past this splash pad, so I obviously had to oblige. We were waiting outside during a bathroom break anyways, and there is not much more in life that Evan loves than being able to go wild in one of these things.

Cousin Sam followed Evan right in, and they were just starting to get soaked by the time Grandma and Aunt Katie came out of the bathroom. Once Daddy, Uncle Matt, Grandpa, and my sister Jenni and her kids made it over from the Tower of Terror, Evan and Sam both looked like they would need an entire new outfit! Too fun.

Evan usually gets pretty happy when he sees Mickey or Donald Duck or Goofy, etc, walking around the park, but he won't ever get close to them. Which is totally fine with me, because I don't want to stand in line forever for him to cry in a picture with one. But when he saw the life sized Mater and McQueen at California Adventure, he could not contain himself. My picture is blurry because I was shaking from laughing so hard. When it was their turn for a picture, Evan ran in and started running in circles and touching every part of the cars he could. The other part of California Adventure that just about blew his mind, was the Disney Jr show. Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and bubbles coming out of the ceiling...can you think of anything better?!?!

Saturday with the Fuller's we spent at the beach. It was a bit breezy, but still pretty glorious if you ask me. Nate, Katie and Matt all went boogey boarding, the little boys had a blast running from the waves and we all walked the beach searching for seashells.

My son would stay at the beach all day if you would let him. He is happier than a clam when he's there.

Here's each of the little boys just doing their own thing: Evan laying down in the sand, because why not?, Ben was digging and digging and digging with his Dad, and Sam was out riding the "boat" (ie boogey board) where the waves crashed. Grandma, Grandpa, and I enjoyed sitting in our chairs just taking them all in.

Looks like Evan convinced Ben how awesome it is to just lay down in the sand! They stayed here for a really long time.

The Newport Beach temple(which is my sister's temple) was quite close to where we were at the beach, so after we were done at the ocean, we headed over to show the Fuller's It's a very interesting, tiny temple. Evan's eyes were keen enough to point out the "guy up there has an instrument!" He now knows what a trumpet is. And who Moroni is. :) And today while he was outside drawing with chalk, the first thing he drew he said, "Look, Mom! Jenni's temple!!" It was a series of straight lines, but I loved that it was still on his mind a week later.

The Fuller's were able to come stay at our house for a couple of days, and of course it wouldn't be a trip to the Ridge without feeding the burros!

The little boys were off running like wild (as little boys should), so here are the adults(minus Grandpa, who is taking the pic) and baby Aubree with those silly burros.

The burros very much liked Ben and Evan's carrots!

My favorite part of this outing was when Sam told his mom the donkeys had mohawks. :) So funny!

Everyone got a chance to feed the fish.

Evan is a pro at showing people how it's done.

These three boys sure did have a whole lot of fun together for those few days. And we were so glad to have some visitors!

Nate was able to take his family into his lab (which is kind of a big deal, because I only get to go in there once a year, when the base opens up for family day) and show them a bit of what he does. I was in charge of little boys while the adults were inside. According to Evan, this particular airplane is "Daddy's big airplane" and whenever we are going on base, he always asks to go see it.

Evan even knows the difference between airplanes and jets! I don't know if I can credit that to his dad working on a base, or Little Einsteins, but either way, it's so funny to hear him correct people. I loved that in this picture, Sam and Ben wanted to be holding the silhouettes hands, and Evan just looks like he is carrying on a conversation with one of them :)

January kept us so very busy, and so far, February looks to be bringing much of the same, including another visitor, another trip down to the mecca of my sister's house, more recruiting, and hopefully a short trip home to Utah! I'm so glad 2012 has gone off with a bang, because it is making time FLY for this baby to arrive. At my doctor appointment yesterday, I was told I'm already at the point where I'm supposed to come every two weeks. How the heck did that happen?!