Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today is my father-in-laws birthday and his birthday package is still sitting on my counter. So, obviously it is going to be a little late. Ty was getting a big kick out of the card we picked out for him, so I decided to give him a preview.

Happy Birthday John! We hope you had a great day!

Water Fun

I am in charge of a playgroup in my neighborhood. For one of my activities, I decided to have a water party. We were able to get a big huge blow up slide, a slip n slide, and a couple of little pools. We had a really good turnout, and it made for a fun afternoon.

Ty hasn't figured out the whole slip n slide thing. I tried to show him one day, but he still would rather run down it.

Going up.

Not so sure about this. He did it! What a brave little guy. I want one of these slides! It was so much fun for all the kids to play on.

Cody's Birthday Party

Cody's birthday was on the same day as Uncle Dave's homecoming, so we celebrated with everyone up at the Crosby's house. Ty told me that Cody wanted a binky cake, so we made some cupcakes and stuck a binky on top of one. That seemed to satisfy both the boys. Cody dug right into his cake. I'm not sure how much he got in his mouth, be he destroyed it and made a huge mess! That is very much my little Cody's style. He is such a hoot.

We had to strip him down once he was done. A little later we opened presents. Big brother Ty was a pro after his birthday, so he helped Cody with this task.



Cody was very excited about his presents. He loves the Spot books he got from Grandma and Grandpa Thompson. We were surprised to see a present from them. They thought of everything before they left for Tonga. All the grandkids have had a gift from them that they got and wrapped before they left. Pretty impressive if you ask me! He also loves his sand and water toy he got from Grandma and Grandpa Crosby.

Sea World

That last post was getting too long so I had to start a new one. Our last day we spent at Sea World. I love that place! I have only been there a few times but it is so much fun and so amazing every time. I love watching the shows. They are all pretty good. We sat in the splash zone for the Shamu show and Ty was not very thrilled with the idea of getting soaked by a whale, but we only got hit with a few drops.

I think the highlights for Ty were seeing a jelly fish (I don't know why he wanted to see one so bad, but we had to find one) the fish ride, and trying to pet the sting rays and dolphins. He finally managed to touch a sting ray and was SO excited. The dolphin just kept teasing us.

Cody liked anywhere he could get down and run around. Although he was pretty good at the shows. He seemed to like those. Although waiting for the show to start is another story. He is a mover!

Here we are waiting for Shamu to start.

So cool!

The Sesame Street character were at Sea World and Ty really wanted to go see them, but just couldn't work up enough courage to do it. So this was as close as we got.
The "fish ride".
Here we are in the polar bear cave. I think Cody has the same look on his face this year that Ty had on his face last year. There are growling sounds in the cave so it is a little scary.
This is the dolphin that kept teasing us. He kept swimming right past us, just out of reach and then he would go sit at the glass like this because you can't touch them at the glass. I think he knew that and would just sit there and taunt us. Then he would swim away, but come back a few minutes later swimming just out of reach and then sit at the glass again. Ty thought it was hilarious, even though we didn't get to touch him.

We had a fun day, but by the end it was definitely time to go. The kids started falling apart. Cody had been good the whole day, but screamed the whole ride back to the hotel. He was ready for bed, and ready to go home. It was a great trip and we can't wait to go again next year!

Sunny San Diego

This was our second year going to San Diego, and we loved it! We have decided to make it a tradition. It is pretty reasonable priced, and not too far away and so makes for a great trip. This was Cody's first big trip, so I wasn't sure how he was going to do, but he was great! Both the boys did really well. They were so worn out by the end of the day that they both crashed as soon as they hit their bed and we didn't hear from them until morning. This is going to be a bit of a travel log for us to remember, so it might get a little boring.

The day we flew in we just took it easy. We found our hotel, relaxed for a bit and then went to the beach for a couple hours. This was Ty and Cody's first time on the beach. They were covered in sand. I thought it looked so uncomfortable, especially for Cody who had it all over his face and mouth, but somehow he didn't seem to mind. We built sand castles for a bit, and then I took Ty out into the water. Once he discovered the water, he loved it and wanted to stay there all day. He loved to wait for the waves to come in and then run as fast as he could from them. Cody saw how much fun we were having and tried to come join us, but when the water came towards him he got scared and took off.

Building sand castles.

Cody crawling full speed away from the water.

Ty's first time playing in the ocean.

The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was packed! That place is so big though that once you get inside you don't realize how many people are there. We've decided after seeing how patient Ty was waiting to get into the Zoo, Disneyland is a few years off.

We spent most of the day at the zoo and still didn't see everything. The boys loved the petting zoo and the gondola ride. They also loved to watch the gorillas. Ty became a big fan of sunglasses on our trip and has them on in almost every picture I took. What a goof!
Patient Ty waiting to get into the zoo.
Ty loved this gorilla statue.
The boys and their glasses.
Okay so maybe Cody wasn't such a big fan of the petting zoo, but Ty loved it.
And this is what happens after a long day at the zoo. Somehow Ty crashed and Cody didn't.

Our third day was pretty laid back. We just spent the day at the beach, and then got to ride on a really cool bike along the beach. It was a blast!
Ty and Daddy buried in the sand.
How cool is that bike. It was pretty funny trying to figure out how to move it around.

Lagoon

We get to go to lagoon once a year for my dad's company lagoon day. This year was especially fun because we had lot of family in town. My mom, Matt, Stacie and Jack joined us, as well as Jacob, Kat and Lily and my little sister Sarah. My dad threw his back out that morning and so wasn't able to make it. We sure missed him.

We hit the water park first, but that didn't seem to be to big of a hit for the kiddos, even if it was super hot. So we didn't stay long. Once Ty got on one of those rides though, he wanted to stay all night. We stayed from 1:30 in the afternoon until it closed at 10:00 and we still had to drag Ty out of that place screaming. He was so mad when they started shutting the rides down. He was pretty brave and went on some of the adult rides with us too.

This was their first ride, and Cody wasn't so sure about the whole thing.

He got better as the day went on.

Ty loved riding the musical express. I don't know how he didn't get sick after going on this thing like 5 times in a row. Sarah and Curtis were nice to take him one of the times because Ryan and I can't handle it so well anymore.

Cute little Lily riding the merry go round for the first time.

Ryan and Ty being tough on the merry go round. Don't let Ryan's tough face fool you though. We got a chance to go on the new ride Wicked, and Ryan screamed uncontrollably the whole ride. I was shocked. I was just staring at him in disbelief at the end of the ride. I guess we have never been on an intense ride together before, and I didn't realize he got so into it. It was pretty funny. That ride is awesome though. If you get a chance to go to lagoon, you have to go on it.

Hiking

This summer we discovered that Ty is a really good hiker. He would rather go up the canyon and go for a hike than go up the canyon and roast marshmallows! Crazy kid! Cody does really well in his little backpack too. So we have made quite a few trips this year. Ty's favorite hike is the hike to the cave. He is a little too adventurous, and scares me a little as he runs to the cave and straight inside without a moments hesitation. It is a tiny cave, but it still makes me a little nervous. He also really liked a hike we did where a bunch of trees had fallen over the trail. He would get so excited every time he saw a tree down. He would yell, "Oh no, how are we going to get around that one. Let's go see." Then we would get up to it a try to figure out if we should go over, under or around. He loved it! It is so much fun to take him. He really can make it about 2 miles all by himself. We were really impressed the first time we went.

Here we are on one of our trips up the canyon getting ready to head out.


Ty playing in his cave. He likes to pick up the "crunchy leaves" and throw them in the air.
Ty's also loves to run and hide from daddy and cody, and then jump out and scare them as they pass by. Here we are running to hide.
We love it when Grandma and Grandpa come too!