Stick a Fork in Me

Wes is getting quite good at using a fork these days. He needs a little help getting the food onto the tines, but he's totally got the concept. Though depending on how hungry he is, sometimes he's holding the fork in his right hand and shoveling food into his mouth with his left.

Look at that concentration

And I can't remember which one he's doing in this photo, but sometimes he picks up the food and tries to put it onto the fork and other times he takes food off the fork and puts it into his mouth. Oh well, at least he's attempting to be civilized!

Houdini

Look what my little escape artist learned to do! More baby proofing is now needed.

Carp 2010 - Thursday and Friday

Thursday:

We spent our last full day just hanging out on the beach and playing with all the kids. Wes decided it was time to break out his Elvis shades. This kid just cracks me up...he'll kick and scream when I try to bush his teeth but he'll keep his sunglasses on all day.

It is so fun to see Wes interacting with all his friends. They were so sweet and helpful with him since he is the youngest.

Some of the kids and daddies dug a "jacuzzi" with a "slide." I love how such a simple thing as a hole in the sand filled with water can provide so much limitless fun!

Thursday night we had fish tacos for dinner with our friends the Rauschs and the Garridos. Mike, Kevin and Jason drove in to Santa Barbara to get fresh Yellowtail from one of the fish markets. You can't beat tacos made from fish caught that day!

We sat by the campfire for a little bit while the bigger kids roasted marshmallows. That's definitely on next year's to do list!

Friday:

The weather changed a little bit on Friday morning, so it made it a little easier to pack up and head home. Wes loves all things car related, and luckily Slayder and Luke both brought their cars with them. We did quite a few laps "driving" around the camp ground.

Wes was very content pushing or being pushed :)

We had such a great trip and can't wait until next year!

Carp 2010 - Wednesday

On Wednesday, we rode our bikes into town for a trip to Robitaille's Candy Shop. Needless to say this is the kid's (and this mommy's) favorite shop in town!

This is a picture of us at Robitailles on last year's trip to Carp. Wes was only a month and a half old and I can't even believe how fast the last year has gone! Check out the pics from last year's trip in this post.

Then we spent some more time in the sand.



And Wes went for a nice walk with grandma.

Before dinner, Wes and Cody played with their favorite toys. Trucks of course!

Slayder and Wes taking a little break.

Wednesday night we had a huge pot luck dinner with all the families who were part of the camping group. I think there were about 15 families who participated. All the food was amazing; there was pulled pork, beans, cole slaw, mac and cheese, salad, watermelon, and brownies. And it was so much fun to all be together!

And there was enough food for seconds and thirds!

Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Chris, Auntie Monica and Monica's friend Mike.

Us!

Auntie Chrissy, Uncle Kevin and Cody.

Amanda, Tyler and Ryan.

Carpinteria 2010 - Tuesday

We headed to Carpinteria last week for our annual camping trip, but this year we rented our own motorhome! Since I took so many pictures and we had so much fun, I'm going to do a blog post for each day. We got up to Carpinteria late Monday night, after a snafu with the company we rented our RV from. We were planning on being there by Monday afternoon, but we were thankful to arrive safely no matter what time.

Tuesday:

We woke up Tuesday morning and got ready to move into our campsite.

Here is Wes helping sweep the sand off our camping spot. This may not look like real camping to some people (Carpinteria kind of looks like a parking lot with hook ups) but my family, and most of the other families who do the annual camping trip, have been coming here since I was about 5 years old. It's a very popular campground and we love it! So many great memories!


Mimi (Cody's grandma) brought Wes over a perfect sized broom for him to use...

...but of course he wanted nothing to do with it, so here's how the sweeping got done.

After working up an appetite sweeping, we headed over to grandma's motorhome for some breakfast. Wes was super excited to find drawers full of stuff to throw on the floor, just like at home!

Strawberry and peach waffles, a camping tradition!

After breakfast we got everything situated in our RV and then Wes took a nap. After he woke up, he adopted this chair for snack time.

Then we headed to the beach for some play time!

Wes and Cody hanging ten.

Tyler, Wes and Cody

Michael made a yummy dinner of bbq tri-tip, garlic bread and corn on the cob and grandma made party potatoes.

This kid loves corn on the cob. I think he ate an ear and a half!

I've Been to the Fair and Seen the Bear

Ok seriously, has anyone heard of this saying??? It had to be a couple of years ago, probably when the fair was in town, that Michael first said it. I, of course, didn't know what he was talking about and asked him where he'd heard such a saying. He said "it's as old as the hills and twice as dusty." Only Michael, or Grandpa Al, could explain one old adage with another. (To continue with the theme, when it comes to Michael and his dad, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree). I actually tried googling this saying to come up with it's origin, but couldn't find much info, then again, I didn't try too hard. If you know what it means, leave me a comment and enlighten me!

Anyway, the point of all this was that we went to the Orange County fair on the 15th! And we squeezed in all the fun things you must do at the fair. (FYI, I don't conisider going on the rides a must, but actually more of a DO NOT! Since we live right across the street from the fairgrounds, I've seen these rides being put together. I'll stay on the ground, thank you :)

We did watch other people ride the rides though.

We saw the Budweiser Clydesdales.

We ate a giant turkey leg.
(My personal favorite fair activity, though eating fried oreos comes in an almost indiscernible second.)

We watched the Chinese acrobats.

And daddy won Wes a 3 foot tall stuft monkey in a banana.

All-in-all, Wesley had an excellent first trip to the fair!

Pack it up and Move it out!

We've been doing a lot of vacationing recently and Wes has been a big help with all the packing. I think he's reminding me that I really only need the essentials...him!

He spent at least 20 minutes climbing in and out of this suitcase and closing the lid on himself. I'll have to remember how much he liked being in there when I go back to flying, maybe I can just take him along :)

Palm Springs Getaway!

Grandma Susie took her grandkids and her girls (Auntie Jessica and me) to Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Palm Springs for four days this past week! We had so much fun swimming, hanging out in the lazy river and spending time together in the sun. Thank you so much Grandma Susie, we love you!

On the way out, we stopped at the Farm House restaurant for lunch. When Mike and Jessica were kids they would always stop here to eat on their way to Palm Springs. It was just like they remembered it!

Here we are in our private Cabana! It was so perfect for all the little kids to have a place to play and to have some shade. It was pretty crowded and pretty hot!

This is Splashtopia, a fun little "mini waterpark." Wes and his cousins loved playing in all the spraying water!

Wes' cousins Gia (3) and Haley (9).

After a day in the sun, we came back to our room and cooled down by playing with the ice in the cooler.

Grandma Susie, Wes and Cash (8 months).

The perfect question to ask when it's 110 degrees out!


These are our tubes for the lazy river and they provided lots of fun in and out of the pool.

After having breakfast at the Blue Ember restaurant. The food was delicious!

Relaxing in the Lazy River.

Haley taking a trip down the water slide. I even took a few turns myself, just as fun as when I was a kid :)

There was a little lagoon on the back side of the lazy river and Wes spent some time digging in the sand.

We had such a great vacation, thank you again Grandma Susie!!