Disneyland with Grandma

Pull Isaac Pull
Can you find Isaac and Grandma? Hint: They are in a green car. :)

Tired Baby

One of the fun things about living in Southern California was our proximity to disneyland. It is only about 20 min from our place, which makes it one of the fun things to go and do when family is in town. Not to mention the kids love it. So off we went with Grandma Nielsen. We had a blast!!

Legoland Aquarium

The Legoland aquarium was a fun place to take my mom and kids when she was down to visit. They had a slide/play area first thing when you walk in which was hard to get Isaac away from, but after his fill of sliding we headed into the aquarium.
They had fun windows that you could look into the aquarium from.

The Jelly fish were awesome.

As were the sting rays

This was a fun bubble window that Isaac could go into to get a closer look at the fish.

They also had some fun "touch tanks"

And of course the visit ended in the gift store where grandma spoiled Isaac with fun toys.

The Getty Villa with Grandma Nielsen

In Feb Grandma Nielsen came down to spend a few days with us. I tried to think of things we haven't seen yet and came up with a fun trip to the Getty Villa. We had previously been to the Getty Museum which sits up on a hill overlooking Santa Monica and Los Angeles. But I had heard of this place that was a companion to the Museum so I looked online, made reservations, and off we went for a fun day of art. The Villa was huge with beautiful gardens and water features. We had a great time looking at all the art and statues...too bad so many of them were nude. But it was fun to see something new and hanging out with grandma is always awesome!

They had a kids discovery area where you could put on roman gear and stand behind the screen and fight eachother. It was pretty fun. Isaac was having a good time fighting this guy.

But he also had a good time fighting his grandma, who by the way is quite the warrior. :)

Then we headed over to the art tables and got to draw on some vases and creat our own ancient works of art.

This little gem was created by Darla Nielsen...her career is just starting, but look out she is going to be the next picaso. (not sure what it is) :)

My two Mozarts

I never knew that I would have protege children. :) But really I thought this was just too cute to miss taking pictures of. I really didn't plan it at all, and I mean that...I know they match, but really it was just a coincidence. They were so cute sharing the piano, and they look like they are concentrating so hard. Maybe I will have some little Mozarts...you just never know.

Hollywood fun

You can see the Hollywood sign in the background if you look hard.

One weekend we decided to take a drive up to LA with the kids and do some sight seeing. We found some random roads that wound up into the Hollywood hills. It is crazy how skinny those roads are, and how crapy some of the houses look, even though they are probably mansions. You just can't see what most of the house looks like because it is hanging out over the hill. Also a very scary thing for me to think about. It blows my mind that people here would do that, when anytime we could have an earthquake and their home could end up at the bottom of the hill instead of the top. But that is just my earthquake paranoia talking. While driving around on these roads we ended up in some not so good areas and in one of them we randomly saw this dog on the roof of a garage. Not sure how he got there, but he seemed to like it.

We then headed over to Hollywood Blvd and walked the stars and stopped infront of the Gramin theater to show Isaac the hand prints. He got a balloon sword from a street performer and thought that was really cool. We had a great time spending the day together and seeing some of the weird and wonderful things LA has to offer.

Brown eyes and smiles

Isaac has the cutest face and smile ever. I also love that my boys can have such opposite eye color. Owen's are just as blue as can be, while Isaac has the most stunning deep brown eyes ever. It is so fun to see my little family grow together, and yet be so different.

Fuzzy hair and blue eyes

I just love that Owen somehow got blond hair and blue eyes. And the fuzzier the hair the better. What a cute kid, even stuffing his face with crackers he is a cutie!

I Built it Myself

So we are going to play catch up here with what happened this past year. Once a month on a Saturday morning Home Depot has a craft that kids can come and build. So I packed up Isaac and away we went to go use some tools. The project on this day was building a race car display self. So Isaac got to work. The guys there were really nice and helpful, and showed him just what to do. He loved it. There was a lot of hammering and sticker sticking, and the end result was an awesome. I am so proud of you Isaac and all the fun things that you can do.

Disneyland with our Cousin

Isaac loves the Carousel

In February we decided to spend the day with Julia and Griffin at Disneyland. It was an awesome day. The kids got to ride some rides and we had a fun time with the boys just hanging out.

Valentine Cookies

Before Valentine's Day this year Isaac and I made a batch of Sugar Cookies. He thought decorating them and cutting them was the greatest thing in the world. He especially liked the sprinkles which you can see in the finished product. It was a hard cookie to cook but he thought it was awesome and loved eating the end result.

The Bookstore

Isaac really likes books, so going to the bookstore or the library is a real treat. He was reading books about super heros on this particular trip. He is just so cute when he is focused on something.

Koi Pond

When our friends the Christensens came down for a visit we decided it would be fun to take the kids to the koi pond at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. We had a great time watching the kids "fish" with long grass and run from one side of the pond to the other. It was a fun day out with good friends.