first swim lesson and trash truck day!!!

Saturday was a big day in our house.

Jayden had his first "big boy" swim lesson. He's been doing Parent/Child swim lessons for the last 7 weeks and has done so well his teacher decided it was time to move him up! Now, our sweet boy is very scared of new things and we were concerned he would be afraid of being left at the pool without Mommy or Daddy. And we were right. Dan ended up having to stay the entire time and there was quite a bit of crying. But, he did get in the pool with the teacher once or twice. See?

Other than that, he did a lot of clinging to Daddy. So we will try again on Saturday.

After that fun was over, however, we headed off to the trash truck open house!! Eli and Jayden, but esp. Eli, are OBSESSED with trash trucks and trash cans. The Los Angeles Department of Sanitation holds yearly open houses where they do trash truck demonstrations, give out plants and trees, and give out toy trash cans. Awesome, to say the least. So the boys had a blast, and they even fed us free hamburgers and hot dogs. YUM.

Pointing at a trash truck...

Getting to drive the trucks. Does life get much better than this?

They got to play a game where they picked which trash can different items go in and then got the toy trash can as a reward!!

Grandma and Stephanie came too and Jayden enjoyed potting a plant with Grandma!

All in all, great fun was had by all!!! Yay for the Department of Sanitation!!!

Let's hope great fun will be had by Jayden at swim class this week!!

lots going on round here!!!

Wow, we've got a lot going on. Or maybe a lot coming up. Hard to tell somedays. We are moving to Scotland in just 50 days! YIKES. Hard to believe that in less than two months, we will be living in Scotland!!! I plan on updating this blog quite a bit while we're there. I want to be able to keep a good record of our time there and also keep our family and friends updated on our happenings.

Other than that, Eli will be two next week!! Amazing!!!

Dan is in summer school and working. He also is still struggling with health issues. For those of you who don't know, Dan got strep throat last fall and started experiencing tremors while sick. They didn't go away once he was better. A neurologist ran every test in the book and found nothing. They resolved and then came back around Christmas. They have persisted since. We still have no diagnosis, no idea of what to do to help. It is super frustrating. Along with the tremors come debilitating fatigue, and it comes on unexpectedly. Any prayer on that front would be greatly appreciated as we try to figure out our next step in this process.

The boys are simultaneously delighting and infuriating. :) They both are just full of energy and they are very curious! They're boys, right? So this is normal! But we're exhausted trying to keep up with their antics. Eli is turning into a chatterbox, talking almost nonstop about all the things he's thinking about. Jayden continues with his passionate ways- he is either passionately happy or passionately mad!! He loves loves loves to sing. He attended Vacation Bible Club at our church last week and learned almost all the songs!!! Jayden also has a double ear infection right now but seems to be coping well with all of it.

As for me (Sarah), I am just trying to keep up. There is MUCH to be done in the next 7ish weeks, including much celebrating as my cousin gets married two short days before we leave!!! Lots of packing, lots of preparing, etc. I love being a mom to these crazy boys, even if some days I just want to tear my hair out!!

I will now stop babbling and leave you with these cute pictures of our wee ones!!

Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation up north. We headed up to Windsor, which is right north of Santa Rosa smack in the middle of wine country!!! Our timeshare has a location up there and it is BEAUTIFUL! We decided to break up the drive and stop in Fresno overnight. My friend Amy was gracious enough to let us stay at her house, even though they weren't there! We also were able to meet up with my friend Katie from college and her FOUR kids! It was super fun. So after a morning at the park getting the wiggles out, we set off for Windsor. The first night we had dinner at a place called Mary's Pizza Shack, which apparently is a chain up there. It was super tasty!

The next morning we headed out to the pool for some splashing and fun in the sun. One of the reasons we were excited about this place was that they have a kids pool. The boys LOVED it!!

They just swam and swam and splashed and splashed. That afternoon during nap time I went to Wal-Mart and got them some noodles (not spaghetti but the swim toy kind that you can tie around kids to keep them afloat(. Jayden is in swim lessons and does great swimming with his noodle around him. So that way they could go in the big pool easier. Very fun!!!

The next day we headed off to a local park to play.

After that, we headed to the local post office to apply for our passports!! I know, super exciting vacation activity. But we needed to get it done soon and it was actually really nice to do it in a small post office. The boys are getting their first passports, Dan needed a renewal and I needed to get my name changed on mine. So after a lot of filling out forms and getting things together, they are all done! Wahoo!!!

The next day we headed to the absolute COOLEST park known to man in Santa Rosa. It has a train, a carousel, a petting zoo, pony rides, a splash pad, and a bunch of play structures. WOW!!! The boys were in heaven!

Needless to say, the boys COLLAPSED after this outing for LONG naps.

Sadly, the next day was our last day in Windsor. We spent the morning prepping to get ready to leave. We stayed in Fresno again that night, seeing Amy and Beau this time! So fun!! Jayden LOVED their dog but Eli was a little scared. The next morning we loaded up early and headed home as Dan had to close at Starbucks that night. All in all, a wonderful vacation!!! We are already talking about going back there for another vacation next year.

Yay for family road trips!!!

so proud

Just have to make a quick post and say how proud I am of our Jayden boy. He is growing up so much, becoming such a helper and such a good listener. I often hear throughout the day, "Oh, here Eli. I help you with that." Or if I tell him not to do something, he'll say, "That's not a good idea, right Mommy?" I just love this age. Today we went down to Orange County to pick up the boys' birth certificates. Eli stayed home and Jayden came with me. On the way home, we got stuck in HORRENDOUS traffic. A few months ago Jayden would have whined and cried and begged to go home but instead, today, we just talked and laughed about everything around us. At one point he was being so silly that we were both hysterically laughing. I was crying I was laughing so hard!! He is just a delight and I cherish him!!

one more month!!

Eli is 23 months old today!!! Just one short month until he is TWO. Can you believe it? I can't. This past year has FLOWN by.

And here is, in his new jammies, which are 24 month size and he's filling them out. So that's good. Jayden's are 4T. :) Ha ha ha. I know that there IS a full year age difference between them, but I really don't think Eli will be that tall in a year. He's kind of short and squatty. :) And I love every inch of it, let me tell you!