Southern California Vacation

Emma and I flew down to Burbank on Saturday, August 13th where my family picked me up and we ate dinner that night at a delicious restaurant called Islands Restaurant. From our booth by the window we could see Aramark Uniform Services (AUS) Headquarters which was funny. Pat took a picture for me to send to Bry. Emma colored more than usual and it was great.

Most of the rest of the pictures in this post were taken on Becca's camera by Becca. Some, like the ones above, are pictures from my phone.

Sunday we took it easy (thank you those who went down and grabbed breakfast from what the hotel had out) and attended 11am church, came back for kids' naptime, and then did some sight-seeing. First we stopped at the Los Angeles Temple which was beautiful and we walked the grounds. Emma got a pretty good scrape on her knee which is mostly healed now (almost 2 weeks later). She enjoyed running around the temple, though. She does love to be on her feet.

From the temple we headed to Grauman's Theater which was really cool. In front of it were lots of the hand/foot-prints from celebrities and some stars along the sidewalk. Becca and I hopped out of the vehicles to look around and take pictures. It was great. Crazy busy being Sunday evening but still great.

My attempt at getting the Hollywood sign.

Monday and Tuesday we spent at Universal Studios Hollywood. It was so much better than Universal Studios Orlando, at least from what I remember of Orlando. Harry Potter World seemed pretty much identical but the rest of the park had a lot of really cool stuff that we got to enjoy. In HPW we did the ride in the castle after which we got some butterbeer (YUM). I don't remember the order in which we did everything anymore but during the 2 days we were there we also did the Hippogriff ride, ate food from The Three Broomsticks (Tuesday) which was REALLY tasty, walked through the shops, sent ourselves postcards with a Hogsmeade stamp on it (to be delivered by owls...), and watched Aiden and Patrick perform magic! They sell "interactive" wands that allow you to do "magic" by standing at different spots in HPW and waving the wand in a designated way while saying the spell. It was pretty cool.

Emma was a fan.

Sending a postcard to my house.

Cute kids. The boys liked to entertain Emma occasionally.

In other parts of Universal we saw a Special Effects show that was interesting and cool and an Animal Actors show that was cute but sort of short. We also did the studio tour which was awesome although we didn't see a lot more than the outside of buildings. The tour did have some fun parts to it and it was somewhat thrilling knowing I was in a place where so many movie people (actors, directors, producers, and the millions of other people involved in movie-making) have been and were.

We also did the major rides (that are in the Lower Lot, 4 escalators away from HPW and other areas) like Transformers and the Mummy which were 3D-4D-whatever-type-awesomeness like the Hogwarts ride sort of.  They had a DinoPlay area that was essentially an enclosed playground area which was GREAT. Emma loved it since she'd been stuck in her stroller most of the time we were at Universal. We did some other little things in the park and overall had a ton of fun.

Tuesday we only did a partial day, finishing in the afternoon, so we could head over to the rental house in Anaheim. Bry landed late that night. My dad took me to go get him from the John Wayne/Santa Ana airport.

Cute matching girls. Swim suits on ready to test out the house's pool.

By Wednesday morning my feet were sore from the two days of walking we had done with four more days of walking ahead. My feet were probably the worst part of the trip because they just hurt the whole day. Not in a crippling way but in a persistent way. I should have brought my cushy walking shoes but I thought my tennis shoes would be good enough and my walking shoes rub a couple areas on the top of my feet but at least the soles of my feet could have been saved some pain. Oh well. That was my biggest regret of the trip - not bringing better shoes. Now I'll know better for next time whenever that might be.



Disneyland and California Adventures were still totally wonderful, though, even with my lame feet. The kids were able to enjoy a lot of different rides. Emma's favorites were probably Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Storybook Land. She pretty much liked all the ones she got to sit and ride on, though, including It's a Small World, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Alice in Wonderland, Teacups, Jungle Cruise, etc. She enjoyed most of the rides she was able to go on which was great.

Emma on Storybook Land Boat.

This may have been on It's a Small World.

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train - already in awe from the start.

Before watching the preview for Pete's Dragon.

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin - less of a fan of this one.

Alice in Wonderland - Bry showing Emma to wave to auntie. 

Dumbo she thought was okay.

I could have ridden this one a million times. Emma was probably happy with once.

Autopia

One of the highlights for me was definitely Friday night. We worked out having some of the group stay at the park late certain nights while the others took the kids back for bedtime. Friday night it was me, Bry, Becca, and Isaac staying late. After mom, dad, and Pat took the kiddos the four of us staying went on a couple rides. I had brought up dinner a couple times since Bry and I were hungry and Becca told me we'd check out restaurants by New Orleans area or thereabouts. So after a couple rides she and Isaac took off without really saying anything to us so Bry and I hurried to keep up. We stopped near the Blue Bayou and conversation went something like this:

Becca - "Wouldn't it be cool to eat here?"
Isaac - "Yeah. I heard you need to get reservations, though, 2-3 months out."
(pause)
Becca - "Good thing we did that."
Me (flabbergasted) - "What? Are you serious?"

I nearly cried - it was such a surprise! So we checked in for the reservation mom had made and not much later were led into the restaurant and seated at our table INSIDE the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It. Was. AWESOME. I was still sort of in shock for the first while we were inside but it was amazing. The food was really good and their lemonade was THE BEST. Their free birthday dessert was also SUPER delicious - a chocolate mousse shaped like a Mickey Mouse head with tiny Mickey-Mouse-head-shaped sprinkles. Mmmmmmm.

Hooray for amazing surprises. My family gets me every time - I'm such a sucker.

It was such a beautiful week and I wish I could do it again next week (now that my feet have healed).

Thank you to my family who made the trip not only possible (Bry and I wouldn't have done that trip by ourselves) but tons of fun. I'm so glad to have been able to go back to Disneyland since I hadn't been in 6 years. Loved it.

19-month Emma

She seems to be learning like crazy lately. She has been parroting a lot more and learning what some of the words means. She now knows "fingers" and can more reliably point to where other parts are (i.e. ears, toes). Yesterday she learned how to say "face" and "box" (said "bot"). I can't even remember all the words she has been learning to say. She learned "bye" a few days ago (maybe a week?) and "ball" which she said when pulling out a soccer ball yesterday or two days ago.

Emma's favorite song is probably the alphabet and she loves letters. She has been pointing at book covers and saying "C, D!" for a few weeks now at least but now she also loves "Y". She has some magnet letters and can identify "Y" now and pointed out "Y" and "A" on a book cover when prompted today. She loves letters.

She can follow several different directions like "put it back" or "get your water bottle". She likes to discover new things and still enjoys climbing on chairs.

We love our nutty girl.

Bingham Reunion Photo Dump

I didn't take pictures very often during the reunion and what I have is somewhat random but here's some of the pictures I took. It was a great week filled with fun and time with family. With Bry's family we stayed in Orem, UT split between two rental houses and it was sort of crazy but so worth the drive there and back. Emma had a wonderful time playing with cousins and Bry and I loved the time we got to visit with everyone.

Her hair looks wet because she was sweating. Ha. 

I'm glad she likes her hat.

This is her I'm-not-very-happy-dad-got-me-I-was-having-fun-running-all-over.

We got lunch at Chick-Fil-A before hiking Ensign Peak and Emma managed to spill about half her milk on her clothes getting them soaked through. Luckily we had a spare onesie I had placed in the car as a back-up but didn't include pants so she just wore a onesie for the hike.

Funny girl. 

This picture makes me really happy.

We made it to the top! It's a hard hike (harder than I remembered) but thankfully short (20 minutes).

Running outside with her cousin Dallin.

Bubble gum challenge.

Ethan's popped.

Watermelon-eating contest.

Emma even participated.

 

Funny Zackie boy.

Happy girl. Watermelon chin.

She cracks me up.

A year and a half!! (and a day)

Emma is getting so big! I'm fairly certain she has been growing a lot the past couple of weeks but we'll see when she gets measured next week. She is mostly out of 12M clothes and well into 18-24M/2T.

Cute baby. =) 

That bedhead...

Recently she has been practicing new words including the following:

• up (usually said while signing "please" followed by arms stretched up and at an inconvenient time), 
• strawberry ("stawbree"), 
• watermelon ("na-mu-nen" or something close to that), 
• banana ("na-na"),
• bubble/bubbles,
• puppy ("bu-boo" - sounds more like bubble)
• stop (just parroted), 
• please (said "ease" while signing it), 
• stairs (sounds closer to "stays"), 
• outside (she shortens it to "side"), 
• cheese (which almost sounds right)
• girl (I can't even spell how she says it but it starts with the "g" sound). 

She signs "more" and "please" a lot (see a lazy "please" below), often signs "milk" but not always meaning it - I think just wanting me to get up and open the fridge. She sometimes will sign "thank you" when prompted. So nothing new in signing. 

She has also been practicing animal sounds occasionally and can do (1) "ooooo!" for "moo", (2) "baa" and (3) some form of "woof." When I tell her something is hot she blows "ffff". She still loves her Pooh bear and will give him hugs that look more like squeezes (see below).

Her favorite foods are now probably strawberries, bananas, broccoli, hamburger patty, crackers and cheerios. She continues to be a generally good eater.

She also really likes scrambled eggs and English muffins.

Emma's bottom canines should be poking out soon since her gums appear to show they're coming. Her upper canines may be coming not long after the lower ones but it's hard to tell for sure.

The fourth tooth on the bottom has been growing in.

Emma is comfortable going upstairs - typically crawling - and downstairs - typically sliding on her belly while using her hands to keep her moving down. Sometimes she tries stepping up or down the stairs carefully with a hand on the wall but not often.

Crawling up.

Sliding down. 

One of her new favorite activities is climbing on chairs. She is also pretty good at the puzzles we have (the put-piece-in-place type not connect-pieces-together type).

Climbing on.

This is what I sometimes get when I say "smile."

She sometimes bursts out crying if she is prevented or denied from doing/getting something she wants. Also, if we pick her up to pull her away from something she wants she cries loudly and arches her back while collapsing her legs to try to [unsuccessfully] escape. I don't have a picture of this so instead here's a picture of her response to my reaching out with my toes to tickle her belly. She likes it - sometimes after I try to tickle her she walks away and then comes back watching me and waiting for me to try again.

Emma loves to go down slides if we go to the park but might enjoy just running around more. She could go on and on forever.

Cute curls - they look different every day and disguise how long her hair is getting. 

Emma's favorite part of the day is most likely the part after her daddy gets home. This is her looking down the hallway to the garage where he always enters after getting home from work.

Here's a few more pictures just because. 

This is Emma in one of her happy places.
She loves sitting on the stairs and loves to have her Pooh bear.

She loves her Minnie Mouse airplane.

Happy Independence Day!!

We have now been in our house for a year! This 4th of July we felt much more settled than last year on the 4th. Emma decked out in her holiday outfit eating a fruit snack because that was the only way to get her be still. 

Bry, Emma and I got a visit from the Bryans which was so fun. =) Very glad to have gotten a few hours with them today and would have loved more time. Here's Emma with 4 of her 5 Bryan cousins. So many cute faces. 

We spent most of the rest of the day with our friends the Carlsons. Emma and Skyler pictured below.

We walked down to the pond not far away and lit some fireworks. Emma mostly liked them but felt better being cuddled while they were going off which was fine with me. Typically she doesn't like me holding her for any reason except so she can see stuff on counters/tables/etc. so this was sweet.