san diego trip

we have been talking about our trip to disneyland for so long that once we got on the plane sully couldnt hold in his excitement. 

the second we landed in orange county (after a stop at chick-fil-a, of course) we headed over to diver's cove in laguna. 

the boys ran and played in the water like maniacs. 

afterwards, we all cleaned up a bit and walked around fashion island.

the boys loved the fountain.

we had a few minutes until our dinner reservations so we walked around this little outdoor mall right on the newport coast. and randomly i stumbled upon this bakery! i have been following 'sweet and saucy' (a cake decorator) blog for a few years and this is her actual shop! i was very excited to see her work in person and sample a few treats.

and then! dinner at javiers. it is honestly my favorite place to eat on this planet. great food and GREAT people watching. loved it.

the group.

after a pretty long day, we finally made it to our hotel in anaheim. the boys were so tired but also SO excited for disneyland the next day.

disneyland day was also tagg's fifth birthday. he was incredibly proud of his birthday pin.

we headed straight over to cars land. please dont ask me what sully's face is all about in this picture. apparently he had been offended.

after riding a few rides at california adventure and getting our fast pass for the cars ride, we went over to disneyland and got on buzz lightyear. sully loved it.

we were so lucky to celebrate such a special day with my parents. 

tagg was SO dang cute with the chipmunks. i could eat him.

waiting in line for pirates.

we also got to meet up with our great friends from back home. tagg and avery had a blast picking out junk in the gift shops.

then we went back over to california adventure to ride the monsters inc. ride. here's sully with sully!

then my dad and craig took tagg on the tower of terror! this is his scared little face before getting in line. he had NO idea what he was in for...

while tagg was getting the life scared out of him we rode a harmless little kiddie ride with sully.

it was a magical day that i will never forget.

and to top it off, tagg put together an orange and turquoise car at ride makers in downtown disney right before we left. now thats something HE will never forget! :)

after disneyland, my parents took the boys down to brooke's (in san diego) so craig and i could run by south coast plaza and grab dinner. it was a fun impromptu date night. after every vacation, i ask my family what their favorite part of the trip was. usually i get pretty generic answers.... and its kind of a boring game. but craig delivered this time. he said "when it was just you and me at in-n-out. that was really nice". awwww

the next day was gorgeous so we went down to balboa park and played in the sun.

that night, we met up with my cousins and walked around fashion valley. my boys looooove the richardson boys.

one of sully's favorite part of the trip was that he got to share a bed with tagg. i realize they both look a little special in this picture but theyre just too darn cute.

the next day was more fun in brooke's pool. it is seriously heaven.

sully didnt mind the sun if he was in the pool but wasnt too keen on it while we were driving...

this is how our family feels about chick-fil-a. finger licking good.

the last day, we spent as much time out in the sun as possible.

besides a quick trip to in-n-out.

and the night before we went home i met up with my best friend since grade school, liz. we had a wonderful time shopping, getting ice cream, and chatting at brooke's house until after midnight. i love her.

as always, we had a wonderful time in southern california. we love seeing the sun, our family and great friends. and celebrating tagg's fifth birthday at disneyland was the icing on the cake.

tagg's 5th birthday party

as crazy as this is, i have never had a birthday party for either one of boys at my dad's fun center.  but since we are headed down to disneyland tomorrow to celebrate his birthday i thought this year was perfect to throw a low-key party at my dad's place. all i did was put together a few decorations/favors and the rest was as easy as letting tagg and his friends run around the arcade, ride on the frog hopper, and eat pizza.

tagg is almost 5 (side note: he found a five dollar bill on the ground last night! its the heavens saying 'happy birthday'!).  he is a very smart, kind of sneaky, pretty polite, super cute boy. i love him.

tagg and all his little friends on the frog hopper. they rode it over and over and over again. i was nauseous just watching them. :) i loved how there was just the right amount of seats on the frog hopper for his party. 

after they played enough games, we came back to the table for pizza and cake. i wanted to incorporate those pipe cleaner name bracelets because they are tagg's favorite craft. but i thought making them AT the fun center with 7 kids would have been too much. instead, tagg and i made them ahead of time and used them as the water bottle labels.

those confetti balloons were hard little suckers to  make. i ending up using spray glue (its STILL all over my fingers) inside the balloons to get the confetti to stick to the top. otherwise, it all just fell to the bottom. 

talk about difficult things to do...... getting these humans to take a group shot. 

and before it was time to leave, each one of tagg's friends got a little treat box with five of tagg's favorite things.

play doh, crayons (he loves to color), reeses, bunny fruit snacks, and a homemade peanut butter heath cookie.

they wouldnt sit still long enough to get a good shot of their little bracelets but you get the idea.

craig and i surprised tagg with his first bike. a turquoise bike at that! he was so cute when he saw it getting wheeled in. i love tagg so much. and essssssspecially his double chin. its my favorite thing about him. and he knows it. 

i captioned this picture: taggmiserablesnow

because there really isnt a better way to describe this situation. except for maybe tagg's description: "mommy would scream if she was here because this is hideous". my parents took tagg up to the cabin last week for a fun day in the snow. except they got stuck at the beginning of the loooooong driveway and had to walk the rest of they way. they also got the 4wheelers stuck in the snow and eventually had to pay some local gas station attendant to come and rescue all of the stuck vehicles. so basically, tagg's pouty (but still super cute) face is justifiable. :)

NEW YEARS 2013

craig and i had not gone out on new years since before tagg was born. so when my cousin said she would babysit at the last second, i was a little more than excited. i immediately started thinking up my vision for the dessert table and made reservations at one of our favorite restaurants. 

we enjoyed a late dinner and then we loaded up all the party decorations, photo backdrops, treats and noise makers and headed downtown to my uncle's office building. the entire floor was empty so we had our pick of conference rooms and set everything up. we coaxed my grandma into staying up with us until midnight and im happy she obliged. it wouldnt have been the same without her.

mostly because i suggested we play sardines and i made her be it! here she is, going off to find her hiding place.

k, but we didnt give her enough credit because after an HALF HOUR we started making frantic phone calls to loved ones telling them we might have lost our grandma. she was THAT amazing of a hider!

finally! we found her crouched down, in a dark office, behind a filing cabinet. she showed us!

we played one more round and she took it easy on us. we found her in no time! :)

which was a good thing because it was time to go out on the balcony to catch a peek at the space needle fireworks.

megan and david

craig (being weird) and me.

then we went back inside to play games. but we really just ended up reading cranium cards and putting "in bed" at the end of every trivia question (mature, i know).

and before we called it a night, we made good use of my photo backdrop. such a great new years!