the big one.

{she enjoyed her red velvet bundtini cake very much}

our baby girl has now entered into a new stage.

she turned one a few days ago.

not sure that we're ready for it!

she's been such a joy to have in our family.

happy birthday elsie!

champions.

while we were gone, connor's baseball team, the rangers, finished up the season and started the end of season tournament. they did well, winning every game. so the day after we got home from our marathon vacation, connor played in the championship game. it was so fun for him to get to play another game. connor and the team had fun, played awesome and won!

way to go rangers!

{connor & his best bud briggs}

lake powell 2011

we had such a fun trip to lake powell this year.

the weather was perfect, warm and beautiful.

the water was incredible and surprisingly not as cold as we were expecting.

it was so fun to spend time with cory's family!

each night was had an awesome fireworks show.

thanks to the person that brought those down.

they shall remain nameless for their own protection!

this was my first time getting up for reals on the wakeboard. i was pretty shocked and excited, as you can probably tell. didn't do more than stay in the wake and hang on for dear life, but i got up! i had to put my wakeboarding pic before cory's cause mine isn't that exciting!

digging for arrowheads. punky found one and gave it to connor.

cory and connor spent the rest of the weekend looking,

but had no luck.

we brought golf balls to hit into the lake. it was very liberating!

cory was mr. fisherman of trip.

cory: 2 catfish & 1 bass. everyone else: zero.

it was so fun to have gpa jaxon on the trip this year with us!

grandkids {and cory} at rainbow bridge

one night the clouds rolled in.

despite a few rain sprinkles, it brought a beautiful sunset.

mesquite in the middle.

on the way back from ca, we stopped back in mesquite. we stayed for 6 days or so while we waited for our lake powell weekend. cory was able to work remotely while the kids and i played by the pool. on saturday we snuck up to st. george to hike some and play at the park.

each time we come to mesquite, we catch a lizard and keep as a pet. then, just before we leave to come home, we set it free. this lizard's name is george. he's actually george II. we learned that it's too hot in mesquite to leave a lizard outside...even in the shade! anyways, he was the funniest lizard we've ever seen. his favorite position was standing on 2 feet and having his hands propped up against the side of the cage. when we let it go the night before we left. he stuck around for almost an hour with connor sitting by him. it was pretty precious. connor always gets attached to his lizards so it was good to have time for him to say his goodbyes.

{connor is becoming quite the fish.

he would jump over and over into the pool.}

{connor playing with his dl toy, a flying buzz}

surprises.

a few weeks ago we told the kids that we were going on a vacation. so one morning, we drove them down to mesquite, nv. the next morning we got up and told the kids we had a special surprise for them. but they had to wait, cause it was going to take a long time to drive there. the kids did really well driving 2 long days in a row. they had no idea where we were going until we hit the ocean! they {okay, me & cory too} were super excited. connor had been talking about the ocean for a while now. each day we had a new surprise for them. whether it be playing at the beach, going to sea world, playing at the park on the beach, going to the san diego zoo, visiting family, and even disneyland! the kids loved every minute of it. this was our first big family vacation as just our little family and we made lots of precious memories.

we {i} took lots of photos, and here are some {okay, a lot} of the highlights.

waiting for "it's a small world"

teacups

we enjoyed breakfast with minnie & friends. this is connor and 'dale'. we just investigated and found out that this is dale. dale has the red nose and chip has the brown one, like a chocolate chip. and there you go...chip 'n dale lesson for the day! you're welcome.

mabel was super excited to meet minnie.

on the balboa pier

view from our condo's beach

dolphins came to our beach on 2 mornings while we were there! it was so awesome! i sat there forever trying to get a good shot of one of them jumping...this is the best i could do. there were at least 12 of them swimming not to far from shore.

riding the tour bus at the zoo. it was a lifesaver! that zoo is huge!

cute panda bear at the zoo. connor & mabel each came home with a stuffed one. i told them about when i was little and my oma & opa bringing us stuffed panda bears from one of their trips and so they were convinced that they needed some to come home with us. if you look closely at the pier picture, the pandas joined us.

visiting matt, shanny & kids.

connor filled his buckets with water over and over again.

playing in the sand @ laguna beach.

holding starfish at sea world.

waiting for a sea world show.

on our balcony before church.

phew. that ended up being a lot longer than i thought when i started!

lots of fun memories!