Witches Night Out

A couple weeks ago I went with some girls from my neighborhood to the Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. It was a lot of fun spending time with these ladies. They are hilarious.

Dancing at Gardner Village

We went out to eat afterwards. We are the only ones that wore our hats into the restaurant

Apparently this is the diet Coke witch and apple witch

The whole group

Witches Beware

While the men were at priesthood the girls in my family went to Gardner Village to see the witches and then hung out together until the boys were home.

Shawn asked me to take a crazy face picture of him, but I didn't hear him. When he told me again and I went to take his picture this is the sad face I got. He couldn't stop whimpering.

Now that's what he wanted

I don't love it when Shawn decides to carry Evan

My cute little boys

The group

Shawn would not sit any closer to this witch

That boy and his new favorite pose

BYU

We went to BYU with Jon's mom to check out all the new landscaping they did at the South end of campus. It looks awesome. I wish it had been like that when I went to school there. I would have studied in that area every day.

Hanging out with Grandma at the duck pond

The boys were sad that we didn't have anything to feed the ducks

One of the many new waterfalls

Watching Daddy mow the lawn like always

Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the zoo with some friends. We only go about once a year so Shawn feels like it's his first time there every time we go. They had dinosaurs set up all around and Shawn had a love/hate relationship with them.

Shawn showing me how tall the giraffes are

and what their tails look like

There is not very much glass standing between my son and those tigers.

Evan was not afraid to get really close to the tiger swimming under water

But this is how Evan spent most the his time at the zoo

San Diego!

Jon had a conference in San Diego last week and I was able to go with him. We unwillingly left the children behind. ;) It was SO nice to have time just to ourselves and relax a little. Usually I am ready to get home after a trip, but I could have stayed a least a few more days. It was really nice to be able to spend time together without having to worry about anything/anyone else. It helps me to remember that we are a couple, a couple in love, not just parents, homeowners, etc.

I'm hoping this conference takes place in San Diego every year. :)

These pictures are out of order, but I will try to explain them. On our last day in San Diego we took a 2 hour harbor cruise. It was a lot of fun to see everything from the boat. I was starting to get really cold up on the deck so we went down and got a drink. It was unlimited refills and the guys at the counter kept trying to convince me to add a little rum to our soft drink.

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis right on the bay. It was really nice and the pool area was awesome. We passed the hotel on the harbor cruise. Its the two shiny blue towers to Jon's right.

The bridge to Coronado Island behind us. We never made it to Coronado and I will explain why in a minute.

Thursday morning I went out on my own to tour Balboa Park and Old Town San Diego. It was so hot and I walked countless miles. I got back to the hotel feeling pretty gross so I decided to take a shower and get ready for that evening when we were supposed to go out to a fancy dinner with Jon's co-workers on Coronado island. I was blow-drying my hair when the power went out. I waited a few minutes for it to flicker back on, but it never did. I texted Jon to see if they had power down where his conference was in the hotel. I got no response. All of a sudden I heard tons of sirens outside which made me start to panic a little with the idea that this might not be simple power outage. I grabbed my things and started heading down the stairs from the 15th floor (elevators weren't working). Right when I started down the stairs they made an announcement that all of San Diego was in a blackout and not to worry. I went back to my room, put on makeup, pulled my hair into a bun and then Jon came in the room. He had walked up the 15 flights to get me. We went down to the lobby to meet his co-workers who decided not to go to Coronado. I was a little disappointed but it was a good decision because all the restaurants and stores closed down. Only a few bars stayed open accepting cash for drinks. Here are some pictures.

We walked around downtown trying to figure out what to do for food since everything was closed. The streets were a stand-still with all the red lights out.

We found one little shady store open with a man who barely spoke English charging at least double for his supplies. We bought a few things that weren't made in his store.

We took our purchases and headed back to the hotel to hang out by the pool. There wasn't much else do.

The Marriott ended up bringing out giant grills and cooked hamburgers and things for everyone. We got in this line when there were about 100 people and it took about an hour. It quickly grew to at least 200 people. We stayed down by the pool area for about 3 hours and never saw the line get shorter.

Finally, hamburgers! Not quit the fancy dinner on Coronado, but at least it wasn't just chips and candy bars. :)

A picture I took while shopping at Old Town San Diego. It was a fun place, but the train to get there was a little interesting. I felt VERY blessed that I got back to the hotel before the power went out and wasn't stuck on the train with all those....hmmmm......unique people.

Some pictures from Balboa Park

Hanging out at Seaport Village, a super cute touristy place with shops and restaurants.

View from our hotel

Pool area at the hotel

A picture I took while eating lunch all alone. At least I had something pretty to look at since I had no company.

A cheesy photo op, I know, but we couldn't resist.

Shawn's First Day of Preschool

Shawn was so excited to start preschool last week. He is loving his class and his teacher. Shawn really enjoys learning and is always asking me questions or wanting to practice writing his letters. I think preschool is going to be very good for him. And let's be honest, I don't mind the idea of a couple hours with Shawn at preschool and Evan taking a nap. :)

My little boy is getting so big.

Getting ready to leave

Little photo op with mommyHeading into his preschool teacher's house

Happy 4th Birthday Shawn

We had Shawn's much anticipated pirate birthday party today. He has been talking about this for months and was so excited that the day was finally here. We really love Shawn. Even though he likes to test our patience, we really enjoy having him around. He is so funny and creative. Of course we think he is super smart and talented. He comes up with such deep questions that I am often telling him to ask Daddy when he gets home. He still loves to be cuddled and hold hands. He has a great love for his little brother even if it is expressed in aggressive ways at times. He is so loving and lovable. Multiple times a day he will tell me he loves me and that he thinks I am a nice mommy. It is usually right after I get mad at him that he tells me this. Either he is super smart to realize that calms me down or he just is really innocent. I am glad to have him as my son and I am so proud of him. I love my little Shawn Boy.
I had full intentions of doing a fondant cake, but a time crunch made it into this cake instead

Coloring pages, decorating treasure chests and more

Little pirates

Games: seeing how many pretzels you can pick up with a pirate hook
The group getting ready for the treasure hunt

Buried treasure was found in the sandboxOpening presents

New Bike!

Our pirate family

Shawn really wanted to put together his new table and chairs himself