Walla Love

There is something so irreplaceable about the bond between cousins, and we are so incredibly fortunate to live so close to this crew. Tara is by far Eden's best friend and perhaps her favorite person in the world {aside from Nanny, but perhaps Nanny is not as much a favorite as she is a fascination...}.  I am already envisioning the day that Tara goes off to college, hopefully {prayerfully} Eden will still love us enough at that point not to run away with her. As it is she can not live without her, and if she had it her way Tara would live with us.

Today was a rainy day so we got a special visit from Mimmi and the boys. It is so fun that they can just drop by in between naps on a whim. The kids had fun making messes and raising a ruckus, but I'm pretty sure each of them would confirm that the best part about their play date was having Mimmi read to them. Mimmi has a lot of babies to love, and she works really hard to make room for each of them, which is something that they appreciate more than she knows.

This Is How We Do Winter

Across the nation, and the world I suppose, most people associate winter with snow. When winter comes, the snow gear comes out and the snow-filled fun begins. For us winter means wetsuits at the beach. It's that simple. Nothing fancy, just another day at the beach. Because even though its 50 degrees out, and the water is frigid at best, these two kids of ours just can't get enough. 

 

Grammy & Grampy Come to Play

We had such a nice visit with Grammy & Grampy yesterday. They came and took us to the Fisherman's for lunch, it was a cold windy winter day, we {I} thought it would be empty, turns out everyone else had our same idea, and we ended up having to wait quite some time before getting a table. I thought for sure that the kids would struggle big time through lunch but they ended up doing just fine. And when I asked Eden what her favorite part of the day was, she said it was going to lunch with Grammy & Grampy. Thank you guys so much for the delicious treats and thank you so much for making the trek down to come and see us! 

Here Grampy is reading Zion his favorite book {thank you G'Pa Lew}. Zion drags this book all around the house with him..sometimes yelling "MaaMa! Please!" over and over again.

Zion & The Petting Zoo

Anyone that was around Zion for the first 9 months of his life would know that he was once incredibly afraid of all animals. Whenever a dog would come near he would tremble and cry in abject fear. It was quite concerning for us as we are such big animal lovers. But in the last 7 months he has come full circle. Now he is completely enamored by all animals. He still has some hesitation, naturally, but now he absolutely loves them! Here he is with a goat at our local petting zoo. It kills me how Zion and this goat are just the same size. This goat was so sweet and patient with Zion, I wish we could have taken him home.

Zion going in for a hug and a kiss

On another note, I wanted to write down a story about Eden that I never want to forget. I'm sure it is hard to tell from the pictures, but Zion in playing here on a porch of a dollhouse. The kids love playing in this doll house while visiting the petting zoo. Inside there is a window to look out of, and being that it is just their size they find it really fun. But this house's primary purpose is actually for the sheep. It actually serves as a place for the sheep to just chill out in, and likely escape from all of the pestering tots. Well, Zion was playing inside this house the other day, looking out the window and having a wonderful time when one of the sheep decided it was time for a little siesta in its house. Eden and another boy slightly older than her tried to block the sheep from entering. They both kept trying to tell the sheep that there was a baby inside and that it could not go in at the moment. But the sheep, being bigger than both the kids combined, would not hear anything of it. It just kept {gently} trying to nudge its way past them. Finally Eden seemed to feel that the situation was becoming dire so she ran inside and stood with her brother. She tried to tell Zion that he needed to get a out cause a sheep was coming in, but Zion can be stubborn and he would not listen at all. I was watching all this from an arms length away and finally decided I better lend her a hand. As soon as I put my face up to the window Eden lost it. She just broke down in tears and sobs. She was so worried about her brothers safety and her own but she was trying to be so brave for him, just thinking about it makes me want to cry. She is my little rescuer just like her daddy.

Seaworld

My parents were incredibly generous to give us season passes to Seaworld for Christmas this year. I have no words to describe the magic of Seaworld, and somehow I feel like it must only be so magical for my little family, but deep down I know it is equally magical for everyone....right??? The kids were captivated right from the start. We probably could have sat and watched Shamu swim around all day. But we ended up going on to see two shows back to back, the sharks, the turtles, manta rays, and the arctic animals. It was quite a day. A day of endless smiles, smiles that make your cheeks hurt. Can't wait to go back!

During the dolphin show the kids ended up moving to the bleachers in front of Jon and I. Too big for us already? Really??

We ran into some friends from San Clemente! So fun!

Post big day slump, it was definitely time to call it a day at this point.