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Our Big Trip to L.A. Thank You PopChips!!

 

As I was saying in my last post I was on the way up to the zoo with the girls after  Snowmageddon was over and was listening to Movin' 92.5 when they announced that if you called in you could win a $25 Gift Card and possibly a trip to L.A. I figured...why not, I'll call in! I got through and was told that there was 5 others that they would be picking between for the trip and would let me know! 

On Monday I got the call that I had won the trip!! It was one of those really?? REALLY?!? moments. It was a 3 day trip to meet Jillian Michaels and do other L.A. related activities yet to be determined. I wanted to milk this trip and alone time with my hubby for all I could! So we checked to see if we could extend our stay at the hotel and leave a few days later. I did alot of research and procuring of tickets before we flew down to make sure this trip was EPIC! 

My mom and Joe's mom were SUPER nice enough to watch Jack while we went on our trip. It was and still is the longest the two of us have been away from him. I wasn't worried about him freaking out that we were gone because he loves his grandmas SO MUCH and it was only 6 days. I was definitely going to miss him and I know Joe was going to as well. We had a few pictures of us next to his bed and out in the front room...just in case.

After getting Jack settled we went to the airport and were on our way! We arrived in L.A. and they had someone waiting for us with a few Cadillac SUV's to take us to our hotel. 

  

The Renaissance is a pretty neat hotel! It has a shopping and convention center attached to it along  with being right next to the Kodak Theater and across the street form the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show and The El Capitan Theater where they have all the premiers for Disney movies! The first day we got there was just walking around and checking out the place and the next day we would meet Jillian Michaels! 

I was a bit nervous to meet her... I thought we were going to be in a giant room and she was going to MOTIVATE us like being on a speaking circuit!  We walk into this tiny room and there is maybe 10-15 people in the room so we sit down and they put a chair in front of us and in walks Jillian Michaels and sits right in front of us!

She was SUPER nice! She told us about the area and some fun things to do while we were here and about her start and what she had been doing since The Doctors! She also told us what was next for her including adopting a little girl from haiti and working an a book about the questions she gets all the time from mothers along with healthy recipes for you and baby!

Here is our picture with Jill. Yeah, we call her Jill.. hehe and the one on the right is us talking about babies and their tendency to roll off things. She was so easy to talk to and such a nice person. 

The person that you see in the middle of the collage is the woman that started Stroller Strides in San Diego! She still teaches Body Back and we talked with her and her husband alot that day! 

Here is most of the people that were there. There was two other guys there and one was playing hooky from work and didn't want to be in the photo! lol

After the meet and greet we were whisked off to lunch with the PopChips crew and then it was across the street to the green room at the Jimmy Kimmel Live show! His guests were Kirstin Chenoweth and race car driver Jimmie Johnson and music by Neon Trees! Of course being backstage there wasn't any photography allowed BUT Kristin's manager came out and needed a marker and being miss prepared I happened to have one along with a copy of her new cd! Unfortunately didn't give him the cd but he came back with a scrap of paper signed by her. It is sitting inside of her cd...lol. We also hung around and got to meet Neon Trees! It was a really fun day to say the least! 

The rest of the trip was us painting the town red! We went and saw IRIS the next evening. It was such a beautiful show. All the music was done by Danny Elfman and kind of had that feel to it. The picture in the middle was taken from our seats which were a level up and front row! Like I said I had a couple of months to get tickets to things. :)

Venice Beach and Two and a Half Men was the next day and we got to sit in on the episode where Kathy Bates guest starred and won an Emmy for that episode! (Once again, no cameras) The link here, showcases part of the episode. It also has the part when they revealed that it was Kathy Bates and I was the first one to yell and really loud, at least I can hear myself! I guess that's my 5 second of fame. NOTE: To anyone going to a show taping it's a really LONG process. Take snacks and water!! We got there at 4pm and got out at 10 or 11pm! They do give you at slice of pizza at intermission but that's about it. Considering the taping is free it was really nice of them to do even that. :)

The day before we left we went and saw American Idiot on broadway and met up with my friend Danica for dinner and The Hunger Games! It was really good to see her and the Hunger Games was awesome! 

This was the view on the way to the airport after our trip. We were sad to leave the sun but also excited to get home to see our Jack Jack! It is a trip we will never forget and will always be grateful for the time we got to spend together as a couple. 

FALLing into WINTER...

I say falling into winter but it was more like running into a wall head first. (Can you tell this is my favorite time of year!) We actually did have some fun along with the crazy weather.

The rest of October was filled with gathering pumpkins and Halloween, which is Joe's favorite holiday!

We went to the pumpkin patch with the Torres Family! It was right up the road from their place and they usually have good pumpkins there. We got some cute family pictures in too while we were at it!

How stinkin' cute are these two! This might as well have been the cover of a kids clothing magazine!

For Halloween this year we wanted to go with a family theme so we chose The Incredibles! It took a while to get all the pieces together but we looked pretty good. We had a ton of compliments while walking around Federal Way doing some Trick Or Treating with Jon, Julie and the kids. :)

I was super excited for November to come because we were doing family pictures!! Amy is a dear friend of mine and an amazing photographer so if you live in Washington you should have her do your pictures!! She has a website and a Facebook page that you can check out. I absolutely love all the pictures she took but if I had to narrow it down these are my favorites.

and one more.....

Ok, ok I won't bore you with any more pictures of my beautiful family!

After November was finished we move on into out crazy winter we had out here in the PNW but we'll get to that in a minute. December was actually a lot of fun!

This was Jack on Christmas afternoon... somebody slept in!

Oh I almost forgot, the Christmas tree fell over!! That was crazy. My mother-in-law does such a wonderful job meticulously placing every ornament, winding the ribbon around the tree and flocking it with the perfect amount of snow. So you can imagine her devastation when she walked out to see this. Luckily only a couple of ornaments broke and since it was Dec. 12th, there was time to set things right. After re-decorating we ended up weighing it down with sandbags so it wouldn't happen again.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters!! A group of us started wearing ugly christmas sweaters to the ward party last year and now we've decided to make it a tradition. I guess ours don't count because they look like they just came out of an Eddie Bauer magazine. We'll have to step it up for next year!

After Christmas Joe and I decided that it was time to cut Jack's hair. I'm not going to lie we were both pretty sad to see his beautiful curls go but he was starting to look like a girl... A little before and after action for you here!

After a fun filled December we move into the month that I hope will never go down like this again!! Mid-January we started getting a bit of snow so we went out and built a snowman super fun right and then....

BAM!!! 

18 1/2 inches in less than 24 hours and on top of that a freezing rainstorm. Combining the two equals: No power for 8 days and having to run off a generator, friends without power and generators with a new addition that need our help, getting creative with cooking on a wood stove, the men having to snowshoe in gas for the generator (there were trees down all over the road), oh and missing a few steps on the stairs when in the dark and rolling my ankle that ended up the size of a golfball! Super fun!

This was our snowman the next day. Poor guy!

One of the most devastating things that happened was Julianna and Dan's wedding tree breaking under the weight of the snow and freezing rain. No, this isn't a premonition of things to come. They are a wonderful couple and stronger than any tree! <3 you guys!!

Luckily no one was hit by a falling tree and the only damage that was done was to structures that we weren't residing in. Let's just say we were all glad the storm was over and were ready to move on to a warmer January.

Which did happen a week or so later so we headed up to the zoo and something cool happened along the way. I won a radio contest!

We'll save that story for the next blog update! Goodnight all!

Buga Boo's First Birthday!

A year has come and gone in a flash and I can't believe it's time for Jack Jack's birthday party. My special little guy has grown so much in this past year and I'm just glad he did all that growing outside of the womb!! So far he has kept those beautiful blue eyes that he got from one of his GG's (great grandmas), sunshine yellow hair and a wonderful laugh.
Right now some of his favorite things are animals, balls, bananas, reading with daddy at night, cars, Baby McDonald, going shoe free, and trying to catch the kitty!

Joseph and I decided for the big day we would go over to Lattin's Cider Mill  because there are animals to feed, hay rides, face painting, pumpkins and of course cider!

Jackson loves to ride on his daddy's back. Sometimes he get a little too enthusiastic about it...

It was so cute to see all the guys riding in the tiny animal carts with the kids. I know there were some sore rear ends after the ride was done.

Jack and the other kids had a blast feeding the animals! There were goats, sheep, turkeys, pigs, chickens and many more!

We can't miss a photo opportunity with this much cuteness hanging around! It was tricky to get Kaylee, Jack and Skyler to look at the camera at the same time. This is the best we came up with!

No photoshop here. Those are his natural baby blues. My handsome boys!

This was the best shot I could get of all the kids together... We have Dylan, Skyler, Kaylee, Lincoln and Jack!

Jack's friends and cousins were having so much fun helping Jack open all his presents with him! It was super cute and done in a flash!! 

"NOW THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR....." 

Jack's first attempt at eating cake. He was being a bit shy about it so daddy helped him along.... 

oh my goodness.. I love that his face ended up looking like The Joker from Batman. Why so serious? Because I have cake all over my face!!!

We continued with the farm animal theme for cupcakes and ice cream.

We cranked up the music for a dance party after cake. I love this picture of Jessica and Annie! Jack got a horsey for his birthday and everyone wanted a turn. 

I hope everyone had as much fun as Jack did and thanks for coming and celebrating his special day. 

Random Summer Funniness

This is just a snapshot of how the rest of our summer played out.

The first photo is of girls night out! The five of us have so much fun and my life would be less full and fun without them. :) The day before that photo was taken my hard drive crashed! I thought I had lost everything prior to this photo including all of Jack's birth through the first 8 months of his childhood. All gone in a flash. I was devastated... I took the computer into Apple and they got the hard drive replaced and gave me back the broken one. Our good friends the Marlatts (Who also fill our life with joy and fun!) took the hard drive and saved our pictures!! I will be forever grateful. This time around we have a portable hard drive to back everything up (Phew).
Joe had a lot of business trips this summer so we ended up eating at a lot of really cool places! A couple of DDD's and this great Italian restaurant up in Colville. The dish below is from Picabu Neighborhood Bistro in Spokane. We had fun while at home too. Lots of people visiting, we projected a movie onto one of the trailers, photo's of Jack in this cute hat from H&M, and much much more!

We always have a good time when we go and visit the Stucki's over in Eastern Washington. This time around they got us into Just Dance on the wii. Here's us shaking our groove thang! The last one is the boys doing "It's raining men".

There was also a ward activity that we joined them for with a log saw that Jacob and Joseph did (Jacob's arm was still healing from a break a few months ago) and Emma tried her hand at too!

We did do a bit of camping as well. Some up near Port Angeles and in Yakima. One afternoon in downtown olympia they had a pet parade too. Some of the vehicles and pet costumes were awesome!!

Well Jack hopes you had a good summer because he definitely did. Oh and if you ever get an opportunity to lick a window pane you should try it.

The Biggest Trip Ever!

THE FLORIDA TRIP! 

This is the longest trip we have been on in years so bear with me, this post is going to be HUGE!

In June we went to Florida to visit my grandmother for a late celebration of her 95th Birthday! All of my sisters, brother, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles...you get the point. Everybody came down to celebrate the life of a wonderful person! 

Joe, Jack and I were flying standby so we left a lot earlier than everyone else expecting to spend some quality time sleeping in an airport (The NBA Finals, which were in Florida, just happened to co-incide with our trip) but we made it there in the first shot so we got to spend some extra time with Nonnie before we met up with everyone else.

He's so happy to meet his Great Grandma for the first time. :)

Jack also got an education in basketball from his Auntie Telene!

We also got to swim in the pool for a little bit...Jack got kicked out because he was wearing a diaper in the pool. (I don't think the staff knew about swim diapers.) Getting into trouble early the little stinker! 

After a couple of days at grandmas we took a train down to Hollywood, Florida where we met up with the rest of the gang!

Jack got to see the ocean for the first time and meet some of the rest of my family that hadn't met him yet.

Jack was happy to see his grandparents, aunts, and uncles from Utah as well. We hadn't seen them since March!! 

Mia Famiglia

We BBQ'd, had a slideshow of grandmas life, went to the everglades and Bubba Gumps (while Jack got some grandma and grandpa time) and we did some more swimming!
Ooh and I almost forgot to mention that we went to a couple of DDD's (Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dive's in case you aren't down with the lingo!) We went to Jaxsons for ice cream, the Whale's Rib for lunch, and a great sandwich place that I can't remember the name of...but it was delicious.

We had a blast to say the least and loved spending time with everyone. Of course we had to get a 4 generations picture in before we left! Now it's off to Disneyworld!

DISNEYWORLD and UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

We said Goodbye to the Thomas clan and left with the Bippert bunch to Orlando. Joe's parent's flew in and picked us up in Hollywood and we stopped at the Ron Jon's HQ in Cocoa Beach. Man that place is huge!! The prices aren't too shabby either.  The next day we went to Universal Studios for one reason...HARRY POTTER!!
In case everyone didn't know, Joe and I are huge nerds when it comes to this stuff. We were super excited to go in and pick out our wands at Olivanders, drink some butterbeer, and check out all things Potter. We had a few things going against us...

#1: It was HOT! Like 100 degrees HOT!! Jack was not liking the extremely warm temperatures and being toted around in the B.O.B. and we all were a little warm to say the least. We ended up buying this spray fan that we attached to the B.O.B. and misted Jack every once and a while. We had even picked up the sunshade for our stroller but Jack wasn't too fond of it. I was able to snag a spot inside the Hogs Head with Jack to cool off (and take a nap) for a couple of hours.
#2: Harry Potter World had only opened up in the spring so the crowds we horrendous! To get food or on a ride took a big chunk of time.

Even with all of that we still managed to have a good time.

So it's kind of ironic that Joe is fake throwing up in the picture above because that Krustyland ride was my undoing..... After a long day of hot sun and a few too many butter beers and maybe a few too many rides on "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" I was a bit tired and dehydrated to say the least and the last ride of the day was Krustyland. The ride was a lot like the harry potter one where you are in front of this giant IMAX size screen and your cart moves all over the place. My stomach was NOT happy. I pretty much had to close my eyes the entire ride to make it through and even then a little butter beer came up the wrong direction... I think it's kind of ironic that I lost my cookies on a Krusty ride.. it seems pretty typical for him. haha

Disney World went much smoother than Universal Studios. It was still blazing HOT but at least there is a water park there to cool off in.

The wicked step mother and step sisters were great. The sisters were playing with Jack and saying how cute he was. On the way out from taking the picture I could hear the mother saying "Now girls if you could just find a husband you could have one of those too." Always in character!

We thought about picking up some things from Bwana Bob's but that guy looked pretty shady... I didn't realize it then but Jack was definitely going through a growth spurt. Look at those cheeks! The little guy was super excited to meet Winnie the Pooh. If we hadn't got there around nap time I'm sure he would have liked to see Pooh Bear. His grandma got him a pooh bear that he carried around most of the trip.

We got to see all sorts of fun shows while we were there. Country Bears, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, and one of the coolest ones was Finding Nemo. They had people on wires and had the fish around their bodies. Oh and of course lots of bubbles at the end. I made this Star Wars onesie for Jack before we went to Disney World and because of it almost got Jack a pass to get on Star Tours with no wait when he's big enough...but they ran out.

The first day at Epcot we were in a good spot in line and when everyone went inside they went to the rides first and not the characters so we ran to the characters and were the first in! So we got pictures with the whole mickey mouse gang!

After the light parade they had a show called wishes where they used projectors on the castle to change it around. It was really cool looking!

The Highlights: I got super into pin trading and Joe's favorite part was going to all the characters with Jack because it was the happiest he had been all trip. Jack liked "It's a Small World" so much he cut his first tooth while on the ride! I think Papa B.'s favorite part was Animal Kingdom and getting to go on his own personal safari! Mama B.'s was the water parks and floating around on the tubes with Jack!

All in all it was a completely magical vacation and we weren't ready for it to be over but you have to go back sometime I guess. I remember getting home and we had been gone so long that I didn't even recognize our room! Ever had that happen? Well the next big event is Jack's Birthday and there are a lot of cute pictures in there so I'm going to wrap this one up! :)