More April craziness... Our California trip

After our trip to Las Vegas Mark had to attend a two week training in Oxnard, California (about an hour north of LA) for his work. He invited me along because all we had to pay for was my flight. His flight and all accommodations were paid for by his work. Mark flew there from Las Vegas and I drove home with my parents. A day and a half later I flew out to meet Mark for four days. I wanted to leave Carter home because A) of the expense of flying him, and B) because of the amount of work it takes to take him on vacation. I wanted some time for just Mark and I (a babymoon you could say..)before our second baby comes. So, even though it was REALLY hard to leave him, it worked out well. He stayed with our good, good friends the Rodartes and my parents. He didn't even act like he missed me that much when I got home! So I know he was well taken care of. Thanks so much Tim, Stephanie, Mom, and Dad! You are the best!

The view from the top floor of our hotel

Ventura Harbor has a bunch of little shops and restaurants, but when we got there all of the shops were closed. Bummer! It was still fun to walk around the harbor and look at all of the cool boats.

This was my favorite little tugboat.

I'm looking pretty good for being 7 months pregnant don't you think? Mark is also looking pretty tough. Especially with that sand shovel in his hand.

Of course we had to go to In-N-Out Burger. Per my request, not Mark's. I love In-N-Out and always want to go when we are near one. He doesn't understand what the big deal is.

Mark surprised me with going on a sunset sailboat cruise! His coworker and his wife joined us. It was a fun (but cold) date! Our cruise sailed out of Santa Barbara which was a beautiful area.

We got to see dolphins! I have never seen dolphins in the wild before (only at Seaworld) so I loved it. I was hoping to see a whale, but dolphins will definitely do. 

 

At one point the dolphins came and swam in the wake of our boat. The blurry grey spot in the upper middle part of the picture is a dolphin. They were right below us, and we could here them communicating with each other!

The sunset part of cruise... How romantic :)

Mark, enjoying the good life.

After the cruise we went to a nice seafood dinner right on the harbor. It was so good!

Some armless hobo laying on the beach.

My view these days... nice beach picture huh?

We rented these one day... they were really fun. I would love to try them again sometime when I am not prego - kind of harder to do with the belly in the way. 

We got to see tons of awesome kites like these on our bike ride.

This was the pool area at our hotel. I loved our hotel by the way (Embassy Suites) It is very family oriented and Mark and I both want to take our family there someday.

We stopped and got some fresh strawberries at a roadside stand one night... so good!

This is a picture of our first sushi "experience." Mark found a place that was all you can eat sushi, and supposedly really good and fresh. I wasn't thrilled because you are not suppose to have raw sushi when you are pregnant, but I wanted Mark to be able to try it. So we went in and the waitress barely spoke any English. She tried to explain how to order, but we still didn't know what to do once she was done. So we took the little menu and marked down a couple of things we wanted.. we thought that a "roll" was about the size of a regular piece of sushi. So we marked 2 of the things we both wanted to try. We also marked down several appetizers. When they started bringing the food out, they brought 2 of everything... and just kept it coming! A "roll" is about 6-8 regular sushi pieces. We felt bad because we got stuffed and still had a bunch of food on the table. The sushi was really good and I would eat it again, but it is not one of my favorites. Plus, I had to absolutely make sure everything I ate was cooked. 

This post would not be complete without posting a picture of Mark and his California dream car! This was his rental car during his trip. How cliche! We drove along the coast in a red convertible!

When we did stop to look at the view we saw dolphins again! It was really neat. 

Also, this can be my 32 week belly picture. 

On our way to the airport we stopped at Santa Monica Pier. We have been there before and really like it.  This is also the home of Muscle Beach. 

There is a little amusement park on the Pier. Carter would have loved it.

Mark bought me a funnel cake (that we shared) because he knows that I love them!

Mark tried his hand at one of the games. It's not as easy as they make it look!

The Los Angeles Temple. I was surprised at how big it was, and that it was right in the middle of a big city.

After seeing the temple we drove around Beverly Hills looking at houses. They are all so neat and full of character. I would love to live in Beverly Hills. This picture is supposedly of Jennifer Anniston's house. Quite fancy isn't it? All of the big homes have these hedges around them and gates. There were also cameras hidden all over in the hedges. When you're popular I guess...

We then went to Hollywood. These characters are all over the street and they will only let you take a picture of them or with them if you pay them. That is why stingy Spongebob is turning away from me. He also said, "Uh uh" in a voice that sounded like he had his nose plugged. 

The street that most of the characters line up on is where the Kodak Theater is located and where they supposedly have the Academy Awards.

 We also visited the wax museum. I had always wanted to visit a wax museum. It was pretty cool. Some of the figures were kind of spooky looking.

This was one of the best ones... 

This was at the "scary" part of the exhibit. I braved it and went through even though I was "expecting a baby."

I guess this what you start to look like after eating dinners like all you can eat sushi all of the time! Plus, all during our marriage I have told Mark to lay off those Twinkies!

This was at the Guinness Book of World Records Exhibit which was across from the wax museum. This is supposedly a replica of the biggest man's waste size.

I thought this was interesting... My 8 lb. 13 oz. Carter was actually quite small... 

I wanted to take a picture of Hollywood Blvd. and I got this cool one with the tour bus. So typical...

Lastly, I just wanted to thank you Mark for inviting me on your trip. I stress out about big events easily and with our second baby coming I know I haven't been the easiest to live with. I know you work really hard to provide for our family and I know I don't tell you thank you enough. Sometimes it is easier to write it I guess... So thanks Mark! You are doing a great job, and I am proud of everything you have accomplished at work. Also, I hope this doesn't make you feel bad because you JUST came in irritated and asked how I can stay on the computer for so long... just writing about how awesome you are.. that's how! Love you... :)


P.S. I went to the doctor today... my doc says I am about 33 1/2 weeks, and the baby measured 34 weeks 1 day. He also estimated the baby's weight - 5 lbs. I am guessing this "little" guy is going to be another strong and healthy 8 lb something baby. Which I have no problem with! I love the chubbiness...

Carter-isms

I have so many things that I have wanted to write down about Carter but this past month has been absolutely crazy! So, I am going to do it now before I forget!

• The other day I was out pulling weeds and raking bark in our front yard. Carter came over and started raking. He was doing a pretty good job of it too! All of sudden he yells, "Kids! Snacktime!" It was so cute! He did it again later too. Not sure where he got that from!

• Tonight at dinner Mark told Carter to sit down. Carter didn't sit down so Mark started counting to 3. When he got to the number 3 Carter said, "4." Now how can you get mad at that?! Mark and I just started laughing. 

• One of the cute things Carter is doing right now is he says something like "snack?" for example. So we say, "You want a snack?" Then he instantly says "OK!!!" He says it high pitched and so cute. It's like he already knows how to work us. He mentions it, then we ask what he said to make sure we understood him right, and says OK! like it was our idea all along. 

• I would say that Sunday night is when he officially discovered his "pee-pee." He was in the bathtub and he noticed it and wouldn't stop talking about it or occasionally poking it. He kept saying "pee-pee, pee-pee, pee-pee." I guess he IS a boy though...  :)

• Carter has this little lap top toy that he got for his birthday. When you push the heart button it says, "This is a heart, and a heart beats with love." Whenever I am playing with that toy with him and he pushes that button he turns around and gives me a hug then goes back to playing. Guess which toy is my favorite one to play with him?

• One night we were playing a slide game on the computer. All of a sudden Carter turns around and says, "wuv you" and gives me a kiss... on the lips of course. It was definitely one of those moments that made everything hard about being a mom worth it. 

I sure do love my Carter! I am getting excited to have one more to love too. I am anticipating about 5 more weeks until our newest little guy is here. I just love being a mom!

Las Vegas!

My mom invited us to go on a trip to Las Vegas with them. Of course we said, heck yes! I had only really been there one time for vacation. Mark and I were newlyweds and students at the time so we got sucked into two different timeshare presentations for the free tickets. So glad we didn't buy one...

For this trip my parents rented a Suburban for the drive. It was super nice and had a DVD video system which was nice for Carter. My aunt Norma and uncle Scott were also going to meet us there but on the way they had a car trouble. When they had car trouble they weren't that far from us! So we went and picked Norma up while my dad and Scott took their broken car back and traded it. After that ordeal we stopped in Mesquite to get the $4.99 prime rib, which was actually pretty good! (The atmosphere was not though). After Mesquite it was time for Vegas! We got to our hotel (SouthPoint) late that night. At our hotel we had a girls room and a boys room which was fun.

We had a good time in Vegas over the next couple of days. We went to the Mandalay Bay Aquarium which Carter loved! The Bellagio fountains and Atrium, A buffet dinner (of course), bowling at our hotel, swimming, Cheesecake factory, M&M and The Coke Factory, the Atlantis show (which kind of scared Carter) and saw many different hotels and casinos. We had quite the group dynamic which made huge amounts of sightseeing hard. It was a great time (until the drive home in a huge blizzard...)  Thanks Mom and Dad for inviting us for the fun trip!

Yes, there are tons of pictures included with this post... but ever since I found out about getting my blog printed I haven't wanted to leave any out. So enjoy LOTS of pictures!

Trying to get to Vegas... Scott & Norma's car had to get towed. 

Carter really liked the aquarium. He especially liked the "big big fishies!"

          The statue of liberty is made out of candy

Saw this on the strip... thought it was funny

M&M World was SUPER crowded! When we came to Vegas last time I thought it only had two floors. I was surprised this time to find FOUR floors!

At the Coca-Cola Factory soda fountain you could get an international tray of 14 different flavors of soda. Some were not so good, and some were pretty good.

Riding in the Suburban. I feel bad that everyone had to listen to Wonderpets constantly..

Goofin' off at the Bellagio

 

Carter loved watching the jumping water.

Here is Carter throwing a fit. Just wanted to document it for later.. :)

Me and my awesome mom!
(I'm feeling very prego in this one..)

I love this one of Mark and Carter

We visited the Las Vegas Temple on Easter Sunday. It was nice to have a break from all of the casinos and craziness to think about Christ. 

I love how happy we all look in this one,
and how candid it is.

 

I love these two of my little guy. He is SO busy now that it is hard to get a picture of him.

 

The day we went to a buffet was Easter Sunday. I love the pic with Drew's cheeks full and Rachel taking a bite. The next picture of Carter eating cake. I love how happy he looks eating it. He loves his cake!

 

Our hotel had such a cool pool area. It was quite chilly though with the wind blowing. So we actually hung out in the hot tub a lot of the time. The water wasn't very hot though which made it nice. Carter was obsessed with jumping in, over and over again. He also loved splashing his dad in the face!

Carter is a "game kid" by heart. He LOVES games! His favorites are ski-ball and bowling. He learned them electronically first on Mark's iphone. Our hotel had an awesome bowling alley. My mom even bowled with us and I don't remember the last time that happened! Too bad I was so occupied with Carter that I didn't get a picture. 

Of course we had to get a picture with the famous Vegas sign.

And this is what got to come home to... this is also what the weather was like most of the drive home. Needless to say, it was a LONG drive home.