Sea World

Ashten, Ayden, Grammy, Anderson, and Papa feeding the seals Look at the look on Ashty's face when a bird swooped in and stole the fish from him

The Dolphin Show During the dolphin show we sat in the splash zone, they aren't kidding.

Brad, Taylor, Britany, and Tana

Ayden didn't love the salty water burning all his little cuts on his knees. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time one of my kids fell on this trip I would be very rich!

My boys checking out the flamingos they were fascinated that the birds could stand on one leg.

There was this spray park inside of Sea World. It was every mom's worst nightmare. There was no gate or anyway to keep them in that part of the park and it was a huge area. So being that there are 3 kids versus 2 adults, it was very crazy. Luckily, everyone was found, but just in case I had written my cell phone number on all of the boys' bodies. Next trip like this I will bring a sharpie!

The kids visiting the Clydesdale, mostly for Armand's entertainment.

Tana waiting for everyone to get back from riding the Atlantis roller coaster.

Taylor

AJ was watching for Daddy to come down the waterfall part

Brad, Ayden, and Armand on the Journey to Atlantis

Ashten ended up chickening out so Britany brought him back to me.
The calm before the storm

Brad, Me, and Armand We stopped in to see this show, it was like Saturday Night Live it was pretty funny. This is the Shamu impersonator (the walrus). Were laughing our heads off!
Walking through the shark tank

Our first Shamu show

This morning we woke up, had breakfast, and went to buy some shoes (my feet were dying) and Armand just wanted some shoes. Brad, Britany, and the girls, and Mom and Dad all trekked down to San Diego, about an hour away. It was a beautiful day despite the weather forecast of low 60's and possible rain. I don't think I had ever been to Sea World before so I was surprised that had rides there. It is a really cool park. Our favorite parts were the shows especially if we got to get wet. We also went on the rides. The best one there was the water roller coaster. Almost as soon as you got on it you were dropping down a water fall, then there was this elevator that the car rolled into that lifted you up while tipping you side to side...very creepy. Ayden and Ashten had been on some big rides at Disneyland, but for some reason they did not want to go on it. Ayden went once and then said he wouldn't go again, but I wanted him to come with me so I tried bribing him with choosing anything out of the gift shop, he must have been pretty traumatized because he wouldn't even consider it. Anyway, we watch a few shows, ate WAY too much (Armand). They had this deal where you pay so much and you can eat all day whenever, whatever you want. Armand's goal was to make his money back and then some. We were successful. I think everyone in our group helped him achieve that goal. Anyway the coolest part of Sea World was the end of the day when they do the nighttime Shamu show. It was great with cool lights, good music, and Shamu of course. Anyway, after a long day we had no hotel to go to so we had Dad find us a hotel on Hotwire and paid only $60 for a super nice hotel. (Which made me even more annoyed about paying $53 for the Motel 6). When we got to our room I worked on my finals a bit, while everyone else crashed. It has been so easy to get the kids to sleep this week. I am loving it;)

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Ayden pushed Anderson in the stroller for a good amount of time. I'm not sure how he did it as that stroller doesn't work well in the snow. When we got to the street I said to the kids, "Look at all this snow, boys."

Ashten said back, "This isn't snow, this is an ice cream store!"
Mom and Dad took this picture of the four of us

Mom and Dad on their way home Since the kids helped me out at the store and were such good walkers (little to no crying) I let them pick out one candy from the bulk candy bins. Ayden chose to pick 2 sharks so I told him to give one to AJ, which he did. AJ let it sit just like this for about ten minutes before he decided it must be something to eat.

I needed a few things from the store today but I believed that it wasn't worth risking my three boys lives by driving there. Instead, we walked. It was very cold, but we had a lot of fun walking in the snow. On the way to QFC we ran into Mom and Dad who were driving home. They gave us each a piece of chocolate and some gloves for me to use. I put Ayden and Ashten each in charge of one thing to find at the store. The boys loved being in charge of something. When we were done we headed back out into the cold. We stopped at Grandma B.'s house to say hi before going back home to work on out gingerbread house.

Night of Lights

Anderson, Ayden, and Ashten before picking up Toni and Mom. Apparently, if you don't use your flash you need to be very steady with the camera...lesson learned.
I was chatting to Valerie tonight and she was telling me that they were going to look at Christmas lights. So I copied down the addresses and mapquested them, bundled up the kids and filled sippy cups with hot chocolate, then packed everyone in the van. On the way, I got a hold of Mom and invited her and Toni to come with. So after picking everyone up we headed out. The kids were SO excited. Ayden was looking at the houses and telling us, "they did a good job on their house." When we would see something cool and talk about it, Ashten would scream "I don't see it!!" (He would be looking out the wrong window...everytime.) Even AJ got in on the action yelling "whoa" at all the lights. We had a great time and were glad to have some company. Thanks Mom and Toni:)

What's a Little Sinning Among Family?

Triple X Root Beer Drive-In
Armand and the Triple X Burger
Ayden, Me, Anderson, and Ashten watching to see if Daddy could polish off the XXX Burger This is as far as he could make it. He said he could probably finish it but that there were too many people around and he thought he might puke afterwards. It ended up to be a perfect time to stop though because we had ordered this with the intention of sharing so me and AJ shared the last quarter. (Which more than enough for us)
Dad and Mom. That cone was about 10" tall including the cone.
Too bad I just missed the picture when Wes had the whole cone in his mouth!Ayden and Ashten's favorite thing was the Funny Car...this obviously isn't the one that was there but I didn't think to take a picture of the cars or anything oops. Girls should not be in charge of camera at a car show.Today, Armand needed to get some trailer orders for the upcoming week so he went to work by taking one of his trailers over to XXX Burger in Issaquah. Every weekend they have a car show. After church, the kids and I headed out there, followed by Mom, Dad, and Wes. Anyways, Mom and I set up chairs, took AJ over to a grassy area, and read while the guys took Ayden and Ashten to walk around and see the cars. We had fun although I felt especially guilty when I had this conversation with Ayden:

Ayden: "Is this church day?"

Me: "Yes"

Ayden: "Well, why are these people here?"

Oops! I guess we are going to have to be better examples to the kids.

Horton Hears A Who

Today Grammy called to see if the boys wanted to go to the movies to see Horton Hears A Who. How lucky for us to live close enough to family who is willing to take the kids out. Ayden and Ashten had fun and Mom said they did good sitting still and paying attention. She also said how cute it was that Ashten was laughing out loud, which he got from Armand. Anyone who knows Armand, knows that he is the loudest person you will EVER hear at the movie theater. One time before we were married we went to the movies on a double date with my best friend, Megan and her date Matt which is one of my brother's best friends. We went to see Toy Story (I think) and he was SOOO loud (it was probably one of the first movies we went to with eachother), I was so embarrassed. Anyways, when we got out of the theater and were talking about the movie he said it was a stupid movie and I was like WHAT are you saying? You were laughing your head off the whole time! Now I find myself laughing louder at movies but usually not in public.

So anyways, it was nice to have a little break, I was hoping to have alone time with AJ but of course he slept the majority of the time. So what do I do? Clean:(