Disneyland!

We had the opportunity to enjoy a fabulous trip to Disneyland and San Diego with Bob's family at the end of March because his dad retired after over 30 years of service to the fire department back home!  He's been pretty busy as the chief the last decade and then some, so he's now enjoying a well-deserved retirement.  He and Carolyn, Bob's Mom, had planned to take all the kids and grandkids on a trip when he finally retired, hence this fun trip!  They rented a big house near the park and all 18 of us stayed there and had a great time.  It was a good sized house and accommodated us all nicely and even had a fully stocked playroom with toys for the kids and a hot tub and pool that we got a lot of use out of!  This place was awesome not only because there was plenty of room for us all, but also because it was fully stocked--high chairs, strollers, coolers, even swim diapers.  It was definitely convenient!

Here's the patio and pool--nicely fenced which was a huge plus with all the little ones we had in our group

2 dining room tables to accommodate our big crowd

Good-sized living room

Johnny LOVES water and the pool was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for him!

We went to San Diego our first morning there and took family pictures in front of the temple

We had a great time at a park we had our picnic lunch at and Johnny discovered his love of swings!

We went to Cabrillo National Monument and enjoyed the tide pools!  Johnny was pretty sleepy but enjoyed the ride in the Trekker!

We also enjoyed the Mormon Battalion monument and Johnny had quite the nap there

The next day we went to Sea World and Johnny loved watching everything!

Bob's brother Jared ordered us all matching neon green shirts so we'd be easy to spot at Disneyland, and they worked so well!  Anywhere we went we could spot our big neon green blob and reunite!  

Here we all are, ready to start the fun!

We're ready to ride our first ride!  (The Jungle cruise!)  Don't worry, we didn't lose Johnny, he's in front of Bob holding onto the rail

Now we're enjoying California adventure!  

These boys were so cute in their matching shirts!  Jay was pretty excited to see Lightening McQueen, and Johnny and Jet just liked touching everything :)

This ferris wheel with Mickey was awesome!  Johnny loved riding that and the view from the top!

This is the World of Color show!  So impressive!

Slightly out of order, but here's Johnny enjoying ClaimJumper in Vegas on our drive to Disneyland!  Our waitress asked if we'd like a complimentary baby plate, which of course we said yes to, and Johnny was so grateful!  It had mandarin oranges, turkey, cheese, and crackers and it definitely made our short wait for our food much more pleasant!

We enjoyed the Bellagio fountains so much!

Johnny was so intrigued by all the amazing flowers in the Bellagio

He walked and walked and walked!  He made a lot of progress on his walking skills on this trip, with some falls along the way :)

His love of the water in general made fountains both fascinating and the greatest temptation for him!  He wanted to jump in all of them!

Vegas was so much fun that our little man was tuckered out early and slept through much of our walk that night!  It worked out for some great snuggles for Papa though

We caravanned to and from Disney with Bob's folks and the his sister Jen and their family, and his folks stayed through the weekend for conference.  It was a little rainy but the temple was still beautiful

Johnny cruising around the living room!

Lots more catching up to do, but at least Disneyland is up!  :)  Hoping to blog more in the coming weeks!  We're enjoying our summer so much so far despite the 100 degree days!  Hope you all are too!

12 Months!

So hard to believe this little guy is 1 already!  It really came too fast!  We've loved our first year with this precious guy and are looking forward to so much more fun this coming year!  He's cuter every day and getting so much faster all the time!  He's saying more and more and just the sweetest fun little boy!  

Even though he's been walking for months, he liked to play it safe and cruise a ton

This lion is looking smaller all the time!

His laugh is so darn precious!

Showing off his walking skills and his adorable thighs!

So cute!

We got more pictures done for his first birthday too and they turned out so great!  As usual it was hard to pick which ones to print because we loved so many!  We actually ended up going two separate times, because he just wasn't feeling it the first day.  The place we go is called Fotofly, and we LOVE it so much.  They're deal is that you go and get your pictures taken and then just buy the cd with all the images, no sitting fees or other costs.  They do a lot of kid photos, and they've done a great job when we've gone before. We went the day before his birthday and despite being so happy before we started, he would NOT smile for the poor guy!  The photographer worked so hard, pulling out all the stops, but Johnny was just in a "eh" mood and wasn't feeling it.  We definitely got a few cute shots, but not at all what we expected.  When we went for his newborn and 6 month shots they got SO many great ones that we knew we could do better, so we took the cancellation spot that had just opened up and came back the day after his birthday and had great success!  Here are the pics--I know there are a TON here, so sorry if you've seen enough of our handsome boy, but I just think he's so dang adorable in all of these!  He was so good both days too--30-40 minutes is forever to him, but he was so agreeable and tolerant of all of this!

I loved this bright chair and the wood 3-D wall behind and Johnny was loving it!

This is definitely one of my faces

This is fun because this is just what we were doing while he changed the light and got ready for the next shot--for months this has been a huge activity at our house, as you fellow parents know!  We aren't bored of watching his progress yet and he loves to walk back and forth between us!

Can you tell he's done here?  He can't believe we're STILL taking pictures :)

Just chillin' on this bench :)

Ok, sorry if that was Johnny overload!  I will catch up on more pics eventually, but am glad I finally got these up.  Life is busy as always, but we're doing well and hope you all are too!  Summer's here and we're having all sorts of summer fun I need to post about!  I still need to post our Disneyland and Zion trips too, so I'm sure you're all anxiously awaiting all of this!  :)  Thanks for those of you that have been better bloggers than I!  I really love keeping up on the news with all of your families that way so keep up the good work!