Our California Trip

Getting on the plane

We boarded a plane for California last Thursday, and came back home Sunday. It was a quick trip, but well worth it and jam packed with loads of FUN! On Thursday, we landed in San Diego where the weather was OH.SO.AMAZING! I even debated on "loosing" my plane ticket back to Texas. I mean, I LOVE Texas, but the weather in California definitely makes you second guess Texas Summers! After we landed, we loaded on a shuttle to the rental car lot and picked up our MINI VAN! Yes, you read that right, we rented a MINI VAN! It actually worked out because we were able to let some of our family ride with us to different locations. After the mini van was loaded with all of our gear, we headed to the Beach! This was not a planned trip, so we were not really prepared to stay at the beach for a while. We had NO TOWELS! However, we did it anyway! We put Ezra in his swimsuit, grabbed some lunch and headed to the water. It was so nice. Ezra loved it. He loves running in and out of the water away from the waves. Emersyn, well, she does not like to be in cold water (which the ocean water in cali is way different than in texas!) and apparently she doesn't like putting her feet in the sand. Brent ended up holding her the whole time while she watched Ezra run and play. We probably stayed at the beach for an hour or so, by that time, Ezra was wanting to wipe the sand off and we still had no towels. We rinsed off, changed clothes and loaded back up in the van and headed to Temecula, California.

running from the water

This was our destination for a few days. My cousin, Doug, got married and Ezra was a ring bearer in the wedding. We had a great time in Temecula. The wedding was so pretty. It was on a hilltop at a winery! Not a very big wedding, but a very nice wedding. Ezra actually walked down the isle with the little flower girl. He was supposed to be holding a cute little pillow, but once he saw that she had a basket full of rose petals to throw, he threw me the pillow and said "here mom, I don't want this" and helped her throw the flowers. It was pretty cute! Hey, whatever gets him down the isle! We didn't do too much in Temecula, since we were helping prepare for the wedding, then attending the wedding, but we did get to take the kids to a park and play, walk Old Town Temecula and enjoy a great burger at In and Out! It was just nice being with my family!

The winery

Emersyn checking things out at the rehearsal

My model

sweet ring bearer and flower girl

helping throw the flowers

Doug and Aimee

Ezra and Lincoln on the dance floor (where they were most the night)

She was into everything!

 On Saturday morning, we got up, packed up our luggage and loaded back into the van. We were headed to DISNEYLAND! We arrived at Disneyland around 830am and didn't leave until 830 or 9pm. We had a jam packed day of FUN! We road all the rides (well, all the ones we really wanted to), saw our favorite characters, ate good food and even got some souvenirs. It was such a great trip! A great first trip to start the summer off.

Disneyland

The only character they would take a picture with (if I was holding most of them!)

Tarzan's tree house

Buzz ride

Woody and Jesse

Teacup ride

It's a small world ride

Toon Town

Now, we will be home this week, and head back out on the road this weekend to Colorado, with Brent's family for a week! Should be really good times!! We are looking forward to it.

Craw fish Boil

Last night we had a Craw Fish Boil and invited two families over. It was so much fun. We had 20 POUNDS of craw fish, with sausage, corn, potatoes, onions and mushrooms! So much good finger-licking food! The kids all played outside together and obsessed over the craw fish. They loved just standing by the ice chest of craw fish, staring. They even were brave enough to pick up the live ones!! After they were boiled and being eaten by the guys, the girls weren't really in to eating them, the kids pick up the dead heads with the pincher's attached and acting like they were fighting! I was impressed! I thought they would all be afraid of them. After the pounds of food was cooked and gobbled up, we had some ice cream and homemade brownies! It was such a great night.

staring in "awe" of the craw fish

Brent and Johnathan getting everything ready

Ezra and Gavin shelling the corn

Plate o' Food

Sweet Emersyn

The Garrison's

Playing with gross dead craw fish

They loved it!

Cambelle Elayne Boyuls

My sweet "little" new niece! What a cutie! Can't wait to meet her.

A New Niece!

Malachi and Shelby had Baby Girl Boyuls at 7:15 pm, today! She weighs 10 pounds, 5 ounces!! Big little girl! Shelby did great! She pushed for about an hour and a half, not needing a c-section!! So proud! God is good! They are still indecisive about a name as of yet, but once they name that precious little girl, I will post it! Hopefully I will be sent some pictures too, so I can post them!

Swim Lessons and Chuck E Cheese!

This week we have been very busy! We have been doing lots of fun things, but today, I am Tired! Monday started off with Ezra's first week of swim lessons. Our good friend Angie, who also teaches swim lessons, is teaching a class of 4 kids how to swim. The other 3,2 year olds, are all girls! Ezra is the only boy in his class. Two other moms are doing the lessons with us, and we are all really good friends in the same life group! It's a lot of fun. Out of all the kids Ezra's age in our life group, he is the ONLY BOY. All the other boys are 4 and up. So, we do a lot of things with girls. I wonder how much longer I am going to be able to pull this off before he realizes he is the only boy! Ha! I will probably have to put him in the older boys swim lessons next year. Tuesday was a fun busy day. We went to work out, headed to Chuck E Cheese for a playdate, came home took a nap, then got up to go to swim lessons! WHEW! Chuck E Cheese was so much fun. We have never been and Ezra and Emersyn were soo excited! I knew Ezra would be all over the place wanting to play each and every game, BUT, I did NOT anticipate Emersyn wanting to do the same thing!! She wanted to ride everything and play every game that involved hitting or throwing balls! We barely sat down to eat pizza! I was wiped out after that. It is a mini Las Vegas for kids! We are going AGAIN today for a birthday party. TWO TIMES IN ONE WEEK! Ezra and Emersyn are going to think this is a new thing we are doing! HA! Wednesday was just as busy! I helped host a Tupperware Party for one of my friends, at my house, and had so much fun visiting. After everyone left, I had to lay the kids down for a nap to get some sleep in before they had to wake up to go to swim lessons! Thursday was a little better.. we didn't have any scheduled outings, just swim lessons! Today, we are doing NOTHING during the day, but tonight we have the birthday party and life group! Hopefully next week won't be so crazy. We will have another week of swim lessons though.

Ezra has been enjoying swim lessons and doing a great job kicking, blowing bubbles, using his torpedo arms and jumping in and "swimming" to the side. Yesterday, I had to give him a little "talk" in the bathroom before we started swimming. He did great after the "talk", but towards the end of class he started crying for me. It was so funny. He was crying for me but doing everything she was asking him to do, just crying the whole time. All the girls were just fine!! He, the only boy, was crying! NICE! Haha! I will have to write that down so I can tell him when he is older!!

More Enchanted Rock Pictures

Group picture!

So, I just recently got an email from Brent's sister Melanie with more pictures of our "bear hunt" at Enchanted Rock. I thought I would share them!

walking up

first rest stop

more resting

going in the cave

coming out of the cave. Not sure if I was going to fit!

we made it out!

opa and some cousins growling like a bear to "scare" the other cousins

waiting for everyone to come out

we did it!

playing 

some of the crew