Santa Catalina

Up until now, my only experience with anything Catalina has been this:

And well, I don't really like Catalina dressing.



But now, NOW I can say I've upgraded my Catalina experience a bit to something a little more like this:

And well, I LOVE it.

That there my friends is a pic of the city of Avalon in Catalina Island off the coast of California.  I'm ready to go back.  Now!  But it may be a while before I again grace the shore of Catalina Island, so for now I will relish in the memories and pictures of our AMAZING week!

Perhaps the biggest hurdle of the vacation was the drive to California.  However, I can happily say that for the most part, our 7+ hour drive went fairly smooth.  We left our humble abode approximately 9:30 a.m. on Saturday the 15th.  One stop in Vegas for lunch and then we worked our way into Huntington Beach, CA sometime late afternoon.  It was about this part of the trip I decided to let time go for a while- I was on vacation! 

This little Missy had been cutting some molars the week or so before and wasn't necessarily enjoying it so I was a little anxious about how she would do:

We only had a moment or two on the ride- for the most part she was a trooper.  I have to give a huge shout out here to the older three, they traveled SO WELL!  That's a long drive and they did awesome.

Our official start in Catalina wasn't until Sunday, so we stayed Saturday night in Huntington Beach.  Here we are at the hotel- the kids are looking down at the pool, lamenting that there wasn't time for them to have some swim time that night:

Oh, if they only knew what pool time awaited them!

What do you say kiddos, you ready for Catalina?

Oh yeah.  Oh. YEAH! 

So, Sunday morning we met up with Bob and Wendy for Sacrament Meeting.  We then went back to the hotel, packed up all our goods and started our caravan over to Long Beach to catch the ferry to take us over to the island. 

Here we are in the terminal snacking on some sandwiches as we wait to board the Catalina Express:

Okay, back up a bit.  Our entire crew over on the island consisted of our dear friends Bob and Wendy, and their children and grandchildren.....give or take a few because of work schedules.  We came over to the island in shifts, but our total crew included 7 adults and 10 kids.

We finally got our okay to board the catamaran, found us a seat, and were on our way!  Adios Long Beach!

Keep in mind this was Father's Day.  I told Jacob I was taking him to Catalina Island for Father's Day.  Pretty much awesome wife status right there.  Ha!  A very unorthodox Father's Day, but one for the record book for sure!  I love love love my boys:

This is the point where I got a bit lost in a sweet island-induced coma and forgot to take any more pics for the night.  But stay tuned, day two...and three...and four....and five are soon to come!  

More Teeth!

Allie is proud to announce she has finally lost her first tooth!  She had been wiggling that little sucker for quite a while.  Since Kenna lost her fifth tooth just a few days ago, Allie has been extra motivated to receive her own cash stash under the pillow from the toothfairy.  We were trying to wiggle it loose the other night when Kenna decided we needed to try out the old string-on-a-doorknob trick.  Why not?  Allie was a willing participant!  We got her all hooked up to some floss:

As I was tying the floss to the doorknob I thought to myself, "Hmm.  I've never actually done this before."  I decided not to let the girls in on that little tidbit of information.  But sure enough, after two or three slams of the door, her tooth came a-flying!  And off the floss......we had to do a little detective work to find that tiny little sucker that had flung onto the kitchen floor.  Fortunately we found the tooth and Allie was delighted to send her first text to the toothfairy.  That wonderful little fairy left Allie 4 quarters under her pillow.  What a nice fairy.

Way to go Allie Rae!  And thank you Kenna for the inscription on the bag:

And Summer Begins...

Seeing as though it's summer, we are soaking up the nice weather doing all sorts of stuff.

Bubbles:

Some good old-fashined cuteness:

Planting.  Or rather observing if you are Ty:

Now that school is out we are getting used to being together all day long again.  Needless to say we have had a time-out or two.  Time out for Kenna simply means getting creative with the pretzels:

We've had a trip down to the St. George splash pad.  Lexi found the perfect rocks to crawl all over.  She was completely enthralled and refused to look up for a picture:

Stay tuned for more summer fun!

Celebrate!

One year.  ONE YEAR.  How is it possible my baby is one year old?  Our little Lexi has completed her first year of life.  She has certainly made the last year incredibly enjoyable.  Okay, okay.  Fine.  I am not forgetting frequent newborn feedings, massive sleep deprivation, teething, snotty baby noses, and a dump truck load of diapers and laundry.  We have enjoyed Miss Lexi in spite of all the...er...side effects of having a new little one in the fam.  Her toothy little smile and sweet personality more than make up for it all.  I mean really, how do you not love this little blue marker-smeared face?

Lexi's birthday was a celebration indeed, seeing as though it fell on the last day of school as well as the day family came into town.  We somehow managed to convince Uncle Ross, Aunt Maria, and Aunt Marlene to come down and visit us!  Truth be told Ross just needed to come pick  up his horse and new colt down here, but I just like to think they missed us too much and had absolutely nothing else to do with their time so drove south for 5 hours.  Not to mention it was the first time I was FINALLY able to see Aunt Maria since she came home from her mission!!  Hoo double ray!

So, let's start off with the girls heading off for the last day of school.  (We won't discuss how wicked mean I am for making them walk.  Sheesh.)  Last day of Kindergarten and First Grade, respectively.

 

We had some dinner then started off the birthday celebrations, which of course included opening presents.  Needless to say Lexi had plenty of extra hands to help her dig in.  I personally am digging Uncle Ross in the background looking most debonaire. 

After the kids played with Lexi's gifts for a while (good thing a one-year-old could care less) and the adults visited for a while, Lexi decided she was all birthday-ed out and went to bed.  But oh no, the party didn't end there!  We then moved on to our party games.  What party would be complete without "pin the bow on the baby?"  None I tell you!  Ty giving it a go:

Aunt Maria may or may not have cheated:

Next up was musical chairs.  Now allow me to let you in on a little Israelsen secret.  There is a gene somewhere along the DNA strand of an Israelsen that happens to be slightly competitive.  Musical chairs is no exception.  Perhaps it was a good thing Jacob was out doing Bishopric duties.  Here we are starting off the game:

Looks innocent, yes.  Don't be deceived.  Uncle Ross is just getting started.  The kids quickly made their way out of the game and then the real game began!  We were down to 3 players, with only 2 chairs remaining.  It's getting heated now!  Run for your life, Ty!

Another casualty!  Poor Maria!  The final two:  Ross and Marlene.  The music stops and......

...Ross body slams poor Marlene out for the win! 

I told you.  Competitive.  Perhaps it's because there were candy bars on the line....in case you can't tell, we all had a darn good laugh!

And to top off the evening, we dug into Lexi's birthday cake while she was snoozing away in her crib.  We had two little girls who were more than happy to blow out her candle for her:

Truth be told, the weekend got away from us and Lexi technically didn't get to enjoy her cake until 2 days later!  At least she finally got to have a go at it:

And here we are having to say goodbye to our party goers.  We had such a good time with them.  Despite our best efforts to keep them around, they had to head home.  

Ty was especially sad to see his buddy go:

Come back again soon!  Jacob wants in on the rematch of musical chairs.....watch out Rossi, watch out.


 

Proud Mama

This past week was the week of our end-of-school-year programs and recitals.  I have learned something about myself.  I am a CRY BABY.  Yes, I freely admit.  It's these "firsts" for my children that just get me all choked up.  It's actually really annoying.  I never really know when it's going to hit, either.  All of the sudden I just well up.  Can't I just sit and enjoy without leaking from my eyeballs?!  Guess not.  The girls are learning to just look at me and say, "those are happy tears, huh mom." 

First off was Allie and her Kindergarten program.  She was so excited to dress up nice for her special day.  Here she is waiting so patiently to start.  I love it when she gets a cute little grin on her face and tries so hard to be coy and not smile big.  And the Kindergarten program just wouldn't be complete without the little girl in the top right picking her nose:

My favorite little number was when they showed their muscles while singing an alphabet song:

Her teacher put together a darling slide show at the end with pictures from throughout the year.  They sure grow a lot during this year!  My almost first-grader:

Congrats Allie Rae!

Next up was Kenna's tumbling recital.  She decided she wanted to take tumbling this year and has really done great in it.  She has improved quite a bit.  I hope I can sway her into continuing with tumbling again, but she is leaning towards ballet.  We'll just wait to see what next year brings!

All of my pictures turned out less than great, but here she is on one of her passes.  I hate to brag, but this little lady has some good form.  Go Kenna! 

The final bow with all the dancers and tumblers:

Kenna with her cute teacher, Marki:

My two oldest ladies (one of whom dressed herself for the occasion.  You go ahead and see if you can pick her out):

And lastly was Kenna's first grade program.  Each of the children made a mini-me to display.  Kenna wanted to show she is a tumbler:

Pretty much the cutest little first grader around!

This one was a little poem about teeth where each child held up a giant tooth with the number of how many teeth they've lost on it.  I love how there's everything from 0 to 9.  Kenna sits happily at a 4.  But that's okay.  The longer she keeps those baby teeth in the longer we can delay inevitable appointments with the orthodontist.  Yes, a glimpse into how my vile mother mind works at times. 

"There's no one quite like me!"  Hope that cute little face there knows how much we love our one and only Kenna D.

With her teacher, Mrs. Carney:

Way to go Kenna D!

And lastly, let's not forget a special performance from the youngest member of the family who is quite proud of her recently discovered standing skills.  Complete with a clap!

Yay Lexi!

Growing

Since Miss Lexi Lou is so close to her first birthday and really has outgrown her baby carseat, we decided to give her an upgrade. 

One last ride:

TA-DA!  She's a big girl now!

Nothin' but love for this delightful little lady.  Even if we still haven't upgraded to piggy tails yet.  Hopefully they will soon grow too!

Niner

This month Jacob and I celebrated our NINE year anniversary!  Way to go us!  This year I took it upon myself to plan a little (much needed) overnight getaway to celebrate on the weekend before.  We had two young women who are sisters in the ward come to stay with the kids and they did a great job.

I got a little flyer in the mail a few months ago about the upcoming shows down at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George.  They actually have some great shows, and I saw that the comedian Brian Regan was coming to town and I decided it would be perfect!

We headed down Friday night and started off the evening with a lil' dinner at the Texas Roadhouse.  We stopped to check in at the bed & breakfast I booked.  It was an old, restored pioneer house and was so fun.  Then we were off to the Tuacahn.  I LOVE going to the Tuacahn.  The backdrop of the red rock canyon is so beautiful.  The show was hilarious, we laughed so hard.  He really is a funny, funny guy and is refreshingly PG.  Even when he got off script a few times he worked it into his show and was so darn funny.  And since we didn't have kids to get to bed, we stopped in at Dairy Queen for a little ice cream after!
 
Here we are the next morning out on a little balcony attached to our room enjoying a beautiful spring day:

 

It was also the same weekend for the St. George Ironman.  Part of the race path was right along by our bed & breakfast, so we walked over to watch for a bit.  On the left side of the picture is the bikers coming down the road.  Then just around the corner they got off their bikes and started their run.  The right side of the road was for the runners starting to run up.  It was so fun to watch for a while.  Some crazy serious athletes!

It was such a fun little getaway.  I'm ready for another weekend getaway with Jacob.  Here's to nine more years!