Val's Daycare:)

On Wednesday Jodie, Carson, & Hadley all came over. Breakfast time sort of looked like a daycare! They all had so much fun playing together, and Hadley & Lauren just love getting to be "in charge" of the "babies". Since I'm most likely going back to work next year, I really am enjoying this time with all the kids. I know, without a doubt I'll look back and think, "Those were the days". Love them!

Funny lunch

Saw this online the other day and thought it was fun. Made it today and the kids thought it was kind of weird, but I think they liked it:)

Happy Birthday Hadley Jane

We love you to the moon and back Miss 6 year old!!

All signed up

Today I registered Ben for kindergarten. I have to admit, I'm more sad than excited. I'm going to miss him, he's my buddy and I love getting to hang out with him every day. Just not ready for him to be a big kid yet.

Shopping buddies

I took these 2 to the store today. They had a blast vroomin through the store in the car cart. Carson tried to jump out 100 times and had a huge smile on his face the whole time!

Benny Boo

 One of Auntie Meg's running headbands got left here the other day and Ben wore it around all morning. Cracked me up. 

 Ben now has a partner to watch the garbage trucks go by on Thursdays. Jodie is pretty excited that she can now see out the window and spent most of her day looking out. 

Ben loves Jodie, at dinner when we talk about our day he often says his favorite part of the day was having Jodie here. Such a sweet boy. 

Lauren & Vianne

  

 This morning we had brunch at John & Aimee's with baby Vianne. Miss Lauren is so in love with this little gal, she wanted to hold her all day. They are a pretty cute duo if I do say so myself! 

Baby Shower

 Last weekend I headed up to Bellingham for Kelly's baby shower.  

Michelle, Kelly, & I

 Kelly and her Mom

I couldn't be more excited about this little girl that is on her way! So fun to have so many friends having babies since I'm all done. Can't wait for mid April to get here so we can meet the little lady! 

Hadley & Jodie

 Hadley spent the day here last week on one of our Jodie days and she was in heaven. This girl has a knack with babies, she's a bit of a baby whisperer. 

 She held Jodie every chance she got. 

 She even got her ready for nap time. Went and got her jammies, fed her the bottle, read her stories. 

All of it. 

 She was super helpful at lunch time. Not a single piece of food was thrown on the floor- Hadley was there to make sure it all went into her mouth. 

 We walked down to the park and while Ben & Carson played, Hadley pushed Jodie around and she took it very seriously. Such a little mama. 

 Nap time. 

 Ben is usually my big helper on Jodie days so he had to make sure to get in on the action a little. 

Snack time. 

Carson kept saying, "Auntie Val, CHEESE." There may have been a tad bit of jealousy there, he's used to being my #1 when he's over here:) He was cute with Jodie though, he wanted to show her everything and he'd say, "Baby- this is a backpack, okay baby." Then he'd go get something else to show her. I think he kind of liked being the "big" kid for once!

Sea World Part 2

 Since we found out our Sea World tickets were good for the rest of the year we had to take advantage of that and go back! We spent our last day in California at Sea World and it was so much fun. The kids both got to feed and pet the dolphins again. 

 That arm you see is Lauren's. She spent a good hour at the dolphin tank that day. 

 Then we went over to the bat ray tank, which we missed on our first trip. Some of them were so huge! The kids and Kevin got to feed them too. 

They are such funny looking creatures!

Ben getting ready to feed the ray. 

The absolute highlight of our trip was seeing the one week old baby orca. It was an amazing thing to see- so cute and so fun to watch it swim around with it's mom, brother, and sister. We felt so lucky to be there the week of it's birth. 

So cute!

 Ben's favorite- Elmo's flying fish ride!

 Mackenzie and family joined us at Sea World too. It was fun to get to spend more time with them! 

For our last dinner in CA we went to one of my favorite places, Casa Guadalajara in Old Town. Such amazing Mexican food and they have a gluten free menu!!! I decided to go big on my last night and order a large Margarita. Didn't realize it'd be the size of my head!!! I hardly put a dent in it, but we had some good laughs over the size of it. Laurie and Graham and Chrissy and Geoff joined us too. 

Packing up and getting ready to say good-bye to sunny San Diego! Of course we had to pick up a handful of new stuffed marine animals. I think we pretty much have an entire stuffed aquarium now! 

And that is the last of my California posts! Such a fabulous vacation, already can't wait to go back!!

Coronado

 Our last 2 nights in California we stayed on Coronado, it was such a perfect ending to our trip. 

 Even though it was only in the low 60's the sun was out and we could feel the sand in our toes- not too shabby! 

 Hotel Del

 Loving being in the sand! 

 Later that day we rented a surrey and rode all around the boardwalk. It was really fun and we felt like total tourists! 

 View from our beautiful hotel room! 

 Our hotel had flamingos and koi fish. So pretty. 

 We had an amazing sushi dinner at Poehe's- Emma and family joined us! 

 The kids had fun running around the boardwalk at night. 

Happy Boy!