Daddy's Treat

Our hotel was in a great location for our family, two miles from LegoLand and about ten minutes from Torrey Pines. On Friday Rylee and Daddy took advantage of LegoLand, then on Saturday Daddy got to play Torrey Pines. The U.S. Open was played there in 2008 (the one where Tiger had a broken leg and beat Rocco in a playoff) and the Buick Open (soon to have a new name) is played there every year, but it is a public golf course so anyone can play. The course charges a crazy fee to reserve a tee time, so most people get in line early in the morning to play. First come first serve tee times are given out from sunrise until the first reservation at 7:30. Our family was quite tired on Friday night, so we were all sound asleep by 8:00 pm, which helped Daddy because he was awake and felt rested by about 1:30. Since he was going to get up around 3:00 am anyways to go get in line, he just headed over at 2:00 and was the first in line. (But only by about 20 minutes!) He got to be the first group off the tee Saturday morning, and he had a great time. He came home with a few souveniers, but the best one was a pink Torrey Pines hat and a t-shirt, size 3T! Rylee insisted on wearing her hat and shirt immediately and she is wearing her shirt again tonight under her pajamas.

LegoLand

On Friday, Rylee and Daddy spent the entire day at LegoLand together with our friends the Campbells. There were a lot of fun things to do and see, and I think they tackled most of the park since they were there from open to close. Rylee and Jensen spent about an hour at the first place they went to. The two of them were up on top of the catwalk, about two stories above the ground, and they were shooting balls down to where the other kids were running and gathering them up. The two of them had a blast from the report I got!
There were not a lot of rides that Rylee could go on, but her favorite was driving the car. It was only for 3 - 5 year olds and they got to push the gas pedal and steer the car. When Rylee finished she told Daddy she crashed 4 times, and she was right. Daddy said she did crash 4 times, but there were quite a few times she was straightened out. We are hoping her driving abilities improve over the next 13 years!
Daddy said one of the best parts about LegoLand was they had their lines designed so the parents waited in line while the kids played in a Lego building area. I think Disney could learn from this!
Most everything in the park is made out of Legos (obvisiously not the rides!) but any statue or display was Legos. While walking through the park once Rylee stopped right in front of an Einstein statue (made of Legos), and said "Daddy, take my picture," so he did.
The most amazing part of the entire park is called Mini-Land, and Daddy said it alone was worth his admission. Mini-Land takes up about half of the park and is re-creations of U.S. cities. I only saw the pictures of them, but I am amazed.
When the day was over Rylee was up on Daddy's shoulders walking out of the park and said, "Daddy, that was FUUUUUN," which made the entire day even more special for Daddy.

St. Augustine with The Murphys

I was looking through our pictures and I realized I had not blogged about our trip to see the Murphys. Matt's cousin Johnny and his family drove down from Atlanta and met us in St. Augustine to play for a few days. We stayed at a great condo right on the beach and the kids played and played. Matt and Johnny got to play golf together, Angel and I got to catch up and hang out, and the kids got to know each other. Rylee and Jax are a month apart and had so much fun together. The entire trip Rylee called Jax "buddy" and Jax called Rylee "cousin!" All the time we would hear, "Cousin, come here," followed by "Okay, Buddy!" The older girls were sweet and took good care of Rylee and even let her play with their toys.
Sunday afternoon we went down to the Castille de San Marcos, a really old fort, and the kids had a great time exploring. I had a fun time reading all the historical facts, but it was hard as Rylee was trying to shoot me with a canon or lean too far over the edge.
We were sad that our trip together was only a few days, but it was a great time.

Rylee and Mommy

Rylee shooting Mommy

Rylee and Jax looking over the edge

Rylee posing on the cannon

Eva and Rylee

Rylee and Jax

Rylee and Maya

The Entire Group

Jazz Game

Last year we took Rylee to her first Jazz game and she really liked it, so when we had the opportunity to go tonight we were excited to take her. The only difference this year was that we got to bring Nolan too. The kids were really good, but it was definitely a good decision by us to only stay until half time. Nolan was completely fascinated by the lights, the noises and all the people around us. He got a little squirmy on our laps, but other than that he was great. Rylee was the best cheerer in the crowd. She made sure every time a basket was made that Nolan, Daddy and I clapped with her. She was still scared of the mascot, and anytime he would come out of the tunnel on the side of the court she would look at me and say, "tell him to go back in the tunnel!" She had a great time watching the dancers and liked their pom-poms. My favorite part of the night was how good she was during the National Anthem. I told her to put her hand on her heart like she does for the Pledge of Allegiance and to look at the flag, and she did. She had her little hand across her heart the entire song and looked straight up at the flag, only turning twice to clap for the singer.

My Sweet Boy

Nolan is definitely all boy, no doubt about. Yes I know that was determined along time ago, but it is very obvious by his personality lately too. He is a very loud little boy, he loves making noise by smacking and pounding things together, and he already likes to pester his sister! He is much more into cabinets/pressing buttons than Rylee ever was and he does everything with such a sweet sneaky look on his face it is hard to really get mad at that little face. Yesterday we had family pictures and he was still in his clothes while we were playing tools last night, and I caught this cute picture of my boy.

Chilling with Grandma

Nolan and Grandma had a fun time hanging out and reconnecting this trip. Grandma and Grandpa were really missing his cute little face since he did not come to DisneyWorld with us.

Best Friends

Rylee and Bryson have always been really close, but the trip to Disney World made them even closer friends. Everyday around our house Matt or I hear some reference to Bryson. When I told Rylee we were going to Grandma and Grandpa's house last weekend, her response was, "and I see Bryson too?" On Sunday afternoon Bryson got to come over and play all afternoon and then the rest of the cousins came over and joined the two of them, it was chaotic but fun!!

Playing Trains with Grandma

Grandma builds the best train tracks for the kids, but the problem was that Nolan kept destroying the track, so Grandma built him his own. He had his track to pull apart, chew on, throw, and do anything else with, and then Rylee had her track to push her trains around on, it was perfect.

Looking Good

This weekend we took a quick trip to California to see Grandma and Grandpa. We had a great time. We did not do to much, but we got a lot of play time with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Nolan and Grandpa looked too handsome before church to not get a picture of them together.

Fish Face

While Nolan was in Texas, Grandma was working on teaching him lots of new tricks, and this was one of them. He makes his fish face whenever you do it at him or whenever he gives kisses. Some of his other new tricks that I can never get him to do on camera are: saying Uh-Oh (very clear and in context like when he drops something), saying Da-Da, clapping, and waving bye-bye.

Maddi's Party

Thursday was our best friend Maddi's birthday party. The party was at Chuck-E-Cheese and we had a blast. Rylee was so excited to carry Maddi's present in she stopped, posed and told me, "Mommy, take a picture!" She did a really well playing the games and her favorite part was pulling the tickets out after she won. She absolutely loved her cupcake and her face was stained hot pink the rest of the day, but hey at least she enjoyed it.

Carrying Maddi's Present

Best Friends

Rylee eating her cupcake

Maddi enjoying her cupcake

Only the beginning of the messy face

Necklace

Rylee was really proud of her necklace that she made at preschool the other day, so she called Grandma to tell her about it. Grandma asked me to take a picture and put it on the blog, so sorry Mom that is took me three days to post but here is the cute girl and her necklace.

A Much More Lively Rylee

The other day when Jeff and Lisa came by Rylee was really sick with the flu, and slept most of the time on the couch. In the four and a half hours they were here I don't think she said more than ten words, but tonight was a different story. Uncle Jeff came back over this evening and he and Rylee had a great time together playing blocks. Rylee also entertained him with all her silly antics. She was a much happier, sillier little girl this evening.

Nolan meet Lisa, Lisa meet Nolan

It is so crazy to think that Nolan is 10 1/2 months old and he and Aunt Lisa just met the other day. We were lucky to get to visit with her and Uncle Jeff all afternoon Friday, and Nolan got to get all of the attention because Rylee was asleep on the couch with the flu. Nolan had fun showing off all of his new tricks: clapping, waving, standing, and playing "so big!" Lisa had a fun time watching him and playing with him. Luckily it will not be another 10 months until we get to see her again, they can play again at Christmas!

So Proud of Himself

While at Church on Sunday Daddy and Nolan starting practicing standing on his own, and now he mastered it. Every time he stands up he lets go and balances unsupported, and then giggles while he is doing it because he is so proud.
I could not hold the camera and get him to stand at the same time, so I set it on the couch. You can't see his feet but you get the idea.

Sunday Movie

Daylight Savings threw all of us for a loop today, so this morning before Church Daddy and Rylee snuggled and watched Mary Poppins together.

Rylee's New Dress

Rylee was running around in her underpants for a few minutes this morning, so Daddy made her a new dress. Daddy is so creative and Rylee thought her new dress was pretty cool.

Tony Romo Sighting

We had a Tony Romo sighting in our house today, except this Tony Romo was much cuter than the real one! Aunt Erica and Family got Nolan a Cowboys jersey to sport for the season, and he had it on this morning for the game. Must have brought them luck, because they won big today.

Cinderella in Timeout

Last year we had A Tinkerbell Timeout, and unfortunately we had to have a Cinderella Timeout this year. Rylee was doing a great job helping me hand out candy, but while we were waiting for more trick-or-treaters she was playing with our candy bowl (after she had been told not to a few times) and broke it. She ended up in timeout and again it was too cute to not take a picture of.