Huntington Beach

We spent one of our days before everyone else arrived in California at Huntington Beach.  We were shocked when we told the girls that we were going to the beach that day that Ella replied, "I don't want to go to the beach, I don't like the beach."  We used to live at the beach during the summers in Virginia and it was our favorite place.  I was shocked when they didn't want to go.  When we pressed them further about it, we realized that they no longer remembered the beach at all.  We knew Maggie wouldn't, but I thought Ella still would.  We went anyway, and Ella quickly remembered and the girls loved it. 

 It was almost 80 degrees in February, the water was still a bit cold, but we enjoyed ourselves so much.  We had the beach almost entirely to ourselves.  The girls buried Daddy in the sand, loved to kick the ball in the ocean and chase it after the waves pushed it away.  They built sandcastles, and enjoyed discovering loads of "treasure" (seashells) at low tide.  Hadley enjoyed the white noise from the waves, took a nap, and tried her first taste of sand and then some.  Yum!  Mommy got to sit back with the sleeping baby and reflect on what a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful family and how lucky the girls are to have such a playful Daddy.  I also had to repeatedly chase off some very aggressive seagulls who wouldn't leave our picnic lunch alone--even when it was buried under our towels and bags.  It was seriously crazy!  When I went down to the water with the girls, they would dig through our stuff and fly off with our bag of animal crackers or whatever else they could get their beaks on. 

After our day in the sun, the girls kept asking when we can go back to the beach again. 

Now that's more like it!

Princess Lunch

We paid the big bucks to have lunch with the princesses. It actually ended up being worth it since Maggie was still small enough to be free and the food was enough to cover us for both lunch and dinner at Disneyland, plus we had the added bonus of not having to wait in line to see princesses (not to mention the fact that it made our girls extremely happy). A win-win for all.

The girls dressed up in their princess finest and were so excited for the day's events.  We went with the Bentons and all of the girls were enamored with the royalty. Maggie insisted that we refer to her as "Princess Cinderella" and would get very upset if we forgot and called her anything else.  Ella's only disappointment was when we had seen them all--she kept waiting and waiting for another one to show up and no one else came!

**One little side note . . . after returning home and looking through the princess autograph books we brought with us we found that Ella had followed suit and signed the empty pages "Love, Ella" just like the princesses had signed. :)

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland this past week and met some of our friends there (really we met some of Brad's friends from highschool, but I think we've been friends long enough now I can just call them "our" friends). 

We had a great time, even with bigger crowds than we had anticipated.  The girls were thrilled with our first trip to Disney and ate it all up.  The days went by so quickly and we all came home exhausted,

but that's just the sign of a great fun-filled vacation, right?

Favorites:
Ella-Splash Mountain and the Swings
         Being with friends and meeting the princesses
Maggie- Tea Cups and Dumbo
         Meeting Jessie and dressing up for Cinderella
Hadley- "Talking" to and smiling at people in line
         and anytime I sat down long enough to feed her (poor thing)

Waiting in line. . .

Hads was such a good baby--even with napping and eating sparingly

Ella and Annie

Ella and Weston

Maggie, Ella, Annie, Kate, Will, and Weston

Meeting some favorite Characters

Kid Picture!  Hadley, Ella, Weston, Maggie, Annie, Kate, and Will

The whole clan!  Holbrooks, Stutzneggers and Bentons

Happiest Place on Earth

We just got back from a trip to Disneyland. We had loads of fun, perfect weather, spent way too much money, created wonderful memories, and came back super tired! I insisted we take at least one day away from Disney to play at the beach, and with the 75+ degree weather we enjoyed ourselves very much. The beach is definitely my "happiest place on earth". . .I would go there every vacation if I could.

I was chasing away some very aggressive seagulls away from pecking all of the food out of our picnic bag, when I turned back and saw this sight down at the beach and had to snap a picture.

My beautiful family.
 I love them all so much and love the time we are able to spend with all of us together.

I feel so lucky to have Brad and my 3 precious girls.

More to come as soon as I can get on top of the massive loads of laundry I have around my house!

Santa Fe

We spent last weekend in Santa Fe at Brad's residency program retreat. While it was fun to see and visit with his co-workers, we most enjoyed our time with each other and having Daddy mostly off of work. Swimming at the pool was defintitely the highlight (and the only thing I took pictures of). The big girls perfected their "Spiderman" wall-climbing skills with Daddy while Hads and I had a more relaxing swim in the pool.  I thought Hadley would hate it since the water was pretty cold, but she didn't complain one bit.  In fact, judging purely by teeth-chatters and blue fingers and toes, I think Maggie was the one who had a harder time with the cold water temps.

We've missed Daddy so much these first two months of the year--it's amazing how much we appreciate having him around during these times when it is such a luxury!

The Funnies

Brad and I are old school in the fact that we still like to get and read the paper each day as our main source of news.  Ella has always been fascinated with Brad reading the comics (I've never been a fan) and will request that he read him to her on Sunday mornings.  Now with her ever-improving reading skills she is branching out from her regular books.  As I was eating breakfast this morning and glanced up from the newspaper, this is what I found. . .

 An adorable 4-year-old reading her funnies, just like Daddy does. She was very focused and studied them all throroughly. Oh, and by the way, she had also searched through the newspaper and found them on her own while I wasn't paying attention! I just hope she doesn't ask me to explain the jokes, cause most of the time I don't see where the "funny" is myself!

A Day at the Zoo

We went to the zoo this weekend.  We go there quite often actually but I rarely take pictures because normally it is just me and the girls and a couple of our friends and I cannot manage the camera and all 3 girls at the same time by myself.  This time was special in that we had Brad with us and his brother, Stan and his family.  It was so nice to have some extra help and I was able to snap some pictures of all our fun! We enjoyed a pretty nice day and got to visit, let the kids out to play, and see lots of fun animals.  Ella's favorite were the polar bears who we caught at feeding time and put on quite the show for us.  Maggie preferred the flamingoes and "standing on one foot like a fa-mango".  It was so nice to go with Stan and Mel and let the little cousins play together.

Here's a little more about our day in pictures. . .