Niece, Nephew, Cousins...

Blogging is bragging, right?? Well, I must also "blog" about my adorable niece, nephew, and cousins. There is a photo of Jack, Rose, and an individual one of each of them. And then cousins Kaya and Mason, who could actually pass as siblings! And the little guy, Logan, is the youngest of the bunch of cousins.

The boys!

I parked in my building for the Festival of Sail-- free parking (well, not really, but since it's already paid for, why pay for another parking lot!). Outside of my building are big rocks on which the kids love to climb and jump. I snapped off a few cute photos while they were playing together.

Ahoy Matey! Tall Ships are Coming!

We went downtown to the Festival of Sail 2008 this morning. Tustin is not quite agile enough to navigate the ladders and stairs, so he checked out all the vendors with Nonny and Pop, while Keegan and I went sight-seeing on all the great ships. (Well, only a few of the dozen that were in port.)

We toured a submarine (of which he was quite upset that it wasn't going to take us on a trip underwater, where we could look out the windows). You can see it over his shoulder in one of the photos. We toured the Surprise, the pirate ship you see behind Keegan and me in one photo. And we had a blast on the Star of India! That's the one where I took a photo of the entire ship. He got to steer the wheel, and even go on a miniature pirate ship set for a photo op. He was so excited, every where we went , I said "Your the boss Keegan, I'll follow you!" We looked in every nook and cranny of every vessel, above decks and below. And, of course, he tried to push, pull, turn, flip, and move anything that wasn't nailed down!

Sports Illustrated!

Keegan is on his way to achieving his goal.... "I want to get more gold medals than Michael Phelps! I want 9 gold medals so I can beat his record!" (Guess it doesn't matter to him that Phelps' medals were all in the same sport.... in one Olympic Games)

Keegan just finished his last soccer game today. He got his medal and ice cream after the game-- a HUGE motivating factor in keeping him in the game today! The last two games were a real accomplishment over the first 4. Not as much wandering; running off to the sides complaining of being tired, etc... Great job Keegan!

Luau

We went to a couple of luau's this past Saturday. One was for the boys' cousin, Hailey's 5th birthday. It was a fun water party-- a kids pool, water squirters and a jumpy. Tustin got his very first bee sting at that party (I think he may have tried to pick up the bee, no one saw it, but it was right on the thumb-print part of his thumb!).

We went to a luau at the Southwest Yacht club on Sat. night. That is where these pictures were taken. These are from my cell phone-- poor quality. But it was so funny, I had to take some pics. Tustin is NOT shy. He got up on the stage when the band was playing, not too crazy, but he also ran up there when the gals were doing their hula dance! (See him, right in the middle? He kind of blends in a bit.) It was pretty cute, until ALL the kids thought it would be fun, then we had to do a bit of damage control! It was a busy, but fun weekend.

Our Overall Camping Experience...

For the most part-- it was great fun. The boys loved the adventure of it all. Chris and I had a good time too, getting away from TV, phones, radio, etc. Read below, under all the photos, and I've included little tid-bits of our trip.

The only downside was night time. The boys were so amped up, jumping around on the air mattress on the tent. Neither had naps on Saturday, when we arrived at the camp site. After about an hour of trying to get them to "lay down, close your eyes, go nite-nite," I asked Chris to take them for a drive in the truck. 5 minutes later, he was back, and we successfully transferred them to the tent. It was a little difficult to sleep, not being in your cozy bed; all the noises of group camping; and we weren't too prepared for the cold weather (as we haven't experienced that in months!).

But, the next day, Sunday, was really nice and relaxing (after I had a morning nap!). Most of the campers packed up and left close to 10- 10:30 a.m. Chris and the boys and I stuck around and hung out with Dave and Jaime, the grand organizers of the trip. (They did a wonderful job.) It was nice, peaceful, and quiet on Sunday. The 3 toddlers (Keegan, Tustin, and Josiah) played around the camp site and had a great time.

Overall-- even though we were 2 seconds from driving home in the middle of the night (sleeping issues with the boys), Chris and I decided it might be fun to try it again a time or two, just our family of four. Not as much for the boys to get overstimulated, and we'll get one to sleep first, and then the other; and the more they do it-- (hopefully) the easier it will get!! But, overall-- I'm sure we'd do it again next year if it becomes an annual event!

Play Time

I had fun pulling the wagon around with all of our junior campers. Although our campsite was on a bit of a slope, so I was pooped after 3 laps. Here is a cute picture of Jaime and Josiah-- Jaime is the one to thank (with help of hubby, Dave) for planning this wonderful camping experience! Tustin and Josiah are about a week apart in age. They had the best time running around and laughing together.

Food and Dirt

Food and dirt- the perfect combination for campers! The boys sure didn't mind. We were only out there for a 24-hour period, so we pretty much let them get as dirty as they wanted. One of our hosts, Dave, was grilling up a storm with a buddy. We had a long stretch of picnic tables that worked out perfectly for out pot-luck dinner Saturday night. And Keegan had been counting down the hours until we started the bonfire.

Hiking & Climbing!

We took our big off-road wagon with us-- the ONLY way to "hike" with a 40-pound 2-year-old who gets tuckered out pretty easily. We hiked up and down trails. We hiked over to a look out point, and looked out into the desert beyond the Cleveland National Forest. It was beautiful, with nice warm weather, and blue skies as far as the eyes could see. Keegan is definitely our fearless climber. Tustin thinks he wants to climb, but the minute we get him up something, he looks down, petrified, and says "I all done now."

Time for the real fun...

Chris brought the hammock, which was fun for all, adults and kids alike! Keegan had fun with Tustin, Annika, and anyone else who wanted to swing with him. We started out on our hike, and came across huge trees that were knocked over-- LOTS of fun to climb on!

Getting Camp Set Up

We arrived around lunch time on Saturday to the Laguna Mountains Recreation/Camping area. It only took us about 45 minutes to get there from our house. We set up our tent, table, and beds. Josiah (son of the hosts) had a brilliant idea of sitting down for a meal with just about every family out there! He's too cute.

Before and After

Last time I took them to get "professional" haircuts, they ended up looking the same as when I cut them for free at home! And it was definitely time. So, here are the before shots, and an after photo of my clean, clean-cut babies!

Fruit Bars after Soccer

Keegan did great at soccer today-- and Tustin too. We went back to Nonny's house afterwards for some cool refreshing fruit bars! (These photos and all the zoo photos were taken with my phone camera-- so the quality isn't quite as good. - But they sure download faster to the blog!!)

Face Painting

For the first time, Keegan actually wanted to get his face painted! And little Tutty gets excited and goes along with anything. (Although he was quite protective of the spider picture. He stood by it with his hand over it before it was his turn. Every time anyone came by to look at the designs to see what they liked, he said "I'M getting the spider!" It was pretty funny.)

Night Time at the Zoo

We decided to try out San Diego Zoo's fun night-time activities. We got there around dinner, and brought in a sack lunch for us all, then started walking around and having fun! Up close and personal with a miniature pony, showing us tricks. Hula-hooping to a band. An artist doing "SPLASH, Faces of the Wild" painting. He did a big painting of an elephant while groovin' to the beat of some cool sounding music. A great show after dark with lights, videos, acrobats, etc. And, of course, we saw lots of animals while walking around the zoo. A late night for the kids, but they had a blast bug-hunting while Chris and I enjoyed the afterdark show!