Viva la Mexico!

Mexico was amazing! When Aaron and I took our huge 2-week trip to the Yucatan Peninsula a couple years ago I kept mental notes on all the fun places I knew the kids would love. So this year we decided to take the kids! We opened it up to my family and my parents said YES!
For the first week we stayed at a giant resort called Vidanta right on the beach near Playa del Carmen. This is us waiting for a shuttle because the resort was that big.

This was the beach right in front of the resort. It was fun but there were rocks in the water which made for some snorkeling but no fun waves to play in.

 On day 3 we took the Ferry to Cozumel to visit the orphanages. We packed a giant suitcase full of stuff for the kids but when we got there the director wouldn't let us give it to the kids directly. :( We also couldn't really even interact with the kids like we did last time. My kids were really disappointed! And so we were but at least we did some good!

 One of the absolute highlights was going to the Adventure Park Xcaret! There was so much to do and see! There was a little water park area, ropes course, underground cave tubing, shows, snorkeling, a bay, an aquarium, and at the end a huge stadium show about the History of Mexico. It was a full day but the kids LOVED it!

The Cirque du Solei show was inside our resort, so we splurged and took the kids to see it. It was also super duper cool.

 After our week at the resort we took the Ferry to Isla Mujeres. This is the very tip of the island.

 We rented golf carts and that's how we got around all three days!

 The highlight of Isla Mujeres was the Dolphin Discovery! Brighton and I interacted with dolphins and it was AMAZING! The whole area was so fun to spend the day by the pool, in the hammocks with unlimited food and drinks! We really lounged around that day and felt spoiled!

Brighton also LOVED the turtle farm. She's obsessed with sea turtles!

The beach in Isla. It was gorgeous!

I also really enjoyed walking down the little main street of Isla, shopping, eating marquesitas and people watching!
 We had SO many amazing pics, these are just the tip of the iceburg!  The kids are already asking when can we go back!?

Brighton is 10!

In January Brighton turned 10! Double digits! She's really starting to feel like a "tween." The beautiful thing about this phase is that she's fun to hang out with (like a teen) and relates to adults really well (better than I ever did!) But she's still a LITTLE girl. I'll still catch her role playing games with her stuffed animals, playing with baby dolls and writing notes to her fairy. But I'll also catch her posing in the mirror and texting her friends on my phone. Unlike a lot of girls her age, she's in no hurry to grow up. She's not boy crazy and so far she hasn't asked for any social media accounts. She does like to wear makeup but only a little bit. She actually told me she's annoyed that her dance teacher talks about boys because "I'm only 10! I'm not ready for that." :)  She's a total goof ball. Her and her friends at school have made up all these "bad words" you're not supposed to say like "cheese" (chez) Beans (benz)... they have a whole list. I think she's kind of the leader of the silly girls at school.  She's not like the "popular" leader that girls want to be around so as not to get on their bad side, but she is well-liked at school. At school they did a project where they all wrote something about everyone in the class and most everyone wrote something about how funny she is! Maybe she'll go for my dream job of being a comedy writer when she grows up.  For her birthday I wanted to take her to breakfast somewhere fun but all she wanted was a toasted bagel!

Then we took the kids up in the mountains to go to a super fun tubing hill!

It was her year for a friend party so we invited 15 girls to come to her SPA party!

 We did pedicures, facials, musical manicures and the girls had a BLAST!

I love my silly girl and I hope her "goofball island" never dies!

The Big 3-8. I'm basically 40.

I don't usually blog about my birthday but I have a few things to say. The last few years I've decided to take control of my holidays including my birthday and Mother's Day. I'm not going to sit around moping because no one remembered me or planned a celebration. I'm planning my own celebrations, dangit! I'll buy my own gifts if I want and I'll tell Aaron exactly what I want him to do. So there.
So this year since I've been on a restricted diet since February I decided I wanted to break my diet (again) for my birthday and plan my day around food. I asked a few of my close friends to join me for French Toast at Kneaders, and they did! And it was fabulous! I wish I had a pic.
I had a birthday lunch the day before with my friend Abby and I went to dinner on my birthday with Jessica and her husband. Then I made my own freaking dang cake and ate it! And it was delicious!
My sister Tami had her neighbor make my favorite dessert (Rum cake) and she mailed it to me! I was SO excited!
Jessica blew me out of the water by MAKING me this centerpiece for my new table! She looked on Pinterest and knew that's what I wanted and made it! I was insanely excited. The table is also new, so we'll count that as a birthday gift. ;) A really expensive one.

Here are my other birthday gifts:

Yes, This includes baby wash, Q tips, toothpaste, and things made from popsicle sticks including a mustache photo prop. LOL! My kids made me cards that made their gifts make sense. I'm a Cute-tip. The baby wash said "Angel" on it, cause I'm an angel, and I don't need the toothpaste cause I have a great smile. Kids are so funny.
The funniest thing is that we always to "Heavy Heavy Hangover" where the person has to guess what they'll do with the gift and one of the obligatory responses is always "flush it down the toilet." So Cannon thought it would be hilarious to actually get me something to flush down the toilet! haha! It was so funny. Then Heather got me this shirt from our favorite Podcast.

I forgot to get a picture of what Aaron gave me. He had the kids make me art using their feet that looks like butterflies and it had a poem with it. It was really cool. He had it framed. He also gave me a G.C. for a facial, per my request. :)

So the moral of this post is, take control of your own birthday! Byeeeeee.

Flakes in the Fall

I can't keep up Melba! So much is always happening! Instead of going back to March where I left off I'll just do a few highlights.
In April we took the kids to Disneyland! We stopped in Vegas and then did 3 days in Disney and a day at the beach. We had SO MUCH FUN. Aaron and I were actually both kind of blown away by how good the kids were. No meltdowns, no tantrums, even when Piper got fully run over by our stroller when we were at a dead run. It seriously is the happiest place on Earth! My favorite was the new Cars ride. Piper loved Splash Mountain. The other two kids loved Space Mountain. We saw princesses, ate so much yummy food and made some really fun memories. I think my favorite was watching Brighton's face as she watched the light parade. She was waving at all the princesses and it just made me realize how much of a little girl she still is. There were so many magical moments I can't even write about them all!

In May Aaron and I went to New York City with our friends Jake and Natalie Ball. They were awesome travel buddies! Disneyland was kind of spur of the moment, but we had this trip planned for like 9 months! It was also just super, duper fun. We did all the touristy things and it really brought back memories of when I lived there. It was so young and independent and fearless back then! I think my favorite day of that trip might have been riding bikes all around Central Park. We saw three Broadway shows; Something Rotten, Bright Star and Matilda and I loved them all for different reasons!

Then it was summer and we were like, "let's just hang out for a bit." So we did. We went to the pool and parks and water slides. We went to Utah and Island Park but didn't have any major trips. It was a good summer but I was ready for school to start!

Piper and Raygen

At the "Miranda Sings" concert!

Cherry picking

4th of July downtown

The Tuscany Triple Triathalon

Island Park Reservoir. I'm wearing a Loon hat and there was a loon behind me.

Camping near Redfish Lake

Redfish

Cabin Reunion in Island Park