August Birthdays

In my family there are a total of 5 birthdays in August.....it's an expensive month! Every summer we get together at my oldest sister's home and enjoy the pool, eat, open presents, and take lots of pics. This year we celebrated the day right before returning to Samara.

The birthday boy enjoying the pool.

 My mom also celebrated a birthday in August.

She turned 70!!!  I can't believe it. This lady

has more energy than I do. The Lord has been

so good and has granted her good health.

 Oh yah! Present time.

All the cousins. I should do a post on all the cousin pictures 

throughout the years.  It's been hard for me to miss out

on them growing up. I was very involved in my nephew

and nieces lives since they were babies so I get quite

sad when we leave them behind.

The boys!

Grandma with all the grandkids.....it's even: 3 boys vs 3 girls.

Three sisters.

Sweet Baby Girl

One of my dearest, closest, and bestest of friends had her 4th baby girl! I have never been in town when she has given birth and it was totally my plan to visit them in the hospital when the baby was born, unfortunately I came down with an awful flu that made me so nauseous I was confined to bed. On the day I finally felt it was safe to visit them, I called the hospital and the nurse told me they were being released within the hour. So, I had to wait and wait and wait until the Friday before we flew out. I don't like how busy life gets at times and I wish I would have had the opportunity to spend more time with sweet little Lorelai. 

Josiah and I headed out to Lancaster to check out the newest addition. I love the photos I took of Jojo and Lorelai. He just loves, loves babies. It is so cute to see how sweet he is with babies.

I love how he's looking at her little feet.

Look how huge his hands look in comparison to hers.

                                                               So precious.........the both of them!


Psalm 127:3-5 a
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

Legoland Part 2

After our time at the water park we headed back to the car, ate some lunch, changed into our dry clothes and headed back to Legoland. Since we didn't get to do everything at the park the day before we thought we'd finish off our day doing some of the rides we didn't go on.

I love Jojo's big smile on this one!

 Nathan must have been driving like a renegade.

I definitely would not have the patience to build these figures from

so many Lego pieces.

Overall we really liked Legoland. The whole park is definitely catered to younger kids. I think in a couple of years, Jojo would not be as interested. The boys also enjoyed the Lego stores in the park! It was like a dream come true for the boys to see so many Legos in one spot. In comparison to Disneyland, well nothing really compares to Disneyland. The grounds could use a bit more work, there isn't that special "magic", and the employees could use some better training. Of course the kids don't see all this but it made me realize and especially appreciate how Disneyland pays attention to....every......single.........detail!!!!

Legoland Water Park

On Tuesday we headed to the Legoland Water Park. It was actually overcast this day and we probably should have gone to the water park on Monday but who knew!

The Water Park isn't very big at all. Once again it was perfect for the two boys especially since they aren't swimming yet. It is mainly tailored for a younger crowd. No big slides for grown-ups!

They have life jackets available for the kiddos for free.

We all had a fun time at the Legoland Water Park. I'm a little germa-phobic so it is quite a stretch for me to go to a water park.

Legoland

On Monday we headed over to Legoland. The boys could hardly wait.

 This was in the parking lot on the way to

the entrance of the park.

 

The very first ride Jojo and daddy went on was a little roller

coaster. Jojo had a blast but Nathan didn't want to go

on it.

 

The slow rides were Nathan's favorite!

Jojo wasn't too excited to get his picture with

Darth Vader!

 

The Star Wars Miniland was quite amazing. We have a ton

of these pictures.  They basically have the main scenes

from all 6 episodes of the Star Wars movies.

 

 

More slow rides for Nathan!

 

  As we were exiting the park we saw this Pirate Minifigure!

Sea Life Aquarium

Before leaving to return to Russia we thought we should take a little family vacation. Jon was pretty busy most of the summer and so a lot of times just the boys and I did stuff here and there. It was great being together a few days before our big trip.

So, on a Sunday after church we headed towards one of our favorite towns.....San Diego! Jon found a great deal for some passes at Legoland. The boys had been talking about going to Legoland forever and we were able to surprise them. 

On our way there we stopped off at a beach rest stop and enjoyed a picnic lunch. We arrived at our hotel room, unpacked, and then headed to Legoland. We decided to visit the aquarium the first day since we only had a few hours before closing.

Their featured exhibit were these huge crabs!

 We got to touch the starfish at the tide pool. 

 The Sea Life Aquarium isn't really that big at all. It's actually

a perfect size for boys like mine who get bored with things 

they aren't interested in such as sea creatures. The best feature

of the park is this huge aquarium with a bunch of fish, manta

rays, and sharks. You actually walk through a tunnel at one point 

and the fish are all above you.

Bob's Big Boy

One evening we got to have dinner with a dear friend of ours. She asked us to meet her at Bob's Big Boy in Toluca Lake. I have never been there before but I know that every Friday evening there's a car show in the parking lot. I have been meaning to go there one day but you know how it is!

Here's dear old Bob with my boys. There used to be a Bob's Big Boy on Sepulveda Blvd. not too far from my high school. That poor Bob was always kidnapped and ended up on our school lawn a few times. One time I remember he was standing on a pile of manure. Poor Bob!

 I'm told that Jay Leno often frequents the show but he wasn't

there the night we were. The boys loved, loved looking

at the cars.

It was great catching up with our friend Stephanie!

Disneyland

My nephew had to start work mid-day so he took off and then we crossed over into Disneyland where we headed to a few of our favorite rides. The Star Tours ride has gotten a "makeover" and it is so much better! We loved it.

       Jojo has really gotten into "bunny ears" lately! It's impossible to get a pic without him doing it!

 I actually got both boys to go on the Haunted Mansion

ride. This was a first for the both of them. They did

pretty good until the ride broke down in the middle

and we were stuck for quite a while.

We even sat down for a while to watch the parade.

 

 Can't go to Disneyland without going on

Small World!

After Disneyland we headed back to California

Adventures where my nephew got us on a few

more rides quickly. Then we watched World of 

Colors......it was amazing. Once again he was 

able to get us some great seating for that show.

I was craving a funnel cake so we headed back

to Disneyland and sat down for a while while we

I consumed the funnel cake! By the time I got home

with the boys it was past midnight! We were all

exhausted but so happy!

California Adventures

Have you seen the prices to go to Disneyland lately? YIKES! They really raised the prices and we thought there was no way we were going to be able to go. It's been 3 years since we've gone......this is the longest I've ever gone without going there. Thankfully though, my awesome nephew works at California Adventures and offered to meet us one day before he started work to get 3 of us in. So, we decided that the boys and I would go without daddy.

The boys were ecstatic!

Our first order of business was to get on the Cars racers in the 

new Cars land! The line for this was so long but Anthony was

able to get us in pretty quick. Jojo and I loved this ride but

it was a little too fast for Nathan.

I'm worse than a little kid, if I see a character

I just have to get our picture with them!

Nathan was being a bit of a pill this day and he 

didn't want to be in too many pictures.

Jojo on Luigi Tires........fun ride. This is the ride my nephew works

on. Nathan didn't want to go on any rides by the end of our day.

Disney Exhibit

The second reason why I wanted to go to the Reagan Museum was to check out the Disney Exhibit. I am a huge Disney fan and was looking forward to seeing what the exhibit was all about.

Walt Disney's office. There was actually an alarm on the ledge looking into the office and if you got too close to the ledge the alarm would go off......of course the boys and I set the alarm off!!

The exhibit mainly had costumes and props from a bunch of Disney movies. This is the gown worn by the princess in Enchanted.




No need to explain this one. This was definitely one of the boy's favorite, even though they haven't seen the movie.

                  The Pirates of the Carribean had the biggest exhibit with a bunch of costumes and props.

The Liberty Bell from the movie National Treasure. The boys have seen this movie and loved it. It is actually kid friendly with no bad language, violence, or nudity. Great for a family movie.