Mini Vacation

Tyson and I took the kids and headed to Long Beach this weekend. It was a nice little mini getaway!
On Saturday, we went to the Highland Games at the Queen Mary.

On Sunday, I took the kids to the Long Beach Aquarium.

Ben's favorite part: the Scuba Diver. He talked about her all day and night!

Sarah loved this turtle - I love this picture!

On Monday, we took the kids to DisneyLand! It was Ben's first visit. Sarah decided that she wanted to ride all the big roller coasters and dad was too happy to take her on all of them! :)

Ben was NOT sure about the characters. He really wanted to meet them, but really had hesitations about it, too.

Oh, my sweet boy! Love this picture!

Ben's favorite ride: the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters!

We had a great time with the kids this weekend! We are exhausted now! :)

Trash Trucks!

Ben loves trash trucks - something he inherited from his father. From the stories I have heard, Tyson used to chase the trash truck down the street every trash day. One day he went so far he got lost and his dad had to come find him!

Ben is following in his father's footsteps! The trash truck is his favorite truck. Every Monday (our trash day) we run out the door and stand in our front yard three times to watch the trash trucks pick up all of the trash cans. He is SO excited on Sunday nights when he helps Tyson take the trash cans to the curb and is even more excited on Mondays to watch the trash trucks circle our block! I thought I would share some of his amazing thoughts and actions regarding this king of trucks.

As I was putting him to bed the other night, I was reading him a fire truck book (unfortunately, we have not yet found a trash truck book). I asked him if he would like to drive a fire truck when he grew up. He thought about that for a minute and then replied "No, I want to drive a trash truck!" Of course.

Ben was wearing a trash truck shirt that grandma bought him (she found four and he has worn nothing else since he received them in the mail). We were at Chick-fil-a and another mother in the play place said to him, "Wow, you have a dump truck on your shirt!". Ben looked at her and said "it's not a dump truck, it's a TRASH TRUCK!". (He was not rude to her, but he was very taken aback, like, "um, don't you know the difference between trucks?") He then pointed out all of the truck's features to her including the blue trash can, the trash can's wheels, and the trash (that you cannot see, but MUST be in the trash can because why else would the trash man be dumping it?).

I had to deliver testing materials to a colleague of mine. Ben and I arrived at her house and Ben hopped out of the car. He immediately states, "Wow! Mom, look at all these trash cans! Where is the trash truck?" Now would I have EVER noticed that this neighborhood's trash cans were on the curb waiting for pickup? Doubtful.

I love watching the world through his eyes.

Snow Day 2010!

Sarah came bursting into my room this morning at 6:30am telling me to look outside - "it's snowing mom, it's snowing!!" School was canceled for her and Tyson, so we went out to play!Ben getting his first feel of snow!

Thanks for taking this great picture, Sarah!

Hey, who are you going to throw snowball at?

Sarah working hard on her snowman!

Our little snowman!

I tried to take some artsy pics -

Love the way this tree looks!

Ben and daddy's snowball fight.

The end of our street:

Our house: It was REALLY coming down!

Love this pic of the kids running across the street!

This poor cactus in our neighbor's yard :(

Getting ready for the fight!

We tried sledding down the hill on our street, but it wasn't steep enough.

Too tired.......

Friday night...

Tyson and I were watching The Soloist in the living room, and Sarah and Ben were watching Robots in the playroom. Ben comes wandering out and tells me that he is hungry and would like some cereal. I pour him a bowl of cereal and go back to watching my movie on the couch while he eats at the counter. A little while later Tyson says, "Jessica, look."

This is how we saw Ben:

So tired he couldn't even make down off the stool!
And don't you love the "pop" stuck to his face??

The Trash Can Man

I was taking pictures of Sarah tonight and Ben insisted on having some pictures taken of his trash can. This is the trash can that goes with the super cool trash truck that Santa brought him. Notice how ALL sides of the trash can have a picture, he made sure I got all the angles!

American Girl

Sarah and I took grandma to American Girl Place in LA since she had never been!
We had a super fun day!Sarah added a new girl to her collection: Julie!