Spring is in the air...okay more like Summer!

The weather has been so nice lately. I love that I don't have to slip on my Uggs every morning to avoid the bite of the cool night on my toes! Just last week was our first official beach day of the year. It was delightful to spend the day on the sand, soaking up the sun, and watch the kids play. I think that little bit of color on my face improved my mood 100%. After living here I know I couldn't move anywhere where it rains all the time. Both of my boys have thoroughly enjoyed the sun as well. All Mase wants to do is go outside, every day, all day. That's fine by me! Bowen went surfing last Saturday with the Young Men from the ward. I know he's excited to start Beach Day! It's full of surfing, sandcastles, boogie boarding, suntanning, and visiting with all of our friends. We set up camp in the morning and don't leave until the sun is setting. Have I ever mentioned that I love living here?!? Ha ha! I do!

Here are some pictures of what's been going on lately.

This is Masons favorite place to go by himself and eat his lunch, or snack. He acts like such an old man sometimes. I know he's had enough when all he asks for is a snack and to go outside. I call this "Mason's Spot."

The Easter Bunny was supposed to bring this to him but the smart little man saw the box, exclaimed, "Basket ball!!!!!", and wouldn't let it go. So, I'm thinking that I'll just put a bow on it Easter morning and have his little basket of goodies by it. He loves basketball (well really any ball) so much. If he's inside, he's shooting the ball. In Mason language he calls it, "shoot ball."

Our good friends daughter had a birthday party last Saturday. My oh my was it filled with fun activities! Mason had so much fun just running around, riding his bike, squirting the girls with squirt guns, playing ring toss, and eating cake. We were only there for about 4 hours but Mase was so worn out he slept for about 3 hours when he got home. Yesss!!!

I love Spring and Summer. It's a happy, memory filled time. I want to make this a fun time for Mason before he grows up and doesn't want to hang out with his mommy and daddy anymore. I know that's a ways away, but I hear it goes by fast.

Breakfast fit for my kings!

We have a few projects going on today that will require a lot of hard work. So, to prep my boys I made yummy buttermilk pancakes with strawberries and chocolate milk. Yummmmm!

Here's what we have going on today and the before pictures... Tear up the back yard (even more), level it out, put in a shed and pavers, and remove a giant tree stump. Tearing up the ugly linoleum in my kitchen. I'm so excited to see how these projects are going to turn out!

Our projects...dun, dun, dun

We recently discovered with all the rain that Masons room had sort of well...flooded. Ya, it was a great surprise to pull back the bunk beds and see mold all around the wall baseboards (barf). The carpet was completely a loss too. We found out that the dirt in the back yard was too high against the house and water was slowly leaking through. So my handyman husband started digging away. Once we got that under control it was time to deal with the floors inside. With the help of many friends we put in new wood floors throughout most of the house. It looks soooo good and I love how fast and easy I can clean it! Although the back yard is still in shambles (dang that rain won't stop!), we don't have that stinking leak anymore. One more thing to add to that project is we have to put gutters on the house too. That'll be a project of it's own! Our other project wasn't supposed to be such a project. We recently received a new washer and dryer. Yay! Only when the delivery men came to set them up, the machines didn't fit through the door. Oh no...here we go again. Since part of the door frame needed to be taken off, Bowen decided to tile the floor in the laundry room. With help from his friend, Rick, and all of his tile tools they were able to get the floor done super fast. Once the floor was complete and dry (it looks marvelous by the way) we moved in the machines. It was a sort of trial and error getting them set up and working properly, but now I am in love. I'm still catching up on 2 weeks worth of laundry but to have a washer that actually works is so so worth it!

Before....

After...

Now that Bowen has experienced how "easy" it is to put in tile, he wants to continue it through the patio, kitchen, and bathroom :) At times it's kind of tough having put money into your home...especially when you have no choice... but when you can do what you want and make it your home it's worth the price. I've been pretty careful to watch Mase with all of this construction going on, but yesterday he escaped and this is where we found him.

Help! I need feedback!

Ok, so Mason has definitely hit the terrible two's! He's cranky, stubborn, aggressive, and there's no compromising with him. What have you other moms done when they reach this crazy age?

Mom and Ethan, the rest of their trip.

Mom had never been to Ikea so we woke up bright and early Friday morning and headed there. I love Ikea but I must admit, it's a bit overwhelming to shop there with a 1 1/2 year old screaming the whole time. We had gotten a few things, but Mase had had it and we were supposed to meet Bowen for lunch downtown. So I just left our cart sitting there full of stuff and walked out.

This picture is very misleading. He was NOT all smiles the whole time.

After our brief adventure there we met Bowen for lunch. His work is getting super strict about the length of lunch breaks, so all too soon he had to head back to work. It was nice, though, to see him for that short little bit.

It nearing nap time so we headed back home. I'd been watching the Casa Linda Apartments while Heidi and Gordon were on Vacation. It was nice playing manager again :) Anyway, Mom and Ethan were nice enough to stay home with the Mase while I went and got some work done there. Thank again! I was even able to go the the grocery store. It's amazing how fast you can shop when you don't have an extra set of hands grabbing at things as you go down the isle!!!

When Bowen got home from work we got ready and headed out again. I had been wanting to go to the newly redone Mormon Battalion in Old Town so that's where we were headed. But first we stopped by USD to show Mom and Ethan where Bowen is going to school this fall. I'm so excited for him! This is a goal that he's had for such a long time and it's finally starting to become a reality!

This is the building where he will spend the next 4 years of his life

So after we drove around the campus we headed to Old Town. I don't know what it is about this little place, but I love it! Its so historic and there is always something going on. I knew the Mormon Battalion would be closing soon so we went there first. Let me just say, if you haven't been there and you get the opportunity to go, GO. It was so cool! There's a few surprises along the tour but I won't give them away. Plus, it's free so you can't beat that!

I don't even know who this statue is, but we were tourists, so we had to get a picture by it! Our group was pretty small and Ethan was the only young man there. He was quickly volunteered by all of us to be the one that got all dressed up like a soldier from the battalion. I think he thought that was pretty cool, especially when they handed him the gun that was taller than he was! Outside there was a place you could pan for gold, make oven fired adobe bricks, and pump water from a well. Mason loved doing them all!

There is a little restaurant called Cafe Coyote that sells fresh homemade tortillas on the street for super cheap. You dress them with either homemade salsa or butter and sugar. I had been craving them all day and oh my goodness they were good!

Everyone enjoyed their tortillas very much!

This was another restaurant where you could watch them making the tortillas too.

It had been such a long day but we had one more stop to go. We stopped by the Sears outlet center. Our washer and dryer were on it's way out and we desperately needed new ones. Thank you to an angel (well, two angels) we were able to get some machines that I hope will last us a very long time. I can't describe how grateful I am!

We were still all full from our little snack but we all still had room for some Yogurtland. I know, I'm an addict and I don't care. Ethan thought it was the neatest thing that you could dispense your own fro yo and add whatever toppings you wanted. I think he put every flavor and topping that would fit in that cup.

After such a long day we pretty much fell into bed that night. What a day!

Saturday morning was the launch of Bowens ship. It is part of the TAKE Explorer class of cargo ships for the Navy. We woke up early that morning to the wonderful sound of pouring rain. "Oh boy," I thought, "this is going to be interesting." Bowen had to leave earlier and we were going to meet him downtown. I ran outside to pull the car up to the house, but it wouldn't start. It was completely dead. I tried everything I could think of to get it started but nothing worked. Nobody was out and about that early...especially since it was raining so bad. After much distress we got a ride from a guy from church. We had arrived just in time to see the ship back out of port. We'd missed the ceremony, but at least we made it for the best part. I did feel bad mom and Ethan had missed it though. We did get a few pictures and quickly headed back to the car.

This is Bowens boss, Jason.

Here's Ethan sporting his fancy garbage bag poncho. Woot woot!

Outside the shipyard

On our way back to the car

AJ is in SD for the month and Holly had come out to visit him for the weekend. They had showed up for the launch but barely missed it. After a brief hello we all decided that we'd go to breakfast and try to warm up and dry off a bit.

By the time we were done with breakfast the rain had subsided a bit. Thank goodness! We took AJ and Holly back the the hotel and headed home. After resting from our eventful morning we got ready to go to a birthday party for one of Bowens friends kids. I kind of didn't want to go at first and made a stink about it, but I figured what else were we going to do? I'm glad we did go because it turned out to be a fun afternoon.

Sunday was beautiful. I love San Diego after it rains because everything is so beautiful, green, and clean! After church we drove to the top of Mt. Soledad to the lookout. You can see pretty much all of San Diego from there. Mason was just happy to get out and run around on the grass.

Over looking La Jolla Cove Family picture! This is one of Masons newest picture poses. What a ham!

Ethan had asked to see the temple so that's where we headed next. It's always beautiful but it was especially white and beautiful next to the blue, blue sky. We had such a great time with them here! As always the visit was much too short and I wish we could've done a few more things while they were here. We already miss them and can't wait until we see them again! Thank you! Love you!!!

Mom and Ethan Day 1

Mom and Ethan flew in yesterday. Yay! They were starving when they got of the plane so, of course, we had to stop by Rubios for their famous fish tacos. Yummmm! I knew they were tired so we just took it easy for the afternoon and waited for Bowen to get home. We visited some more and called it an early night.

Unfortunately Bowen still has to work, so he left early this morning. But we woke up, made breakfast, Mom and Ethan cleaned my kitchen (THANK YOU!), and we headed out for the morning. One thing Ethan really wanted to do is go see the seals in La Jolla childrens pool, so that's where we ended up. It's pupping season, so there's little baby seals everywhere. You can't go very close to them, but we got some good pictures. The tide was pretty far out; enough that the tide pools were exposed. We kicked off our shoes, rolled up our pants, and played in the water. I showed Ethan where the sea anemones were and he walked up and down the entire tide pool poking his finger in them letting them swallow it up. Mason had fun splashing and playing in the sand. We even found a baby crab to play with. The boys thought that was pretty cool! By the time we were ready to leave it was already past noon. So we, of course, headed back to Rubios. Ha ha!!! I think we've had our fill of that for now!

I love him

tenderness...