San Diego and babies

I left off the last post with Christmas, so I'll start this new one with New Year's.  Here's a pic of Rivers, Alissa, and I in our formal dresses to run the midnight race to ring in 2012.  Rivers wore my 8th grade dessert dance dress with the biggest shoulder pads I've ever seen.  This year we tried the race in Eugene instead of Portland.  I kind of missed running along the waterfront in Portland with thousands of other weirdo runners, but the smaller Eugene race was a fun change and went through a park in the dark along a raging river (plus we all appreciated the shorter drive).  I ran with Rivers and can't remember the last time I had so much fun running - love that girl.  Rivers won her age group and was so excited to be called up to get her medal:)  Tyler and Tanner wore tuxedo jackets, running tights and bow ties, and Jason is the only one that braved the 10K.   

Rivers showing the dress is stretchy enough to run in.

The twins playing in the hideout under the bushes that grew to the size of trees.

The look on Dre's face cracks me up. He just wrestled CD down and is quite proud of himself while he holds him down with one hand.  I keep telling CD he better be nice to Dreyton because he's a little toughie and in a couple of years their wrestling matches won't be so one-sided. 

We've gotten snow a couple of times this year too. 

One snow storm was followed by days of non-stop warm rain which melted all the snow and flooded the whole state like crazy.  This was a little ditch that flooded over my Mom's road.  Luckily this was the worst of it for us.  A lot of other people weren't so lucky and even the schools closed because so many roads and houses were flooded. 

Happy Birthday to me!  Carmel Apple Cheesecake from Jillicious......delicious!!!

We have been wanting to get away during the winter and found some great Southwest flights, so we flew the crew to San Diego for a week over my birthday. 

The kids (especially Rivers) LOVE staying in hotels.  Here's Dreyton enjoying the plush pillows.

We apparently went to San Diego during the best weather they had all winter, so we immediately took our white bodies to the swimming pool. 

Then it was off to Legoland, which was surprisingly a lot of fun.  I say surprisingly because we actually liked it more than Disneyland.  I think part of it was because we didn't have to wait in one line and even the little ones could go on almost every ride.  We just ran from one thing to the next and had so much fun.  Here's CD saying "whacka, whacka, what!" one of the 100 times that day.

Darth Vader made all out of Legos

All of those fun rides, and this is what we had to literally pull CD away from. 

Fried apple sticks

Our one group shot from the trip.

For our beach day we went to Coronado Beach

Dwight's face sums up how we all felt....although it wasn't as relaxing for Carlos and I with the twins near the water and always taking off running down the beach.  Dreyton wouldn't even look at the water he was so scared at first because during a quick trip to Pillbox beach by DelMar the day before, he, Reagan, CD, and Carlos got caught by a wave up against a cliff.  It's a narrow beach between the water and the cliffs with nowhere to run away to. 

Races on the beach....trying out the sport mode on the camera.

Pacific Beach

One morning we drove to Pacific Beach and rented bikes to cruise along the boardwalk.  It was one of the highlights of the trip for me (and it was one of the kid's favorite too).  The boardwalk goes right along the beach for miles and in the morning it wasn't too crowded and was the perfect temperature. 

Here I am trying to look as cool as I possibly can cruisin along with a toddler in the back and helmets in the front.  I forgot to bring my sunglasses on the trip but found these in our rental car....I'm old enough to remember when this style of sunglasses was popular the first time around. 

Rivers liked to look at all of the unique houses along the route.

Carlos took the kids for a hike at Torrey Pines Reserve while I ran on all the trails I could find there.  It was pretty, but I have to say it still doesn't come close to the majestic beauty of Pacific Northwest trails. 

I liked this little gem of a staircase through the rock down to the beach though!

Our afternoon at Pillbox beach

We stayed at the Morgan Run resort in the middle of horse country by Del Mar and had so much fun coming back each night around 7pm and going to the hot tub and pool and then using their great little fitness center together.  No one was ever there, so even the little ones got to join in. 

The kids thought it was exceptionally cool that we could order room service to the hot tub:)  Fun, fun little getaway.

After we got back, we signed CD up for TaeKwonDo Karate and it is so funny to watch.  He holds his arms so stiff in front of him that they are shaking.  He takes it all very seriously and I think Carlos is wondering if he did the right thing signing CD up because he is the target for all the new moves he learns.

Dreyton was being so whiny and clingy this day that I ended up digging out my sling and putting him in it so I could use my hands.  It worked like a charm even though he looks way too big for it. 

We had so many nice, sunny days this winter.  Here we are visiting the wetlands a few miles from the house where we sometimes see nutria (they look like a beaver with a rat's tail).

Sometimes I think winter is even prettier than Spring or Summer here because of all the bright green moss on everything.  This is a sidewalk that turned green with soft moss! 

This is why everyone should have a twin....

The girls visiting Jillicious Bakeshop for the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted and goodies.  Notice the two about to pop.  Whitney and Amber were actually due on the same day!

We kept waiting for the babies to arrive, but Valentines came before they did.  This year we melted crayon pieces in heart shape molds to make these heart crayons.  CD and Rivers had so much fun with it (okay I really liked seeing the designs the melted crayons made too). 

Rivers' heart hair on V-day!

Off to preschool with his Valentines.  Such a great kid.  His preschool teacher told me today that he has such a great spirit about him:)

Finally, Warren Tanner arrived to Whitney and Cody on February 15th.  Such a cute, good baby....and so fun to see how much my kids adore him.  CD could not stop smiling.

And a week later, big boy Riggins Baylor arrived and gave us even more to smile about!

Good job Tyler and Amber!