the birthday boy

My little boy is 4!

Crazy, right?

This year I was able to get some really cute "birthday pics". Here are a few more from that photoshoot.

Cole's birthday was on a Sunday so we waited until Monday (Nick's day off) to celebrate it. The night before I used a mini helium tank to blow up a bunch of balloons and put them all over his ceiling so that he would see them when he woke up. We also had a cake and presents that he got to open around lunch time.

One of his presents was this cute tool kit, he loved it.

For dinner, we went to Cole's favorite restaurant, Rainforest Cafe.

He got to get this really cool souvenir glass.

And some new binoculars. He loved checking out all the fish.

Plus, they brought him the volcano cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He was really excited by the sparkler.

And that was our day. Cole thanked me for "his birthday" about a million times so I'm pretty sure it was a success.

Today, we are headed to the pumpkin patch and I'm hoping to get some good pictures!

california trip part 2: Disneyland

I'm back with Disneyland pictures! We ended up spending 3 days in Disney which was about all we could handle. I only brought my camera once because I didn't want to tote it around but we did end up using the Disney photo pass service which was basically photographers stationed all over the park taking pictures for you and Nick has a pretty decent camera on his cell phone. So these pictures are all a mix of the three.

The first thing we did in Disneyland was grab a churro. Yum!

Nick also had this gigantic ice cream cone later in the day. It was so big that it started melting all over the place before he could finish it. I'm not going to lie, it was hilarious!

Cole loved the parade, he was dazzled!

Blake was more interested in the crowd than the parade.

The nice thing about using the photo pass is that we were able to get a lot of family photos!

Cole loved this part!

Cole rode on is very first roller coaster. He was so excited about it and did really well. Afterwards he told me that it was really fun "but... it was little too fast." haha

That's us in the front car!

Blake was a pill at Disneyland but he was usually happy when he was able to explore and be out of the stroller.

Cole's favorite ride was the carousel, we went on that one multiple times throughout the trip.

He also was a fan of bug world and any sort of flying ride. He DEFINITELY did not like any type of ride that was dark or scary. We went on the Roger Rabbit ride (my idea) and he was thoroughly traumatized.

But he was brave enough to take a couple character shots which is a big deal! He even let Mickey touch him!

Although notice how far from Pluto he had to stand.

And on our last day in Disneyland, it was 100 degrees! Luckily we had gotten a babysitter for Blake so Cole was able to take advantage of the stroller. He was definitely hot and tired by the end of the day

Coming up next... birthday pics!

california trip part 1: the non-disneyland stuff

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our California vacation. I was updating a bunch of software on my computer when we first got home and then I just haven't gotten around to posting. Luckily my house is a disaster right now and I am trying to find any excuse to put off cleaning it so here I am, haha!

We had to get up so early to get to the airport. Cole was a little confused about having to wake up when it was still dark. Here he is at around 3AM, too sleepy to open his eyes but still excited to go to Disneyland.

We had a little time to spare at the airport but luckily they have this great play area that kept the kids busy.

Cole had his own little carry-on to roll around.

When we got into Anaheim we still had hours until we could check in to our hotel. I was super cranky from lack of sleep and we needed the boys to nap so Nick took control and went where he wanted. That's how we ended up at the Coliseum and Rose Bowl. The W is for Washington Huskies, not some random gang sign.

Other than Disneyland, we also went to Sea World. Cole loved the sky tram ride. He loved the dolphin and Shamu show too, although he wasn't too happy when we went and sat in the splash zone. Luckily we were high up in the splash zone so we never got wet.

This picture sums up how Blake felt about all of our outings. He was pretty cranky the whole time, with the exception of the times he got to run around and interact with other people. He is definitely a social boy!

A few family shots from Sea World:

We also spent a day at Seal Beach.

Blake was fearless and loved running off towards the water.

Cole on the other hand preferred playing in the sand and building sand castles with daddy.

Blake had fun with the sand too.

And, of course, we had to plan a visit to the San Diego zoo. I love this picture. I'm not sure what they are doing but I think they are pretending to be elephants!

Another favorite photo of these two!

Cole was really looking forward to the bug house. We spent a lot of our time at the zoo in this one little building.

More than anything else, Cole was looking forward to the dung beetle. For weeks he had been going on and on about getting to see a dung beetle at the zoo. The dung beetles are kept over by the Elephant so we had to make a special trip way out there to see them.

We took a trip to the zoo back when Cole was just a little over 1 years old. Here he is trying his hardest to look over this fence.

And here he is at the same fence almost 3 years later!

That's all of our non-Disneyland pictures. I will post the Disneyland pictures soon!!