It's just "leaves"

Sunday morning after a restful night we packed up and headed to the beach before going home. We parked the car close to the beach and decided to walk to our favorite pizza place in San Diego, Luigi's. Cody remembered it being a quick walk. 2 1/2 miles, 1 cab ride, 1 piggy back, and one worn out mom later...we were there. The pizza was fabulous...and definitely worth the hike.




After eating, we headed down to the beach where we got to experience Tatum for the first time with seaweed. After trying to convince her that the seaweed was just leaves she continued to avoid it like the plague. It happened to be a very chilly day, however we still enjoyed rolling up our pants, walking in the sand, and putting our feet into the nice cold water. Even Maddie got her feet sandy for the first time. We were even able to collect some "egg shells" as Tatum called them.








We knew how long of a drive we had ahead of us so we were only able to spend an hour and a half at the beach before heading home. This was a great "on a whim" vacation.

Surprise!

On Thursday afternoon, Cody surprised us by suggesting that we head to San Diego on Friday once he got home from work. 5:00 Friday afternoon we pulled out of the drive way...5 stops and 2 hours later we hit I-10. It was going to be a long drive. Thankfully the new family ride was equipped with a DVD player for Tatum and we had a portable one for Maddie. Thank God for Mickey Mouse Club House!!

We arrived in San Diego around midnight unloaded as quick as we could in preparation for our big day at Sea World on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon around 12 we finally pulled out of the parking lot of the hotel...we were finally on our way.



Tatum was super excited! It was her and Maddie's first time going to Sea World and there was a lot of anticipation. Once we got into the park we couldn't see everything fast enough. Tatum especially loved the penguins and the sea lions. Even though I wasn't to excited to feed the sea lions Tatum sure enjoyed it. (handling dead fish isn't exactly my forte)







We were very impressed the girls lasted until 8pm. Tatum had no naps and Maddie had a small nap with dad. Overall, we had a great time and definitely look forward to going again!

Back Float x3

Tatum has been practicing her back float for quite some time. In order to get a ribbon for back floating you have to be able to back float for 10 seconds unassisted 3 times in one swim class.

In the past she’s done it once here and there, but never consecutive…this time however…she finally did it! She was so proud of herself! She finally got her ribbon!!

Choo Choo...

Tatum and Maddie hang out with their cousins on a pretty regular basis. We usually get together at one of our houses. This time however, we decided to go to the railroad park instead.
After going there once before I thought Elijah would just love this place...he's so into trains! Of course I was right...all the kids loved it! The train ride was the biggest hit. They all had so much energy and couldn't contain it...they were so excited to ride the train. As usual we had a great time with our cousins!

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's day we had the Johnson family over to our house for brunch. Cody and Zach took the initiative to make crepes for breakfast...Yikes! They did end up coming out pretty good though! :)



After breakfast we all sat out on the patio and enjoyed the morning. The kids played on the swing set and played ball with Uncle Cody and Uncle Zach. We all had a great time.

"Is that a guest house you're building?"

After searching and searching and searching for the perfect swing set we decided to go with the Woodland from Toys R Us. We read a lot of reviews on putting this thing together and came to the conclusion we were going to need back up!

So at 8:00 am sharp all grandparents were called to help with the task. The guest house/swing set came in 3 boxes which were filled with 500 loose pieces of wood and about 1000 loose nuts and bolts! We were so eager to begin. :) Fortunately, we picked the hottest day day of the year...

It actually went smoother then we thought...we had a great system and everyone worked really well together. After 13 hours of intensive labor the girls had their very own swing set!

Another coat please

Tatum and I decided to have a girl's night out. We went and got pedicures, manicures, and went to dinner. We had so much fun! She sat so still the entire time she got her nails done...she's such a girl!!

1,2,3...under

It is Maddie's second week in swim...time to go under for the first time...dun, dun, dun! Hubbard's doesn't waste any time getting the kids in the water.


She ended up going under 4 times and did surprisingly well...no tears! Yeah!!

One last Frosty

We headed up to the new cabin again. This time we took Grandpa Johnson with us! It was a lot of fun because it snowed while we were there AND there was just enough snow on the ground to make a snowman. Tatum had tons of fun playing in the snow.

A fish out of water

Maddie isn't very fond of water being anywhere near her head. Washing her hair during bath time is always a battle...I wash, she screams. So we decided it was time to introduce Maddie to swim lessons.

She was happy as a clam driving to swim, happy as a clam getting dressed for swim, but wasn't so sure about getting into the giant bath tub.



Her hesitation lasted through most of the lesson, but she did have some enjoyable moments. (I use the word enjoyable loosely)




Maddie had her own cheering section for her first lesson. All the grandparents came to root her on and take pictures (thank you mom Johnson :)) However, Maddie's biggest cheerleader was her big sister. Tatum was there the whole time clapping and cheering for Maddie. It was such a proud moment for Tatum.



At the end of swim Maddie received a ribbon for being a new Hubbard's Swimmer. We were all excited for Maddie to get her first ribbon! Hopefully, a few dunks in the pool will cure Maddie's bath time blues.

Pizza and Kitty Cats

After a VERY LONG day of looking for a new car (which was a failure) we felt like we owed the kids a fun night out. We decided to take them to Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa. We had never been there so we didn't know what to expect, but we thought it should be fun.

After walking in and ordering our pizza we decided to sit up stairs to get a better view of the entertainment. Tatum and Maddie both were mesmerized not only by the man playing the organ, but also by the loud noise that it made. Tatum had a great time dancing around to the music and was very excited when the dancing kitty cats came out. (if it was up to her they would have danced every song) When pizza was done Tatum wanted to "drive" the race car in the arcade with dad...she mostly crashed! :) After our pizza had settled we had pink ice cream and listened to the organ a little more.

The next morning Tatum called the kitty cats and said, "Hi kitty cats this is Tatum Renee Johnson I liked you last night. I want to see you again. Bye bye I love you".

We picked a great place...whew!