B's Visit

Before Christmas our niece, Brynlee, came and stayed with us for a week! Her first ever trip all by herself :) She kept us soooo busy! We took her to Seaworld where she got to feed fish to the seals (Stan actually had his hand bit by the birds that kept trying to grab the fish haha!). We saw the Shamu, dolphin, and sea lion shows and Stan & B went on the roller coaster. We also saw a giant walrus! Its head was bigger than Brynlee! During the week we had an art/painting day, painted our nails, made yummy food, went to the beach and made a sand Christmas tree (she was crazy and got in the water even though it was freezing cold), went to see Arthur Christmas, and got her a new kitten from Toys R Us named Pumpkin (her favorite part of the whole trip).

We also had Nerf gun Battles where B clearly got destroyed! So sad...jkjk

Thanks for coming to visit us, B! We had a lot of fun hanging out with you :) Next trip, Katelynn's turn!

On to the next adventure!

Halloweeny

This year for Halloween we decided to do the Zombie Walk! It happens every year- a bunch of random people dress up like zombies and walk around downtown San Diego! Soooo awesome! Chris & Brinn Spencer were visiting us, so they joined in on the zombie action :) ...
...which was followed by some delicious Mexican food and Zombie pumpkin carving!
A little zombie lovin ;) Happy haunting!

Europe Trip :)

Sorry it has taken so long to post, we have been crazy busy!! So, here we go:

Europe Trip!

Stan, Mom, Rachel, and I were able to go to Europe for 10 days and explore (back in July). It was such an amazing experience, I am so grateful that we were given the opportunity to go! We started in London (saw the Tower of London, rode on the London Eye, saw Kensington & Buckingham Palace, saw HARRY POTTER in Imax, saw Big Ben/Houses of Parliament, and Shakespeare's Globe Theater). It poured a couple times while we were there, but that's ok.

After London, we went to Paris- I decided that at some point in my life I absolutely must learn French! We had some of the most amazing food there (including french bread, pastries, sandwiches, chocolates, and ice cream :) ). We saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame,and the Louvre.

Next was Spain! Stan & I loved practicing our Spanish :) We went to the Palacio Real, went shopping, and saw an amazing Flamenco show! It was amazing how fast they move & tap their feet along to the music. It was also weird that it wouldn't get dark until almost 10 PM so it was really easy to lose track of the time!

We spent one day in Ireland- it was really green and pretty! It was so hard to understand some of the people who had really thick accents, but everyone we met was really nice haha.

Stanley's World

For Stanley's birthday this year, we went on a surf trip to Ventura! We decided to drive up the 1- the highway that follows the coast of California. It was beautiful! We stopped to surf at Malibu on the way up. The weather was amazing, the waves were small but fun. Stan had a great time riding some of the classic spots in surf history. The harbor and Downtown Ventura were really fun, too. We stopped on the way home to see the movie Rio (super cute and funny), then headed back to San Diego. We had a great time! Happy (early) birthday Stanley :)

Us at the beach

The view from the car as we headed north on the 1

Stanley reading the surf book I got him for his birthday

We got pizza at a cool little place in Downtown Ventura

What a stud!

Stan surfing in Malibu- notice how close he is to the shore, it was super shallow!!

The view of the Malibu pier

The view of the coast as we drove back to San Diego.

Photoooooos

So I have been trying to get better at photography lately! I wanted to practice portraits, so Rachel and Stan were nice enough to model for me at the beach today. Here are some of the better ones. Any photo tips or advice? Especially on how to avoid harsh shadows when shooting in direct sunlight??? :)

Stan's latest project

Stan has been working on a new project- it's a surfboard bag! He used a sleeping bag to make it.

SHARK slippers...

For our nephew Trevien's birthday I made him some shark slippers :) It was a fun experiment, now I just hope they fit right! They kind of look like muppets (Jim Hensen- eat your heart out!). Plus as an added bonus I learned what "utility fabrics" are (after searching around Joann's for a while trying to find the bumpy fabric that goes on the bottoms so kids don't slip & fall). Yay :)