Birthdays, L.A., and Fourth of July... oh my!

There has been a lot that has happened since I last posted. We celebrated Jeffrey's birthday and my Mom's birthday in June. We celebrated Jeff's birthday a little bit late so that my mom could be home to celebrate with us. She had been in Pennsylvania taking care of her sister after an accident that she had. Mom made Jeff a rich chocolate cake and he got some clothes and a sports bag that he wanted. We watched a movie with him which is a tradition that we have at our house. For my mom's birthday we went out to dinner at China Run which is a new restaurant near our house. Then we celebrated with a birthday cake which I made for her (this cake was a sherbet ice cream/angel food cake covered in whipped topping), by request! She got some new kitchen things as a present. Here are some pictures from the birthdays:

Kaylie liked watching Grandma Harrison make Jeff's birthday cake. Grandma even let Kaylie eat some frosting out of the tip decorator!

Here Jeff is blowing out all 19 candles!

This is at the restaurant we ate at for Mom's birthday!

And here mom is blowing out all her... candles as well!

At the end of June Mom, Jason, Kaylie and I headed down to Los Angeles to be part of my cousin's son's baptism. Jenn Thompson has an eight year old! I can't believe it! We had a great time with family there.  Grandma Hall, Beckie, Michael, and Susie Harrison, and Katie Lee and her kids were all there too! We had so much fun with all the kids together and we got some girl time too! We arrived on a Friday evening, June 29th and then on Saturday morning, the 30th, the adults headed to the L.A. temple while Susie and Jason watched all 7 kids! I was a little nervous but they did a great job and we had an amazing time at the temple!

After the temple that morning we went to a nearby park with the kids to get their energy out! It was a cute little park with a little fire engine for the kids to climb all over.

Kaylie even let me take some pictures of her! She is 15 1/2  months old in these pictures.

The last part of the evening was the baptism of Connor and the blessing of Archer. There was a great turn out! It was a very special experience and we are so glad that we could be there! 

Jenn's Beautiful Family!

Baby Archer, born February 14th!

Michael is sharing a cookie with Kaylie so that she will warm up to him!

The trip was not over after this! We stayed Sunday and spent most of the day with everyone until they all left for a get-a-way in Driggs, ID. My mom, Jason, Kaylie and I stayed in Jenn's home for a couple more nights. Monday, July 2nd, was an eventful day. We walked to the famous Rodeo Drive and walked around to see all the expensive shops! After Kaylie took a nap we went to Hollywood and walked down the road where they had the "Walk of Fame". That was pretty neat! We could even see the Hollywood sign from where we parked! Then it was off to Santa Monica Pier! We spent the rest of the day on the beach. We caught great weather! Kaylie got to experience the ocean for the very first time and she absolutely loved it! We even went on a couple rides on the pier. Kaylie was able to go on the ferris wheel with us. We finally made it home and ready to eat dinner around 8pm. Kaylie was a trooper with only one short nap the entire day!

Some of the shops on Rodeo Drive 

This was a cool little area on Rodeo Drive! We rode the glass elevator just for fun! We'd never been in one that was outside before. Ha ha!

Here is the Hollywood sign from where we parked! (zooming in on it of course)

The Walk of Fame! The sidewalks were crowded but we found a lot of our favorite stars!

This one is Sandra Bullock! One of our favorites!

We even ran into Shrek on the street! Ha ha!

Here we are on the Santa Monica beach!

 Playing in the ocean!

Gettin' messy in the sand!

As we walked to the pier we stopped by the swings for a little break.

Picture in front of the pier!

We rode on the ferris wheel and a small roller coaster at the park! Fun!

We had a wonderful trip and Kaylie did great on the car ride home too!  Our July 4th was fun as well! We had a pancake breakfast in the morning, went to a parade in the early afternoon and then we went to my aunts house for a BBQ. Afterwards we watched a firework show right in Carmichael! We love the 4th!

Here is a picture from the parade!

Some of us at the BBQ/Swim Party!

 Here we are at the firework show!

  We all went together!

I've been getting together with Steph French and Lynn Colvin for girls nights lately. 

Here is a picture of the three of us together!

Just a quick little update on Kaylie! This past week she has become so talkative. She is trying to say every little thing that she can. Another thing she has been doing is getting down on all fours and pretending to be a puppy! Sometimes she will even lick us! It's both adorable and hilarious! Last night she thought she was so funny putting random things on her head. We love it when she gets so giggly! Her laughter is extremely contagious. Kaylie also does this really cute thing where we ask her to make us smile and she grabs our cheeks and says "cheese". She is such a character! She is really catching onto the picture taking and remembering to say "cheese". The funny thing is that sometimes her cheese face comes out really funny lookin'! We are going to have to think of something else to say. Ha ha! Kaylie's obsession with Elmo is continuing. We recently bought a couple of Elmo DVD's that have several Elmo's World clips on them. Its a good thing he is such a nice little monster. Kaylie will be 16 months old this week. I can't believe I almost have a  1 1/2 year old!

Oh Kaylie... How I love you, let me count the ways!

Kaylie is talking so much lately! She just mimics everything we say! Here are a few new things she is trying to say: "Go!", "Pretzel", "Bounce", "Uh Oh", "Hi", and she tries to say everyone's name.

The cutest thing that Kaylie does lately is that she puts her pointer finger to her mouth and says, "hmmmm". She does this when we are looking at a variety of foods to eat or when we are playing hide and seek. Or any other time I feel like hearing it, I will do it and she will usually copy me. We love it when she does this!

She is becoming a good helper and puts things in the garbage when she finds something on the floor. She is always trying to put my flip flops back on me. She just always wants to help. When she does something that she knows is right, she will sometimes clap for herself. So funny!


She loves to dance... and its pretty hilarious. She just bounces. It's so cute! Today she was rolling around on the floor and just being silly right after she was done dancing.  


Kaylie has a favorite Sesame Street character... can anyone guess??? Yes, it's Elmo! She can always be cheered up by watching Elmo on Sesame Street or just on youtube.  She gets so mesmorized, its like nothing else exists when Elmo is on.  Which is okay with us because he is an adorable, furry, red monster.  


Kaylie is just a bundle of joy and she is starting to really entertain! She can be so sweet and so funny. We love her to pieces! She is 15 months old now! I can't believe how the time has flown by!

San Diego Adventures & Family BBQ

Marcus and I were brave and decided we would leave Kaylie with Grandpa and Lola Jankowski while the two of us spent 5 days away on vacation. She actually did very well with them! We were pleasantly surprised that she never threw a huge fit for them. Marcus and I drove south and spent our vacation in Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Newport Beach, San Diego and Beverly Hills. Here are some pictures of our adventures!

Our first stop was visiting our friends, Tyler, Linda, and Jada Geertson, at their home in Reseda, which is five hours south from Modesto where we started off on Monday the 4th. We enjoyed lunch with them and they even let us borrow their boogie boards!

Our next stop was Huntington Beach! It was slightly overcast that evening so we just spent an hour walking up and down the beach next to the pier enjoying the sound of crashing waves on the ocean. 

Monday evening we spent then night at Marcus's aunt's house in Anaheim. Then we headed to Newport Beach the next morning.  Here we are standing on the pier!

This is the view from where we parked... not far from the beach since there was nobody there when we arrived! Oh and we loved seeing so many palm trees!

We made it to San Diego on the evening of Tuesday the 5th. This was the hotel we stayed in and it was in a great location! Close to everything we wanted to see.

Our first night in San Diego and we went out to dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Zia's Bistro. The food was delicious!

Our hotel was in the neighborhood of Little Italy. There were tons of pizzerias and other Italian Restaurants in the area.

These pictures were taken at the USS Midway. They turned an aircraft carrier into a museum! We spent 3 hours on Wednesday touring the carrier! There was a lot to see!

This is a picture of Silver Strand Beach on Coronado Island. We went here Wednesday afternoon after the Midway Museum. We rested for about 20 minutes and then we spent 3 whole hours boogie boarding! Once we figured it out and got used to the ocean water, we were having a blast! Our arms got pretty tired after a while, but it was totally worth it!

On Thursday we went to a few fun places. The first stop we made was Cabrillo National Monument. Cabrillo was the first European to set foot on the west coast... so they had a monument and museum in his honor. Also there was a lighthouse there which I think was the first lighthouse in San Diego. It was pretty neat seeing how a lighthouse works.

There was also supposed to be some pretty cool tidepools, but since we were there at 12:30pm there was no way we were going to catch it all at high tide. Bummer! But the view was great anyways!

Our next stop that Thursday afternoon was the Mormon Battalion Museum. It was actually a pretty neat Museum! The Sister Missionaries gave a whole tour and everything. Fun, interactive... we were pleasantly surprised! We even got a great view of Old Town San Diego from the top of the Museum.

Our last stop in San Diego was the San Diego Temple! It is such a beautiful temple! We took lots of amazing pictures.

We spent the night in Anaheim again at Marcus's Ate Bing Bing's house. She took us to breakfast in the morning right before we left! Delicious! Thank you Ate Bing Bing!

After breakfast we headed to Beverly Hills to visit my cousins, Scott & Jenn Thompson and their kids.  I was making little Archer laugh in this picture! Unfortunately I completely forgot that I wanted to take a picture with everyone! Next time!

We got home that evening after lots of traffic due to a fire... but we did make it home! Too bad Kaylie was already in bed - we missed her SO much!

We had a family BBQ the next day. We love being with family! It was especially fun seeing the great grandchildren together!

Reese and Kaylie are only 6 weeks apart! It is so fun watching them together!

While we were out in Modesto we actually stopped by my grandparents house a couple times. We took this picture the day that we left Modesto and headed back to Sacramento. Kaylie warmed up to them much faster on this visit!

Here is the whole gang together! Thank you so much Lola and Ate Lain for watching Kaylie! We had so much fun spending time with everyone!