shannon's baby shower

so excited how many new babies are joining our red devil family in the VERY near future!!!  can't wait to meet all these tiny miracles. today we celebrated shannon's little blessing, sophie - we can't wait to meet her!  and my friend allyson (top left) is waiting to meet her little lady ANY day now! my friend janice is waiting for her mr. man to arrive in october.  my darling friend stephanie is excited to meet her little man in december.  and miss jen gets to meet her precious bundle in january.  SO GOOD!

handy man pete

we're assembling one of pete's 'christmas in the summer' gifts from reid and i. we figured he gets lots of great stuff every december and decided we'd give him our gifts this summer so spread out the love a little.  here he is helping me assemble his new bookshelf/toybox (and me showing off my hair after a lovely trip to the salon this morning with mom as a babysitter-thank you mom!).

momma date @ stone brewing co

mom and i enjoyed a dinner out for two last night so we could actually spend a couple hours enjoyed the company of one another without running around changing diapers, entertaining, intervening, feeding, etc....and just sit back, relax and enjoy a perfect evening in the gardens at stone brewing company. its one of my most favorite restaurants in san diego and it was the epitome of a relaxing evening out last night. thanks mom for a lovely shared evening, i wish we could do it more often.

another great trip to carlsbad beach

a great beach. beautiful weather. and fish tacos. a perfect way to spend the morning with my mom and babies!

the kids' first trip to sea world

wow. we had the most fun this morning at sea world. how lucky are my kids to be babies in southern california and have great places like this right in our backyard that we can go back to over and over? we'll certainly be going back because petey had a blast today! and my mom and i had a blast right along with him.  the weather was great -- 80 and sunny (but i came home with a wicked sunburn) and petey got to GO GO GO all morning. he was in heaven.

 first stop: the dolphin encounter area where my awesome hubby proposed to me! they've added a macaw cage and petey was mimicking the birds. so cute.  it was a great start to a great day.

 next we spent some time with the sea lions. these guys were hysterical and petey was enthralled looking down at them and their antics through the glass.  we spent a good bit of time here.

 as we moved along we watched a momma duck and her ducklings cross the street. the sight of them stopped pete in his tracks as he watched them go along. so cute.

 then we headed to the dolphin cove and betsy had a snuggle with momma while deedee and petey watched the dolphins through the looking glass.  he was mesmerized by both the dolphin viewing as well as the great steps to sit on and watch the show go by.

 then it was time to pay a visit to shamu. this was really fascinating to see this tiny little boy of mine pressed up against the glass watching these amazing giant whales go past over and over. what a treat.

our lady bug was awake and observing mr. shamu go by too!  she enjoys the stoller much better now that she's got more space to move and stretch and can feel the wind in her face. no more riding around in that sweaty, crowded baby carrier!

 the sesame street bay of play is awesome for toddlers. petey had a ball! there are some rides, there is a splash zone and there are obstacles galore to climb on. we had a great time playing around in there.  he showed up several older kids as we climbed up a rather large series of cargo nets to get up above into the foot bridges - it was just one big tree house and he loved every minute of the adventure (me too!).

 look who's sporting his Case IH tattoo from bumpah. :)

 nope. he's definitely not having any fun at all. poor child. hehe.

 what a sweet snapshot of this little man. and can you see deedee in the background?

 here's a picture of the cargo nets and foot bridges we were playing on.  SO fun!

 hi daddy!!!

 more playing with my little boy. this toddler business is awesome. can't wait til betsy learns to run and frolic so she can join in on the fun!

 then we stopped in at the starfish tide pool exhibit to touch and feel these amazing little creatures.

 brave and curious mr. petey inspecting the underside of a starfish.

 spiny sea urchin - felt like toothpicks!

 as we walked between exhibits, petey would run ahead and then stop in some shade and sit on the curb for a few seconds and then run up ahead and then find another spot of shaded curb to chill.  over and over.  he is so fun to see in action!

 checking out the slimy sting rays. he was very interested in watching but this was one interactive exhibit he was not about to put his hands into. he didn't want his fingers anywhere near those things!

 petey and deedee at one of his many shaded curb pit stops.

 yes. the one downfall of seaworld are the little them shops outside of every exhibit. this is outside the sesame street bay of play and the ONLY toy that thankfully caught his eye were the rubber ducks.

 funny mirrors in the bay of play.

 taking a break.

 getting tired

 really worn out and comfy now

and......naptime.

today was a good day!

haircut day

deedee took pete to see mr. sal for a much-needed haircut today and then they went on a date for smoothies. (don't look too closely at the haircut, his barber is a bit older and i think he didn't double check the straightline across the front -woops).  mr. sal always puts gel in his hair at the end and pete spent the morning patting his crunchy gelled hair as if to say "what is this stuff in my hair that makes it feel so funny?"  i think pete got the better end of the 1-on-1 dates today. i took poor betsy on a run at lake miramar and it was hot. when we started it was 82. i knew that was warm but forgot that we were starting right at the point in the morning where it turns hot. the car said 96 on the way home. she was a trooper. the run really wore me out for the rest of the day but it was nice to get out and meet our friends anyway.  we played inside in the air conditioning as it was almost 100 here (i know, its MUCH hotter than that where my hubby is) most of the day. this afternoon we had swim lessons and petey showed deedee his tricks. you can see new swimmimg/playtime video here.  and i included a photo of petey brushing his teeth like a big boy at the sink with his new stool. he thinks he's pretty hot stuff up there, right at the level where he can reach the faucet to turn the water on and off without help from anyway. such a big boy.

grandma = ice cream

a little trip to the carlsbad outlets lent itself to a yummy lunch at ruby's diner and at the end pete got a free teeny-tiny icecream cone.  and he enjoyed eating the entire thing with grandma's help.  life doesn't get more delicious than this, folks!

that's the look of ice cream induced bliss. childhood is so good.

and speaking of bliss, look at this little lady enjoying her thumb. poor thing. she loves to suck her thumb so much more than petey did. and i've been a pushover about keeping her "boxing gloves" on her hands to break her of the habit. but decided tonight that things are getting a bit out of hand. sorry betsy, no more mr. suck-thumb.