Neidig Reunion {2012} San Diego Zoo

My mom planned the best summer vacation for me and my siblings. She rented a house in La Jolla for a week and all my siblings met up. It was so super fun to hang out with everyone and to let the cuzzies get to know each other. The house had an amazing pool and deck area and we had so much fun hanging out, playing games, watching the Olympics, bbqing, etc. 

One day we hit up the San Diego Zoo. Of course the kiddos loved it and I thought it was pretty incredible too. Kind of made me love our small zoo a bit more just cause it's small and quaint- but there were some cool animals and it was so beautiful. 

Nana and Papa with the grandkids {missing Millie and Leah}

{Papa, Deacon, Holden, Nana, Weston, Luke}

Weston and Millie became buds during this trip. 

This monkey, seriously, is the creepiest and cutest thing. He literally poses and smiles all day long in this tree. If you tilt your head and smile he will copy you. I sat there posing and smiling at this monkey for at least 10 minutes cracking up. I kind of loved him. 

Such a fun, fun day. Hilarry and Preston met up with us too and we got to see the twins. Every time we get the boys together Hilarry and I force Weston to hold one of the twins and Holden has to prop up the other one. It's literally the funniest thing and by the time we're through at least two of the four are crying and Hilarry and I have side aches.  Ahhh, the memories. 

Day Out With Thomas

Our Thomas ride started as an incentive for potty training. And then.... my potty training {more specifically the poop} ordeal began. What a nightmare. There are just too many horrid details to write about so let's just say we've backtracked a bit on the potty training and we still went to Thomas. Ahhh, parenthood. The location was absolutely gorgeous and the boys had a super great time riding the train. Holden loves to say "whoo-whooo" so we heard that about 1000 times that day. We ate lunch in Los Altos after and it was one of our first times walking around there. A-mazing. All in all, a super fun day. 

There were a ton of activities to participate but the boys were mainly fascinated with the legos. I think I'm entering the lego stage {cue tears for the massive lego mess and organization stress}. 

I love Weston's cross eyed concentration going on here. 

Rio Del Mar Beach

We've tried to hit up the beach a lot this summer and I'm starting to get a bit sad that summer is coming to an end. The boys love the beach, well, let me clarify. They love the sand, not so much the water. I hate the freezing water too so I guess I don't blame them. We met up with the Vilkin's and the boys had a blast. 

My highlight of the day was watching Holden eat his first Cheeto, which quickly led to his first bag of Cheetos. I think Weston was able to sneak a few but this kid had a death grip on the bag. I never want to forget how much this kid loves to eat. He's all about meals and snacks alllllll day long. 

Savoring every last bite. Mmmmm.

Digging and more digging and an ocean attempt with the dads.

The boys on the street are so into pretend play. We keep begging them to kick balls but it seems like all they want to do is make soup and cake. Soup/cake= putting every branch, leaf, rock, and piece of bark in site in a huge tupperware container. It's super exciting. At least they switched it up today at the beach.... here they are cooking up a batch of oatmeal. So no sports scholarships are in our future but hopefully a restaurant :)  

Neighborhood Movie Night

Our movie night in Vilkin's garage was pure crazy fun. Lot's of crazy happening that night. A few things I never want to forget....

-how much Holden loved the little chairs. He sat in one for about 20 minutes scarfing down popcorn like it was his job. He looked about 12 and I still can't get over it.

-he loved the chairs so much he would stand in them and then fall face first to the cement. 

-how Weston will never watch anything but Mickey at our house but wouldn't take his eyes off of Peter Pan.

-how much Weston loves being with his friends {especially Evan and Brayden}

-how much popcorn and lemonade everyone ate and drank.

-how much popcorn and lemonade we had to clean up. 

{Weston, Evan, Brayden}

Gilroy Gardens

Another summer at Gilroy Gardens... we love this place. It's so perfect for toddlers. This trip was a bit more fun since last time I was pregnant and on a swan. I still want to kill Cameron for that. Anyhow, the boys had a blast and couldn't get enough of the rides. I die that Holden can do the rides by himself {helps that he's soooo tall} and Weston's fav was for sure the train. 

Fashionista

We dragged the kids to Nordstrom for the presale. They were a bit cray-cray, as expected, but we survived and scored some deals. After we were done shopping in the boys department Cameron and I split up. He took Holden and I took Weston. I was picking out shoes with the sales person and I realized I hadn't heard a peep from Weston. I found him squeezing into Rachel Zoe booties. Funniest thing I've ever seen. 

 

He fell trying to walk in the booties and says, "Hmmm. I think I need comfy boots now." Smart boy. 

 

July 4th {2012}

July 4th is one of my favorite holidays.... I think cause Utah does it right over the fourth. I always miss home on the 4th but we're making it work over here too :) We had a big ol' party on the lane this year and we had such a fun time. The kiddos were in heaven cause there was something going on all day long. We had blow up pools, water tables, a bounce house, a bike parade with the whole neighborhood {although Weston and Holden were napping during it},  a bbq, crafts, some injuries, and pretty much pure craziness. 

We had the kiddos paint terra cotta pots so we could roast marshmallows later in the evening. We had paint everywhere and then Weston fell out of the bounce house on a pot... but those were just a few road bumps in the July 4th fun. 

Holden has his way with his first fudgesicle... he loved it.

Lame Livermore moved the fireworks this year {we used to be able to watch them on our street} so we just made our own show. Turns out it was just as much fun and the sparklers were a hit. 

Then when we were cleaning up around 10 pm we remembered we hadn't roasted smores. Why not eat chocolate and marshmallows at 10pm. Our little pots pulled through. Here's to a happy fourth! 

Nana

A few cuties from when my mom was here. 

Weston: 3 Years

These past 3 years have been so much fun and they've gone way too fast... although I'm really enjoying Weston being more and more independent. I keep telling him that I want him to stop growing and he replies with, "No, I want to get bigger and bigger and bigger like daddy." Cue the sobs. Sometimes I miss getting to spend 1:1 time with him because it's in those quiet moments where he'll just talk and talk and tell you all the little things in his head. Some of his interests are trains, railroad crossing signs, anything construction, digging holes, playing cake man or pizza man {pretty much anything pretend}, building tunnels, and being with his friends. He and his friends love to play pretend and they're always making a big batch of soup outside {water in a huge tupperware container full of leaves and bark}. He's learning how to say prayers by himself {"Dear Heavenly Father, bless our food, amen"} and he never strays from these 3 lines. Potty training is coming along {ever so slowly} but we're getting there. His favorite thing in the whole world is his puppy dog who's he's named Baby and his blue blanket which he calls blue blanky. He absolutely loves books- he'll sit and look at books on his own and would have 100 books a day read to him if it worked out. I love you Weston... it's been the best 3 years. 

Weston had a big construction birthday party a couple of days before his birthday. On his birthday we had a family party and he chose ice cream cake. Watching him blow out these candles was sooooo  extremely funny. That green candle just wasn't going to give up and neither was Weston.