Ju-Ju-Be Get Together

As you all probably know by now, I have an obsession with Ju-Ju-Be bags. I really love them. I belong to their online forum. The ladies that are on the forum are called Pink Ladies. In September, Ju-Ju-Be sponsored a Get Together for Utah Pink Ladies. It was at Murray Park. The funny thing is, I knew all of the ladies there except for one. We are all friends.
Back Row - (Adults) Jennifer, Alison, Emily, Jamie, Brandii, Brittany, Brianna, Brandy, Joshalyn, Shamie, Nichole, Annie, Haley, Jess, Jessica, Rachel and Danielle
Front Row - (Adults) Hannah, Amber, Suzanne and Vanessa
Here we are with all of our Ju-Ju-Be bags and some of our kiddos.
We had so much fun eating a potluck lunch and visiting. Brandii made an adorable sign for the event. Ju-Ju-Be was so nice to send us all gift bags that had a reusable tote, sticker, carabiner and coin purse. They also sent some fun prizes for a game and a One Of A Kind Bag. Alison was the lucky winner of the bag. It is a bag style that they normally make, but has a print that they never released. Lucky her!

What a wonderful company to sponsor such a fun event. What a wonderful day to spend with friends.

2011 Vacation - Part 3 - St. George

The last leg of our vacation was spent in St. George.
We arrived at our hotel, Clarion Inn and Suites, around 8:30. Emrie had not been a very happy camper the last 1/2 hour of our drive. We were starving, but didn't want to have to take the kids somewhere to eat. In the parking lot of our hotel, there was the Black Bear Diner. Lucas and I walked over and picked up some food to-go. He had fun looking at all of the wooden black bears in the waiting room.

On Sunday we went to Bear Paw Cafe for breakfast, relaxed and shopped a little bit. We were supposed to go home on Monday, but decided to extend our vacation one more day.
On Monday, we went swimming at the hotel. Eva didn't want to get her picture taken. She was too excited to get in the water. We swam for quite a long time. It was so much fun. The kids loved the pool. The girls were worn out and took quite a long nap afterwards.
That night we went to Tiki Island for dinner. It took over the space where ParrotHead Island Broiler used to be. They have a lot of the same food. We love to sit outside and listen to the fountain. The girls were loving dipping their fries in the ketchup. After eating, the kids had fun running up and down the sidewalk.
After dinner we went over to St. George Town Square and played. We went on the carousel. It was the longest carousel ride that we had ever been on. Ron and I kept joking about when it was going to stop. When it finally stopped, the operator said, "My timer must be broken." Ha Ha! We then walked over to the Water Walk and let the kids play. The red rocks rubbed off and got on the kids clothes and faces. We didn't realize, but we left the girls sandals there. When we picked them up to take them to the car, we forgot to grab them. :(

Before heading out on Tuesday, we met my nephew, Kelby, and his friend at Judd's General Store for a yummy lunch of soup and breadsticks. They were down there looking for housing at Dixie. What a wonderful end to our fun vacation!

2011 Vacation - Part 2 - The Beach

To break up our Disney days, we went to the beach on Wednesday.
By the recommendation from my friend, Brandii, we went to Huntington Beach. It was about a 25 minute drive from our hotel in Anaheim. It was a wonderful beach. It was very clean. We sure picked the right day to go. It was not crowded at all.
Lucas love, love, loved the beach. He could have been there from sun up to sun down. He loved throwing sand, playing in the water and helping me build our sand turtle. Since we forgot to bring buckets, we had to make due with building a turtle in the sand, instead of a castle. I also really enjoyed the beach. I went out into the deeper water and did my own version of body surfing.
It took the girls a while to get used to the water. They never really ended up being huge fans of the water, but they loved playing in the sand and walking around on the beach.
Our bathing beauties!
I couldn't forget to take a picture of my new Ju-Ju-Be WannaBe beach bag. I love this bag! It is the most amazing beach/pool bag out there.

At the end of our swimming, we "showered" in the beach showers and walked the pier. After leaving the beach, we went to dinner at Ruby's. It was a fun restaurant that had an old diner theme. I had the most amazing shrimp tacos that I have ever had. What a fun, fun day!

2011 Vacation - Part 1 - Disneyland

Just a warning before this post starts.... This is the most picture heavy post I have ever done. I wanted to post all of the cute pictures. I didn't want to leave any out.
On September 10, we took a nice, long family vacation. My mom and dad came with us. We started out the vacation by driving to Vegas and eating at the Rio Village Seafood Buffet. Yummy. My parents were awesome to watch our kiddos while we stuffed our faces. We then continued on to Primm. We stayed at Whiskey Pete's. It was a great price, but was definitely run down. It's ok though, since we were only there one night. In the morning we told Lucas that we were going on to California and going to Disneyland the next day. It took a while for it to set in. Once it did, he was so excited!
We got a 4 day Park Hopper Pass to Disneyland and California Adventure. We met the Treat's, Terry and Terri, and Lewis', Lindsey, Karlee and Colton. They had come the day before.
The first morning we went to the Surf's Up Character Breakfast at Paradise Pier Hotel. It was so much fun. Our table was right by Mickey. The kids got to get up and dance with Mickey. It was adorable. Different characters also walked around from table to table. Emrie was not a fan of the characters. The food was better than I imagined. What a fun way to start out our Disney days.
We weren't big into standing in lines for characters, but we were able to just walk up and meet these ones. Lucas and Eva loved them. Emrie got better about being around them.
We went on so many fun rides. We were lucky, because it was not busy on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. Friday was a different story. Boo Hoo! The girls were able to go on several rides. They absolutely loved "it's a small world".
The only rides that Lucas couldn't go on were Indiana Jones and California Screamin'. CA Screamin' was closed anyway. He is such a little dare devil. He absolutely loved Space Mountain. It was changed into Ghost Galaxy. The ghosts were actually kind of scary, but he still loved it. As soon as the ride stopped, he said, "I loved that ride! Let's go again!"
The only ride that he didn't like was Tower of Terror. It was not the actual ride that he didn't like, it was the story. He was very concerned that the people disappeared. He kept asking us about it and where they were for a few days. We all loved the shows that we saw. World of Color was amazing! Toy Story Mania was the longest line that we waited in. It was worth it! What a fun ride. Ron kicked all of our butts when it came to scoring.
The girls loved riding in their strollers and looking around. Emrie learned her new smile during that trip. When I held up the camera, she would give this cheesy grin. I love it! Eva fell in love with Mickey. Every time she saw Mickey, she would say, "Mickey!" So cute.
By the end of the week the kids were so worn out. The last night, my mom and dad had taken the kids back to the hotel. They immediately went to sleep. Right before leaving the park, Lucas had built his own light saber. He insisted on sleeping with it.

We can't wait for our next visit to Disney.

Twins 18 Month Photo Shoot

In September, we went down to American Fork and met Jana from Butterfly Love Photography for the girls 18 month pictures. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am about how they turned out.
It was a chore to get them to sit together. :)
Emrie is a total ham and loves to smile.
Eva was having a really smiley day. We were so happy.

I can't believe that they are already 18 months. (Now actually closer to 20 months.) They are growing up so quickly.

Late Night Yogurt Run

I love my friends! One Saturday night at about 10:00 pm, a bunch of my friends and I decided that we were craving frozen yogurt. Well, since the kiddos were all in bed... What's better than meeting up at 10:30 for a late night frozen yogurt run?
Left to Right - Brandii, Hannah, Emily, Jamie, Shamie, Wendy and Jen

Some of us carpooled and met others at Menchie's. It was such a fun evening just chatting and being silly girls. We closed the store down.

Fun and a LOT of Bags

The kids and I went to a park and met some friends for a big play date. We had so much fun eating our picnic lunches, running in the splash pad and playing.
Left to Right - Kari, Joshalyn with Brynlee, Wendy with Josie, Jamie, Emily, Shamie with Eva, Nichole with Alec, Alison, Brandii, Brianna, Brittany and her little one
We are all huge fans of Ju-Ju-Be bags. Now that is a whole lot of bags for only 11 ladies to be carrying. Is it sad that I can name all the styles and prints of these bags? What can I say? I love my Ju-Ju-Be!

Blog Slacker

I know that I have been seriously lacking in the blogging department. :( I haven't forgotten about my blog. I promise that I will do some updates soon. I am WAY far behind. I know it's no excuse, but we got a laptop and I am not as familiar with how to pull the pictures and my photo collage program isn't on it yet. I have hardly gotten on the desktop. LOL! I will update soon.