Montana

We took a wonderful trip to Missoula, Montana last weekend to meet up with Dan's side of the family on his dad's side for Dan's aunt's 80th birthday. I love Montana...so pretty and scenic and everyone is so friendly. It really is a very pretty place. Had so much fun celebrating with everyone. Happy Birthday Aunt MaryAnn!

The scenery of the Missoula hills off the back yard of MaryAnn's house.

We went to get ice cream one night down the street from our hotel at a place called The Big Dipper Homemade Ice Cream. It was yummy...Bennett thought so too!

Amanda and Sam eating some ice cream.

A bunch of us tried to hike up the hill behind the University of Montana to the Big M on the side of the hill...a fun thing to do locally. Bennett only made it 2 switchbacks before he was ready to go back down. Dan and a bunch of other family members made it up to the top though. The M is 620 feet up from the base of the mountain.

All the kids at the party were playing cowboys and robbers...Bennett didn't have any toy guns, so he used his six guns instead (fingers :o)

Cousin Andersen looking oh so cute in his cowboy attire. :o)

Bennett and I down by the train depot...he was happy there I swear...just not at the moment that we snapped the picture. :o)

Family picture of the immediate family on Dan's side.

Ardis and MaryAnn (it was her birthday that brought us all to Missoula!)

Bennett and I riding the Carousel in the middle of town.

Max with his binky and play sword. This is how he rolls. ;O)

Bennett chilling in the rocking chairs in front of the Cracker Barrel.

Us on the way back to the car...sadly no Cracker Barrel for us for awhile...when will they get one in California??

Dan and B in front of the steam locomotive on display at the train depot.

The 3 cousins and Uncle Joe posing with the huge fish sculpture in the park behind the hotel. There is artwork everywhere in Missoula...sculptures everywhere you turn.

Dan the pack mule entertaining the kids with horsey rides...and some of those kids were not light weights...including Bennett!

Bennett and Max petting the very friendly kitty at Marie's house.

Bennett and Dan petting Snappy, one of Marie's horses.

The 3 cousins eagerly awaiting their turn to horse back ride.

Joe and Max on Snappy the horse.

All the kids ready to go and Dan and Marie leading the horses around.

Cousin Max and Cousin Joshua.

Cousin Sam eating some ice cream (the kind with the hard chocolate shell on it!)

Bennett's First Airplane Ride to Montana

This trip to Montana was the first airplane trip that Bennett can remember. He was 3 1/2 months old when we took him to Minnesota, but I'm guessing he doesn't remember. He LOVED the plane ride. We had to leave the house at 3:30am to meet the plane, and he was a trooper the whole day. He liked take off and landing the most. Miraculously people actually complimented us when we were leaving the plane for how great Bennett did on the flight (they don't see him on a normal day! :o) No he was an absolute joy to take and had a great time discovering everything on the plane and playing peek a boo with the nice ladies sitting behind him. He charmed them for sure!

Looking out the window on take-off.

Bennett loving take off on the second flight.

TV is a wonderful thing on an airplane. Delta actually had Nickelodeon on the plane. Dora the Explorer kept him occupied for part of that flight!

The single best purchase I have ever made in my life...the iPod iTouch. I might sound like a commercial, but for anyone with small children...this is the way to go. We loaded it up with games, movies and Mickey Mouse Cartoons. Bennett is addicted to it!!!

Fourth of July

Well, this Fourth of July was not so much full of fireworks for us as it was visits to Urgent Care. Bennett came down with a respiratory virus and pink eye, so we were pretty much staying home this year. I have a yucky sickness too, so it was a low weekend. But...last week in preschool Bennett made these very cute crafts of the Statue of Liberty head, and the Statue of Liberty's torch. I just loved them and thought it would be fun to post them! On the first day of preschool I asked him what he had learned or done that day, and he told me "Put hand on heart and talked to the flag", this was his perception of the Pledge of Allegiance. :o) So cute. So Happy Fourth of July everyone! Hope that everyone had a fun filled fireworks weekend. :o)

Bennett Modeling his Lightning McQueen Hat

Bennett has his favorite baseball hat that has Lightning McQueen on the front of it, and for some reason the other day he thought it would be fun to be a goofball and have us take pictures of him wearing it. He had it on backwards, forwards, and sideways and made goofy faces and serious faces. Here are some of the many faces of Bennett the Baseball hat Model. :o) I can totally use these to embarrass him when he brings his first girlfriend home in years to come. :o)

Aquarium of the Pacific June 2009

Amanda and I met up at the Aquarium in Long Beach to take the kids on a fun outing. Bennett and Sam and Max thought this place was great. Bennett and Sam have been there a few times before, but Max was really fun to watch! The kids loved the touch pools the most and got to touch sharks and stingrays. Funny thing was that the guides tell you that you have to touch everything with 2 fingers so the sharks, etc, 1. don't eat your fingers, and 2. you don't scratch them. So Bennett and Sam went around all day holding their 2 fingers up ready to touch whatever they came across! Too cute.

Bennett and Sam in front of the Seal Lion exhibit.

Amanda, Bennett, Max and Sam at the Stingray petting pool. (Note..Sam has his 2 fingers ready to go to touch the stingrays!) :o) Max just loving the first touch pool of the day.

Bennett getting to touch a shark. The guide was holding the shark up so that Bennett could touch him.

Bennett's reaction after touching the shark!

Bennett's First Day of Preschool

Today was Bennett's first day of preschool. It is a summer school at the same preschool that he will be going to in the fall. He was super excited to go to school and play "with the guys" he said. Guys just means kids in general to him. :o) He did really well when I dropped him off...a little hesitant at first, but was ok after a few minutes. I think I had a harder time leaving him than he had with me leaving. :o) I hope he has a great time today!

Just the cutest kid ever.

I just loved this picture so I decided to put it up. Bennett is getting ready for a bike ride with Daddy and he has on my sunglasses with his skater helmut, and he loves just giving the thumbs up signal lately. Too cute.

Legoland June 2009

Dan, Bennett and I drove down the 405 to Legoland in Carlsbad, and it is possibly the coolest place ever for the age 2 to 8 age bracket. We had a blast! Everything is geared toward the younger kids (but enough fun stuff for the older ones too!) We really had a great day. So much to do that we really only got through half of the park. Bennett loves Legos because he and Dan put stuff together all the time, but he just loved this place for all of the rides and attractions that were geared towards his age. Loved firetrucks, airplanes, trains, rollercoasters, cars, cars, cars!

Bennett hanging out with Thomas the Train.

Dan and Bennett on the Safari ride. (Coolest part of this ride and a few others was that they have little areas for the kids to play with Legos while the parents wait in line. Ingenious I tell ya!)

Bennett letting it all hang out in the curve! These were the cutest cars...the kids totally drove them independently...of course their top speed was like 3 mph, but still...so cool. The funniest part was that there was a stoplight on the track, and Bennett stopped at it every single time he went around the track....good habits start early I guess! :o)

Thumbs up on the airplane ride.

We heard about how he squirted the frogs and alligators the whole way home. :o)

Just getting into the park...so much to see...have to take it all in!

National Train Day 2009- Union Station

Who knew that there was a National Train Day? I didn't. My mom saw it in a paper and told us, and off we went! They had a whole celebration at Union Station downtown so we decided to take the Subway in so Bennett could have his first ride on the Subway. He LOVED it. Union Station had a bunch of festivities..bands, model trains, tons of free stuff, and big trains on display. We got to eat lunch across the street at Olvera Street...good Mexican food!

Entrance to the Subway (on the way home ...I forgot to take a picture when we got on at Universal Studios)

Bennett's first ride on the subway...of course he found a bunch of girls to flirt with on the way there! That's Bennett for ya! Riding back to the car with Grandma and Grandpa.

One of the trains on display...Bennett loved climbing all over that thing.

Ardis, Nick, Dan and Bennett at Union Station.

Some Artwork on the side of one of the Amtrak Trains. Makes me want to go to the beach! Or listen to the Endless Summer Album from the Beach Boys. :o)

Disney had a train there that they had on display that was a promotional for their new movie "A Christmas Carol". Neat train...but they had fake snow blowing and Christmas decorations up around it and Christmas carolers singing....hard to get into the Christmasy mood when it is 90 degrees out!