Visit from 2717 Grandma and Grandpa

Ok - my blogging vacation is over. Time for me to catch up a bit!  Let's go back to June...

Last year for Christmas, we gave Drew's parents a couple of flights to come visit us in the summer...  Selfish, I know.  So once school was out, it was time to play with 2717 Grandma and Grandpa!  They were able to see Scott's last baseball game of the season and enjoy our favorite place, the beach house on Monterey Bay.  As much fun (and chaos) as it is to have the ENTIRE Syphi gang all together, it usually doesn't allow for much one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa.  So Scott, Charlotte and Trevor were totally spoiled with all the attention!  And Drew and I were also spoiled and absolutely loved the quiet moments where we could just sit and visit and appreciate being with them.  Here are the highlights from the week!

Feeding the ducks is ALWAYS a huge highlight at the beach house!

Scott getting worked by the waves

Charlotte was surprisingly brave and enjoyed playing in the freezing water!   But this was about as far as she went...

17-Mile Drive

The LONG awaited day!

Scott has been SO anxious to loose a tooth... It would just be humiliating to be the only 2nd grader with ALL baby teeth. The past 3 times we have been to the dentist his top front teeth were loose, but regardless of how much he tried to wiggle them, they are still about the same as they were a year ago.

But this morning while eating his waffle for breakfast, he said, "Mommy, my bottom tooth is super wiggly!" And sure enough, it was REALLY loose! Uncle Jeff, my brother in dental school who Scott idolizes, gave the kids a Berenstain Bears book about going to the dentist. Scott wanted to reenact the book, which was basically that Baby Sister bear woke up with a loose tooth, and then the dentist used gauze to pull it out. Therefore, I also needed to use gauze to pull out his tooth. And the momentous event happened at 8:22pm. If you want to see it in action, check out the video. If you just want the final result, the picture is good enough :)

Just when you thought our pool couldn't get any more awesome...

...we added this little beauty thanks to Craigslist! Can't wait for the cousins to get here!

Expensive Swimming Pool 2.0!

I actually did consider for a bit a REAL expensive swimming pool to replace our previous expensive ($8) pool that bit the dust at the end of last season. But I settled instead for this new $16 beauty:I came from from work today and was greeted by 3 of the happiest kids I have ever seen. They were SO pumped about playing in the pool all day long! Trevor had a lot to tell me about it when I walked in, but unfortunately I only understood about 2 of the words. But the enthusiasm was undeniable. I would post the video, but it contains a little 2-year-old going commando... No tan lines for that kid!

Welcome summer!

My little man

I have been trying for months to get him to wear this tie, and for some reason he decided he was willing to do it last Sunday! I love this little guy...

The graduation pilgrimage

For spring break we made the trek across lovely Nevada to go to Utah for the BYU graduation. Drew's 2 youngest siblings, Holly and Eric, were both graduating! A very exciting day... Drew has made it a personal mission to attend all of his siblings' graduations, which includes BYU Provo, BYU Hawaii, BYU Idaho, Weber St., USC, and someplace in Georgia for Army Officer Candidate School. What a good big brother.

We had a fantastic time with the Syphi gang since 8 of the 10 kids and their families were together. We missed you Allison and Shannon! Even with the broken bone, it still was a great trip. We are the lone Syphi still in CA, so we don't get to see the rest of the crew as often as we would like. I'm so fortunate to have in-laws that I truly love being with.

The award for first broken bone goes to...

...Scott! And we all would have put money on Trevor taking that title. While we were in Utah for Spring Break (yes, again, I'm very behind on my posts), Scott was having a fantastic time playing with all of his boy cousins at my brother-in-law's backyard in Heber City. Then all of the sudden I saw him crying on the couch with an ice pack on his elbow. I didn't see it all go down, but apparently he was holding on to a bar on the swing set, trying to pull his feet up and somehow slipped. Being the insensitive mom that I am, I would have just told him to keep the ice on it, take some Motrin and see how it feels in the morning. But thank goodness Drew's dad, aka Dr. Grandpa, was there. Always nice to have a surgeon in the family... After a quick exam by Grandpa, he thought we should have it x-rayed. Fortunately, urgent care at the Heber City hospital was about 5 minutes away and open and had no wait, so we totally lucked out. The x-ray showed 2 fractures on the inside of his elbow. Poor kid!

Scott kept the arm splinted for the last couple of days in Utah, and then the day after we arrived back home, we visited the orthopedic doctor here. The big mystery was what color he would chose for the cast... In the end, he went with Dodger Blue, to match his Little League team. Speaking of Little League, it was really disappointing that the broken arm took him out for the rest of the season. Especially after the last game he played he went 6 for 6 :(

So the cast went up to basically his shoulder and he had to have it on for month. It came off last week and all looks good! It is still stiff and he can't straighten it all the way, but no pain. And in another week he should be able to do anything he did before the break.

Scott was an amazing patient through it all. He was incredibly tough immediately after the break and through the long exam and diagnosis. He was even very good about following the advice of the doctor and Grandpa. He told me, "Grandpa said I should keep my arm at 90 degrees. It feels pretty warm - about 70 degrees." That one has jumped to the top of my list of favorite Scott quotes...

Biology on our back porch

A few weeks ago, a couple of birds went to work building a nest on our patio cover, just outside our back door. So we enjoyed watching them work for several days, they we noticed one bird hanging out in the nest a lot... I climbed up a ladder and this is what we found:


We went on our Utah vacation (which I will post about eventually), and the birds were spending a ton of time sitting in that next. And a few weeks ago, they all of the sudden were VERY busy, flying off and bringing back worms and bugs! We didn't climb up on the ladder to disturb them, but soon we were able to see 3 little baby birds, all very excited every time the big birds came back with more food. This went on for a while, and we were able to see the babies getting bigger and bigger. And then one day last week, one of the big birds came back to the nest with a worm, and there were no little beaks peaking out. It stood there for a moment, looking a little puzzled, then flew away. The babies must have flown away... I was a little sad for her/him, but it was fun for us to watch this all happen from our kitchen table!

Keeping the babies dry in the rain:

Play ball!

Our house is split NorCal and SoCal... Last year I was THRILLED Scott's team for T-ball was the Giants! And being the good dad that he is, Drew reluctantly went out and bought himself a Giants hat, which was a little painful. So I guess it was inevitable that this year would be different. Scott now plays for the Dodgers. Sad. However, he is so excited to be able to hit real pitches (sort of - they use a machine) and play with several of his good friends: Tyler, Connor, Caden and Parker. And I'm excited because I know I will get to hang out with a bunch of awesome ladies while we watch our boys play!

The first 3 games of the season were cancelled because of rain, and Scott could HARDLY wait to play! Finally, they were able to play last Saturday, versus the Giants, of course. It wasn't bad for the first game! He did get a couple of hits which was very pleased with.




But sadly, his last at bat he was called out on a strike 3 (by the opposing coach), when clearly he tipped the ball. He was crushed. Tough to learn your first lesson about bad calls... It took a trip to The Habit after the game with Daddy to recover from that trauma. But we have a long season ahead of us, and I'm sure we will see lots of improvement!


BTW, the Cat in the Hat was his class pet he was supposed to take care of this weekend...

To ski or not to ski?

Skiing is not my thing. That became obvious when I was in the 6th grade and I did a night ski trip with my jr. high to Boreal. It was freezing. And not my idea of fun. But Drew does love to ski, so since I won't go, he decided to take Scott for his first lesson. I think Scott had a good time, although when I asked him what his favorite part was, he said, "The hot chocolate." That's my boy!

Charlotte is 5!

If you think this post looks awfully familiar, you are right. In our family, we have a big friend party every other year. So this is the family party year... Charlotte wanted to celebrate with the fam (Heidi included, since they may as well be twins) at the most magical place on earth -- CHUCK E CHEESE! And yes, this same celebration happened April 2009:


Wait... In my search for the post about the 2009 party, I realized I never did write about it! Probably because Trevor was 2 weeks old at the time. Anyway...

The theme of the night was all Rapunzel. It was SO convenient Tangled was just released on DVD a couple of days before the party! Charlotte and Heidi were in heaven with pizza, Rapunzel cake and a cup full of tokens. Happy birthday, my girl!

What's New with Trevor?

Sometime when it is not midnight I will write a long post about all the fun and adorable things Trevor has been up to recently, like turning 2!!! But for now, here are a couple of photos of something new Trevor has been doing recently -- timeouts. It is hard to sound stern about bad behavior while simultaneously looking for the camera to take a picture of the back of that curly blond head.

Disneyworld Adventure

Last week we hopped on a plane and headed to the Magic Kingdom in Florida! We were able to spend a full week in the glorious humidity-free, bug-free, 80 degree Orlando winter, enjoying Disneyworld. And as and added bonus, Grandma came along with us! Thank goodness we had her along because I couldn't have imagined surviving the week without her help. Hopefully she had a little fun along the way too...

Scott's highlights:

Disney sure knows how to make a kid feel special on his birthday! Our last full day there was Scott's birthday, so he chose to return to the Magic Kingdom. He wore a birthday button so EVERYONE throughout the day wished him a Happy 7th Birthday! And at the very end of the day while Scott was buying a Mickey Mouse watch (that was his choice with his birthday money), one of the employees took him next door to the candy store, had the entire room sing to him, and then gave Scott and Charlotte each a giant homemade oreo! And then while we were picking up packages on our way out, the worker there picked up the phone, handed it Scott and told him is was a special phone call. On the other end of the line was Goofy singing Happy Birthday! Scott thought that was pretty hilarious...

While we were at Epcot, Drew and I took Scott to a special character dinner with Mickey and friends. He loved it! 2 years ago when we did a character breakfast, Scott wanted NOTHING to do with the characters. This trip, he was all over taking pictures with everyone and getting autographs in his little book.

As for rides, Scott could have spent all day, everyday in Tomorrow Land. He loved every ride there, with the exception of Space Mountain. He was very brave to try it, but wasn't so thrilled after. But we did go on the Buzz Lightyear ride over, and over, and over again. Outside of Tomorrow Land, Scott's other favorite ride was definitely Soarin'.






Charlotte's Highlights:

Easy. The highlight of Charlotte's entire vacation was breakfast with the Princesses. It was HUGE! She saw Belle, Sleeping Beauty (aka Supping Beauty), Ariel, Snow White and Cinderella. It was absolutely adorable. And the food was actually pretty good as a side benefit!






Charlotte's favorite rides were a toss up between Dumbo (or Gumbo, and she called it) and the Nemo ride at Epcot. We may have a future marine biologist.



Trevor's Highlights:

Seeing Mimi (Mickey) Mouse. It could not have been any cuter... He was so excited to see all the characters, Mimi Mouse especially, and was happy to give them all hugs and high-fives. A highlight for Trevor is his new Mimi Mouse hat. He wore it ALL the time! And another highlight was playing catch with his new Toy Story football for a couple of hours while the rest of the gang went on rides. That kid just wants to run and run and run...

Trevor was not so excited about the Dumbo ride, as evidenced in this photo of him burying his head in my lap. It was a BIT of a struggle to keep him in his stroller or keep him from taking off while we waited in lines, but we survived. Having 3 adults was a BIG help.

By the way, the jazz hands are what Trevor does for some reason when we ask him to say, "Cheese!" So we have lots of potos with this pose...








My Highlights:

My new favorite ride was the Toy Story Mania ride. Loved it! That was SO cool and I could have done it over and over again... I also loved the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows in Animal Kingdom. By far our favorite parade was the Pixar Pals parade in Disney Hollywood Studios. The kids were SO pumped to see the Toy Story guys especially...

We all absolutely LOVED Epcot. I wish we could have had 3 days there, and 2 of the 3 without kids. It is a HUGE park, so a nice side benefit is it didn't feel nearly as crowded as the other parks. And there was so much to see! The rides, shows and exhibits were all wonderful. There is definitely a more 'educational' feel to the park. For example, you exit the Nemo ride, and there is a huge room with aquariums and play places and an interactive show (Talking with Crush). So we literally spend a few hours just in that building. And then there was the whole World Showcase, where multiple countries are represented like little villages, including shops, rides, shows, characters, food, etc. We only had time just walk past all the countries, but we (the adults) agreed we could have spend a day or two just exploring that part of Epcot.

The grounds at Epcot were also stunning. There weren't as many flowers at the other parks, but Epcot clearly spared no expense in their landscaping.




Drew's Highlights:

We took a break from Disney one day and went out to Kennedy Space Center. It looked like such a cool place IF you are 10+. But unfortunately with 3 not-so-cooperative kids, we didn't get to fully appreciate all the neat stuff that was there. We went on Wednesday, the day before the launch, and was able to see Discovery out on the launch pad a couple of miles away. That is as close as they let you... We thought about trying to see the launch, but you basically have to camp out ALL day and hope that the launch actually happens at the scheduled time, which often changes. We figured it would be pretty hard to wait the 12 hours with the munchkins, so we didn't go. But while at Epcot, we were able to see the trail of smoke from the Shuttle through the clouds. Very cool.






This may win for longest post with the most pictures, but in case you haven't seen enough, here are a few more of my favorites!