My birthday and Pioneer Day

It's great to have a birthday right after Pioneer Day. It makes for a weekend of fun! 

On Friday morning, July 23, I was live on the scene of the Days of 47 Parade (normally held on the 24th, but KSL is the main sponsor, and they are also contractually obligated to cover the Olympics, which started this weekend)

Here's a picture the Deseret News photographer took of me 

That night, the little kids were invited to their joint-best-friend Emma's house for their first lateover. We watched Luca with the outdoor projector and had cotton candy and snow cones.

 

They stayed up past 10:30pm but didn't do too badly the next day, when we went to Lagoon.

JB got pictures of all of us on the Lazy River, so I took a picture of him carrying the tired princess back to the car.

Then Sunday was my birthday. Here's the kissing picture.

My mother-in-law made delicious carrot cake for me. JB gave me cute new shirts and  the best gift of small photo books month by month. I love it.  The boys all had treats and drawings and sweet hugs all day.

I am now 42, which according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is the answer to life the universe and everything.

Millie is five

 Millie asked for weeks how long til her birthday. But then the night before, she asked if she could still stay four. Sometimes we tell her she's such a big girl now, but she says she'd rather be a little girl, and stay a baby. I've heard this is normal for this age, and possibly also for the youngest child. 

It was really easy for me to shop for her presents -- dolls and anything pink or princess!

She asked for a rainbow cake, so I dyed the inside but forgot to make the outside look rainbow. I got carried away with pink and purple frosting.

Our birthday kisses as she holds her new doll and new pink purse

Here she is in the waiting room before her well child checkup. She chattered away to the doctor about anything and everything.

The other day, two neighbor girls were over here playing, and Millie came sobbing to me, "They don't like to play with dolls!" Nor did they want to dress up with any of her dozen princess dresses. So we all played with her the way she wanted for the afternoon. 

My heart fills to bursting with the sweetness of this girly-girl some days. And how more caring it has made the boys in our home. They tease her so much sometimes but then do whatever she wants. Her favorite saying lately is a laughing (or stern), "No, dad!" and the other thing she says all the time is, "Ugh." It's her new filler word. "Ugh, I was just looking for my dolly's shoes...."

San Diego part three

On Wednesday morning, more surfing practice for the big boys. Ben just really took to it. "Just one more wave!"

Then we went to La Jolla to look around. We passed the San Diego Temple, and Ben and Andrew said it looked like Asgard, and Millie said it looked like Elsa's Castle.

We got a golden parking spot right by a big field. Then we walked up and down looking at the seals and sea lions. James named one "Big Chunga." They were so loud! And it was a bit smelly. But really fun to send a picture of the creatures to my siblings with no explanation, only the caption, "current location."

In that backpack were her little toys and precious things.

In the field, Max and Ben tossed a football, and the little boys climbed these twisted, leaning trees from the winds..

JB the photographer got both of us in a shot. His vacation beard was coming along nicely.

Then we went over to a spot JB had read about with fish tacos and stuff. 

Half the kids like fish (living inland, we just don't eat it enough!) But the other half liked the chicken and steak options, too. And there was a cookie place a block or two away we tried as well. 

Thursday I was very happy for the chance to take the three little kids to Legoland. We have been back in 2012 (see young Max and Benny and toddler Andrew in this post) and then we went in 2015 with a baby James (see all the cute pictures in this post!).  

Here we are when JB and the big boys dropped us off.

We ran around to everything we could, and got there early enough to miss most of the lines, until we got to one long line for the indoor Chima laser adventure and the kids did NOT like waiting. I gave gum and snacks and that got us through.

I remembered riding this ride with a young Jamesey

And now he had his own helicopter.

Millie found these girls to pose with, but her goofy brothers were pretending to kiss them.

They acted like the shark was eating them

Here's the screenshot of the Lego Chima points board

Their favorite parts where when we found a room where you could build and race cars.

They were enamored with this donkey creation. But the Star Wars Lego creations of years past were gone. Probably because of licensing?

I insisted on the boat ride through miniland USA. It was sunny and so pretty hot, but definitely not like the triple digit smoky weather I kept seeing posts about in Utah.

We had such a great day, and they really did so well not begging for Legos, so they got to pick out a little something at the end. Millie picked a minifig package, and when we left the park and got to the van to open it, it was Emmet, and she sobbed because it was a boy. But she rallied quickly, I think Andrew arranged a trade.

That Thursday night JB took the kids on some rides around the neighborhood on Matt and Alison's electric bikes with room for kids on the back. He is so much fun! I am not as adventurous.

. 

Friday morning we were up early to clean up and pack up and hit the road. Millie didn't want to use any of the bathrooms along the way home, stubborn girl (but she gets it from me, I also never liked public bathrooms growing up, but needs must as an adult).  We stopped at Raising Cane's outside Las Vegas. Here's a hungry James, finally trying something new, as documented by JB. I was on the other side of the table cheering him on.

 Thinking about it...

Grabbed it...

Liked it

Then we just powered through for the rest of the drive home that whole day. I put in movie after movie. The big boys liked the new minivan arrangement of having the captains chairs on the second row. They could stretch and sleep more.

The back row of three little kids did....ookay....most of the time.  I loved our trip so much, and will happily go back to the beach today.

San Diego part two

Sunday we watched Church via Zoom, and tried to keep it still a lowkey day, reading our Come Follow Me lesson on the California King bed (which was fantastic). 

We did walk down the pier at Oceanside. I'm including both pictures because look at cheeser Millie.

That night, Alison and Matt made us dinner in their house and our kids played and played with their four kids in the backyard and with their Legos. New best friends!

Matt told JB about a good surfing spot, and he took Max and Ben to try it out Monday morning. They were hooked.

 Then we all went to Oceanside Beach. This was a great spot, with a long shallow area and rolling levels of waves, perfect for more boogie boarding. I even tried it!  And it was gorgeously cloudy and cool. Look at the three littles running into the waves.

We tried Angelos in Oceanside. It came with a lot of fries.

On Tuesday, we tried out Mission Beach. This was also a great beach, with a tempting boardwalk if we had bikes, and we saw a TON of kids and tweens in some sort of surfer or lifeguarding camps all over the beach. They are the ones in yellow shirts in the background of the pictures.

We had to park two blocks away, by the spot where kids were being dropped off for that camp. One kid started counting our family as we passed by, and I saw him mouth "One, two, three, four..."

We got some great Phils BBQ to eat afterward, but James and Millie refused it, so I got them something quick from Burger King but messed up their orders (one likes cheese and no ketchup and one likes ketchup but no cheese or something??!). Notice all the sand below spilling from Millie's seat to the floor....

Then we drove up to the Torrey Pines Glider Park to watch the Hang Gliders.

I could have stayed a lot longer to watch them, and share stories of my crazy adventure where I paraglided off the Swiss Alps in the summer of 1999, but our kids were tired. Until we got back to the casita, and they ran over to play with the Davis kids again.