Love, Las Vegas, and California

February was a very exciting month for us!  We'll start this post off with some pictures of my 3 valentines babies, red T-shirts courtesy of grandma Westover :) 

I love Samuel's face in this one :)  

Cutie pie chunky baby!

My sweet, beautiful Lil

and Mr. G.Q here.  Handsome like his daddy!

After a fabulous Valentine's day filled with balloons, cards, and oh yes, chocolate - we headed into our favorite time that inevitably comes each semester; finals!  I'm telling you, we know how to party around here!  Luckily, there were no shingles or migraines this time.  Just a sinus infection :)  We like to keep things interesting.

After all that fun though, we had our spring break to look forward to!  We were headed to CA, and decided to take the stop through Las Vegas route to break up the drive and to see friends and family.  We left on Parker's 30th birthday (I told you, we know how to party!)  and got to Las Vegas happy to see grandma and grandpa Dixon!  Mom Dixon had recently returned from a cruise to Antarctica and brought back these adorable sweaters for the kids.  (My eskimo babies:)

The next evening we had Jen, Kevin & Co, and Kate, RJ, and baby Emmett over to celebrate Parker's birthday with us!  

Baby Emmett is so, so cute!  And had about tripled in size since we saw him last :)  Kate is such a good mommy and I love watching her with her boy.

Of course the kids wanted to go to the "swing park' while we were there.

Sam loved the tire swing.

And cuddling with grandma.

Crazy haired lady!

After our few day stop in Vegas, we continued on our journey to good ole Antioch!  One of the main reasons I wanted to go to CA was to see my grandparents who we haven't seen since Samuel was 6 weeks old.  It was so great to see grandma and grandpa Jensen and have my kids play with the toys at their house (which I played with as a kid).  And no visit would be complete without a ride in the golf cart!

Mom needs to sharpen up her golf cart driving skills I think though.  She kept getting the wheel "stuck" going round and round and round in circles!

We love grandma and grandpa Jensen so much!

Back at mom and dad's house, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and big backyard.

Lily and Samuel loved the tricycle.

Jeremiah got some batting pointers from daddy-o.

My beautiful girl!

Jeremiah got pretty good after a few swings!

And of course Samuel wanted in on the fun.

Another perk of going to California was that I got to see some of my friends I haven't seen for a while.  I got to meet Becky's baby girl with bright red hair!  And see Nicole's kids that were so much bigger than the last time I saw them!  Becky and Nicole both have beautiful kids and Jeremiah and Lily had a very fun day playing with them.  It was very fun to me to get caught up with my good friends.  They're the kind that you can, after not seeing each other for a while, pick up right where you left off and talk for hours.  And we did :)

I also got to see my high school friend Alix, who I hadn't seen for 9 years!  It was so great to see her and hear about how well she is doing and reminisce about our old adventures :)  It was also kind of surprising how quickly my kids got comfortable around her.  Lily was Miss chatty and Samuel kept giving her that big grin of his.  I've always known that kids were a good judge of character.

The next day, we got to go to the beach!  A few months ago, I came to the realization that my kids had never been to the beach before!  I decided that this needed to be remedied and our trip to CA was the perfect time!  We went to Pacifica beach right outside San Francisco.   It.  Was.  Beautiful.

Samuel especially loved watching the water.

And hanging out with grandpa.

Jeremiah and Lily were most excited about all of that sand!  One of Jeremiah's dreams has been to build a sandcastle at the beach.

All was going splendidly, the sun was shining, the waves were crashing, and then . . . true to bay area beach weather, the clouds rolled in, the wind picked up - way up, and it suddenly got very cold!  Lily started crying hysterically and only finally calmed after Parker formed a shield for her.

Jeremiah got to build his sandcastle before we left.

And we quickly snapped a family picture before we ran to the car for cover!

Since our beach trip turned out to be much shorter than planned, we thought it would be great to stop by the Oakland temple and show the kids where mommy and daddy were married.

6 1/2 years and 3 kids later!

That night (Saturday) Parker discovered that what we thought was a 2 week break was really a 1 week break and he would be starting school Monday!  We had a last minute birthday party for Parker where he got his first "Midwestern" T-shirt from mom and dad :)

And then back to Vegas Sunday morning!  Mom and Dad Dixon flew Parker home that night (Thank you, thank you!)  The kids and I stayed for a couple of days and then Mom Dixon drove home with us.

While we were there, we got in another visit with Jen and the kids.  This picture was one of three taken by Jeremiah.  This was definitely the most flattering . . .

We also got to see grandma and grandpa Dixon while we were there.  We saw grandpa's plum trees he had just planted, and Lily liked the birdhouse in their garden.

On Wednesday we journeyed back home and had a fun trip with grandma in the car.  Everything's more fun with grandma :) 

Even taking a picture!  :)  

These two pictures somehow got mixed up in the order, so they're here at the end.  My Sam loved playing outside.

And we had a great visit with grandma and grandpa Westover.  Lily was less than thrilled about their dog Rocco (spent the whole time being held by Parker), but Jeremiah warmed up to him, and Samuel thought he was great fun!  In the car on the way home, Lily said, "Who had fun?"  Truly my child :)

We had a wonderful visit with our family and friends in California and Las Vegas and I'm so grateful that we got to go!  Thank you to both mom and dad Westover and Dixon!  We are so very blessed to be part of such amazing families and to know so many outstanding people!