California... part 2

We took full advantage of the fact that we were on vacation that first weekend we were there... on Saturday, I don't think anyone got dressed until close to noon! :) Aaron and I were up early, as Micah was still on central time and thought he'd had enough sleep by about 6:30, our time... 4:30 California time... but we managed to keep him fairly quiet for a few hours until the rest of the house (except for Jung, who I am convinced is nocturnal) was awake. We had some breakfast, and just let the boys play... and by "boys", I'm referring to all 4 of the men in our lives. Micah and Luke enjoyed their day playing together... and they play very well together. The only issue we had was with Luke's lion push toy, which also happens to be Luke's very favorite toy. We thought it would be a good toy for Micah to use to walk behind, but Luke was a little possessive and struggled to let Micah take a turn. We did manage to give Micah a few turns with the toy, but mostly when Luke was sleeping or distracted with something else. :) The big boys, aka: Aaron and Matt, were content to lay on the couch and watch football. Lisa and I, on the other hand, were not so content to sit at home and be lazy. Don't get me wrong, we took our sweet time getting our acts together that morning, but we did get out of the house for a little while to run some errands. We put together a menu for the week, including our Thanksgiving meal, and ran to the grocery store, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Ross, and Walmart. It was kind of nice to be able to get out just the two of us, and to be able to go from store to store without having to buckle the little guys back into their car seats in between each stop. Plus, you can never have too much sister time! :) (now that we're adults, that's true... if you'd asked us about too much sister time when we were growing up, I think we'd both have a different answer for you!)

How the boys spent their first morning together ~

Breakfast ... "looks good, can I have some?" :)


Banging on the window ~


The live version ~

Sunday, we all got up and went to church together, and after the service was over Aaron, Micah and I headed out to Santa Monica Pier to meet up with our friend Kevin. He had been in Santa Clarita visiting some friends, and we decided to take advantage of the fact that we were so close, geographically, to get together. I'm mad at myself for not getting a good picture of all of us from that afternoon, but here's what I do have ~

At the end of the pier ... it was VERY windy!



In the aquarium under the start of the pier ... Micah had a blast looking at the fish and getting to touch things like starfish, seaweed, and the like.



Micah's first encounter with the Pacific Ocean ... or ANY ocean, for that matter ~

We had a wonderful time catching up with Kevin, and introducing Micah to him. Our time together went by too fast, but we are grateful we were able to see Kevin at all, since he lives way up in the Sacramento area. :) Thanks for making the trip down and making time to see us, Kevin! :)

After a great day in Santa Monica, we still made it home in time for Micah and Luke to play together before bed. :) We were all amused by the fact that instead of Luke showing Micah how (and encouraging him) to walk, Micah brought Luke back down to his hands and knees and the two of them would crawl around together. The funniest part was that Luke had a hard time keeping up with Micah! (who is insanely fast on his hands and knees!) Luke would tire out pretty quickly and get back up and start running, while Micah just put his head down and crawled that much faster to keep up. :)

C'mon, Luke, let's go!

On Monday, once again, we had a fairly lazy morning. Matt had to go in to school for a few hours, so after taking it easy for a while we decided to take a drive up to Oak Glen to walk around and taste some of their famous cider donuts. (Lisa had been hearing amazing things about these donuts, and Aaron and I didn't need a whole lot of convincing... who doesn't love a good donut in the fall? ...or anytime of the year?)

Here we are, enjoying a nice, lazy morning ~

Sharing their juice ... so sweet!

How big are Luke and Micah? SO BIG! :)

Playing together ~

This is the infamous lion toy I mentioned earlier. It was definitely the favored toy, by both boys, during our week together :)

Sadly, I only have one picture from our time at Oak Glen. But again, you can check Lisa's blog (http://deboerdays.blogspot.com) for more pics. :)


And we ended the weekend ... or started the week ... with more football. Some friends of Lisa and Matt's had invited them over to watch the Broncos/Chargers game on Monday night, so we all headed over there to hang out and watch the game. In my opinion, our "pre-game" entertainment was much better than the stuff they have on ESPN. :) Luke and Micah got out some footballs and "played" their own little pickup game with Aaron and Lisa. What fun!

Here they are, playing in the entertainment center at Lisa and Matt's friends' house. :)

Our next adventure takes us to the San Diego zoo... stay tuned! :)