Encinitas Christmas Parade

sawyer.carter.shea waiting for the fire truck to come

"fire truck mom!"

Dada.Gwen

Gwen

Jono.Shelly.Gwen

Shea.Carter.Sawyer

A few weeks ago, the Robinsons and our family went to the Encinitas Christmas Parade. It was just the thing to get into the holiday spirit. We got bundled up, drank hot chocolate(well what was left of it after it spilled all over the ground), and had fun watching the parade. The kids loved it. It even rained for a little bit, I guess thats our california snow. :)

Santa's Lap

Leaves

We have an enormous "spiky ball" tree in our backyard. In the fall and winter it drops hundreds of these leaves and spikey balls. They literally cover our whole backyard. The boys love to help Jono rake all the leaves up in a big pile and then jump in them and get buried in them. Carter wanted to stay in the leaves. He said it was warm and cozy inside. He was pretending that he was going to sleep in the cozy bed of leaves. Sawyer not so much. He had fun in them, but then decided he was done.

Thanksgiving in AZ

Mema.Gwen

Mema.Gwen

Gwen.Mama

we had a fun little picinic before everyone went on a hike. We asked all the little kids to find the biggest or coolest stick and then come back and we would look at them all. Well this is what carter came back with...a tree!(:

Sawyer.Bennett eating their yummy big sticks

Collins family with beautiful kiley on her baptism day

gwen sleeping on the way home to Cali. Side note: When I am holding gwen she has to be holding on to my hair even if its the smallest strand of hair, its like her comfort blanket. So I went and bought her a strawberry shortcake doll that had lots of hair so she could feel comforted while in her carseat. As soon as I handed the doll to her she grabbed on to the hair, sucked her thumb and fell asleep.(:

Carter is the only one that didnt fall asleep, so he just sat in the back quietly watching his movie and eating his teddy grahams.

Little Sawyer fast asleep

We had a fun Thanksgiving this year in AZ. This was an especially special Thanksgiving because this was Phil & Trish a.k.a Mema & Papa's first holiday back from their mission. We had a fun time being with the family, relaxing, eating yummy food, doing a collins family turkey trot, doing black friday, and going to sweet Kiley's baptism. The boys had so much fun being with their cousins, and Mema and Papa! They can never get enough of them! We had tons of fun and are so grateful for our families!

*just wish I would have taken more pics of everyone*

Dear Santa...

The boys wanted to get a jump start and write Santa their Christmas List in November. So for family home evening we helped the boys write their letter. Carter new exactly what he wanted. A Spark Scooter, and a remote control helicopter. He said, "That's all I want, just 2 things." But he always has a list of things he continues to tell me that he wants.(: Sawyer said he wants a new hat, a yo gabba toy, and a backpack. He would be happy with anything. After we wrote and sealed the letter and decorated the envelopes, the boys ran down to the mail box for the mail man to pick up the next day! They were so excited! The boys got even more excited when they saw that their letter had been taken to be delivered to the Santas work shop in the North Pole. Love my fun, cute boys! Holidays are so much fun with my sweet kids.

birthday

For my birthday we celebrated by going to lunch at the Spectrum with Jono and his sisters. Its always fun to meet up for some lunch with Jono and to do a little bit of shopping. After lunch, Jono got off work early, at the last minute we decided to go to Disneyland to play a little and to get my birthday gift card worth $72. If you didn't know Disney has been doing a really cool thing this past year. IF you go to Disneyland on your birthday you either get a free admission into the park if you aren't a annual pass member, but if you already have a year pass to disneyland than they give you a $72 credit to use at the stores. Since I wasn't going to buy anything for myself at the stores we told the boys they could pick out anything they wanted from the store. They were so excited that it could be anything they wanted. They both picked a big buzz lightyear talking toy. So much fun for them. We had a fun time celebrating my birthday at Disneyland.

san fran

Gwen's first ride in a Taxi

in our bedroom at the Mark Hopkins hotel

Peek-a-boo...Gwen lovin' her bath time

Mom.Gwen on Lombard Street

Dad.Gwen

Mom.Gwen walking down to Fishermans Wharf

Pier 39 behind us, thought you would be able to see it, but you can't

Gwen at Pier 39: lots of fun shops, vintage candy stores, fun place to walk around. Right off the pier there were hundreds of seals that all laid out in the sun on wooden rafts that were made just for the seals.

Dad. Gwen at Pier 39 with Alkatraze behind them

Sweet Gwen

All the crazy, barking seals at pier 39. Kind of entertaining.

Jono eating some delicious fresh crab at Fishermans Wharf

Jono.Shelly at Fishermans Wharf

Golden Gate Bridge

Jono and the funny man who wanted to get in the pic with Jono at Ghirardelli Square.

Our naughty treat..so yummy!

took some time for Gwen to have a little swing at a little local park

Alkatraze

We carried Gwen and the stroller down this long, long stair case that was a long side of the famous crooked street on Lombard.

jono.shelly in front of the crooked street

the crooked streeet: was such a popular attraction, so many people wait in line forever to drive down this crooked street. We walked all the way up this massive hill with the stroller to get to the top of the crooked street just so we could walk down a massive hill with the stroller.(: We were laughing and having fun while doing it though, and are glad we did it.

Just hanging out after a fun day in the city

fresh and clean

and ready for bed.

Jono and I decided that after 6 years of being married and over 4 years of having kids, we needed a little weekend get away. A very much needed get away from the kids, well almost all the kids. We decided to escape to San Fran for a break and relaxation. Gwen got to come with us since she still won't take a bottle, but she was a perfect little girl for her mom and dad. She was so good, and was loving all the attention. I had never been to San Fran, and I loved it! It was definitley a place for a fun quick trip. It was so nice to not have any particular schedule to follow. We shopped a lot in Union Square, walked all over the city, went to fishermans wharf, pier 39, ate yummy crab, ate at other yummy restraunts, went to Ghirardelli square, window shopped along cute, quaint streets with boutiques, relaxed and so on. We decided we needed to do this at least once a year if not more! I missed my boys tons by the end, but was loving the time I had with Jono! Its not very often that I get to hang out one on one with my man. (: Thanks Jono for taking me and for making it such a fun weekend. I think we will definitely be making a return to this great city!