Welcoming home Daddy, then off to San Diego!!

Is that not the cutest thing ever? She loves to follow him or prompt him up the stairs, then usually to her room to play. I love that she gets so excited when he accomplishes things, even if it is climbing stairs, which he has been doing for a while.

Welcoming home Daddy from another trip, around the world. Started in anchorage, then to Colorado Springs, Germany, Afghanistan, Diego Garcia, Japan, California, Hawaii, Guam, Missouri, then back to anchorage! We are always so happy to have him home again.


Our sleepy babies. Bella fell asleep in front of her door when she was supposed to be in bed.



Is that not Josh or what?

Bella got her first pedicure with me before our trip to San Diego. I wanted to have some girl time with her. She loved it and was so proud of her toes afterwards. I may have started a bad habit a little early :)




Our beautiful finished toes!

Leaving on a jet plane....off to San Diego for our niece Brinna's baptism and to see lots of family.

Isabella with her cousin Makenzie, those two are like two peas in a pod. They love to play together and copy one another. They are only a couple months apart in age and really get along well. I just love that Bella has so much fun with her cousins.

Carson with Uncle Jacob, Josh's youngest brother.

Splashing in the fountain....isn't water so much fun, especially when it is nice and hot out. Did I mention how nice and hot it was there :)

The whole clan.

Carson with Grandma.

Ooooo........grass. Hmmm...should I eat this or just stare at it?

Trying on some random person's shoes they found. One shoe for each girl.

The famous Hotel Coronado. This place is so amazing. I wanted to stay there so bad. It is absolutely beautiful.

Can we just pretend for a minute we are taking a second honeymoon here?

They had beautiful flowers all over the grounds. This tree had such brilliant red flowers it seemed like it glowed.

Playing on the beach, in the ice cold water with her cousins, Jaden, Brinna, Makenzie and Avery.

Such a sweet picture, I am not even sure what she is pointing too, but that little finger is so cute.

I just love baptisms. The spirit is always so strong there, you can just feel it and it gives me such a warm feeling. We were all so proud of Brinna, looking so grown up and getting ready to make such an important step in her life, to enter the waters of baptism.

Me and Ali catching up.

Everyone who came, it was great to all be together on such a special day.

La Jolla beach where we got to see seals lounging in the sand. Carson hung out with Grandma, and loved seeing everything.Such a sweet little face!

About 3 seconds after we took this picture at the end of the pier, we got splashed big time by an ice cold salty wave...wish we had a picture of that!

A spectacular view of San Diego. If you look closely you can see the temple in the background to the right of us.

Josh being silly with his brother Daniel. Don't they look so cute going down the slide together?

Carson sound asleep cuddled up with Nonna

Hanging out in the shade while the kids played.

The men showing off their brute strength, competing to see who could last the longest.

We also went to Magic Mountain. That was an interesting day. It started off with the two oldest girls, Kylee and Brinna throwing up the whole night before and the next morning, but they toughed it out and ended up having a great time towards the second half of the day. Then Andrew lost his keys and phone on a roller coaster, which was never found. We still had a great time though. Bella and Makenzie are trying to buckle themselves in to a little roller coaster that they rode over and over!

Carson's first ride. After going with Daddy first he got to take a second ride with Nonna. He absolutely loved it.

Bella loves carousels and had to ride this first thing when we got to the park.