I can't tell you how much I love summertime with kids. Kaylee and Connor LOVE being outside so we have spent a lot of our summer doing just that.

I took the kids to the North Salt Lake Splash Pad a few times. They do okay but both love going to the playground more than playing in water so we usually end up at the park.




 We had so much fun and can't wait till next season. I got passes along with a few other ladies in my ward. My kids are so finicky in their behavior that I didn't call and meet up with friends very often. It was just easier to pick up and go when they were in good moods. But next year will be a little different because they will be older and will want to play with friends.
 At the beginning of the season and for most of it, Connor would play for a bit but then would take a nap in the stroller while Kaylee and I swam in the big pool. We also mostly spent our time at pirates cove at the beginning of the season. But by the end, I got brave and the kids got more comfortable- so we did everything except the big slides. I felt comfortable taking both kids in the lazy river, the big pool, and occasionally playing in pirates cove. Kaylee would swim on her own with her life jacket so I had free hands to help Connor. Kaylee would also go on the little slide in pirates cove by herself and stay right where I could see her most of the time. I would tell her if she didn't listen or if she left than we had to go home and we did a few times, so she learned and did really really well.

So...I was having a stressful day/week and was feeling a bit overwhelmed and down. BJ said, "we just need a vacation". I gave him a huge grin and said YES we do. So I started looking on line for good deals and found some awesome last minute deals for the next weekend to go to LAX. Since I am not pregnant and I'm not breastfeeding and needing to be with a baby all the time- we wanted to go on roller coasters. It is a huge understatement to say that BJ LOVES roller costers and especially hard core roller coaster at six flags. He used to go to them with his mom and brother. He still remembers going when he was young and his mom and dad (before they were divorced) went on a roller coaster while BJ and JC had to wait for them because they weren't tall enough. Apparently he would cry and cry because he wasn't tall enough (okay I don't know about the crying but he was upset) so as soon as he was old enough to go he would and he has been obsessed ever since.

We were able to get a hold of my aunt Sherrie who was more than willing to take the kids for our fun weekend adventure from Friday night to EARLY Monday morning.

While we were waiting at the airport for our first flight BJ was jumping off the walls- he was so excited. I had never seen him so giddy. It was so cute and made me really excited that we decided to go on this trip!

We go in to LAX Friday nigh, and when I say Friday night..we didn't end up getting to our hotel and settled down till around 1:30 am. Our hotel was about 50 minutes away from the LAX airport and after picking up our rental car, a few detours, and crazy traffic for midnight we finally got there. BJ was a trooper driving and navigating himself because I kept falling asleep.

There was a free shuttle from our hotel to six flags that BJ took advantage of. He dropped me off to get ahead of the line and then he came and met me at the park. Front of the line oh yeah!
We had done our research and decided that we wanted to go on the X2 ride first because it has the longest line. As soon as they opened the door we started running along with everyone else. BJ is so much more in shape than I am and after running a short distance I am huffing and puffing yelling to him "go without me!" like it was life or death. ha ha We made it and weren't too far down the line to ride the ride but had to wait a good 30 minutes to actually get on the ride. This was the best ride to start with because it was so scary. Even BJ was scared for a minute on it and he NEVER get's scared on roller coasters. BJ ended up going on the ride one more time and waited for a few hours so we were glad we went there first.
After X2 we went and purchased our fast passes. We figured we were only going to be there once and wanted to go all out....plus having the fast pass would end up helping me with my knees and preventing standing for long periods of time, because the fast pass would allow you to make an appointment for the ride without having to stand in line. It was SO nice. We would schedule a ride and walk right up to the front. SOO worth the money!


So after riding a few rides I really started to get sick (which I never do on roller coasters) so I would have to take breaks in between rides. I actually even ended up going to a grassy area to relax and ended up falling asleep for a bit which really helped (that was when BJ waited in line for X2 again). I went on a few small rides afterwards while I was waiting for BJ.

This six flags (Magic Mountain) had several really good roller coasters. I was wishing my stomach could handle more all at once because we were having so much fun. BJ was so good and would let me rest in between rides while he ran to re-ride some rides that really made me sick. When he and is mom and brother would go- there was no stopping. They would go from ride to ride to ride to ride. They have stomach's of steel!


This was at the end of the night...NO LINE! Crazy huh. We could have gone on this one over and over and over again but decided to go around and pick some other rides to ride.

We had soo much fun. We were both super tired afterwards though and I was starving so we picked up some take out from Denny's and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday morning we headed to church for sacrament meeting and then caught the shuttle to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. I know I know it probably wasn't the best thing to do on a Sunday but we were only there for two days and wanted to capitalize on the time we had there...plus I really really wanted to go to this water park!
We ended up getting fast passes to this park as well (they were only $10 each) and it ended up being really worth it. The lines here were half as long as six flags Magic Mountain but went super duper slow.





After two crazy busy days and having our flight leave at 6 am the next morning- we were both exhausted!! So the flight on the way home included a small nap for both of us.


BJ headed to work and I went to pick up our kids. They didn't even miss us! They had so much fun. Guess we will need to go on more couple vacations :)



We also gave them each a smalls stuffed animal. Kaylee still sleeps every night with her tweety bird.
Oh this is a picture of what BJ went on that I REFUSED. It is a 400 ft high drop that goes 85 miles per hour with you looking straight down at the ground (its called Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom).

 I haven't done a 'photo shoot' with the kids for awhile so I decided to take it on the other day. Kaylee lasted a little longer than Connor which is why there are a few more pictures of her on here- but I love them both the same :D.
 Kaylee is getting smarter and smarter. She communicates like she is 4 years old. I love having conversations with her. Whenever I say a word to her that she doesn't know- she repeats it to me with this puzzled look on her face as if to say "what are you talking about mom". She is such a little helper around the house and has an amazing memory. Kaylee still loves books. I took her to the library recently and got my favorite book 'A Monster at the End of This Book" with Grover from Seasame Street and she had me read it to her 7 times in a row. And when I told her to chose another book- she started to "read" it by herself, using a lot of the same words from the book.
 Kaylee has been our little morning sunshine (along with Connor) in waking up at 5:30 am every morning. Daddy finally told her that she had to stay in her room until the sun came up. She know comes out of her room anywhere between 6-630 am (6:45 if we are really really lucky) and says "Good Morning Guys!" a happy as can be. She then takes one 1 hour nap in the afternoon and then heads to bed at between 7:30-8pm.
 We have been putting Connor and Kaylee in the same room again and it has been a little bit of a challenge. We usually end up going in their room when we hear Connor screaming and usually find Kaylee laying in the crib with him. Kaylee LOVES her Connor but she doesn't love it when he plays with the toys she wants, or gets attention from the parents, or knocks over her tower. They have a lot of good times where they play well together but just recently they have been struggling with sharing. But the funny thing is every time one is napping the other is anxiously waiting for the other to come down to play.

 Kaylee is doing so good with her manners. She says "please" and "thank you" to everyone. I just recently taught her to say "excuse me" when she runs into someone or if she passes gas. We were walking by this dog and she said, "excuse me dog" and then "excuse me guys" to the people walking by the dog. She will also say "hi" to everyone. I have been working on teaching her that we don't talk to strangers which is confusing her because she always says, "but mom- they are nice!"

 Kaylee's imagination is really growing. I can start a game and she will just go with it and make things up and play along with her stuffed animals. Yesterday she took her "pink bear" and let him go potty, get a treat and then put him to bed. She gave him milk, sang a song, and then said, "don't come out until the sun is up pink bear".


 One of my favorite things about our sweet Kaylee- is how concerned she is of other peoples feelings. She on several occasions will give me a hug and say "I love you mom". I seriously melts my heart every time she does it. The other day I was having a sad moment and she came and said, "don't cry mom. Its ok. I go potty and it make you happy?" I said, "yeah it makes me happy when you go potty" she she ran into the bathroom and went potty just to make me feel better. So cute

Speaking on potty training. NO MORE PULL UPS!!! She has been free of pull ups for a few weeks now and is doing amazing. We have even heard her in the middle of the night in the bathroom going potty. She still however loves the recognition. She is always grabbing my hand saying "Come See MOM! I went poop! I went poop!"

Oh I forgot to mention. I talked a lot about the cute and fun things Kaylee does. But she has also just recently started these SCREAM fits. Where she will ask me for something like for example "I wanna play a game" (on the I-pad). I tell her 'no' for whatever reason and she looks at me and screams "YES RIGHT NOW!!!!" at the top of her lungs. The first few times (actually most of the time) I have to do whatever I can to keep from laughing. It is hysterical because she actually thinks screaming is going to help get what she wants.


 
This little kid is such a morning person- more so than Kaylee if you can believe it. BJ sure has rubbed off on our kids ;) This is seconds after he woke up at 6:15 am, and he was ALL smiles and giggles.  
Connor knows what he wants and when he wants it. ha ha Seriously though- this kid has got an opinion about everything. When he is tired you best be putting him to bed right then or he will hold his breath and pass out or just recently he has started pulling hair and hitting.

The breath holding spells started awhile ago but he has been doing them more often and has even had a seizure afterwards just to give us an even bigger scare. We called the pediatrician and I am going to follow up on his next wellness check. When he is upset he will just hold his breath and then seconds later he goes stiff and I lay him on the ground and then he will turn purple with his eyes rolling back into his head and this last time all of his joints tensed up with his fingers being squeezed together into a fist and he start to shake for a few seconds. GAH it was so scary to watch. I have researched a lot about it and it seems to be something he will grow out of. But being the mom/nurse I tend to freak out and worry more when it comes to my kids. So since he started walking on his tippy toes lately I automatically thought of "neuro" and all the problems he could have. But even though I am nervous about it I am not so much that I think he needs to see a neurologist right now. I just want to stay in contact with my pediatrician and just keep track of everything he is doing. Connor has amazing dexterity and hand eye coordination so that eases a lot of my worries.
Speaking of hand eye coordination. Connor is a lover of lego's just like his big sister was. He will play and play with lego's for as long as you will watch him do so. He also loves to read. He will bring me a book and open my hands and place the book into my hands so I will read it to him.
Connor has a nightime routine but it is not as crazy important to him as it was with Kaylee. He sometimes barely makes it to 6:30pm and doesn't want you to do anything but put him in his bed and close the door...oh and hand him his binky and blanket. We wanted to get rid of his binky while he was younger before he got too attached. But he goes to bed so easily with it- so we have kept it ONLY for naps and bedtime. We leave it in his playpen so he doesn't even see it until then. It has really worked out for us. BUT back to his routine (when he lets us do it). He brushes teeth, we read books while he drinks milk, and then we sing him a song (usually 'I am a Child of God"). Connor goes to bed around 6:30-7pm and wakes up at 6:15 usually. We tried and tried to put the kids down earlier in hopes that they would wake up later- but they still wake up at the same time and are just onry so what do ya do? Connor then takes a nap at 9-10am for an hour or two and then again around 12:30-1:30 for another hour or two. The only time he wakes up talking in his crib and smiling is 6:15 am (so I usually miss that...because BJ gets up with him).
Connor has the cutest little pot belly and if you pat your belly he will pat his right back at you. Connor says "uh oh", "dadda", "na night" , "thank you", "cheese" and a few other words. He likes to play pass with the ball and talk to 'dadda' on the phone. He LOVES his daddy- in fact part of me wonders if he wakes up early just so he gets that time with him before BJ goes to work.

Connor will eat just about anything you put in front of him (except when he is teething- then he can be hard to please). He loves applesauce, yogurt, graham crackers, and any kind of sweet treat. He drinks out of a sippy and still likes his milk warm but will occasionally drink it cold. He will not however drink water. I am still working on it- but he will go forever without drinking if I keep offering him water (little stinker).


Connor can go up and down stairs fairly good and is a really fast runner- especially when mom or dad are coming. He likes to do whatever his sister is doing and will follow her laughing (even when she is teasing him).