Newport Album

We're Ba-ack...

10 days sure flies when you're havin fun! But its so true, there's no place like HOME. We got to Newport on Wednesday night where we stayed with my BF from high school, Jenna and her familia. Who have been graciously inviting me to stay with them every year for the past 11 years. (even after I got married, good thing they like the rest of em!) Maybe they enjoy my company, or maybe they are just TOO nice to say NO! Anyhow, Sandy our "beach house mom" takes such great care of us, and cooks DELICIOUS food. We went to the beach pretty much every day and then Saturday came and Jer's family came up and we had the top floor of the beach house and the Hestands had the bottom floor. What a party! And of course Brayden and Kosty were excited to be with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Zach and Aunt Cede.

On Tuesday we all made a trip to Sea World, after mucho convincing Brayden that Disneyland was "closed up" for the week (I hated lying to him, but TRUST me, it was the only way!) and then he was very excited for Sea World! Right when we got there, we rented a double stroller (the best $15 I ever spent) and we ate lunch and went to the dolphin show. It was so funny because every single time the animals did something cool, ALL of us would turn and look at Brayden and Koston to see their reactions. It is so much more fun to see the magic through their little eyes. The kids LOVED to read the map and point out where they wanted to go next. Kosty did surprisingly well too. I was nervous about a full day with no nap-- he is a definite "NEED-a-nap-kinda-kid." And he was soooo good until about 4:00 when he was officially exhausted. We were at the starfish area, and they were each holding a starfish, when Kosty decided it would be much more fun to slam it back into the water, after some disturbed looks, he giggled and wanted to do it "a-gin!" So I took him away and he threw a fit, then fell asleep. That poor helpless starfish. Ouch. I sure hope he will forgive Kosty someday! Anyways, we went to the sting ray exhibit and Brayden was too scared to pet one. I said, "Brayden, when we came to Sea World last time, you pet them. " He said, "Well, mama. There's 2 of me. That one was the brave one, and this one is NOT." I just love his explanations. We also decided to go all the way and hit up the 9:30 "Shamu Rocks" show at dark. It was sooooo awesome. It so rekindled my long-lost dream of becoming a Shamu trainer. How fun would that be! And Kosty was jammin out, out of control dancing the whole time. It was hilarious! After the show there were fireworks and we said our goodbyes to Sea World.

Pretty much every day after that we hit up the beach and had yummy food. I took Kosty on a walk down to the pier every morning, he sure loved it. We caught sand crabs, (My record was 56 of those lil guys in ONE handful, it was pretty gross.)We rode the beach cruisers, played night Frisbee with the glow in the dark Frisbee, (followed by the next day Kevin giving Brayden private Frisbee coaching after he declared he was the "stinkinist" player ever!) we played Apples to Apples, went to Jane's corndog for snacks and ice cream and of course all the fun shops. And we were pretty much all deliriously tired by the end of each day. Of course all the Figgins would tell you it was me! Everything makes me laugh really, really hard once I get past tired! Jer thinks he is so funny, but really he just always takes full advantage of my "delirious window." The last day we went over to Huntington Beach (about 10 min away) for the U.S. Open. It was crazy, there were millions of people. They had this Surfer Induction Hall Of Fame thing in the morning, and Jer got his surfboard autographed by Al Merrick. He was SO Happy! They had a ton of Pro-Surfers signing posters all day, and Brayden was so happy to get one!

Kosty had a couple of OBSESSIONS on this trip.

#1. Talking about Jenna's dad Jeff and how he growled at him, and it scared him. Seriously, poor Jenna and Kevin. That's all he would talk about for about 3 hours straight one night. He would point at the beach house, growl, and then tuck his hands up around his chest. We had to narrate for him. "At the beach house, Jeff growled at you, and it scared you. " He would say "yeah." and then repeat the motions over and over. He must have really thought it was therapy.

#2. Pushing the dang stroller!!!!!!! It was the most annoying thing ever. He wanted to push that thing everywhere. Notice the crazy look in his eye in the pic.

#3. The Sea World map. He would sit and and look at that thing over and over. And his favorite thing was to point at the flamingos and hear me say "pee-yoo! stinky!" For some reason that cracks him up.

#4. His fear moved on to Tyler (Zach's friend) and Dale (Cede's boyfriend) every morning before we went downstairs, he HAD to tell me about how he was scared of Tyler and Dale.

Ok. Enough! I am cutting myself off at this point. But this was a such fun trip and I want to remember all of it! :)

Adios...

Off to Newport Beach for 10 days, so excited, but wish badly that I could fast forward packing (yuck) and the six hour drive (yuckier). But cant stand one more minute of this INSANE heat inferno! (yuckiest) I swear this has been the hottest summer, I know I say that every year. One more funny converstion with Mr. Bray before I go...

We were driving home today and he said, "Mama, I have to go potty really, really bad."
Me: "Sorry Bray, but I'm driving as fast as I can."
Bray: "Well how fast are you going anyway?"
Me: "about 60."
Bray: "Well, you do need to FOLLOW the RULES."

Worth jotting down...

Brayden came running in my room today and said, "Mama. I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is Kosty said 'Bakery'. The bad news is my finger hurts."

I know I don't want to forget that one!
I LOVE how he gets genuinely excited when Kosty learns a word. :)

The KING

For those of you that know Kosty, you know that this crown is so perfect for him! He thinks he rules around here. If he's not happy, nobody's happy! Sometimes we even joke and bow to him. He is such a riot! He likes things and people just so. He LOVES who he loves, and GROWLS at whoever he is unsure about. Oh man. The growl. It is so embarrassing. I feel so bad for everyone that has been a victim. My own sister, my flesh and blood, told me she is "intimidated" by him! :) And I am always having to "explain" his complex personality, and telling everyone to not take offense! And he is CRAZY about Jer. When he is home, forget about it. I might as well drop off the earth. He won't even let me change his diaper. He will rip it out of my hand, and say, "DADA." And according to Jer's mom, its payback. She said Jer acted just like that when he was little. There are even pics of Jer throwing fits with the SAME face. It makes me feel better though to know that Jer turned out pretty darn good, thank heavens. He is just a fiesty little guy, but he is oh so sweet once he is broken in. Like I said, "my wolf in sheep's clothing." He is SO cute though, and good thing. I LOVE his soft long hair, and his big dimples, and his cute toes. And he is my little cuddle bug. He loves to snuggle. He LOVES to color. If ever there is a pen and paper, or a magnadoodle, He sits on my lap and starts barking orders at me. "moo." that means I should draw a cow, and fast. Then he erases it, and says, "baa." that means I should draw a sheep, fast. Erases it, and says, "Neigh." Well you get the idea. He could do that all day. So one time I thought I would outsmart him and I had all of the animals drawn on the magnadoodle before he got to it. But oh, no. He erased them all and I had to start over. One by one, per his request. Little stinker.

Confident Boy

Brayden is SO CONFIDENT, he really thinks he is somethin! and he is. But, I wonder if he is embarking over-confidence! He LOVES it when I compliment him, in fact he asks me to repeat and list his admirable qualities, yikes. Well the other day his Aunt Cede said he was cute. Then he said, "I know. AND I am responsible, independent, smart, and funny." Grandma said, "oh, and what does independent mean?" he said, "it just means you can make your own toast, and pour your own milk and stuff..."

Another funny thing he said was when I was hugging him really tight, he said, "mama, you're making me like a crescent!" Which reminded me yet another time that I was squeezing him when he was 2ish. He said, "mama, you're squeezing me like a grapefruit."
Funny guy :)

This is why I NEVER send Jer to the grocery store...

Tonight I sent him to get french bread. He came home with a bag of Mother's oatmeal iced cookies, a bag of Mother's chocolate chip cookies, Dreyer's Rocky Road, Doritos, and Honeycomb. Oh. and the french bread.

A Very Happy Fourth...

Yesterday was by FAR my favorite fourth of July ever. We did all the same things I'm sure EVERYONE else did too, but it was just really fun. We went over to Jer's parents and swam ALL day. Brayden has gone from being terrified of going under water to a little fish. Its so crazy. He did swimming lessons last year, but he totally regressed, it only made it worse. But after some time with his Uncle Zach in the pool, (I guess Zach has special skills that we dont!)suddenly he made a complete turnaround. The first time I saw him swim, he told me to "watch" but I wasn't expecting him to go under and swim to the other side like he did. My jaw dropped for a LONG time. He was just beaming and cracking up at my dramatic jaw-drop pose (complete with letting the ice I was chewing on fall out). I am SO proud of him! Zach is the best! Poor Kosty in the pic look at his HUGE swollen diaper, so funny. Geez mom, get me a little swimmer! Oh, and I sort of learned how to dive, Jer tried coaching me for a while, and I did a few baby dives, but I never did work up the courage to run, jump, and dive. I don't know what it is about diving, it just makes me so scared! Urg. Brayden kept on cheering for me in the sidelines, "you can do it mama. It's easy." and "are you scared?" "its ok." He even critiqued my attempts, in one I completely panicked and flopped in like a spider (yowser), and he said, "no mama, that looked like this" as he held up a limp hand with all the fingers pointed down. :) For some reason he sure is fascinated by my weaknessess. I think it must be funny for him to see his mom "scared" or vulnerable about things. He must just always think that mom & dad are brave and fearless. Not so! Sweet boy. Then we went to the Fireworks show by our house. Jer bought Brayden one of those sparkly glow thingys that is a mouthpiece, it was pretty cool! They had bouncy houses for the kids, then we ate watermelon and barbeque and then layed on our good ol' Grandma Judd quilt and watched the fireworks, it doesn't get any more American! It was so dark, and we were right under the fireworks, and there was beautiful music playing. It gave me goosebumps. My heart was warm, and I am so grateful and proud to live in America. When the first firecracker went off, Brayden said, "oh no, we're gonna die!" what a goof. But really, we were RIGHT under them. Kosty was cracking us up because he was laying on my chest and he didn't move a single muscle the whole show, except to say "moa, moa." (more) He LOVED it. I know you can't tell by the picture of his STONE FACE! He giggled at all the loud ones. I think it was special because both my kids were old enough to really enjoy it this year. :)

Tom and Jerry

Lately I have been feeling like I am trapped in a Tom and Jerry episode. Kosty will take ANYTHING that he thinks Brayden might care about, and SQUEAL as he runs away. Then of course Brayden follows and it just goes on and on. It makes me laugh. I love those little rascals. :)