Palm Springs- Pama & Papa

The kids loved playing with Papa & Pama!

The boys relaxing by the pool and watching some Nascar.

Downtown Palm Spring with Pama.

Andrew had so much fun playing in the pool with Pama!

Palm Springs-pool time

We got back from Palm Springs yesterday. We had a wonderful 10 day vacation in sunny California. A few days in Disneyland and a week in Palm Springs. We had so much fun! Unfortunately my father in law had to come back to Oregon for work, but my mother in law was able to stay the whole time. She was a huge lifesaver to me. Even though we are on vacation, Nate still has to work everyday (luckily not the whole day). That's the life when you own your own company! So thankfully my mother in law was there to help me with the kids during the times when Nate had to work. And both kids had so much fun playing with Pama.

We spent our mornings going downtown for coffee at Coffee Bean (my favorite) and playing in the pool, eating and playing games during the afternoon. Our evenings were spent shopping and dinner downtown or at El Paseo. The weather was amazing! high 90s and low 100s....we had a blast! Already looking forward to our next visit!

Lots of fun jumping into the pool!

She loved playing with her princesses in the pool.

And she loved the rocks too.

"BDonalds" and popsicles poolside :)

Andre wore his water wings the whole time and did great swimming all over the pool. Ava liked the pool too, but really wanted to be independent and moving around the whole time. Hopefully water wings will fit her soon!

Andrew 4 years & Ava 16 months

Weekend with the Riedels

Last weekend we got to spend with some of our best friends, the Riedels, in Palm Springs! Lucky us, they only live an hour or so away from Palm Springs, so they made the trip over and stayed with us for the weekend. We had the best time together (we always do)! The kids always have tons of fun and play so well together. Our husbands get along like brothers and Daphne and I love our girl talks. We mainly played in the pool, played games poolside and ate. But when not eating, the kids were playing in one of the bat caves that Barth made them, Chloe was painting everyones nails (with fake polish) as well as coming everyones hair (including my father in law) and Andrew was busy chasing Ella around (he loved her). It was such a fun weekend! Thanks for hanging out with us Riedel family...can't wait until the next time!

The boys spent a lot of time doing different jumps into the pool.

The kids having tons of fun together.

Dinner downtown Palm Springs....and the bat cave :)

To see more pictures from our weekend together, check out Daphne's blog here.

Disneyland

We are currently in Palm Springs, but before we arrived here we spent a few days in Disneyland.

We arrived in Orange County to pouring down rain. It was like we never left Portland. We spent the afternoon in our hotel hanging out while we waited for the rain to stop and let Ava take a little nap. Luckily, just as Ava woke up, the rain stopped. We headed to California Adventure to catch a few rides before having dinner.

1st ride: Little Mermaid. It's a new ride and Ava really likes Little Mermaid books so we wanted to make sure and take her on it. She loved it, Andrew was scared....typical. We then went on the Toy Story ride which Andrew said the whole time that while waiting in line that he was scared. He ended up loving the ride.

Getting ready to go on Little Mermaid.

All set with his 3D glasses for Toy Story.

The carousel is hit for both kids!

Getting ready for It's a Bugs Life....Andrew didn't' really like it and Ava cried.

Enjoying bumper cars with Daddy and walking around with Papa & Pama.

Day 2 at Disney was gorgeous. Clear blue skies and highs in the upper 60s....perfect weather when walking around Disneyland. Highlights of the day: Andrew going on his first roller coaster ride in Toon Town and loving it, Ava meeting Minnie Mouse and trying to eat her nose off while laughing hysterically, and going on Thunder Mountain with Andrew. Downside: Ava not wanting to be held while waiting in line, Ava running around the place like crazy, Andrew constantly saying that he wanted to go home, and the crowds!

Ava really loved Minnie Mouse and so did Andrew.

Standing in line for Big Thunder Mountain.

Trying to take a picture of the kids together....pretty much impossible these days with a wiggly Ava.

Day 3 we spent the morning at both parks trying to do the last of the rides, meet Mickey and take lots of pics.

We went on Small World and Ava loved it. Andrew hid most of the time and acted scared.


Oct. 5-7th, 2011 Andrew 4yrs old & Ava 16 1/2 months