AND THEN THERE WERE NONE...

All is quite in the Heyman home......the gang has all left and we sure do miss them! It is always weird the first couple of days after the kids have left....you get used to playing with them every day, used to hearing them scream their lungs out and in a split second they are laughing again, used to hearing their cute little voices and the cute way they speak. We sure did have a blast while they were here and can't wait until Christmas when we will see them again. I thought I would put together a slide show of some of my favorite memories of the month.

CARTER'S FIRST TRIP TO DISNEYLAND AND WE ONLY SPENT $11.25!!

Joe and I took Carter to Disneyland yesterday while my sister, mom and Audrey went to the American Girl Doll store in LA. Carter hung out with Joe and I at my house most of the day. We played guitar hero and watched movies. We left for Disneyland at 5:00pm to try and avoid the heat. This was his first time going, but if you ask him, he has been before!!?? Last time we took Audrey, we bought her a photo autograph book that had pictures of all the characters that she saw. Carter looks at the book all the time and thinks that he was there too! If Audrey were to talk about it, he would say that he went too!! Carter is 2, so we didn't have to pay anything to get him in. We stopped by the same booth that we got Audrey her photo autograph book to get Carter one but he said that he didn't want one. Our next stop was to get him a hat. I was certain he would of wanted this cute Nemo baseball hat, but he didn't want one. Our next stop was to go and try to get a fast pass ticket for the new Nemo submarine ride...NO GO!! They don't have fast passes yet for this ride, instead you can wait for 2 hours. There was NO WAY we were going to wait in the blazing sun (it was 6 pm and still burning hot!). So we headed to the parade. Carter did ask if he could have some popcorn. Joe went and got him some while Carter and I saved our seats. $3.50 for a box of popcorn that Carter ate all by himself!! We then headed to Tarzan's tree house. Earlier that day, we watched the Tarzan movie, so Carter was really excited that we were at the actual tree house from the movie!!! Then we were off to the Jungle Cruise. This is my dad's favorite ride and I think one of Carter's too. He was so excited to ride a boat in a "real jungle"!! We then headed to the Tiki Room!!! While we waited, I bought a Dole Whip for $2.75. They are the best!! Carter loved the Tiki Room and couldn't stop laughing at those "crazy birds". During the show, it sounds and looks like it is raining outside. Carter was amazed that his stroller was dry!!?? Pirates of the Caribbean was next...there was NO LINE!! I was a little nervous to bring Carter on because when Audrey was his age, I took her and she cried the whole time because she was scared. Carter kept telling me that he wouldn't be scared. He loved it!! He kept saying "me no cry Cara, me brave, me went down 2 water slides!!" We then headed to Fantasyland and rode the Carousel which of course he loved. The fireworks were about to start, so we headed back to the Nemo ride hoping that everyone was waiting for the fireworks....WRONG!! It was still a 90 minute wait!!! As we walked out to Main Street and saw the Millions of people, I decided that we better get out of there before the fireworks started to avoid the awful crowd leaving! On our way out, we were able to convince Carter to get a Mickey Mouse sword that lights up. It was only $5.00!! So the total for Carter's first trip was only $11.25!! We have decided that we would take Carter any time...he is a cheap date!!!

Boys rocking out to "Guitar Hero". Carter had to get creative since I lacked "toys"!


Watching the parade. Going in Tarzan's tree house.


Tarzan's tree house. Going on the Jungle Cruise.


Riding the Carousel, the tram and watcing fireworks as we were leaving.


We managed to keep Carter awake until we got to my mom's house by singing the Tiki Room song the whole way home!! He was soo excited when he saw everyone, "me went in the real Tarzan tree house. These fish tried to get us on the jungle boat ride. Me was soo brave on the pirate ride, me no cry mom. Me went down 2 water slides!!! We had a great day!!

Before my mom left for the train station in the morning to go to LA, she told me that she was "real jealous" that she wasn't going to be at Disneyland in the hot sun with the millions of people....well, it turns out that she wishes she was with us!Their "train" trip to the American Girl Doll store in LA turned out the be a disaster!! She thought that the train stopped right where the store was...well, it didn't. The store is at the Grove and they got dropped off in who knows where?? They said they took a 2 hour bus ride (after the hour or so train ride)through the GHETTO before ending up at the Grove. (It ends up that they were only 9 miles from the Grove!!) Some highlights of the bus ride were the beautiful "graffiti" they saw along the LA river(My mom thought the writing was beautiful but with strange shaped letters!!??) and a crazy man on the bus grafting the tv on the bus!!! Their day started at 10:00am and they got home at 10:00pm. (Shauna, this story reminds me of when we got lost going to Grandma's mission home in DC!!!!) Remember this mom.....Disneyland is the "Happiest and Safest Place on Earth!!!!!"(They have a train too!!!)

HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY JOE!!!!!! XOXOXO

"PLAY BALL!!!"

Friday's trip down to San Diego was quite an adventure!! We took two cars-my dad, mom, Shauna and Jaden in one and myself, Lisa, Audrey and Carter in the other. Traffic was going great until we got to Oceanside. Carter was sleeping until that point. The poor little guy has been sick since he got here. He woke up and was NOT a happy camper. He pretty much screamed the whole car trip. We ended up getting off to take a break at the San Diego temple so that we could get some peace and quite!! After about an hour, we loaded back into the cars to head down to the Padres game. Carter was great the rest of the trip down, but then Audrey got an ear ache and was crying until we got to the stadium and got her some medicine. When we got to the stadium, we all got a Padres retro visors to honor one of their great player's Tony Gwynn. We headed to the little kids baseball field to let the kids hit the ball and play on the field. Audrey and Jaden both had great hits, Carter wasn't into it. Then we went to our seats in the bleacher section. "Obstructed view" does mean "obstructed view"!! We couldn't see anything if the action was past the third base or center field, but that was alright b/c there was a huge screen right next to us that we could watch. The kids had a blast playing in the sand box that sits right up against the right field gate. Lisa and I got kicked out of the sand box b/c it was for "kids only"!! Some how Shauna managed to stay and play with the kids....maybe it was her pick tails!! The best part about the sand box was this one little PSYCHO girl named Aubrey. She was pretty much the sand box bully!!! She would throw sand at everyone, hit everyone and she even stepped on Audrey's castle she made. Her best work was when she got this other little girl in a choke hold and flipped her over like she was a professional wrestler!!! We only lasted until the 5th inning and then headed back home. It was a great night. Here are some pictures of the night...

South Coast, the Fair and the Grand California Hotel

It has been a busy first week of my vacation. Monday we went to South Coast Plaza which was quite the experience!! We had lunch at Nordstrom Cafe and then hit up the shoe section of Brass Plum. Carter and Jaden kept us quite entertained by trying on all the shoes....Dave and Doug, you might need to speak with your boys in regards to the fact that they DO NOT wear high heels!!!! After about an hour of completely destroying the store, we went to the carousel, which was not working. So, we took the bridge across to what used to be Crystal Court and road the carousel there. The boys hit a few rounds of golf at Sport Chalet while we looked for a pair of flip flops for Audrey. Later that night, we went and saw Rattoutille...SOOO CUTE!!


Tuesday I went to the fair with Shauna, Jaden, Audrey and my mom. Shauna is not a fan of the fair....but how can you complain when you don't have to pay for parking, don't have to pay for admission and a complete stranger hands Audrey a wrist band as they are walking out and we are walking in that will let her and Jaden ride all the rides for free!!!!!! We first stopped at the petting zoo which was hilarious. The little goats attacked both Jaden and I. They liked to eat Jaden's shirt and my sunglasses. My poor mom got attacked by a big goat that pretty much destroyed her sweater! We had fun watching the kids go on the rides and Audrey and I even road an elephant.




Wednesday we spent the whole day and night at the Grand California Hotel at Disneyland. Fergi had to stay there for a couple of days for work, so she invited us to hang out at the pool for the day and then watch the fireworks at night! We loved the pool!!! It was soo much fun! There was a water slide for both kids and adults. Audrey and Jaden had a blast on it!! Jaden decided that he wanted to go down on it backwards on this tummy all on his own! We swam for I think 5 hours!! I took Jaden into California Adventure since he is free. We just hung out in the "Bugs Life" land. We went on a couple of rides and then I let Jaden run around in the water fountains. Lisa, my mom and Carter came later in the day. Thanks Fergi....this day was the best so far!!! I will definitely be going to this pool more often!!



Wednesday night Audrey and I had our sleepover!! I was exhausted from the day at the pool...so like always, I fell asleep first! Audrey watched Beauty and the Beast while we were in bed and never fell asleep!! All I remember is her telling me that the movie was over!!?? Thursday, Audrey and I just hung out at my house for most of the day and then headed back over to my moms house. We met up with Mike and Kathy at Barbadnes park. Mike brought bubbles for the kids to play with.



Today we are headed down to San Diego to go to a Padres game at Petco Park. We are sitting in the bleacher section which has a huge sand box for the kids to play in while we watch the game. The sand box sits right against the right field fence...it is pretty neat!! There is also a hug grass hill for the kids to play on and a little baseball field for the kids too!! I am sure there will be stories of today's activity since we are leaving to go down there at 12 and the game doesn't start until 7!!! Stay tuned....

My Vacation Has Officially Begun!!!

I am on vacation form work until July 31st!!!! SOOOO many people say how lucky I am to have so much vacation time, and I am soo lucky!! I get 4 weeks a year and 2 personal days, plus any days I don't use that I can carry over! I have to take a MANDATORY two weeks in a row at one point in the year, though it is rough, I am taking it now!! I can't wait to hang out with the family for most of the time. Joe is taking the second week off, so we will be able to spend a lot of time together which will be awesome! Oh ya, I am taking off another week in August to go to Lake Powell!!!

Tonight Joe and I are going to dinner and then to the fair with our friends Jeff and Pam for their b-days. I can't wait to check out all the "attractive Carnies"!! Hopefully we will go on a ride or two that will probably make us wonder if we will die, but we are mostly there to eat all the yummy food that is bad for you and people watch!!

Last night we went with the family to eat at Sharky's and then to walk around Balboa Island. We took the ferry across to the fun zone and had a blast watching Lisa and Shauna jump on the bungee trampoline. Audrey didn't think it was fun at all, pretty much cried the whole time Lisa was on...you would of thought that Lisa was going off to war!! On the other hand, Jaden was crying because he COULDN'T go on!! He wanted to go on it soo bad. I downloaded the videos of them, just make sure you pause the music on my blog so you can hear the videos....they are priceless!! Here are some pictures of the past weeks activities, last night at Balboa...and the Video's!!


Jaden....isn't he the cutest!!


Swimming at Fergie's


Taking the ferry across to the Balboa Fun Zone. Eating our Balboa bars!!


Taking the ferry back to the Island to go home.

Lisa jumping on the bungee tramp. (hit play twice for it to work!)


Shauna jumping on the bungee tramp. (hit play twice for it to work!)