My baby turns 3!!!

We arrived home from our trip out West just in time to celebrate Nolan's birthday! I cannot believe that this little man is three years old already. He is so much fun and incredibly adorable (at least in my very unbiased opinion!!) He was very excited to open his presents that morning and of course had some very anxious siblings who were just as excited to see what he was getting!

After opening presents, we quickly got in the car and headed down to Williamsburg, Virginia where we were staying the night before heading down to the Outer Banks the next day.

No trip to Williamsburg would quite be complete without a stop at the Colonial Village...

Even though Williamsburg is only 3 hours from us, it had been 5 1/2 years since we had last stopped there. Landon has changed just a little since then!!

              Landon at 4 months..                                                                              Landon at 6!!       

I think we need one of these contraptions at our house!!

It's always fun to watch the reenactments...

A fun way to celebrate our sweet little birthday boy!!

We'll end this post with a little video of Nolan singing Happy Birthday to himself. We sure to love this little guy!!

Traveling Alone...

We left Colorado a day early so that we could spend the afternoon/evening exploring Salt Lake City before our Thursday morning plane trip back to Maryland. I'm not sure if traveling by myself with three kids while 6.5 months pregnant was the greatest idea I ever had, but we all survived and managed to have a good time!!

Our first stop was to Temple Square. All the kids loved the statue of Christ...

I had wanted to take them up to touch the Salt Lake Temple, but the temple happened to be closed that day (maybe for cleaning?) so then we headed over to the Church History Museum which I had heard great things about. It did not disappoint!!

Abby loved dancing around in these huge Latin American skirts...

Nolan spent most of his time in the "garden" and making me all kinds of yummy "meals"...

And Landon really loved the fishing poles!

Afterwards we spent the night in a hotel next to the airport so we would have an easy time leaving the next morning. Unfortunately the air conditioning in our room was wonky and the kids were a bit wired so sleep wasn't that great. We were all able to get a bit of rest on the airplane trip though and they all did fantastic on the trip home. After two weeks of traveling, it was nice to sleep in our own beds again, but it didn't last for long...round #3 of vacation was just around the corner!!!

Colorado Side Trip

After our reunion in Idaho, we made the 7-hour drive to Grand Junction to spend a few days with my family in Colorado. Jason spent the weekend with us until he left on Monday morning for a work trip so it was just me and the kiddos for a few extra days before we flew back home to Maryland. It was so fun to spend time with my parents and oldest sister, Tami.

No Colorado trip would be complete without some yummy cookie making (and eating of course!!)

We also celebrated this little man's birthday a few days early so Grandma and Grandpa could spoil him a bit...

My mom put Abby and Landon in charge of decorations and games for the birthday party and they did an awesomely creative job!!

We went from 30 degrees and snow in Idaho to 90+ degrees and sunshine in Colorado. We took advantage of the warm weather with several park days and swimming at the local pool.

Grandma let the kids raid her piggy bank full of quarters and ended up with $30 each!!! They LOVED having so much money to spend...

We were only there for four days, but we packed a bunch of fun activities in there while we could. Our goodbye was just for a short time since we would be seeing my parents again the following week in the Outer Banks.

Over the last seven years that we have lived out East, I always get a bit nostalgic and homesick when I visit the West and come home with a strong desire to live out there again. I have to admit that this was my first trip out West where I didn't have that feeling. I love visiting out West, but I really, really LOVE the East coast now and all that it has to offer. I guess it has just become home to me now!!

Call Family Idaho Reunion

We spent the first week of summer break in Idaho for the Call family reunion. We spent a few days in Idaho Falls at Jason's sister's house and got to see two new babies be blessed. The next day we headed north to Island Park and Yellowstone. Unfortunately the weather was pretty terrible the entire time we were there. It hailed, rained, and even snowed on us every day and we even endured a mini blizzard while we were watching Old Faithful erupt. Despite the crazy and cold weather, we still managed to have a good time!!

Abby and Landon had a great time with all of their Call cousins (there are actually 14 of them now, ranging in age from 6 weeks to 9 years...our little addition in September will make #15!)

Here is the whole clan...we were just missing one of Jason's sisters who had to stay back in Texas for school.

The weather finally stated to clear the day we left Island Park so we were able to enjoy a pretty nice day at the lake before we left Idaho. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our camera so these group pictures are all we have. (Notice all the winter coats being worn in the middle of June?!?!? It was soooooo cold!!)

Last Day of School!

A few days after we returned home from San Diego, Abby and Landon had their last day of school. They had to make up 9 days of school due to all of the snow days (4 were made up during the school year and then they tacked on 5 days at the end so they didn't get out until June 12th.) I put together a little "bucket o' summer fun" for the kids to get them excited about their summer vacation. 

Some of the kids were more excited than others...

Landon's face cracks me up!!

Landon was quite distraught over the last day. He declared that it was "the worst day of his life." He had a really good kindergarten year and loved his teacher and all of the friends he had made. Fortunately we had lots of fun activities and vacations planned for the summer so he wasn't sad for too long!!

San Diego!!

June was a month full of travel for our family and now it's time to get caught up on our "globe-trotting" experiences!! 

During the first week of June, Jason's mom came out to watch the kids so that Jason and I could go on our first vacation together since having children. Jason won the "Leadership in Excellence" award at work (top 1% of employees) and was given an all-expense paid trip to San Diego for him and a guest. It was a perfect way to also celebrate our 10-year anniversary back in March (we all ended up getting a nasty stomach flu during our actually anniversary week, but we knew we had this trip to San Diego in June to look forward to so it wasn't too horrible!)

Citi did a great job of wining and dining us while we were there (seriously there was A LOT of alcohol available....too bad we couldn't get the money they saved from our sobriety!!)

We flew in on Monday afternoon and stayed at the Hyatt Grand Regency Hotel right on the San Diego Bay. We explored all around the area that afternoon and evening and enjoyed this little rooftop party that night. We only lasted until about 9 p.m. though since we were still on East Coast time.

The next day we had a service project where we helped build wheelchairs, put together military care packages, and decorated stuffed animals for the Boys and Girls Club. That afternoon Jason and I headed over to visit the Midway Battleship...

View from the top deck of the Midway...

The take-off/landing area had all kinds of military aircraft to explore too.

The ship's kitchen area (I thought these mannequins were kind of creepy...actually I think most mannequins are pretty creepy!)

The sailor bunks on the ship...I would not have handled this well!!

That night we headed over to the Miramar Marine Base for dinner and dancing. Here's little tiny me next to a Marine aircraft. We saw lots of aircraft maneuvers that night too.

On Wednesday we were able to explore Balboa Park and some of the museums there. Living close to Washington, D.C. makes us a bit spoiled by the Smithsonian Museums so these museums really weren't too impressive. It was nice to not have to battle any crowds though and the architecture around the park was gorgeous!!

Every morning we would go running together along the San Diego Bay (a luxury in itself since we usually have to stagger our runs so one of us can be at home with the kids). One morning we saw a Navy ship returning to port. It was HUGE!!

The conference was officially over on Thursday morning but we paid to stay one extra night since we knew this might be our one and only shot at being in San Diego. We took a trolley tour all around the area which was a lot of fun. Here we are going across the Coronado Bridge...

We got off the Trolley in Old Town and loved visiting the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center (it was seriously one of the best and most kid-friendly visitor's center I have been to!)

And the architecture fit right in with the rest of Old Town...

A little shot of Old Town San Diego. They have converted this whole street into what it would have looked like in the 1800s when San Diego was first settled. This was actually our favorite place to visit in San Diego!

That afternoon we headed over to Coronado Island. You can see the famous hotel in the distance with the red roof...

The beach was gorgeous but COLD...definitely cooler that the Atlantic Ocean we are used to at the Outer Banks!!

The view of our hotel from across the Bay at Coronado Island...

The view from our hotel room at night. We loved staying at the Hyatt and lived it up since it would normally be way out of our price range for a hotel stay!

We headed back to Maryland on Friday after five wonderful days together in San Diego. The weather, views, and sight-seeing were all perfect and it was rejuvenating to have it just be the two of us for a few days. Grandma Call did a great job with the kids while we were gone and it was fun to be reunited with them again when we returned.