THE SECOND GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!

Before we went to Hawaii, Tanner and I left Sarah at home, and we headed off to the greatest place in Orange County. I know what you are thinking, and no it is not Disneyland. The wonderful, mysterious, tropical place that I am writing about is, wait for it.......The Santa Ana Zoo. This zoo has it all: Free parking, $6 admissions, Farm animals (four pigs, a couple of goats and chickens, oh and a cow), Monkeys (four different types), Exotic birds (8 of the same birds), some sort of Mexican Horse thing, a Bald Eagle (broken wing included), and a couple of sloths. It also has a train ride, merry go round, and the Elephant from the movie Operation Dumbo , starring Danny Glover and Ray Liotta (the elephant was on tour, he will be back in October). The San Diego and LA Zoo have nothing on Santa Ana.
Tanner just can't wait to go see the animals.

If you look closely, you can see some turtles.
I think it is dead!!!

Tanner loved seeing a monkey.
Choo Choo!!!

Did you know this???
Tanner had a blast. We are psyching up for our next trip, hopefully we will get to see the elephant (and ride it, it is only $5).

Aunt Kelle

The reason that we went to Hawaii when we did is to see Aunt Kelle and her team play Hawaii State. The girls were all so nice and loved Tanner. The 2 girls to his right are his girlfriends.
Tanner loved spending time with Aunt Kelle and the 2 other Boise coaches Doug and head coach Robin Davis.
We were only on the island together for 3 days but we were so lucky to get a lot of time together. Kelle was so glad that Tanner was there for her to show off.
Kelle got us all new BSU shirts. Here they are after the big game.
Tanner was scared at first when we got to the game because our seats were on the front row! He finally calmed down and ended up having a great time. We love you Aunt Kelle.

A Family Vacation

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to Hawaii! We didn't buy a ticket for Tanner but we got lucky and he was able to have his own seat. He did great on the flight. We all got to watch our own movies and Tanner took a great nap.
Finally, we got to our Country Inn! It was in the middle of nowhere and was so cute. It was a 2 bedroom condo so Tan got his own room. This was the view from where we ate breakfast every morning. My parents gave us the condo as a gift and it was so wonderful!! Thanks mom and dad!
Derek's mom hooked us up with a luau. We were so excited that it was inside because it was pouring down rain that night. The food was so good, and Tanner sat through the whole show. He was fine as long as he had his arm around me or Kipp.
One day, we drove around the island and stopped where ever we wanted. We went for a hike up to some waterfalls. It was HOT and there were no waterfalls! That's what you get when you go at the end of summer.
My two boys looking so cute on the sand. Tanner loved spending so much time with his family.
We shared shaved ice on the beach of Waikiki while Kipp was on a scooter. We rented that floater behind us and floated in the water together.
Tanner sharing a smoothie with his daddy.
We walked down to a bay to snorkel. The views were beautiful and again Tan loved just playing in the water. This was the only day that we rented a life jacket for him. He loved running in and out of the water.
Tanner gives hugs to Daddy and Mommy! It was a great vacation. We were there with Kipp's sister Kelle and her volleyball team. I'll post more pictures of them next time.

I Love My Husband

Today Kipp got off work early and we has been playing and skateboarding with Tanner all afternoon. He is such a stud. We are going to Hawaii for a vacation in a few days and we are so excited to have some good family time!

Tanner's Surfer Buddies

On Monday, Tanner and I went to the Boost Mobile Pro Surf Competition. This is the second year that we went and I got some great pictures of Tanner with the Pros. We sat on the far end of the event because there were lots of people there. The good news for us is that the surfers got in the water right where we were sitting. Rob Machado, who is Kipp and Kelle's favorite surfer, was stretching when Tanner went to say hi.
Here is Tanner and Rob last year.
Here we are with Sunny Garcia last year and this year. Please look at that baby belly getting some sun! We are 16 weeks along.

Lastly, the big daddy of surfing, 8 time World Champ, Kelly Slater! Tanner and Kelly are both sponsored by Quiksilver. Kelly was so nice to Tanner. He took a picture with him then talked to him for a while before he moved on. Tanner was a little starstruck and super mellow.
We were at the beach all day and we played hard in the sun! It was a great day!
I felt very proud of myself for taking a 1 1/2 year old to the beach, we parked a mile away, with my prego belly, and staying all day. We'll be there again next year.



The sign of a good day: shirt off and dead asleep before we are out of the parking lot! My future surfer boy!

Christmas is coming.

I know that it is September but I am so excited about Christmas. Yes, it' s4 months away but I can't help it. It started about a week ago when I taught Tanner how to say ho, ho, ho, like Santa. He thinks it's so funny. A few days later he was sad and I started to sing Christmas songs and it made him feel better. I think Tanner loves Christmas as much as I do.

Last year after Christmas I bought some soft decorations that Tanner can help us put on the tree. We used to have 2 crazy cats who loved knocking down the tree. Last year we didn't put a tree up because Tanner was too little. I am so excited for him to help us decorate the tree this year.
So happy end of summer, happy fall... and then Christmas!!!