Easter Sunday

Here's the girls, all ready for church, in their Easter dresses. (I didn't buy them new ones, is that bad? I figured these ones were cute enough.

 I took about 20 pics and, none of them are that great. I don't think Rylee is looking at the camera in any of them.

 Here's all the girls waiting to go outside and hunt eggs. I love the Deamer family tradition. They hunt the easter eggs that the bunny hides, not candy. I think that is great, because that's all we don't need is a basket full of candy. Earlier in the day I give them baskets of some toys and a few treats, and Darlene does the same. But I thinks that's better than a whole basket full of stuff you don't really want them to have anyway.

 Mostly I took video, or I have pics of them bending down to pick up an egg, here are a few of the actions shots that show their faces a little bit better.

 Dad helping Rylee reach the tall ones.

Happy Easter!

Easter Weekend

So to start off Easter weekend, of course we were listening to conference, then we got a call to come out and fly some kites, out in the back field with the Hansens.

 I was surprised that Rylee could fly a kite by herself, but look, she could. It made me realize that she really is getting old.
 I'm not sure what that little smirk is for on Reese's face, but oh well. It was so nice to be outside. But we hadn't been outside much, I didn't even think about sunscreen, and poor Rylee totally got burned.

 Love that Jeremy is helping them with their kites. They both love him so much and are so excited when he is home to play with them.

I made the girls stand here so I could get some cute pics, of them with their easter bunny ears on. They didn't turn out that great, I swear, either they squint their eyes so much they look like they're closed, or they open their eyes freaky wide.

A few days before, a neighbor and her girls "egged" us. I thought it was really cute of them. They put eggs on our yard with treats and scriptures in them. The girls loved it. It was a cute idea, I should remember to do that for someone next year.

Then we ran to Lee's to see the Easter bunny and get some treats. To my surprise, Rylee ran right to the easter bunny and gave it a hug, with out me having to even tell her, let alone coax her.

Then of course, we colored some eggs over and Cheryl's house, next door. Ignore the fact that the kids look homeless, we made them change out of their cute outfits, into grubby t-shirts, in case they spilled. In fact, I should have changed as well, because I ended up getting a little bit colored, because I was sitting by Rylee. I'm not sure, but I think this is Rylee's firs year being able to color the eggs, she had a 

fun time.

 Here Reese won't smile, and then over here Rylee's got a freaky weird smile. Oh well, I know I've got silly girls, you've still got to capture the memories right?

Part 2: The ocean, and Sea World

The vacay post continues! The first day we got there, it was so crazy windy. We met up with the fam, and drove to a beach. It was bowing so hard you couldn't keep your eyes open, and Reese's hair kept whipping her in the face. I had brought some extra pants in case she got wet and cold. So Jeremy (so clever) tied her pants on her head, it worked, maybe looked a little weird, but it worked.It looks like she's even having a hard time standing up straight, it was seriously that windy.
The waves were crashing so hard, and I'm no photog, but I tried to capture some of the beauty.
It was pretty cold, as well, and Reese was really a trooper. You can't see their faces that well in this pic. but I think the background is so pretty.

I know, I looked, a little weird with my hood up and tied tight to my chin. But my hair was whipping me in the face to, so on went the hood. (At least I didn't tie pants on my head.)

This is a few days later, at La Jolla beach. One thing that was very cool, was that there were sea lions, just ten feet from the shore playing in the water and all along another beach , just sun bathing. They had it roped off, so you couldn't walk right up to them, but you could see them great.

I wish in some of these that she didn't have her sunglasses, but oh well. The ocean was so beautiful.
See can you see the sea lions off to the right? There was a ton of them, I thought that was fun.
My plan was that if Reese was wearing this dress, she wouldn't get wet, because you could just take the pants off underneath. But she kept bending down as the water would rush up, and she got full on soaked.
When we arrived at the beach, Reese got out, stood there awhile, and said "I think I belong here."

She cracks me up, she would just stand there with her arms out, as the waves would come up on her feet, she loved it.
Now this is at Ocean Beach, we were staying in a hotel across the street. The beach was fun, I have to say the people hanging out at the beach were a little sketchy, but the kids had fun.
I let Reese talk me into this, and it was a bad idea, because she was so sandy afterward. But she thought it was great.
Now on to Sea World. We hadn't been there for a long time. Reese had never been there, and Becca and her kids hadn't been there either, so it's fun to show people new things.

Here we are feeding the seals. You have to watch out for the birds, they like to swoop in and steal your fish. One almost got Reese on the head.

Like this? That's supposed to be her scared face.
Reese and Mason in a fake polar bear cave.
Can you see the whale behind her?
Reese loved the shows, although was mad that we never got wet. We were in the splash zone every time, but up on the high end just in case.
They had this animal show that Reese loved, here she is petting one of the trained pigs.
I love starfish. I just realized that I was so busy taking pics of Reese that I never touched one myself.
It was so much fun to spend time with my mom and dad. I think that was Reese's favorite part of the whole thing.

Well, that's officially it. We had so much fun. Thanks so much to my mom and dad, for inviting us and planning the whole thing. Now we just need to go again in another year or two with Rylee!

Disneyland trip part #1

Well I was going to do the whole trip in one post, and about 1/4th of the way through I realized I had way too many pictures, so I'm going to break it up into a couple. This picture underneath is Reese saying "We're finally in Disneyland!!!"
Here's the whole group that went, we had 10 people altogether. My dad and mom, then my brother Jake is behind them, holding up Davis, my brother's wife Becca is next to them, with Mason, and (somehow I don't see Avery his twin,) then Reese and Jeremy. (If you noticed, you're right Rylee isn't there, we decided she wasn't quite old enough, so she stayed with Jeremy's family. Don't feel too sad for her though, because she got spoiled rotten the whole week.)
Jungle cruise. (My dad is the king of cheesey jokes, and for some reason it bugged him that they were telling bad jokes, apparently that can only be his thing.)
Here's the kids, Reese, then Mason, there's Avery, and Davis.

Got to get the classic castle pic. Notice that button on Reese's jacket? It's her birthday button, she wore it all week. And she used that sucker for every last drop of attention possible, it was the longest birthday ever.
This trip was my mom and dad's idea. And it was so great, they actually helped pay for some of the trip, which was a huge help. My two sister's and little brother weren't able to come which is too bad. But we still had a ton of fun.

Trying to pull the sword out of the stone.
I'm so glad we got a chance to see Minnie and Mickey, some times you never get to see them. Reese was so excited.
She said, "Oh I bet Minnie and Mickey are so happy to see me because it's my birthday."
I didn't realize how short Mickey would be, he probably wasn't even five feet! See how far I have to bend over. It was a little cool for my liking, but still overall nice weather.
My nephew Davis, is such a boy, he's always wrestling and rough housing, here he is showing off his guns.
I'm not sure what is going on here. I asked them to give me a smile, and they both gave me grumpy faces. (That's two girls, who have their own opinion.)
Gotta get the pic, with the 3D glasses. Look at Davis showing off his mussels again. The kids were really so good. We had 6 adults to 4 kids, which came in handy. Jake and Becca's kids had never been, so it was super fun to show them around.

Reese's first time on the swings.



Sulley was so cute! He kept playing with Reese, when she tried to walk up to him he'd move farther and farther back.
Then when we tried to take a picture, he would cover her face, she loved that.
It's kind of our tradition to eat at the Blue Bayou. (For those of you who are not Disneyland buffs, that is the restaurant in the pirate ride.) It was super delicious, and they brought Reese a cake in a little princess treasure chest, with some other little prizes. She was completely surprised, it was cute.

Every time someone would tell Reese happy birthday, (which was a lot,) she would have to tell me. So this is her yelling "That lady told me happy birthday!!" She loved riding on rides with my mom and dad, it was great that they let her.

This band pulled Reese up and played Happy Birthday, while people around sang. I thought I was taping it but clearly only got this picture as she ran away. I love how they really made her feel special for her birthday throughout the whole trip.
This is something Jeremy always takes us to. And it has become something I love to do as well. He's so cute shooting. He carried a whole pocket full of change the whole week just so we could do this.
Here's one example where Reese really knew how to work her birthday. Buzz was trying to leave, and the worker kept saying, "Buzz will be back later." Which you know means you won't see them again. But Reese yelled out, "But Buzz, it's my birthday!!" And you know it, Buzz came right back and gave her a big hug and posed for pictures. That cute little weasel really knows how to work a birthday.
I think my favorite part of the trip was this. The parade. We don't ever watch the parades, but this time we saw a seat and thought the kids might like it. Boy were we right, times 100! Basically Reese thought the whole parade was for her, she held up her birthday button, and the characters would tell her happy birthday or blow her a kiss. And she would freak out like her head was going to explode, and when she saw the princesses, I thought she was going to pass out she was screaming so loud. The people next to us told us, they weren't even watching the parade, they were just watching her and her reactions. It was the perfect end to the perfect trip.
Reese kept yelling "this is the best day of my life!" I know for a fact that this was the best birthday, and we're never going to be able to live up to this one. But I'm so thankful for my parents, what an amazing trip we had, and memories to last a lifetime.