Taylor Turned 4!

My little Taylor turned 4 years old. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. He has been such a fun boy and cracks us up daily. He's our little "people pleaser", but don't get me wrong, he can sure throw a fit when he's tired. :) He told me that "this was the best birthday ever", which wasn't hard since he can't remember past his last birthday. :)

In the morning I heard Derek wake up Taylor by saying "Taylor, Taylor, it's your birthday". And then I heard Taylor say "nu, uh". Derek said "yes it is". Derek opened the door and saw the streamers and balloons hanging from the door jam and said "Taylor, yes it is...look!" I then heard Taylor jump out of bed and squeal "it is, it is my birthday!". Derek then told him "I'll bet they'll sing Happy Birthday to you". So I had to sing to Taylor the moment I saw him. Birthdays are so fun to celebrate when you have kids. They are so easily pleased.

He chose a Superman cake, which sort of surprised me since he's not into Superman at all, but I went with it.

If you remember one of my previous posts, then you'll know that he's been riding the neighborhood girls' bikes. He's been complaining lately that he needs a bike to ride and that the only ones his size are too "girly". We thought it was time that we stop mooching off the neighbors and bought him his own bike. He was very excited.
After cake and presents we went to Seven Peaks Waterpark. Our brother-in-law, Devin, works as a manager there and hooked us up with season passes for an awesome price. (Thanks again Devin!) The boys have been dying to go, so they were overly thrilled when we told them we were going.
The water was a little too cold for poor McKenna. At first the boys wouldn't even go down the orange kiddie waterslide (in the above picture), but after bribing them with an extra quesadilla at Cafe Rio, they were running for the slide. And not too much later they were going down these adult slides with us. We were excited that they went down them since it freed us from standing in kiddie land.

After Seven Peaks we went to Cafe Rio for dinner. The kids love the quesadillas (only $.95) and we LOVE the burritos, so it's a win win deal for us.

Here's a little spotlight on Taylor:

Favorite Color: red and yellow
Favorite Movie: Transformers (the animated movie...not to be confused with the PG13 version)
Favorite Toy: Ninja Turtles and Legos
Favorite Treat: Oreos that Daddy brings home from work.
Some interesting things about Taylor: 1) He has always loved to organize things. Even when he was 18 months old he would sit by the bookshelf, unload it and place the books in piles. He wasn't being destructive, but just wanted to organize. Now he loves to line his cars up according to their color and unload the dishwasher just so he can pile all the similar cups together. 2) Whenever he gets a snack out for himself, he arranges 3-4 different snacks all on a plate, instead of just getting out a box of crackers and eating it. 3) He has a habit of running without watching where he is going. His bruises and scars on his forehead are a testament of this. 4) Taylor can really bust a move! He does the best dances with his hips and shoulders. I really need to capture it on video. He's a nut. :)

Taylor is generally our peacemaker. He is very good at sharing and loves to make people happy. He knows how to push Derek's buttons, but he is a sweetheart the majority of the time.

Happy Birthday Tay Dawg! We love you!

The 2nd Annual Family Reunion

Day 1 (Saturday, June 14)
After 12 hours in the van, we arrived in California on Saturday night. We LOVE visiting Grandma and Grandpa and don't get to do it enough. It had been years since we've all been there together. That evening Lindsay (Dave's sister) was going out for a run and Dave decided to join her. Here is the before picture....Twenty minutes later Dave came running into the house to get the van keys in order to go pick up Lindsay. It was too dark for Lindsay to see a dip in the gravel road and she fell on the rocks and cut her knee open. Here's the after picture...
Dave brought his "battle bag" in the hopes that he'd be able to stitch someone up. Well, poor Lindsay was the lucky winner. Dave put 3 stitches in her knee. Brave girl. It looked painful. I wish I had taken a picture of Dave sewing her up.

Day 2 (Sunday, June 15)
We went to church in the morning and returned again later to listen to Lindsay's talk in her ward. She did a very good job. After church we played games and talked with one another. Here's a picture of Uncle Jason teaching Taylor how to play Chess. Taylor really got into it. He'd sit and scratch his chin as if he were really thinking about his next move. I hear that Taylor won.

Okay, so this next game was hilarious to watch. As usual, the grown boys thought up a simple, silly, and fun game to play. We had just finished playing Cranium for which we used some kids play molding foam (not sure how to describe it). They rolled it into a ball and proceeded to play a game in which they tried to keep it off the ground and counted how many hits they could get. It started with just Dave and Matt and spread to a five player game. They played this for a good hour and it was so funny to see how into it they became. Their record was 109 hits.

Day 3 (Monday, June 16)

We visited the Sacramento Zoo in the morning before it got too hot. I thought it was a fun zoo. Derek was bored most of the time. He told me "all we are doing is standing here staring at animals". I guess he didn't catch the entertainment in that. He wanted to play on the playground he saw on the way in.
McKenna is so pretty! She was such a good girl all day...as usual.

Man, those giraffes are tall...about 15 meters wouldn't you say, Dave?! :)
Derek got excited about all the palm trees or "Hawaii trees" as he referred to them. He takes after me. I love palm trees, because if you see them it usually means you are on vacation!

We had entirely too much fun at this painted board. I think this was one our longest stops taking pictures here.

Grandma and Grandpa.

We ate a picnic lunch at a park across the street from the zoo. It was great food and great company! Sadly, this was our most complete family picture taken all week. Lindsay (too injured to walk), Jared (orthodontist appointment), and Jacob (on a mission in Peru) are missing from it and others can't be seen behind heads.

After our family home evening about fathers, the grandkids playing in the wading pool in the backyard. The water was cold, but only Taylor seemed to care.

Day 4 (Tuesday, June 17)

We packed up and went camping at Sugar Pine Reservoir. All the winding roads made Derek a little car sick. Another trait he gets from me. Darn. He moaned from the back seat "Mommy, I'm going to throw up". I couldn't find the barf bucket that I brought for just that reason, so I grabbed what I could find at the moment...a pringles can with a few chips left in it. I gave it to Derek and few minutes later we hear crunching coming from the backseat. I guess Derek got hungry and decided to finish off the chips. It made me laugh, but not so funny when I saw those chips later. I know, I know...gross, Natalie! :) We camped just a short walk from the lake. Grandpa brought his kayaks and we all had a great time in them. Derek and Taylor couldn't get enough. Devin (brother in law) took Derek on a long ride and Derek still wanted more. Derek said that they "discovered flowers" and he delivered one for Janene from Devin. The next day he brought me a flower after a ride with Jared. Cute kid.
Spencer (Dave's brother) and Dave.

I wish I could have spent more time in the kayak, but McKenna needed my attention. :( It was such a beautiful lake. The water was so clear.
Cute Allie (sister in law, Spencer's wife).
Spencer and his daughter Emery.
After spending the day at the lake, we roasted hot dogs and chicken and made s'mores. Yum! Grandma and cousin Emery.

Janene (Dave's sister) and her son, Clayton.

Day 5 (Wednesday, June 18)

The next morning we ate a yummy breakfast of hashbrowns and eggs prepared by Judy (aka Grandma)! Thanks! We packed up camp and spent more time down by the lake. On our way out, Dave and Jared found this rope swing. This is one of the reasons that Dave loves this lake so much. There is usually a rope swing left by another camper. After the rope swing, Jared and Dave went snorkeling as well.

Devin about to swing.
Jared.
Dave's feet made a cool spray. He said it was like waterskiing.
Taylor tried the rope swing as well...on a smaller scale of course.

Day 6 (Thursday, June 19)
This is a lot of pictures, but I didn't know what to cut out. On Thursday we drove to Vallejo, CA and played at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Marine World). It was a blazing hot day, but we battled through it and had another great day.

McKenna and her cousin Clayton. Such cuties!
My sister, Laurel, and her family met us at the park since they live so close by. Here's a shot of us waiting to watch the killer whale show. Derek has a stuffed killer whale that he has named "Killer Swimmy". Since buying this whale for his 5th birthday, he's been so interested in killer whales. So we were excited to take him to this show, in fact, it's the whole reason we wanted to go to Discovery Kingdom. We weren't disappointed. Derek loved the show! We all loved it. I think it's amazing that dolphins and whales can do tricks on command by following sign language. How on earth do you train an animal to do that!?

Here are some clips and photos of Shouka the Killer Whale.

There's a fun Thomas the Tank Engine town inside the park. My boys have outgrown Thomas, but the rides were still fun.

Jason (Dave's brother) and his daughter M'li

Jason and Meaja were kind enough to sponsor Derek and Taylor's carnival game. Derek chose a penguin and Taylor chose a Thomas football for a prize.

These pictures were taken just after a dolphin show. You can see that the trainer in the red shirt has just sent a dolphin over to splash us. Moments after I snapped the photo we got wet. Not funny.

It took some persuading to get Taylor to pose for this picture. He saw what happened when Derek posed.

We had a breakthrough with Derek. The last time we put him on a ride was years ago. It was a little boat ride, you know the kind. The boats are attached to a wheel moving at a very slow pace and the kids sit and ring the bell on the boat. Well, Derek screamed in terror when we put him on this one, so we've taken a break from rides. It's been years, so we decided to try again. Derek and I went on the above pictured roller coaster (you can see my head and his lime green shirt). At first he screamed "I don't like it, I don't like it", but in his next breath he yelled "I love it, I love it! This is the best roller coaster ever!" The rest of the day he begged for more. He was addicted to roller coasters. So Dave and Derek went on "Monsoon Falls", where you are guaranteed to get wet. Below is a video clip of them on the ride. (Dave is wearing a blue baseball cap)

Here's the brave boy after the ride. He was so cold!

Once again, McKenna was an angel, even though she was sweating most of the day in her car seat. Poor thing.

No that is not a shadow. We went on a white water rapids ride and got pretty wet.

Laurel (my sister), Ethan, Doug, and Madeleine. What a cute family!

It was such a fun day that it was hard to leave, especially since it finally cooled down as we were heading out. We returned to Grandma and Grandpa's house and that evening, after the kids were in bed, Judy, Dave, Jason, and I played Hearts until early in the morning. We were all a little tired and had the giggles. It was such a fun night. I especially enjoyed it since I won the last game of the night by shooting the moon! Yes, I'm sure everyone is tired of me mentioning it, but it's rare for me to successfully shoot and I did it against the best!! :)

We drove back home on Friday and arrived at 3:30 in the morning. We are still trying to recover from the whole week and the drive. Thanks again Judy and David for the fun week. I know that you put so much work into it and I hope it was all worth it for you. I can't wait until next year's reunion!! Should we show Derek some real "Hawaii trees"? ;)