June 22- July 5, 2016
We were bummed to leave Florida, but lucky for us... our vacation wasn't over! We headed straight from Florida to California to visit my family. The plane rides there didn't go as smoothly, but we survived! Maria even got to watch some Aladdin during the flight.
The next day we made sure to take care of ourselves and get our nails done! So me, my mom, and Maria got our nails done. Jordan and my dad were there to help distract and hold down Maria. And Maria and I got matching toes!
This was the first time her nails were painted. Jordan had to take a deep breath, but I was pretty happy about it!
James also introduced Maria to the Land Before Time. She thought it was hilarious. haha We got a kick watching her giggle every five seconds. :)
James did a great job at showing Maria things. I love watching Maria bond with other family members. :)
My mom got to show Maria some things, too. In this aquarium, Maria would try to talk and yell at all of the fish and sharks. haha
Some of our crew: Ryan, James, Maria, Amber, and my mom.
Oh my gosh, I still can't believe this next part happened... We stopped to see the Bat Rays...
And Maria petted one! It took me another 15 minutes to muster up the courage to touch one! I couldn't believe how brave she was.
My mom was so awesome about carrying Maria while she slept. Maria loved snuggling with her. :)
It was incredible to see how tiny Maria looked in comparison to things like turtles and sharks.
It was so stinking hot that day and we knew they had a kiddie splash pad so we brought Maria's swimsuit. Unfortunately, something about the pipes wasn't working so there was no water. :( But that didn't stop Maria from crawling around and having fun. :)
Since there wasn't any water, we decided to check out the arctic animals so we could cool down. It was perfect.
I don't know why I didn't take a picture of our food because it was hilarious watching how much these two boys at that day. We got a few food passes so we could get a meal every hour. Ya, James and Jordan said they weren't very hungry, but the amount of food they ate says otherwise.
Maria got sleepy right before the Shamu show started so my mom stayed out with her while the rest of us enjoyed the show. I don't think I had been to Sea World in nearly ten years! It was so fun telling Jordan different memories I had there. After the show was over Ryan, Amber, my mom, and I went on one of the rollercoaster rides! It was so much fun! That was my brave moment of the day.
Maria was so exhausted. She fell asleep with her arm up and holding her car seat.
At my parent's house, we have lots of rabbits and squirrels that invade the garden so my brothers shoot their BB gun at any intruders. Since we were there, Jordan tried and on his first shot he got this rabbit.
I'm so glad we had a pool to cool off in while we were there.
As you can tell, Maria had no interest in taking pictures. I can't blame her. All she wanted to do was play in the water!
While we were in California, we had the amazing opportunity to visit the San Diego temple. Just me and Jordan! We even got to sit in the room where we were sealed, with no one else. Just us. We felt a flood of emotions as we remembered our sealing and what it has meant to us. A few minutes later we even got to talk to the architect of the temple and ask him some questions! It was incredible!
The Sunday before we went home was a week before Maria's birthday, so we HAD to have a party! Since we read the Jurassic Park books and watched all of the movies while we were pregnant with Maria, dinosaurs have always been in Maria's life. A dinosaur theme party was perfect. So sorry for the next 50 pictures, but my family worked so hard on every detail of this party and I loved it all.
For the goodie bags we had dinosaur fossils (chocolate covered pretzels) buried in some rocks (Cocoa Pebbles).
We also made up some fun names for all of the food.
My mom and James created this masterpiece!
James had the privilege of setting up the dinosaur toys, which were his toys when he was little. I think he had a lot of fun doing it. ;)
Ryan and Amber made these dino footprints for the front door. So cute!
My aunt and uncle and some cousins came over to celebrate. We played some fun games like "Spell That Dinosaur" and "Blindfolded Dinosaur Dig." Yes I just named those games myself just now. The first game we had all the letters for a dinosaur name, you just had to put them in the right order. It was tough! We did some crazy names! The digging game was fun, too. One parter is blindfolded and digs through a bucket of sand for tiny dinosaurs. The other partner checks to see if it's the right dinosaur.
After games we opened gifts. Maria was spoiled as usual with books, toys, clothes, shoes, etc.
James got her an Alex Morgan shirt and a viking shirt since it's in our blood. We're related to Ragnar and Odin. :)
Ryan got her the cutest vans ever! :)
Next was cake time! I made Maria her own cake... which I failed to get a picture of... and which Maria failed to eat. My mom and I enjoyed it! lol It was basically like banana bread. This cake from Sam's Club was also delicious!
Monday, July 4th, was our last day of vacation and we would actually be heading home on Tuesday. So we spent the day relaxing, swimming, and just having fun.
What made the day great was a milestone for Maria!
She took her first steps!!! She was so excited to have so many people cheering her on. I admired how even after she fell (many times) she was still ready to go again. There are so many traits that young children have that just inspire me. Getting back up after falling is one that I was reminded of as I have watched Maria learn how to walk.
Before we knew it, we were headed for the airport again. What made this one worse was that we were going home and wouldn't see any of our family for a while. The only thing that made the trip home a little sweeter was when we stopped for our layover in Salt Lake and got to see these sweet babies!!!
Ashley and Lana brought their tiny newborns to visit us during our layover! I was so happy to meet these little girls for the first time that I was literally sobbing. lol It's those mommy emotions, I swear. Bennett and Naomi were so, so cute! And both of them had more hair than Maria!!!! haha
Our last leg home was amazing until the last 15 minutes. We had the best seats with extra leg room and right next to the bathroom (very convenient for diaper changes). Our plane was about to land in Philadelphia when all of a sudden, the plane pulled up and accelerated. The pilot then announced that there was an oncoming plane in the runway so we would have to loop around and try and land again. Jordan and I looked at each other like, "Oh ya, no big deal... we all almost died..." Thankfully we didn't but that didn't make me feel very good about our next attempt to land. And apparently it didn't make Maria feel very good either. Our plane was about to land again when Maria threw up all over me and Jordan. She was throwing up so much that she was gasping for air afterwards. I tried to hold back tears and Jordan ran to the bathroom to get some paper towels. He was scolded by a flight attendant who told Jordan he can't be out of his seat while the plane was landing, but there wasn't much we could do in that situation.
Other passengers were so kind and started handing back tissues and napkins to help. We were the last to get off, but we were just glad that Maria seemed okay. We all changed clothes and headed home. We were all exhausted and it had never felt so good to come home.
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