Adventureland!

We had our last summer trip of the year and went with Clint's parents to Des Moines--final destination?............ you guessed it! Adventureland! Think Disneyland, subtract Mickey and other characters, cut it down to about 1/30th the size and you have Adventureland. It was just the right size for our two girls...and it's only a 2 hour car ride away. Who needs Disneyland when you have such a great substitute?



Mayah was such a great sport this time. Always in the past, she would shy away from rides that seemed too scary. This time she was ready to try them all! Ava even joined in on some fun, trying to climb out of the top of the ferris wheel, riding in the hot air balloon ride, and doing a few with just Mayah. It was fun to see them having such a good time!


Here are some pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy!

Photo shoot with Ava

These pictures are for Grandma Brenda. Even though Daddy doesn't really care for Ava's hair like this, he thinks it makes our girl look chubby ( hard to do I know!) :) Grandma and I think she looks adorable! Although I am usually the worlds worst photographer (Serenity will attest to that), I thought these ones turned out pretty good and wanted to share a few. I love this face!!!

Carlos family 8/9/08. For time and all eternity!

I know everyone has been wondering why we haven't posted anything about the sealing of our family. Especially since this is such a HUGE milestone for us.... I have been waiting for my BFF Melissa to send me a CD of the pictures. As you can see I finally have some! They say a picture is worth a thousand words... so these 15,000 words (15 pics) ought to sum it up! It was a great experience for us, and in one of our favorite places on earth...San Diego. Our families and friends on both sides were there to support us. It's nice to have such a great support network to encourage us and set such great examples. Thanks to everyone who came and those who were there in spirit.

Back to school....

This will be Mayah's third week of school, but because I lost our camera for a while I am kinda playing catch up with the blogs!


The first day of school is always exciting, with the butterflies of starting something new, not knowing if you are going to know anyone in your class or have someone to sit with at lunch and play with at recess. Fun because you finally get to wear the new clothes that you bought weeks before and have been dying to show off. You can finally put the Hannah Montana backpack, folders, pencils, lunch box and thermos you have been looking at in the corner of your room to good use. It was the same anticipation as knowing your clothes would be the envy of every girl in school! It's about the only day of the entire school year where you wake up alert and ready to hop out of bed at the first call from Mom, thrilled to be getting ready for school. You never doubt that you are absolutely going to LOVE your day!

That was Mayah! All smiles as we walked out the door heading to the new school that she's been anxiously awaiting since last February. She was accepted into a visual/preforming arts and mathematics/engineering school that she couldn't wait to be a part of. I dropped her off at her classroom door and said goodbye to a cute new second grader! I couldn't wait for the end of the day to hear all about how much fun she had.

I only wish that I had the camera to capture the expression on Mayah's face as she exited the doors of the school at the end of her first day. It was so shocking to me! There were no more smiles akin to the little girl I dropped off, instead was the look of pure disappointment. I hugged her and asked "How was it?!" as excited as I could. Her reply.... "Second grade stinks!" She continued, " Remember how when we met my teacher she was all bubbly, well she is not that way at all! When we went to art class we didn't even do art! We only got one recess, and the one that we got was only like 10 minutes!!!" The more she talked about it, the madder she became. It was not the Mayah that I know. She is usually so upbeat and optimistic about this kind of thing. I felt so bad that she didn't enjoy her day and that she was not looking forward to going back. I tried explaining to her that things are sometimes hectic on the fist day and that things would get better. I think one of the problems was that she just expected that she was going to an arts school, so she should be doing art and fun things all day! As I said at the top, this is the start of her third week and I am happy to report that things have gotten much better with each day! Mayah is back to loving school!