Future Karaoke Stars

Andrew's best friend, Mackenzie stopped by the other night for a quick visit. While Bethany and I were talking, our two future stars grabbed the mics and shared with us their vocal stylings. We heard great preschool hits like "The ABC Song" and "Where Is Thumbkin."
I'm so proud! :)

Water Fun With Trevor

Following Calvin's party we headed over to the Turners house for a little fun with the bouncy house water slide! McKenzie had an early birthday/going away party. (Yes, they're leaving us and I DON'T want to talk about it! They say there are 5 stages of grief...well I'm still stuck in DENIAL!) Aside from a little play myself, I spent most of the afternoon holding Tyler. :) I did manage to snap a few quick shots of the boys playing.
Andrew wouldn't ever go down the big slide, but he did play in the landing pool. (Notice Trevor's "thank you...thank you very much" landing pose)
We all had a great time. So thanks Kim, for letting us come over. We're looking forward to spending some quality time with them next week while the kids are on fall break! Water park here we come!

Calvin Turns 2!

Ok I finally got the most recent pictures off of my camera so I can start playing catch up. (I'm only a week behind...that's not so bad.)

Last Saturday Andrew and I went to Calvin's birthday party. Calvin belongs to Garreth and Emily Hughes. (Garreth is a pilot in Drew's squadron)

Here's Calvin opening Abigail's present. (Abigail is another Ugly Angel child)
more presents...
Andrew waiting for Calvin to open his gift, that he picked out all by himself!
Calvin opening Andrew's gift.
Cake time!
Emily made the cake and it was delicious!

Time to blow out the candles!
Happy Birthday Calvin! Thanks for having us at your awesome party!

Adventures And Babysitting

We're still here, but just a little slow to post. This past week has flown by. I do have some pictures to upload from last weekend. Drew had last Friday off so we went to the water park, per Andrew's request. I didn't even take my camera that day. We just wanted to have fun without worrying about carrying a camera around...and we did..have fun that is. Andrew was running around the kiddie area riding all the slides by himself. At one point Drew and I just sat there in the one foot water and watched him run around and around going down the two smallest slides. It was a great day! Saturday we had another birthday party followed by some fun play time at the Turners'. I'll upload those pictures some other time. ;) (I promise)

In the meantime, I've added a new blog to my "favorites" list to the right. MRS. Do-MESS-tic belongs to my friend and neighbor Bethany; otherwise known as Mackenzie's Mommy. Check it out!

Also in the news: Andrew stayed with a babysitter tonight and did an amazing job! Go Andrew! Ms. Renee is a modern day Mary Poppins. She brings a whole crate full of books, toys, and puzzles. She does a magic light show at bedtime and even leaves a surprise for when Andrew wakes up in the morning. I was a little worried because he took a really late nap (waking up at 6pm), but she had him in bed at 9! She may charge $12/hr but she's amazing and Andrew does really well with her. That's a huge answered prayer. It's tough leaving your child with a stranger, but Ms. Renee makes it easy!

Change of Command

Monday was the HMH 362 change of command ceremony. (That means our CO is leaving and we're getting a new one.) Each CO (commanding officer) stays with a squadron or unit for 18 months. So it was time for us to say goodbye to the Hagans.

Before the ceremony I snapped a shot of Trevor, future aviator!

And Miss Addi looked away, but she's still all smiles!
The Marine Corps Band played before and after the ceremony.
The official passing of the command. Lt. Col Hagan 'passing the torch' so to speak.
Lt. Col Pecina taking over. (His wife is super nice and they have twin boys a month older than Andrew)
A few final words from Lt. Col Hagan.
A very proud Lynda and their children. (Lynda...we'll miss you!)
After the ceremony, we went into the hangar for "refreshments" which actually turned out to be a fully catered meal by Keneke's! Kim made this outstanding cake of Olaf, our mascot! She never ceases to amaze me!

Wyatt turns 2

This past Saturday we went over to the Attwood's house to celebrate Wyatt's 2nd birthday! He had a great party with lots of friends, cake, and presents.

Here's McKenzie waiting on the cake!

Girl talk with Kim and Julie.
Thomas cake courtesy of Kim!
Blow out the candles!
Yum!
The kids played hard all afternoon. The Mom's chilled inside while the Dad's did their thing outside. It was a fun day! Thanks Wyatt for having us at your party!

Let's Go "Blowin"

Ok...here's a little catching up.

On our last day in the park (Friday), we left around 10 pm. We drove Drew's parents to the airport (LAX) and we hit the road. The only military flights back to Hawaii were out of Travis Air Force Base, which is 7 hours away. Due to the Labor Day holiday, all the rental car places were closing on Saturday at noon....SO we had to drive all night, arriving in Fairfield, CA around 5:45 am. Drew and I took turns driving and by the time we got there, I was so tired I couldn't stand it! Long story short, we finally got a room around 9 am on the air force base. It was super nice and for $39, it was a great deal.

We spent most of the day Saturday sleeping. Andrew and I took a 4 hour nap that morning, and Drew got his nap after he returned the rental car. Since we were out of transportation, we were stuck with finding entertainment on base, which wasn't hard, since the bowling alley was right across the street.

Around 5pm we decided to walk over. On our way we spotted a jack rabbit. Andrew had fun chasing him...


This was Andrew's very first time to go blowin'. No, that's not a typo, it's just how he says bowling. It's hilarious! We got 2 lanes so Andrew could have the bumpers. Check out those cool bowling shoes!
PUSH! Andrew's ball speed averaged 1.7 miles an hour.
Waiting patiently...it took a while for the ball to get down there.
The next bowl, he managed to get his only spare of the night! Good job, Andrew!
We enjoyed a nice bowling alley cafe dinner and had lots of fun playing while watching some football. It was the most perfect, fun day ever! We had a great time just the three of us, with no set plans, making our own adventure. ..good times!
The next morning we got up and walked 10 minutes down the road with all our luggage to the passenger terminal where we were lucky enough to get on a DC-8 headed for Hawaii. It looked like a normal commercial airline, but with a much shorter cabin. (the rest of the plane was used for cargo) There were about 30 seats on board. We were on the front row with extra leg room! It was great. Andrew slept the first 3 hours and played quietly in his seat the other 2. Once again we were blessed with good luck on our mac flight!

Blog slacker!

Yes, I know...I haven't posted anything lately. Drew has been on leave and we've been having too much fun to worry about blogging (or cleaning house for that matter. This place is a disaster!) We've really enjoyed having Drew home every day. Too bad he has to go back to work!

The boys have been spending lots of "guy" time together. For example, Drew let me sleep in this morning (yay) and when I woke up, they were both wearing their Drew Brees Saints jerseys. Too cute!

Also in the mix over the last couple of weeks: bowling, a trip to the water park, and our friend Wyatt's 2nd birthday party. We've had fun!

Drew goes back to work in the morning and I promise I'll start blogging again. (Not to mention the house is going to get a good cleaning!)

Last Day At Parks

Friday was our last day in the parks. We started out back at Disneyland finishing up on some rides we missed on Wednesday and re-riding some of Andrew's favorites. We also went into Innoventions, where Granddad participated in an ABC TV challenge, which he won! He got 2 out of 3 and won an "honorary Disneyland citizen" button.

On our way out of the park, we ran into one of Drew's heroes.
From there we went back to California Adventure, where we saw the Pixar Play Parade, full of all of our favorite pixar characters.
Roz from Monsters Inc. was the Grand Marshall.
Next, the Incredibles made an appearance.

Notice the flame coming out of Jack Jack's hair!
The fun thing about this parade: every float squirted water at the audience. Here are Andrew and Granddad getting wet!
The rats from Ratatouille.
Andrew was amazed!
Next were characters from Finding Nemo.
Followed by A Bug's Life...
Toy Story and Toy Story 2


The parade ended with Lightning McQueen and Mater.

On our way out of the park we took some pictures with our initials.
The whole Ladner gang
Our Ladner gang
And the cutest little Ladner...

"A is for Andrew"Later that night we met up with Drew's cousins Carlos and Shelly, who live in L.A. It was great to see them again. After dinner we ran back to Disneyland to see the fireworks. Tinkerbell and DUMBO flew by the castle. I wish I had my camera because Andrew's expression was priceless and made the whole trip worth it!