Santa Monica Pier

 

During our wonderful spring break we went to the Santa Monica Pier. There is so much to do down there that every time I go down I swear we come across something new that we didn't see the last time. There is a restaurant called BubbaGump and outside sits Forrest's bench with the shoes and everything, so we couldn't resist. Also on the podium where you give your name are all these license plates, we again, couldn't resist. My older sister actually has the one on the right as her wallpaper on her phone because that phrase comes out of her mouth every 15min. HAHA!

A few more Easter Pics

Just a few examples of what a great big brother Brandon is, they are so in love!

Easter 2010

Easter this year was extra special. As I said before, my family, was in town for their spring break which happened to be over Easter. My Mom loves every holiday especially if it includes kids, so we decided to let mom & dad have a special grandparents/grandkids day. We woke up in the morning and did our usual breakfast and Easter basket hunting that the Easter Bunny hid the night before. Once we were finished with that all of the big kids (my brothers, my sister, my niece, hopeful sister-in-law, my husband, & I) all left to spend the day at Six Flags. While we were at Six Flags my parents finished the traditional Easter festivities. They put on an egg hunt. They each got their very own hunt, of course, each age appropriate! They absolutely loved it! After the egg hunt they packed a picnic lunch and went to the beach. All in all it was a great day and Brandon still talks about ittoday! Thanks mom & dad! You guys are the best!
 

 

Malibu Coastline

The beach right across the street from the Neptune Net is a huge surf spot. On any given day there is usually at least 20 surfers out there. Here are a few shots of how pretty it can be. Also in one of the pictures in the distance you can see a parachute from a wind surfer! It looks like a lot of fun but really hard!

Spring Break 2010

Since I have been living in the LA area my family has decided to spend their spring break vacations down here so they can get a break from the WA winter. I absolutely love it and we always have a great time.

We have made it a tradition to stop at the famous "Neptune Net Cafe" for lunch and an after flight adult beverage(You may have seen this in numerous movies). This place is only 20min down the road from my house and just north of Malibu so it is very convenient when taking trips to the airport.



Isa and Haley eating at the Neptune Net

Shannon, Brandon, and I enjoying our grub!!

SHOES!!!

 

So I have officially created a monster! My 1.5 year old loooooves shoes. These particular shoes she picked out herself and would not take them off so naturally I had to buy them. What can I say like mother like daughter, we both need our shoes!

Appendectomy!!!!

 

This was one of the longest days ever!!!! We started at 7am Friday trying to get ready for school. I woke Brandon up and carried him to the couch like I always do, then made him breakfast. As he started to get up to move to the table he complained about his side hurting and wouldn't walk so I picked him up thinking it was one of those days and he was still tired! After he was done eating he went to the bathroom and could barely walk there then REFUSED to walk back to the couch. This is when I knew for sure something wasn't quite right! I picked him up, carried him to the couch and there he lay motionless because he was afraid to move. The only position that was comfortable for him was in the fetal position.

It is now 8:00am and I have decided that I obviously have to take him into the ER because he never acts like this. He is actually quite under-dramatic(When he broke his elbow we waited almost a whole day before I took him in.) So I quickly showered and got Isa up and fed then out the door. We got the the ER by 9am and fortunately it was right before the huge rush of people. After the Dr. asked all their questions and ran a few tests they suspected an appendicitis but it wasn't showing up on any of them. So we actually had then stumped, it was like we were a mini episode of "House".(HAHA)

Finally around 7pm they decided to do a cat scan and that is where we finally had proof of a busted appendix. So we were then instructed to wait until 9pm so the surgeon could get to him and then we would be wheeled up to surgery. They actually didn't bring us up to surgery until 10pm! Yep that is right, we were in the actual ER from 9am until 10pm and we still were not done with our hospital visit.

The crazy thing is once Brandon was in surgery everything went really fast. The surgery lasted about an hour with the recovery time, then we were moved up to pediatrics. Both Dave and I stayed the night in the hospital room, so yeah neither one of us really slept. The surgeon was great, he even drew a little dog on Brandon's bandage! Brandon's recovery was very quick so we were released from the hospital Saturday afternoon.

The best part about the whole thing was when Brandon wasn't loopy anymore from the anesthesia Sat morning he asked me when they were going to take out his appendix. :) I guess that is a great sign that the surgeon was awesome.

Overall it was a very long and stressful day but Brandon was very brave and only complained when he had to drink this nasty water for the cat scan. He is such a trooper. Also my friend Janet was kind enough to take Isa overnight for us. She was also AWESOME!!!! Thanks Janet! :)