A trip to D-land

As an early Christmas gift and birthday celebration for my little brother, we headed to Disneyland with my sisters and brother. Since they were on their way out of California, we had to go to Disneyland one last time together!! 

The kiddos had a blast! Jonas reacted to Disneyland just the way Tom and I always thought a child should react, full of amazement and wonder! He was so much fun!! He loved everything and was willing to get on all the rides! Victor did much better at Disneyland this time around, but he still refused to ride most of the rides. Andrew is Andrew and loves everything! He even went on the Matterhorn! Lucia had fun on Finding Nemo and Pirates. Tom and I tried not to eat all the junk food there, and I think we did a pretty good job!

(Sorry Fati and Heath, somehow no pictures of you guys appeared!)

Mark, Tom, Jonas and Victor

Waiting for Finding Nemo ride!

Being wild children in Toon Town!

It's Matterhorn Time!  You go Andrew!

"See you later mom, I'm going to drive!"

Anyone can get a license at Disneyland!

Jonas and Grandpa

Lucy and I

Who can pull the sword out of the stone?

Uhh, Chris what happened here?  LOL!!  He fell!

Tree Trimming

Jonas placed the Angel up on the tree very nicely! Tree trimming with two crazy boys was interesting. We only lost one ornament. Too bad it was one that I liked!

Tom thinks we should get a real tree for the boys. I like our fake tree, no mess, easy to put up! How do you take a Christmas tree out of your house?

Loving Cousins, really they are!

The Pace family arrived in CA just in time for Thanksgiving!! We were so happy to have them here!! They were in town for approximately 2 weeks before being deployed to Japan. The boys got a chance to hang out. Andrew and Jonas had a great time pushing each other's buttons! It was a whirlwind of 2 weeks!! We were on the GO, GO, GO!! Whew!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was bittersweet. The Pace family was here from Texas. But they were just stopping by on the way to Japan. It was also my little brother's, Lalo, last Thanksgiving with us for a little while. He joined the Air Force and reported to basic training on Dec. 1st. We were missing a big chunk of family, but we had a great time with the people who were there. It was the first time the Gutierrez sisters hosted and made a Thanksgiving dinner. I think we did pretty well!!

Heath cooked the turkey on the BBQ, and the sisters made everything else! We had TONS of food! After the food comatose subsided, we karaoked all night long. I hope that the video doesn't make it to you-tube!

I took the boys in to get their haircut. I love the long look, but it was too long and starting to get mulletish. Plus Jonas was starting to hide food in his hair. Victor decided he wanted his haircut "short" like daddy. So here they are with their cuts and after about 5 lollipops each!

Didgeridoo

While in Australia we visited the Sydney Wildlife World at Darling Harbour.  Here they housed most if not all of Australia's most dangerous animals.  From spiders, snakes, crocodiles, cockroaches, to Australia's cutest animals, koalas, kangas and a platypus.  Throughout the exhibit they placed Indigenous stories explaining the creation of the animals according to the Indigenous Australian culture.  The stories were fascinating.  I tried to take a picture of the stories to share, but they didn't come out due to the glare.

We had a wonderful time.  Then we met, Jinabinya, Sea Eagle.  He is an indigenous Australian.  He spoke with such passion about his country and the animals living in Australia.  He talked to us about indigenous way of respecting nature and how they are trying to educate people about how we are harming our habitats and the animals.  He made the trip to the Wildlife World SOO worthwhile.  Laura and I were thinking of inviting him out to dinner just so he could tell us more!!  He played the didgeridoo for us.  His hand movement is supposed to represent a kangaroo jumping in his natural habitat.

He told us that a didgeridoo was made by termites eating the inside part of the branch.  They leave the outside part and that part of the branch is then polished to become the didgeridoo, a type of wind instrument.

Here is a cool pic of me with a Jinabinya Sea Eagle, an indigenous education officer, at the Sydney Wildlife World.  He is holding a blue tongue skink.

See below for a video.  Try to ignore his walkie talkie it kept going off while he was playing.

Lucia's Baptism

This past weekend Tom and I had the honor of becoming Lucia Deuel's Godparents!  It's a job that we take very seriously and are completely honored to have been chosen!  I know I still haven't posted pictures of when Lucy was born, but here are some from her baptism!!  Since we were participants, we were only able to get a few good pics.

Chocolate by the Bald Man, Max Brenner

I like chocolate, but I can live without it. So when we went to get some chocolate fondue, I thought there was no way we could eat all of this chocolate. Boy was I wrong. I ATE THE WHOLE POT OF DARK CHOCOLATE, which I am not usually a fan of. I even told Tom that I would probably just have a taste and he could eat the rest. Well, poor Tom, he didn't get any of the fruit, and I had chocolate dripping off my face. This is what Chocolate by the Bald Man, Max Brenner, will do to you. Or maybe only when you are vacationing in Australia.

Australia, Happy Birthday to Tom and I

Here are the long awaited, long overdue pictures of our trip to Australia this summer. Tom and I were able to get away from the kids for 10 days and enjoy ourselves in Sydney, Australia. Tom left a week before I did for a business trip. I met him in Australia at the end of his business trip. This was the best time I've had in quite awhile!! I am usually not a good traveler, but I made sure to give myself plenty of time between flights. It was nice having only myself to worry about. I could eat, sleep, go to the bathroom when I wanted!! No one tugging at me or screaming out my name or throwing a fit!

We ate more chocolate than I thought I ever could! Ate tons of cheese and wine, mmmmm!!! We saw a symphony at the Sydney Opera house, walked through the botanical gardens, saw the Sydney bridge (Tom got to climb it), went to the Aquarium (beats Sea World any day!), I got to pet a koala, saw kangaroos in the wild, saw a platypus! We did so much and yet not enough! Oh, but one of the best things about it was that I celebrated my 30th birthday, legitimately, two days in a row!

And yes we did see Nemo and Dori. And, no I did not even check to see if the water runs the other way, sorry, I forgot about it. I was too worried about making sure no snakes were crawling up the toilet pipes!

Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour, The Novatel in the back, where Tom stayed.

Pour as much chocolate as you want in there!

It's Nemo and Dory!

Views of Australia

Ok so most of these are of the Opera House.  But it is so cool looking how can you not take so many pictures of it??

View from the Botanical Gardens.  

We saw a love connection being made on our tour of the Botanical Gardens!

View from our Harbour Cruise.  Where we saw a couple not come up for air practically the whole cruise!!

View from our room, ok it wasn't our room.  It was Jon and Laura's room at the Four Seasons.  But they let us hang out there with them!

Watch out Tom!

Ok, bad memory, can't remember the name of the church but it was BEAUTIFUL!

Where in the world are Tom and Lulu?

Sydney Bridge, stop trying to throw me over Tom!

Another view of the Opera House.

From the top of the bridge.

The Four Seasons. Our hotel is somewhere in the back...

Ok, this was the view from our hotel, the Amora Jamison .  Had we conceived in Sydney, this would have been our child's name, Sydney Amora or Jamison Sydney.  Lucky kid!

View from the plane!  Goodbye Sydney, until we meet again!

Charlie the Koalie

Too bad I couldn't bring him home. Our climate is very similar to what the koalas are used to.