Disneyland - May 24th

Our Disneyland days are growing short.  Only 2 more as a family planned. :(

Here we are checking out the Disneyland Railroad, chatting with the conductor, and getting to learn about the engine!

The Disneyland Fire Station is cute!  A horse-drawn fire engine!

Jacob loved Goofy's house!

And much to Ben's chagrin, we finally road the tea cups!

AMR

The big capstone project for second-year MBA candidates at UCLA is called AMR, Applied Market Research.  The students form groups and then spend the majority of their second year working on a big project for another company.  It was a lot of research and a lot of hours.  Ben truly lucked out with his group; they thoroughly enjoyed each other and, through spending so much time together, really bonded.  Their team's project was a consulting project for Tennet Health Care, creating an employer branding strategy.  They had a fabulous presentation (Ben & Chris were the presenters) and ended up presenting their final project five times for various groups as examples and in a competition!  They didn't take the grand award, but they did take the next prestigious award and won $4,000!

From left to right: Daniel, Chase, my handsome husband, Chris (attends another LDS ward here in LA and will also be working at General Mills with Ben), and James (also attends another LDS ward here in LA).

Exploring

Jacob is in such a fun stage right now.  He is a proficient walker (getting pretty close to running, too) and our walks down to the south playground are slow and full of exploration.  I love it.  I snapped some pictures of it this week so I can remember.

An airplane flew overhead.  He always hears them and he can always spot them.

We love our playground friends!  And I love their moms!

Disneyland - May 13

Okay this was just a fabulous day at Disney!  We went on Monsters Inc., and did Turtle Talk with Crush in the morning - super cute.

Then we tried something new just so we could check it off our Disneyland list, and it was so. much. fun.  We love the Redwood Creek Wilderness Challenge Trail!  Jakey loved it too, and he was so brave to new things!

He was so scared to try to walk across the rope bridge, but all the big kids were doing it!  He studied it and looked and looked . . and then he finally tried it and face-planted - ha!  But it was so cute and we were so proud.

The wooden swing bridge was a much better fit.

Jake explored every nook and cranny.

He was so scared of this "log" at first, but after he tried it, we couldn't get him out.  Not a joke - there was a line of kids waiting for him to get out!

He definitely earned his Senior Wilderness Explorer Badge.

Then we met up with Kipp & Sara and Ben & I got to ride Screamin' California together for the first time.  So great! We watched the Pixar Play Parade afterwards and it was so cute!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a funny day . . so much pressure to be a perfect mom and have a perfect day . . (and here I am saying this after many a bittersweet mother's day . . I am SO dang grateful for what I have) - - but I think I had it pretty good this Mother's Day.  Buddy didn't get a nap before church and was a mess by the second hour, so I took him to the mothers' lounge to nurse, he fell asleep in my arms, and we spent the entire third hour in a peaceful mothers' lounge together.

Jake Turns One & Has a Fiesta!

Just a shot from breakfast, to document what my little man looked like on his first birthday morning.  

We had some good playground playtime on his birthday . . and Jake loves the old toys on the playgrounds . . 

But he was especially pleased to receive his very own red tricycle for his birthday!!

Mom & Emily came to town to celebrate with Jake, so we all went out to Jake's favorite restaurant for dinner . . ha, more like Mommy & Daddy's favorite restaurant.

I just wanted to document what my sweet boy looked like as he went to bed at the end of his first birthday.  Those nasty spots in the corners?  That's where Jake always has his head (and drooling mouth) when he sleeps.

On Friday, Grandma Molly & Aunt Emily came over for some early present opening.

Jake was excited for his new DVDs of Raffi and The Fox & The Hound and for his awesome new car set, but we was more excited to play with the tissue paper, boxes, and gift bags.

Then it was time for Jacob's fabulous Cinco de Mayo First Birthday Fiesta!  I've always thought that big birthday parties for a 1-year old are silly . . but now that I have a kid and his birthday is Cinco de Mayo, I just had to throw a party!  It was seriously a blast and there were like 50-60 people there.  That's the most well-attended 1-year old birthday party I've ever heard of!  Jacob is so loved, and it made us feel so good.  

15 Hot 'n' Ready pizzas and all but 2 were eaten!

We had a piñata and it was hilarious.

But we should have known that Jacob really just wanted to wrestle with it.

Here's Jacob, looking like a boss man on his hot new wheels!

Happy birthday, Jacob!  We love you!