'Nuff said.

STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS

OC Fair

We're trying to squeeze in everything we can before school starts. My summer checklist has already been completed so anything we do in the next two weeks is a bonus!

Colby suggested we head over to the OC Fair yesterday and so we hopped in the car and met our good friend Brittany Zollinger there. Her hubby was studying and couldn't make it :( We watched the Peking acrobats who supported their weight with their teeth and then bent backwards. They were amazing!
We also tried to see the Demolition Derby but weren't able to. Sam didn't like all the noises and was pretty upset until we left. Jackson also let us shop even though he was starving (I know we were).
We saw a deep fried stick of butter, chocolate covered bacon (I wanted some but we ran out of time),
deep fried Twinkies, and deep fried ice cream sandwiches. We got the deep fried Klondike bar and Brittany indulged in the Twinkies. She said it was so good it changed her life. Wow.

We saw the livestock in the pavilion and farm,
saw a Caroline Young kiosk,
(this was my favorite print) a lady painting on the inside of glass balls, Native American jewelry, and knock off purses. There was the thunderhead shower head and lots of stuff that's similar to the Stampede, just not quite as much.
The weather was perfect and we got free parking because there were so many people there they didn't charge us.
Our house is a mess with half-finished laundry, messy sink, and unmade beds. Jackson contributed his fair share.
We had a fantastic time!

HG

First of all, BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Laura for telling us about this place! THANK YOU! We loved it!
What we did. See below.This is the Chinese Garden. There are more pictures, but they are all on Mom and Bryce's camera.


Well, Mom and Bryce have certainly been tiring us out. It's 8:30 and everyone is still asleep while they are off to Universal Studios. Colby and I were going to go, but it's just too much for us. Yesterday we went to Huntington Gardens. It was amazing! It blows Buchart out of the water! It is huge! Bryce pointed out that Buchart Gardens have more flowers and I will agree with that, but TheHG is immense. They have garden after garden after garden.
We will have to go again! We stayed for four hours and didn't even see it all. We had to forgo the Subtropical, Rose, Australian, Desert, and Jungle Gardens AND all the art galleries this trip. We did see the Warm Rainforest, the Cloud Rainforest, Children's Garden, Lily Ponds, and the Chinese and Japanese Gardens. It was incredible!

This is ONE field lined with statues. I'm trying to give you all perspective of the enormity.
In the water part of the Children's garden
We'll need to bring a change of clothes for Jackson because he basically went naked for the rest of the day.
Here is Jackson smelling one of the flowers.

This is the Japanese dry landscape garden. The pond and pagodas were behind us.


They had a Bonsai gallery with at least 25 bonsai trees.

Then we ate at El Torito and Jackson again ate most of the guacamole and his quesadilla as well as all of my pinto beans. The kid loves the place.

Gages vs Disney's CA Advent. Park

Gages-1, DCAP-0.
It was TOO hot! This is us on the bus ride home! Jackson didn't want to leave the bus area because they kept coming and were Toy Story decked out.
The only ride that didn't freak Jackson out was Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. We rode it 3 or 4 times.
This is us in Bug's Land and playing in Dot's Puddle Park. Thank you Disney and Pixar and to that Imagineer who thought that a water park would be a good idea! I'd like to shake your hand.

The heat wiped us all out. We were wasted by the time evening rolled around.
We stripped Sam naked and kept spraying him with water. Sam was such a trooper. We also got in line at 5:30 for the Aladdin Musical Spectacular. Even at 5:30 the Aladdin show was fantastic for just escaping the heat. Genie is hilarious and was playing off of the audience. The rest of the show seems to drag unless Genie is stealing it. Great for laughs. We bought a Toy Story Buzz Lightyear water cup for Jackson and he pushed the poseable hand up high and gave it a high five. It inspired me to get Jackson an action figure. I don't know why it takes me so long to think of these things!
Below is Jackson in Costco. And evidence that Mom and Bryce made it here.

Cards and Cocktails video

We had a bunch of friends over to play Pit and have Mocktails (thanks for the help Laura). I thought we'd lock all the kids up in the crib and have them watch a movie. It turned into a jump fest. The kid in the middle is Wesley and the girl is Addy. Jackson thought they were hilarious. After the party, Jackson and I worked on jumping. Child number 4 was in the bedroom watching Nemo, these kids were watching Up, but eventually Addy wanted to watch Snow White. Three Disney movies at the same time. One on a laptop, one on the computer and one on the TV. Sorry about the rotation issue. Wes was jumping and when I came in to take the video he was done. He says, "I'm tired."

More for Dani- We miss you, too!

These pictures and a video (that is taking too long so it's not here) were taken tonight as I walked around with my phone camera.
Sam's all clean. Jackson climbed up on the chair himself to open the Pixarpedia that I'd left on the table. Colby was reading on the couch and I took a group picture.

Summer Stuff

Today is the 5th. Jackson got a little scared of the firework display the other night but got used to it (sort of) by the end. He was pretty patient considering they were 30 min late in starting. We went to the RSM fireworks and were able to get packed up and out of there before all the people swarmed to leave.

It's off to the pool again today, although it's pretty hazy. And there's no rest for the wicked, or the Gages because Colby was out the door by 6 am this morning (Go Colby!) to tutor a nursing student! He's amazing!

Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Jackson is here seen trying to get out of his highchair.
And look how stylish he is! I caught the crafting bug again and decided to make some felt cuff I saw on MADE, just like on celebrate the boy. I also added a pirate cuff.
Here he is perusing his Pixarpedia (seriously, this is a good gift for any of you grandparents reading this out there).
Close-ups of the cuffs (which he at first didn't want to wear, but he's pretty good about it)

Here he is wearing a headband of mine from Grandma Gage. He saw it on my head and thought it would be fun.
In this picture he turned and posed (just long enough for a picture) but he was loving the camera.
Here we are at a Splash Pad at the Irvine Spectrum (The Ferris Wheel, Javier's, Pinkberry-basically a "Place-to-Spend-Your-$-cornucopia"
At one point, Jackson squatted down to see where the water was coming from and got two quick squirts right in the mouth! He looked so surprised, "What was that?" written all over his face.
Here we are outside Pinkberry enjoying their Happy Hour (half off). They have a seasonal watermelon flavor as well as chocolate. We got both and Colby confessed that he was only feeding Jackson the chocolate stuff because the watermelon was so good (the chocolate was good too). Problem was that Jackson liked the watermelon better, too! Jackson didn't get brain freeze (at least he didn't seem to mind bite after bite after bite)!
Stylin' in the Sit and Stand stoller (Jackson's first time sitting in the back). It didn't really work so well. He kept wanting to get off or twisting to see what was coming. A couple month wait ought to do it!
Us at the Samlarc Beachclub.
Jackson, at the start, was retrieving his ball but decided to play in the cooler sand! What fun!

More from Us

Sam is now 12 weeks old! He weighs 14.4 pounds and still eats a TON! He eats about 7 oz each sitting. He's sleeping like a champ at night and we love him. He loves to hold his head up and arch his neck. Crazy baby. He also likes getting chucked under the chin.
Jackson exploring a leftover box of diapers Colby ordered for Sam. He found this killer deal and ordered 3-4 boxes which came in a larger box. Jackson's giving us the grand tour.
And he also liked the pictures I was taking.

I had Jackson help me get the cheese out of the fridge and onto the table so I could cut it for him. As soon as we got the cheese out I turned to reach and get the knife. I turned back and saw this
and this
and this
and this.


We've got a big mouse problem.
Another "grab-the-camera-to-take-my-picture" moment from Jackson. He always gets really excited and runs around.He saw me putting rubber bands in my hair and wanted one in his hair (he gestured) so I obliged. He didn't like it so much when I later added a couple more making a mohawk on his head.Here's Jackson sitting on the potty. We haven't started even discussing toilet training, just getting him to sit on the toilet so he's not afraid. I think he just likes lifting the foot rest.
Recently, Jackson has taken off to somewhere in the house and he'll be very quiet. I thought I'd lost him or he'd somehow escaped the apartment (he's a tall kid) and he was only hiding in the closet. Yesterday, Colby found him examining the curly ribbons on a gift back we'd left in the closet. He also likes to stack and arrange the Rummicub tiles.
If Jackson spots the camera lying around, he'll open and close the shutters and will hold it up for me to take his picture. This is one of those pictures.





He likes peanut butter. Often, he'll run and grab it from the counter and eat it by the spoonful. He also just figured out yesterday how to scoop it off the sandwich and lick off his fingers.

Just before Daddy gets home, we're hanging out and ready to go. Jackson really likes rocking Sam in the carseat.
Daddy's home and we're off to the pool.
Late in the evening, Mommy decided to experiment and made cornstarch goop for Jackson. He wasn't really sure what to do with it. Daddy got in on the action too.

Playing with cornstarch goop.

Jackson didn't really quite catch the vision of the goop. He tolerated it.
Milk before bed.
and finishing watching Nanny McPhee and Jackson decided that my lap looked comfortable too.