Sweet (or Studly) Sixteen

Is it a "Sweet Sixteen" for a boy? Maybe we'll go with "Studly Sixteen" instead...sounds more masculine. :)

Either way, my little preemie baby boy is now 16. It doesn't seem possible!

Our tradition on birthdays is to wake them up with a candle in a muffin (or doughnut in Nick's case) and the rest of the family goes into their room with the candle lit singing Happy Birthday. Then they get to open their presents. As my kids have gotten older, they have started requesting what time they'd like to be woken up on their birthdays and it's getting later and later. :)

We got Nick a bunch of "Freedom Passes" for his birthday, which included a gift card for gas, a gift card to JCW's, a gift card to the movie theater along with a free popcorn and the refillable cups. We also got him a giant box of Fireworks from Costco to do that night...one of his favorite things to do.

The first thing on the agenda after getting up and showered was heading to the DMV. I knew I would have some very mixed emotions at this point! On one hand, I remember how excited I was the day I got my license and I was excited for Nick. On the other hand, I knew it was going to create more worry and anxiety for me. But the biggest positive is that I no longer spend as much time in the car running him around and he can even help get Hailey to and from activities and friends' houses...it has given me many more hours in the week to get other stuff done...hahaha. :)

I will say it was very weird to see Hailey hop in the car with him as soon as we got back to have him take her for a ride...without me! As I watched them drive down the street alone I wanted to put a giant bubble around that car to protect them. It is so strange to experience so many different emotions at once from being so excited to see their joy in experiencing some of these things for the first time but also wanting to jump in a time machine and have them both back in their double stroller with me in complete control of where they're going and being right there with them every step of the way!

We gave Nick a bunch of different options for what he could do to celebrate his birthday but all he wanted was to go with some friends to Tucanos...without parents. We were originally going to rent a limo to take them down but I could not find one that would charge less than $300 and I could not bring myself to pay that much for a ride to Provo. So Brian and I took them down and we ate a few doors down at Bajio while they had their feast at Tucanos.

The gift bag that Masey is holding in the picture above had these little bags in it for each of the kids. I gave it to her right before they headed into the restaurant so she could pass them out when they sat down. I don't know why I only took a picture of the bag and not of the contents but inside were mini licence plates with each of the kids names on them, a rubber wrist band that said "Burd is 16" (I have no idea where it originated from but everyone calls Nick "Burd"), a keychain that says, "Seatbelts On, Cell Phones Off, No Distractions, "Come Home Safe" and some gum and candy.

After dinner they came home, looked at the cake and ice cream...haha...I don't know if anyone had any because they were so stuffed from dinner...and when it got dark they lit the fireworks. Nick said it was the perfect 16th birthday! :)

More Pics...

I knew I took more pictures of our trip and I found them today. That's the problem when you go back and forth between the phone camera and the regular camera. :)

Back to the pool scene the first night, here is my 6'1'' son diving into 5 feet of water...probably right in front of the "No Diving" sign. Pretty surprising we didn't get kicked out of the pool between Bryson's bar push ups with a push off into the pool and Nick diving. But we did have the pool mostly to ourselves the whole time. Nick did not hurt himself diving but he DID give himself a bloody nose when he was demonstrating a dolphin kick too close to the bottom of the pool and his face slammed into the bottom of the pool...OUCH! Shortly after that, Bryson somehow gave himself a bloody nose just swimming back and forth. We definitely left our mark on that pool and will probably not be invited back.

 The funny thing with the picture below is there was a man sitting on the rocks right in front of this sign and as family after family lined up to get their picture taken here he never moved...haha.

There's a huge walrus in the water looking at everyone through the glass but you can't see it very well in the picture.

This was Nick's heaven and my nightmare...the reptile house.

This zoo is so huge they had a double decker bus that you could ride around the whole thing. We were the first ones on the bus and had our pick of seats and of course we picked the wrong side...most of the animals were on the opposite side that we chose to sit on, but we could still see them and my favorite ones to see from the bus were the Koala bears. So cute!

After spending 6 1/2 hours at the zoo, I felt exactly like the bear in the picture below!

We all loved the Dolphin Experience. They have you line the walls of this pool and at certain times during the day the trainers come out and have the dolphins do tricks and have them swim close to the edge of the walls where you can lean over the touch them as they swim by. We were there early for the show so one of the trainers told us the best wall to be at and we stood there for 30 minutes waiting for it to start. It was so worth the wait though as we all got to touch the dolphins several times as they swam by us!!

We love all the shows at Seaworld and this was probably the kids favorite day.

Family Vacay

In early July we headed to San Diego for our summer vacation. We gave the kids a few different choices of where to go and San Diego was the choice without hesitation. 

We started the trip with Hailey planking between the hotel beds...

Bryson doing push ups on the stair bars...

...and Nick just being cool by the pool.

 We headed to Mission Beach on the 4th of July along with the rest of the southern Californians. We spent at least a half hour looking for somewhere to park and finally bit the bullet and paid more than we would've liked to with Bryson pitching in all the cash in his wallet since we were highly unprepared for the expensive, cash-only parking spots. But it was well worth it and this was by far my favorite day on the trip. I absolutely LOVE the ocean and the beach!!! Nick was the first one in the water but Brian and I spent more time in it then any of the kids...we couldn't get enough of the water and the fun of jumping the big waves.

 Perfect picnic on the beach!

 I love the next 4 pictures showing the many faces of Hailey. :)

 Bryson was sitting and watching the waves at the end of the day and one by one the other two came and sat by him...I love this picture.

 Hailey was full of energy at the end of the long day in the sun and carried Nick from the parking lot to the hotel room on her back. Pretty impressive!

 The next day was spent at the San Diego Zoo...what an amazingly big place!

We gave each of the kids some money for souvenirs and Bryson decided to get his caricature done. It was amazing to watch them draw him. I really thought I had more pictures from the zoo but apparently I was wrong as these are all I can find.:)

 The next day was Seaworld. It's always fun to hold the starfish.

Very cool touching a stingray.

 Hailey and Nick liked Bryson's caricature so much from the zoo that they decided to spend their money on one from Seaworld.

Nick of course wanted to touch or feed any creature he could so he even put 50 cents in the machine to get food to feed the flamingos.

 The coolest part of the day for me was touching the dolphins. I'm not the biggest animal lover but I LOVE dolphins.

It was such a great week to spend with the ones I love most. When the kids were teeny tiny everyone told me how fast they would grow up. It's so true that when they're little, the days are long but the years go fast. I know everyone says it, but I cannot believe how fast the years are going. I wish I could freeze time every once in awhile to just enjoy them at each age just a little bit longer. My whole life I looked forward to being someone's wife and someone's mom and as I spend weeks like this with my family I feel so grateful that I am Brian's wife and Bryson, Nick & Hailey's mom...even if I have to share Bryson with his real mom, I'll take my share of him and enjoy every minute. I know without a doubt we were supposed to have this relationship on this earth and I am grateful I get to be a part of his life.

I am a lucky girl!