Friends

We got together with some of my college friends yesterday. Malinda, Suzy, Hillary, and I all had dinner with our families at Malinda's house. It was so fun to see my friends and get caught up. We all live within an hour and half of each other, but it still seems so hard to get together. ( These are some of my girlfriends that I go on girls weekend with). Anyways, it was so nice to see them and great to eat yummy food. It was also fun having our husband and kids get to know each other better.

We also had an animal party the other day at my house :) The kids gather up all their stuff animals, and we had a little party on my bed. It was funny because before I decided to take the picture Brayden was just sitting on the bed. The girls just kept piling up the animals. Brayden had fallen over, and for a second I really couldn't see him mixed in with all the animals. So after that I thought it would be cute to have the girls mix in with the animals. We had a good time. I also realized that we probably have way too many stuffed animals. :)

Columbus Day at the Zoo

We loved watching the orangutan. He was trying to do a trick with his blanket.

I love it when I can get all the kids in a pictures. I was really happy that Brayden didn't slip off during the picture.Brynn took this picture. Brett always loves to take the girls to look at the snakes. This really isn't my favorite part.

Crazy my kids take up all the flowers. We went when I was pregnant with Brayden. I had no idea what it would be like to have"3 flowers". It's great having three flower although every day is not always as sweet and pretty.

It was great Brett got Columbus day off. It was a fun day with the family. The zoo here is so cool. We have been a couple of times, and I still don't think we have seen half of the zoo.

Fun with Aubree and Addy

It was so funny to see Aubree and Addy
Hunter. It was a quick visit, but it's always fun
to see friends. Aubree was my running
partner in AZ. (I miss having a running
partner out here).

Brynn, Aubrey, and Addy had so
much fun together.

They really wanted a picture

with "silly"faces.

We fit alot into a short amount of time.

We went to a couple of parks, the beach,

and attempted to watch conference.

Daddy at work

Brett was on call today, so he invited us to come up and have dinner with him. As soon as we got there he got paged. We hung out in the waiting room for a few minutes.(It was a perfect time to take picture) :) It was fun to see Brett at work. They have a McDonald at his hospital, so that it was were we were privileged to have dinner. The kids loved it. When we had to go both Brynn and Aubrey were crying because we had leave without "daddy". I am glad we got to go up there. It was the highlight of our day.

Banks Bunch

What cute parents. We love Alan and Sharon. Thanks for such an awesome vacation!

Here is Brett showing Brayden one of the inside of the planes. I'm sure soon Brayden will love planes. :)

We went to the USS Midway, which is a retired aircraft carrier. It was so neat to see everything inside, and the girls loved getting in all the planes.

I just wanted to say that I love this man. He is a great husband and a dad. He doesn't get alot of time to spend with us, but when he is with us it is soooo fun. I am thankful he was born. I can't believe he is 33 now. :)

Brett and Brynn had so much fun in the ocean with the family. Brynn is fearless in the water. We are so happy Brett had the day off for his birthday. Brynn and Aubrey are such dad's girls. They love it when he is around. He always makes them feel like princesses.

Brett turned 33 on Sunday. We had a Shrek party for him on the beach. We had a breakfast on the beach and then we had Brett's cake. It was great having his WHOLE family there for is birthday. ( ALL 15 of us).It was so cool because we stayed at the Navy Lodge for the 4 days they were here. We would just walk out our backdoor, and we were on the beach.

Here are the brothers celebrating Brett's birthday with him. They all went to the Padres game the night before with their dad. They had a great relaxing time, the girls and the other had quite a different night.

I love my cute little cuddly Brayden. He really didn't see any of the animals at the zoo, but he was a trooper none the less.

We went to the Wild Animal Zoo. It was an interesting day. For some reason we really didn't get to see alot of animals. We did however get LOT of exercise due to all of our walking.:)

It didn't really matter if the animals were out or not it is always fun when you are with family, especially our dad. Brett took 4 days leave, so he got to be with us for all of our activities.

Here are all my cute " animals". I love my cute kids. We sometimes tease them that we are going to send them to the zoo. It looks like they would like it there, but I would really miss them. They can be crazy at time, but they sure make life exciting.

Here are the cousins with grandpa. All the kids love grandpa so much. He makes each of them feel so special.

Brynn did so good on her driving course that she got a drivers license. She was so excited because she thought she would be able to drive home.:)

Aubrey loved all the Lego figurines. Brayden was pretty much just happy with whatever.

It was so fun having the all the Banks come down and visit us. It was a beautiful day at Sea World. My girls LOVED spending time with their grandparent. They truly are such good grandparents. :)

Everyone who last name was Banks got the privilege of wearing the green "Banks Bunch" Tshirts. It was so fun to look around at everyone at Sea World, because they would just stare at this big group of people wearing bright green shirts. I felt lucky to be apart of such a great bunch!

We really had such a wonderful vacation with all the Banks family. I can't believe we fit in Sea World, Legoland, Wild Animal Zoo, Padres game, beach day, and the USS Midway tour all in 4 days. Thanks to all of Brett's brothers and wives and his parents for making the trip out here. It was so fun being all together at the lodge. I am so thankful I married into such a great family. My girls keep asking when we get to see everyone again.

Slumber Party!

Brynn had her first real sleepover this weekend. We had the Phillips, our friends from Arizona, come and stay with us. Jenessa, Brynn, and Aubrey all slept in the same room. They thought it was so fun! They loved having PILLOW FIGHTS at night. Brynn had Jenessa wear one of her nightgowns, so from behind it was hard to tell which girl was which. While they were here we went to the beach and boogie boarded and went to Sea World. ( I had to add the picture of the Clydesdale because I think it is funny they have horses at Sea World, even though I know why they have them). It was a fun weekend, and it was so cute to see Brynn and Jenessa play all their "girly" stuff. ( Brynn really only has boyfriends out here, so I think she loved playing dolls and princess stuff). She cried when Jenessa had to leave.

Another exciting thing about this weekend was that Brett ended up working over his hours at the hospital, so after his call shift on Saturday he got to have Sunday off. It was such a fun surprise. I was so happy he got to come to Sea World. I really cherish the time when we get to see him. He only has one day left of his trauma surgery rotation. YEA!!

One last thing, right after the Phillips left today the Williams, some more of our friends from Arizona, came by for awhile. It was fun to see them and get caught up. We ended up going to the park, and enjoying the beautiful weather here. We love see our friends. We also love living in such a cool place because I think it breeds visitors :)

The kids are turning into fish!

We have been swimming everyday now. I am surprised the kids haven't grown fins. The kids love it so much! We have been going alot all summer, but these last couple of weeks it has become a daily ritual. Brynn keeps getting better and better, and cute Aubrey is getting so much braver. She goes underwater and jumps in the "big" pool. Even Brayden enjoys the water. The girls start swim lesson this week, so I think they will only be getting better, and we will only be going swimming more. :)

The only day last week I didn't swim was on Sunday. :) It was extremely hot here last weekend, and on Sunday it was 101 when we walked out of church. We knew on Sunday we couldn't go swimming so we ended up going to walk around the temple. ( It is by the beach so it is cooler there). Anyways, I posted some pictures of our trip there. I am not sure how "uplifting" it was for the girls, but they sure had a good time rolling down the hill in front of the temple. Brayden and I just watched them in the shade.