a little photo dump

a february pool party.

a popcorn party.

a spaghetti party (always regretted instantly).

riding to get chet from school.

these 2 are good buddies when chet is away at school.

travel town.

family selfie.

swing.

'we survived the rainiest day ever known to man!' selfie.

first t-ball practice!

eaton canyon trail

we did the eaton canyon hike again (the one we did when my dad was here) with matt.. and with the proper gear to trudge through the water! this time, we made it all the way to the top of the hike, where the waterfall is. it was a a fun way to get outside and spend a sunday morning with our crew of handsome little boys.

valentines dance.

chet's school had a family valentines dance a couple weekends ago. the boys were sooOo excited to go... until we got there! haha then they turned into their dad and the thought of dancing made them feel icky. luckily, after some pizza and some coaxing from friends, chet let loose and had a fun time. holden never really felt the need to move his body, but i think he still had a bit of fun. one of the teachers was the DJ and i swear his choice in music was cooler then anything that was played at the dances i went to when i was younger!

chet "dancing":

holden not dancing:

balboa island

fun fact: matt and i held hands for the first time during an episode of a show called 'the o.c.'.

it was a teen drama that was super cool (at least among our group of friends!) back in our high school days. still to this day, the theme song brings back such fun memories. it was listened to on many a road trip with friends! we just noticed that the o.c. is on hulu and i am actually kinda tempted to watch a few episodes, for old times sake!

"californiaaa calforniaaAaa here we coooOOoome"

anyways.. the reason i took that little walk down memory lane was because, a couple weekends ago, we headed down to newport beach! we did a day trip with some friends to check out balboa island and pier, and the newport beach. it was dreamy. the weather was gorgeous, there was lots to see and do, and the area is so pretty.

we started off by taking the (maybe) 2 minute ferry across to balboa island. it costs $0.50/rider. we spent an hour walking around the island - the parents admired the tiny little ga-zillion dollar beach homes and the kids did kid stuff. we took the ferry back to the 'mainland' where we hit up an old fashioned arcade (that stole all our money with its' broken machines), walked the pier, found some lunch, and then played on the beach. we didn't pack swim gear because we really didn't think the kids would want to get in the water. but it ended up being the most gorgeous afternoon and, by the end, all the kids were fully clothed and fully soaked! tad loved playing in the sand and the small waves - he is going to be blast at the beach this summer.

(if you look closely, you can see the snowy california mountains in the background of the picture! we were thinking that there can't be many places where you can be playing in the waves on the beach and looking at snowy mountain tops at the same time!)