Yuck!!!!

It's never good when a spouse says 'I should tell you something but I'm not' - WHAT?!?!?  And then follows up with 'Sometimes ignorance is better' - double WHAT?!?!?  But that's exactly what Brian said to Sara one morning.  Sara quickly figured it was something to do with the house and guessed he found some sort of animal inside.  She guessed another scorpion.  Nope.  Snake?  Nope.

 

It was a freaking tarantula that Randle and Brian discovered.  Outside thank goodness.  But seriously YUCK!!!  Apparently it's good to have them around because they kill scorpions and other insects.  But again....gross!!! 

 

If Sara came across that she'd have a heart attack.  No joke.  Disgusting.  She will be telling our pest control guy about it pronto.  Sara has a permanent crick in her neck from walking with her head down always looking for bugs inside and apparently has to start looking outside too.  Shoes wouldn't protect her from this gross creature.  Apparently they are harmless to humans and only come out at night but ewwwwwww!  Sara's not sure how Brian even took this picture.  She'd be shaking and scared.  Good thing her protector is strong :) 

Jeff, Dawn and the Girls in Town!

Jeff, Dawn and the girls visited for a long weekend and boy was it fun to see them!  Trevor really enjoys his time with his cousins and we enjoy our time with Jeff and Dawn so we spent a lot of time together when they were here! 

 

Friday night dinner at the Hillins casa worked great with the kids having their own table.  Trevor is Lauren's shadow doing everything she does.  Who likes ice cream??  Trevor and Lauren!

 

On Saturday evening they came to our house for swimming and dinner.  It was nice for them to see our new home and have a relaxing night.  They came bearing gifts, including the most perfect gift for Trevor - a firefighter backpack complete with hose that sprays water!  He LOVES it!!!  And he really loved spraying all of his relatives in the pool!

 

It really warmed our hearts to see Trevor and his girl cousins having such a good time together.  They had a ball jumping in the pool together.

 

 

They'd line up, count to 3 then jump!

They'd climb swim to the beach area, climb out then line up again.  Wee!

Trevor is very into copying what other people do and cannon balls are no different.  Pretty good technique here...just has to learn how to hold his knees to make an even bigger splash!

 

The girls enjoyed showing us their mad swimming skills and star jumps!  They are quite the swimmers!

 

We think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all!  Check out how happy Trevor is that everyone is in the pool with him!!  Well, minus Papa John, Grandma Pauline and Grandma Rose (Dawn's Mom who was here as well). 

 

On Sunday evening we celebrated Papa John's birthday a few days earlier at a favorite Mexican restaurant.  We reserved a private dining area which worked really well for the 4 kids!  Trevor enjoyed some special time with Uncle Jeff who read one of Trevor's favorite books....Press Here!

 

Papa John had quite the entourage of helpers when it came to opening his cards and gifts: 

And of course those helpers were right there when the cake came out and it was time to sing Happy Birthday!

 

Can't wait to all hang out again over Thanksgiving....when there is one more Hillins girl around too!!!  Fun!



Trevorisms

Oh Trevor, you are are such a hoot these days!  Well, you've always been but you just keep getting funnier and funnier!!  Here are some of the things he's been up to:

1) He often says he doesn't feel well and then does this speech (complete with actions) that his 'head is grumbly, his eyes are grumbly, his tummy is grumbly and his back hurts.' It's freakin' hilarious!  And then when he feels good, he proudly announces 'I feel good now Mommy/Daddy!' No idea what that is about but we really have to get that on video before he stops doing it

 

2) For a while there he always had to win when going up the stairs.  'No, let me win' - no idea where he got that because we don't talk about winning or losing in our house but now he's moved on to saying 'let's tie' :)

 

3) Trevor was on a daily dose of Miralax to help with constipation.  Most likely due to the last round of antibiotics he was on due to an ear infection in late July.  Usually antibiotics would cause diarrhea but no for him....he's been on them so much that his body goes opposite.  Poor guy.  You can see how much it hurts and he makes it worse by purposely holding it in :(  Luckily Miralax has been working so we'll keep with it!

 

After his visit with his doctor about that 'issue' we asked about the flu vaccine and she said they had them in and now would be a good time to get it.  Well, our champ took it like the bravest little boy! The doctor asked whether he wanted it in the arm or leg and he chose arm.  No tears at all!  Mommy could hardly believe it.  He's growing up too fast!!

 

4) One day we asked Trevor what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He sat for a second to think and then proudly announced he wanted to be a teacher!  We're sure Grandma and Grandpa Roslansky loved to hear that!!  He know announces a list of what he wants to be that still includes a teacher but also includes a golfer, firefighter, policeman and spiderman!

 

5) Trevor's favorite word is 'super' - he uses it frequently but probably the most when running.  He goes 'super fast'

 

6) For a while there after time with his cousin Sam he kept saying '2 more minutes' because Sam says this sometimes when asked to do something.  Luckily this has subsided now!

 

7) The kid loves, loves, loves his jammies.  It doesn't help that Mommy is home with him a few days a week and we stay in our jammies sometimes so it's more of a habit to stay in his jammies than get dressed in the morning but we had to put an end to this.  Luckily he's pretty adaptable.  The first day we said it was time to take off his jammies and put clothes on he threw a fit and ran around the house crying for 5 long minutes.  Eventually we got the clothes on him (yes, while still crying) and that was that.  The second day he only cried for a minute and then willingly put them on and the third day he said 'it's time to put my clothes on?' and then put them on!  Such a good boy!!  Now he likes to control the situation by saying 'Mommy can I stay in my jammies for a little bit longer?' as soon as he wakes up and Mommy says 'yes, just for a minute.' When that minute is up, he runs to his closet and picks out his clothes!  Success!

 

8) He LOVES anything and everything with firefighters and fire trucks.  Lucky for him that we live not too far from a fire station so one day we rode our bikes down there and Trevor got a tour of the fire station (where he proudly announced to everyone he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up) along with a tour of a real fire truck!  At that point Trevor got shy and didn't say a lot.  He didn't even want to spray the hose when the firefighter offered!!

 

9) He points with his middle finger, which just cracks us up.  He knows which one he is supposed to point with because he'll point with the middle finger then look at us and say 'this one, right?' with the biggest smirk on his face.  How can you not laugh??

 

10) He loves to climb and draw.  Well, why not combine both?  Our little artist at work!

 

11) The kid can still eat - especially all things sweet (he is Mommy's boy after all).  One evening we went to a local Mexican restaurant and ordered fried ice cream for dessert.  Trevor wasn't about to slow down by using a spoon and having one spoonful at a time.  Oh no, instead he used the spoon to pick up the whole ball of ice cream!  However, his favorite food that he requests often?  Steak!!!  We can only imagine what is next - lobster?  Seriously - stop growing up so fast!!

Big Boomers

You may be wondering what Dada was doing while Mommy and Trevor were on all of their getaways...well besides getting a lot of things done off of his house list he also had a string of bad luck on the car front :(

 

On Sunday, July 22nd he was backing out of a parking spot at Lowe's when the person next to him backed out of her spot right into him.  He had 2 big scratches on the back of his bumper whereas the other person had all of her damage on the back quarter panel - so this should show that he was out of his spot before she backed out but we're still waiting on insurance to prove fault.  Damage was under $1000.

 

But, it hadn't yet been fixed when tragedy struck and our beloved BMW got a big owie.  Brian was at a stoplight that merged onto the highway.  Cross-traffic could also get onto the highway.  Well, he was turning right and there was a car in front of him also turning right.  There was a lull in cars going through the stoplight to get on the highway so the car in front of Brian went.  Then there was another lull in cars so Brian turned right....only to find out the car in front of him only went a few feet and then stopped.  Big boomers :(

 

Brian even got a ticket for not being in control of his car (standard in AZ when you rear-end someone) but could have the ticket dismissed by going to traffic school.  Excited to report that he did the online school and scored 100%!!

 

However, after the insurance appraiser came out and the car got towed to an approved auto repair shop, we learned our car was totalled :( :( :( 

 

And yes, it was about a year ago that his Altima was totalled.

 

So, we were in search for a new car for Brian and narrowed it down to another pre-owned BMW or a new Chrysler 300.  For 'once' smarts prevailed and we went with the new car with 12 miles (7 of which were from our test drive) with all the bells and whistles compared to the 4 year old 50,000 mile BMW with not nearly all the features of the 300 of his old BMW for the same price.  We're tough negotiators!

 

In other bad news, because of the accidents in the past year our insurance dropped us for auto and our umbrella policy (and by default would soon drop our homeowners too) so we've been busy getting quotes from other companies.  If there is a silver lining in all of this, we got a great quote for all the policies from an agent in MN who is licensed to insure in AZ.  We'll spend about the same in total even with the string of bad luck!  And we'll get the great customer service only people in MN seem to know.  Win!

San Diego with the Hillins

Mommy and Trevor had a day back at home with Dada after their MN adventure before departing with Grandma Pauline and Papa Hillins for San Diego!  Trevor was a great rider once again in the car..sleeping most of the way of the 6 hour trip. 

 What else kept him busy?  Studying the map of Legoland!  He was so excited to go there - he had our whole itinerary planned out before even getting to California!

 

Lots of sand dunes to look at on the drive:

After arriving and checking out where we were staying we headed to Mission Beach.  Trevor thought the ocean was pretty cool!

 

He would run out to the waves, feel how cold it was then run back to the dry sand:

 

Boy did he have such a fun time doing that routine over and over!

 

Grandma Pauline and Papa John got in on the fun too!

Well Mommy didn't want to be left out either!

 

When we said we were going to leave Trevor had to go say good-bye to the water.  He is such a precious boy and this picture makes our hearts smile!

 

Whereas this picture just makes us laugh.  He SO doesn't want any pictures taken these days and this is proof - tongue out.  But still a cute memory of our little cutie!

Do we have to leave Mommy?  I want to stay!  The waves are calling me!

 

On Monday morning we headed to Denny's for breakfast.  As usual, Trevor was a great eater but he also spent ample time sitting on the booster chair studying the Legoland map again in anticipation of our arrival there later that morning!

 

And when we got to Legoland it was just as we had hoped - filled with Lego's even in the parking lot!

 

Thanks Grandma and Papa Hillins for taking us!  Let's go in!

 

One of our first rides was a boat ride with storybook characters, built from Lego's of course :)

They had a play area too - surprisingly not everything in it was built of Lego's though!

 

Trevor enjoyed driving the jeep around the track with Mommy!

Then back to the boats again....this was a theme of our trip to Legoland.  If there was no line or little line we'd ride the rides over and over!

 

Then one time with Papa!

 

Then we took a break from the rides and watched a (dumb) firefighter show that Trevor thought was a hoot!  For the adults it was 20+ minutes too long!

 

After lunch we decided to see what all the fuss was about for one ride that said there was a 45 minute wait.  Luckily there was a play area for the kiddos so that time didn't seem so long.  Trevor really enjoyed playing with the different sized legos.  So serious!

 

Papa was the champ that stood in line and met new acquaintances for the 45 minute - err 90 minute wait.  In the sun.  Like we said, champ!

 

And here was the ride.  Grandma was pedal queen trying to catch up to Papa and Mommy:

 

 

Trevor thought it was worth every minute of the wait!

 

And then we came to the best ride at the park for Trevor!  Firefighter!!!!!!  First time around just Papa and Trevor went.  Trevor really liked spraying the water!

 

Second time around we all went.  You should have seen Grandma and Papa working hard so that we could be the first ones to the spraying part! 

 

Our little firefighter!  Too cute!

And that was it folks - nap time!  So we headed out and drove the 40 minutes back to the condo.  Although we took a large detour so that Sara could see the sights and Trevor could have a good nap in the car.

 

On Tuesday we checked out the San Diego Zoo.  We started with a bus tour but Trevor grew a bit frustrated.  It was a bit warm, he was thirsty and it went so fast that he wasn't able to always see what the tour guide was pointing out. 

 

However when we ventured over to the panda exhibit, he was a happy camper.  He even came home with a stuffed animal - Peter Panda (as he named it) courtesy of his Grandparents.

 

We think that the zoo wasn't active/hands on enough for Trevor after a day at Legoland but he livened up for a bit when he saw elephants he could climb on:

 

He wasn't so sure about meeting the zoo mascot, but eventually came around and said hi:

 

Trevor wanted Papa John to say hi to the mascot too:

 

That afternoon we checked out the pool at the condo.  Trevor was a big fan of swimming with Papa!

 

He even got Grandma in the water!  Miracle!  They enjoyed some 'Ring around the Rosie'

 

And Trevor learned how to stand on Papa's shoulders.  Although he took it a step farther and went for standing on his head!

 

On Wednesday it was back to Legoland.  We started with a boat ride that showcased 'small town' - all of these areas of the U.S but built out of Lego's including Mt. Rushmore:

 

The line wasn't so long for the pedal ride as we called it, so Trevor had another opportunity to play with Lego's and build trains to push down ramps!

 

He enjoyed going on the helicopter with ride too:

 

And then you guessed it....more firefighter! 

 

And we kept going back on this ride - five times we think?  No line so it worked out great!  After that Trevor picked out a cool hat to keep the sun out of his eyes as well as be a momento of our time at Legoland!

 

Mommy and Trevor had a chance to ride the airplanes together.  Trevor really liked making the airplane go 'up up up'

 

Trevor was a tired camper and fell asleep in his stroller on our way out so Papa provided Sara with another great tour of San Diego.  Once Trevor woke up we had a late lunch/early dinner at Seaport Village.  Mommy really wanted a picture with Trevor by the water, but of course Trevor wanted no part of that so Mommy had one by herself:

 

On Thursday we headed to Mission Beach for a walk as well as water and sand time.  Papa John tracked down the house where Brian lived during college.  Still looks the same according to Brian and what a great location - a block from the beach! 

 

Trevor wore his prized Thomas jammies to the beach and just loved the feel of the sand:

 

And it didn't take long for him to find his way to the cool water:

 

However, we had to go back to the car to get his swimsuit on.  He was so proud to pull all of his sand toys in the wagon:

 

First thing he did?  Chase the waves just like he did on Sunday night! 

 

Run Forrest run!

 

And when he got tired, he and Papa built sandcastles! 

 

They could have spent all day building sandcastles!

 

And one of the best pics from the trip - Trevor in all his glory digging, digging, digging.  You can hear him laughing in this pic.  LOVE!

 

Thank you Grandma and Papa Hillins for a great trip to San Diego.  We have lots of memories from that trip forever captured in pics but also stored in our hearts!  It was a nice break from the heat of Phoenix but also nice to spend time together just like we did when we lived at Casa Hillins!