California dump...finally

Yes, I know. It's been forever. I've been incredibly busy and incredibly tired and I sort of forgot about this blog. I kept thinking, "I'll blog when I want to blog" and guess what? I never wanted to blog. It just seemed like too much work to weed through pictures, edit them if necessary, load them in blogger and come up with captions. But then my brother kindly prodded me on facebook and Josh has been mentioning it for over a week, so here we are. A California photo dump. :)

First time on a carousel.

Balboa Island

 

New Port Beach

Lillian screaming with delight...

 

The San Diego Zoo

Disney Land!

 

Disney Land day 2

Licking the melted, sticky ice cream off her lips. :)

Lillian, who was understandably exhausted by the time the parade came around, pipped right up when she say Mary Poppins. :)

And the closest thing we got to a family picture. My grandparents with the girls. The twins adored them and ask to go back to their house on a daily basis. 

And some instagrams of the trip... 

 

 

 

The trip was a blast and like I said, they twins talk about it daily. It was really the perfect time to go. The weather was great. Nothing (including Disneyland) was crowded at all and since the girls are still under 3, they were free! They did great on the car ride there and settled into Grandma and Grandpa's house with little issue. We were able to have dinner with my aunt, uncle and cousins. We spent 2 days in Disney/California Adventure and were basically there from opening to closing. We went to the beach twice and I got to go to the San Diego Zoo for the first time (I've been wanting to go for a LONG time, so I was thrilled and it did not disappoint!). Disneyland was amazing with the girls and SO worth it! Seeing everything through their eyes was so much more magical and I don't know if I've ever seen them happier. If we lived in southern California, we'd be there every week. :)

Who knows when we'll be able to make it back, but I keep telling the girls "later" because what else do you tell 2 year olds? The trip was semi spontaneous (we had planned to take it this summer, but bumped it up because of things at Josh's work) and it was definitely a better time to go.

Sorry it took me a month to get this post up... hopefully I get back in the swing of things soon .

That time we flew the coop

A few weeks ago, I wanted to die. No really, I thought death was better than my current state of living. We had been so, so, SO sick for weeks and I was done. I had run to the bathroom enough, put on enough layers, taken enough hot baths, blown my nose enough, cleaned up the aftermath of sick twins and a sick husband enough... I was just done. In a tearful plea to Josh, we decided that when we were feeling better, we would go on a little trip. Just the two of us. For several days with NO children. Luckily, we felt better soon, my incredibly generous mother in-law said she'd come watch the girls, so we booked a trip to Vegas!

It was the perfect trip. The weather was in the 60's, I was able to sleep in for the first time in 3+ years (pregnancy did a doozy on my sleep almost as much as newborns did and let me tell you, I really did sleep in. I think I got 10 hours of sleep every night. It was glorious.) and we saw and did so much. Saw an illusionist, went to both the Titanic and Bodies exhibits at the Luxor, saw two movies (Warm Bodies and Argo which were both amazing) went to the Hoover Dam, saw an Andy Warhol exhibit, went bowling and ate a lot of delicious food. 

Vegas is sort of a tradition for us, but never have we gone and done so much. It was great! One thing I do wish we would have done was hire a photographer to follow us around (haha, if only...) because asking strangers to take pictures of you is ridiculous especially when you have a prime lens on your dslr. So, most of our pictures were taken with my phone. Oh well, we got a few awkward ones... 

On our way

A "selfie" at the Bellagio.

Annie Oakley Andy Warhol style

You guys don't even know... I cried a little bit. It was amazing!!

Ready for the really awkward picture? 

I laughed quite hard when I saw it.

Like I said, it was a perfect trip. I think it was a good break for all of us, including the girls. I was so burned out and not giving them the attention the deserved, so I'm pretty positive they loved having grandma over.

Vegas, I know a lot of people (especially a lot of Mormons) hate you and think there is nothing to do, but we don't feel that way. We love you and will always love you and your virgin margaritas.

A cure to a bad weekend.

We had a bad weekend. In some ways it was good because something that I've been stressing over for months finally got resolved. It didn't however, get resolved exactly how I wanted it to be, and I spent a great deal of time feeling cheated and sorry for myself. What this weekend did do, was present itself with the perfect excuse for Josh and I to get away on Monday night. We left the girls overnight for the first time in their lives. I'm incredibly grateful I have a neighbor and little sister that helped make it possible. A quick overnight trip was exactly what the doctor ordered. 

We didn't go too far, just to Park City. If you've spent time in Utah and have been to Park City, you know that even though it's just a few minutes away, it's a world away from your stereotypical Utah/Salt Lake County. It was the perfect break and honestly? I didn't miss the girls nearly as much as I thought I would. I mean, I missed them, but I knew they were in good hands and I knew I needed the break. And boy did it feel good to take that break. 

Our night started with dinner at Ruby Tuesday, followed by walking up and down Park City's Mainstreet, spending waaaaaay too much money at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, a swim in our hotel's pool/hot tub and finally, a semi restful sleep. I say semi restful because we only had a queen size bed. We don't do well in queen size beds. I don't understand how any couple does well in queen size beds, but we especially do not. Josh is 6'5 and we both move a lot in our sleep. Arms go a flyin' and faces get smacked when we're in a queen. We managed to sleep though and I got to sleep in and wake up on my own time. I was so excited about not having to change diapers and get sippy cups that I spent over an hour in bed whilst watching HGTV and The Price Is Right. I felt like a royalty. It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

We then ate breakfast, got ready and headed to the outlets. I wanted to focus on getting things for Josh, because his birthday is this coming Sunday, but nope. He spoiled me instead. I spent the most money I ever have before on jeans and got a hoodie and yoga pants. Retail therapy is real, my friends. It's a beautiful thing. 

I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few of the ones I did. 

The resident cat in the bookstore...

It wasn't until we were in the car ready to come home that I realized we never got a picture of the two of us. So this is it. An unflattering picture of us. :)

It really was the perfect little trip and I'm not sure what I did to deserve being spoiled like I was, but I was really, really grateful for it.

Florida wrap up

 Did you think I was dead? Because at times this past week I have. I don't really have excuses, but this little break has been good. I've taken a lot of pictures lately, so hopefully the posts will be coming more regularly (like their 21 month post tomorrow!!!) Anyway, here's a wrap up of our last couple of days in Florida. Sadly, this post won't be as detailed as the others. I really should have just buckled down while it was all fresh in my mind. Oh well, such is life.

The next day of our trip, we decided to take a guided boat ride at Snook Haven. It was a fun little resort (that's what they called it) that promised some alligator viewing. Sadly, we only saw 3 alligators on the ride (and they weren't that big) but it was still fun. The girls really liked exploring the grounds and being on the boat. Not sure it was worth the (in my opinion) steep price (about $50ish for all of us) but it was fun and when else would we have done something like that, you know?

Later that day (after we went home and changed... we did a lot of changing on that trip. We Utah folk aren't used to the sticky humidity) we went to the circus. I didn't know this, but apparently Sarasota is a big circus town. They have a school (?) or something like that (possibly just classes? I don't really know...) so there are a lot of different circus', clowns and shows going on. The Shriner Lodge is right around the corner from my Grandma's house and we happened to be in town for their annual circus. I was excited because I'd never been to a circus before. It was fun, but HOT. Oh mercy, was it hot. Florida heat+humidity+ a enclosed circus tent= a sweaty bunch of Mangelsons. The girls enjoyed it, but we found out that they do NOT like clowns. Not at all. See Lillian's sticker? Yeah, hugging that clown definitely induced tears. 

 

 They kept reiterating NO photography of any kind was allowed in the tent. But of course, I cheated. So here are some crappy iPod pictures...

 

During the intermission, we went to the little zoo they had set up. They had a couple elephants, donkeys, goats, various other farm animals and a giraffe. Josh bought a little bag of carrots to feed the giraffe, but Lillian wanted them for herself. It was hilarious. She did not want to let go of those carrots! Everyone around us was laughing at her as Josh tried to get her to share with the giraffe. It was really, really funny. 

The next couple of days (ugh. This is where this post is going to fall apart...) we spent time a lot of time helping my grandma get things done around the house and at the beach. We also went to church and had dinner at a delicious Amish restaurant (also had no idea there was a huge Amish/Mennonite community in Sarasota...) that was some of the best food I've ever had. DE-licious. They had a little farmer's market next door and I was dying to buy fresh produce (you know, REAL fresh produce) but I didn't think that would really work with the plane. Maybe next time we'll drive. ;) 

Anyway, here's some more, random pictures...

And finally, here's the picture my little sister requested.

 One of the Herdman girls.

And here's the last picture I snapped while at my grandma's. I was trying really, really, really hard to hold back the tears as we were leaving. I was successful only because I didn't want my grandma to see me cry. It felt so sad. So final. It was such a hard goodbye. I didn't cry about it until after we were home and I was safe and conveniently already wet in the shower. I got a reeeeaaaally good cry out then. Having her live in Florida makes me so incredibly sad.

The Tampa airport was awesome. They had a giant playroom right by our gate and we definitely took advantage of it. The girls were able to get their wiggles out right before the long flight home.

 
This round of flights were perfect. Both girls hardly made a peep at all. Josh and I were several rows away from each other and honestly, I think that's what saved us. Like I said, on our flights to Florida, they sat us too close to each (remember, for oxygen mask reasons sitting by each other wasn't an option) and both the girls wanted me. With us being separated, they were able to play with their toys and not get distracted by their sister or the other parent. 

See the guy next to us? I was certain he wanted to throw Lillian out the window. Although she was being really, really good, he kept sighing and shifting in his seat. She kicked him a few times and he flashed us dirty looks. At the end of the flight though, he told me that he flies all the time and most adults don't behave as good as she did. Say whaaaat? I really thought he hated us. Guess I was wrong? It was a pretty huge compliment though considering that I tried to prepare as best as I could for the flight and I was still terrified.

 And yes, Lillian is covered in chocolate.... But hey, it kept her quiet!

Wanna know what kept Sophie quiet? Stickers. I had her on the flight from Houston to Salt Lake and she literally stickers all over her body. This wasn't even the worst of it. Plus, she grabbed a pen and started coloring on herself, so she had those marks all over her arms and legs too. Did I stop her? Absolutely not! It kept her entertained for almost TWO HOURS! She looked crazy as we were getting into Salt Lake, but she was happy and that's all that matters.

This trip was so, so good. It's definitely wasn't stress free, but I was so grateful my grandma was able to meet my girls. Honestly, I wasn't sure it was going to happen and that broke my heart a little bit. It was good to see bits and pieces of my childhood and it was good to just get out of our normal routine. I'm glad Josh was willing to take us all. So was my grandma. She kept telling me impressed she was with him and how much she loved him. Considering that was only the second time they've met (the first being our wedding) I knew she really thought a highly of him. It was just so good and just what the doctor ordered. 

So there you have it. An abridged overview of our trip. It took me long enough, didn't it? 

And I promise, most posts are coming soon. I've already got a good start on their monthly post for tomorrow, which is good because those things take forever.