Birthday Fun!!

Well.

We officially have a 12 year old in the house and we have an almost 10 year old as well (tomorrow is officially her birthday). Its crazy to watch these kids grow up and although I have only been in Tylers life a short while, I have been in Laneya's forever (duh) and BOTH of them seem so much more different than even a few months ago. Mature? No. Haha. Just different. I love these kids more than I could ever express and its quite an awesome thing to get to enjoy them away from the entire herd.

We stuck to our word and we took them to the city for the day and their absolute favorite part (I think) was getting to drive the GTO that has been sitting out not getting used. Jared was the best and washed it the day before while Carina and I went to a movie and the kids were STOKED! I mean. Serious. Every time someone looked or turned their head or even  sped up just to give us a thumbs up, the kids beamed with pride. It truly is the little things that make the biggest difference!

We started our day with a quick stop at Jamba juice and of course a quick photo op in front of the GTO. What fun is it if we don't capture those moments to share with them forever. No fun at all actually! After that we all piled in, turned on the DJ Tylerzowi mix (much to Jareds chagrin) and off we went to the city!

 

 

Really?! He is pretty much the handsomest...

Our first stop was to get some mini donuts at Trish's. The kids and I make a habit of stopping there every single time, hungry or not. Weird tradition, yes I am aware, but a tradition none the less. Nice to share this with the Luoma boys on such a special day. Even if Jared was TRYING to say he was on a 'diet'. Boo. Diets. Next stop was just some window shopping where the kiddos picked out the sweatshirts they wanted to buy at the end of the day and then OFF WE WENT to the boat that would take us to Alcatraz. I was stoked. The kids were also. So stoked. We stood in line, we saw the caveman from the Geico Commercial and we bought some overly priced bottled water. Ya know, typical line standing protocol.

 

When we got on the boat the hardest part was picking the place to sit and although it was cold and windy we opted to stand outside on the (almost) top level. It was fun. Driving up to the island, snapping some pics and just enjoying the entire experience. Once we got there it was a mad dash to get of the boat and get the tour started. We wanted to see the movie but we missed it by 12 minutes and were far to impatient to wait for it to start over so off we went to the audio tour section where we were fitted with headphones and a snazzy little gray box that talked to us. The funniest part about doing an audio tour with kids is remembering their lack of patience when they are just 'over it' so we skipped a part, we walked a little faster than maybe I would have wanted to but the entire time the kids were smiling, interested and that is more than I could have ever asked for. We got to walk the bases at the rec area, which was kinda neat since we play in the backyard, we talked for a brief second to the gardener who has been there for 18 years and he told us they STILL find baseballs from the old days when prisoners would play and that was neat. The kids watched movies and documentaries before all this so they saw the steps that folks like Al Capone and Birdman sat and thought that was neat. We got to look at cells, and hear stories about some of the great escapes and attempts at escapes and really, for the 1.5 hours we walked around I learned a lot more than I expected and even the kids had some neat takeaways. Its pretty cool.

 

Laneya looked at this menu and said "Man, I would survive perfect in prison, they feed them only the food I like to eat!" Oh that kid.

After the tour we hopped back in the boat (another mad dash) and back to the pier we went to eat some food and just gossip about the day and then onto our next destination! Jump Highway. The kids were stoked. Jared and I, well, we were hesitant. I mean. Jared may be a mere 28 years old (cough cough laugh laugh) but I am 31 and these old bones don't quite move like they used to. Either way, we were troopers, we jumped and laughed and had a great time, even when we were playing dodgeball and Laneya and I kept losing and also even when Jared almost knocked me out and I deemed him the brain abuser because I swear I still have a bruise on my brain from our collision. I bet he just wanted to snuggle while jumping and couldn't quite hold in the excitement. LOL. All the jumping and Alcatraz fun and sweet stares we got in the GTO were amazing. These kids are worth every single moment of spoiling they received! They are great kids and I am so very grateful to call them ours.

 

On our way home, Jared discovered the Nitrous (horn)buttons on the GTO. Needless to say it was even funnier when we ACTUALLY discovered how the horn actually sounded...not so manly!

Happy Happy Birthday you two little munchkins! We love you!!!