We took a vacation to San Diego, and look, I have photographic proof!

See? Children frolicking on the beach means we went and had fun. The girls are my nieces.

This was during a game of Bocce Ball, wherein Oliver hit Skyler in the head with a ball.

resulting in this sweet picture

I actually got into the water, something I haven't done in probably 15 years! Skyler wanted to try boogie boarding, he lasted approximately how long it will take you to read this post. So, after remembering that I too enjoy a good boogie boarding session, I gave Jonah and my nieces rides on the board.





One of my favorite things that we did was visit "seal beach". I loved watching the waves crash up against the rocks and it was neat to be so close to the seals (that may or may not have actually been sea lions).

Oliver checked out the seals with me, Skyler and Jonah wouldn't stick around because they said it was too stinky.

We came back another day and climbed on the rocks.

One day, Jordan rented some kayaks and took the kids for rides and then went on a long ride himself in search of a geocache.

Waiting for a turn

Skyler didn't want to go in the kayak, and almost didn't even come over to the bay with us, which you can clearly tell from the smile on his face.

We also hung out at the pier and visited the Mormon Battalion Monument site. That was a lot of fun and I'd highly recommend it (even if you aren't Mormon, it's still free fun).










And then there is the obligatory last day at the beach picture. This is kind of an odd time to take a picture, no one really looks happy because everyone is sad to leave and no one really looks all that good because no one really dresses up super nicely to drive home, but it is tradition dating back almost 20 years, so we couldn't not do it.

Oliver is two years old now! He ate cupcakes and opened presents.









See in this picture how he's holding onto that basketball for dear life? The hoop was the first gift he opened. He didn't want anything to do with opening other ones, but eventually we convinced him to sit down and at least let his brothers open his other presents.  But he wasn't giving up that ball for fear that someone else would start shooting hoops, I guess.

At two years old:
Oliver loves to play ring-around-the-rosie
His newest skill is jumping and he always wants to show off
He loves Elmo, Bob the Builder, and Handy Manny
He is potty-trained
He wants to do so much on his own - everything is "me!"
His favorite books are the "grandma book" and the "baby book", two books by Karen Katz
He would play outside all day long if I let him
His favorite food is "hot dog with kepup"
He likes to look outside my bedroom window to spy on the neighbor's dog
He loves his brothers, except when they try and pick him up too much
and, well, he's cute!

Only they really are getting so big that I don't think we can get away with calling them baby chicks anymore!

The boys adore chasing and picking up the chicks. Basically there is much chicken torture going on. These little gals take it all so well, but we aren't sure if they will grow up to be very tolerant of us or just really cranky with us!





Skyler is crazy good at catching them. He takes his chicken wrangler job very seriously, as you can tell by the look on his face in this picture.



Jonah likes them too, even though I have no pictures of him! He likes to let them eat out of his hand.