CoNgRAtuLaTiOns DeDe!

REESE brought along all her princesses. She had so much fun! 

KADEN and REESE love airplanes.  And, their so good during the entire ride.  Not like these nightmare kids behind us that kept crying and kicking our seats the entire time.  We really lucked out!

These two always get so lucky.  They always get asked to do the coolest things.  The pilot was showing them the controllers and what they all do.  There were a ton of other kids on the plane all going to Disneyland .  We could see the pilot smiling at them as we walked up the steps.  I could tell something was going to happen.  Sure enough, when we reached the top of the stairs he escorted us into his private chambers!  When we were at the ER with REESE I asked him if he wanted to be a doctor when he grows up and he said, "No, mom.  A pilot!"  He said it like I should have known!  How FUNNY!

Brandaan's parents treated us all to lunch after the graduation.  They even had menu's made up that said "Congratulations DeDe!"

We have school spirit, yes we do!

DeDe and her boyfriend Todd.  Todd is so great with our kids.  They had never met him before this and they were best friends within seconds.  Todd is a great guy.  Even DeDe's over-protective brother has to admit it too!

This is right outside our hotel room.  

We rented these paddle boats that are electric.  These are totally my kind of paddle boats!  KADEN was so scared to get on.  But of course, the nice parents that we are forced him onto the boat anyways.  We're so glad we did because he had a blast.  He found the buttons right off and immediately took control of the steering!

Reese has no fear!

REESE was jumping on the hotel bed with all her cousins.  We're pretty sure she caught a glimpse of herself in the window and while she was admiring herself she somehow fell off!  We think she hit her head on the door handle of the sliding glass door or the metal running strips on the bottom.  No one  saw it perfectly clear because it happened so fast.  I took one look at the gaping wound and told Brandaan, "get in the car, we're going to the Emergency Room."  I was so scared that they're going to have to shave her head so they can do stitches.  I know I'm so vain, but can you imagine how long it takes for hair to grow back and she literally has pig-tails every day?  Luckily, my mother-in-law escorted us to the hospital.  I knew from the last E.R. visit I don't have it in me to hold my little girl down as she screams out for me.  It breaks my heart and I can't do it.  After a million hours in a dirty California E.R. we walk away with four staples and all of her hair in tact.  Yeah!  I want to remind everyone that this is the beginning of our trip.  She is the most accident prone child.  When we got home from our vacation I went to our family doctor to get the staples removed.  He started reading off these sticky notes, "four stitches in forehead in December, curling iron burn on face in Febuary..."  Luckily, we have a great relationship with our doctor and he started laughing.  I didn't think it was that funny, but I had a quick laugh too.  

Brandaan's sister DeDe graduated from San Diego State University.  We are more than proud of her.  She even graduated in the 4 years that it's supposed to take, but we all know it usually takes a little or a lot longer!  Am I right or what? This was the reason for our visit to California this year.  We took the entire week and has some Southern California fun.  Our hotel was right on the beach and we could literally walk out of our room and there was sand.  I love that!  We had so much fun with our relatives.  We had DeDe's graduation, ER visit, Seaworld, Disneyland, and Carina's High School graduation crammed all into this one week.  The week went by so fast.  We had so much fun and are counting down the days till our next visit!