The Greatest Show on Earth!

While planning my 2 week vacation from work I knew I wanted to keep the weeks fun and full of adventure. I immediately thought of taking Jilly to the beach, park, Zoo, Aquarium, etc. Then another idea hit me. The circus!!! Since Jilly's kinda scared of huge animals at the moment I didn't want to take her anywhere that she'd have to be super close to them, but this kid loves a good entertaining show so what better place then the circus, right?? I looked up online when they'd be in town and it just so happened the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus was in Anaheim in early August! We had a couple dates to choose from but I immediately went to August 6th because Jilly will be 18 months old so it was her half birthday! I'm never one to celebrate half birthdays but the dates fit why not right??

The circus was, well a circus! In all aspects. I don't remember the last time I went to the Honda Center but I do NOT remember the seats being THAT tiny. It was insane. INSANE. I consider myself to be a fairly small person and I barely even fit comfortably in the chairs. Eddie, Grace, Haley, Drew, Jessica, Jake, Jill and I squeezed into our row of seats and started to get situated. Within 5 minutes of sitting down Jake moved his elbow just right and knocked his large soda out of the cup holder and onto the stairs filled with people trying to take their seats. Oh no! He contained his anger just enough to sop up what he could then go to the bathroom to wash off his now sticky feet. Meanwhile I waited for the cleaning crew to come on by and help us with the mess. Little did I know that a slope was pooling the soda onto MY feet and the bottom of Jilly's diaper bag. The cleaning lady shows up but is quickly called to the seats behind us where someone ELSE drop their soda, spilling it all over. This second soda continued to run down the seats under Haley and Eddies feet and onto THEIR diaper bag. Seriously, it was a mess. But there was nothing we could do. Accidents happen and as parents were pretty used to being sticky all the time anyways!!

I'm pretty thankful this all happened before the show even started because I would have been upset if I or Jilly missed anything good! But once the lights went down and the stage lights up went it was pretty cool! The circus always has to much going on that it was hard to pay attention to just one thing but that was great for little kids like Jill and Grace! So much to look at and so much to pay attention to and keep them busy! The show lasted a little over 2 hours and Jill definitely got restless towards the end, hopping from my lap to Jakes then back again - over and over again. But we had fun. Pizza, Soda, Cotton Candy, Popcorn, entertaining clowns, tigers, elephants, trapeze artists - that's what the circus is all about!!!

Ringling Bros - Barnum & Bailey Circus!!

 Jessica is gonna kill  me for posting this - but I loved it. LOL

 She wanted that one!

 So she got it! Spoiled!

Color Me...All Over The Place!!

In the midst of my busy 2 weeks off I of course needed/couldn't avoid it/had to/wanted to spend some quality time with Haley, Grace and Drew! I was actually really sad that we only got one day together but we for sure made the most of it!! We took the kiddos to Color Me Mine to paint some pottery and being the control freaks we are, we tried our best to let the girls go a little crazy. I picked out a nice little bowl to make a candy dish for Jilly to paint as a birthday present for her Aunite Nanana and Haley picked out a huge coffee mug for Grace to work on.

Drew was an angel and slept for most of the adventure for us - this made it 10 times easier to keep reign on both the girls. I used to paint pottery all the time with my friend Jamie and I would spend 5-6 hours EASILY on a project so letting Jilly loose with paints, mixing colors and not painting an even layer made me panic for a little bit. haha I convinced her to be content on painting the construction paper on the table for a while and I finished painting the piece a nice solid color so she could then decorate it. This is only the second time Jilly's painted so I wasn't very surprised that the paintbrush ended up on her face, in her mouth and on her clothes a few times. What's the fun in staying clean?

The pieces were supposed to be done on Saturday so I could give it to my sister in time for her birthday but I guess a power outtage happened and the pieces didn't fire properly. *sigh* I want to find a local ceramic shop (other then a commercialized Color Me Mine) that I can go to and start painting my pieces again. I had lots of fun doing it in the past and it was so relaxing! Although I'm not sure when I'll ever have a full Saturday to myself to just paint?!

 Concentrating reallllly hard

 Paint doesn't taste so good!

 Hand prints!

 That tickles Mommy!

 Foot prints for Auntie Nanana

July Photo Dump!

After the June calm, July came at us with a bang! Jilly's daycare is closed the entire month of July so Jake and I always plan our vacation times around that. My Mom watched Jilly at the beginning of July, while Jake took a couples day off in the middle and I took the last two weeks off completely. I loved being home with my little girl!!! While I fully intended on sleeping in, watching cartoons and staying in our jammies most days that absolutely NEVER happened. We were too busy!! We traveled to Arizona, went to the fair, went to the park to ride the choo choo, painted with the Jacksons, went to lunch with my sister, etc. Busy, busy, busy and my head is still spinning!!

July Photobomb:

 She was SO scared of the fair animals!

 Turkey Leg!

 Look what Daddy helped me win!

 OC Fair 2011

 My hair's long enough for a pony!

 Choo Choo Train at Irvine Park!

 Oooohhh ooooohhh ooooohh oooohhh

 Don't take my picture!

Jillian gets her wings!

This past week Jilly went on her first flight! We hopped on a plane very early Wednesday morning to fly to Pheonix, Arizona to visit Jilly's Great-Grams and cousins! Jilly did so well on the plane but boy is it a lot of work to travel alone. A couple of reminders to leave the gentlemen beside me alone, and no you can't get down and here's some more fruit snacks/granola bars/goldfish/sippys and she was good. You just have to keep them entertained is all! And at 6:30am I wasn't much for entertaining anybody. But again, she really did SO well - I'm pretty lucky. No crying, no throwing fits, just sitting there munching on anything and everything and looking out the window while I controlled my air sickness by taking deep calming breathes.

My Grama picked us up from the airport after she got off work and we dropped a couple things off at her house and then went to lunch with Jess, Cruz and Rider. My cousin Jess and I became pretty close when she studied dance in LA the summer of 2000 but over the years it's been harder to stay connected. We both got married and had kids and work, work, work so it was really nice to sit down and be normal with her again. I wish they lived closer!

Jilly and I spent 3 days visiting, sleeping and eating. It was just what I wanted. My Grama was a great hostess and just let me do what I wanted, when I wanted. While Jilly was napping, I was lounging on the couch reading my books and Grama was on her computer and fidgeting with a puzzle. We ventured out everyday to visit more with cousins or to make our trip to WalMart to visit with co-workers so Grama could show off her favorite great-granddaugheter (nevermind she's the only great-granddaughter!). One day we even ventured out to a local park with a choo choo train! Great-Grams knew just what Jilly liked!

After 3 days away from home I was ready to go back. I'm truly a homebody and as much as I was welcomed in Arizona, I just missed my own bed and missed my Husband. Next time he'll for sure come along because I know he missed out on visiting this time around. Thank you Grams for flying Jilly and I to Arizona to visit with you. We'll do it again soon I promise!

 Her very own train whistle!

 WalMart shopper in training. hahaha

Cruz & Jilly