A Week In SoCal

My new niece Annie, Brittney and Job's daughter, was blessed at church a couple Sundays ago so I took some time off and went down to visit for about a week. My sister Lori and her daughter Brooklyn came also, my parents drove down, and my Grandma even flew in for it. It was a little half-family reunion. 

Saturday afternoon we all went to the park and played and relaxed. It was 93 degrees and it felt awesome. Here is Grandma Palmer, Dad, Brittney, Lori, Annie and Job hanging out. 

Mom played Ring-Around-The-Rosie with Brooklyn and Porter. Porter wanted to go a lot faster than Brooklyn so it made it quite difficult for Grandma to not get twisted in knots. 

Job and Brittney sitting on the swings.

I love love love this picture of Porter playing baseball, his most favorite thing ever.

Lori just had to try her sunglasses on Annie and I just had to take pictures. 

Lori and Brooklyn swinging. 

My Grandma Palmer is so pretty. I love her.

Brooklyn stuck the dandelion in her mouth when she tried to blow it. 

It was soooo sunny that this was Brooklyn's face almost the whole time we were at the park. I kept calling her a little gangster. 

Later that night we went swimming at Job's parents' house. Well everyone except my parents went swimming. They held Annie the whole time. 

We mostly sat in the hot tub. Here's the whole gang.

Brittney and Porter.

Lori and Brooklyn.

Sunday was Annie's baby blessing at church. Grandma Palmer made her dress and we took a few pictures of her in it. 

Porter holding Annie.

Mommy and Annie.

The night before I painted Annie's toenails. Job insisted on the dark red nail polish. Everyone who noticed it commented on how cute it was.

My parents really wanted a photo of them with the grandkids. Annie was really the only one who cooperated. And that was because she was asleep.

Grandpa and Annie.

Grandma and Brooklyn.

Lori and Brooklyn relaxing in the hammock.

We played outside A LOT while I was there. Sometimes it was the only thing that would make the kids happy. Grandma and Porter played catch for a while on Monday.

Grandma would even run and chase the ball or try and beat Porter to it. He calls her "Grape" or "Grandma Grape" because he can't really pronounce "Great Grandma" the way it should be.

Brittney has a couple of these baby slings that she matches to whatever outfit she is wearing that day and then carries Annie around in it. And Annie just snuggles right up on Brittney's boobs and falls asleep. No matter where she is going or the craziness that is happening around her.

Super cute picture of Brooklyn running all over the yard with her tongue sticking out almost the whole time. She is such a goofball.

I found a gopher that kept popping its head in and out of a hole, so I showed it to the kids and everyone just stood and watched it for several minutes.

Later that day we went geocaching, or "treasure hunting" as the kids like to call it. Porter is my little treasure hunting buddy. Every time I go down to spend time with them I take him geocaching and he loves to get treasure from the caches. He gets so excited to show his mom the cool things he got. 

The first geocache we found was THE PERFECT CACHE! It was larger and had tons of swag in it. But what made it so perfect was that it had the perfect items for each of the kids. A baseball for Porter and a Finding Nemo toy for Brooklyn. Those are their most favorite things! Lori and I were freaking out with excitement! Porter loved his new baseball but immediately lost it and so we had a new "geocache" to look for, the baseball. We found it though.

On Tuesday we had to take "Grandma Grape" to LAX for her flight home so we made a day of it in Los Angeles. We went to Griffith Park and drove around and played at a really cool park, we ate lunch and found a geocache, we went to the Los Angeles Farmers Market. It was an awesome and very exhausting day.

Brittney and Job wanted new family pictures that included Annie so we did a super quick photo session before the sun went down and the kids got too restless.

Lori wanted a few mommy/daughter photos but Brooklyn didn't want anything to do with Lori. She was way too busy playing. Here Lori tried to trick her into coming to mommy.

But Brooklyn took the rose and ran away.

Porter found a puddle left over from watering the grass and Brittney, being the coolest mom ever, encouraged him to play in it. He LOVED it!

Lori tried to encourage Brooklyn to play too but she just stood next to it looking at everyone like they had gone crazy. She is such a prissy girl.

Porter got soaked and then Brittney told him to come give me a hug. No way!

But he is just so cute I gave him a tiny hug.

Here are some random picture of people with Annie. 

My dad holding Annie and trying to get the other grandkids' shoes on.

Me watching TV and holding Annie.

Brooklyn even got a turn holding her.

Brittney and Annie.