Long Beach Aquarium

This morning when we woke up we walked to the Aquarium of the Pacific. We had a lovely time exploring. Ethan's mission of the day was to find Nemo & Dory.

Ethan & Mommy on the way to the Aquarium

Daddy & Ethan out front
Ethan with the shark...he insists on posing with everything these days!

Trying to touch a manta ray, or a sting ray...I can't tell the difference!

Ethan found Nemo! This picture doesn't show it but he was really excited. The tank was filled with hundreds of Nemos and Dorys.

Did any of you see Travis Pastrana jump a car onto a barge on New Year's Eve? We got to watch them set up the ramp. It was pretty neat.

Just one of the cutest little boys around.

Precious!

Next we headed to San Diego for the night. We just love hanging out there and walking around the Gaslamp District & Old Town. We had a very low key New Year's Eve watching the movie UP in our hotel room. Lights were out at 11:30! Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a good one!

Queen Mary in Long Beach

Dan had this entire week off from work. When he woke up he said, "Let's go somewhere." So the travel agent in me booked us a couple of days away from home to celebrate the new year. Today we started out in Long Beach and toured the Queen Mary...something neither of us have done before. Ethan had a great time running around the huge ship.

Ethan & me on the Queen Mary

Ethan pulling the anchor up with his huge muscles.
Ethan thought he was driving the ship from this little wheel.

Now off to our hotel...

A Visit to The Grove Again

Today we went down to The Grove again. We just love it there and it is so beautiful this time of year. Ethan's memory just blows our mind...We pulled into the parking structure and Ethan started yelling SNOW SNOW SNOW! He had remembered when we went there last week to watch the snow fall at night. He remembered this just from the parking structure! Anyway, we had so much fun together today. Dan had a blast snapping millions of photos with our new camera while Ethan enjoyed posing for Daddy every second he got.

I think this might be the cutest photo ever taken of Ethan!
Having fun being silly.

Yep, our guy has a great sense of humor. Daddy pulls the camera out and he pretends to pick his nose. Nice. How were we blessed with such a fun & happy kid? He is seriously like this ALL the time!

Another glimpse into his adorable sense of humor. He loves making us laugh.

A Dufour Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. We had 14 people over for the day. Ethan had so much fun playing with all of his cousins and their new toys.

The Best Christmas Ever

We had such a fun Christmas morning with Ethan. He is at such a great age and he understood the whole Santa thing. For the last couple of weeks Ethan has sat on Santa's lap several times...mainly so he could get a candy cane. Every time him and Santa were talking he would tell Santa that he wanted trains and some candy canes.

Ethan having a candy cane for breakfast...hey, Santa brought it!

MONSTERS, INC.!!!

This was definitely the most excited he got over a gift (until he saw the train table of course). He has ridden the Monsters, Inc. ride at CA Adventure several times but he had no idea that there was a movie that went with it.
Pure joy and excitement when we revealed the train table that Santa had left! We saved it until the very end.

And thank goodness we did. We couldn't pry his eyes off of it. Not even for a picture. I got a smile though!

After Ethan opened his presents we went over to Dan's mom's house for our yearly Christmas brunch. Then we went home and watched, what else, Monsters Inc. Ethan was in heaven! In the afternoon we drove to Riverside for Christmas dinner at Kent (Dan's brother) & Kimie's new house. Here is our cute little man napping in the car on the way there.

Our little Bob the Builder

The best ending to a wonderful day...Daddy let Ethan play video games with him and Kent. I think he enjoyed himself!

Did I mention that I got a pretty amazing gift as well? I think it tops a train table. My lovely husband got me a new camera!!! I have wanted a Canon Rebel for many years and I finally got one! We both are really excited about it and have taken hundreds of photos already! Thanks Love for an awesome Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Today we went to The Jamison's house for a quick visit. This is my friend Alison's mom's house. I have known them since I was in Kindergarten. Here sister Abby was in town with her little ones. It was nice seeing her new baby and also seeing how different Ethan & Sophia were since they met 2 years ago. Sophia is just 5 weeks younger than Ethan. They had fun playing with a train that Abby & Alison played with when they were little.

I love their facial expressions!

They were 4 and 3 months old.

Jr. High Reunion

My friend, Kami, from Jr. High School, organized a little reunion this evening. We all met at a local restaurant for lots of catching up. All of these girls went to the same high school and I went to a different one across town. I haven't seen some of these girls in like 13 years! It was so much fun hanging out with my old friends from back in the day.

Amris, Bauerle, Me, Kari, Shannon, Kami, & Sally