Happy Birthday to me!!!

For my birthday this year Thad and Mara surprised me with tickets to the Nickelback concert.
Mara LOVES concerts and loves dragging me along with her :-) We had quite the night. They had gotten general admission floor tickets. We got there early to secure our position up front by the stage and I spent the next five hours straight: standing, jumping, yelling & screaming. I swear Mara almost had to carry me to the car, my feet hurt so bad. It was such a fun night out with the girls!!!!

(Mara, Jenn & I)

The opening acts were: Saving Able, Papa Roach & Hinder.
I have to say that I don't much care for Hinder :-(

It was nice being so close to the stage. We could actually see what everyone looked like, sweat and all :-)

This was the hottie I drooled over all night (back up singer for Nickelback)

First day of pre-school

Jacey started pre-school on my birthday (the 8th). She looked so dang cute in her new outfit and oversized backpack :-) I really did not want to buy a cheesy character backpack but I
had no desire to pay $25 for one either. So, she picked out a tinkerbell backpack and I liked the $10 price tag so we were both happy :-)

San Diego Trip/Happy Birthday Thad

To celebrate the end of summer and both of our birthday's, Thad and I decided to take a quick weekend trip to Cali. We really didn't care where we stayed so we decided to try prliceline. We've never tried it before so I was a bit nervous. We ended up getting a room at the Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa for a really good price and on Labor Day weekend no less. We left on Saturday morning and came back Monday night. Thad's birthday fell on Labor Day this year so unfortunately a lot of his birthday was spent driving. Sorry baby :-( At least we had a fun weekend!!!

Here we are waiting in line for an hour (I know, we are crazy) for breakfast at our favorite restaurant Kono's.

We spent the majority of our trip at the beach. Jacey sat on the grass by the roller coaster at Belmont Park, patiently waiting for her friend Bentley to arrive.

The Family at Mission Beach

I didn't think it was possible for a child to love the water more than Jacey but I have to admit that Keely has got her beat. The child just couldn't get enough of the ocean. I can't count the number of times the waves toppled her over and she'd just get right back up and play.

I had to constantly make sure she wasn't drinking the water :-)

Jacey and Bentley had fun playing together in the sand.

Our hotel was right on Mission Bay so we had this little beach area to play at.

Jacey and Keely had quite the time playing together.

Keely was not happy that she wasn't allowed to help us build sand castles.

She really just wanted to topple them over, much to Jacey's dismay.

Gina & Jackson just happened to be renting a condo for the week while we were there so we paid them a visit on Monday. The girls had a blast playing with all of the other kids there.

One of the nights we were there Thad and I decided to go out for BBQ. I had a guide book and it talked about "Kansas City BBQ" in downtown San Diego. It's claim to fame is having had several scenes from Top Gun filmed there. I'm all about the movie trivia so we decided to go and check it out. It's literally just a little hole in the wall place with a bar inside and most of the dining done on the patio out front. As we sat outside eating our dinner Thad suddenly goes "Holy Crap". I got scared for a minute thinking, what on earch has happened. The then pointed out that Larry King had just walked in and was waiting to be seated. Seriously, if Thad weren't such a CNN fanatic I probably would have never noticed. He was dressed so casually and was with such a random group of guys. After hearing him talk though, there was no doubt it was him. Thad was sooo excited to see someone famous for the first time. I pointed out that his "sighting" wasn't nearly as exciting as my eating lunch directly across from Blink 182 five years ago and getting my picture taken with them :-) All in all it made for quite the exciting evening.

Happy Birthday Thad!!!!

Anniversary part 2

Because our birthday's and our anniversary are so close together we decided to stay in town for our anniversary and go to San Diego for our birthday's.
We stayed the night at a resort in Scottsdale and went to dinner at Fogo De Chao.
It was my first time eating there. It was a REALLY nice restaurant and the food was amazing; However, it was way too much red meat for me. They literally brought us plate after plate of meat. Needless to say we both felt sick that night. Scottsdale was nice though and it was fun to get away, even if just for the night.

5 year Anniversary

Some days I feel like time is inching by at
the pace of a snail and then days like today I look back and think holy cow where have the past few years gone? Five years ago today Thad and I were married in the Mesa temple. I remember it like it was just yesterday. Thad and I had been dating off and on for so long that when the day finally came I wasn't nervous at all. I was just sooo ready to be married and get things moving along :-) We had our wedding reception in his parents back yard and it was beautiful. His dad had gotten us a room at the Hyatt Regency for the night and the next morning we were supposed to head out to California for our honeymoon.

I had always dreamed about going to Hawaii on my honeymoon but Thad said he'd already spent a fortune on my ring :-) He said if I agreed to go to California on our honeymoon that we could stay at the Hotel Del Coronado and rent a convertible car to drive around in. I was actually very excited to go. Thad had packed and extra piece of luggage and I was so bugged about it because I thought: Sheesh,I'm the girl, why on earth does he need two suitcases???? He never could quite explain why he needed it and I wasn't allowed to open it either. When we got to the airport to check in he said "Umm, there's something I need to tell you. I've been lying to you for months now".
If that didn't send up immediate red flags I don't know what would. I kept thinking, what on earth does he have to tell me. By the look on his face it couldn't be good. I was actually afraid he was going to reveal some deep dark secret of his :-) Then he says "We aren't going to California, we are going to Maui". The extra suitcase was to carry all of our new snorkeling gear.
What???????
Thad has always kept me on my toes and five years later that hasn't changed. The past five years haven't been perfect but Thad sure has made the ride quite an adventure. Life is never boring around the Mason household. We have had so many wonderful things happen since we've been married including our two beautiful girls that we love to pieces.

Thanks for the adventures honey, here's to an eternity of more!!!!

Randomness

As usual, the past few months have been quite crazy. Jackie, Gina and I threw a bridal shower for Jamie (my cousin). I feel so old. I used to babysit Jackie & Jamie once upon a time :-)
We had the shower at Gina's house and it turned out great. The food was flat out awesome. Gina sure knows how to throw a great party!!!!

(Jackie, Jamie, Me & Gina)

Jacey finished up her last round of swim lessons a few weeks a go. She was so sad. She absolutely loved going to swim lesson.

Just Chillin, as usual :-)

She got into the basket to play and then said, "Mommy, come take my picture". She loves to look at the pictures after I've taken them.

Keely's 1st Birthday

My baby turned one today. I can't believe how fast this past year has flown by. It seems like just yesterday my little Keely was born. She is such a sweet little girl. She loves her big sister and chases her around the house on a daily basis. She's been walking for almost two months now and is a little speedy gonzales. She is now 26.9lbs and 31.5" tall. Everything in the 99th percentile of course. She has one molar in and has two more coming in, which makes her a little cranky pants right now. Her favorite word is "Ma Ma", of course, and her dear father is bound and determined that she learn to say "Bubble butt". She's almost there :-) We just can't get enough of our "little" chunkers.
Happy Birthday my sweet girl!!!!!

Keely's favorite thing to do right now is eat rocks

We quickly learned that Keely LOVES balloons

She was very confused as to what to do with her birthday cake

This was the look she gave us after Thad pushed her face into the cake :-)

She definitely loved her new toys. Although Jacey has enough to last us a lifetime.

My sweet baby in her new PJ's