SeaLife Aquarium

While I was a cheer camp, my Mom took Rylie to the SeaLife Aquarium with Jeff and Laura. They were all pleasantly surprised at how great it was! It will definitely be something that we go back to in the future, especially in the heat of the summer.

Daddy + Swim Lessons = Fun!

So I had to take my cheerleaders to cheer camp (side note: When I was a cheerleader, we headed to colleges for camp and stayed in dorms...my team went to the AZ Grand Resort for camp. Super nice rooms, food, a waterpark onsite...cheer camp has certainly changed!) so Rylie was with Daddy and my mom for 3 and a half days. Brandon even took her to swim lessons while I was gone! What an amazing Daddy! He had no problem getting in the water with all of the other moms so that Ry could still get her lesson in. One more thing on my growing list that I love about him. :)

Radiant Beach

For Mother's Day this year, we gave Brandon's mom, Helen, a photo shoot at the beach with all of her boys. My cousins, Radiant Photography met us at the Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach to take the photos...on what was probably the windiest day in Southern California this year. Rylie had a hard time even standing up the wind was so strong. The pictures still turned out amazing! So here's props to the photographers for taking such great photos while dealing with such terrible weather conditions!

Our traditional feet pic...gotta love her sparkly pink TOMs at the beach!

Helen with her boys :)

One of my favorites from the day

This pretty much sums up Rylie's mood for most of the photo shoot.

Rylie's First Haircut

Rylie doesn't really have that much hair...but the hair that she does have is growing in very unevenly, so it was past time for a haircut. My friend Monique at work also does hair, so she said that she would cut Ry's hair at the gym. We put her on the ground with some grapes to entertain her and Monique started clipping away. :)

The finished product :)

Splash Pad

My mom took Rylie to meet Cayden and Tatum at the splash pad. These are great for little ones because they are cool and can play in the water without having to get into a pool so the kids can be a bit more independent (the story of Rylie's life right now...whatever she can do by herself is what makes her the happiest).

She actually wasn't a huge fan of the water spraying on her...she was pretty content just sitting in my mom's lap and watching all of the other kids play. She also had a rough night of sleep the night before, so we may try this again another day. :)

Playdate

Some good friends of ours are missionaries overseas and are on furlough in the States for the summer. They have a little girl, Isla, that is 7 months older than Rylie, so we all went over to my parents house one night this week for a night of swimming and dinner. Rylie is starting to really learn how to play with other kids, so it was fun to watch the 2 girls interact (and fight over the same toys :) ).

Good times with friends! We will miss you guys when they head back overseas!

San Diego Zoo

On our final weekend in California, Helen and I took Rylie to the San Diego Zoo. Brandon's brother, Brian and his fiance, Sheila, met us there. I love walking around this zoo! It is so green and pretty and has so many fun animals to see. Rylie loves looking at all of the animals, and at this zoo they are all pretty close, so she could find most of them. It was pretty humid, but really no complaints since it could have been way worse (hello Phoenix and 115 degrees!). :)

They had a baby hippo that was still pretty little! It was very cool to see the hippos active since most of the time they just sit there...not with a little one around! Mom literally was just following this baby around...sounds like my life! :)

The snow leppords getting a snack.

Disneyland

Yes, we went to Disneyland...are you really that surprised? :) Rylie is getting more and more fun at Disneyland as she gets older. This time we went on a lot of new rides for her and even some new ones for us...and that is hard to do when you have been there as many times as we have! First of all, there were no crowds, and that was not expected seeing as we went on July 5th. I was expecting a ton of people! It was pretty warm, but we'll take that over a lot of people any day (and seriously...we are from AZ...heat doesn't scare us!). :)

Rylie's first time on Peter Pan...I know she doesn't look too thrilled, but she actually seemed to like it until the end when it got really dark.

This was a first for all of us! Ariel's Underwater Adventure just opened and Rylie loved it. It is pretty cute and they do a good job of minimizing the scarey part of the movie. The "Under the Sea" scene is adorable!

One of the other new areas we found is a big play area for kids. Rylie loved it! It has slides and tunnels and a ton of other things that she can do. It also has things for older kids so she will continue to enjoy it as she grows. Seriously, Disney thinks of everything! (Side note...don't you love the ruffles on the back of her little Minnie Mouse outfit! A great birthday present from good friends of ours!)

Independence Day!!

Our 4th of July started out just hanging out at Brandon's Mom's (Gammie's) house. Rylie got to relax and play, and most importantly, got 2 really good naps in before the festivities that night. Here she is modeling her festive PJs. :)

We also spent part of the day playing outside and enjoying the beautiful California weather. Gotta love her festive bikini! :)

That evening we headed to Angel Stadium for some good baseball and fireworks. I love going to baseball games on the 4th...you already have great seats for the firework show after the game and you don't have to fight major crowds to get them! You can't get much more American than a good old fashioned hot dog and baseball!

The National Anthem is the best part of the game on the 4th...a huge flag and a fly over with fireworks! I love our country!

Rylie's 4th of July outfit. :) Getting her to stand still for photos now if pretty much impossible, so I do my best.

She was super spoiled with food at the game...a hot dog and some of Gammie's pizza for dinner and ice cream for dessert. She loves holidays!

She loved the little rally monkey that Gammie got her. She played and cuddled with it the entire game (oh and she did make it through the entire game! I'll say it again...I know some adults that can't go that long!) :)

This is what she would do everytime you said "Go Angels"!

Rylie really didn't care much either way for the fireworks. She wasn't scared at all, but she would watch a few and then almost get bored and want a cracker. She did get into it for about 2 minutes, so here she is as she is trying to reach the fireworks.