30

When I was younger I used to have a sort of "plan" about what I thought my life would be like when I turned 30. That age felt so far away that the possibilities of things I could accomplish were endless in my mind. I would fantasize about who I would marry, where we would live, my future children's names, all the places I could travel to, how much money I would have (I'd be a millionaire by 30 for sure lol), and when I was a mom I'd never yell at my kids, I'd bake cookies and do crafts every day with them, and take them for a walk every day (after the fabulous dinner I made of course). My mansion house would always be clean and I'd be in perfect shape and pretty much everything would be fantastic. In the fantasy everything is perfect and life couldn't get better.... 

How did I get here so fast? Wasn't I 16 like, yesterday? I honestly can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Some years seemed longer than others, and some years were amazing. Some years were so hard that they seem like a blur now. But all of those years made me who I am today. And although my "plan" isn't exactly how I dreamed it up to be, I can honestly say I couldn't be happier. If my 30 year old self could travel back in time to my 16 year old self, I'd say "Be patient and be strong, and trust yourself. You are going to be very pleased with your life when you turn 30". I am actually looking forward to putting my 20's behind me and starting a new decade fresh and living the life I am meant to live. I think my 30's are going to be awesome.

Here are some pictures of my birthday.

 at the forum shops

opening my birthday presents and cards

at my favorite restaurant Vintner Grill

Labor Day Weekend

Every year on Labor Day weekend, Darren's mom Linda (the grandkids call her Grammy Mac) treats the whole family to a day of activities, food, and fun. This year she got a room at the JW Marriott and she was nice enough to let Darren and I stay in it for the night. We met up with the family for lunch at Jason's Deli, went to the Sun Coast to bowl, then spent a few hours at the hotel pool (cabana and all!). After that we had a delicious dinner at Olive Garden. We had a great day with the family and are so thankful for Linda. We love you Grammy Mac!

Arriving at the hotel

Darren enjoying the view from our hotel room

Kate doing some bumper bowling. She rolled every ball sooo slow it's amazing they actually made it to the pins!

                                          Johnny being funny as usual

Kate's 4th birthday

For Kate's birthday I threw her a girls princess party. All of the girls brought dress up clothes and we even had a special guest princess (aunt Kari) show up to surprise them. My nanny (who I call my "sister wife" because she is pretty much the kids' second mom) came to use her talents and help makeover the girls.  

                                                 princess pizza lunch

                                 Christine making McKenna beautiful

LEGOLAND

The day after we went to the beach, we went to Legoland . It was my first time there with Johnny and Kate, but Darren and Jules had been before. I actually liked it better than Disneyland for the ages of the kids, because the lines were shorter, and there were a lot of places to sit down and rest while the kids played. It was a really fun day!

                                                             Oh Kate!

A real police man, and a police man made out of legos

                                                            Just her size

                                                           I'm on a boat!

We also got to spend a couple of hours at the water park there. It was a nice break in the middle of the day to cool off and relax. We can't wait to go back!

Family Vacation

We wanted to take the kids to the beach at some point during the summer, so we decided to head down to San Diego the first weekend in August when Darren was on vacation from work. We left on Saturday late morning and the kids were so excited to get to the beach, that we checked in to our hotel and went straight there. We weren't exactly sure where we should go, so we drove down the coast until we found a good spot (or at least what we thought was a good spot). We found a close place to park and the kids ran to get in the water. The sun was beginning to set, we set up towels and beach toys, and started eating sandwiches that we stopped and got for dinner. I started looking around at the other people there and thought "hmmm... a lot of people brought their dogs". Then it dawned on me that we were at the DOG BEACH! Yuck! The kids were too happy playing in the water already to drag them somewhere else, plus the sun was going to be gone soon, so we decided to try not to think about pee-pee and doo-doo while we were eating, and watched very closely where we walked.

The water was pretty cold, so when they got out they were freezing. Look at Kate's face lol

build a bear

We took the kids to the mall to buy new OUTFITS for their current bears......

..........and walked out with 3 new bears

Birthday Boy

It is very hard to believe that it has been 5 years since I gave birth to my first child. Johnny has been such a blessing in my life and I feel so lucky to have such a sweet boy. He is always giving complements and is very sensitive to others' feelings. He can be a total boy too, and we have to remind him to not constantly joke about farting and private parts. He is always thinking and trying to figure things out and he loves to make people laugh by making jokes or trying to scare them. We love our Johnny boy.

We had his party at Chuck E Cheese this year. It was a super easy place to go. Although it's kind of hectic there, it is sure nice not having to clean up before/after a party. The kids loved it and that's what matters most :)

Little Kate looking so cute

Johnny and his good buddy Bryson 

His cute super mario cake

My parents, Vanessa, and James

It was literally the first time Johnny didn't FREAK OUT at the sight of Chucky. He kept bragging about the fact that he wasn't scared of Chucky and that he gave him a "high five"

The cute guests

                                                            Me and Steph

The "ticket blaster". The lady that put him in there forgot to explain how it works ( you have a minute to grab as many tickets as you can), so he just stood there playing around in the tickets as they flew by. We all had a good laugh.