Utah/ SoCal Vacation

Hank's grandpa "Dado" turned 90! So we traveled to Utah to celebrate with family. After that trip we headed down to SoCal to see my Dad's Art Show which was incredible and I am completely bummed because I don't have any pictures of! (so proud of you Dad) and to show off Milo of course.

Our first day was devoted to visiting Salt Lake.We have been talking a lot about temples recently in our home and so Sam was just beside himself in excitement to see the "Sa't Yake Temple!". He was a little disappointed that he couldn 't go inside though. Don't worry Sam you'll get there :)

Another exciting destination for our family was the "This is the Place" Monument. We also have been talking about Brigham Young recently and Sam sings 'This is da Pace!" around the house a lot. He has become Hank's trained monkey. I must admit he's a cute monkey.

Here is Sam being attacked by Cesar's (brother in Law) dogs. We had so much fun visiting family. Heather (Hank's sister) and her family were so gracious to be the central point for us all the gather. They have a fanastic home and backyard filled with an incredible playroom basement, dogs and chicken in the garage and yes they even have goats (one of which also attacked Sam). I Think Sam was ready to move in and quick frankly I was too!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was our stay with Mandy and Richard (Hank's sister and hubby). Not only did I feel like I was at a Bed and Breakfast the entire time (loved those pancakes and crepes) but the company was unbeatable. Sam was all hugs the whole the time.

Hank amazingly organized a cousin dinner for the night before the big 90th Birthday Party. I felt so impressed by the spirit and life that was there. I love the family I married into (even the extended family!) Sam shared my sentiments. In fact he was so excited about playing with cousins that night that the next day we went to a play place and he yelled when he saw a swarm of other children "oh cousins!!".

Hiking with his real cousins near Heather's house. What can I say he's a loner.

Grandma Marty working her charm. Milo is very interested...I think he's hoping another song will be coming soon.

At last we made it to the big night! Dado's 90th birthday party.Here is the best I have of the four generations of Henry Samuel Florence.

Sam you have a quite a lot to live up to.

More birthday party time! This time for Grandma Marty, Richard, Sam and well me! We had a combined birthday party for the fun of it. Marty of course made the cutest Easter cake.

On our last day in Utah we spent it with Richard (brother in law) at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was an absolute blast. I think Sam felt at home here among his kind.

Next stop Southern California! After a 10 hours drive (on Sam's Birthday..poor guy) we were treated by Mama Nell to frozen yogurt and then Sam got to pick out his Birthday Present. What a nice welcome!

 

Visits to more great-grandparents. Sam knows how to ride in style.

I absolutely love this picture. So much love in the room.

One of my favorite parts of this trip was I got to spent more time then I usually get to with my best friend Laura. Her and Milo really hit it off as you can tell. I think he casually trying to impress her ("maybe she won't notice that I'm a baby").

Milo with my UCLA graduate, NASA intern brother. Oh did I mention he'll soon be married to someone just as good looking and intelligent as him? (like how I am making use of my bragging rights?)

I'll let Sam explain our trip to Travel Town "train museum! train museum! oh oh oh, mom, mom, oh we are at the TRRRRAAAIIN MUSEUM!"

Wait I can't leave out the most important part "we are at the train museum with Uncle Dan!". Every other day or so before our trip Sam has asked if we can go to the train museum with Uncle Dan. Can you imagine his excitement when it actually happened? well it was pretty exciting...as you can imagine.

Though his expression his this picture say otherwise, Milo loved my sister Sarah! I need to convince her to move her whole family and start a new careers, schools ect. in Rocklin so she can keep Milo happy. Do you think that's tough sale? Maybe if she wasn't so gosh darn successful I could convince her.

Yes that's right more party time. We threw Sam a Muppet Birthday party with my family. Anna of course made these adorable cupcakes. She is a gourmet queen...no really she is, check out her website. I could spent a lot of time bragging about her too.

Sisters with the babies from 2011. We had Norah, Georgianna and Milo. Isn't it obvious that they are best friends already.

I think we might have let them sit there longer than was needed but between Norah screaming and the other two slowing sliding to a horizontal position we had a hard time not giggling. I can't deny it, I love these babies.

Relaxing with Anna...could life get any better?

Easter! It's hard to pose for pictures at this age. Between all the family and birthday parties Sam was pretty much spent by then. Sam did love the Easter egg hunt and I loved spending time with family on this holiday. It's so fun to visit and so sad to say goodbye but life goes on and we always have to get back to it. Sam puts it perfectly "Sammy needs to sleep in Sammy's bed" or better yet "I miss my beans". Such wise words.