Santa Monica Pier & Malibu Beach

Enjoying the carousel with daddy:

Pretending to swim in the mural with Uncle Kevie, daddy & mommy. Alec thought this was hilarious.

So, this needs a bit of explaining. Alec loves the shark, Bruce, on Finding Nemo. He goes around saying (in a deep voice), 'Hello, I Bruce!' So, I got in on film next to a shark painting.

Alec enjoying the view of LA from his great-grandma's backyard. This is his 'smile' still.

Saturday morning we found a quiet little beach in Malibu.

At first Alec was afraid of the loud waves and held on to his daddy's hand.

Paul kept trying to bury Alec in the sand and Alec kept kicking the sand about and giggling. It was awfully cute.

Self-photo of Paul and I:

After 2 hours, Alec was running towards the waves and having a grand time.

Afterwards Alec demanded to use the potty. He had regressed for a week (after several weeks of being potty trained), so we were a little apprehensive about the trip-"Should we put him in a diaper for the drive?"

We're so proud of him! The whole trip he'd warn us if he needed to go and give us plenty of time to pull the car off the highway and even slept through 'Harry Potter 6' in Paul's arms with no diaper!! Several weeks of no accidents and dry diapers after naps, I think my little man is potty trained!

Yet he still hates fireworks...

Enjoying a barbecue at Auntie Kari & Uncle Ben's with Nana.I made a red, white & blue trifle for Paul!

Swimming with daddy is always fun!

Alec LOVES the showers for some odd reason. He kept running over there and squirting himself.

Later in the evening we went to my cousin's to do some sparklers and fireworks. The loud noises and flashing lights frightened Alec, he kept wanting to go inside, so we gave up and went outside to watch some of the big fireworks go off around Vegas. Vegas does do the 4th well. Fireworks were going off in all directions, it was beautiful, though scary to Alec.

Kelsey, attempting to keep Alec from smacking himself in the face with the sparkler. We were so happy she came to visit us!

Swimming=Sunburn

Alec and I go swimming on Friday's at my sister's. This last Friday was pretty sunny and I didn't apply enough lotion to my shoulders. I'm currently pink and horrid as they come, but I got enough on Alec at least, he only had two small spots.

Alec's buddy, Cannon, from nursery was able to come. They are SO cute together.

Russell Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free genealogy - Family name history

Lower Cathedral Rock

We had a lovely family hike on Saturday morning. Ever since our last hike 3 weeks ago Alec shouts, "Hike!" everytime he sees mountains and we finally took the hint.We set off from the Lower Cathedral Rock trailhead at Mt Charleston and hiked up to the waterfall. Once there we could let Alec run around and explore some. He immediately found a little cave and dubbed it 'Bambi House'. So, we had to climb up into it several times (for some reason, once in it he was a bit spooked) and got some cute pictures. The dogs were on their best behavior and enjoyed all the other hikers desperate to pet them as Alec toddled along. A very nice break and family outing!

'Muscle' Russell

Alec and 'The Pack'

Some days we walk both my sisters' dogs and my parents', in addition to our 2 dogs.

Potty Training

Since the chiropractor's grounded me from running for ANOTHER week, and because Alec has used the potty a few times and likes it, AND because it's so hot already, I thought now would be a great time to do the intense 3-day method. Alec loves running around naked from the waist down and putting stickers on his chart.

The first day was all right, though swimming in the afternoon threw him off his game.We're at day 3 now and I'm exhausted and a little stir-crazy. I've discovered if I don't pester too much, he goes on his own. We're 100% with #2 and about 75% with #1, so I'm pretty pleased, if too tired to really care.

Gymnastics Pictures

Alec's enjoying another round of gymnastics and seems to be doing better at each activity. I wanted to upload some cute pictures of it:

Alec and Patrick hugging after a long workout, whilst waiting for their gummybear rewards:

"Pudgy, Pudgy"

Alec was poking his auntie's belly and calling her 'pudgy' (at the insistent prompting of my mother) one day. It's funny because Kari is anything but pudgy.