Vegas

Tim and I went to Las Vegas over Presidents weekend. We stayed in an amazing room that was larger than our condo and had a great time.

We took a limo to our hotel, Vdara.

We went with Brian, Nicole, Michael, and Sheila. This is the same group we went with last May.

We had an amazing dinner at Union in Aria. It was one of the most expensive meals I have ever had though.

After dinner we all headed to Viva Elvis.

On Sunday, while the boys watched the All Stars Basketball game, the girls went to the spa at Aria. This is the view that we enjoyed.

Rachel had a great time with Nana and Papa. She was watching for our plane out the window. Thanks for taking care of our little girl while we had a great time in Las Vegas.

Terrorizing KitKat

I got a couple of new kitty toys and Rachel loves to play with the kitkat's (what she calls them) with their new toys.

I don't know if what she does with them is considered playing with them or terrorizing them :)

Swimming Lessons

Rachel is still taking swimming lessons and loving it.

She does so much better at swimming lessons than gymnastics. I think there are many reasons for that. It is a better time of day, fewer kids in the class, and shorter classes. I am not at these classes which could also be a factor. She sometimes does things that she is not supposed to, especially when her partner in crime (a boy named Tim) is there, but she is usually pretty well behaved and is coming along in her swimming.

Last Gymnastics Class

We had our final gymnastics class last Wednesday. I decided not to sign up for March.

She did so much better after the first week but it still was not worth the frustration of going until she is more ready. She did really well for the first half of class, but that is about how long her attention span is. The teacher even made a comment to me on how much better Rachel was doing. I think I am going to wait until summer before I reconsider going again. It was definitely a learning experience.

Disneyland

Last Monday (Valentine's Day) we took Rachel to Disneyland for the first time. It was so great to take our daughter somewhere and just watch how truly happy she was!

We saw all of the Mickey Mouse characters right at the entrance. You can see how happy she was to see Mickey (as well as the Donald, Minnie, Daisy, and Goofy). We stayed about 10 feet away because the line was so long, but she could have stayed there and stared at him forever.

The first ride we went on was It's a Small World.

I haven't been on it for 20 years or so, but we knew Rachel would like it. She had a great time.

We went over to Toon Town and went into Mickey's house and got to meet him! She was so happy and even gave him a high five when we left.

So, how do you keep an under 2 year old happy in long lines? We brought tic-tacs...

...and books. They both made it much easier to stand in line.

She really liked most of the rides we went on. She was just so curious and wanted to take it all in.

By far, her two favorite rides were the teacups and the carousel. I hated the teacups. Tim was spinning us around and around and I was so dizzy, but you can see how much Rachel loved it.

We have been on carousels before, but for some reason, this time, she absolutely had a blast.

She did not want to get off. When the ride finished and we had to get her off, she started crying. As she was crying, she was saying "Please, please" (well actually "peas, peas") over and over again. She thought if she asked please, we would let her stay on. She really doesn't understand the whole waiting in line thing. I felt so bad that I couldn't give her what she wanted. I wanted to see this face forever!

She LOVES ducks. She wanted to go in the water and see them.

We had such a fabulous time. It was a great way to spend our Valentine's Day. I can't wait to take her back again!

Last Weekend

Rachel just loves to be outside and so since the weather has been pretty good, we have spent a lot of time outside recently.

She has been trying to get the hang of riding her tricycle, but her legs aren't quite long enough so they fall off a lot.

I think she would prefer to push it anyway.

She absolutely loves slides and goes down them as much as possible.

She spent a lot of time playing in the wood chips too.

She is starting to become a bit of a daredevil.

I think she enjoyed bouncing on the bridge the most.

We went to Bates Nut Farm on Sunday. She has been making this crinkly nose face a lot recently.

She was scared of the sheep when they would bleat. She was holding on to my leg for dear life.

She spent about an hour collecting corn and handing it to me for me to feed the animals. I had a very full pocket by the end.

We ate our In-and-Out in the car after we finished feeding the animals.

She was very happy to come home and eat her Valentines cookies.

Gymnastics

Rachel and I went to our first Mommy and Me Gymnastics class on Wednesday at the YMCA. Marie and Emma signed up and invited us to join. I thought it would be something fun to do together.

Here is the class. Well...most of the class. So you may be asking, "Which one is Rachel?"

She is the one over here. She didn't want to do what everyone else was doing. She wanted to run around the gym, climb on everything, touch everything, and take it all with her. She wasn't really a fan of being in a class.

Here she is trying to take one of the obstacles. This is one of many that I had to put back so the rest of the class could enjoy them as obstacles.

She is finally doing the obstacle course and walking the balance beam. She loves to walk on lines when we are just walking around, but only wants to do it on her own time and not be made to do it.

The only reason I could get her to walk the balance beam is because she found out there was a slide at the end. She wanted to do it over and over even after everybody else had moved on to the next activity.

I finally got her to move on...but she is going the wrong way and only made it to the first obstacle.

Here is Rachel and Emma playing in the foam pit. They are having a good time. Emma was quite the model student and Rachel needs to take some lessons from her.

The teacher knew she would love the foam pit and the long trampoline. She was right. Rachel didn't want to get out. After everybody else walked away, I had to climb in and get Rachel out and almost didn't make it back out myself :)

By this point, you might be thinking that it doesn't look so bad. Well, I only posted the pictures where Rachel was happy. She spent a lot of the night like this. Emma looks a little concerned for Rachel. Rachel and I both had a rough night. She hasn't been her happiest at this time of night for the past few weeks and this night was no exception. At one point, the teacher said that maybe Rachel would enjoy "open gym" more than class, but it is in the middle of the day on Thursdays so it won't work out.

She is crying while admiring her stamp that she got at the end of class. We will try it again next week. Wish me luck!