He’s been really enjoying his legos and any way he can build one, he would build an airplane.  He built a couple today and proudly tells me, “Here mom, look at my airplanes.”  Yes, that big one is an airplane too.  He was also waiting to show off to “Wowa, aka lola.”

Then he decided to get in the boat aka a cardboard box.  He was talking to himself or something and then I overheard him say “The waves are big.  Oh look, someone’s walking on the waves.  It’s Jesus!!”  He remembered the story of Jesus walking on water we read the other night.  It’s true, the Word of the Lord does not return void.  =P

Then I told him it was nap time.  He’s not too crazy with nap times lately although when does fall asleep, he sleeps for 3 hrs.  He turned off all the lights but said it was still too bright to he put his sunglasses on.  He really looks like a big boy now.

Then he fell asleep after a couple hours of fighting his nap and the game started.   The Giants won today.

Posed by a snowman..

Gavin went sliding on the snow.  As soon as he got to the top, he didn’t want to do it.  They were already there so King sat him down.  His facial expression was priceless!

We saw the Lego man and had to take a photo with him.

Gavin and King stayed in line for 45 minutes to ride a red helicopter and another 45 minutes to ride a red airplane.  Thank goodness they ended up on red ones after waiting that long.

Playing with a sword and shield pretending to fight a dragon.

And ending the day with building a Lego hero which I think looks more like a monster.  I didn’t know Lego makes those.  They all looks scary to me.  Hard to tell a good guy from a bad guy.

We stayed at the Hyatt on this trip.  Though it was a couple miles away, the shuttle dropped us off and picked us up by the entrance.  So it was perfect.  No half mile walk to the hotel this time.  Before we even left the hotel, we already started taking pictures.

We got to Disneyland before the park officially opened.

They opened the gates but is still blocked halfway through main street.

I plan our Disneyland itinerary to the minute using the Ridemax software.  So far, I have found it to be right on time or even having a shorter wait than expected.  We rode on the dumbo ride first and this kicked off Gavin’s fun day of rides.

Then off to the teacup ride nearby.  I didn’t ride cause I was still nausea sensitive being on my 3rd month of pregnancy.  Gavin didn’t want to ride on it as they were approaching the cup so they all rode in one cup.  Only one cup was used for this ride.  That’s how early we were.  As you can see, Gavin had a blast.

Then we went to the Small World ride and that was a nice chill ride for everyone.

Then we went to the Buzz Lightyear ride and Gavin did not like all the monsters.  So we went to the ride he was looking forward to for this trip – the roller coaster.  King and Gavin are on the 3rd car from the back while Nikki and Raymund are behind them. When the ride stopped, Gavin said, “That was too fast daddy!”.  But he’s been so proud of himself for riding the roller coaster.

In Toon Town, he gave Goofy a high five and got a kiss from Minnie.

The other ride he still talks about quite a bit is “driving” a car.  King actually let him drive up until the first curve when Gavin and him got thrown off to one side (still in the car).  Good thing I wasn’t there to freak out but apparently the boys were just laughing so hard when that happened.

We were got on the Nemo ride which Gavin also enjoyed and the carousel. We also rode the jungle tour boat.  Then we sat down to wait for the parade.  Gavin saw the marching bands from a couple high schools but fell asleep just when the real parade was about to start.  He slept through the whole parade.  It was too bad because we had the best spot in the park.

So only we got to enjoy it.

So Gavin napped for about a couple hours before we walked to the other side of the park.  We rode the Tom Sawyer boat, walked to see real reindeers and saw Pluto walk by.  This was a photo with Lola on Santa’s sleigh.

We headed out to the Tiki room and left the park early.  Just when we got to the end of main street, they turned the lights off so we can see the Sleeping Beauty Castle being lit up.  What was a bonus was we were at a spot where there was snow!  It was a perfect ending to our visit to Disneyland.

Gavin opened presents.

I opened mine too which was a 50mm f1.8 lens to replace my old broken one.  Gavin got a toy camera and took pictures of everything.

Then a good chunk of the morning was spent putting together some of the toys.

We had a great breakfast.  I baked some cinnamon rolls.  King cooked hash browns, eggs and bacon.  Then we read the Christmas story.  We stayed home the entire day and enjoyed a laid back Christmas.  We even stayed in our pajamas all day.  Our pajamas show what happens when you shop last minute (i.e.  Christmas Eve morning) for new pajamas.  Sizes of the nice ones were gone and we end up with some pairs that are not necessarily our first choices.  Oh well, at least they were now on sale.  It didn’t matter, we still had a very merry Christmas.

I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo of the food but here’s part of the party after dinner.

Our Christmas Eve family photo.

Gavin opened his presents from his aunts, uncles and grandparents.

He gladly gave everyone hugs and even sang in front of everyone.  Notice the grocery bag of wrapping paper?  Gavin neatly tore the wrappers and placed them in the bag before ripping some more.  After he opened a present, he neatly lined them by the fireplace.

Gavin wore some that he can wear and played with a couple opened toys.

Then we had our gift exchange.

For some, a gift card exchange.

One was a little bluff.  The Victoria’s secret box turned out to to have an Amazon gift card.

After the gift exchange was some karaoke til midnight.  Gavin even joined in on the fun and  sang some Christmas carols.  This was when the V family came by to join in on the fun.  However, I got myself and Gavin ready for bed around 11 since we were too tired.  It was a great Christmas Eve.

I went to my first Christmas get together this year with the ladies that I used to go to Bible study with.  It took us 1 hour to drive to Mission Hills because of the December Nights event.

This year, we also got to visit December Nights.  I used to still say “Christmas at the Prado” but it’s actually very different from the last and first time we visited.  It is now very commercialized and it almost just felt like a December County Fair.  We still enjoyed the lights, the food and the free entrance to the Ruben H Fleet Science Center.

We went to our annual young families group Christmas party.  We enjoyed great food, a white elephant gift exchange and the kids listened to the Christmas story from grandma Lois.

We also visited Disneyland and I’ll have a post dedicated to that trip another time.

Then that same Disneyland weekend, we drove back to SD that Saturday in time for the annual coolkada Christmas party.  It was a great time to have everyone present at the party. This will be the last time we will have more adult than kids.  Next year, we will be outnumbered.  Group photo courtesy of Patrick Bondoc.

We decorated our tree, built a gingerbread house.

Gavin sang (well, kinda) in his school Christmas program and met Santa!

These are among the things we did during the Christmas Holiday season.  I’ll be blogging about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on a separate entry.

We got to the campground late Friday afternoon and King immediately set-up our tent while there was still light.

We brought hotdogs for dinner and had SMORES for dessert!

And then… Gavin already got comfortable and played in the dirt even in the dark.  I know, it’s camping and he can get dirty but I was hoping he would at least be “clean” the first day.  He started collecting rocks the first night and building “rock tents”.  See the dirt on the log, he did that

Then back in the tent, sleeping on the air mattress and sleeping bags keep us warm enough in the very cold night.

On Saturday morning, we had bacon and eggs for breakfast.  I love breakfast and it was such a treat to have bacon.  We left our hashbrown and sour cream at home but it was still great.

While King was cooking breakfast, Gavin was already back playing in the dirt.  And see those pants that are now dirty?  After I changed his diaper, I put those back on to get ready for our hike, he refused to wear them.  He said, “I can not wear that pants, it’s dirty!”  I had a different pair, his last clean pair of pants, and put them on instead.  Funny he is so picky on clothes when he doesn’t mind being in the dirt.

So we went for a hike on the trail to Stonewall Peak.  See that peak?  That’s where we were going.. not.  With three kids in tow, we knew we were just going to go as far as we can and then hike back.  The trail had beautiful views of the mountains and Lake Cuyamaca so it was already a fun one even without making it all the way to the peak.

Gavin rode on King’s back for a few feet.

Gavin and Kaitlyn held hands for a few feet.

And Gavin walked for half a mile or so.

Gavin was amazed with the scenery and especially the big rocks we saw along the trail.

Here’s the whole crew.

Then when got back to the campground, Gavin was back on the dirt.

And on Sunday, one last time playing with the dirt before we left.

And a little bit of pinecone soccer.

Cheers to a good time.

Gavin had been pretending our carpet was sand and was building a “sand castle”.  We thought we’d bring him to the beach for the first time even though San Diego was still on May grays.

We played a little golf on the park first.

Then we played on the beach for a little bit.  Gavin and King built their first sand castle together.

There were a few pool parties.

and barbeques of course…

We enjoyed summer with the rest of the family too.

We were able to get our summer picnic after work just once this summer.  Though we only went to the cove for cupcakes, we still had so much fun.

This same evening, Gavin was running on the beach with his sneakers because he did not want sand between his toes like the last time he wore flip flops on the beach.

And among our favorites are our countless trips to the farmer’s market and train rides.

—-

One evening, when we came home from work and school, Gavin saw  pack of juice when I opened the fridge.

G:  “Can [I] have some juice, please, mommy?”

M:  “Only after dinner.”

Gavin, even though there wasn’t any food on the table, pulled his chair and sat on it.  He had to get down since I was still fixing a salad and the fish was still in the oven.  Finally, when food was ready, he once again climbed up his chair and said,

G:  “Let’s pray!!!”

He grabbed our hands and said started leading us in prayer, which was his first time doing it and said,

G:  “Dear God, thank you for our food.”  Then looked at King and said “Daddy made this.”  Then looked at me and said, “Mommy made this. Amen!”

He ate the cucumber-cantaloupe mint salad and a couple bites of fish and said again “Can I have some juice?”.

——–

One night last week as King and I were getting him ready for bed, Gavin was very affectionate.  He is normally very cuddly but lately he’s been wanting us to stay with him in his bedroom as long as he can ask us to.  And he give us lots of compliments wtih lots of hugs and kisses to go with it.  One night he told me, “Mommy, I wub you!”  He saw me smile and said I love you back.  Then he goes on saying, “No more time-outs?” Ha!

——

Another night as he was trying to get ready to sleep, he once again got very affectionate.  After all the I love yous he started a conversation which we generally have over dinner:

G:  “What made you sad mommy?”

M:  “What made YOU sad?

G:  “Coz I miss[ed] mommy.”

——-

Here’s a picture of Gavin enjoying the chocolate chip-banana muffin I baked this morning.