Pancakes and Fish

Happy 7th Birthday Gracie!

Gracie has GOT to stop growing up! She is making me feel so old!! But who can complain when I have such a sweet and amazing daughter like you, Gracie. So glad you were born that cool Oregon July night 7 years ago to a mom who had no idea what she was doing! (still don't, by the way)

Her birthday celebration with the family started out with our traditional birthday breakfast of pancakes in Paradise. Really. We drive to the city of Paradise and have pancakes at the only restaurant in town....

Birthday Girl Gracie

Grandma and Grandpa even came up to stay the night before so they could join us in Paradise.

Technically, it was still 2 days before her real birthday, but dad was too excited to give her her gift he picked out himself. Do you think she is excited?

Of course, we had to try out the fishing pole right that instant. We had a wonderful time up the canyon, and even though though the fish were sparse, the company was lovely.

Birthdays can also be advantageous for siblings, as Sophie learned. Jake broke down and got Soph a pole to so she could join in on the daddy-daughter fishing trips. Grandpa was a good keep-the-hook-from-catching-someones-eye helper.

Just like the fish, little Ben was not interested in the poles and hooks at all. Rocks. That's all he needs for happiness. Rocks and water.

Even though their faces are covered with BBQ chips, I still love this picture.

One of the Shaw rites of passage is to blow a blade of grass in between your hands to sound like a bird. Gracie passed the test!

Happy birthday Gracie!

If you like Taipan....

Just wanted to let you know about my cute friend's blog....if you like Taipan Trading, then you should visit out her blog. She has lots of give aways for cute things from the store. She also happens to by my neighbor from growing up. Check it out here to win a gift card and here to win a cute necklace.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

WARNING: you are about to relive our terrific Disneyland vacation though TONS of photos. If you tire out easily, we understand. Proceed with caution.

This June we decided to tag along with Jake on one of his business trips to California. We had SO much fun. In fact, I'm pretty sure we had more fun than anyone has ever had there. Just looking at these pictures makes my heart smile. The only thing that we missed was our little Ben. We left him behind with Grandma and Grandpa, but I think it was for the good of all parties. Ben had a pretty good week himself. Anyways...back to the slide show:

After a 13 hour drive in one day (thanks to all the Vegas traffic leaving back home), we finally arrived at our hotel. It was our girls' first time to sleep in a real hotel. Lots of trips to the ice machine and wide eyes when they learned that someone will make your bed for you. Cute people cuddling on the bed.

While Jake had his meetings, the girls and I played at the pool for a long time.

Cute California Sophie

I also ventured out on the California freeways to meet up for lunch with my cute cousin Katie and her girls, Taylor and Ellie. We even got to ride a carousel.

After a few days of waiting for Jake to finish his meetings, we were all SOOO excited to finally go to Disneyland.

And can I say it was just so magical?

Jake and I couldn't stop smiling the first two hours. We spent most of our time watching their faces instead of the rides. We loved it all-(that is, until splash mountain...lots of tears on that one)

Our first ride of the day: Dumbo. (We followed this really cool touring plan that told you when and where to go in order to avoid the crowds. It totally worked. We never waited in line for more that 10 minutes on most rides. It's a book called "The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland" by Bob Sehlinger. I highly recommend it!)

Gracie has now developed a major love for purple, so we dashed for this one.

And of course, Sophie loves pink.



You now have to wait in lines to see characters. ( I don't remember that when I was little). So we decided if we are going to waste time waiting, we might as well see the head guy....



They have this sweet little princess show where the girls get to learn to dance like princesses. They LOVED it! Here they are posing in the princess throne.


Gracie jumped off, but Sophie changed her pose and begged me to take more. This is Sophie in her element.




Sleeping Beauty and the girls



We left for Disneyland at 7:30 am and stayed until 11:00 p.m. I think we wore them out.





The next day we decided to sleep in and take it easy. We stayed the last part of our trip with Jake's cute aunt and uncle. They recommended we visit the beautiful Newport temple. We are trying to start a tradition of taking family pictures in front of all the temples we visit and putting them together in a book. We're slowly getting there!

We spent most of the vacation time left at Newport Beach. It was Gracie and Sophie's first time to swim in the ocean (Oregon's beach was a little chilly). Gracie picked up on the boogie boarding pretty quickly.

My girls are obsessed with all things related to animals. This here creature was dubbed "Mr. Crabs". He provided lots of entertainment for us.

Jake burying Gracie up to her neck!

The little mermaids

One of the best parts of our vacation was just the fact that we had nowhere to be but together. Our lives are pretty busy right now, and we needed that down time to just enjoy each other. We were all pretty anxious to see our little Ben, but I think all of us could have stayed another week. I love my family!