Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

On Saturday, we decided to go on our first adventure here in California (besides our many trips to Disneyland). We went to the Natural History Museum in L.A. I always know that natural history museums will be a big hit with the kids because there are dinosaurs for Taylor and animals for Olive, plus they're interesting for Andrew and I. There were so many dinosaur skeletons and interesting displays. They had terrariums with tarantulas, scorpions, and the like. Taylor loved to find each creature hiding in the tank. We were able to catch the "Dinosaur Experience" show where there was a life-size dinosaur puppet. There was even outdoor areas for the kids to explore and play. Overall, it was a great museum. I think we might be back in the future.

Sunday night we decided to go for a walk on Seal Beach. Taylor loves the beach so he was in heaven. We watched people fish off the pier and looked for seashells until it was too cold for little Olive. Olive's face in this first set of pictures kills me.

Disneyland

After the beach on Monday, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Disneyland. Our new house is 20 minutes from Disneyland so we decided to bite the bullet and buy annual passes. This will probably be the first and last time we'll have the opportunity to own an annual pass and we're gonna get our money's worth. This initial trip proved that we'll get plenty of use out of it. We had the kids there for almost the entirety of the first day and they did great. We had so much fun (especially since some of the cousins were with us). I took around 100 photos on our beach day, but unfortunately only took a handful of photos (mostly on my phone) of our Disney days. Here are just a few of those photos to document our trip.

Beach Day

Before we knew we were moving to California, we planned a Disneyland trip. It was so much fun and a good introduction to California living for the kids. Andrew's parents and his sister Stephanie's family came as well. I love to watch my kids with their cousins. They sure do love them. We got there Sunday evening and spent most of Monday at the beach. Taylor loved it, but Olive was a little unsure of it all. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent at Disneyland and California Adventures, but I'll post photos of that another day. For now, here are some photos from the beach. 

April GBOMB

May is here and it's full of so many changes for our family. But before those can happen, I need to recap April. So here is the Good, the Bad, and what's been On My Brain for the month of April.

G O O D

+Easter! I love that Taylor is old enough to get excited and understand holidays. We had so much fun dying Easter eggs, having Easter egg hunts, and seeing what the Easter bunny brought us.

+Taylor turned 3! I can't believe I have a 3 year old. We walked to the library in the morning and Andrew took him to Chuck E. Cheese to play games in the afternoon. We had a small birthday party a few days later with family and all Taylor requested was a green party.

+We went swimming a lot in April and both kids loved it. The kids are in swim lessons, but they're taught survival skills, not actual swimming. Something clicked for Taylor about a week ago and he figured out how to swim on his own. He can't tread water or anything, but he will hold his breath underwater and kick his little legs until he gets to me. Olive is also getting really brave and loves to jump off the edge into the pool. She's going to be a little fish before long.

+Andrew and I celebrated 4 years of marriage. We took a trip to Cave Creek sans kids and stayed in the coolest AirBnb.

+We got family pictures taken and I love them. Thanks so much Chrissy!!

+As of this past Monday, Andrew has officially finished school forever! We made it through his grad program alive! I am so proud of all his hard work and excited for what's next.

+We found out that we're going to California in the beginning of the month and we've lined up a rental within the last week. Finding a place to live was a huge stress factor for me so I'm glad we found something for our family.

B A D

+The kids had their last swim lessons. We have loved weekly swim lessons and the kids love their teachers. We're all really sad about it and wish we could take our swim classes with us to California.

+Olive has been teething something awful. She is an expert at throwing extreme tantrums and teething takes those tantrums to the next level.

O N  M Y  B R A I N

+All the house projects we have left. Moving is coming up quickly so it makes all the projects we have left to do on our house seem overwhelming. Also, selling the house is definitely a process I'm not looking forward to.

+Our upcoming Disney trip! It will be the first trip to Disney for the kids and I am so excited! We had this planned before we knew we were moving to California. We'll make the trip out for Disneyland, come home, then move back to California a week or two later. I guess it's a great way to dip our toes in to California living.

May is going to be a big month. Wish us luck on the move and pray for my sanity. Good thing we have Disneyland to break up this hectic month for us.