{Vegas, Baby!}

Lance's parents had a Swimmer's Convention in Vegas. Since Kirstin lives in Arizona with her cute little

family, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to meet for a week of vacation.

Unfortunately, Lance had to stay behind to work but Crew and I headed down with everyone else

and we had a fabulous time!

The M&M factory

I cannot believe how grown up these two have gotten! 

Trisha is turning 16 in December and is going to be a real heart-breaker. 

We were SO excited Kirstin could come! We miss her so much.

Savannah and Keaton are attached at the hip.

Chubbiness. 

Cute cousins!! I loved seeing these two together. They are both growing up so big!

Crew is a really smiley baby but Marcus has definitely got him beat. He will pretty much

smile at anyone the instant they look at him :) What a cutie!

Savannah is such a cute big sister. She was so good with Crew too.

On the strip for some shopping, dessert and site-seeing. 

I LOVE this girl!

He looks kind of scared in this picture but really he loved it!

Practicing his kicks :)

Grandma Pat is so wonderful! My own grandma died several years ago so Grandma Pat

feels just like my own grandma.

I love her blue eyes

We spent a lot of time at the pool swimming with grandma (Crew love it!), eating, relaxing, reading 

and watching movies. What a fun week! 

{California}

At the beginning of September, the Merrells loaded up in my parent's new RV and headed out to

Oceanside, California to spend an entire week on the beach, at Disneyland, California Adventure and Seaworld.

Disneyland

 Seaworld

Stylin little baby in his sunglasses :)

We had an absolute blast!! 

Crew pretty much slept soundly in his stroller the entire time. What more could you ask for?

Poor little Avie ended up in the hospital with a severe asthma attack.

Poor thing! As sad as it was, doesn't she look adorable in these pictures?!

Little Monkey

The weather was perfect. 

Kenna loved playing on the beach. She was lost in her own little world.

This was our attempt at a self-shot of the two of us. Ha! :)

I can almost feel the sunshine. 

Surfin.

Starting on her sand castle. Oh how I wish I was doing this right now!

Cuddling with mommy.

On Thursday night, we headed to the farmers market. What a fun evening! There were hundreds of vendors, 

a live band, tons of great food and such a fun atmosphere.

There weren't that many babies so Crew got a lot of attention from everyone.

Award winning chocolate cake. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

On our last free day, we headed to San Francisco to walk along the bay and do a little shopping.

Lance decided sailing would be really fun so he found someone who was renting their sailboat 

and asked their prices. When questioned on whether or not he was proficient in sailing, he asked, 

"Does a sailing merit badge work?" Ha! We all got a kick out of that. Lance is pretty much the best

at whatever he tries (and I mean everything!) so he was not worried in the least that it had been at least

10 years since he had operated a sailboat. Needless to say, the guy didn't let us take his sailboat :)

Gorgeous.

All in all, we had a wonderful week in California enjoying the sunshine and good company

of our loving family! Until next time, sweet sunshine and warmth.