Surprise...

For my birthday (which fell on Mother's day) we were in Las Vegas with my family for my cousin's wedding.  When I woke up Mother's Day morning I was expecting to have brunch with the fam and then pack up the car and head back to Utah, but that morning Jake surprised me with a plane ticket for me and the kids to go to California and spend a week with my family. He was really sneaky...I had absolutely no idea, (though I came to find out later that Jaxon had told Carder earlier that weekend but somehow he managed to keep it a secret). Our Vegas trip was only supposed to be for 2 days, and that is all I packed for. But with my tendency to overpack coupled with doing laundry quite a few times at my parents house we made it work.

While we were there we went with the Johnsons to an ultrasound place in Costa Mesa. We found out Ellie will be a big sister to a little brother later this year. After the ultrasound we went to the beach where the kids ran around and played, followed by a celebratory dinner at BJ's. (Leon jokingly told us it was gonna be McDonalds if it was a girl...Safe to say he is pleased with the little future athlete growing inside of Brittany's belly).

Brittany and I got to go visit Kelsie at work. Have you ever seen a cuter smoothie maker? We totally embarrassed her by busting out the camera and taking pictures of her after we ordered our smoothies. What are big sisters for?

The kids only got a little bit of time at the beach the day of the ultrasound, so we planned a whole beach day for one of the days we were there. It was beautiful weather and Brenn napped like a champ...great day at the beach!

Ellie insisted on sitting on Carders lap while we loaded the car

 My Mom did her usual bust out the camera after church to try and get pictures of the family...the boys did their usual and made every face they could think of besides a normal smile.

I was super scared for the flight back managing the two kids on my own. Brenn is super wiggly these days and I was imagining the worst for her having to be contained in one place for two hours. When Carder was a baby I flew with him on a plane and he was crying uncontrollably and some guy behind me said like a smart alec..."You want me to take him?"...So I've had a complex since then. Fortunately what I was expecting didn't happen at all because they were nothing short of AMAZING on the flight.  With Brenn in the infant carrier and Carder holding my hand the whole time we got the luggage and carseats checked and got through security and onto the plane smoothly.  Then Brenn fell asleep right after take off and slept for the entire flight, and Carder who never naps, laid his head down on the armrest and slept for half the flight and looked out the window for the other half. It was awesome.