Birthday Par-tay!

Ben's party was at My Museum in Monterey on Saturday. There was a  great turn out of all his loved ones and little buddies. He loved the jungle animal theme since he is all about animals right now!

 It was his birthday so it was OK if he took a sneak taste of the cake!

 Blowing out his candles...

 Playing at the mini golf and golf cart area...

 And loving the slide and boat time with Daddy.

More pictures to come tomorrow, stay tuned!

Ben's 2nd Birthday!

It was Ben's 2nd birthday this past weekend and Ben had the best weekend EVER! Everyone he loved helped him celebrate from Friday morning thru Sunday night. He celebrated so much that he slept a good majority of Monday!

His actual birthday was on Friday and he started the day with his favorite breakfast of pancakes and blueberries. He then got to open birthday gifts... great way to start the day!

Lunch was celebrated at Ben's favorite pizzeria, Angelina's. Both sets of grandparents, Mom, Dad & Elida were there to sing to him and join him at the arcade. Ben insisted on going to the park next to Angelina's after lunch and had tons of fun with bubbles and climbing on the jungle gym.

Dinner showcased all of his favorite foods - turkey burger sliders, corn on the cob and sweet potato french fries... followed by lemon cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

 Corn on the cob is Ben's #1 fav food and he really goes to town chowing down on his corn.

Lucky guy, his grandparents all helped him celebrate his big 2nd birthday!

 Cupcake sugar high?? Oh yeah!

Happy Birthday, Baby Ben!

 Our little man turns 2 today. How the time has gone so quickly, we have no clue. All we know is how lucky we are to have such a wonderful little guy in our lives.

Flash back in pictures of Ben's first day & week in July 2009...

First time I saw Ben.

 Ben's first nap in the hospital.

 First time Jeff held Ben.

 My 2 men napping in the hospital on the day before we went home.

 First day at home napping in his swing, which turned out to be his most favorite nap spot.

 First pic with Ben's eyes open when they were still blue.

 Ok, so now that I am a little weepy over our big boy, time to go celebrate!

Baby Beach & Luau

One of the best secrets we learned about Maui while visiting the Bussi fam last year was... Baby Beach. It is the most lovely little beach that is very shallow and very gentle water so little kids are happy and safe.

 I learned a big difference between boys and girls at the beach on our trip to Baby Beach. Girls don't really like to get sandy and dirty and would rather frolic in the water.

 Boys, on the other hand, don't care at all about being dirty and sandy and want to dig as far south as possible. Ben and Jeff found this hole and started digging. Of course, I go to get the sand toys and try to make it pretty by flattening out the edges of the hole and making it more like a castle than a ditch.

 That didn't go over so well with Ben who blasted thru my castle and continued digging the hole deeper and deeper...

 But, he was in pure little boy heaven!

 That night we went to a luau and Ben had a wonderful time watching the dancers and listening to the music... much more than we thought he would. He was literally captivated anytime the dancers were on stage... now we know how to get him to sit still!

The real reason for our trip...

The real reason for our trip to Maui was to celebrate Papa's 70th birthday. We started the day going to an incredible breakfast in Lahaina at Longhi's then spent the day by the pool. What Papa didn't know was that his real birthday gift was a wedding vow renewal with Gommie at a lovely beach in Kapalua!

Maui Wowie!

We were in Maui this past week and had the most fabulous vacation. Here are just a few snippits of our 'daily life' while on vaca...

But first... here we are at the airport waiting to board the plane for our 5 hour flight to paradise. It was the LONGEST flight ever! Just like we feared, Ben had just way too much energy to be cooped up in a little seat for 5 hours. Sure we walked up and down the aisles until we burned foot prints into the carpet but that just didn't cut the mustard. But... we quickly forgot about the torturous 5 hour flight when we landed in paradise (that is, of course, until we were in the same situation on the flight home...)

 Every morning started with breakfast on the lanai... fresh pineapple and watermelon, guava juice and oatmeal. Not a bad way to start the day!

 Lubed up and shades on, the boys are ready to go on our morning walk down the Kaanapali rec trail.

 Beach time was a must every morning before the crowds arrived. Snorkeling was incredible at the beach literally footsteps from our resort.

 Ben likes pools but he LOOOVES hot tubs. Our resort had about 5 hot tubs so we got to go in a different one every day. All he said the entire trip (and still 3 days after we've left Maui) was 'hot tub hot tub!'

 An afternoon nap was a must, which is not the norm for Ben. He was just so incredibly active from sunrise until the late afternoon that he couldn't keep his eyes open. Here he actually fell to sleep mid bite of his cracker... (see cracker hanging out of his mouth)

 And of course, a pre-requisite for any trip to a tropical place, is enjoying the sunsets each night.

More Maui posts to come this week... Stay tuned!

Happy 4th of July

This 4th of July is an especially wonderful day for the Monterey Bolgers. Not only did we just get home from a fabulous Maui vacation and go to a great BBQ at Pasadera with Gommie & Papa... BUT... we also have a new nephew as of 8:00am this morning! That's right, the amazing Boulder (formerly Boulder, now Louisville) Bolgers welcomed Jacob Michael Bolger to the world. We are so beyond excited to have another Bolger babe!