AHOY MATEY!!!

From May 16th to the 25th Five Finnegans traveled down to sunny, southern California to visit my parents and brother. The boys were so excited to see Gma, Gpa, and Uncle Conner, and it felt like an eternity before it was finally time to go to the airport and board the plane. The flight down was uneventful, as always the boys all flew like champs!

Once there, we began a BUSY itinerary of fun So-Cal activities. Hanging out in the pool (given a few more days there, I know we would have had two full-fledged swimmers on our hands) and the hot tub were top on our list in the first few days. Then, down to San Diego we went, to tackle Sea World (the whale and dolphin shows were amazing). On Monday night, when Sea World was over, we headed up to Anaheim to do Disneyland and California Adventure Tues. and Wed. I made a real effort to get the boys' pics w/ (and the autographs of) all their favorite characters. At CA. Adventure, the highlight was the Aladdin play (the genie was hilarious) complete w/ a flying carpet that comes out over the crowd! Cole is such a big, brave kid, he went on the Tower of Terror w/ Steven and I, and loved it!

Wednesday night, we headed back to my parents house and Thursday, it was back in the pool! Friday, the boys got to go w/ Gma and Gpa to Sesame Street Live "Elmo Grows Up", and they thought it was great. Saturday, my mom and I took my brother, Conner, clothes shopping for his birthday at the outlet mall in Camarillo, and man did he look handsome in his new threads!

All the while, we were eating good food, playing the Wii (and oh my did I get sore from bowling!), having great talks, relaxing in the sun, and enjoying each others' company. Unfortunately, all the pictures taken were on the old fashioned 35 mm so I can't upload anything, but while we were at Disney, my mom and dad bought the boys these awesome pirate costumes, and Aidan insisted on putting his on for the parade Tuesday night at Disneyland. All kinds of people were commenting on "that darling pirate over there" and I did get some great pics for the scrapbook.

Today, they decided to relive their Disney days and put the costumes on again. They ran around the house for a good hour and a half playing "Jack Sperrell" despite me telling them over and over again it was "Jack Sparrow". :o)

Nearly 11 months already!!!

In my short 11 months, I have already.....

1.) gone to 3 weddings (at 1, 2, and 3 weeks old no less)

2.) Watched my big brothers fish and my mom and dad wakeboard behind our boat (at 1 month old)

3.) Flown on an airplane twice and been to California to visit Gma and Gpa Clancy (oh, and Mickey Mouse)

4.) Given up a binky, and opted for my thumb instead (it's much easier to find in the middle of the night, folks :o)

5.) Had a ROUGH winter sick season and been tested (negative) for allergies, asthma, and cystic fibrosis (man, it's good to be breathing clear again!)

6.) Learned to crawl, sit, and pull myself to standing all on my own

7.) Learned to sign "milk", "more", "eat", and "please" (I am now working on bath, thank you, bird, and drink)

8.) Started to use a sippy cup during the day (my mom can't believe how fast time is flying)

9.) Fallen off my mom's bed and been checked out by the nice EMT guys via 911 (mom was in a bit of a panic with this little charade)

10.) Found out I am going to be a big cousin to the soon to be youngest boy in our family, my Uncle Trent and Aunt Andrea's baby boy, Taven.

11.) Proved to be one of the most mellow and happy babies on the planet....

Look out world, Jackson Ryan Finnegan is going to be 1 YEAR OLD in the blink of an eye!

Tea Time!

Today Cole had a Mother's Tea at his preschool in celebration of Mother's Day coming up this weekend. We got dressed up (sort of) and all trekked over to The Giving Tree. Miss Jennifer (Cole's teacher) had the table in the back room set up w/ a tablecloth, a pitcher of apple juice (that the kids poured for their mothers), mini sandwhiches and grapes. It was so cute to see Cole pour me some juice in a tea cup and serve me. He also had made me a little gift of a hot pad stamped w/ his handprint. It was a sweet way to start our morning. Here are some pics of the boys and I....