our trip out west: irvine

after aspen grove, we went to irvine with my family for a week and a half to pass the time between our two reunions--and MOST importantly, to hang out with dallin before he left on his mission to the dominican republic. it was extremely relaxed--we hardly did anything other than go on lots of walks with dane and murphy and go swimming at our neighborhood pool. and it was great! i think dane especially really enjoyed having not much going on after the craziness of aspen grove.

i looked through our pictures of this week and i thought, "how the heck do we have 338 pictures from a week where we did almost nothing!?" and then i remembered that we were in a house full of people obsessed with dane (tommy and i included). so every activity dane participated in was document several times over. 

grandpa murphy reading dane some bedtime stories:

in each of the bedrooms at my house, there are these sliding mirrors that cover the closet. dane saw them and just went crazy head-bumping the baby in the mirror. 

one of the days, we did venture out and went to balboa to get balboa bars and then briefly to the beach. 

dane was first transfixed by the pigeons crowded around the balboa bar stand . . .

and then totally THRILLED by the tastes of ice cream that we gave him.

i really cannot get enough of these two together. and neither can dane, really. all he wants in life is to have tommy be with him 24/7. maybe tommy and i should switch jobs.

dane loved the water--every time a wave would come, he'd giggle and scream and tommy would pull him up so just his feet would get wet. he thought it was hilarious.

but seriously. how cute are they?

look at that happy face!

cole sometimes took dane on walks in the morning. look at them both in their pajamas. 

dane also learned how to clap while we were there. he could not have been prouder of himself.

oh my gosh! i can do it!

he was also obsessed with piano--when i'd try to walk past it upstairs to put him down for a nap without letting him play on it, he'd burst into tears. he got kind of possessive of it though--he'd grab your hands and throw them off so that he could play by himself.

dane also would be very happy if we would bring murphy home with us. he loved sitting there talking to murphy through the glass. murphy, however, paid him no attention at all. look at him looking straight at me taking the picture--he knows that little person who's his size isn't going to be taking him on a walk.

 per usual, we had a family picnic one night. i think we murphys just like eating outside.

 wow, my cute baby is gnawing on a rib bone. 

oh, these two are so cute. dane is totally going to miss his uncle dallin.

last family picture before dallin left. we took one just like this when austin left a little over a year ago.