Day 2 - Sea World!

First off, let me give a little shout out to my girl, Jessica!  She is on her mission in Rome, Italy and has been given permission to view family blogs.  So!  We will be posting MANY more pics and daily goings on here.

So - day 2.  First thing, when we woke up, we decided that this hotel was not only scary, but the beds were uncomfortable.  So, we vowed that by day's end, we would be in a Holiday Inn.  (Spoiler... we moved to Holiday Inn...)

We went to Denny's for breakfast since the "continental breakfast" at Scary Hotel was less than great.  And then... off to Sea World.  Would you like premium parking for $5 more? Why, yes we would!  This would be a factor later when Homeslice needed a nap.  We arrived right before the park opened, rented a stroller and OFF WE GO!

This ride will play a major factor in our day.  This is like the Teacup ride at Disneyland.  We would end up riding this six... count them, six....times.  And it was a blast.  When we would decide what to do next, we would always end up back to this ride.  Aiden absolutely loved it.

Inside the spinny ride of the day.

Waiting for the Sea Lion show.  The pre-show was hilarious.  Aiden laughed and laughed at the guy who was dancing.

Who would have thought that a sea lion could tango?  These sea lions were amazing!  There was a little otter there, too, who was great.

From there, we rode the spinny ride a few times, then high-tailed it over to our animal encounter.  For those of you who go to these parks, I highly recommend the animal encounters.  They are great.  This one was a little pricy, but we were able to feed dolphins, eels, and turtles.  It was amazing.  It was more of a behind the scenes tour with all the insider information. 

More than anything, Aiden loved being up close.  He is not much of a "ride" kid (except the spinny ride) so he does better with the one-on-one interactions.

Feeding the dolphin...

Feeding the turtles.  I love the little "crack".  Aiden's pants never fit right.  They are too big in the waist and too short in the legs. Thank goodness shorts season is almost here.  We can go back to 12 month shorts.

These turtles were huge. They loved the lettuce.

After feeding the animals, Aiden was ready for a nap.  So, we went back to the car.  (remember the premium parking? The car was about one row back from the entrance.  SWEEEEET!)

He slept for about an hour and then we headed back in for lunch and Mister was still pretty tired.

Waking up in the car...

We rode the spinny ride again, enjoyed some animals.

This is in Bay of Play.  It is a cute Sesame-Street themed place for toddlers to play.  Aiden loved the toddler bounce house.  He was hilarious. 

Then we headed to the Shamu show.  It was fun and there were eight killer whales that put on a great show.  We sat in the splash zone, but alas, we were not splashed. 

Then after the Shamu show, we rode the spinny ride a few more times until they closed.  It truly was fun.

One really great day.  So fun.  Aiden sunburns really easily, so we slathered sunscreen on him.  As the day went on, he was getting more and more red, so we kept putting on sunscreen, but it just kept getting worse.   The next morning, he had a bad rash.  It turns out that Aiden has developed an allergy to sunscreen - the same sunscreen we have used since he was born.  Luckily, the rest of the trip was overcast and we didn't have to use it. 

Later that night, we ordered pizza and relaxed in the new and improved hotel room and watched Spongebob.

San Diego Day 1

Okay, before I begin, I have tried about a million times to get some of these pictures to rotate.  I found a fix online, but, frankly, it would take me another three hours, so you will just have to rotate your head instead.

We spent some lovely, lovely days in San Diego.  So, let's begin with the dreaded picture journey recap of our trip.  I went to San Diego with Aiden and Chris.  It was barrels of fun.  And, surprisingly, the drive was not bad at all.  Aiden was lovely as a driving buddy.  He just sat in his chair and played with the Ipad.  (Bless that invention...)

I picked up Chris in Lehi at about 6pm and we drove to Vegas.  It was exhausting and late when we arrived at the Luxor.  It was the cheapest room in the town that wasn't scary, so we went there.  Aiden was so tired and we had to wake him up so we could get to our room.  He jumped on the bed and then fell asleep.  

The next morning, we woke up happy and well rested.  

Aiden's little corner in the car.  Since he really REALLY hates the sun on his face, we just put up his blanket.  He is playing with the ol' Ipad and was happy.  Notice, he also had full access to his own little red cooler.  Sweet life.

Driving.  And Driving.  And Driving.

We got tired of driving and needed a potty, so we stopped at Barstow at the train station that is also a McDonalds.  We didn't eat anything, but walked around for a bit because there were trains.  TRAINS!!!

After driving for a VERY long time, we made it to San Diego.  We checked into our hotel and decided it was HORRIBLE, but we would deal.  So, we headed off to tour the Midway Battleship.  It was incredible.  We had a lot of fun walking around, but it was closing, so we didn't get a lot of time.  I was getting so very, very sick so the short tour was good for me.

The lady at the snack station had made churros and wasn't going to be able to sell them before closing time, so she gave us one.  This churro was as big as Aiden.  And he loved it!!!

This was a great way to start off the trip.  Very cool.

That night, we went back to our serial killer hotel and I took Nyquil and crashed.  Aiden and Chris watched Megamind (Aiden's favorite show right now...) I was so sick and we were travel weary.  

A little green for St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Our house was full of green!  Honestly, it was mostly because Aiden has been really sick the last few days.  We missed the monthly Family Home Evening at the Bountiful Pool with the cousins and missed about everything having to do with St. Patrick's Day.

This is what we did....

This is what we did all day.  I mean... all day.  PJ's, napping, and Megamind.  Doesn't get much better.

For dinner, roasted cabbage, potatoes and carrots

Sweet little monkey had a 5 hour nap and went to bed early.  Poor little bug.  

Seriously, Happy St. Patty's Day from 2 very non-Irish kiddos.

Why I Haven't Posted...

I haven't posted in a while.  Frankly, it has been too gorgeous outside to do much of anything in front of a computer.  

Oh, but I did hear an amazing concept today at church.  Sometimes, when you are worried that you are the one lost sheep and the other 99 sheep are somewhere more magical, look around.  Most likely, you are part of the 99 and everyone is feeling the same way.  Take a breath, chill out and realize that everyone is trying just as hard as you are.  Good stuff, really.

Adios, trusty steed...

Today I said goodbye to a good friend.  Okay, not exactly a friend, but my most trusted ride ever.  I sold my car today.  It was so bittersweet.  I love that SUV.  It was the first car that I bought on my own and really enjoyed.  I went everywhere in it and it treated me nicely.

But all good things must come to an end.  About a month ago, I made a decision that I knew would be a tough one... I was going to get out of debt--- and fast.  I had nothing earth-shattering in my life happening, but suddenly I felt the need to do it and do it NOW.  So, I made all the necessary changes in life except - I still had a loan on my car.

So, I sold it and bought a very old, very reliable, very cute little car and am very happy.  As I walked in the house after handing over the keys, all I could think was... wow.  I don't owe any debt to any person on this planet.  I am free financially.

Goodbye my friend.

Another day at the museum...

Aiden finally gets the Children's Museum exhibits.  Really gets them.  We went to the Treehouse Museum last Saturday and Aiden loved EVERY single exhibit.  Every one of them.  It was awesome.  We spent 3 hours there and didn't even get to most of the upstairs exhibit.

Here are some pics of my Monkey Shorts.

See the cute little Monkey through the barn doors?  Yeah, that is my little Monkey playing with something besides trains. GASP!

Aiden was so fixated on the sushi in the Japan exhibit.  Crazy fixated.  He kept trying to feed me sushi and give me a drink of "Diet Coke" out of the teapot.  

After the three hours of play, I took Mister to a restaurant I used to go to with my mother - and haven't been there for almost 10 years.. El Matador in Ogden.  

He was amazed at the working "waterfall" in the lobby of the restaurant. 

The little things

Sometimes it is just the little things.  Okay, so the $700 I just spent fixing something on my car is not a little thing, but hanging out with my little man and doing absolutely nothing is a little thing that is worth a million bucks.

Yesterday was a snowy, wonderful day and we had no where to go.  I worked from home and we just hung out together and had a great day.

While I fixed dinner, Aiden did this...

It's hard to see what he is doing, but we had pink heart marshmallows left over from Valentines Day and nothing really left to do with them.  So, I put some milk in some silicone cupcake liners and added food coloring.  I gave him a paint brush and had him "paint" his marshmallows and then eat them.  I thought they were kinda soggy (they are marshmallows and milk...) but he didn't seem to mind.  

Wow.  Look at that beautiful boy.

So fun.  we will definitely do this again.  Someone suggested painting popcorn?  Okay...soggy!!!