Another Race, Another Day

I ran my third Run for Sight (5K) about a week ago. I hadn't run the whole time we were on vacation and I've been having major problems with my IT band, but I still managed to get the best time I've ever done. 29:50. Jenn and I got 2nd and 3rd place in our age group (okay, so there were only 3 of us). Her son Jake (9) ran with us too and he managed to beat me. Wish I could bottle up that energy.

Odds and Ends

After the wedding we did a marathon drive back up to Oregon. We were sick and tired of hotels by then. We arrived at around 1am Sunday night and sent the kids off to school on Monday morning. They all slept in the car so they were fine. I was in a fog that whole day though. It took a few days to recover from that one. The kids have all started off their school year well. Ephant and Brother B seem to have decent teachers. Ephant was excited to find out her friend down the street is going to Fern Hill this year. Loofa is loving preschool particularly since his friend is with him. When we first took him, we couldn't leave until his friend arrived. He's already had a fun field trip to the fire station.

Aren't they cute?

Weddings Aren't for the Faint of Heart

Actually this was probably the easiest one I've been too since it was my brother and not a sister getting married. Brides really do have it the hardest.

Friday we went to the beach to fulfill J's dream of going when the weather is actually nice. Fefe didn't cooperate though. We played in the waves for about 1/2 hour before she decided she had enough. I took her and Brother B back to the car while J stayed for a bit longer. It was definitely not all that though. We did remember sunblock at least.

That evening was the wedding dinner. Dad made pulled pork, his specialty. Sadly, my stomach decided to act up that night so I wasn't able to fully enjoy it. We went to Aunt L's house for the festivities. Probably the biggest event was when we discovered a ginormous spider in the backyard. I didn't have my camera so no pictures.

The wedding was at noon on Saturday so we were able to somewhat take our time getting ready. I tried curling Fefe's hair, but it was impervious. It is so different from Ephant's hair. All the kids looked so cute though. I bought the boys matching shirts and ties so they matched pretty well together.

The only way we could get Fefe in this picture was to let her hold her sippy cup and blankie.

Aunt A's fake family.

It was very gratifying and special to see my brother's sealing. I am so happy for him and love his new wife. Aunt A was kind enough to watch the kids during the ceremony and she somehow managed to survive.

Typical Dad look.

Weddings are tiring.

She would not hold still!

GQ

Your life has only just begun, ha ha ha ha!!!!

Fefe loves her water.

Gotta show off the shoes.

Loofa's favorite part of the reception was the large jars of candy.

More water.

Dad offered to hide his car. Guess he should have.

San Diego

I couldn't let our trip to San Diego go by without seeing some of the city. I asked around and received recommendations to go to Seaport village. I also remembered Jenn's tour of the USS Midway so I was happy to see it was right by Seaport.

The kids enjoyed the ship tour for all that it was so dang hot and humid. I would have showered ten times a day while we were there if I could.

We're thinking we could fit the kids all in one room with these.

The brig. Notice my poor sunburned face.

Brother B really liked this helicopter. He really wanted to get in a fighter jet, but I didn't see any open for that.

After the tour we all piled back in the car for our drive up to Huntington Beach.

Sea World

Tuesday was another drive, luckily a shorter one this time. We headed over to San Diego so we could squeeze in a trip to Sea World before heading up to the wedding. I think we had to stop three times on that drive. Twice for border patrol checks and once for the CA produce check. It was weird to realize how close we were to the border. I'm so intrigued by other countries and wish I could spend more time exploring them.

About 1/2 and hour out of San Diego traffic started slowing down and I noticed a cop car was leading the lane at a pretty slow speed, then we came to a complete standstill. I think we saw about 5-6 cops converging. I started to wonder if we were going to experience the ubiquitous California highspeed chase. I called my sister to see if she could find out any info on the internet. We figured out pretty fast that it was a car accident. About that time I saw life flight taking off. Once it left we were able to start moving again. Good thing too since we were about to hit rush over.

It was a relief to finally make it to our hotel room. I found an awesome hotel, right next to sea world. We had an amazing view from our room and it was pretty spacious. They nickel and dimed us a bit with no free internet and paid parking, but it was worth it. The kids really enjoyed the two swimming pools and hot tubs they had there. We had to keep a close eye on Fefe though because she was liable to jump in when no one was looking. Loofa had his arm floaties (which he ordinarily cannot use at our aquatic center) so he was in heaven. It was good for him to get socomfortable with the water.

Since Sea World didn't open till 10am we took our time getting ready the next morning. I hadn't been to SW since I was a little kid so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. Luckily they had a schedule of the events on the park map so we could somewhat plan out our day. It wasn't too hot that day, but it is SOOOOO muggy in San Diego that it was a relief to go in the indoor exhibits.

We checked out the penguins first. That wasn't too exciting. I took the kids on an Antarctic motion similation ride while J kept Fefe. Ephant did well on those type of rides at Disneyland so I thought she would be okay. Boy was I wrong. She is no child of mine. At least after the ride let out the she was able to enjoy seeing the beluga whales. I don't know if she will ever enjoy any major rides.

"Piranhas are cool!"

Our first big event we went to was the Sea Lion show. Uncle I had given us a tip to buy plastic sheeting from home depot and sit in the splash zone. We had it all unfolded and ready to go, but we weren't fast enough pulling it up because they splashed us right away. I think I was hit the worst. I smelled like fish the rest of the day. It was extremely uncomfortable. It was a pretty amazing show though, I thought the pre-show was pretty good too.

We ate lunch after that and I tried to stay in the sun so I could dry off faster. At that point I realized I had misplaced my Amex card and the hotel room card. I ran back to the sea lion place, but it was all closed up already. Then I ran to lost and found at the front of the park. Thankfully someone had turned them in. What a relief to not have to worry about that.

Loofa's favorite part was the Atlantis ride (like splash mountain). I think he rode it 3-4 times. The first time I was with him, I asked him if he was nervous and he said "what does nervous mean?" So I explained it to him and he said no. He is definitely my child :) Ephant and Brother B refused to have anything to do with that ride. They did love the Ray exhibit though.

The rays were so friendly (probably because of the food people could buy to feed them) so I think we spent a good 1/2 hour just petting them. Fefe was close to the end of her rope at that point. We discovered the kids area soon after that so she was rejuvenated for a little bit. Once again I forgot to bring diapers, but, unlike Disneyland, SW actually had a place where you could buy them.

This bag of chips was the only thing between us and a nuclear meltdown. Notice the lovely scratch on her cheek? Yep, I did that. Brilliant.

Aaah, peace.

This was Ephant and Brother B's favorite ride. It was pretty tame.

J is sad that no one else will appreciate the true genius of this picture. He managed to snap this while it was going pretty fast.

Shamu was pretty interesting. The whales were amazing although I thought the show storyline was a little hokey. J was late arriving so Loofa could have another ride on Atlantis. Fefe's small catnap right beforehand helped, but even though she is quite an animal lover, the big whales were not enough to make her happy. One of the other shows we attended earlier was a pet show. Cats, dogs and even pigs doing tricks. I thought that would be the highlight of her day, but it wasn't.

When all was said and done with, we were sun burned, we stunk and our bodies ached, but it was a success. Our tickets were 2 days for the price of one, but one day was plenty. It was so dead there that we made it through everything pretty quickly. It was a relief to get home and shower. Fefe went to bed really early that night and even slept through the tv noise while the rest of us were still up.

Life in a Nutshell

I give up, I've been sitting around sick all day and finally decided to get around to updating my blog. J only has two weeks left of his sabbatical :( I'm going to miss having him here to drive the kids everywhere while I nap in the afternoon. What a lazy sucker I am.

No sabbatical would be complete without some type of extensive vacation so we decided to piggyback a trip on my brother's wedding. A week and half beforehand we headed down to Utah for a whirlwind trip to visit as many relatives as possible in 1 week. We headed down on Wednesday, September 1st to Bountiful for our first stop. Every time we make a trip without a tire blowing out (or a car-topper blowing open) I'm grateful now. G&G Morgan had quite a few big diggers next to their house for the water storage tank in construction. We snuck over and had fun taking some pictures.

Thursday afternoon we drove back up to Brigham City to meet my dad for dinner at Maddox's. The rolls alone were worth the drive. It was fun to hang out with dad and talk without a million people around.

Friday evening we headed down to Sandy for our next visit. On the way we dropped by my grandparents. I can't have a visit to Utah without seeing them. I have too many good memories from that house and love them so much.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with Aunt A and Uncle J in Sandy. They are both such big crackups. My parents were up at the cabin that weekend so we had fun torturing cats and leaving toys laying around.

Saturday was a whirlwind day of fruitlessly searching for green dresses for the wedding. The first store I went to had some, but I wasn't willing to pay their prices until I had shopped everywhere else I could think of for 6 straight hours. Talk about frustrating. Luckily I already had something green for myself. Amazing how every retail store can follow the exact same fashion color trends and totally leave out a big color like green.

We were going to get up early Sunday morning to head down to Phoenix, but I couldn't stand the idea of waking up early so we left at a pretty normal morning hour. We took the Glen Canyon Dam route so I was grateful to survive all the highways with no barricade separating us from oncoming traffic. I coped by letting J drive while I read a book. Once we hit Phoenix there was a pretty cool thunderstorm to the east. Once Fefe noticed it she kept saying "Mom, mom!" and as soon as I would turn around she would point out her window and babble something incomprehensible. I don't know how many times she did that.

It was really fun to see Uncle I and Aunt S's house. The kids couldn't get enough of their little toy area under the stairs. I should have gotten a picture of that. We tried to avoid spending too much time outside because it was still way too hot there, but at one point we went to a park so the kids could throw around frisbees. We kept pouring water over the kid's heads to keep them cooled down. It is truly amazing that that many people can live in an area that inhospitable. That night Uncle I made tikki masala for us. It was so good!

I'm going to break off the post here for the more involved parts of our trip.

Bye Bye Baby

My little girl is officially into toddlerhood. Of course she had no clue about what was so great that day, but we still tried to make it fun. I had to visit teach that morning so J took the kids out for burgers for lunch. After nap we went to the pool. Fefe loves swimming so I thought it would be fun for her. We went to a different aquatic center this time and it was a terrible experience. Halfway through the toddler pool was closed because a kid pooped in it. Plus there was the usual 10 minute on the hour, everybody out of the pool routine. I don't know why they do that. It was terrible because I got in the pool with Fefe and 30 seconds later had to get out for that. The slide was fun, but they closed that 20 minutes before the free swim was up. I'm never going there again.

Fefe was in stuffed animal heaven when she opened all her presents. I've never seen a child so in love with stuffed animals (and other animals). Yesterday a dog was barking down the block and she really wanted to just go find it. We watched the Abyss last night and her favorite scenes were with the rat.

I copped out and made quick cupcakes for the treat. I don't know why I did that since no one in this house likes them. Fefe enjoyed the mike and ikes I put in the top though.

The following day we pulled out the toddler bed and took down the crib. She was excited to play in it, but when it came time for nap she was extremely upset. She cried through half of her first nap. Last night she protested a bit, but she finally just laid down without screaming, progress.

Double Occupancy

Last week our house was bursting at the seams with the visit of Uncle I, Aunt S and kids. It was a jam-packed week with no major mishaps :) During the week we managed to visit the zoo, Children's Museum, beach, eat Japanese, go to Out of this World and play at the park. S also ran with me in the morning. It was great to have a running buddy.

Uncle I loved the backdrop of the railroad tracks for some picture taking. I think this is the only publishable one I took:

The cousins:

We spotted this squirrel while waiting for the zoo train. Click on the picture for full effect, this squirrel definitely fits the obese category:

Everybody loves this part of Out of this World:

Extreme merry go rounding:

The sharks gathered around Aunt S for food:

Cute Baby:

Portrait of a Lady

Isn't she beautiful?

Loofa's Big Accomplishment

Look how happy he is!