San Diego part 3

On Sunday we couldn't attend church, because it was conference weekend, so we drove to the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center.  It is still pretty new and has a great interactive progressive tour where you "interact" with some virtual characters. It was informative and fun.

On Monday we squeezed in a trip to the San Diego Zoo. It was AMAZING! The animals were cool, but I loved looking around at the flora. It was so pretty. 

If you look closely at these pictures you'll see a butterfly hidden in the trees and perched on top of my dad's head and you might also see an elusive green monster.

I was a fun trip and I'm very thankful we could take it before starting Mike's flight training.

San Diego part 2

On Friday we went to Legoland in Carlsbad. We were hesitant to go because of the price, but it was worth it. Adding a second day is only $15, if we went there again we'd plan on two days. The amusement park is geared towards kids 3-12 yrs old, so there was a ton for the kids to do. (huh...I just looked through the pictures and apparently I was slacking on the picture taking. I must have been having too much fun. :)

We started out at Miniland USA. It was impressive! Steven loved all of the Star Wars sets.

On Saturday we wanted to have more down time, so we toured the USS Midway and went to the beach. A couple months after we got married in 2004 Wells Fargo sent us on a trip to San Diego. We stayed at the Hotel del Coronado, and the Midway was one of our excursions. Taking the tour with three small children added to the adventure. :)

 For some reason our camera is grainy when it takes pictures at night and I'm not sure why.

San Diego part 1

The week before we moved our family took a trip to sunny San Diego with my parents. (tip-inviting parents to tag along on a trip is a great way to travel. Two extra sets of hands are helpful.) Mike thankfully got home the night before, so we were able to travel together. We woke up EARLY Wednesday morning for our 6 AM flight. We had told the kids we were going to visit Grandma and Grandpa Stewart and didn't correct their assumptions that it would be in Oregon. Sarah was really disappointed and started crying when she found out San Diego was our final destination. (she got over it quickly)

My parents flight was delayed, so we checked in and then spent some time at the beach. Our house was only three blocks away, so we could walk there. Sorry for the picture overload, but I liked something about all of them and wanted to share.

Our second day there, Thursday, we went to Sea World. They have a great program for the military called, "Here's to the Hero's" and admission was free for our whole family. We let the kids be in charge of the day, so we started out on a ride and then played on the giant playground.

Next we saw the Shamu show. The older kids wanted to be in the "splash zone," and my mom gives them whatever they want, so the three of them ended up really wet and a little chilled. The warmed up in the giant life size dryers.

We also saw the dolphin show and one other show, but I didn't get any pictures. I think Steven's favorite place was the shark tanks. We went there a couple times. 

Locks of Love

About a year ago Sarah learned you could donate your hair to be made into wigs to help kids and decided that we were both going to grow our hair out to donate to Locks of Love. She knows a couple of people that have lost their hair due to chemotherapy treatments, and they are the ones that inspired her to donate. The first was Mike's Aunt Tracey who fought breast cancer last year, and the second is our teenage neighbor who is fighting leukemia.

Last Friday we were finally able to get it chopped. We drove to Tracey's salon in Bountiful. Here is a picture of Tracey cutting Sarah's hair.


And the finished product. She looks so cute with her little bob and she loves how easy it is to do.


Here's a picture of both of us. (Steven is an expert photographer)

I was impressed that Sarah never changed her mind as her hair grew longer. I'm glad we could do this and the short hair will be nice in the Mississippi heat and humidity.

The Circle of Life...or not

Going to Petsmart for cat supplies is a treat for my kids. They love to look at the fish and other animals for sale. Every time we go they ask for a fish, and every time they ask I say no. There are multiple reasons. The first is that I don't want more living creatures to take care of, and another is that I can envision my cats knocking over a fish bowl as a means of eating the fish.

When we went three days ago, Sarah tried a new tactic after asking to have some pet fish. She asked if we could buy fish to feed to our cats. I thought about it for a few seconds and then said, "sure". People feed their animals live food all the time. My kids have no problem with the circle of life and have watched one of our cats eat a mouse outside. (and have found the many "gifts" our cats bring close to home once or twice a week) So, we bought two goldfish for .13/each. The kids named them Starley (smaller w/black on tail) and Stewart (bigger w/white on tail).

When we got home we put one fish in each of their bowls and waited for the feast to begin.

The cats didn't seem interested, so when we went to bed that night the fish were still swimming in their respective dishes. When we checked on them in the morning they were still untouched. I had told the kids not to get attached, because they might get eaten while they're at school. I had to run to the store, so I picked up a cheap fish carrier and goldfish food just in case our little experiment didn't work. Don't Starley and Stewart looking happier together? ;) The kids can't get enough of watching them.

While Sarah was at school yesterday the boys and I stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up some more supplies. If we were going to own them for two weeks, they might as well enjoy life, right? What do you think? Do we have enough pink? ;)

While we're gone my friend Sheryl has agreed to allow her kids to "fish sit" our newest pets, and we'll plan on finding them a permanent home before we leave. There's a very small chance we'll keep them, but I doubt it since driving 1700 miles w/ three kids and two cats seems like plenty, but we'll see.

Little Monkeys

Last week Sarah and her friend Lillian found out they could climb up walls. I normally wouldn't want hand and foot prints all over the walls, but since I'm going to be cleaning all the walls anyways, I didn't mind.



After they climbed the wall they formed an exclusive "wall climbing" club in Sarah's room. Only those able to climb the wall were permitted entrance. Lillian's brother Malcolm climbed with a little assistance, so he was allowed in. Their club consisted of drawing pictures and listening to Sarah read books.

The girls also "surprised" me by hiding in a box. I of course had NO idea what was inside. :)