The Grand Del Mar

We enjoyed touring the beautiful grounds of the Grand Del Mar Hotel where Grammy and Grandad stayed during their visit for Grandad's conference. So fancy! So not someplace we'd be staying on our own dime! Maybe someday... here's for dreaming, right?
Evelyn and I posing by the pot full of fresh blooming roses.
Mr and Mrs. Badger, twice.
Engagement photo, anyone? Ha! No, I think engagement pictures need to be a little more lovey-dovey with an occasional shot of kissy-face.

Aaaah. The fountain of youth! It almost looks like we're young enough to not have a care in the world. Wait a minute. Not possible. We have children.
"Put that camera away and enjoy the movie already!" Okay, you should all know by now that I can't just put my feet up and watch a movie while someone else is staying up watching my kids at their house! Not even that. I just can't usually sit still long enough to just watch a movie. I've got issues, I know.
Good ol' Clint Eastwood.
Thanks for the delightful evening and dinner, Ted and Evelyn! The food was so delicious! I wished I would have eaten it a bit more slowly. That fancy fish fillet just vanished way too quickly off my plate! It was sweet of y'all to let me sample your stuff though. ;) And Grammy, I give you props for sharing your dessert with no one. I love a woman who knows when to put her foot down. ;)

Reading Time

This scene was found one afternoon during the visit. I loved it. Thanks for sharing with us your love of learning and reading, Grammy and Grandad! What a legacy!

Sea World

After the "big" preschool graduation, Grammy and Grandad treated us to SeaWorld. This was a huge treat for us because in the 3 years we've lived in San Diego, this was our first visit to Sea World. Interesting fact: SeaWorld is about 10 miles away from us. Basically, we've only bought zoo passes to this point because they're so much cheaper. Why is it that sometimes I feel like a tourist in my own city???
The Shamu show was pretty sweet.
Here's one of the whales splashing the audience.
This is a viewpoint of the big tanks where the killer whales chill while they're not performing in a show. Of course while we viewed, we heard and read some interesting facts about killer whales....Somebody stop me before I bust out the whale trivia!
Here was a cute coincidence. This little girl we bumped into was wearing the exact same shirt as Brooklyn. Her parents were much more doting than we are with our tomboy Brooklyn. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, and did she know how to pose for a picture or what? Her mother or grandmother shared with us that this little girl had just filmed a commercial the day before. I wish I remembered which one, some Maytag commercial or something if I recall correctly.
Here was one of the oldest whales at the park. He likes to bob up and down in the water. Funny, no?
I was pretty impressed by these acrobats performing in the style of Cirque de Soliel.
Below is another scene from the show.
Brooklyn checked out the starfish in "Discovery Reef." I'm embarassed to admit that I totally played the unintentional starfish police b/c I heard a worker announce that the starfish needed to be kept inside the water in order to "breathe." Kids kept wanting to pick them up and take them out of the water to pose for pictures though. So I got worried whenever I saw some kid grab one out of the water. I tried to hold back, but couldn't keep it down, "I think those are supposed to stay in the water so they can breathe." I'm sure the starfish survived though.

Seeing everyone else pick them up, Brooklyn tried the same thing. Don't worry, I was right there to defend the little 5-pointed animal! You can thank me later, little guy!
The "Sea Lions Live" show. It was pretty funny because it parodied many of the other shows at the park. I finally learned the difference between Sea Lions and Seals. Not that it was part of the show, but my friend Lucynthia shared this with me on my more recent trip to SeaWorld. Sea Lions have longer limbs, flaps over their ears, and the use their fins to maneuver. Seals have shorter limbs, move in floppy motions without much help from their short limbs, and they have no flaps over their ears. So basically, I just remember that Sea Lions do things closer that of 4-legged animals like lions. They use their limbs.
All in all, this was a wonderful, pleasant, entertaining, and MUCH overdue trip to SeaWorld made possible by our ever overly-generous Grammy and Grandad. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures with THEM facing the camera at SeaWorld, but the next post will surely compensate for that as we got plenty of photo ops at our nice dinner at their hotel. ;)

Preschool Graduation

Grammy and Grandad were supportive enough to join the early-morning graduation ceremony at the high school where Brooklyn attended preschool. I'm sure it rivaled in pomp, triumph, and achievement David's medical school graduation that they attended earlier in the week. Or not. We enjoyed their presence and their support nevertheless.
After the ceremony, Ian and Graden waited patiently in line for some refreshments while the big preschooler boy ahead of them didn't notice that the line was moving ahead without him.
Here are two of Brooklyn's official preschool teachers. There were several more high school students who gave plenty of individual attention to each of the twelve preschoolers.
Here's Brookie with her buddy Ariana in front of a book display shelf.


Brooklyn gave Beck a HUGE hug goodbye. We'll miss you guys!


The kids with Ariana and her baby sister Aniyah.

Picture Book Recommendation

This book's unique title caught my attention. It is not as grotesque as it seems though. It's about two animal mothers. One is very "careful" and has total control of her 8 perfect children. She persuades a toad mother (who is less perfect because her child is busy and messy) to adopt this perfectly-behaved, but abandoned child (doll-head). The only problem is that this "perfectly behaved child" never speaks, eats, or does anything but stay in one place with one expression until Eulalie (the busy/messy child of the toad mother) gets stuck inside of it and brings it to life. Mothers and children alike will appreciate this adorable tale of loving our family members, imperfection and all.

We Love You, Grandad!

We have been SO SPOILED to have had personal visits by Grandad twice in the last month! Thank goodness for VHA and whatever other conference or Hospital group that just HAD to have an event in San Diego this summer! Wahoo!
Since grandad's flight was delayed a few times on his way over, he arrived right around dinner time. Naturally, our first order of business was to find some GOOD FOOD! We thought we'd hit up the famous PHIL'S BBQ, but were quickly turned away by the line that wrapped around the outside of the restaurant. Let me mention, that we found this after having first reported to a bad address. We weren't getting anxious to eat or anything... yeah right! Next choice, how about Wahoo's Fish Tacos? I think there's one in downtown La Jolla. Oh man, was parking quite the fiasco! We just took the first free 2-hour parking zone we could fine, as I shielded the men's faces from the Victoria Secret propaganda that welcomed us on the curbside. So, unfortunatly, Wahoo's would have been about a mile walk from our parking spot, so we were onto plan C. A Mexican Restuarant, recommended to us that was not far away. The food was decent, my pictures of us there was not great at all, other than it captured the colorful tile of the table. Stephen and Ted were such good sports to hold the kids on their shoulders while we wandered around like clueless tourists.
My awesome picture. YES!
Here we are dressed in our Sunday best! Ted even got to hear Stephen speak as the high council representative in our ward that day. Funny coincidence! And in case you're wondering, NO, I didn't force Brooklyn to wear THE dress again. I think she actually likes it!
We hadn't seen enough of Grandad yet, so we had to venture off and test out the pool at his hotel the next day (Monday). The pictures are out of order here because we swam before the carriage ride and dinner. Actually, Stephen and the kids swam. I chatted with Cindy about her move to Louisiana from Virginia.
There's Grandad's hotel, the Marriot, from a little distance away.
Speaking of SPOILED...I had Brooklyn pose by this horse-drawn carriage just for the picture. However, Grandad had to escort us all in and treat us to a nice little old-fashioned stroll around the park!
We saw a nicely dressed wedding party taking some pictures. Most of them, particularly the men, were very drunk. I am so glad that was not our wedding story.
Here was my scene as I chatted with Cindy. I am so glad Stephen is such a great sport about taking the kids swimming. It wasn't the warmest evening. In fact, it rained the next day.
Here's the inside of the Fish Market restaurant. I was in 7th Heaven! I love eating fish and feel so jazzed when I get the opportunity to indulge...especially when I'm not the chef. The decor was, well, as you can see, fishy. There were replicas of Marlins and old photos of fishermen doing their thing in good ol' San Diego. One thing that I had no idea about was that TUNA fish are huge, huge huge!
Brooklyn and Ian saw a live lobster.
And on our way back, we had to take a quik pic. of this boat because of it's name. I'm wearing a little white flower that Brooklyn picked for me on the way home.

Grandad, thanks for the visit and for treating us to dinner!

The Co-Op Crew

It was a great day for earning lots of tickets! Thanks for the handy home made wooden wagon Dad. It really comes in handy on days like this!

The story
So I decided to fill in someone else's shift for co-op this day. And what a day it was! I had a total of 5 extra kids (7 including my own). The other child not shown is in a Baby Bjorn that I am wearing. I got QUITE a few long stares at the mall as we all paraded through. I thought it would be a great idea to let them run around in the children's play area. However, once we got there, the children gradually drifted away from the designated play structures to explore all kinds of various other sights, in all directions away from the play area, so I had to abruptly end the phone conversation with my sister and corral the children back into the wagon for the return trip home. A week or so later, my sister called me with the exciting news that her two new next door neighbors (Pip just moved to a house in Murrieta) were not only members of the church, but also involved in money-saving baby-sitting co-op. Lucky for her, she had a small taste of the experience vicariously through me. We both had a good laugh about it.