The Garden

Tuesday we made our way up to Encinitas to check out the San Diego Botanic Garden on free Tuesday. Brooklyn's favorite part of the trip: holding the green bird. Twice.
I was so focused on finding my way to the next area, that I almost missed this lively statue. After Brooklyn pointed it out, we had to stop for a picture with the lovely Senorita in the Mexican garden.
I loved these pink flowers on the Strawberry Snowbell Tree.
The placard at its base read, "This landscape flower tree has showy pink flowers in the spring." Well stated!
I liked the pink flowers on this bush too, but didn't catch the name of them. It was a popular day at the garden. Can you see a few of the other millions of stroller moms in the background?
In the children's garden, the kids found all sorts of goodies.

I liked this gate. Future wood project, Dad?
These kids are dangerously independent.
The couple of times we got separated, I had a frantic few minutes searching for each one in turn.
Aunt Helen and Brookie experienced the sun dial.
The kids enjoyed just hangin' out in the tree house.
I had to point out to Brooklyn the appropriately placed Cabbage Patch Doll. This one looked like an original I used to have. I found it funny to see the "in context" like never before.

Yummy!

Perhaps I was wrong to think that our sand-eating days were over.

Okay, I'll admit that it was my fault for letting Ian nose dive into a puddle of nasty, frothy, dark water. Unfortunately, in my frantic attempts to save him, I had thrown both my towels onto a low wall right next to the curiously dark water and of course they slipped and fell right into it. The towels looked anything but useful and I felt ridiculous. It was pretty funny in a sad sort of way.

The Party Planner

It doesn't look like most people's idea of a party, but this is what the room looks like when Brooklyn decides to make create a party. She has done this every day this week.
Basically, she lays out two or more blankets, then arranges neat piles of every toy, doll, and stuffed animal (dress-ups too on this day) she can reach. I still don't know why this arrangement defines a party in her mind, but it does.
Every day I plead with her not to make a party. She then promises me so convincingly that she will clean it all up when she's done, all by herself. I can't believe I fell for it way too many times. Ian doesn't mind though.

Someone knows her birthday is right around the corner.

Sunday Smiles

Last of the Museums

The natural history museum felt very classic museum-ish with the dinosaur bones and all. We also so a cool movie about the ocean. Ian roared his terrible roar and gnashed his terrible teeth, etc. at all the big, open-mouthed animals.
Cave explorers
I must mention that it rained most of the day. Hence, the wetness and the rain/snow boots.
Even though Stephen doesn't like the grown-out nappy-ness of his hair (I cut it later that afternoon) I dig the smile on the little guy. I just couldn't cut the Dad out of the picture either. It would ruin the effect.

Finally, Something is Right in This World!

The title to this post was my friend's response to something I learned at this museum. Read on to find out what little-known factoid made her day and mine. I have always wanted to visit the Birch Aquarium. This Friday, the kids and I finally did and I was not disappointed.

I had to crack up at Ian's expressive grunts as we viewed various large creatures. The first one was just outside the entrance. For the longest time, Ian was stopped in his tracks. It took him a few minutes to cross that line in the sidewalk... you're about to see why.
Finally he did it. His sister had already circled the enormous statue and pond, and so Ian decided it might be safe for him to join her.

"Here I come! Wait up!" (This is a direct translation from Ianese.)

The big grey whale statue and fountain
Great curb appeal, Birch Museum!
I am so disappointed that we've latched onto the Disney culture. I won't say who's to blame for joining the Disney movie club in our family, but most of you could probably guess it wasn't me. At any rate, everything at this museum was either Nemo-related or not. We were not the only visitors have these type of Nemo-comparison discussions.


I think eels are just about the ugliest creatures ever!
The different varieties of jellyfish were pretty fascinating.
I have decided that one of my children is much more adventurous and brave than the other. You'll probably never guess which is which.


I couldn't resist capturing the view from behind!
Here's the beach down below. There were those pay-per-view binoculars that stood right at the edge of the cliff. Of course, I was totally ridiculously cheap and didn't even check my wallet to see if we had the 51 cent fee. I probably figured we go to that beach all the time, why do we need to see it from binoculars? Okay, maybe we could've seen a grey whale migrating. Oh well.


This has got to be luckiest species on earth! Why? The MALES carry and birth the babies! Is this not a dream come true? Brooklyn and I agree that this was our favorite part of the whole visit! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that the male seahorse spends most of his life pregnant! Seahorses usually have a single partner for life.
The lucky ladies actually give their eggs to the males who then fertilize and hatch them 2 - 4 weeks later. There must be a 100 or so babies that are expelled at a time. A dozen or so fly out with each sharp contraction. Sadly, very few babies survive to adulthood.
Alright, it was worth the 10 bucks just to learn that fact. Now that you've heard it from me, you can thank me for saving you the trip!

Model Train Museum

Since there were only a few days left of the month, I figure I had better take advantage of the 50% off museum pass for most San Diego Museums in the month of February. Here we are at the model train museum.It's pretty sad that in the nearly two years we've lived here, I've only taken Brooklyn to one other museum. There must be at least 8 - 10 different museums at Balboa Park alone. We've gone to the zoo quite a bit (also part of Balboa park), but never ventured to do much more beyond that. It was about time.
Here Brooklyn's pushing a button to start and stop one of the trains.
In one of the rooms, there were several trains that ran through so many different scenes of a miniature town. Above is the snowy Christmas village section. There was a frozen pond with ice skaters, and back behind the big hill, there were also some sledders. I was amazed at all the detail in each scene.
Lots of old-fashioned cars were parked outside of this SuperChief Diner. The diner was of course, the shape of a train car.
Brooklyn and Calvin waited to watch a train pass by on the spot where the glass was removed for closer viewing.
Yes, there was even a baseball game going on in town.
Miniature people sat on park benches, and there was even a kissing couple in the gazebo.
Here was the gas station with workers and a girl jumping rope near her home.
There was even a camp ground on the outskirts of town.
Who are those goofy characters on that flatscreen? I couldn't resist. One of the trains had a video camera on the front of it so that you could feel like you were on the mini train. When it came close, we had to say hi!
The main drag
A Thomas the train play table for the kids
The carnival with spinning rides

I enjoyed it and could have stayed longer had the kids not been hungry and tired and if Brooklyn would stop letting me know she was done by saying, "Let's get out of here." Obviously, we have some learning to do in the museum etiquette department. Perhaps just etiquette in general.