Oh-Bla-Di

Believe it or not, we managed to cram even more fun into our San Diego trip than just the zoo and the beach.

Since we had a rainy day that wasn’t very outdoor activity friendly, we met up with some old friends at the fabulous Balboa Park to check out a train museum and grab some lunch.

It’s no secret that Noah (and his daddy) love trains.  So, when Matt discovered that Balboa Park plays host to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, we knew we had to make a visit.  It truly did not disappoint. Boasting 28,000 square feet of layout, it’s a train-lover’s dream come true!

Matt and the kids at the first viewing stage. Kevin Conner is Matt’s boss from Tyndall.

“Noah, what does a train say?” I think he hooted the whole time we were in the building.

A carnival on the layout.  The detail on these models was amazing.

There was a whole layout of toy trains too.  This part had a kid-friendly button that made a Thomas train go around a loop.
Noah pushed it several thousand times.

On our last full day, we visited the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  It was a fairly small aquarium, but perfect for a windy, chilly day.

The kelp garden was cool.

This child has never met a stranger.

Pretty coral.

The view from the aquarium balcony.

Those were the last of our outings.  We spent the rest of our visit playing the sand and, in my case, nursing a migraine.  So glad we took the opportunity to visit the Pacific coast while we are still so close.  Three cheers for husbands who call for a vacation in the middle of the day!  Let’s do it again soon!

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Can’t forget to add that, on the way to San Diego, we passed the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile!  Totally random and very fun!

First exhibit of the day were some monkeys (chimps?).  Our little monkeys loved it!

It would have been insane to go to San Diego and not visit the world’s best zoo.  And, since we’re not really crazy, we went.  Rain was in the forecast for most of the days we were visiting, so we took advantage of the sunny weather on our first day in town and went to see some animals.  The truly lovely thing about San Diego was that it wasn’t hot or cold, just pleasant, so the animals were out and about doing their thing.  So much more fun to visit them when they’re playing than when they’re scrambling for shade because it’s a bajillion degrees outside.

We got to the park right when it opened at 9am and stayed until about 2pm.  I think we saw everything but the tigers.  The kids did great with all the walking and the no-nap day and Matt and I were in vacation mode (i.e., give them whatever they want so that they’re happy and we all enjoy this).   We had so many pictures from the day, it was hard to choose just a few.  So, will share a bunch with captions to tell this story.

Taking the double jogger was key.  Ava needed a place to sit by the end of the day!

These statues were all over the zoo and the kids loved climbing on them.

Early morning outing for the male gorilla, so that he can “take care of business.” This was pretty hilarious.
He walked right over in front of us, turned his back and got to work.

When he was done, he walked right over to the glass and got nose to nose with Ava.
Guess he wanted some privacy.

More playing/posing with the statues.

Totally her idea.

On Ava’s insistence we rode the gondola before lunch, from the top of the hill. Turns out she’s brilliant.  No line, and we got a roundtrip ride with no wait because our stroller didn’t fit.  Awesome! 

Noah loved this ride.  I was a nervous Nelly and had a pretty tight hold of him.
The kid has no fear and is a total thrill junkie.

More gorillas out to play as we coasted overhead.

The polar bears put on quite a show! They played a little water polo together and were very entertaining!

Can’t go to the San Diego Zoo and not see the pandas, right? We waited in line for about forty minutes, but the kids were pretty patient. I will say that I’ve not seen pandas this close before.  The ones in DC are far from the fence and usually hiding.  These guys were cute!

Noah LOVED the giraffes.  They were pretty busy and very near the fence, so he had a great view of them.

At the end of the day, we wound up at the petting zoo. The kids brushed the goats and Noah played with their dirt.
Gross, but they had a great time.

This about sums it up.  One last pose with a statue and, yes, we were all wiped out!

Passed out snuggling his new giraffe buddy on the ride back to the hotel.

Thanks for the memories, zoo friends!

At the beginning of March, Matt called me at work one day (totally out of the blue) and said, “Want to go to the beach?  Let’s go to San Diego.  I’m online booking it now.” So, in early April, we went!  We stayed at the awesome Navy North Island NAS in some of the nicest TLFs we’ve ever visited.  I suppose, really, the rooms weren’t anything truly luxurious (and we were in the old building) but we weren’t there for the hotel room.  We were there for this…

See that ship?  It was waaaay out there.  It’s a BIG ship.

From our room, we walked across a lawn and then hit the beach…leading straight to the Pacific Ocean.

Needless to say, we absolutely loved it.  The weather wasn’t the most cooperative (we were freezing!) but that didn’t stop us from getting some play time in with the waves and digging up as much sand as possible.  This was Noah’s first trip to a beach and Ava’s first that she would really remember, so it was a highly exciting time!

Chasing waves.

Bundled up because he face-planted in the (cold) water.

“Ladybug Girl LOVES the beach!”

Sand!!

Each day we were there, we spent a couple hours just wandering the beach or going to check on the waves.  These kiddos are definitely water lovers, so it did take a little effort to keep them from just running straight into the water.  But, if we stayed back from the tide line, they were just as happy to play in the sand and make a total mess.

Nothing says “Day at the Beach” like winter coats and sweatpants, right?

Like I said, they enjoyed getting messy.  Ahh…sand in fleece.  That’s so easy to shake out!

This guy loves the beach.

So does this girl.

A great start to a wonderful adventure.  More from San Diego soon!

Before it was back-to-school season, Grama & Grampa came to visit and enjoy our Henderson bar & resort.  When they arrived on Wednesday evening, we headed right to dinner at Claim Jumper. (No food on airplanes means that Grampa is hungry when he gets here!)  It’s so fun that we can do that on a whim now that Noah is eating table food.  After dinner, we headed to the house and then had cocktail hour, at Ava’s request.

We spent part of each of the next four days in the pool.  Ava woke up asking to go every morning and usually went once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  Such a little fish!  Of course, we were all too happy to oblige since swimming made it seem like we were all on vacation in a fantastic rental house.

On Saturday morning, we loaded up the van and headed north to Mt. Charleston with plans to hike to Mary Jane Falls.  Matt and I had attempted the hike one other time but, since we were idiots and thought we could push a stroller up the side of a mountain, we didn’t finish.  This time, with better gear and rock solid determination, we made it to the top (after a 1.5 hour climb!).

This being a desert, you never know what you’re going to get when you climb a mountain to see a waterfall.  But, Mary Jane Falls did not disappoint.

Ava loved to touch the cold, cold water and climb over the wet rocks at the bottom.  And, in spite of a massive elevation change and having to help carry a three year old up the side of a mountain, even Grama & Grampa were still happy to be there.

The way back down was much easier, but we were all tired and hungry.  For some of us, the rumbling in our tummies made it particularly difficult to keep putting one foot in front of the other…you can decide for yourself who those folks might have been.

We treated ourselves to a picnic lunch at a day camp site and then made the drive back home.  You’d have thought we’d be worn out after all of that, but we still had plenty of energy for a swim that evening!

Along with the swimming and the hiking, we also had plenty of time to just play around the house.  We spent lots of time helping Noah walk with the walker and playing on the floor of the playroom.  Noah even got to open some early birthday presents!  Grama made him his own set of Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls and also brought a birthday outfit.  The outfit was Matt’s on his first birthday and fit Noah perfectly!

We tried to get a nice photo of Noah, Matt & Ava all with their dolls made by Grama (Matt’s were from when he was a kid), but this is the best we could do.

When we let the kids loose, things got a little calmer, of course.

Isn’t it nice how he knows how to sit still for a picture?

On the last evening of the visit, Matt made us fajitas for dinner.  So yummy!  Ava got to help Grama with the tortillas.  Not sure that it’s the most efficient way to cook, but I don’t think anyone had any objections.

Thanks for a great visit, Grama & Grampa!  You’re welcome at Henderson Bar & Resort any time!

*Finally getting around to catching up on our Kansas trip at the end of May.  I think I could write a whole blog on the study of how time flies!*

Just one month after our roadtrip to Texas, we climbed back into the Blue Blur and set off for the Land of Oz.  We chose to  follow I-70 this time since the mountains would be passable this time of year.  It was a very pretty drive and largely uneventful since both kiddos were relatively healthy this round.  We rolled in to my folks’ house by noon on Saturday and got to enjoy a whole afternoon of outside relaxation before we ever even ate a meal!

Ava settled right into outdoor roaming and busting out every toy Granddad had set up for her.  Wes’s daughter, Denim, was home for the weekend, so we got to meet her for the first time.  Noah and Denim are only about eight weeks apart in age, so they fell right to the baby-sized work of  stealing each other’s binkies and staring at one another.

Sunday morning we got all gussied up and took some family photos…

And then Monday, we hit the road to go visit the farm for Memorial Day.  We had a great picnic, in spite of the howling Kansas wind and the nearly-unbearable heat.  We had a lovely time seeing our cousins (Ava talked about nothing else for the week before we left) of both the original and new generations.

After all the excitement of driving halfway across the country and then the trip to the farm, we were pretty content to spend the rest of the week just putzing around with Grammie and Granddad at their house.  We played “Ariel” over and over again, fed the birds, climbed the climbing wall, rode the swing, and had a picnic lunch at the duck park.

Grammie & Granddad hanging out with “Ariel” on the porch swing.

Granddad & Ladybug Girl doing morning “chores.”

Noah just chilling in a chair perfectly sized for him.

Relaxing on the patio.

Going for a bike ride.  Huge advantage to taking the van…lots of cargo room!

We didn’t travel far from the folks’ home this time, so didn’t gather much in the way of souvenirs.  But, Matt managed to find something to bring home when we stopped the gas station in Lincoln to use the restroom on the way to the farm.

And here’s Ava modeling the front of that glorious hat for us.

That one’s a classic, I’d say.

Of course, a roadtrip this year wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to see a medical professional for Noah’s ears.  He spiked a fever Tuesday afternoon and we got to experience yet another parenting first…a trip to the ER!  McPherson doesn’t have an urgent care facility, so the ER was our only choice for instant care.  I’ve heard horror stories of ER visits from other mommies, so was delighted to find the ER nearly deserted at 5:30pm and the staff to be agreeable and helpful.

Just because we stuck close to home didn’t mean that we stopped having adventures, though.  In addition to the trip to the ER, we had some after hours fun as well.  Matt & I got to go on a double date with Aubrey and Lance one night and then another we had a patio campfire with Grammie & Granddad.  Ava got to make and eat her first s’more and then, after Ava’s bedtime, we adults got to have our own fun.  Who says booze and fire don’t mix?  Even Grammie thinks it’s fun to spit whiskey on a fire!

All in all, this trip was a “blazing” good time.  Thanks for the fun, Grammie & Granddad!  See you again soon!