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!

All aboard!

We’ve been here in Vegas for four years now and finally got around to riding the Santa Train in Boulder City this year.  It was so much fun and mid-way through, Matt and I wondered why we hadn’t done this before.

We got our tickets well in advance and had them mailed to the house, so we got to avoid one of the longer lines and didn’t have to stress about having a spot.  So, we headed to Boulder City on December 10 and climbed aboard the Nevada Southern Railway for our chance to enjoy the cool air and meet Santa & Mrs. Claus.

We got to sit in the open air car which meant that the kiddos didn’t have to be pinned down to their seats, so that meant we got to enjoy things a little more.  This was also the perfect way to see Santa since our “waiting in line” time was substituted with fun riding the train time.  Perfect for antsy children!

About midway into the ride, Santa and Mrs. Claus strolled into our car and they took time to meet and take photos with each family and kid.  So, so great.  I consider it to be a minor miracle that we don’t have a screaming toddler picture with Santa this year.  Noah is infinitely more chill about things like that than Ava was.  They both did great meeting the big guy.

After our ride was over, we got to go on another free train ride on a very old steam engine called the Eureka.  It was fun hearing the man who restored her tell her story and the whistle was really loud!

After our rides, we toured the model railroads in the restoration hanger and then had a super yummy dinner at a Boulder City diner.  Loving that town more and more every time we visit.

When we finally got home, we all put on jammies, cuddled up on the couch and watched The Polar Express.  It was a day full of trains!

We had a great day on the Nevada Southern Railroad and are pretty sure that Santa is clear on our Christmas wish list this year.  Not bad for a day’s adventuring!

After our friends stopped through town on their way to Edwards last month, we quickly packed up our things and took off for the local mountain.  Matt, Ava, & I had been camping in this same spot a couple of years earlier and, now that no one in our family was pregnant or newborn, it was high time to take Noah on his first camping trip!

We got to Mt. Charleston at about 2:30pm and had our campsite all set up by about 4pm.  Since we bring everything but the kitchen sink and the toys, we’re still a car-camping family.    But, while I kept Noah occupied with snacks and took photos, Matt and his little helper got us all squared away.

New cots for the tent…hooray for easy camping sleeping.

Once we were all set up, we packed up our backpacks and hit the trail for a quick hike before dinner.  Although Ava generally loves to hike, this trail was too flat to keep her attention and the whining about being hungry started almost immediately.  Needless to say, we didn’t make it very far down the trail before we turned back to return to the campsite.

Ava’s carrying her own water in a pack these days.  Such a big girl!

Since we packed in hurry for this trip, we kept it simple for dinner.  Noah got his standard quesadilla and some puree, and we got campfire roasted hotdogs.  Add some Cheetos and we quickly had a campsite full of very happy people.

Pardon  the dirt…this is what little girls who play with charred wood found in a “fort” look like.

By the time the sun started to sink beneath the trees, we were already getting chilly.  One of the greatest draws of Mt. Charleston is the difference in temperature between there and the Las Vegas Valley.  Our house was 103 degrees when we left on Friday afternoon, and it was about 75 degrees at dinner time on the mountain.  Overnight, temperatures dipped to about 45 degrees…we were grateful for all the blankets we had packed!  Sleep that night was a bit fitful since the kind folks at the next campsite over decided it would be awesome to maintain their campfire by chopping at a tree all night.  With no real sense of time, I think they must have chopped sporadically for at least four hours, but it was probably a lot less than that.  However, when camping with children and staying awake late due to noisy neighbors, one can always be assured payback will come with the morning light.  And, indeed, we were up with the sun.

Can you see Ava?

Because we only planned to stay the one night, we packed up our stuff shortly after breakfast to maximize our morning hiking time.  We left just enough to maintain our space for a picnic lunch after a hike, but got mostly cleared up.  We hiked the Robber’s Roost trail and it was quite the adventure.  Lots of rock scrambling…just like Ava prefers.

Ava’s become such a proficient hiker.  We talk a lot about making safe choices and thinking about where to place our feet.  She could probably coach me through a tough one now.  Noah loves his backpack and does pretty well about keeping his hand and face inside the casing so he doesn’t get smacked by a tree.  And, I don’t know how Matt does what he does on the rocks with that baby strapped to his back…I think he burns more calories than all of us put together!  One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about these excursions is the rocks.  I think I maybe missed a calling life to be a geologist…so many stories right there in the side of a mountain.  Very cool stuff.

After our hike, we had a quick PBJ picnic lunch back at the campsite and then loaded up the van to head home.  This was a great test case to try out camping with two kiddos.  I see it happening again often for us…especially once Noah is walking.  More fun adventures ahead!