San Diego baby!

We are all settled in to our hotel room in San Diego (Encinitas, actually) after a very nice half a day in beautiful southern California. We left home around 8:30 this morning and got here at 3:00. This was the longest road trip the kids have been on, and they both did really well. We only stopped once about half way for lunch.

After checking into our hotel, we headed to Moonlight State Beach, which was only a few miles from our hotel. The kids were so excited to get to the beach, and it was a very beautiful place! They both headed straight for the water! Ava ran towards the waves, and then turned around and ran back laughing all the way. She got more and more brave, walking out into the waves until one wave took her down...and I mean way down under the water! I had to run and grab her, but not before she was completely submerged and covered in wet sand. Poor baby had it caked in her hair, in her ear and most every other crevice! After that she wasn't very interested in going back in the water. Tyler, on the other hand enjoyed jumping around in the waves and playing catch with his dad. He wasn't too excited about the taste of salt water in his mouth though. The first time he got it in his mouth, I thought he was going to throw up!

The sand at this beach was great...very soft and fine. It made for good castle building sand, and we had fun trying to build up the wall of castles before the waves washed it away. When the boys were out playing in the water, Ava and I relaxed (ok, that may not be the right word...) on our blanket, buried our feet in the sand, and enjoyed the view. Speaking of the view...I watched a cluster of dolphins swimming just off the shore. There had to be at great 5 of them, and they were diving and playing. It was really cool!

One thing about the sand at the beach that I didn't realize is that it goes everywhere! Ava was covered from head to toe in the stuff. It was around her eyes, in her mouth (because she was licking stuff that was sandy), and of course, packed in her diaper. It was really quite ridiculous!

After we were done playing in the sand, we walked over to a really nice playground that was just behind the beach. The kids played there for quite awhile before we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower before heading out to find some dinner. I think half if the beach fell out of Ava's diaper onto the bathroom floor!

We found a little pizza place about a mile away called East Coast Pizza. It faced the beach (across the street and back a ways) and had a nice courtyard out front with some live music. The weather here is amazing...mid 70s during the day and cool at night. We sat outside eating at 8pm and I was a bit chilly! It was wonderful!

It was a bit of a challenge getting the kids to sleep in the hotel room. I was hoping to get them both to sleep on the sofa bed, leaving the nice king sized bed for Dave and me but no such luck. Here I am, writing this blog from my phone lying on the uncomfortable sofa bed with my daughter while the boys are asleep in the other bed. We never have done to well sleeping all together in a hotel room, but maybe after these 3 nights, we will get better.

Tomorrow is our big day at Sea World, so that should be fun. I promise to take some pictures...I was lost today without my camera, but its just not wise to have it on the beach and around all that sand. Samantha did let me borrow get water proof camera again though, so we will get some beach pictures.

Sorry for any typos in this post...I did it all from my phone!

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Wordless Wednesday

The Science Center and Planetarium

Last Sunday, as I mentioned before, we took Tyler to the Planetarium at the Arizona Science Center.  He was so excited about this adventure, and it made for a good bribe earlier in the week when he threw a fit about being left home with his new babysitter (ugh…how old is he?!).  We headed to downtown Phoenix bright and early last Sunday morning.

When you first walk into the lobby of the AZ Science Center, you see this giant telescope looking thing.  Tyler was scared to try it at first (who knows…), but once he did, he thought it was pretty cool.  Ava had to have a try too, of course.

When you look in the telescope, you see some little movie playing, but the real excitement happens when you look up!  Here is what we saw when Ava looked in the telescope---her eye! 

After playing with the telescope, we bought our tickets to get into the Science Center.  I wish you could just buy tickets for the Planetarium, but unfortunately, it’s a package deal.  So…$62 later, we had tickets to the Science Center for the day and the 12:30 showing of Grand Tour of the Planets in the Planetarium.  When buying the tickets, the lady tried talking me into the Starry Storytime show at the Planetarium, which is for their “youngest guests” but I clarified that our 5 year old is obsessed with space, and trust me….it will not be too advanced for him.  More about that later….

We passed the time checking out a few different rooms in the Science Center, with this exhibit being Tyler’s favorite.  He loved connecting the pipes in this display of a plumbing system.  Go figure?!

They also used blocks to build the foundation of a house on top of a blue print, and Dave spent forever a few minutes trying to put the insides back in this mannequin.  Unsuccessfully, I believe….

Here are both kids trying to pull themselves up using the pulleys and ropes on these chairs.  Tyler did pretty well!  There are three different strength difficulties.

Here they are on the bed of nails.  Ava had a blast on this!  She just kept going up and down and of course, “yet me do it!”  She had to push the button all by herself.

I have no idea what to call this, but lets pretend its called a light screen with floating beads that collect on parts of your body.  Good?  Whatever it’s called, it makes for fun pictures!

FINALLY! The moment Tyler has been waiting for..time to go into the Planetarium!  It was pretty cool, I must say!  We sat down in a domed room and it started with a flight through the solar system, passing by each planet.  It was all very realistic and informative too.  The person leading the presentation would call out questions, and Tyler was one of the first to answer many times, along with all the much older children. 

Long story short, we could have done without the entrance to the Science Center, as neither of our kids were very interested in it.  I’m sure our space loving son will want to see another Planetarium, and luckily, MCC had one that is free!  We are all learning so much about space, and both my kitchen and living room are decorated with cut out, colored planets and moons.  Any guesses as to how long this space obsession will last?

After the Science Center, we headed up to Heather and Craig’s house to swim and bbq.  I didn’t take any pictures, other than the one below, but we did have a great time!  Ava looks relaxed, doesn’t she?  Ahhh, this is the life!

Daycare for a day

Sydney and Braden spent the day at our house on Friday while their mom worked.  To pass the time, and to cool off, we brought out the slip and slide for awhile.  As usual, it was a big hit.  Check out some of my pictures of the fun….

Ava wasn’t too interested in the slip and slide this time, but I did get her to come out and join the kids for a picture.  How cute is this?!

And after that came the chaos!

And boys being boys…

Sydney is so sweet to Ava!  She was very good about including her when they were playing, and if the boys were busy doing boy stuff, Sydney would say “come on Ava, let’s go play somewhere else.”

Right around the time Sydney and Braden were leaving (after Jen cut everyone’s hair), Hailey came to our house to have a sleep over with Tyler.  Hailey and Tyler have so much fun together, but don’t get to see each other too much, so I invited Hailey to sleep over.  They had a great time, and Hailey was very patient about playing and drawing all the space stuff Tyler wanted.  They slept great, and played together all day on Saturday too until we went back to the Dairman’s house for a bbq and swimming that evening.  Dave and I got quite a bit done around the house, with much less stress than a normal weekend day, because the kids were so busy playing nicely together!  It was great!  I may have to invite Hailey over more often.  I can’t believe I missed the chance to get some pictures of Tyler’s first sleep over!  Oh well, I’m sure there will be more chances…especially since it was so fun to have Hailey as our guest!

Our little baseball players

You saw a glimpse of our night of backyard baseball in this post, and hopefully you caught the reference to the movie “A League of Their Own” and didn’t really think were were yelling at our 2 year old for crying.  We’re not going to be those sports parents!  Dave is giving his little girl a head start, getting her ready to follow in the footsteps of the other ball players in the family.

This kid has quite the arm on him!

So does this one!

And you should see him hit!  It was going over the house from here!  And we’re talking, duck and get out of the way if its coming towards you! Don’t worry, the balls are foamy and can’t do too much damage to the house.

We will definitely be signing Tyler up for baseball this fall! He’s one athletic little dude.  I am amazed at his hand eye coordination to be able to smash the ball his dad tosses at him.  He hits it almost every time!  Way to go, buddy.  We look forward to many years of cheering you on from the bleachers of random ball parks around town! 

Ava is most certainly TWO years old

Have I mentioned how TWO Ava is?  She has a mad case of the “Terrible Twos” right now.  We never dealt with that when Tyler was that age, but it seems as though Ava is picking up his slack.  Let me see if I can give you a visual of a typical span of time with Ava….but first, let me remind you who I’m talking about…seems like a perfect angel, right?

This little girl is into everything.  She puts everything in her mouth.  Every one of Tyler’s crayons has the top bit off of it, and half of his markers.  Speaking of markers, she loves to pull the tip out of it with her teeth, oozing the marker juice down her face.  Here’s an example of a typical 5 minute period of time.  Picture me in the kitchen getting dinner ready. 

Tyler is sitting at the kitchen table working on drawing a picture of space.  Ava climbs up the drawers like the handles are a ladder and then walks to the fridge, opens the fridge doors and the drawer she can reach and then closes it.  She grabs a cup and gets her own drink from the water dispenser on the fridge, then spills a bit, then fills it some more.  She sets the cup on the counter and then opens the dishwasher and dumps her full cup in there.  She reaches her hand up to the kitchen counter and almost pulls down the container of fruit that I just set out, but I can catch it in time.  She opens the silverware drawer and grabs the bag of plastic straws and dumps it out and then slams the drawer shut, but not after trying to stick one in her nose (have I mentioned how she likes to stick things in her nose?)

Then she climbs up on the chair that Tyler is sitting and and sits behind him, this seems lovey and friendly, but then she pinches him and pulls his hair a little bit.  She scribbles on his paper and knocks all his crayons on the floor, and on the way down from the chair, she slips the paper away from him and runs away with it! When he chases after her, she rips it in half and runs away. 

Did I say 5 minutes?  Ok, that was just the first 3, but I’m sure you get the idea.  She just doesn’t stop!  If you try to reprimand her for her behavior, she gives you this little sideways glance and almost rolls her eyes as she turns her head and and a little smirk comes to her face. 

She is as independent as can be right now, and says “yet me do it” to everything we try to help her with.  She has creative ways of getting into stuff too.  Here she is swinging from the “yip yide”(slip and slide)  that was hanging from the clothes line, which she insisted on doing despite my warnings that she might get hurt.

This little girl, who can be such a little pest sometimes, can also be the kindest, most loving and thoughtful little sweetheart too.  Whenever you give her something, like a “yo yo pop” or a cheese stick, the first thing she says is “dah dah too.”  Dah dah is how she says Tyler—she insists that whatever she gets, her brother gets too!  Even if he’s nowhere to be seen, she wants to make sure he doesn’t miss out.  When I put her to bed at night, this is our conversation:  Me:  I love you baby girl, Ava: I yuv you doo Mommy, Me:  I love you more!  Ava: I yuv you most!

Her terrible twos gives way to plenty of terrific twos, and I’m sure we will look back one day and remember all of the funny chaos she caused around the house.  She is doing her job, if you think about it.  She is being the classic little sister and if she doesn’t bug her brother at least once every 15 minutes, she is falling behind! 

So, Miss Ava, thank you for making us laugh every day, despite the amount of frustration your pestering sometimes causes.  I can’t wait to tell you one day about all the strange things you ate and stuck in your nose.  It might be funny later.  Now, it makes me worry about a visit to the ER because you stuck another pebble in your nose, but one day it will make us smile.

Oh, and she doesn’t like to wear clothes either.  Love you Ava girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, so there are a few words….

Ava and her babies and Tyler’s Astronomy lesson—some videos

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any videos of the kids.  These videos are both pretty long and somewhat uneventful, but I know there are plenty of you who will enjoy them.

Last weekend, I was trying to get something done in the kitchen (probably unimportant, but seemed so at the time) and Ava was being a bit of a pest.  I told her to go find some toys to play with or to go get her babies.  A few minutes later, she came back with her wooden cradle and a few babies. Then I heard her singing so sweetly to her babies, that I had to get it on video. 

Tyler was hanging around too, so I had him tell me a bit about his knowledge of the solar system.  He’s being a bit silly, which he does when he’s in the ‘spotlight,’ but you get the idea.  You have to make sure you watch Ava over there too.  She’s just busy with her cradle, and determined to fit herself in it!

I want to try to get more videos on here for  you. Ava is at such a funny age right now, and its so cute to hear her speak.  I want to make sure I always remember her adorable little girl voice and the cute way she pronounces her new found words. 

Tyler’s visit to the Planetarium

Tyler went to his first planetarium show today!  If he wasn’t obsessed with space before today, he certainly is now.  I type this as I am surrounded by drawings of the planets, crayons, and scissors from his latest project.  We went to the Arizona Science Center today specifically to go to the Planetarium.  Unfortunately, you can’t just go to a Planetarium show, and you have to pay the entrance fee to the Science Center, plus pay extra for the shows.  The Science Center is a fun place, but our kids are still a little young for it, so it’s a bit lost on them.  Luckily, Ava was still free.  We walked around the Science Center and saw as much as the kids were interested in seeing before the “Grand Tour of the Solar System” started in the Planetarium.  It was really cool!  It was a tour of space, first whizzing through space by each of the planets, and then stopping at each individually to learn a little about it.  We also “landed” on a few of the planets.  Ava even sat through the whole thing, although she was a bit distracted. Tyler had a great time, and he really enjoyed seeing the planets up close.  I think he already knew quite a bit about what they told us about the solar system, even though when I bought the tickets, the lady recommended a different show that is for the younger kids.  He isn’t your typical 5 year old, I told her!   He definitely enjoyed the planetarium, but I doubt we’ll be heading back to the Science Center (to the tune of $67+) just to see it again any time soon.  Luckily for Tyler, however, Mesa Community College (not my campus, but the ‘main’ campus) has a Planetarium too!  I have never been there, but now I have a great reason to check it out.  Once a month, they have Astronomy Nights that are free and open to the public, each with a different topic.  I already have it on our calendar to go on August 5. 

After the Science Center, we headed up to Heather and Craig’s house to swim and for dinner.  We haven’t seen them much lately, and since we were already most of the way there, it seemed like a great chance to visit.  It was fun to see their little Olivia, who is growing up so quickly!  She is about a year and a half, and the kids had fun playing together in their awesome playroom, of which I am SO jealous!  We had a great dinner and caught up a bit, and then headed back home.  The kids were exhausted after their busy day (Ava woke up early today and missed her nap), but it was worth it!

Yesterday, Dave and I got to go to the new Harry Potter movie too.  We dropped the kids off at Claire’s at 10 am and went to a 10:30 am show.  It sure beat waiting in line!  It was a great movie too.  I am a big fan of that series, and I am actually pretty sad that they are over.  I will definitely save the books and movies for the kids to enjoy when they get a bit older.  If you haven’t read them or watched the movies, I recommend it!  They are great for any age.  My suggestion, get audiobooks of all of them….the narrator is very good and it is a great way to get caught up. 

We had a very nice weekend!  And, it wasn’t even very hot!  I love it when I can say that in July.  What was that?  No pictures?  Oops, sorry.  Here are a couple to hold you over until I get through some of the pictures from our weekend!