We had the little boys over while Mindy brought Ben to the doctor and I caught some cuteness in the act! Alissa was very intensely reading to Scoot while Jordan was climbing around not very successfully interrupting! He just kept walking and climbing past and Alissa and Scoot didn't seem to mind! I also snapped a few cute ones of Jordan while watching him on a previous day.
I volunteered to go with Alissa's class to see the Tulips at Thanksgiving Point. It ended up getting canceled because of bad weather and when they rescheduled that was IT, Miss Nuttall said we were going rain or shine! Sure enough, it wasn't nice out, in fact it was windy and cold for the majority of the time. My little group was having fun, but they were COLD! We played red light, green light to try and keep them warm, but they were slipping and sliding all over, so we just went on looking at the flowers. Luckily the last 20 minutes or so the sun peeked out and we walked down to see the water falls and I have to say, that part was my favorite! Very cool! The flowers were really pretty and then I remembered that I ran a 5k in those gardens!! I had forgotten all about that 5k, which means (sorry off track), I have ran a total of three 5ks in my life ha ha. Back to the field trip...I had a fun little group. Alissa kept walking with one of the boys, another boy was posing while I took pictures, the other boy stuck by me most of the time pointing things out with a sweet little voice and the other girl was just cold! On the way back I saw with two boys who were playing those games like "making a garden on their arms", "pushing their hands together really hard so it would feel like they couldn't pull them apart", etc. Remember those? I decided to teach them the "bite hard on your pinky and then link them together and PULL" trick...too funny! If you haven't done this, it hurts! The one boys face was so funny, I wish I would have gotten a picture! We made it back and the kids went on with their days. It turned out to be pretty fun!
Our Otto is a unique little thing as I've said before. He has a favorite toy that he seems to be drawn to the most. This day he was running up and down the stairs playing with it, cute thing!
This past week for Spring Break, we finally got our trip to CA and it was a lot of fun (although it went by so quickly and being back home makes it seem like it never happened lol). It was really nice to get away, have fun, enjoy beautiful California and see grandparents. It's funny how as kids, trips are a lot of fun and we don't even see what went on behind the scenes to plan it. Alan and I started planning and wondered how we were going to pull off a trip is we were already arguing before we had even left ha ha! I think anything that is a change of the "norm" can bring out some disagreements between anyone, but life goes on, we had fun.
Saturday March 30th we headed off for Vegas a little later than we had wanted and the ride was great. Each kid was equipped with a table or Ipad to watch movies or play a game. Alan and I both listened to an audio book and it couldn't have gone smoother. We headed up to the hotel I had in mind only to find out there were no rooms (oops, I didn't even think to book the hotel before hand and by that time, Alan wasn't very happy). Mistake made, we moved on to another hotel, but paid almost double for not booking before hand. Ouch. Since it was later than we thought and we were tired, we just hung out. We were going to go to the top of the Stratosphere but Alissa was scared, so we headed back to our room. Zach ended up losing a tooth while at that first hotel. It was one of the first ugly silver caps we put on his tooth when he was little and we couldn't afford the other stuff!
Sunday was Easter and the "Easter Bunny" did manage to find us in Vegas and left the kids a few road trip activities and some dried fruit and then we headed off for our next big driving day. We made it peacefully to San Diego and were able to check into the hotel that we DID in fact make a reservation to and had the most wonderful view up on the 20th floor! The room was modern and pretty and we were excited to be there for three nights. Since it was early enough this time, we headed off to Zpizza for dinner and let the kids go swimming that evening as well. The kids absolutely LOVE to swim!
Monday we headed off for our day at Sea World and it was great. I could sit and watch everything for 20 minutes each, but Alan keeps a quicker pace, which was okay because we had a lot to see! The kids loved the river ride and ran back through to do it a second time after we were done. Alan and I were waiting patiently for them to pass by so he could get pictures and I could record it when the came walking out of the line saying they were DONE! We had seen a man with this shirt off pass and commented on how "that was a good idea". Turns out, the kids were in that same "raft"! oops, we missed them! We saw everything that day! Sing Rays, Dolphins, Whales, Otters, Star fish, cool fish, Bears, Sharks, Penguins and more! We saw an animal show and I was SHOCKED to see that they had cats in it! I had no idea you could train a cat. It was really cute! Near the end when we were sitting in one of the shows, I could feel that tired and sick feeling coming on, so we left to get some dinner as soon as it ended. The kids and I really loved what we had. I found this little organic burrito place that was so so good, but unfortunately something in Alan's burrito made him sick the next day. The kids went swimming again and we called it a night.
Tuesday Alan wasn't feeling well, so the kids and I spent some time walking down by the ocean and around some cute little shoppes and village they had right out our hotel. It was perfect, I could do that every day! Alan still wasn't feeling well when we got back, so I took the kids back to Sea World. Our plan from the beginning was to go both days, but Alan just didn't get to join us. Today was to catch the dolphin and whale shows and that's about all we did! While waiting for the dolphin show to start, the kids were up in the splash zone and a lady came up to me and said "Melissa?" Turns out is was Zach's friend's mom who lives just a few houses down and she was there with her family vacating too! So funny! We ended up sitting together and chatting and Zach thought it was WAY cool to run into his friend at Sea World! Between the dolphin show and the Shamo show, Zach wanted to go on Atlantis, but the something was wrong and the ride wasn't going, so he hopped out of line and we made it with time to spare to see the whales! The kids each got a souvenir and we headed back. By that time, Alan was feeling better, so we walked back down through the little village and had dinner at a restaurant on the ocean.
Wednesday we headed to Santa Anna to visit Alan's grandpa and we made it there while he was out to lunch. His neighbor and friend let us in the house, so we got to explore all the fun pictures all over the walls. When we got back, we spent a good three hours visiting. The kids were great. They played nicely in the other room while Alan and I listened to stories about his grandpa's life. He told us about his late wife and how they enjoyed road trips and traveling together. Out side (and I should have gotten a picture) they have their names in the cements. He's lived there for 50 years! So sweet. He told us a little bit about his days in the war. He has been a rock collector and the kids loved looking at those. They each got to chose one and get a little trinket out of his many cases. We were glad that the kids got to meet their great grandpa (only one left) and it was a nice visit. I hope Alan gets the chance to go back soon and visit again!
We then headed off to the beach, but since we weren't prepared, the kids didn't get in swim suits and we didn't spend much time there. I was sick from the driving and lack of food (ugh, car trips are just NOT fun for me) and so Alan and the kids splashed in the waves while I enjoyed the beauty of the beach and ocean. The kids had so much fun with the waves and Zach kept inching out further and further trying to jump over them. Alissa swept onto her butt a few times because the waves were strong, but they had a great time! Next we were heading to Hemet, but the traffic was horrid, so we waited some of it out by having dinner and getting some stuff at a local organic store. On the drive to Hemet, Zach fell asleep and it was quiet in the car. It was only a couple hours, but the driving to and from that day made it seem like that's all we did. I WISH driving around didn't bother me, but it's a reality, so I was happy to be at our hotel when we got there. Alan left the next morning to spend some alone time with his grandma and the kids were excited to eat the free breakfast provided by the hotel. The plan was for the kids to go swimming while Alan was off visiting, but Alissa's swim suit was in the car in the dirty bag, so Alan came back and the kids went swimming. We then all headed off to Grandma Tissie's house and it was good visiting with her. She is just a great little sassy thing. She's very nice and inviting and engaged with the kids asking them questions about the trip etc. It was fun to see her again and listen to her stories as well.
Thursday we were heading out yet again and stopped by Grandma Tissie's again for another brief visit and then were on our way to my mom's house for the night! This ride because it was long and consistent went a lot better. We got to my mom's in time for dinner, to unwind and hit the hey.
Friday we were off to visit my grandma and It wasn't like most visits. The last time I saw her was about 8 months ago and although her short term memory was going at that time, she knew I was her little Issa. This time, however, she was excited to see visitors, but not once mentioned "her Issa" and introduced us as "relatives" and although I always thought the person "losing their mind" would be sad, they don't know much different, it's more sad for those who don't get to be a big part of their memories anymore. We did have a great visit though because she remembered Pup-Pup and we got our usual Zach, Pup-Pup and great grandma pictures! And although her memory is fogged she did remember that I loved her picture and called it "moo, moo" when I was little (although she got the house wrong saying it was in Indiana). So it was a good visit, she's almost 94, so it's to be expected that memory loss comes along with age. I love my grandma! We then headed HOME, YAY, home! It's always good to be home after a trip, but always kind of weird because they go by so quickly that I find myself wanting to go on more trips lol.
So, there you have it, our first week long vacation out of our usual like Park City and we had a good time!
I am bummed because I had taken a few videos and totally forgot the our camera is messed up and so there is no sound and it's in some weird fast motion. Oh well, next time I'll remember!