San Diego -Day 4

I'm still determined to post every last detail of our trip.

If you're annoyed or tired of hearing about it, I get that, it's just that I'm still really in love with our time spent there and I'm not ready to move on just yet.

Soon.  Soon I'll be preoccupied with Ava's school and homeschool and my school and sewing some new project and fall camping trips and pumpkin patches and the new season of SOA and Christmas and Leah's first birthday ...and....and....a whole bunch of other, just, stuff and I'll slowly begin to forget about my love affair with San Diego that one brief week in August.  Soon.

Until then....Day 4!

Day 4 meant a trip to the Legoland Aquarium followed by a trip to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Park.

That's a Lego lady and baby with our Ava girl!  Isn't that crazy?

Overall, we weren't that impressed with Legoland's aquarium.  It was neat, yes, but without our Groupon we likely would have found it overpriced and not quite worth it.

But we still enjoyed things like petting starfish....

studying sealife......

and spending 30 minutes at the hand washing station continually washing, then drying, then washing, then drying...

After the aquarium, we spent the evening at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Park which was, in a word, incredible.

We saw a really neat bird show and we stopped to have a nice picnic.  Ava opted to sit several rows behind us, by herself, during the bird show.  You know, because she's 4 now and she's all about being independent.

Afterward, we loaded on a tram that took us around the wildlife park where were able to observe animals in a much more natural habitat than normally seen at the zoo.

Leah really loved it:

My big girl and her daddy rode on a hot air balloon, or as Ava says, "Whoa.  Wait a minute.  Not hot air, balloon, helium balloon."


This balloon lifted them 500ft in the air and lowered them back down using a giant cable.  Pretty neat, and much less nauseating for the anxious mommy waiting on the ground below.

Another late night, but such a great time.  The girls fell asleep before we'd even pulled out of the parking lot, so Wes and I took the opportunity to pick up an In-and-Out burger on our way back home....you know, because we're rule followers and there's that whole when in Rome thing....




Coming up next- Lazy Day 5 and Day 6, when dreams really did come true!

School Tales

Something triggered Ava's memory this morning and this story spilled out:

"Yesterday, at school during lunch, my teacher thought someone needed to go potty." she told us.  I got a bit nervous, after all we'd already heard about one incident involving throw up.
Cautiously, I asked her to go on, "Uh-oh.  So did they?"
"My teacher said, "Shoe-we!!  Someone in here must need to go potty!" but it wasn't me." she said.
We were really nervous now.  Wes hesitated and then asked again, "Well, did they?"

"No!  Someone's mother had just packed them a boiled egg in their lunch!"  she giggled.


****

Shortly after this she told us about her "rest time" at school that day.  I was very curious how rest time would go for our girl, since her mouth does very little resting throughout the day....

"I just have to sit there" she told us, "actually, not sit there, lay there.  Sometimes, I cross my legs like this to make them look like a big X, but I can't talk.  I just play with my legs."

Suddenly she crossed her arms and pouted, "And nobody even scratches your back!  You just have to lay there all alone!"


We've done quite a bit of laughing in the past 24 hours.  Apparently there are plenty of funny stories to bring home after just one day of school!

San Diego- Day 3 (and more!)

Day 3 of our trip we celebrated the 4th birthday of our Ava girl with a full day of birthday party fun on Mission Beach.  

Could it be more beautiful?

Ava's Auntie Cham spent so much time planning a wonderful party for her.  Everyone who came to celebrate with us was so kind and generous and we had such a great time....possibly the best day of our trip!  We were on the beach from 10:30am until well past 6pm, and although we were exhausted, it was such a relaxing and peaceful day. 

Our birthday girl occupied herself with her sand obsession....

...but in true Ava fashion she, of course, stopped every 10 minutes or so to ask when we'd be dishing out the cake....

Aunt Mandy was on scientist duty that day and did several experiments with the kids (and adults!). 

We all ventured into the water for a little body boarding this day.  We Texans moaned and groaned, our lips turned blue, and we shivered the rest of the day, but we braved that ice cold San Diego water like champs.

Because it's beautiful.

And because we love it.

And to warm up, we buried each other in the warm sand:

Later on, I'll tell you about day 7, when I was the absolute coldest I've ever been in my entire life.

Calm down, people!  Just wait for it!

On a completely separate note, yesterday was Ava's first day of school....sort of.  It was her first day, but it was a half day, and a day for only new students.  Tomorrow is her actual first full day.

But, we treated yesterday like her first day, complete with first day pictures!

....she really was very excited, she just isn't a morning person, and our transitions need to be verrryyy slow in the morning, which is hard to do when you're trying to get everyone ready and out the door by 8am.


But Leah Jane is a morning person!  And what you do for one, you must do for the other, so she made me pretend that yesterday was her first day, too:

Here's a sweet picture of Ava's little school.  Isn't it adorable?

She had a great time, even though she wasn't there for very long.  And, as cliche as it sounds, it really was very hard to watch her walk into that classroom, a big preschooler for the very first time.

Poor Leah Jane, she called, "Aba?  Aba?  Aba?" the entire time Ava was at school.  I think she and I will have the hardest time adjusting....we'll miss our Aba girl.


Day 4 and more school pics...coming soon!

San Diego- Day 2

Would you think I was crazy if I said that I'm having a hard time remembering what we did on our second day in San Diego?  


Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe I have a major case of mom brain, or maybe I've just been up to my ears in laundry since we returned, only taking a break to take Ava to her 4 year checkup and get her ready for her first day of school.....


....first day of school.  Can you see the sadness coating the text of those four words? 


Anyway, it took way too long but I was finally able to remember:


Chula Vista Nature Center!  


It was our first time to pet a manta ray, see a black jelly fish, and watch a bald eagle slowly tear the flesh off his rat lunch.  

Day two of our trip left us with two incredibly tired little girls who were still adjusting to the time change.  Poor Leah Jane reverted back to her newborn days and began taking two and three naps per day again.

And, since my mind is all over the place, you won't mind me "keeping it real" and reviewing our day backward.  You see, Chula Vista was the end of our day.  Our day began with an incredible run down the harbor, not 10 feet from several air craft carriers.  There is no better way to start the day....

That picture was taken around 8am....during Leah Jane's first nap of the day.  Sweet girls, they were so exhausted.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures from day 3 (Ava's birthday!) as well as an update on her first day of school.  In the meantime, here's to a great first day for our big girl!


***

For my records, our tiny girl weighed 29 lbs. and was 31 inches tall.  She has a 13% BMI and her vision was 20/30.  Oh, and the entire office knows that we have two dogs, a hermit crab, and we drive a Prius.  It's gray, but our cousin, Naomi, her Prius is red and she lives in San Diego which is close to where we went to Disney World, and where dreams really do come true.  Also, when Ava grows up, she'll be a hair cutter, and then a scientist....a paleontologist....and she'll discover bones.  No, not bones, fossils.


Verbatim.

San Diego- Day 1

We left our house around 6:20am.  It was surprisingly doable.  I'd packed everything but the kitchen sink the night before and we even dressed the girls in the clothes they'd be wearing on the plane so that they could sleep as late as possible.  I, on the other hand, was so paranoid about sleeping through the alarm that I slept in 30 minute spurts the night before our departure.  When traveling with a 4 year old and a 20 month old, it is best to get proper rest.  I would later learn that lesson.....

So, we arrived unscathed, and without any major incidents.  Leah was pretty perfect the entire flight, and it was Ava who melted down on occasion, leaving all the wary passengers who, upon boarding, looked at us with nervous eyes and avoided sitting near us lest they be bothered by a screaming baby a bit confused.


We were welcomed in San Diego by our sweet family and beautiful weather.  It didn't even matter that we had to strap in two carseats!!  We didn't even sweat!!!  Can you Texans even imagine!?

Eating was, of course, high on my list of things to do, so we went out for brunch where I proceeded to eat more delicious goodness in one single slice of french toast than I'd had in weeks.  It was divine.

Ava was dying to go to the beach, so after we went home and unloaded, we headed straight to Coronado Island, the place where we'll live when we're ridiculously rich.  It was beautiful.

My Ava girl loved the sand.  We'd barely stepped foot on the beach before she plopped down and began writhing in it.  

One day, when we're all 70 years old, our children will gather around us and pull out all of our old pictures and want to know the story behind them.   Since we've decided to make this gathering an annual one, it makes perfect sense that we set a family picture tradition.  Everyone groans and moans about having beach hair, or the sun in their eyes, or cellulite stealing the show, but trust me, one day we'll be grateful we captured these sweet moments. 

We ended our first day with the cousins sitting together for dinner.  They were all so excited to be together that it didn't even matter that our poor children were exhausted and up later than they'd been in months.  If they'd had it their way, I doubt they would have gone to sleep at all!  But, we forced them to rest up....we had 7 more days of packed San Diego fun, afterall!

Day 2 coming soon...

missing San Diego...

We're back in Texas, and besides being reunited with our house and the comforts of home (you know, the ability to stuff my face at my own leisure...stuff like that), we're not at all happy about being back.  Not at all.

We left perfect weather, constant friendship with great family, beautiful beaches, gorgeous mountains, delicious food.....to get on a plane and fly back into the sweltering torture that can only be described as Texas in August.

We've only been home 24 hours and Wes is already tired of me formulating plans that will get us a permanent residence in perfect San Diego.  We will live there one day, I'll see to it.

I plan on breaking our trip down day by day (it was so great that not even one moment can go unmentioned), but I'm waiting on pictures from my brother-in-law before I get started reminiscing.  Until then, I leave you with a few pictures that sum up the complete and utter happiness that we all felt each day that we spent in San Diego.

(our first day at the beach on Coronado Island (we're missing brother Paul!))

(three happy cousins at the top of windy Mt. Soledad)

(Disneyland!!!)

Stay tuned, many more pictures to come! 

my ava girl

I'm posting this a bit early, because we won't be in town, and because I haven't really come to terms with the fact that our tiny girl is about to be four years old.  

I'm still not quite sure how that's possible, when it was just yesterday that I did this for the first time: 

It still seems surreal, even four years later, that we had a daughter that day.  A daughter!  A little piece of me and Wes (although mostly Wes), with pouty little lips, a tiny upturned nose, and the sweetest tuft of reddish brown hair we'd ever seen.  

And, wasn't it only just last week that we celebrated her first birthday?  It isn't possible that it's been three years since I sat in our favorite yellow chair, read her a book, nursed her to sleep, and felt the purest form of happiness at having shared 365 days of my life with someone so perfect.  

I refuse to believe it's been 2 years since we celebrated her 2nd birthday, a bittersweet day that would mark her last birthday as our only child.  Has it really been that long since we made my favorite home video where she tugs at her shirt and whines, "This shirt.  It's not fitting Aya!"

Sometimes I worry that I'm forgetting all the little things.  The funny things she used to say as her vocabulary was developing, her quirky expressions, or, scariest of all, the way she looked when she was a baby.  Thankfully, we've done a decent job documenting the first four years of her life, and a quick trip down video/picture lane fills the void that has slowly begun to wear away at my heart as we move further from her baby days.  But I still miss it.  I'll always miss it.  

I remember her third birthday so clearly it's as though it just happened.  We were up to our ears in moving boxes and home remodeling dust.  But my girl, her third birthday only happens once, and we made sure to celebrate her the best way we knew how.  A Wiggles concert followed by, her favorite, cake.

The crazy thing?  When she sleeps, she still looks exactly the same as she did the day she was born.  And, those sleeping moments, they're the best time for me to sit next to her and study those same pouty lips, and those same eyelashes that curl so perfectly on her cheeks, and really drink in the fact that four years ago she made me a mommy.  Four years ago, my heart doubled in size the instant that I saw her tiny face, held her close to my chest, and nursed her for the very first time.  I'll never forget the feeling of immense love that was bursting out of me that day, no matter how many birthdays we celebrate.

As her sister nears her second birthday, I'm reminded more and more of how much she looks like Ava.  A gesture, or a facial expression....

Leah's a little better at the dramatic meltdown than Ava was at this age though...

She's also really good at being completely adorable....

We had Ava's Texas birthday party this past weekend.  Beauty and the Beast in abundance and a great time spent with family and friends:

Ava led the singing of Happy Birthday to herself, and had this sweet look on her face when everyone else chimed in:

She also received this guy, the newest addition to our family, appropriately named, Herman:

Coming to terms or not, our big girl is about to be four, and we're well aware of how lucky we are to be her parents.  We're just as thrilled today as we were that special day four years ago.  And, when times get tough and I hang my head in defeat and wonder what else I can possibly do wrong in this crazy game of parenthood, I'm reminded of that first time I held her, the way she looked, the way she felt, the way she smelled, and I know that I'll figure it all out eventually.  Because 1460 days of love is a lot, and I think that's enough to get us by.

 ..even if it was just yesterday that she was born.