Opening Day

It is that time of year again. Opening baseball day for the town and we were all in the spirit to celebrate and spectate the big parade. 

The Oregon Ducks

Walking in the parade.

The best support team in the business.

Our baseball star.

After the parade and opening ceremony, Connor went over to try the pitch, hit and run contest.  It is a National contest which tests all aspects of your game.  It was fun to compete and even Emily and Garrett took a turn running the bases.  It was a gorgeous day to celebrate baseball.

Garrett's First Offical Baseball Team - The Reds

Garret is off to an amazing start with his first official baseball team.  He is #2 and #5 is his best friend Brendan. (oh and that is Emily in the middle if you couldn't guess) The team is made up of many of the younger players of the league but they are holding their own. 

Garrett's batters stance and concentration is quite intimidating for the other team.  Watch out because Garrett can really launch that ball.

Spring Has Begun

You know Spring has arrived when the kid's sports schedule is so overwhelming you don't know how you are going to make it.  Connor has started up his spring Soccer and Baseball season.  Happily, Garrett is on his first official baseball team as well. 

We are going to keep very busy. 

An Evening at the Coronado

After the day at Lego Land, we decided to take advantage of the rental car and head out to Coronado to see the beautiful town, beach and hotel that are famous.  The kids really do thrive on vacation and are up for every new adventure even when tired.  The beach was beautiful but it was quite cold and windy.  So they stayed near the walkway and built little castles while they were there.

  

Daddy found a great little outdoor pizza place at the Coronado hotel and we ate under heat lamps in luxury.   It was a beautiful evening and so much fun to see.  It was the perfect last night in San Diego.   What a great trip!

Thank you daddy for planning this whole trip. It was great and the kids did fantastic for mommy who was flying solo on the way back with them.

LegoLand

The most important thing you need to know about Daddy is that he makes things happen.  No matter how daunting or ridiculous, your dad always finds a way.  The reason I bring this up is that Daddy managed to find a car rental place for one day so that we could drive to LegoLand which is an hour away from our hotel. So the kids waited patiently while daddy went to go get the car.

It was a beautiful drive and we even managed not to get lost.  We got right to the rides and games which were so cute and of course, made out of Legos.

It didn't take long for Connor and Garrett to earn their LegoLand drivers licenses.

On your mark, get set, go - and they are off.  

By far this was Emily's favorite ride which we all rode more times than I could keep count.

The Lego display is simply gigantic and impressive.  Garrett kept going over the boundaries because he wanted to see the battle scenes closer.

Couldn't resist to prove that I was on this trip too!  See there I am.

LegoLand was definitely worth the trip and it was a fun filled day of exploration.

SeaWorld

Sea World was our favorite park in all of San Diego.  We started the day off at the Killer Whale show and it was absolutely astounding.  We were all entranced by the training and the unbelievable accomplishments of the animals.

Look at that jump...the kids thought this was amazing.

Then we headed over to the sting rays where you could pet and feed them.  The children were not too thrilled with the little fish and did not want to touch them.  So Daddy and I helped them lean over to feed the sting rays which was so interesting.

The dolphin show was spectacular and the stunts and tricks kept us on the edge of our seats.

Connor taking in the penguins at play.

Here is a Beluga Whale being watched.  We also watched a walrus have its lunch against the viewing window.  It was mesmerizing, disgusting and totally interesting all at the same time.

There was also a gigantic kids park right in the middle of Sea World so it was hard to get the kids to leave. They bounced, played and ran around until they were exhausted.

Unfortunately during our stay we found out about the events at the Boston Marathon this year.  It did dampen the mood of the day but made us thankful for all of our blessing.

A Walk Along the Water

After the day at the ballpark, I suggested we go for a walk.  Can you hear the collective moaning and groaning that my children let out upon that suggestion?  It was like I asked them to go shopping for shoes.  Well, after our walk they all had to admit they had a blast. 

 We headed through the convention center - actually more appropriately we ran up and down about a thousand steps through the convention center and arrived at a beautiful park along the water.  Of course, we can't keep Garrett on the ground for long because he was climbing everything.

 Garrett climbed almost every tree we saw - unfortunately he doesn't always think about getting down.  As you can see, he got a little ahead of himself on this tree and required some assistance to get down.

 The waterfront is absolutely gorgeous from every view.

 Then, we couldn't get any of the kids to stop climbing. 

 We managed to make it all the way to Seaport Village up the other end of the promenade. 

We ended our little walk at a great Mexican restaurant and came home with some full bellies.  Our adventure was so much fun the kids insisted we do the walk again the next day.

Day Game

Anybody that knows Connor knows he is obsessed with sports, especially baseball. So we were headed back to the ball park on Sunday for the day game. The morning was spent shopping for some Padres gear, sweatshirts, t-shirt and baseball. Once we were all dressed appropriately we headed to the ballpark.

We were sitting seven rows back from the field so we were right in the action. It was really fun. Of course Emily was head first into a tub of popcorn with Garrett. 

This game was a close contest until Todd Helton came up for the Rockies in the eighth inning and hit a two run home run.

We loved visiting Petco Park - the convenience was unbelievable and we were able to be right in all the action.  The whole family loved being at the game.

A Room With a View

At the end of our hallway of our hotel room, this is our view.  The kids loved looking out and seeing all the action every day. 

For Connor, this is what you call the perfect view from your hotel.

Saturday Night

After a complete day at the zoo, we knew we didn't want to waste any time. So we decided to head to a Padres baseball game. First stop was dinner because we were all hungry. Daddy decided to get the cardiac arrest burger -  Look at that thing.

Emily even got to have a glass of lemonade which she loved.

The Padres were playing the Colorado Rockies and what a game. It was a high scoring game with lots of action. The final score was 9 to 5 with the Rockies winning.

I forgot to mention that our hotel is actually connected to the ballpark. So we walked across our private little entrance ramp right into the stadium. How convenient is that - good planning daddy.

We had to drag Connor out of the stadium because the game was over 4 hours long.  The only way we got him out of the ballpark was telling him that we were coming back on Sunday for another game.  Connor loves sports!!!  It was a super fun evening.

When A Peacock Attacks

Our last stop of the day at the zoo was the kids zoo store. On our way, we passed the flamingo exhibit and in the front was the most beautiful peacock with its back feathers displayed in full effect. We all ran up to take a look. All of a sudden the peacock took flight. Connor ran so fast away from the exhibit I thought he might have ran all the way back to Boston. Garrett stood firm but when the peacock landed on the railing an inch from his hand, Garrett was quick to retreat as well. We all jumped back when the peacock flew to the ground right next to us and proceeded to walk around the zoo.
Connor came back to us and announced it was time to leave before we were attacked again and died. It truly was amazing timing and had us all laughing.

San Diego Zoo

Our first day in San Diego we knew exactly where we were headed, the zoo. I have always heard about the phenomenal exhibits at the zoo and it definitely lived up to its reputation. The zoo was enormous and I think we could have walked for days and still not have seen everything.

Garrett is an animal enthusiast so he was full of energy bounding around the zoo like he was a Kratt brother (a kids show all about animal adventures). He single-handedly taught us many amazing facts about each animal. The elephant exhibit, jaguar, cheetah and orangutans were some of our favorites.

What a fantastic day!

Being silly with the llamas.

San Diego Here We Come

For spring vacation Daddy planned a fun get away for us to beautiful San Diego. We left last night on Alaska airlines and were delayed An hour which feels like an eternity when you have to keep your children in a seat belt the whole time. Once we were on our way, the kids all watched one video had a snack and it was off to sleep. I absolutely loved having Garrett and Emily asleep on my lap. I tried so hard to get the picture but it was coming out to dark and I couldn't risk disturbing them. Once we landed at 11pm, really 2am EST, the kids were all amazing getting the luggage and getting to the hotel. Since they were amped up , we ordered some room service and had a picnic. Quickly it was off to bed and they are already awake 7am today. We are off to explore.

Oh Noodle!

Just when you think everything is going smoothly, your little girl sitting at the dinner table listening to a book being read sticks a penne noodle up her nose.  So far up her nose that you can barely see it.  For two hours, we tried to suction the noodle out with no luck.  This included trying to hold her down but resulted in her getting so upset she threw up on me.  Then, we tried tweezers but since the noodle was already cooked it just kept breaking into pieces.  With the thought of an Oprah show and Dr. Oz, I remember them explaining the theory behind the neddy pot.  It was explained that if you put water in one side of your nose, it should flow out the other when you hold your head sideways.  It was now two hours later, when I asked Emily to hold her breath and I used the children's aspirator to blow air into the other side of her nose.  Low and behold, the noodle shot out of her nose.

Looking back on this tramatic event, I can now laugh knowing all is well.  But seriuosly, how can you push an entire noodle up your nose.  Unbelievable.  Hopefully, our adorable little lady has learned that things don't belong up our nose. 

Easter 2013

Easter is upon us this year and it feels like it has arrived so quickly.  Connor is a stickler for tradition so we had to hop to it and get the house ready.  First step, put up our Easter decorations and get out our Easter baskets.  Step two, prepare for the process of egg dying.  The kids grabbed the newspaper and set up the table. 

We decided to dye six dozen eggs, yes, 72 eggs.  

This gave us lots of time to get messy and allowed for lots of creativity for the dying process.  Although Emily only wanted pink.

Boy is it tough to wait for the perfect color.

It is evening time and we left out all our hard work for the Easter bunny. 

The kids woke up so excited to hunt for the Easter eggs.  It didn't take them long to get to work.

They worked together and helped each other.

Emily even found many of the eggs on her own.  It was a fun filled day and very relaxing.  Happy Easter everyone!