San Diego Zoo

For Christmas, my Grandparents got each of us annual passes to the San Diego Zoo. We decided to put them to good use yesterday. San Diego had beautiful weather, but was CROWDED. Apparently, this is the place to be during the holiday season. The parking lot was full and so they had several designated parking area's around town and then you took shuttle buses to the zoo.

Before boarding the bus, we decided to have a picnic on the grass.

Kya sharing her apple crisp with Elsie.

After lunch, the kids decided to climb up this hill. Although they tried, neither child made it all the way to the top. It was a pretty STEEP hill, but a great way for them to burn off some excess energy after the two hour car ride.

Inside the zoo.

Seth checking out some animals.

Look, it's Timon from the Lion King! There were tons of these little Meerkat's, but I only got this one by its sign. He was a cool little dude.

Seth talked about the Elephants the entire drive down to the zoo. So, this was our 1st destination. There were three of them and I have to say they were pretty cute. They had several large containers filled with their food allowing the elephants to have to work/play for their meal, along with a super large loofah for them to rub their backs on.

This big guy had to come over and check us out.

Here you can see one of the containers holding food for the elephants behind Elsie. (It is the large black tube, just to the right of E's head)

Right across from the elephants were the alpaca's. Along with some other animals I don't remember.

Since Elsie had to be in her car seat for two hours and then in her stroller for a while longer, it was no surprise that she eventually wanted to get down and walk around for a bit. Here she is being a big helper by pushing the stroller. Shortly after this, she decided she needed to pick every pebble off of the ground, so we carried her for a spell before allowing her down again.

Two male rhinoceros.

Some pretty tall giraffes. Yes, I know they are supposed to be tall. hee-hee Their was a one month old baby too. They said he was 6 foot 5 inches at birth. That is one inch taller than Wayne!

I think the favorite exhibit for all of us was the orangutan's. Kya making her monkey face with one of the monkey's behind her.

She also decided to come over and check us out. Such an ugly woman,but so cool!

The orangutan and the kids check each other out.

Kissy face

and on the shuttle bus going back to our van so we could get some dinner and head home.

Thank you Grandma and Bob for getting us the passes. We and the kids look forward to many zoo visits, while educating them on various animals.

And as Seth would say after every exhibit, "Bye Animals, See Ya Later!"

Pigtails and Bows

Saturday, I put Elsie's hair in pigtails for the 1st time. She looked super cute! Then I decided to add a couple of bows and WOW, I think I aged my baby girl by a couple of months. Even though she kept trying to pull them out causing her hair to get a messy look to it, she never was able to get them out and sported them all day.
Modeling for the camera

Kya decided she also wanted to have bows in her hair. Of course being typical Kya, she pulled them out as soon as we got in the car.

A couple of bonus pictures.

Daddy's Girl.

Merry Christmas

After the kids put the cookies, milk & reindeer food out under the tree, they headed off to bed (or so that was the plan!). They were so excited about Santa coming, that it took over an hour for them to finally fall asleep. In the morning, first thing they did was run to the tree to see if Santa really did come. I think they looked at the empty cookie plate for 30-45 seconds in amazement. Kya even said "Santa was right here!"
The empty plate and mug. Santa didn't even leave a crumb behind!

Our tree after Santa's visit. You can see that he and his reindeer ate all their food and left lots of gifts behind.

This is also Kya's 1st time seeing the stockings hung up this year. She couldn't get over at all that Santa had left....filled stockings and presents under the tree!

Then we got busy opening our gifts. Actually, not really busy, as it took most of the morning. Each child would play with their present for a long while before going back to open a new one. Made for a fun morning.

Kya and a book she received from her teachers.

Seth opening up his present with his truck inside.

A new baby for Elsie

After all the presents were finally opened, we headed into the kitchen for our Christmas breakfast. A breakfast casserole and orange juice. Uncle Mark came in and joined us too. Then we exchanged our gifts with him.

We decided that this year we would stay home and celebrate with just our little immediate family. We are really glad we made this decision, as the kids got to really enjoy their new toys and no one felt rushed to get ready and out of the house. Plus, this also meant no long car rides or overstimulated children and we didn't have to travel through the canyon in the rain. A perfect day!

Even though we weren't going to be with all the grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins for dinner, we still wanted to have a nice Christmas dinner. So I made a small 14 pound turkey with all the fixing's. I put out our Christmas plates and made the table look as festive as it could with 3 little kids. Uncle Mark was able to join us again for dinner.

I forgot to take a picture of our turkey all dressed up on the platter before carving it. So here it is half carved in the roasting pan. Yes, we are a little silly. LOL

And our table filled with all our yummy food before we sat down to eat. Check out the adult Christmas plates & glasses mixed in with the kids everyday plates and sippy cups. Classic!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We are looking forward to spending next years Christmas with our family again, but thank you for understanding our desire to be home this year.

Merry Christmas Eve

Today was a very laid back day. The kids played, Wayne worked with the horses and I wrapped the Christmas gifts. Then tonight I picked up two pizza's from Little Cesar for dinner before we headed over to Thoroughbred Street in Alta Loma to check out their Christmas light display. There were about 4-5 blocks of homes that went all out. Due to the rain, we drove through instead of walking, which is what we had originally planned and would have enjoyed much more so that we could have seen the kids expressions better. Oh well, we always have next year.


One of the homes with their Christmas decorations. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you get the jist. I didn't take any more pictures because I was driving and because those that were walking would have been in my pictures.
Then we came home and put a sleeping Elsie to bed, while Kya and Seth laid out the cookies & milk for Santa Claus and carrots for his reindeer under our tree.

A close up picture of Santa's treats.

I told the kids that Santa Claus will be traveling all over the world and needs a snack because he will be mighty hungry from his travels. After his snack, he will leave presents under the tree and fill their stockings. I can't wait to see their faces in the morning, as the tree was empty when they went to bed and is now filled with gifts. Also, I didn't even pull their stockings out until they went to bed and I am not sure they remember them from last year.

Also, after Thoroughbred Street I gave Seth & Kya hot cocoa and Wayne read The Night Before Christmas to them. All I have to say is that they were wired! Especially Seth, who kept jumping on our bed while I was trying to make it and then talked up a storm and cried when it was time to go to sleep. He finally crashed at 10pm! Kya went to bed earlier, but tossed & turned until 9:15pm. Remind me to never tell them Santa is coming again. LOL

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and I will post more about our Christmas tomorrow night.

From our family to yours...

Trimming the Tree

I had been waiting for my Lowes gift cards to come in the mail from our rebate rewards on the discover card before buying our tree. They finally came on Tuesday and Wednesday I ran over to Lowes to pick our environmentally safe tree. I was able to purchase the last tree they had for 50% off of the ticket price. Score! Once the kids went down for their nap, my mom and I got busy putting it together and fluffing out the branches. I love this tree, because it only had 3 pieces to connect and the lights are already built in. Having a fake tree means that I can start decorating our home Thanksgiving weekend next year, don't have to worry about pine needles all over the floor nor having to water the tree. I think the tree looked pretty all by itself without any decorations.

Last night was our first night home as a family, which meant it was time to decorate the tree!

Kya and Seth danced together while I got everything ready.

For each of the kids 1st Christmas, I made clay molds of their hands. This was the first ornament that each child hung up. Kya went first. Followed by Seth. Notice that he had to put his exactly where Kya put hers.
Then I help Elsie hang her ornament up.
When I was a kids, we always had the youngest cousin put the Angel up. Elsie tried, but in the end, daddy actually had to do the honors. In our little family, we will have to rotate this job each year.
Kya carefully putting on more ornaments.

While Elsie had to check out each and every ornament.
Seth did his part too.
As you can imagine, all the ornaments were placed on the bottom half of the tree, as that is where the kids can reach. They ended up all bunched together like this.
and this.

After they were all in bed sound asleep, I went ahead and redecorated the tree to space things out more evenly. Our finished product.

Of course, this morning the tree has been investigated by my little ones and I see that I will have to do some redecorating again when they go down for naps. I may just end up with only the top half of the tree decorated. hmmm. I am also thinking I am missing a box, because I can't find a few things. Guess I will be going up into the attic during nap too.

Seth and the Snow

After our big snow storm last night, I decided to take Seth up to Lytle Creek to show him the snow before picking Kya up from school. We will have to take Kya next week. Oh My Goodness, there were SOOOO many people up there! It is usually very quiet and we only see the local residents when ever we go up there to BBQ and hike. The park we like to go to was closed due to all the snow and there was really no where to park or even turn around. The van got stuck once, but I was able to get it out after a few minutes. I eventually found a safe place to turn around and head back down the mountain. Once we were almost down, I was able to pull over and let Seth out to experience the snow. He LOVED it. We will definitely have to go back. My mom and Elsie stayed in the van, as we only had a few minutes before having to get Kya, plus it was too cold for them.


Seth is feeling the snow for the first time.
and he LOVES it. He became very excited and let out a little screech of enthusiasm.

Then he tried pulling me down the hill and said, "let's go over here Mommy". To which I replied, "No, it is too steep and slippery down there" LOL

As we were leaving Seth yells out "Bye, Snow, Bye"

I can't wait until we can go back to play when we have more time and are dressed in warmer clothes. After living at the beach all my life, it still amazes me that I now only live 10 minutes from this beautiful country scene.