Sea World

After my family left, Paul still had a couple days off from work, so we packed our bags, got a hotel and headed down to San Diego for a Sea World Trip. Our good friends, Tina and Danny, were planning a Sea World trip too and the timing worked out just perfect and we were able to all go together. We had planned to get to the hotel earlier to be able to swim on Thursday, but traffic was awful and it ended up taking us 4 hours to get to the hotel. So by the time we had dinner and settled in a bit, it was too late to swim. The Phillips got to the hotel a couple hours after us, so the kids played a bit, me and Tina chatted, then we called it a night. 

The next morning we were up bright and early. Got some yummy breakfast downstairs and headed to Sea World. The weather was warm and a bit humid, but really could have been much worse. The park wasn't terribly crowded. We were able to see all the shows we wanted, ride some little rides with the kids, let them play in the water area, and have some lunch. It was a good, but exhausting day. Tina and I both agreed that we didn't know how we had done Disneyland as much as we did, without our hubbies even. After the park, we did a quick drive through at Wendy's and then all headed back to our rooms and crashed. Tina and her family had to get up early to head out for another fun adventure, so we didn't see them the next morning. We all, including Carter, slept until 9 am! It was wonderful. Then I sent Paul down to get breakfast for us and we all ate in our room. We checked out at noon and headed 30 minutes further south to visit Steve and Soul for the day and swim in their new and totally awesome pool! Here are some pictures from our fun day at Sea World!

Brandon loved waiting for the water to pop up so he could punch it over and over and over!

Skytower ride. This was a fun way to see the whole park at once.

Carer is starting to get a bit dazed in this picture. He was so good the whole day though. Despite the fact that he got very little sleep. 

Sesame Street Show.

The girls waited in line for a while to get on this bouncy thing. They kept complaining to Paul about the wait, but of course, once they got on they LOVED it and kept talking about how fun it was. 

Getting lunch for everyone was a challenge. Carrying Carter, plus two BIG heavy trays of food and finding a table. Whew. That might have been the most exhausting part of the day. The food was good though, which it better have been for as much as it cost!

What a good hubby I have! Changing a poopy diaper in a stroller. 

Tina said I was like a kid in a candy store about getting to see this Cirque de mer show and she was right. It is my most favorite thing. I just can't get over how cool these acrobats are. It's the main reason I love going to the circus too! This was only a 20 minute show, but it did not disappoint. These people are incredible!

Petting some starfish.

Sea Lion show. It was more of a comedy show. The kids loved it. 

This was the last exhibit of the day. The polar bear den. I think the kids were half delirious (as were Tina and I) by this point. All the sugar they had probably didn't help either. It was pretty hilarious to watch them though. They were CRAZY!

The hubbies unfortunately missed this though. They stayed outside with the sleeping babies. I think they were fine with it though. Haha...They were just as exhausted. 

Of course I had to sing the "baby beluga" song right here. Tina pretty much made fun of me the whole time, but whatever. It was good entertainment.

I don't know what happened at this point, but the girls got into this "roaring" thing and went crazy with it. 

Here they are acting scared. Except for my Ashlyn. She's not the theatrical type.

This picture cracks me up! Ashlynn and Leah were hilarious! We couldn't stop laughing at them. I think I was in tears I was laughing so hard.

Here's a short clip from the girls "roaring". I was dying laughing. I know it's a bit dark, but you can still get the effect!

9 month stats

Carter had his 9 month check up this morning.

He's 20 pounds and 4 ounces

29 inches long

Head 45.75 cm

That puts him at 50% for weight

75% for height

65% for head

His iron test came back perfect and he got two shots and only cried for half a minute!

A Rattlesnake

Warning: Graphic pictures ahead.

So Paul called me yesterday on his way home from church. He tells me that he's right outside our house and he saw a snake in the street. I ran outside and the snake had slithered over to the house across from us and under a rose bush. I get a cautious distance from him and realize it's a rattlesnake. There were kids out playing in the street, as there usually are, so I yelled over to them to come here. I told them there was a rattlesnake and they needed to be careful playing outside. That drew the attention of two other neighbors. One who brought a shovel and another who brought a bb gun. The guy with the bb gun shot it several times. It's rattle started going off like crazy. It was mad. I went inside at that point. I didn't want to watch them kill it. Paul stayed to see the end result. It crawled under a utility box where one neighbor lifted the box and the other shot at it again. They successfully killed the thing. Chopped of his head and then his rattle (someone wanted to save it I guess). 

And while I am VERY glad it is no longer living across the street from me, it kind of makes me sad in some weird sort of way. That they killed it, that is. I know they are dangerous and all, but still. Just gives me a yucky feeling. And really makes me wonder if there are more living right over there. I'm sure there are. We do live in the desert after all. Snakes are everywhere. I just hope I don't see anymore in my neighborhood!

Canning some Salsa

This is actually my second batch of salsa, but the first time I tried it I used a seasoning packet with tomatoes from my garden. It was good but it had a cumin taste to it. Almost as if it had taco seasoning in it. So the second time I decided to make it all from fresh ingredients and my own seasonings. I found a recipe online and made it just hours before we were suppose to be leaving for San Diego for our big weekend vaca. I know....it was pretty crazy timing being that I hadn't even begun to pack, but I had a ton of fresh tomatoes sitting on my counter and I knew they would be bad by the time we got back. I couldn't let them go to waste. 

So I ran to the store, bought the rest of the ingredients and got to chopping.

The most time consuming part was scalding and peeling the tomatoes. The chopping actually didn't take that long. Then I just boiled it all for a good while, poured it into jars and steamed bathed it (Brooke, I swear I will not keep your steamer forever. I must buy my own. It's awesome). 

Here's the end result. And it's pretty tasty too. Almost a bit sweet even though it has no added sugar. I think I might try some other seasonings if I make it again. Maybe to give it a bit more of a kick. 

Pool Day and Girls Night

After our big outing to the Aquarium the day before we decided to have a more relaxing day and hang out at the pool and then have a girls night. The weather was perfect. No one else was at the pool the whole time we were there and the girls night was entertaining to say the least.

My cute little guy chilling after a nice long swim. Ok, so he just floated around, but hey, that's swimming to him.

My sis soaking in some sun.

Have to take advantage of any opportunity Brandon actually lets me take his picture.

Paul is a great kid entertainer. He had everyone doing a cannon ball contest. This is the only shot I timed just right. It's of Blaike taking his turn.

My nephew Brent is 17 and loves to make funny faces at me when I try to take his picture. So typical of a 17 year old boy.

Sweet little Ash. She's a fish these days. Just loves the water. 

For our girls night we first headed to Kirklands to buy stuff to decorate my family room. Then we went out to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. But then the waiter told us there was a Cheesecake Factory around the corner, so after dinner we hopped over to Cheesecake for dessert! Yum!!!

We took this picture with the self timer. It came out all grainy. Don't know why. Maybe cuz it was so dark out. Anyway, below is Beth (my Dad's girlfriend), Desiree (my sister), Heather (my SIL), and me. Can we say, "One of these things is not like the other"! I'm grossly underdressed. But hey, my ankle was hurting and I had an ace bandage on it. I was trying to cover it up. I didn't think they would dress as if we were going clubbing....as if I EVER do that! 

Heather will probably kill me for posting this, but we had the biggest laugh over this picture.  It looks like she is patting Desiree's pregnant belly (except my sister is NOT pregnant). You probably had to be there, but we thought it was pretty hilarious!