San Diego Children's Museum

Cory's been TDY for almost two weeks now. Last week I decided that I could trek to San Diego by myself with the kiddos. My friend Sarah just took a trauma nursing job down there. She's been really helpful this pregnancy and has driven to Edwards 2 or 3 times to help me out.
I figured the least I could do would be to make the effort to come see her!
Alas, driving three kids for 4 hours to stay in a single bedroom apartment is no easy task, but we made it work!

The only pictures I have are of the kids at the Children's Museum, just two blocks away from Sarah's apartment. We had big plans, but it rained a lot of the time we were there, and so this is one of the only 'activities' we ended up getting to do.

I have to say, I've never been to a better Children's museum. Most of the time, for the kids to really enjoy one, they need to be readers, but this was the PERFECT museum for kiddos who can't read. It was just interactive, fun playing! They loved it!


Here's the Marina, just a few blocks from Sarah's house. We thought the boys would really enjoy it, but by the time we made it there (this was after the museum) they were deliriously chasing pigeons and then both crashed asleep before we walked the length of it.




Here's Clay, a future artist maybe? I hope not, he's not going to be able to take care of my old decrepit body on an artists' salary.



The "Make your own bubble wand and then play in a giant sticky bubble mess" exhibit
Loved it.






They had this area with these weird costume pieces. Absolutely, 100%, Carter's FAVORITE part. He is very very into dress up.
Here's Clay trying some stuff on...although he's much more skeptical of stuff like this.



Carter having the time of his life.



They had this big rock that the kids just...painted. "Here's an apron, a paintbrush and a bucket of paint, have at it!"
I would like to remind everyone that knows me this was VERY HARD for me to watch. Two boys, with a bucket of paint. BUT, you would all be proud. I let them do whatever they wanted and paint for as long as they wanted. WITHOUT following behind them with a package of wipes. And while these shirts didn't survive the trip (there was a paint stabbing of sorts) we all kept our cool and and just went with the flow.




Loving the drums.






Cool riding toys, but the boys weren't quite old enough to do it on their own.



Here's how Vivi still spends every adventure.



Cool Grocery Store part. They loved putting stuff in their buggies and 'checking out'. Especially Clay!

Pumpkin Patch

Cory was scheduled to fly on Columbus Day, but lucky for us, it was cancelled.
We were wanting to take the boys to a pumpkin patch (it would be their first time!) and a friend of mine had told us about one up in Bakersfield. So, after the cancelled flight, we drove up to Bakersfield and enjoyed one of Murray Family Farms all to ourselves.

Here's Clay picking out him pumpkin.



Here's Carter with his



Me and Vivi




Helping Carter




On the hayride




They had advertised that they had a new petting zoo, and we were really disappointed. First of all, I don't consider animals in a corral that you can't enter a petting zoo. Secondly, because the zoo was only 3 days old, the animals wouldn't come near the gate to let us touch them. Clay is very much his mother's child and adores being close to the animals. (My parents couldn't drag me away from petting zoos to save their lives) The guy who gave us the tour allowed Carter to go in and pet the miniature horses but said Clay was too little. So here's Carter's petting zoo experience.



...And here's Clay's. :(




They had a corn/concrete tube maze...thing.

A Short Narrative

You entered my life at 27.



We got married and went to Hawaii



Then we camped a bunch :)



Got a dog and camped some more.



Shortly after, we decided to have some babies. You loved me when I got fat,



And we made the best of it :)


The babies just kept coming,



and coming,



and coming,



and now you're 33.
It's been a pretty cool ride, if I don't say so myself.

Happy Birthday my love!

Disneyland and Diarrhea

Oh my gosh, I know that title is super enticing to all of my readers, right? I mean, at least I didn't take pictures of the latter.
But Clay decided to have explosive diarrhea while we were at Disney. The magic just must have been to much for his little system...

Cory went to the annual SETP conference this year and basically listened to egotistical speakers one up each other for 3 days. But it's a complicated "one-upper" game when there's a bunch of people who have BEEN TO THE MOON. I steered clear of prideful conversations, as my only contributions would be 'wrestling a 2 year old to the ground and change his explosive dirty diaper while he exerts every 30 pounds of his bodily force onto you and being able to escape without a single poop flake upon you!' However, there were no such conversations.....
Maybe I'll convene a conference for that...

"So there I was, outnumbered... 100 to 1"


I digress..
One the first day, you would expect your almost 4 year old to want to RIDE RIDES! or MEET MICKEY! But no, we waited in line for half an hour to meet Tinkerbell. His choice, I swear.

He's so happy, there must be something magical in the air!



The view from our wait in line. We could have been riding a really fun fast roller coaster on that mountain...but no.



Clay, not as thrilled about the fairies...



My mom's idea of "how to not lose your children"



I figure this will be a good blackmail picture for when he's about 14



We're almost there...



Apparently Tinkerbell has friends these days. I'm sure after True Blood came out, the fairies decided to go public and that's how she met them. This is Silvermist, she was a little uppity for my taste though.



Tink was very chatty and personable.



Clay's favorite ride was the Carousel, We rode it once and he refused to sit on a horse, but he wanted to ride it again. The second time, he rode on a horse, and the third, fourth, fifth and sixth time, he balled his eyes out when it was over. We got lucky and got to ride the horse that Mary Poppins rode in the movie! Her initials are on it and everything! This picture is not a good synopsis of the time that was had on the carousel.



This is how Vivi spent most of her time at the park.





Sweet brothers, huh?



Ha, ha, just kidding. This is more representative of their bond.




Here we are on the giant Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel. We opted for the 'non swinging' one because of Vivi.



We got really lucky and were first in line when there was a switch off of Woody and Jesse so we got pictures with both! They were accompanied by their body guards, the Army Men.





My parents and the kiddos at California Adventure. This is day number two and diarrhea blow out number 475,962



Some more shots of Vivi. We're working on some different poses.





One more character and 7 more blowouts.

And Now, a Poem

Dear little hernia, please go away
She'd like to wear a bikini someday.
You gave Carter an outie, but that's okay.
Dear little hernia please go away.



Dear baby acne, get off of her face.
It's ugly and gross and it's a really bad case!
She's a girl don't you know, and acne's not good.
So please get off now, get off as you should!



Dear cradle cap, you're grossing me out.
You're dry and you flake and you make my girl pout.
She doesn't like it when I pick it all out.
Dear cradle cap, you're grossing me out.