Another Week...

This past week Matt's Uncle passed away. It was very quick and very unexpected, we still weren't quite over the shock of hearing that he was ill. We felt very blessed that we were able to attend his funeral. It is one of the reasons we chose to live out here in the high desert's of California, so that we would be closer to family for a while. Matt left work early on Thursday, and as soon as he got home we piled in the car to head to Utah. We arrived in Utah about 130am that night. The next morning we attended the beautiful graveside service for his Uncle. Then we hung out with family at the luncheon. It was great to see lots of relatives that we hadn't seen in years, and to get updated on every one's goings on. Also sad that it takes something tragic to bring the family all together. After the get together for Matt's Uncle we visited quickly with my family for a few hours, and then took the kids up to see their cousins. I got to go to dinner to my favorite Chinese restaurant (if you live in Utah and like Chinese go to Rice Wok! You won't regret it!), and loved every bite of it! The next morning, Saturday, we loaded back up and headed home to California. It was a whirlwind trip, but again, we felt so blessed that we were able to do it and support the family. As we were saying goodbye to Matt's recently widowed Aunt, she gave us some wonderful words of wisdom. She told us to just live life and enjoy every minute you have with each other. "Just Enjoy Each Other"!

San Diego!

This past weekend, President's day weekend, Matt and the girls had a long weekend. They all had Friday and Monday off, so we decided to take advantage of the break. We went down to San Diego, CA to have some fun. We have been wanting to see all that San Diego has to offer, so we decided to see SOME of it during the holiday. We decided to narrow it down to two parks, and the kids voted for Legoland and Sea world this time. Luckily both parks offer excellent deals, so it was very affordable. San Diego is not to far from here, a little shy of 3 hours away. We woke up early Friday morning and drove down. We made it just in time for Legoland to open. Legoland is fairly new, 10 years old, so it was a new place for Matt and I as well. What a cool park! I highly recommend it if you have younger children. This park is all about the kids. The kids could go on all the rides (if they had wanted too), and there are three smaller roller coasters that Anya would go on. All the ride props, park attractions (except the ride themselves), and decorations are made out of legos. So in Dino land, the life size dinosaurs are all made out of legos. On the Safari ride, the life size animals are all made out of legos and so on. The whole day I kept thinking that our nephew, Aiden, would LOVE this park! There was even a roller coaster on Castle hill that was a Dragon, Anya's latest infatuation, so she was thrilled. One sure way to get Anya on a coaster is to have it look like a dragon!

We stayed in a very nice room at the Marine Corps' Miramar Inn. It was very centrally located between everything we wanted to do. The next day we went to Sea World San Diego. We have been to the Orlando one (ages ago) and to the San Antonio one several times. So the kids new exactly what to expect and were very excited. They LOVE sea creatures! We did all the traditional events, like seeing Shamu and the dolphins. This time the kids were brave and they actually got to touch and pet sting rays. Hannah would touch one, scream and run away, and then come back to touch one again. She is such a drama queen! The kids each got to feed a dolphin, and we all (except Cora...she didn't want to) got to pet the dolphin's too. This was the highlight I think...the kids talked about this for days! At the tidal pool the kids got to touch starfish and other creatures that are found in tidal pools. It was an awesome day, which was also Valentines day.

The next day was Sunday and we were heading back home on this day. We decided to go to the coast and take a stroll along the boardwalk near a beach. We ended up at Mission beach, and for the most part we enjoyed our outing. The kids were very bummed that they didn't get to go into the water. Hannah kept exclaiming, with the other's chiming in agreement, that it is not a very fun beach visit when we don't get to swim in the ocean. Next time Hannah...when it is warmer! All in all we had a great Valentines day/President's day/San Diego weekend!

Hannah's Balancing Act

Here is some footage of Hannah's new balancing talent!

This Week

Not a whole lot happened this week, but we did have a couple of interesting and comical moments. Anya's "moment" was not very "comical". She fell during PE and bent her finger back. I couldn't get a real good picture, but it was swollen twice it's normal size and very discolored. The interesting part was, she didn't tell any of her teachers she got hurt, and didn't tell me until after she had practiced and returned from piano lessons. She comes to me and says "mom, my finger kind of hurts". I look down at it and see that it is swollen and bruised. Yeah, I can see that it probably hurts a bit!

My attempt at capturing Anya's injury.

Hannah had some shining and zaney moments this week. She lost another tooth, her third one, but first top tooth. She was very excited for the Tooth fairy to come. It was very loose and we decided to give it one more day to loosen up. While Hannah was at school she bit into a grape, yes a soft grape, and lost her tooth. Most of loosing teeth experiences revolve around food! She was thrilled, because she got to go to the nurses office and receive a special necklace in the shape of a tooth to put her tooth in for safe keeping. She was good and the tooth fairy did arrive.

Hannah's zaney moment occurred after taco and burrito night. She decided to walk all around the house and balance a plate on her head. She, amazingly, at one point balanced that plate for about 15 minutes. It was funny to see her walking around with a plate on her head, eating a tortilla. She looked like a little Mexican girl with a sombrero on.

Wrong Number

I had a pretty interesting and funny experience this morning while I was taking Hannah to school. We bought our Saturn Outlook about 1 1/2 years ago (still love it!); when we bought it, it came with Onstar and a phone already built in to the car. You just push a button and the phone works through the car's stereo system. Our car has a designated phone number and everything, it's pretty cool. So this morning, driving home after I dropped off Hannah, I was listening to the radio and the car started ringing. I had been messing with the rear view mirror...so I thought I had accidentally hit a button or something, but NO...someone was calling me. Here is how the conversation went:
Deep male voice : Hello
Me: Hello??? (in my head...are you really there, this is so weird)
Deep male voice: HELLO
Me: Hello, can I help you ( in my head...who are you, did I call you???)
Deep Male voice: Can I talk to Steve?
Me: You have the wrong number. ( in my head...OK, this dude called me)
Deep male voice: Steve's not there?
Me: No, sorry you've got the wrong number.
Deep male voice: Are you sure Steve's not there? I called Steve.
Me: I am sure...this is the wrong number, you called my CAR!!!
Deep male voice: This isn't 254-***-****
Me: Yes that is my car's number...not Steve (getting a little irritated, man this guy is dense...I think the whole 'you called my car' thing threw him off)
Deep male voice: silence...then dial tone, he hung up.

I thought it was pretty funny. It is the first time I have had someone call a wrong number and reach my car! On a disappointing note, that call interrupted one of my favorite songs on the radio and I missed the end!

There She Goes!

Here's Anya about an hour after she learned to ride her bike.

She's hooked!

Kid Korner

Cora

I usually help the kids pick out their clothes during the week, mainly because we have school and places to be. Saturdays are usually the exception. I generally let the kids pick out their own clothes and wear what they want, within reason...unless we have somewhere to be and then I help. So yesterday, Saturday, this is the outfit that Cora picked out to wear. You can't see it very well, but her skirt has polka dots. She is taking to heart that the new fashion "yes" allows you to wear stripes and dots together. Also, notice the tag by her neck, she likes to wear her clothes backwards too!

Her new love and passion is playing the drums. (takes after her dad) Ever since we aquired Rock Band 2, she has been begging to play the drums almost every day. She has now upgraded from the "freestyle" mode, to playing along with songs in the "no fail" mode. It is too cute! She must do it all on her own, and refuses any attempts we make to help. FYI, we do censure the songs she can play...so far it is pretty much "Eye of the Tiger".

Hannah

Our Miss Hannah has left us speechless this week! We got a note home from school informing us that Hannah would be recognized in an awards assembly this past week. Awards assemblies are not unusual out here, Anya gets recognized monthy at her school...but this was the first time for Hannah. They don't tell you what recognition they get, you pretty much find out at the assembly. So Matt and I went Wendsday morning. To our shock, Hannah was awarded an "Outstanding Achievment in Math" award. Hannah...math?!!! We mentioned our surprise to her teacher, and she looked at us like we were insane. Apparently Hannah is her top math student, she is a wiz at addition and is even doing basic multiplication....in first grade.

Who knew?! Hannah we are so proud of you!

Hannah recieving her award

The proud award recipient

Anya

Anya learned how to ride a bike this week! This was a huge development for our family. She had a bike with training wheels that she had outgrown, so I had gone to the thrift store and bought a bigger bike in pretty good condition for like $5. Anya has had this fear of learning to ride a bike. She was afraid of steering, going fast, and falling over. So she has really never even attempted to learn to ride a bike. Matt and I never really pushed her, but I was not going to buy a fancy, expensive bike if she wasn't going to ride it. This gently used bike had no training wheels, so it really never got ridden. This past week Anya tells us that we need to fix up her bike (air in tires, seat adjusted....), because on Saturday she wanted to learn how to ride it. She said that all her friends can ride a bike, and she must be the only kid in third grade that doesn't know how. Well, come Saturday, Anya still wanted to learn how to ride her bike. So Matt fixed up her bike and took her out to the common area in our neighborhood. He spent about an hour with her and then came home. I thought Anya had had enough for one day and would try again another day...but NO! She had learned how to ride her bike in that hour. That's determination for you. Now we can barely get her off it, all she wants to do is ride her bike! Good job Anya!

Anya right after she learned to ride her bike. Maybe we can get her a nicer bike as a present now...maybe!