well, as always, we loved having our family come to visit.
we miss having family close by. for lots of reasons.
but when i look at the weather up in calgary, compared to the weather down here..
it makes the absence of family a little bit easier to deal with!
haha just teasing.
kind of...
this actually has been the most fantastic fall i have ever EVER had.
i didn't even know falls could be like this.
turns out fall isn't always just an extension of winter. who woulda thought?
playing outside in november?
in shorts and a t-shirt?
don't mind if i do.
we have even played at the pool this week.
i'm a happy girl. and a very happy stay-at-home mom.
i think being at home with my kids is so much more fun when we aren't stuck inside.
and i will enjoy every day of this that i get.
larry and maralyn were here for 9 days.
and we kept busy the whole time.
we all spent the first 2 days together, but then matt had to head back to work.
laaaame.
so the leavitts were stuck with me and the little boys for 3 days.
we spent monday at underwood family farm.
chet refused to ride a pony, even though he had been talking about riding one for weeks.
but he did agree to ride a cow-train. twice.
the first round i took holden on a ride too.
he was too little to go on his own, so i had to accompany him.
unfortunately, i didn't notice that there were two sizes of cows and ended up shoving my child-birthing hips into a kid-size cow.
i felt kinda claustrophobic.
but since none of the other parents seemed bothered i decided not to complain.
it wasn't until halfway through the 15 minute loop around the farm that i noticed holden and i were shoved in the wrong cow.
that explained why it was so painful!
needless to say, chet rode the train all by himself the next time.
monday night, matt and i got to go out on a date.
we went out for appetizers and then to a movie.
matt fell asleep in the movie.
he got in trouble.
it was all very romantic.
on tuesday, we went to a park in oak park.
chet was excited to show grandma and grandpa the turtles that live in the duck pond.
but apparently turtles are fair-weather creatures.
and, since it was on the cooler side that day, they hid in the mud at the bottom of the pond.
losers.
on wednesday, we took holden to see his doctor for a check-up, we played at a park, and got ready to head to san diego the next morning.
i have always wanted to live in san diego. even though i had never been there.
i had just never heard anything but lovely comments about it, so i was sold.
and, after visiting, i would still like to live there.
but that will probably never happen.
i hope to visit again. there is a whole lot there we didn't see.
we got to san diego on halloween afternoon.
our plan was to find a neighborhood close to our hotel to do a bit of trick-or-treating in, but chet was convinced he did not want to go trick-or-treating.
like, not at all.
we literally had to chase him down to put his costume on.
really?!
trick-or-treating is not my favorite thing, so i would have gladly skipped out.
but matt and i both knew that chet would have decided at about 9pm that he did, in fact, want to go trick-or-treating, and then we would have to tell him that he has to wait until next year, and then life would have been incredibly miserable.
he does stuff like that. often.
he is at this stage where he doesn't want to do anything we suggest.
he always says he doesn't want to go to the park..
'really? the park? you're 3, and you don't want to go to the park?'
and then, once i get him to the park, he says he doesn't want to go home.
grrr.
so, we basically forced our 3 year old to go out and collect free candy.
and, of course, once he was out he LOVED it. duh.
holden only went up to 1 house.
he hadn't napped all day, and was more interested in sitting in the stroller.
i was sad that chet didn't have a trick-or-treating buddy, but he didn't seem to mind.
he was very brave. he just waltzed on up to the doors on his own.
the neighborhood we ended up going to was so cool. i think it was called mission hills.
the homes were older. but they were all well kept, or re-done.
they were all very unique. and a lot of them were enormous.
matt and i loved having the chance to wander those streets for the night.
our main purpose in traveling down south was to visit sea world.
maralyn had been there with other grandchildren, and thought it would be a fun place for our kids.
and she was right! it was definitely a neat place to visit.
we picked a perfect day to go -
the weather was great and there weren't many other people there.
we never waited in line for anything.
we walked right into all the shows, and onto all the rides.
larry got sucked into riding all the kiddie rides with chet.
what a guy!
he also endured a live 'madagascar' concert! haha.
i know how much my dad would have enjoyed that show, so i'm assuming larry enjoyed it just as much!
but chet enjoyed it.
'alex the lion' was the first movie character chet ever fell in love with.
matt some how got me to ride the roller coaster. twice.
i was under the illusion that it wasn't very big when i agreed to go on it. i was wrong.
i screamed the entire ride.
even when matt videoed me the second time, i still couldn't help but scream.
i hate to admit it, but it actually was kind of exciting the first time.
but going a second time was a big mistake. both of us felt ill!
we just got greedy because there was no line-up.
we felt this need to go again because we could literally walk right back on.
i really should have realized this before we got to the park, but the original shamu is gone.
like, way gone.
they just call it the shamu show, in her honor.
it makes sense. but i just hadn't thought much about it.
we had been getting chet pumped for 'shamu' for weeks, so his little heart was really set on seeing that big, friendly creature.
unfortunately, the shamu show didn't start until 5 hours after we got to sea world!
it was hard to wait but, in the end, it was definitely worth the wait.
the other shows were all well done, but the shamu show was definitely the most impressive.
killer whales are enormous!
i can't even begin to understand how you teach one to obey you.
and how do they get their several-thousand-pound bodies out of the water?
fascinating.
one of the [not-shamu] highlights of the show was watching the crowd get splashed.
the first 10-ish rows are clearly marked as the 'soak zone', but apparently not everyone can read.
i loved watching livid, drenched children getting carried up to higher rows.
suckers.
we were kind of surprised that none of the trainers got in the water with the shamus.
they all just stood on the stage and did super cheesy dance moves, to super cheesy music.
all while wearing the most horrendous wet suits!
but, turns out, trainers are no longer allowed to get in the water during shows because of the awful attacks that have occurred in front of large audiences.
scary, huh?
and sad.
i enjoyed the chance to see a killer whale up close, but i do feel bad that they don't get to live a normal life.
if i was forced to live in captivity for my entire life, i would probably want to rip peoples' appendages off too..
i have always been a fan of penguins.
when i was younger, i had a penguin collection.
random, i know.
i also collected fancy rocks. like, the kind you buy at a store.
and beanie babies. like everyone else my age.
but... do you still have all of your beanie babies in storage in your parents basement?
are they kept in sealed containers? with the original tags still on?
haha so embarrassing.
don't worry, i only still have them there because i haven't had a chance to toss them.
i don't still love them.
but i have to admit that, at one point, i actually thought i would be able to make a profit off of my beanie baby collection.
i had a book that predicted the future value of each beanie baby.
i was supposed to be rich by now, dang it.
anywho, the reason i initially brought up my love of penguins was because i got to see some.
unfortunately, they weren't as easy to love as i had imagined.
they smell down right repulsive.
they were even behind a glass wall, and i could hardly stand them.
very disappointing.
after sea world, we drove up to a california pizza kitchen that is right across the highway from the san diego temple.
and we ate dinner while looking at the temple.
pretty neat, huh?
the temple is as pretty as i had imagined.
we googled the temple to figure out how to get there, and we laughed when we saw that the temple had negative reviews on google.
who gives a breathtakingly beautiful religious building a negative review?!
so we had to read on - to find out what someone could possibly complain about.
we found that most people didn't like how much it 'stood out'.
umm.. ya, that's kind of the point.
it's not supposed to look like a normal building. because it's not a normal building.
but, i suppose, they are right.. it certainly stands out!
i would have loved to get out and snap a family picture while we were there, but our kids [and all us adults, for that matter] were exhausted. so it didn't happen.
next time.
the next day was our last day in san diego.
we drove across the coronado bridge to coronado 'island'.
and then we drove back on the land that connects the 'island' to the mainland.
[i'm not sure if that counts as an island!]
parts of the island were incredibly picturesque.
after that, we walked around seaport village.
we met a strange street magician, checked out some neat shops, and watched big boats float by.
then we headed up to la jolla beach.
we searched for sea creatures and watched the seals and sea lions.
i envy the view the people who live by that beach have, but i certainly don't envy the smell and ruckus they have to endure from those animals!
you win some, you lose some..
when my mom used to drive me to my art classes, we would always say 'art' like a seal.
'art! art! art!'
i used to think it was hilarious. and thinking about it still makes me laugh.
good memory.
well, that about sums up our visit with the leavitts.
they sure spoiled us.
again!
but, as much as we love being spoiled, we honestly just loved having them here. we miss them!
that is the main thing that california is lacking: family.
who wants to come keep us company? any takers?
i wasn't super great at taking lots of pictures of all the fun things we did.
sea world was especially hard to capture in pictures.
but here ya go:
more LA temple pics.
jobsite.
underwood family farm.
oak park.
trick or treating.
sea world.
shamu!
sea port village.
la jolla beach.
chet loves practicing his letters.
i love that he is spelling out the words on such an unsettling sign.
