Aquarium

It had been a REALLY long time since we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium--which is crazy because our street runs right into it 3 minutes away. This was actually Micah's first time going.

sardines

flamingos--new exhibit

Micah clapping-can hardly contain his excitement.

jellyfish

sea turtles

Gavin kissing the penguin through the tank.

Leafy Sea Dragons

I love how I caught Micah clapping here. He clapped at nearly every tank. It was so cute how he showed his enthusiasm.

I love seahorses.

Pipefish--some people think they are straightened out sea horses.

Three kids in a clam shell.

Do you see Linnea and Micah behind the aquarium tank?

Aren't these tropical fish amazing?

Micah looks pretty amazed here. Sorry for the blurriness.

Gavin loves the hands-in-water playing zone.

Linnea and Micah in Splash Zone

Micah and I in front of the penguins

Linnea's hair extensions match the sea star!

Small Changes

I am on a health kick right now as I am determined to lose some of my baby weight before Micah turns one. So, I'm just warning you that some of my upcoming posts will be geared toward my goal.

I am working on changing small, seemingly insignificant habits that will hopefully add up to helping me achieve good results. Here are a few:

1. If you don't really love it, don't eat it. (Mostly aimed at my small indulgences.)

2. Add vegetables to everything.

3. Write down everything you eat and drink, without fail.

4. Find healthy alternatives for all your healthy foods.

5. Water, water, water!

6. Plan ahead for special occasions by accounting for higher calorie foods before you eat them.

7. Exercise with a buddy.

8. Snack on cut up raw veggies during the day.

9. Popcorn is your friend.

Gavin's Foot

I know this is probably NOT the image you really want to see largely staring at you from your computer screen. However, I wanted to see if anyone has ever seen anything like this before?

Yesterday evening he showed me. It is a splotchy reddish-brown spot that is smooth to touch (nothing raised above the skin) and a small little perfectly round circle in the middle. I'm wondering if it is a spider bite? He was walking through the tall grass in the forest for a bit yesterday. Weird huh.

Park with Old Friends

Babies are always so interested in each other. It was cute.

A friend of mine from high school was in town and we met at the park. I hadn't seen her in many years and now she's married and has a little baby close to the age of Micah.

Sea World

Waiting to see the whale show...

Mitch and Jacen

Watching the whale show was amazing. By far, my favorite activity of the day.

A shark exhibit

Micah and I inside the shark exhibit. Micah was a trooper. He was so good that day. He napped in his stroller and Moby and loved looking at everything. He loved the whale show! We were really close the first show and totally got splashed. I held up a poncho in front of us but at the last second Micah straightened up and got his head soaked. That was a surprise! Then we watched the show again with the Heywood family in the afternoon.

Flamingos--the kids got to feed them for 25 cents.

Trying to get a picture of Jacen... Thanks Tristan and Mitch for trying to help...

Gavin is very happy here on this ride. Sitting with him are Talia H., Linnea and Harris (Heywood's cousin)

Gavin went with us on another roller coaster--I can't remember the name of it but it was similar to Disney's Splash Mountain but with a roller coaster after the big splash--Gavin's first roller coaster experience--he cried. Then after leaving Sea World he cried to go back and ride it again.

Sea World was generally more fun then I actually thought it would be. We really enjoyed ourselves and I liked being able to get through it all in one day. The extra $20 per person to avoid lines was totally worth it!

vitamin C

When it comes to Vitamin C, we don't mess around.
Take a look at this monster size bottle of vitamin C.

It is the same vitamin C I loved as a child. Whole Foods used to carry it and then didn't and I asked them to special order it. It still took several months to come in. I'm glad I bought the large size.

Once my brother's friend came over when we were little and loved this vitamin C so much that he ate half the bottle. He found out real fast what happens when one eats too many.

We also like this stuff. It really works.

Old Town San Diego State Park

Old Town San Diego was just a couple blocks from our hotel. It was really interesting. It reminded me of when I visited Nauvoo as a child. It is set up as an old fashioned town that we could go through. I especially enjoyed the school house and read to the kids the rules and how many lashings the children got for breaking some of the rules. We all agreed that we are glad schools are not that way any more.

Gavin and Linnea enjoyed dipping their own candles.

At the frontier store, Gavin found this cool coon skin cap. At the rocks and minerals store he bought a shark tooth necklace and Linnea found a pretty soap box.

Gavin is pretending to drive the wagon.

San Diego Mormon Battalion Museum

I will have to post our San Diego pictures in several posts because I'm overwhelmed at the thought of posting them all at once. Here are pictures from the Mormon Battalion Museum, which was recommended to me by several people and almost worth the drive just by itself. It was very cool and very interactive and held my children's attention very well. In fact, they wanted to go back before we left.
My little boy is all grown up and ready to join the Mormon Battalion! (: They could dress up and see how heavy the packs were and what items the men would have taken with them.

Mitch climbed on the roof (boys will be boys no matter their age) and I thought it looked cool with the flag to the side and the dark clouds behind him.

Gavin is panning for gold.

The water pump. Linnea loved how this water tasted.

Linnea, Micah and I

Yah...even in the rain

It's raining outside but we still go to the beach. It felt good just to be outside. I was remembering the time when I loaded up all our beach stuff and walked the kids to the beach and it started pouring rain. We still decided to keep on walking to the beach and saw one other family on the beach. I said to the kids, "Hey, look, their is another family on the beach in the rain!" Then when we got closer we saw that it was my sister, Tera, and her children. We didn't even know that she was going to be there.

Gavin doing a little sand surfing...


...and rolling.

My beautiful girl, Linnea.

Elvis loves chasing balls into the water.

Albert throwing the ball for Elvis.

Micah and I

Gavin started digging a hole and then this little dog came up beside him and started digging a hole too.

We saw a full rainbow but I could only get half of it on my camera.