The San Diego Zoo

I never thought that the San Diego Zoo was so . . . hilly and green. I was truly amazed. It was nothing like what I had expected it to be like. I guess I'm not sure what I really was expecting. Maybe something more like a bigger Hogle Zoo. It was still very nice. We decided to start the day off on a tour of the zoo. We rode a double-decker bus that took us around the whole zoo. We were able to see about 70% of the zoo from the bus. It saved us from a lot of walking. I tried to get a picture of everyone on the bus, but Hunter was having one of those 2 year old moments and was being uncooperative. Oh well, such is life.

There was a really cute play place that had some playground equipment the kids got to play on for a while. You had to cross a little bridge that had water that would spray over it. We tried to get a picture of the water, but it was kind of hard to predict. In that area of the zoo, there were all these little statues and figures that the kids had to get pictures with. Hunter was really funny about these. We had to go all the way back to one area just so he could sit on the tortoise.



We rode the sky ride over to the other side of the zoo to get a better look at the polar bears then make our over to the aviaries. Brooklyn and Hunter rode with us while Autumn rode with Brian's parents. It was fun watching the kids' faces as we rode high above the zoo. It got a little chilly, so we were glad to get back on the ground. When we got to the polar bear exhibit, there weren't there. We were a little bummed out until we saw one of the keepers bring out food. So we decided to wait a round a little while. The kids had fun playing in a little cave and poking their heads out with the seals. They also had to get their picture taken next to the figures of the life size polar bears. Hunter loved the baby bear. He would not go anywhere until Grandma took a picture of him with it. too Soon after both polar bears were let out to enjoy their treat.



We wanted to go see the panda bears, but the line was insanely long, so we decided to go to the aviary instead. It was amazing. There was a large waterfall in the middle of it and you were so close that you could almost touch these beautiful birds. Actually, there was one bird that was so friendly that he sat on the path following people. The zoo keeper actually had us help him try to catch him. He said that sometimes the birds are so familiar with people, they follow them out of the aviary. He finally flew to another area and hopefully will stay away from the walkway.
The last area we decided to see was the monkeys and gorillas. When we got to the gorillas, two of them were playing. They played so gently with each other. Biting and pulling at one another. Hunter was really cute when we got to the monkeys. He is my little monkey so I had to take some photos of him with the monkeys.

It was a long day, but a lot of fun. We didn't stay too long because we still needed to drive up to Anaheim that day. But not before stopping and getting a picture in front of our last stop before leaving, the flamingos. A very fun day and hopefully memorable for the kids.

Christmas Morning and Sea World

Christmas morning the kids got up and found that Santa had found us at the hotel and had left a few small gifts along with some tickets to all the different parks. The kids each got a pair of jammies and a new movie. They were super excited. Our first visit was going to be at Sea World. After traveling 5 more hours from Teri's house, it was going to be nice walking around for a while.

Hunter was really excited to get his new Lightning McQueen slippers and Alvin and the Chipmunks movie!

Sea World was a lot of fun. We got to see a lot of really good shows and a lot of different kinds of animals. We got there early, and it soon became really busy. There were a ton of people there. The weather was really nice. It warmed up a lot. It was a nice change from our weather at home. Hunter was such a nut. He loved seeing all the different animals.

We were walking between to see a show and ended up running into the flamingo parade. They were everywhere. Brian snapped this picture of Hunter as they passed by.

The first show that we visited was the Animal Tails show. It was a variety act that had lots of different kinds of animals including dogs, cats, pigs, and all kinds of birds. It was fun seeing these animals do tricks that you wouldn't expect them to be able to do. It was really cute, but my favorite part was watching Autumn's face ans she grinned from ear to ear. She is such animal person, so I knew she would enjoy this show particularly.

We decided to play it safe during the Shamu show and sit high above the splash zone. It was a good thing because I think the people that were sitting in our original seats got soaked. I could not believe how high theses whales could jump. They did these amazing flips in the air where their whole body sailed out of the water.

The Dolphin show was really neat. This time I sat with Brian and Hunter in the soak zone, knowing that they didn't splash as high. Autumn was terrified that she would get wet so she sat with Brian's parents up higher. We had great seats and never got wet. The dolphin tricks were amazing. with people ridding on them and them doing lots of flips. They also had a lot of people dressed in bright costumes doing amazing dives. I remembered that when I was young, I wanted to work with the dolphins. Who knows, maybe Autumn will be the one to work with animals.

The last show of the day was the Christmas showing of the the silly sea lions. It was a lot of fun. Just for Autumn, I got seats one row above the soak zone. She was very excited when she walked up the row to find that were were not in the soak zone.

It was an amazing day. The kids did really good. We all had a lot of fun. It will be a Christmas the kids won't soon forget.

Visiting Aunt Lola

We left Thursday the 23rd at 2 in the morning to meet Brian after he got off work at 3. We drove 12 hours down to Surprise, Arizona which is just outside of Phoenix, to see Brian's sister Teri (but the kids know her by Aunt Lola. We visited Terri just before Brooklyn turned 2. She had a cat named Lola so now the kids call her Aunt Lola. Kind of silly) Teri surprised the kids with lots of gifts. She really spoiled them. They had a lot of fun opening presents.






Then after dinner we all enjoyed a dip in the pool. Teri had it all warmed up for us at a nice comfortable 100 degree temp. It was so nice. The kids really had a lot of fun. The first thing Brooklyn wanted to do when we got there was go swimming. We enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve day relaxing before we headed of down to San Diego.

Christmas Trip 2010

We decided that we wanted to take the kids to Disneyland sometime this year. After looking at both our work schedules, we decided that Christmas break would require the least amount of days to be taken off. So we have been planning this trip for a long time. The kids have been so excited. They all asked Santa to bring them the tickets to the different parks and have been trying their best to be good. Of course they weren't always the best, but they tried hard to be.

Un-Lucky Me!!

I think lately I have been cursed with bad luck. I swear if something bad is going to happen, it will happen to me. All last week bad things kept happening. Starting with another doctor bill. Don't I already have enough doctor bills to last me a while. What is it with these last few months! Starting with Hunter's pricey visit to the ER and Autumn's beautiful purple cast. Now if my bills weren't large enough, we had to add another visit to the doctor last Monday for a very bad UTI. Poor Autumn. I hate seeing my kids in such pain. Once again, for some reason, I always end up going back to the doctor's office within a week or two from the first visit. Yesterday, I had to take Hunter in. He was fevering for the third day, had a rash and his tonsils were large. Not to mention the fluid that was coming out his ear. (I was thinking this was what we really needed an ear infection a week before we leave on our big trip!) Found out he had some type of viral infection that was causing the fever, rash and swollen tonsils. He also had fluid in his ear which was no big surprise. Luckily it had not developed into an ear infection, but he was still put on antibiotics to prevent one from happening. So now I have 2 kids on meds. Not fun! I had such high hopes that this week would be much better then last...but no. Here's to next week. I'm looking forward to some time off and lots of fun with the family :)

First Lost Tooth!

Autumn finally lost her first tooth. She is 7 1/2. I guess she takes after me. I didn't loose mine until I was in at least 2nd grade. I've been trying to get her to let me pull it for about 4 days. It was so wiggly that we told her she could probably pull it out with her fingers. She wouldn't even let me try. She can really be stubborn just like her dad. Yesterday, we went to a big family gathering we call "Soup or Pie." The guys play football until they get too tired or the weather becomes too bad. We get to eat a ton of soup and yummy pie. When everyone comes in we get out all the different games. I got to learn how to play Ticket to Ride Europe. It was a lot of fun. I tried to convince Autumn to let us pull it out, but no. Then Scott, Natalie's husband asked if he could see how wiggly it was and ended up pulling it out with his fingers. She wasn't too happy about that, but this morning she was pretty excited when she found 2 gold dollars under her pillow.

YAY!!! No more tooth!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a lot of fun this Halloween season. Once again it took a long time for the girls to decide what they wanted to dress up as this year. Particularly Brooklyn. But of course Hunter has known what he wanted to be for quite a while. At least since he saw the Iron Man movie. He was sure that's what he was going to be this year. Finding Hunter an Iron Man costume posed to be quite a challenge. We searched many stores but could only find suits for kids that were 10 years old. We searched and searched and finally bought one that was going to be really big. It ended up working really good. We were able to stuff lots of clothing under it and made him look pretty buff. The girls ended up being harder to find something to wear. Not because we didn't have any costumes... they just couldn't make up their mind. Autumn finally settled on being a black cat the night before dressing up for school. It was pretty easy after that because we already had everything that we needed in their dress-up box. Brooklyn changed her mind every 10 minutes. She started off wanting to be Tinkerbell, but then it began to change. She finally decided to be a cowgirl for our ward Halloween carnival but wanted to be an alligator for trick-or-treating. She definitely makes life interesting.

Our ward decided to not let people wear masks to the carnival. I thought this might causes some trouble with Hunter because he loved his mask. I ran over to my mom's house to add some finishing touches to his costume. When I got back I was really surprised. Brian had painted Hunter's face to look like Iron Man. He did a great job. Hunter was so excited.

Hunter loved being Iron Man. He went around blasting people with his blasters on his hands. I thought it would be fun to sew white circles on his gloves. They added a nice effect to go with his fun sound effects that he uses when blasting people. He loved dressing up!!

At the carnival, they had some games for the kids to play. There were several bean bag toss games. Brian got behind it to take some pictures of Hunter. I told Hunter to get his daddy with one. Brian took a picture just as Hunter almost hit him with a bean bag through the hole Brian was peeking out. It was so close. I was very surprised how he almost hit him!

They had a Pie Throwing Contest where the Bishopric (Bro. Wagner on left, Bishop Irwin on right) got plastered with whip cream pies. The kids had so much fun throwing pies at them. By the end of the night they were completely covered. They were such good sports to sit and let everyone throw pies at them. Hunter wanted to throw a pie. He took it and ran right up to them and threw it. it landed on Brother Wagner's lap. He was so determined to hit him. it made me laugh. It also got Bro. Wagner laughing.

Hunter had so much fun. He loved the fishing game and getting lots of prizes.

We had a lot of fun.

We decided to go out a little early to see grandparents. It was raining and we hoped it wouldn't last too long. The first stop we went to was my Grandpa and Grandma Page's house. They live on a very busy trick-or-treating street. We knew we needed to get there early. I love going to visit my grandparents. I know that someday soon we will not be able to anymore.

We had to stop by my grandparent's neighbor's house and pose with the giant cats. The next stop was Grandma and Grandpa McBride's house where the kids helped to decorate the Halloween sugar cookies. We then went to their trunk-or-treat. I saw a lot of my students. I think they were surprised to see me.

The last place to hit was Grandma and Grandpa Achatz's house and to visit a few houses in our neighborhood. By the end of the night the kids had a TON of candy and were very tired....

so tired. You know your baby is tired when he puts himself to bed.