San Diego

Jennifer and I took a trip in October for our anniversary and my birthday.  We went to San Diego for a long weekend.  Nana and Pappy came in and stayed with the kids.  Here is a trip recap

Thursday – we flew out Thursday afternoon. It was the first time it had rained in about 3 months and the front was blowing through right when we were supposed to take off.  We sat on the runway for about 2 hours before we finally took off for our 3 hour flight.  Ugh!  We made it to San Diego and took an Uber to our hotel at about 9.  I called in some food and walked a couple of blocks to pick it up and bring it back to the room.  Then we went to bed.

Friday – After breakfast, we got some coffee and walked down to the harbor.  Our hotel was in downtown between the Gaslamp District and Little Italy.

Next we went to the Zoo. We wanted to see the animals we didn’t have in Fort Worth.  We went in right when they opened and went straight to the Pandas.  They were pretty neat

Next we hit the polar bears

We eventually made our way around and saw the rest of the exhibits.  It was a very nice zoo. I thought it was harder to navigate than Fort Worth if you are not familiar with it, but the exhibits were great.

After the zoo we walked through Balboa park and ate lunch at the Prado café.  It was good.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and took a nap.  That evening we went down to the Gaslamp District and had drinks and dinner at Searsucker.  It was goooood.

After dinner, we thought about going to a bar.  We saw this one which was one of Anne’s favorite movies but decided to see a movie instead.

After the movie, we went back to Extraordinary Desserts and got a sweet treat before calling it a night.

Saturday – First we had a good breakfast.

We made reservations to go sea kayaking in La Jolla.  It is a 2 mile loop that goes through the sea caves.  It started out great but they stop every so often to give you a break and then they talk about the habitat, etc.  During the break, you just bob up and down.  That got me feeling a little queasy. When we got near the sea caves, the surf was too strong and their were waves crashing against the rocks.  They said we couldn’t get very close with the kayaks because of the waves.  I decided I had enough and turned back.  We made it about three-quarters of the way back before I lost my breakfast.  Not too long after that, the waves tossed us out of the kayak and we waded the rest of the way to shore.  It was awesome.

We walked back to the surf shop and changed clothes.  Then I got something to drink and sat in the shade for a little while until I started feeling better.

Then we walked a couple of miles along the coast towards the La Jolla Cove proper where the sea lions hang out.  The views were spectacular.  You can see the groups of kayaks in the background.

At one spot, you could hike down into one of the sea caves

We learned during the kayak tour that Dr. Seuss was from La Jolla and they showed us what they claimed was his house.  A lot of the trees and plants were a lot different than what we have in Texas and actually looked like the crazy trees in Dr. Seuss books.

Eventually we made it to the sea lions.

Then we had a late lunch, did some shopping, and headed back to San Diego to check in to Hotel del Coronado for our last night.  We had a nice room with a view of the coast.

We cleaned up and went down to the bar to watch the Aggie game which was another let down.

The hotel had some really neat historic features like this old elevator that was operated by an attendant.

The next morning we took a walk on the beach.  This was our rest/travel day.

I read my book on the beach while Jennifer had a facial.  Then we checked out of our room and laid by the pool the rest of the day until it was time to go to the airport in the afternoon.  We got back home really late.

San Diego was a great place to visit.  The weather was perfect, there was plenty to do. We think we want to take the kids back sometime and do the zoo, Sea World and the beach.

Henry 18 month update

Henry cried during his first haircut.  We didn’t get any good pictures but here are a few to remember the occasion. We decided that it was time for the little curl in the back to go.

Handsome boy

He loves his big brother

One day he decided he needed his fingers in his nose. The big kids were laughing at him so he kept on doing it.

He and Nathan still fight over their little blankets. He feels like he has accomplished something if he can round up as many as possible at one time.

He loves playing outside

He has also really started to like reading.  He wants to read several books every night before bed

He still isn’t talking much.  Grunting seems to work well for him. He has a few words but rarely uses them.  He normally takes one nap per day right after lunch.  He likes to play soccer, football, and baseball.  He is also starting to get an attitude when things don’t go his way.  He normally wants his dad in the morning and his mom in the evenings.  He pretty much acts just like the older two…no surprise there!

Camping Fall 2015

We went camping in mid-October at Dino Valley.  I had a campsite reserved and had planned to take the big kids with our normal camping buddies. However, they got sick at the last minute and couldn’t go.  We debated whether to go by ourselves or cancel.  Finally we decided to take the entire family so Henry could go camping for his first time.  We took two cars just in case we had to abandon ship in the middle of the night but ended up not needing to.

The boys napped on the way down there.

We set up our mega tent.  I bought this from someone at work like 4 years ago for $30 but have never used it.

It had plenty of room

After dinner, we went for a hike

After hiking, we sat by our lantern for a little while before deciding to go to bed.

All the kids went to sleep pretty easily and slept all night. I had a hard time gong to sleep.  I’m finding that sleeping on the ground is tougher than it used to be.  It didn’t help that a couple of dogs next to us were barking until midnight.

The next morning we had oatmeal for breakfast to warm up.

Then we broke camp and went for another hike before heading back to Fort Worth.  Like always, we had a great time and will be planning another trip in the spring.

Henry’s ER Visit

Back in October, we made our first ever visit to the ER with one of the kids. Scott had cooked chili for dinner and thrown some of the cans in our recycle bin in the garage. After dinner we were cleaning up and somehow lost track of Henry. Hannah found him in the garage and then they both started screaming. We ran toward them and blood was pouring from his little hand. Scott got it wrapped up and we waited about 10 minutes to see if it needed stitches or not.  We unwrapped it and the blood was coming out just as fast so we decided to head to the urgent care closest to us. They decided not to even unwrap it and instead sent us to the children’s hospital in Fort Worth.

Henry was so brave. He only cried when they unwrapped his bandages and put the stitches in. He had to get three in one finger.

Back in Triage.

Hanging out on the bed watching the Aggie game. They got us in a room fairly quickly and then we waited for about two hours once we were there, which I don’t think is bad considering it was a Saturday night at the ER.

All done. We had to wrap his hand like this for about a week. He used it like a club to smack everyone with.

We finally made it home around 11:30pm. Poor baby was exhausted!