September Trip

Sooooo...I totally meant to split this blog up into 4 parts, but just kept uploading and uploading and before I knew it, I had all of the photos loaded. Doh. Oh well, guess this means you need to grab a snack and get comfy because there are over 100 photos here...

We left on August 26th to San Diego to visit Corinne and see her PhD defense. Yup, it was just me and two maniacs on a plane. Yikes. I armed myself with toys, snacks, DVD player and melatonin. Our flight got in at 11pm our time (8pm CA time), which I figured was perfect...they would pass out and it would be a simple trip. HA!!! Well, actually it was pretty easy, but not much sleeping went on...

We got into CA on time and Corinne, Verna and Jerry were coming to pick us up in the van. I got a call soon after we got our bags informing us that a tire had blown out, but Corinne was on her way in her car. I soon get another call...Corinne's brakes had gone out. Eek! So with the tire fixed, Bubba and Grampa were back on track! We had awhile to dance around outside the airport while waiting, and the kids loved it.

We stayed at Corinne's old apartment and everybody else stayed at the new apartment.

Sam loved Grampa's hat.

I think we probably went though 20 pounds of strawberries (to go on our waffles) while we were there....

Playing at the wishing well at the outdoor mall.

"Money, please!"

Brooklyn says, "Mom, you need to take a picture of me on this kangaroo."

Brooklyn needed some sort of shoe that wasn't a flip-flop so we hit JC Penny's and after what seemed like forever, we both settled on something that wasn't covered in Dora, but was still flashy...and apparently help her jump.

This was our first visit to San Diego Zoo...yeah, we actually got shunned away because we wanted to buy memberships but weren't local. Sigh. So we settled on a little train ride and a walk through Balboa Park.

After talking to some nice employees at the Zoo about the least expensive way to get memberships, it all worked out and we got in! The first thing we did was ride the gondola, which as you can see, was a hit.

Forget the animals, look at this cool thing I can climb in, Mom!!

Sam wasn't so sure about the hula-hooping...

...but still had fun looking like a goon, just like everyone else trying to hula hoop as well. :P

Next stop, the beach at La Jolla. Wasn't the warmest day of the year, but it was fun.

I LOVE this photo. Brooklyn is reading to her Bubba, sounding out each word very carefully.

Sam was napping when everybody decided to go do something and give me some quiet time...ahhhh.... Of course the boy had to wake up, but we had lots of fun with just Mommy and Sam time. First, we were kitties lounging on the couch.

[Insert shot of our lovely abode at Graduate Student Housing.]

Then outside to the toys to be dinosaurs.

After Corinne's dreaded, yet quite successful, presentation was done, we got to play some more. We went down to the tidepools (which consequently closed 30 minutes after we got there...).

This is a school of teeny fish.

A Sea Slug. Apparently they only saw like 3 of them all last year...well there were 3 of them sitting right there! Pretty neat.

--IN QUINCY--

We got to Quincy just in time for Farmer-Consumer Awareness Day, which means fresh, cheap produce, so take a wheelbarrow!

And also parades!

And candy!

And peach canning!

And nude swimming (thanks Lynne!)!

We also got to visit with friends--Laura and her son, Little Nick who is a bit older than Sam.

There was lots of dirt bathing.

But no swinging. :( This is Brooklyn's "disappointed" shot.

Verna saved some of Corinne's toys and Brooklyn loved playing with them!

Oy...this was one heck of a day. Sam got put outside while at the dinner table because he kept yelling just to yell. Yes, he looks quite solemn, but don't fall for it....within the following 1.5 hours he managed to kick the cat, dangle from the deck railing off the second story, punch me in the face and evilishly pee on the couch while looking directly at me (this kid is fully potty trained...). Phew, good thing he's cute.

And he can be sweet, like when he shares his milk with the cat.

We took a field trip to Snyder-ville. LOVE their place...so beautiful and bountiful! This is their back porch, COVERED in grapes!

Can you tell how excited we were to harvest fresh grapes?!

Munching on plums.

Picking berries.

Digging up carrots.

Then the kids took turns in their swing while we snacked on all of the tons of goodies we got. Thank you Tom and Lynne!

We were lucky enough to be in town when my brother West got his mission call. Here he is prepping for his Grand Opening of the Mission Letter party.

The tradition is to put up a map of the world and have everyone and their dog guess a place in the US and a place outside of the US.

Everybody assembling...and Kenny mentioning there being fleas in the sofa...

He found one!!

Friends here? Check. Missionaries here? Check. Grandma on the phone? Check.

Big brother and mysterious girl on Skype? Check.

Drum roll please.....Minneapolis, Minnesota!

It was a bit wet, and all of the worms came out to play...the kids had a blast counting, watching and poking them.

Bring on the old-school toys! (Which were very difficult to watch your kids play on...up 6+ feet in the air with little to no railing...yikes!)

As we were getting ready to walk out the door to head to my family's house, it started POURING! It was like a North Carolina rainstorm, thunder, lightening, everything!! Which is unusual for Quincy. The funny thing was that it rained right before we left Wilmington and didn't rain a DROP (except for in San Diego and Quincy) again until we came home when Wilmington had a HUGE rainstorm. As in 15+ inches!!

Oh, how I love this boy.

Lots of fun times with friends.

Sigh...just because they are newer toys doesn't mean they scare the mama any less...

Ahh, this was so sweet. Beebah (Sam's word for Grandpa) was showing them a National Geographic magazine, and my kids LOVE to learn about that kind of stuff.

Art time with Lynne.

Eek, I adore this photo! We were picking apples while the water was on.

Brooklyn loved racing whoever would race her (including other random children).

Grammie took us BOWLING!! The kids LOVED it!!! AND they smoked me...I think I had like 40 points or something? It was despicable.

Then we had to play the games and get some goodies with our tickets!

Ha, this was pretty cute. Bubba gets out her laptop, Sam gets out his.

Brook discovered the joys of spiral art, lol.

On our way to Suzy's, we had to stop at Indian John Hill as EVERYONE needed to get out and run around a bit. Potty break and lots of Tag between the trees was good.

Brooklyn had been talking for days about going to see Suzy, Mike, the chickens, the cows....she loved it.

Oh Sammy...

We thought it would be funny to put a leaf over him, ya know...well apparently the leaf had pokies, lol.

Suzy, threatening to steal Sam's Superman undies.

Why do kids love glasses so much?? She ate her entire dinner with them on.

Phew, we're almost back home. It was a bit of a rough trip back to Wilmington, complete with a temper tantrum from someone in front of us. Thank heavens Bubba was there to help. At least Sam passed out before Atlanta and stayed asleep the entire way to Wilmington.

SINCE THE TRIP:

We did a lot while Bubba was here. I did my radiation treatment for my thyroid and spent 3 days in "quarantine". Sounds awful, huh? It was...10th floor of a condo overlooking the ocean...yeah, it was rough. :) I'm still adjusting though, and probably will be for the next 6 months or so...but it's getting better.

While we were gone Russ put big raised beds in out back and we got them planted with cabbage, lettuce, radishes, onions, broccoli, spinach...yum!

The kids both started gymnastics and of course LOVE it.

Found out that the kids love the skating rink.

And of course lots of other mundane stuff. I've been thinking of getting the camera out more and more often...now it's just willing myself to actually do it, lol. Wish me luck!