Fall Break: California Vacation!

Last week we went on a family trip during Eli's fall break from school! More on that shortly. Last week also marked the unofficial anniversary of the start of this blog. The very first blog post was about our fall break trip last year to Oklahoma and Kansas. We had so much fun on that trip that we started planning this year's excursion almost immediately. We batted around ideas for months, and finally decided to make a trip out to California to see certain important childhood landmarks. We started our travels early Tuesday morning... but perhaps not early enough, as we missed our early flight out to San Diego. Luckily, we were put on the next flight out, so we still made it out that day. We did, however, have to wait four hours in the airport with the kids. I had brought some small wrapped presents to hand out at intervals during the trip, and they came in handier than expected. The miniature Slinkies were a huge hit, and they proved why the toy has survived the test of time. They certainly helped us survive a test of time.

We spent some time wandering the corridors of DIA, and discovered a shop featuring some seriously blinged-out basketballs.

We finally made it onto our flight. Yess!!!

We did have to change planes in Las Vegas, which added some time to our trip, and when we arrived in San Diego, our carseats had been misplaced, so we spent some time figuring out what to do and letting them know how to reach us if they were found, etc. By the time we were picked up by our infrequently circulating budget-rental-car shuttle and had procured said budget rental car, we were both completely exhausted and raring to start our vacation. We headed straight for the oceanfront. 

We had a delicious dinner at Anthony's right next to the water. The views were incredible. So was this view of an incredibly adorable little girl.

After dinner, we caught a ferry headed out to Coronado Island. We got to watch a spectacular sunset over the ocean while we rode the ferry. The ferry ride was so fun! It was definitely a highlight for Justin and I.

For Benjy, perhaps less so.

When we got to the island, it was starting to get late and we didn't think we'd have enough time to see the Hotel Del without taking a cab, so we just let the kids play on the beach. 

By the time we rode the ferry back, walked to our car, and drove back to our hotel, we were beyond exhausted (kids especially). I'm going to post this trip in segments because I learned my lesson when last night the computer shut down without permission and lost all the changes I had made (and thought I had saved) to this post. Stay tuned for part 2!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Thursday, Benjy's Joy School took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. It worked out well because it was Eli's first day of break so he had that day off from school. We all met at the farm and drove out to the pumpkin fields. There were SO. MANY. PUMPKINS. We drove past field after field, each densely dotted with orange. I kept thinking after each one that it would be the last, but they seemed to keep on going.

Here are five of the joy school kids. One wasn't there yet, and one was decidedly opposed to having his picture taken.

I let my kids each pick their own "perfect pumpkin" and cut it off the vine.

Silly faces are the norm when I pull out the camera. :)

After the kids were done in the pumpkin fields, we drove over to a play area where they had a couple blow-up jumpy pumpkins, a petting zoo, and a miniature maze made out of hay bales that the kids could go through.

Emmie and the goat regarding one another.

"Bow to the horse, bow to the cow, twirl with the pig if you know how..."

Benjy didn't hang around the animals long enough for me to get a good picture. He seemed to find their smell particularly offensive.

After walking through the hay maze, Eli entertained himself by jumping from bale to bale.

It was a fun day at the pumpkin patch!

Emmie's Toe, Math Homework, Joy School, Random Photos

A little over a week ago, Emmie made a visit to the doctor. On Wednesday (Oct 7) she came to me and showed me her left big toe and asked me to put a bandaid on it. It looked a little red but not too bad, so I put a bandaid on it and didn't think much of it. The next day, she was guarding it and being really whiny, so I took the bandaid off and saw that it was much more red and swollen and definitely looked infected. I was able to get her in to the doctor the following day. Here she is waiting to be seen. You certainly can't tell from these pictures she was feeling miserable.

They prescribed her antibiotics but didn't do anything else to her mega-swollen, oozy toe. Since she about jumped through the roof whenever anyone touched it, I was glad for that. 

Here we are at the store filling her prescription. 

Those things on Benjy's fingers are (unused) disposable otoscope covers he found at the pediatrician's. I thought he looked like Edward Scissor Hands. 

Here is Emmeline feeling better. I took a picture of her toe a couple days after starting the antibiotics, and it was starting to look somewhat improved. 

I didn't have to work that weekend, so we were actually able to have a regular Saturday. Justin took the kids to Jump City while I was running some errands. He got this picture of Emmie climbing like a big kid which I thought was cute. 

The next week, Eli brought home a math worksheet where he was supposed to color in the adjacent hexagons that added up to 15. He completed the homework, and was doing something else, when I heard wails coming from the boys' room. Eli and Benjy both came out crying, because Benjy had gotten hold of Eli's homework and colored it all in. Eli had started crying and gotten upset with Benjy, which made him start crying. There was weeping and wailing all around. I tried to calm Eli down and told him I would write a note to his teacher explaining what happened, and that she would surely understand. He would not be consoled though until I told him I would try to find a copy of the worksheet online. It was from a subscription website, so the best I could find was a picture that some mom had taken of her kid's homework. I printed it out though at Eli's insistence, and he did the homework again. I stapled the two homeworks together and put a note on the front, hoping that Eli's teacher would enjoy the humor of the situation as much as I did. ;)

Last week Joy School was at our house. We had a fun lesson about taking care of the earth. We learned about things that come from the earth (paper products, food, etc.), ate a snack of fruits/veggies/air popped popcorn, and made a craft out of trash. I read a story to the kids about Earth Ernie and how he was visited by an alien who used to have a world like ours but didn't take care of it and had to move to a new, plastic, purple world. Right before the moms came to pick up, we went on a "trash walk" around the cul-de-sac and the kids got to pick up any trash they saw on the ground. Now whenever Benjy sees trash on the ground, he says, "If we don't take care of our world, we'll lose it." Cuute.

The kids liked watching the popcorn pop.

We made jellyfish out of plastic produce bags and tissue paper. 

 Here are a bunch of random pictures we found on our phones:

Benjy made a picture of the lady on Wallace and Grommit out of shapes. 

Our Halloween decorations are up.

Story time before bed.

Emmie with her new kitty shirt (so her kitty dress can get washed every now and then).

Cuties. 'Nuff said.

Work selfie! 

Eli's Field Trip, Birthdays

Mother Nature gave me an early birthday present of crisp fall weather as soon as October started this year. Love me some sweater weather! The first week of October is always fun because Justin and I have birthdays two days apart, and this year it was even more fun because both our birthdays fell on the weekend. Friday night we celebrated Justin's birthday, and Sunday we celebrated mine. But first, Eli had a field trip during the day on Friday to Miller Farms out in Brighton. I chaperoned and got to go with the kids while my sister watched the two littles. 

The kids rode on long trailors pulled by tractors out to the vegetable fields. They got to harvest their own beets, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, dill, potatoes, and lots of other vegetables I didn't recognize. :)

The tractor made three stops and the kids got to see different vegetables each time. Eli loved digging up carrots. He spent one whole stop just on one row of carrots.

After we were done visiting the vegetable fields, we ate our sack lunches and the kids got to play. They had real, albeit non-functioning, planes, tractors, and other vehicles for the kids to climb in and on.

A shot of some of the kiddos on a giant hay bale pyramid. All four K/1 classes from Eli's school came on this field trip, so there were tons of kids. 

That evening, Justin and I went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. Here he is, 34 years young. :)

Justin chose Benihana's for his birthday dinner. We ordered sushi and some delicious appetizers from their happy hour menu.

 

We ordered a dragon roll, and our server surprised us with a real dragon! 

After dinner we went home and Justin opened presents. Our neighbors stopped by to wish him a happy birthday and had German chocolate brownies with us.

Saturday Justin and I celebrated my/our birthday. October 3rd is typically "our" birthday, but since my birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we went out to dinner for my birthday on Saturday. We went to the Melting Pot, my favorite restaurant ever. No pictures. Just a great memory. 

Sunday was General Conference, so we got to stay home and watch it broadcast on TV instead of going to church. Justin didn't have to go to meetings, instead getting to stay home with us. That was an awesome present in itself! Justin and Emmie played piggies during one of the talks.

After the first session, we went over to my grandparents' house for lunch. There were some fallen leaves in the yard that Justin raked up for the kids to jump into. 

My mom and siblings were there as well. My mom recently moved to Colorado Springs along with Carlos and Brad, so we don't get to see them as often. It was a treat to hang out with them.

That afternoon I opened presents. The kids were right by me to help me with all that pesky wrapping paper. ;) I got an electric toothbrush and a cake pan, both of which I had wanted. Justin and I got a new tent from my mom. I guess she figured we needed one since we are always borrowing hers.

We all had delicious cake. Eli helped put the candles on and the kids both helped me blow them out. 

It was a great birthday weekend!