Sea World

We went to Sea World on Sunday. We were thinking it would be another overcast cold day like Saturday but it ended up being really warm and sunny! It was awesome! We did all the usual things-Shamu, the dolphin show, and sea lion show. Plus, there is a Sesame Street playground with rides and shows that the kids loved.Cole was definitely the bravest of the kids. He loved the sting ray and even picked up the star fish. Luke would reach in the water and the squeal before he even got close to the sting ray or star fish. Ellee wouldn't even put her hand near the water.

We loved the shark aquarium. The kids were all a little bit nervous when the sharks would swim over our heads or towards us. It was so funny.Cole was so bummed that we were not sitting in the splash zone for the Shamu show so when we went to the dolphin show he went down closer than we were and he got soaked-and loved every second of it!

San Diego Zoo and the beach

I decided that I couldn't do one blog entry to cover the entire vacation so I will do an entry for each of the major things we did. Sorry for the play by play entry-but then I will remember everything better :) We left here on Thursday of last week right after I got off work and headed down to Cedar City to stay with Teresa and Chase and to help cut down on the drive time the next day. They had dinner all ready for us when we got there and it was fun having Teresa teach me how to make strawberry jam :) But the best was Teresa's home made wheat bread-yummy!
We got an early start on Friday morning for San Diego. The kids were awesome in the car-we got through a lot of movies and a nice long nap from them. It was actually a pretty pleasant drive-except the chaos of Las Vegas traffic. We went to the beach once we got to San Diego. It wasn't very warm so we just walked along the beach, found sea shells, watched the sea lions and ate sandwiches. Cole had fun letting the waves come over his feet and Luke wanted to be just like big brother but was not quite as fast and ended up falling in the water-oops! He and Ellee also had a hard time getting used to the sand going between their toes-they were not happy with it.
Saturday was spent at San Diego Zoo. I love the zoo and it was lots of fun-and lots of walking! That zoo is huge!!! It was kinda cold so there were a lot of animals not coming out-so we were a little bummed that we didn't see all the animals. The kids loved the sky ride and the bus tour around the zoo. It was fun looking for "Alex, Gloria, Moto-Moto, Melman, and Marty" and we were successful finding each one of them. It was lots of fun! We especially loved the baby gorilla-I think Ellee would have stayed there watching it all day if we would have let her. We were completely spent when finished up at the zoo.

TINK

I love animals-and especially dogs! I've wanted a new dog for quite awhile and things just kinda fell into place and we found ourselves with a new puppy. We tossed around names but in the end Ellee's choice of names stuck, Tink. It seems to fit her personality. She is just a little fluff ball. She is a havachon (a havanese, bichon frise mix). Damon and I have always had big-very big-dogs and this is our first attempt with a little one. We'll see how it goes. She is seven weeks old and has stolen everyone's hearts around here. We've had to remind Cole a few times not to maul her. He wants to carry her everywhere and he really is her favorite. She loves him just as much as he loves her. It has been fun to watch Ellee and Luke go from screaming and running away to cuddling her and rubbing her belly. We'll have to see how this all plays out. Yay!

St. Patty's Day

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day. Cole had so much fun at school and seeing everyone wearing green. He thought it was so silly. The real highlight for him turned out to be our St. Patrick's Day dinner. I got all the kids together in the kitchen and we made green pancakes, green eggs, green applesauce, and green milk. It was so funny. Luke was in heaven-since his favorite color is green. Cole still asks for green applesauce each time we have applesauce.
Ellee was a little freaked out at first. She didn't know what to think. She said "ewwwww", in which Cole responded by telling her that he's had green eggs and ham at school and that the food still tastes the same-"It's just green!" It was lots of fun-and they all ate their whole dinner!

Cole is the Man!

Can you believe it? I don't have a six year old---no way! We had so much fun on Cole's birthday. His party is not until Friday but we wanted to make his birthday special so we asked him what he wanted to do and what special meal he wanted a couple days before his birthday so we could be prepared. I was expecting something like his pigs in a blanket request like last year, but he really thought about it for a couple hours and then decided that he would like us to make our own pizzas for dinner. Ummm-okay, we can do that. He told us that he wanted bacon, pepperoni, and ham on the pizzas. He was so excited about his pizza meal he kept telling everyone about it.
When he got home from school he walked into the living room where his brand new bike sat, ran over to it and said "Sweet, present time!" He opened all the presents (the whole time telling Luke that they were his new toys and that he couldn't have a turn yet). Right when he got done opening presents he wanted to make the pizza. With Damon's expertise and his beautiful pizza making skills we managed to turn out some pretty yummy pizzas! The kids had tons of fun and it is definitely an activity we will do regularly. We also made rice krispy treats since we will do the cake at Cole's birthday party. He didn't expect us to put candles in the rice krispies-his reaction was so fun-he LOVED it! We had a really good day-even if it means that I have a six year old!

Wrestle Mania at our house!

I love watching the kids wrestle with Damon. It has become a daily game-they love it!

Valentine's Day

We've had lots of fun this Valentine's Day weekend. The week actually started out pretty yucky. We all spent the week sick as can be in bed. I had to call in sick to work 3 days in a row because we were all feeling so crappy. I think Luke had it the worst-he threw up probably 7 or 8 times. Poor kid.

Once we were feeling better we had fun making valentine's and sugar cookies. The kids had a ball. I especially loved the twins valentine scribbles and Cole's smiley face sugar cookies. ---Just ignore Ellee in her pajamas-her Snow White dress up was dirty so she put the pj's on over her jeans since it was a dress. Silly girl!