San Diego: Day 3 - The Zoo

On Day 3 of our San Diego vacation we visited the San Diego Zoo. I was really glad because the skies cleared up and we had a warm, sunny day. My personal favorite animals were the polar bears and the pandas. I would post pictures of them, but Little Robby already has on his blog.

It was really fun taking Jenna to the zoo this time because she actually saw most of the animals we were pointing at.

Now here's an image we saw a lot of. Matthew and Robby taking off running.

Look at the duck, Mom!

Robby standing in front of the hippo tank. In the background you can see the hind-end of one hippo in the water and another hippo in the distance facing us.

Big Robby really liked this guy. Apparently this orangutan needed a little privacy for his nap.

And here's another picture that we saw a lot of... David and Sharon waiting for everyone else to catch up. Most of the time though it was David waiting on everyone.

This picture of Jenna is one of our favorites. Something about the look on her face. We took it because she had a flamingo on her shirt and we were looking at the flamingo enclosure.

While at the sea lion show, Jenna was more interested in climbing the stairs than sitting to wait for the show.

Hello, are you there?!

I really enjoyed riding the sky tram with Little Robby.

Coming into the station.

And here's the whole group of us. We really did have a lot of fun visiting San Diego with Andra, David, Matthew, and James. I hope we have other opportunities in the future to take joint vacations.

The last picture is of one of the windmills that you pass on I-8 in California. You can see these windmills standing just on the horizon from a long way off, and as you approach them you begin to realize how incredibly massive they are. I wish I had a way to show you their relative size, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

San Diego: Day 2 - Legoland

Day #2 was the day that Chap was waiting for... Legoland! We had quite a nice time. The sky was overcast, the day was cool, and the park wasn't very crowded. Most all of the rides had less than a fifteen minute wait.

Here we got our first view of some of the awesome Legoland creations. Jenna was looking at a lego elephant that was standing in the water and spraying water from it's trunk.

Robby has zeroed in on his dream... a lego star ship cruiser! Everybody "Ooooo" and "Aaaahh!"

Aren't the Dads and babies cute?!

Matthew is taking aim.

Daddy takes Jenna on a train ride!

Jenna says, "This place is fun!"

The Baby Brigade!

Little Robby really liked the lego race track that he got drive on. I included this picture because you can see the kid who rear-ended him in the yellow shirt.

Dad and Little Robby taking it all in.

Here we are standing in front of a lego model of New York City.

Here's Jenna sleeping in front of the lego model of New York City. (I didn't want you to think that we were excluding her from our family picture. We just didn't want to disturb her.)

Big Robby took this picture of Andra and me enjoying our fried apples. He really likes it.

Of all the lego creations, the Daytona Raceway model was one of Big Robby's favorites. He really liked looking at all the lego spectators. From a distance it almost looked real.

Our little angel slept the afternoon away.

Robby and James take a ride on the lego pigs.

When we asked Chap what his favorite legoland creation was he said the model of the Freedom Tower that is being built to replace the World Trade Towers.

All in all, we had a great time! This trip fulfilled one of Little Robby's dreams and solidified his dream of becoming a master lego builder one day!

San Diego: Day 1 - The Temple and the Beach

This past weekend we had a wonderful family trip to San Diego. It was great getting away from the extreme heat of Arizona to the cool weather in California for a few days.

Once we arrived we journeyed over the San Diego Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is my favorite temple to look at. While there we spent about twenty to thirty minutes walking around the beautiful grounds taking pictures.

Here Jenna smiles while seated on one of the low walls.

What a precious face!

After the temple we went to the beach to see the seals that live at the La Jolla Children's Beach. (It's no longer a children's beach since the seals started coming.) Here I am trying to show Jenna the seals. She was more interested in the birds that were flying all around.

Big Robby's favorite thing about the whole trip was when he and Chap walked out together on the sea wall and got splashed by the big waves crashing against the rocks below. You can see more about our trip on Little Robby's blog.

Splash Pad

Well, I finally got around to posting these pictures. These pictures are from the first day that Andra and I took the kids to the splash pad. It was nice letting the kids run and get wet while we just sat (unless we were chasing children) in the shade of a nearby tree.

Here's Jenna! She spent most of her time wandering around avoiding the spraying water and splashing a little in the puddles. Eventually she grew tired of the craziness and came to sit in the shade with Andra and me.

Robby had a blast! At one point he got a cup from one of the other children there, and they enjoyed filling their cups and running around chasing and trying to splash each other.

Here's Jenna playing in the shade. She decided that the sand was more fun than the water.

Little James was so cute wandering around on the splash pad.

That's my baby!

You can't really tell from this picture, but she is not very happy right now because she has sand in her mouth! While she was sitting in the sand and playing I looked over and she had her mouth clamped shut like she had put something in there, so I poked my finger in to do a finger sweep of her mouth. Nothing was there, but she got mad at me for intruding upon her mouth and out of protest she covered her mouth with her hand (at the same time depositing a handful of sand in her mouth too!) As you can imagine, she was not very happy about the unpleasant feeling the sand made in her mouth!

Matthew on the run!

Little Robby had so much fun making new friends, playing in the water, and playing on the playground adjacent that he didn't want to leave when it was time. I got the "Mom please! Just one more minute!" Luckily for him we have already been back once and will probably go a few more times before the summer is over. (Especially since it's free and the local pools cost anywhere from $4-$6 for Robby, Jenna, and me to go!)

Standing in my shoes

All kids have a moment when they want to try on Mom or Dad's shoes. For Jenna she tried mine on this week. We had just gotten home, and I was in a hurry to get her some milk since she needed a snack so I just kicked my shoes off in the kitchen. After I prepared her sippy cup I turned around to see her standing there and trying with all her might to get her little foot in my shoe. She just recently started walking everywhere, but her balance is still a little wobbly. For her to lift her foot high enough to slip it into my shoe was quite the feat. And when she would succeed with one foot she would quickly lose her balance and plop down on her diaper padded bottom.

I felt sorry for her and decided that I would help her, so I set the shoes side by side and lifted her up to slip her feet in. As soon as she realized what I was doing she started giggling. She was so proud to be standing in my shoes. (Walking in them was another matter!)

I don't like my shoes, but Mommy's shoes are a different.

Our Dirty Babe

Earlier this week Dad came home and took the kids out in the backyard. Then he introduced Jenna to the garden hose! She had great fun whipping it around and watching the water spray in all directions. Well, playing with the water wasn't enough for Little Robby, so he showed Jenna how water and dirt make mud! (Oh, it's fun being a kid!) Jenna thought this was great and she learned all about how mud feels...

smeared on her body! "They say it's good for the skin!" she says.

Want to pick me up Daddy?!

We milked a cow!

We went on a tour this last week of a local dairy. Besides the cows they also had some other animals, so this was a really fun opportunity for us to introduce Jenna to some real live farm animals up close and personal!

As you can see the horse was a hit! She really like touching his head. I must say this was an extremely patient horse, especially since Jenna tried to poke his eye a couple of times.

Here's Little Robby on the hay ride. They took us around the dairy so we could see the different areas. One thing I found interesting was that cows eat 50 gallons of food per day! And the average cow can give 7 gallons of milk per day (15 gallons if they have just given birth)!

Jenna and Dad enjoy the shade. (The Arizona summer has begun. It was well over 100 that day!)

Jenna's first taste of chocolate milk! Yum, yum!

Robby's in the pig pen (sometimes I think that his room is one too!)

Evidently, the pig got too up close and personal for Jenna's taste. She lost it when he tried to stick his snout through the fence to say hello.

Fortunately, Jenna recovered from her scare with the pig and decided to be friendly with the sheep.
Okay so here's the reason we came... to milk a cow! I must say that it was totally different that I thought it would be. Their udders feel like very thick skin (Robby described it as like the skin of an elderly person only thicker.)

Initially, Little Robby didn't want to try and milk the cow, but we eventually convinced him! Click here and watch the Let's Milk a Cow! video to see what Chap thought about milking a cow!

And last of all, our two sweet cuties taking a ride on the tractor! Watch where you are going Chap!