Sea World?!....Why not?!

Okay, so I'm not even close to recovering from the New York trip when my husband calls me on Monday afternoon and asks, "What do we have going on this weekend?" Well, we had a few things going on but nothing too important. So then Chris says, "Well...I have a group out in San Diego this week and I need to be there. Joel (his boss) has already booked a hotel room and has 5 extra Sea World tickets. Do we want to load everyone up Thursday night and go?" "Um..YEAH!" was my response!!! Soo...once again, I crammed 5 days of work into 4 and we headed out to San Diego for a free vacation getaway--can't pass those things up right?!

We got into San Diego super late Thursday night, slept in on Friday, and got up and headed to Coronado Beach. Chris actually had to work all day Friday so it was just me and the kids. I had NEVER driven in California before so I was super nervous about it but Chris brought one of his office "Magellan" navigator GPS systems. Me and "Maggie" became good friends!!! I would have gone nowhere without it!!! Coronado Beach was not too far from our hotel. We loaded up all our sand toys, packed a picnic, and headed over. Well, we got there, set our stuff down and ran to the water. We hadn't even been there 5 minutes when I heard Max screaming!!! He was seeing a big fat seagull help himself to one of our sandwiches in our bag!!! Stinkin' scavenger!!! So we all take off running at full speed to save our lunch--Max had a couple of plastic sand toys in his hands and he was yelling and screaming and chucking the sand toys at the bird! The stinkin' bird ate my sandwich--ziploc baggie and ALL!!! It would have helped itself to more but we made it back in time! Max took it upon himself to stand guard after that! I was down by the water with the other 3 kids laughing soo hard that I was crying because Max was soo serious about his post! He would stand there calmly and then if a bird even flew over head, he would go crazy swinging sand shovels and making karate sounds!!! He was really enjoying himself but I wanted him to enjoy the water too so I traded spots with him after a while. Good ol Max!


Look out "Bay Watch" babes!!! Here comes Tatum!!!



And our lunch is safe!!!


THE STINKIN' BIRD!!!


After the beach, we went back to our hotel room to get cleaned up. We discovered that our hotel had an indoor pool and spa so we just headed there instead of the showers. The kids swam and swam for another 2 hours. Here are some funny hot-tub pics:


Since my older brother lives in San Diego--he's in the Coast Guard--we made plans to meet up with him and his family when their kids got home from school. The kids ALWAYS love playing with cousins. Ethan and Seth are very close in age and get along amazingly well. Cali LOVES Carlie and just had the best time playing dress-up the entire time. We hung out and ate dinner with the Knoops and then headed back to our hotel room totally and completely exhausted from day 1 of our impromptu trip. But it was an AWESOME day!



So Saturday, we were up bright and early trying to get everyone fed, dressed, packed up, and ready to go to Sea World!!! We got there as soon as the park opened and spent the whole day there. We hit the rides first--of course. Carlie, Ethan, and Max are now finally tall enough to ride everything. Carlie and Max DID ride EVERYTHING. Ethan is content to leave the scary rides to his brother and sister! And we of course had to sit in the "soak zones" at the shows. I'm always amazed at the animal training!!! There's a new show there called "Pets Rule" and they had 65 trained cats of all things!!! I can't even imagine how hard it would be to train a whale let alone a cat!!!





The "Sea Lions Live" show was HILARIOUS! They had the BIGGEST sea lion I have ever seen--and it was PINK!!! Not sure if it was albino or what. They never said but it was amazing!

Awesome aquariums everywhere!



The kids really enjoyed petting the "Bat Rays" (some form of manta rays) and Starfish.






By dinner time, we were once again exhausted! So we loaded up and headed out of Sea World to get some dinner and head home! We made it home around 11:30 P.M. Super exhausted but super happy!!! Worth every exhausting minute! We sure do love Dad's job!!! I spend a lot of time being a single mom, but the travel perks are worth it to me! NOW...time to re-coup for next Saturday--my piano recitals!!! Sleep?!?! Who needs it right?!?!

New York City!!!

So I needed another crazy weekend mixed into my life!!! I guess I just thrive on busyness!!! But about a month ago, Chris mentioned that he had an event in NYC mid-April that was a pretty low-key event. I don't usually like going with him on work trips because he actually works! So it's not that much fun to go to these great places with him because it's not like we get to do whatever we want, it's HARD work. Sooo, I'd prefer to just stay home with my kids and miss Chris on his trips rather than miss Chris AND my kids on trips WITH him. BUT, this trip was different. Chris and Brett Lantz were running the event and Brett's wife, Melissa, would only go if I went. And the Lantz's are a ton of fun to be around so I decided to go--I just had the task of fitting 5 days of work (housework and piano) into 3 days. Chris and Brett have been working together for about 9 years now and we have gone on a lot of trips with these two. We've been to San Diego, Hawaii, Disneyland, and now NYC with Brett and Melissa. This is us waiting for our subway train: (smells soo great down there!!!)


So we did have a little bit of work to do. There were 5 groups there participating in a singing event put on by Chris' company. These groups had the opportunity to perform at Alice Tulley Hall in the Lincoln Memorial Center. I have never been in such an amazing performance venue. They had Timothy Shew as MC and he even performed a few numbers for the kids. Tim Shew is a huge broadway star and has been performing on Broadway stages for over 30 years now in some MAJOR productions--Les Mis, Guys and Dolls, Radio City Musical Hall, just to name a few. So it was awesome to meet such a amazingly talented person--and he was SUPER nice! That's hard to find in his line of work.

The hall had a 9 foot Steinway and Sons piano. These are considered the best of the best! Although I am still a Yamaha snob, it was pretty sweet to play on a piano like this! I'd take one of these pianos if the price were right! Haha!!!


So that event was over on Friday morning so we had the rest of the time to PLAY!!! Words cannot describe NYC!!! This was the 4th time I have been there and I'm still in awe every single time I go there. NYC is not a relaxing place and so this was not a relaxing vacation--but it sure was fun! My most favorite thing to do there is people watch. I try to imagine what life is like there. I can't imagine ever living there--I get claustrophobic just thinking about it nevertheless, it is an AMAZING place. Brett and Melissa are huge food lovers--not sure why Brett hasn't opened his own restaurant yet--but they know all the best places to eat. So these weekend was like a big eating extravaganza! If it were up to Chris and I, we would have been eating pizza and pretzels from street vendors all weekend:) But we sure did enjoy all the amazing food! I think I gained a couple pounds just being there but then we WALKED and WALKED and WALKED! So I think I maintained, but I should have said "No" to a few of the amazing pastries!!!

Friday night we went to see a Broadway show. I LOVE every Broadway show I've ever seen! And usually we see a musical one, but this time we saw a regular play on Broadway. It was called "Lend Me a Tenor." HOLY COW!!! It was HILARIOUS!!! I was laughing soo hard I was crying! It had some big names in it too: Anthony LaPaglia (currently on "Without a Trace), Tony Shalboub (played "Monk" on "Monk"), and Justin Bartha (in movies like "National Treasure" and "Failure to Launch"). There was also an actress named "Brooke Adams" in the play. The only reason I know her is because she shot a movie in my hometown of Deming, NM in the early 90s called "Gas, Food, and Lodging" and she had a young daughter, Josie, that she enrolled in my sister's gymnastics school for a couple of months and I was her gymnastics teacher. So, small world sometimes! (I didn't go say "hi" or anything, it was just cool to know another actor on stage) I would HIGHLY recommend this show to anyone!


Saturday morning we were up bright and early to go to the temple. I was soo glad that we did this. None of the four of us had ever been inside this beautiful temple. It has 6 stories. It doubles as a temple and a stake center. I also learned that the church owns the entire block that the temple sits on. Now that had to cost a pretty penny but they did it so they could control what is immediately around the temple. There are shady businesses EVERYWHERE so this was a smart move for sure. The temple is mostly surrounded by apartments. So, this is where the missionaries live.

We also made it out to the new Yankees Stadium. The stadium is in a very poor area of town which definitely makes it stand out. We also got to see the old stadium that is currently being torn down.



CRAZY NYC STORY: So we were enjoying time at a street fair. There was an entire street blocked off for this event. We were about to leave the event and were standing by the road blocks at the end of the street when all of the sudden this cop car starts driving RIGHT at us and through the blockade—I was right next to the blockade and was pushed out of the way WITH the blockade BY the cop car! It took a few moments for my brain to process what was happening especially because there was NO WARNING whatsoever from the cops—no lights or sirens or announcement over their speaker. They just drove right THROUGH the blockade and then high-tailed it down the extremely busy and crowded street! I’m not sure how they could have made it down that street without running over a few people! It was CRAZY! We never did find out what the “rush” was! I guess we just have bragging rights now that we were almost run down by NYC cops!!! I guess they need to be as crazy as the people there! So the picture of the “Police—Do Not Cross” blockade is one that Melissa took so that we can always remember that day!


Here we are enjoying a walk in Washington Monument Park:


I sure did miss my kids while I was away but they were in the best of hands. My super wonderful sister-in-law, Stephanie, drove over from NM to stay with my kids while we were away. The kids had the best time with her! Parks every day, McDonald's ice cream, and movies. I'm sure Steph could have stayed a week longer and the kids would have been fine with that! Though they did claim to miss me! All in all it was a FABULOUS trip. However, I came home more exhausted than when I left--3 hour time difference+out TOO late+ up TOO early=1 very tired yet happy mom. All totally and completely worth it:)
This is us in the middle of Times Square:

WE LOVE NEW YORK CITY!!!

Ethan's Baptism

Another whirlwind of a week but what an AWESOME week it was! I was busy all week preparing for a baby shower that I held for my friend, Stacey Johnson. So on Friday, April 9th, I had a baby shower for Stacey who is having a boy next month. The shower ended around 1:15. I had just enough time to clean up from the shower before my parents arrived at 1:55p.m! So it was all good and we had an enjoyable day together. We went to the Deseret Book Store so that Ethan could pick out his new scriptures. He was soo excited for his baptism. He actually turned 8 at the end of February but Chris was not home a single weekend in March and since Dad kinda needs to be there, we had to push his baptism back to April. So he's been waiting for this day for a while!

Saturday morning was JAMMED packed!!! Ethan had to be up at the ball park at 6:45 a.m. for team pictures and then a game at 8 a.m. Right after Ethan's game, we ran over to the other park for Carlie's softball game at 9:30 a.m. Then we ran home and cooked a big lunch for everyone here. THEN...we were off to the church!

I was soo nervous that this would be a small baptism. We don't have a lot of family, and definitely no family in town. So it was a great sacrifice for any of our family to come. But my mom took off a full day of work (not easy for a nurse practioner), my dad missed a big track meet (he's retired but still coaches track at the high school), our good family friend, Lori, came up as well. My sister even managed to make it up here along with her son, my nephew--Cassel, who JUST came home from a mission about 2 weeks before. I was soo touched that April Havey (Primary President) and Susan Barker (2nd counselor in Primary) came as well. Since I'm the 1st counselor in Primary, they most definitely didn't have to come but it was SOO great to have them there supporting my family. I was soo grateful for everyone in that room!

Dad baptized Ethan. The water level was super low and super cold and it took 3 times to get Ethan all the way under!!! But that's okay!!! It got done and it got done right!!! Papa Frank confirmed Ethan. My sister gave one of the talks, and my nephew gave the other. Carlie played the piano and I led the music. Max just had to be involved so he got to say the opening prayer. (Funny side note on Max, poor guy! Because our morning was soo insane and I was trying to remember everything from baseball, softball, dry clothes, programs, etc. Max took it upon himself to get get dressed. So I didn't even notice until we were driving to the Stake Center that he was sporting a red sweater (in 90 degree weather), green flip flops, uncombed hair, and a stuffed animal. Poor 3rd child!!! I felt like Mother-of-the-year for sure!) So we had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed time with all our family in town. We were super sad to see them go!

Bowling anyone?!

So I got these "free bowling" passes right before spring break and we were really excited to use them BUT....every time we tried to go, we hit some league team night! Who knew that bowling was still soo popular?!?! Soo...I called first thing on Friday morning hoping that the bowling alley would be open on Good Friday and they were!!! We headed right over. We almost had the whole place to ourselves--I guess all the good Christians were off at their Easter services. Whatever the case, we had a BLAST! Tatum and I were a team--she would stand behind me and "help" me swing the ball. Well, she was my good luck charm because we kicked butt!!! We had 112 points! I don't even know if that's a great score but it was the best one in our family! Yea baby!!!

Tatum was THE BEST cheerleader..."Go Momma, Go Momma!!!"


Max was the first one to get a strike!!! He was soo excited! (Not sure if you can tell that he's excited:)

Nice shoes!!!