San Diego Day 4: Oh, No You Don't! (aka The Alternate Plan)

Family vacation isn't complete without a little drama.

We told the boys that we would be going to Legoland on Monday. You can just imagine the excitement.

When Monday morning rolled around, Ian decided to be oppositional. (Mom, I know I did all of these things....paybacks are tough)

He wanted to laze around and watch tv. He didn't want to get dressed. He didn't want to choose breakfast and then didn't like the breakfast chosen for him. This went on for much of the morning, with several warnings of "No Legoland-and don't think we won't do it!"

Yup. So, finally Dad pulled out the trump card and told Ian we would not be going to Legoland that day. You have never seen behavior adjust so quickly. Yet, not being swayed by the thickly dispensed niceness, and because we aim to be consistent and not be pushovers, we stuck to our guns and plotted out an alternate activity. The boys were disappointed about Legoland, but Ian quickly got the point. ("We're not a bunch of suckers, Mugsy!")

We decided to go down to the harbor and visit the USS Midway. I did not lug my camera and Tom's camera battery died just after our arrival. I ended up buying a disposable camera for the highway robbery price of $14.00, but haven't developed the photos yet. (yes, Grandmas, I will get the photos developed...promise!)

You can see by the look on Ian's face how some of our morning was going.

All three boys truly enjoy exploring the ship. Ian was in disbelief that it was in the water because it was so enormous. He was happiest exploring the lower part of the ship and we allowed him to "guide" us through the various rooms.

We went up on the deck where Tom saw his favorite plane, the something-something Tomkat and the boys got to sit in a few different planes.

Following the Midway, we walked down the street and caught the Harbor Excursion boat and took a nice ride around the south side of the bay while we ate our packed lunch aboard.

The boat took us past the naval yard, where we saw several ships, including a hospital ship that would be the 7th largest hospital in the nation if it were on land! The tour guide was excellent and I definitely learned something while I was on vacation.

Heading back to the room for dinner, we relaxed a bit and then set out again, this time to take the boys bowling for the first time.

They got a special rolling ramp and of course, bumpers. They were delighted and Tom and I were impressed with our bumper-assisted scores too. Connor got very overwhelmed about mid-game. It was pretty loud and he was tired out. Ian took over Connor's turn and learned about being courteous to other bowlers.


Tom, knowing the way to calm Connor's heart, bought him some french fries.

The alternate plan was really fun! We kept our fingers crossed in the hopes of visiting Legoland the next day.

As an aside, I am researching new places to move my blog, with Wordpress being the likely option. I'll keep you in the loop, but my blog space is running low and I want a few other options.

Tom and Ian are taking their first camping trip this weekend up to Flag-so they will be there until Monday. It's me and Little C for the weekend, hanging, playing Cars, Thomas the Train and eating applesauce!

San Diego: Wild Animal Adventure

On Sunday, Michael and Terri drove down to join us at the Wild Animal Park. Unfortunately, the safari rides around the park would have been more exciting for those interested in actually seeing animals with a prohibitive cost of $70.00 each and no kids under the age of 6. We did ride the tram around part of the open park and it looks like the animals do enjoy their nice digs.



The boys did spend some time at the children's splash area, with climb-on plastic animals that spouted water. Several children running through the puddles took headers, including one falling on his nose, another on the back of the head and one girl taking a bad tumble off of one of the animals. Poor Terri could barely watch the proceedings and even I, a mother who has seen many a tumble, couldn't watch them any longer without the fear of someone needing medical attention.

We took the boys and got them some icees instead. Much safer.

One of my favorite photos of the boys. Connor constantly in Ian's shadow.


There was Dino Mountain, an animatronic display of dinosaurs that included a "passport" with stamp stations, where the children could stamp their passport with the dinosaur stamp of what they had seen.

Not to anyone's surprise, Ian became obsessed with finding the stamp stations versus actually looking at the dinosaurs, but he eventually enjoyed having his photo taken while he showed off each dinosaur.

Meanwhile, Terri found a very comfortable bench in the shade for all of us to take a break.

A balloon's-eye view of the park......you might wonder how Tom got this shot.

A rather large helium balloon tethered to the ground and lifting passengers above the park. Michael and Tom took the ride up. They are actually on the balloon ride, but it's hard to see them in this shot.



Gulp! Way too high for me!

The last ride was the merry-go-round, which due to my status as resident wuss, I sat out of both the balloon ride and the merry-go-round ride. All the boys and Terri had a fun time.




We were in the car, hadn't driven out of the parking lot yet and our little one was tuckered out, holding his precious gigantor dino cup in hand.

Michael and Terri-thanks for coming to spend the day with us!

San Diego: Day 1-Are We Really On an Actual Vacation?

Well, I realize that I have been away from my blog for awhile, but I have a great excuse. We spent last week on enjoying seven days in San Diego, with accommodations and admission passes paid in full. The weather was in the mid to upper 60's, which was, of course, cold for us transplanted Arizonans. (you would never guess that we both went to school in upstate NY. I feel like a big weather wuss.)

After finishing my last day of school (which is a whole other story)....we hit the road for San Diego, arriving in the evening.

The boys were tired and so we spent the evening exploring our suite....a two story suite, with kitchen, two bathrooms and multiple televisions. The boys enjoyed running up and down the stairs. We put them in the nicer master bedroom downstairs because of the fear of them either falling down the stairs in the middle of the night or climbing over the loft wall to their demise. You can see why....

These views are looking from the loft bedroom upstairs, over the wall. We loved the kitchen and cooked several times. However, we did make it a point to catch the breakfast each morning...eggs, sausage, waffles, yogurt and granola, coffee, juice and cereal.


We kept Friday rather loose. Tom and I watched a movie in the morning while the boys just relaxed and unwound. We set out in the mid-afternoon to drive to the beach.

We didn't bring swimsuits for the kids, thinking the water would be too cold. Apparently, that isn't a huge factor when you have sand castles to build. Instead, the boys, armed with their sand toys, spent a good hour soaking their long pants and shirt while playing in the waves and collecting water for building.

I'd like to announce that I have no idea how to build a decent sand castle. We tried all different amounts of water mixed with the sand and never once did we accomplish a great sand castle. Naturally, Ian would decide that the castle wasn't up to par and would destroy and redo it. Connor just destroyed them for the pure fun of it.








Not considering that the boys would play in the water, we had no dry clothes for them to wear home. Ian's expression is my favorite.

We headed back to the hotel, got washed up and then went back out to catch the movie "Up". Pixar, I am completely impressed. Of course, during the serious tearjerker moments, there was Connor chattering away.

"Mommy? I more popcorn?"

"Mommy? I love you!"

Louder. "MOMMY! I LOOOVE YOU!"

"Mommy, I kiss you? I kiss your nose?"

"Connor, it's quiet right now. Quiet."

Louder still. "NO, MOMMY. I TALKING YOU. I KISS YOU?"

Anyway, that was our first official day of vacation.

Not visiting family.
Creating our own schedule.
Relaxing when we wanted to.
Being able to visit what we wanted and not worrying about the cost.

Now, that's vacation.

Eeeeww!

I went to my ENT appointment this morning and the doctor was really nice and explained several facts that I would rather have not known-including that we produce a gallon of mucus a day! He declared my ears clear and saw some irritation in the throat. Following that, he sprayed the most horrible numbing spray into my throat and nostrils. He followed that up with a scope going into the nose and down the throat. It's on my top five list of uncomfortable procedures so far. It was painful and mentally challenging to keep calm and relaxed. I was also feeling okay with my throat today, until he disturbed the mucus. Now, I can feel it bugging me quite a bit.

He said my sinuses are clear and that my vocal cords do not show damage. However, there is excessively thick mucus, which is creating issues with hoarseness. There is no infectious cause for the mucus, so I get to have a video scope at the hospital of my esophagus and an more in-depth look at what is going on. He did say that stomach acid would cause this and it is likely.

I don't have to worry about the next uncomfortable gag-me-with-a-scope procedure for at least a week. Until then, I plan to enjoy the week off with my husband and boys and not worry too much about the gallon of mucus collecting in my larnyx!

Arizona Families Benefit from Autism Fundraiser

KTAR, one of our local radio stations is holding an all-day fundraiser for autism with a goal of $325,000 to benefit the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center.

Tom took a workshop there last summer and I know several families who attend SARRC.

I donated a small amount, because as one person said today, it makes you feel good.

Gag Me With Some Acid Reflux

Happy to announce that my Kindergarteners are singing wonderfully and will be adorable for Wednesday morning concerts. My favorite quote this week:

"You're the best Mrs. Murphy I know!"

There happens to be two Mrs. Murphys at one of my schools, so there was some discussion on if I was, in fact, Mrs. Murphy and how there could be two of us with the same name.

Amid the busy school schedule, Tom found time to take the boys to the Science Center today, which perhaps he will blog about, because they were very excited to tell me about it during dinner tonight. Julie-thanks for the Lego exhibit heads-up.

Unfortunately, the stomach medication that the doctor gave last week isn't doing the trick. I woke up Sunday with what felt like something stuck in my throat, like a sharp stick. This morning wasn't as sore, but there was a lump sitting in the gag reflex area, so I was constantly feeling like I was about to throw up all day or I would actually gag when eating. Nice, right? I finally got an appointment with an ENT on Thursday morning. I am not certain if I would rather have the stick in the throat pain or the gag reflex feeling. Fortunately, it is deterring my usual 11:00pm snacky pangs.

Tomorrow, the rug guys come to measure the house. Yippee! We are stumped on whether to do flooring in bedrooms, carpeting in bedrooms, flooring everywhere, carpet everywhere....decisions! And what color?!? But I think once we have measurements and we know the actual costs...our decisions will be made rather quickly depending on what we can actually afford.

That's all for now. Must get to bed.

True Colors

The children try, but they do not and will not succeed.

Connor, suffering from a canker sore of mega-proportion, has resorted to whining, whimpering and throwing himself on the ground this week. He is barely talking, which concerned us for a bit, but we have forced him to talk instead of relying on unintelligible sounds. Today, he finally seemed to be talking with fewer meltdowns.

Ian, who has been angelic for most of the week, since he got reamed out while in California, had a burst of energy while helping us wash cars. The end result was him sitting in time out, yelling about how he isn't our friend and how he isn't going to allow us to play with his Legos and how he doesn't like us anymore. I applauded Tom on his complete silence during this tirade, ignored Ian without comment-which incensed Ian all the more-and I know how badly Tom wanted to say something. Ian did not like the silent treatment from Tom and he changed his mind when I basically told him he would be going to bed following dinner unless he decided to think about his choice of words. He had a change of heart and I believe he will begin his good behavior stint all over again.

The boys are also working on homework each day, putting toys away every day (after we spent a huge portion of Saturday sorting Legos and assorted toys) and two other chores of our choosing. They like this and are working to earn some spending money for vacation.

Connor is working on colors for his homework, which is not going so well. He seems to think all of the colors are pink. My mother-in-law told me to get his eyes actually checked by an eye doctor in case he is possibly color-blind. He does know the different colors associated with Cars cars, but I think he doesn't know what the hell I am talking about when I ask him what color something is. Example:

Me: (looking at yellow duck) What color is the duck, Connor?

Connor: Duck.

Me: Yes, it's a duck. What color is the duck?

Connor: Quack.

Me: Yes, a duck says quack. Is the duck red?

Connor: Yes.

Me: Nooo. Is the duck yellow?

Connor: No.

Me: Yes, the duck is yellow. What color is the duck? He's yellow. What color is he?

Connor: Pink.

Me: Yellow.

Connor: Oh, yellow.

Me: (turning page) What's this, Connor?

Connor: Strawberry!

Me: Right. What color is a strawberry, Connor? Is it red?

Connor: No, that strawberry.

Me: Yes, it's a strawberry. Is it a red strawberry?

Connor: No, that a strawberry.

Me: The strawberry is red, Connor. Where is the color red?

Connor: I don't know.

Me: Let's point to the color red. Do you see red?

Connor: (pointing to the strawberry) Look, strawberry!

Me: (going back to the yellow duck page) What color is the duck, Connor?

Connor: Ah, pink!

Me: Hmm, no. The duck isn't pink.

Connor: Look, duck!

Me: Yes. Is the duck yellow?

Connor: I don't know.

Yep, I feel bound and determined to teach the boy his colors. We have done the sorting and cars and I am not quite sure what the right tools are to help him figure it out.

Ian is doing math in his head quickly, but finding letters to be incredibly difficult. He is imposing his own perfection standards on the letters, so he is never happy with how he writes them. His motor skills for writing are not exactly strong, so he knows what to do but cannot seem to make his hand cooperate to make a perfect letter. Yet, I was astonished to see how quickly he could add math problems in his head-no counting on hands-and how logically he came up with his answers. I feel like I am going to need that Danica McKellar math for girls book just to keep up with my five-year-old. (by the way, heard her interviewed on NPR's Science Friday-I hope she does a simple multiplication/division one someday. Not kidding.)

Last week of school. Enormously busy, but looking forward to my short but eventful summer.

Escape from Phoenix

We packed up the van last weekend and headed to visit Cousin Sam (pictured in chair, next to Ian), Aunt Terri and Uncle Mike. Cousin Sam had to show Connor who was boss a few times, but he actually tolerated a very minimal amount of petting from the boys.

We had some floaty races with the boys in the pool, where we spent most of Saturday. Ian spent most of his time on the steps, directing games. It was just nice to cool off after our triple digit Phoenix weather.

Aunt Terri made some delicious tacos. Uncle Mike was impressed with Connor's preparation of taco scoops.


Aunt Terri and Uncle Mike left out several huge boxes in the backyard. Free and well-loved for the weekend. Ian created forts, houses for Sam and Connor got to take them apart.

I haven't been practicing any photography shots and this was probably the only one worth posting.
Connor wanted to relax with Aunt Terri before going to bed.

One of Ian's favorite activities at Uncle Mike's is using the spray hose. Uncle Mike gave him the task of cleaning off the pool toys.

Connor enjoyed his "space goggles."

On our only venture out of the house, we took the Metro into LA to see some Disney free event. As it turned out, the line was five hours long, so we skipped it and got some lunch in the park instead.

Uncle Mike was once again the star of the weekend. Although, I was personally concerned that something was amiss, when Michael didn't have a list of things to do when we arrived. He also took several naps and didn't create a list until Sunday morning. If anyone knows my brother-in-law, this is very uncharacteristic of him.

Hey-we look pretty relaxed! We even had a fun car ride home. Thanks Michael and Terri for a great weekend. I am really happy that it will not be another five months before we get to see you again.

P/S-I am running out of blog space. I have no idea how to fix that problem, but if anyone knows?

P/P/S- On the return visit to the doctor, I think we have figured out the sore throat problem! It appears that I have some kind of acid reflux problem. There are two possibilities, including GERD or LPR. The more likely one is LPR. I am trying a stomach medication to see if that helps reduce the sore throat. If by the weekend it isn't resolved, I will see an ENT. At least I don't have some raging respiratory infection!