Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Fun in the Sun

Whew! We're back from San Diego. We had a whirlwind twelve days that began with an extensive tour of the Salt Lake International Airport. Our flight was delayed and we walked around and around while waiting for the ice to melt off the runways.

Then we celebrated my dad's awesome career at his retirement party. The Sunday after the party I had a bunch of people tell me that it was the best retirement party they'd ever been to. I have to agree. Although, in fairness, I haven't been to many retirement parties. Still, it was very fun and it was a great way to celebrate the incredible worker that my father has been for more than thirty years.

The weekend was spent visiting with friends and celebrating family birthdays. 

On Monday we met my friend and her daughter at the Wild Animal Park which is now, apparently, referred to as Safari Park but I (and just about everyone I know) refuse to call it that.

My friend's daughter had a bit of a meltdown just before we went on the tram so my parents decided to take the boys while my friend and I walked around with her daughter. It was during this time that we spotted this deer just off the path. Jenni and I then decided to see how close we could get to her. We became somewhat strangely obsessed with this deer considering the fact that there were lions and elephants and giraffes and tigers not far from us. 


Although, to be completely truthful, it was the only animal we saw that wasn't in a man made "habitat" so, technically, does that make it the only technical wild animal in the Wild Animal Park?

On Tuesday my mom and I went shopping and out to lunch while my boys played with their cousins, aunt and grandpa. My poor mother-in-law had caught the plague of death that had been circulating through the cousins and had to stay confined to the bedroom. Later that afternoon we watched my cousin, Holly, play in a water polo game. Their team crushed the other team and we got to watch Holly score a goal!

On Wednesday, I drove down to my grandparents' house and we hung out there for awhile before heading to Mission Bay for some Rubio's and play time with a fellow PLNU alum and her adorable son.

On Thursday my parents treated us to a day at Legoland. Let's just say that this was a colossally big hit with the boys.

We rode rides. We took large amounts of pictures with Legomen. We walked through the Lego cities they have. I may or may not have wanted to live inside of Lego New York.

Matthew ended up having a huge meltdown at Legoland a few hours in and this began his tailspin into difficult days. He had been an absolute angel for the first week we were there.

The remaining five days were a bit challenging. But part of it might have been the fact that by the weekend he'd caught whatever was circulating around my sister-in-law's house and he wasn't feeling well. Thank goodness for the flu shot because he didn't run the fever and Garrett, thus far, has not gotten sick.



On Friday my brother, the Sea World employee, treated us to a day at the park. No day at Sea World is complete without an interactive bat ray session. They are my oldest boy's favorite thing in all the world--maybe.




Since we'd been taken to the Wild Animal Park, Sea World and Legoland at no cost to us (oh! we are SO spoiled!) I decided to buy these for the boys with their lunch. 


They didn't even eat half of them. So then I had to wrap them up in napkins and stuff them in the backpack because, at something like $3.50 each I wasn't about to toss them. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that, since I did not want to take the frosting in a backpack, I consumed almost all of it myself. Consequently, I am now avoiding the scale.

We had a lazy weekend and on Monday we went hiking, played with cousins for an hour, and then played around a nearby park. It was at the park that I decided my son is actually a modern day Huckleberry Finn. Straight into the pond he went, clothes and all. 


Weather was in the high 70s. So why on earth wouldn't he go swimming in a pond in February?


When we got back into town last night, we were walking outside and Matthew howled, "WHY IS MY HEAD SO COLD?"

"Because it's cold here," I replied.

"IS YOUR HEAD COLD?"

"Yep," I answered.

"BUT WHY?"

"Because it is not warm in Utah in February."

But in San Diego it was warm and the boys were riding bikes, playing in the yard, soaking up the rays and making memories.

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