Grandma was supervising

When we went to Michigan a few weeks ago for Erin's wedding reception, we left all three of our cherubs in the care of Grandma Addink. My sister Gina had her camera at our house the other night, and was showing us a video on it. We saw some pictures of our kids, and said we wanted to save them to our computer. My mom and Gina insisted that there were no pictures worth seeing on the camera. Ahhhhh ha, obviously trying to hide something! So we downloaded all the pictures, and found a whole series of these...



Apparently Levi discovered the joys of the urinal. For being only 2 years old, and having limited experience peeing anywhere other than his diaper (such as in the tub... or on the floor while streaking naked through the house AFTER the tub), the kid has pretty good technique. One hand on his, ummmm, hose to facilitate the aim, one hand on the top to steady his balance. Of course, he is making direct eye contact with the camera next to him, instead of focusing intensely at a spot on the wall in front of him, a definite violation of urinal etiquette. But hey, he's got some time to learn.

And of course, we will now be much more wary any time Grandma babysits for the weekend...

We must be absolutely insane

We just bought tickets to fly to Michigan at Christmas. With three children. And only two of us. After the previous plane trip, when we were "those people" on the plane. You know, the ones with the kid who screams for the entire flight, who you think "they must be the worst parents in the world. Their child is an absolute terror. The horror of the trip must finally be wearing off, because 1: we are planning to do it again, and 2: I can only remember vauge details anymore. I do distinctly recall wanting to leave my eldest offspring in the overhead bin, and the little old ladies in front of Paige clapping when Ella finally got spanked.

This trip we planned to be outfitted with dual portable DVD players, and overdoses of Dramamine. Let's hope the combo puts them to sleep like this...

Darn dog

So far the dog is definitely a puppy. She eats any toy left on the floor (we have too many anyways), has chewed a hole in the carpet, dug holes in the backyard, literally chewed an entire bush in the backyard down to a stump... and Paige is allergic to it.

But it's a small price to pay when you find this smile hidden in your little girl...

Funny things they say...

Ella, after opening her birthday present: "LOOK! STUFF!!!!" Guess we are doing a great job raising another little consumer. Sheesh...

Noah, after being told it was time to scrub in the bathtub: "I don't WANT to be clean!!!" Typical little boy...

Ella, after being told to eat her dinner so she won't be hungry before bed: "But daaaaaaad, sometimes I eat and my tummy still has cracks in it." I'm surprised she didn't ask for ice cream... to fill the cracks, of course...

San Die-aaaaaah-go!

Paige, Ella, and I went to San Diego for Paige's 30th birthday, and Ella's 4th. Or as Ella calls it, "San Die-aaaaaah-go." Paige has been talking about going to San Diego for years, so I figured this was as good a time as any. We had tickets to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and the Wildlife Park. More animals than you can shake a stick at (although the zoo keepers tend to frown when you shake sticks at the animals.)

After the usual hassle of being violated by airport security, we made it to San Diego. We made our way to the rental car place via the shuttle bus. Ella declared that this was her favorite part of the trip so far. So next year, we will just skip the actual vacation and go ride shuttle buses around Sky Harbor. We load up in our rental car... a convertible PT Cruiser. Doesn't really qualify as the mid-size we specified. We can only fit one suitcase in the "trunk." Ella, a huge suitcase, a her stroller all get crammed into the miniature back seat. I fold myself up like a pretzel and cram into the driver's seat. It's a good thing the convertible top is open, because I can see over the windshield. I'm not sure I would fit with the top down. We go to exit the parking garage, and the attendant spends a loooong time looking at our paperwork. Not a good sign. Finally, he says "I think you have the wrong car." Odd, we took the car parked in D12, just like they told us too. Sure enough, they goofed up and gave us the wrong car. I asked for an upgraded car, and got one, a Dodge Magnum. So we transfer all our stuff and finally get under way.

Head to the hotel (Nice choice Grandma Mary!), unload all the stuff, and head over to Sea World. Between 3:00 and 6:00, we managed to see most of it. It's smaller than I remembered. Ella was completely wiped out, and actually fell asleep on the car ride to the hotel, and didn't wake up until the next morning.

The next day we headed to the SD Zoo. Had lots of fun looking at all the animals. We spent the entire day there, and we still didn't get to see about 1/4 of the zoo.

The third day we headed to the Wildlife Park. We headed out of town, and about an hour later started wondering why we hadn't seen the sign for the park yet. We had somehow missed the turnoff and ended up about 40 miles past the exit. I'm not assigning blame for this mishap (but Paige was the one with the map!) Turn around, finally get to the park around noon. As we are pulling into the parking lot, Ella says "My tummy doesn't feel good!" and 2 seconds later... baaaaaarf. All over her shirt, on her pants, into the car seat. Lovely. We pile out of the car, pull off her shirt, scrub the puke off her pants, load up in the stroller.



I'm sure people thought we just pulled in from Arkansas, with our shirtless four year old, and the faint odor of stomach juices. On the plus side, Ella got to pick out a souvenir... a lovely new Wildlife Park t-shirt. The Wildlife Park is huge, and you walk a long ways, and the animals are usually not very close. I'm not sure it was Ella's favorite.

Ella had a good time at all the parks, as is obvious in the pictures below...



Sheesh. Obviously she inherited her father's sunny disposition, and his love of being photographed. We did manage to catch a few of her smiling while she was pretending to be grumpy...



We headed from the Wildlife Park down a short section of the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped at the beach to check out the water.



The last day, we headed back to Sea World to catch the dolphin show and a few of the other things we missed. We also drove around Coronado so I could show Paige where I spent a few summer vacations. Paige harassed me that while I spent summers relaxing at the beach and sailing around San Diego harbor, she spent summers at the Meyer farm in Volga, South Dakota.

Our little Marines

Our church has what they call "Blast Sunday's." They have blow up slides and face painting for the kids. The boys found these helmets, so we tried them on. I'll tuck this one away somewhere, and put it up on the wall after they graduate from Parris Island...

Gorillas in the mist

Our little buckaroos

Ella


Levi


Noah