San Diego, Days 2 and 3

On day 2, we went to the beach closest to us, Ocean Beach, which we have since learned is the only one with it's own collection of homeless people. And, we went on a Sunday, and were there before 8am, because we are on central time in our heads, so we were up early, especially the boy. Oh, and it was overcast that morning, so well, we had the beach mostly to ourselves, save some surfers and the aforementioned homeless people we were waking up as we trudged on into the beach area. We had a great time this morning, for several hours, checking out the water and playing in the sand. Here are some photos:

When we first arrived, and for a while thereafter, it was pretty cold.

A video I took when we first arrived.

Full of ocean noise.

Surfers

I love this photo. I have no idea what he was saying, but I love it anyway.

I found the jetty to be quite photogenic.

The badge is leftover from the Beaver Creek Rodeo

Bringing back more water for the perfect sand mix.

A little hand sandprint on my leg

Three little boy surfers

Some sand MAY have been ingested.

He had so much fun.

When we left the beach, we cleaned off most of the sand and dressed the boy in new clothes and headed out for some lunch. Only the boy fell asleep before we left the parking lot! So, we drove around and saw the sights for a while before we ate. 

Later that day, we were able to visit with one of my longest known friends, Stephanie, and her family. It was nice to visit with them. They actually gave us passes to Sea World and the zoo for free, as well as to the USS Midway and the Museum of Natural History, where Steph's sister Chena works. That saved us several hundred dollars! Amazing. We are getting together with them again tonight.

Then, on day 3, Monday, we got up in the morning and went swimming in the hotel pool. We had it virtually to ourselves and was a lot of fun. The boy and I swam together for quite some time, while Daddy sun bathed on the deck. We had lunch and LM napped and we walked around Liberty Station a bit, which was really nice. Here are some photos:

Love this one.

That night we went to dinner with two friends who work at the San Diego Symphony! It was so nice of them to come out and eat with us. Michael interned with us a few years ago, and so did Magda, but I also knew Magda from the graduate program we both went through. It was great to catch up for a while. 

Michael, Magda, Me

However, I cannot post that photo without saying, what the heck is up with my shirt, and why do I look like I've had four pints? I had not! I am sooooo photogenic. Oh well. Michael and Magda look great.

So there you go. We have had tons more fun since this, and I'll post when I can. Happy Friday!

See you soon!

San Diego, Day 1

So, those birthday party photos are still not all uploaded. I don't know what I've done to jinx that album, but it's having a time of it. And, I have a couple of other activities we've done between then and coming to San Diego, some of which is partially uploaded. But, here in sunny, cool San Diego, where we are vacationing, things upload like a dream. So, while it would be nice to keep it all in order, like my life, that ain't happenin'. Here are some of the highlights from the first day of our trip.

When we landed in San Diego on Saturday, we were starving! We checked into our hotel and then went looking for something to eat. It turns out we are staying very near Little Italy. We had some pizza and then we drove on out to Coronado just to see what that was all about. LM fell asleep in the car, so we didn't get out - we just drove by and saw the beautiful old famous hotel and the picturesque beaches.

As we were leaving Little Italy, we caught this wedding beginning.

The obligatory "up the trunk" photo.

A blue door.

We are staying in an area of town called Point Loma, near Liberty Station. Liberty Station used to be a Navy training school, but was closed in the 90's. Since then, it has been repurposed to mixed use development. Along this canal, there are walking paths, park areas for gathering and eating, and a really cool playground. We walked down to the playground for a while that first night:

He really wanted to play on this digging toy, but the big boys had it!

Then, a walk back to the hotel on Daddy's back!

And a motorcycle sighting.

A good night.

I have photos from the other days as well, of course. But, we're off to Sea World today, so I've gotta go!

See you soon.

The 2nd Birthday Party

I was trying to get all of my photos uploaded from the boy's 2nd birthday party before I posted about it. But, uploading is taking FOR-EV-ER so I'm going to do a post today, and if I feel like I need to do another one later, I will. Ha. The boy's birthday party was the weekend before last. It was something like 107 that day - ungodly amounts of heat - and we had a petting zoo coming, so the party was outdoors. The boy seemed to have a good time - but you can tell in the photos how hot it was:

I really had a hard time deciding what to do for this birthday party. I waffled back and forth between a few ideas for a while, but after we went to the Dallas Zoo and Gentle Zoo at the end of May, I decided an animal theme was the way to go, because the boy talked about the animals for weeks after that. So, I first looked into having the party at the Dallas Zoo. Sister, they want an ungodly amount of money for very little in return. Someone at work mentioned to me that having a petting zoo come to your house would be way cheaper than the zoo's option. So, I looked into that. Indeed, it was way cheaper, and this outfit even brought a pony. 

It was not lost on me even before the day of the party how ridiculous the "pre-boy" me would have thought having a petting zoo for a 2 year old birthday party would be. The "post-boy" me, when I say, "We had a petting zoo at my son's birthday party" out loud, thinks it sounds absolutely ridiculous. And, when I saw these people in my front yard, I thought I had lost my mind. But, you see, I have been completely snowed by this little creature. He clearly has me wrapped around his finger, because I'm doing ridiculous things like ordering a petting zoo for his birthday party. That's the God's honest truth. That's how it goes around here these days, for sure.

In addition to his cousins, Dexter and Anthony were able to come.

Max and Tuesday were out of town.

Even the horse was hot!

At one point, they got to feed the animals.

I bought this cute fabric birthday banner on Etsy. It's one we can use year after year. 

We had snacks.

The kids were able to go back and forth between eating/resting and playing with the animals or riding the pony. In addition, we had a trough with a duck game in it, and ride on toys on the driveway. At the end, we did bubbles, which LM mostly just dumped onto the driveway. And, we even cracked open some Easter eggs that were left over. In addition, S brought a Sno Cone machine home from work so the kids had those as well. And, of course, we had birthday cake. Here are more photos about those things:

Hi Ma!

OK, so as you see, no cake photos have uploaded yet. Or bubbles. Or eggs. so, I'll share those another day. 

See you soon.

State Fair 2012 Entries

So it's that time of year again - time to enter the State Fair of Texas amateur photography competition. I almost let it slip by without entering, but I got it in under the wire, only because they have changed the rules. You can now drop off your photos on creative arts drop off day, later in August. They used to have to be mailed in. Sister, if I had to have mailed anything but a registration form, it would have been all over. Because I'm just living that sort of life these days. Last minute all the time. Oy.

OK, so I knew I wanted to enter this one:

This will have to go into the "preschool children" category...which, my friends, is a highly competitive category, in my opinion. So, I haven't wanted to enter it before. And I'm not sure I'll have any luck there, but this photo evokes Texas to me in ways that are unique and action filled. It has bluebonnets, but in not an entirely predictable way. It has a Normal Rockwell-esque feel to me, as it looks like the boy is getting ready to take off on that rocker. So, there it is.

Then, I had to turn in the form without really thinking through all my other photo options. I remembered taking some photos at the Ft. Worth Zoo last fall that I liked, so I entered the other category as "Animals/wild". And, when I went back to look at those animals, I decided this one was the winner. I have never really paid attention to this category, and since this isn't "Texas-y" it may not get any attention at all, but here it is:

Judging takes place toward the end of August and so I'll let you know if I get anything. Every year I've entered so far I've received some sort of ribbon, so I have high hopes, but you know one can never tell what they are really going for. Or at least I can't. I look at the winners every year and don't agree with the outcome regularly, so I leave it to them, and will be happy to have entered no matter what. 

OK, here's to a great Monday. 

See you soon!

The Last Bit of Colorado

Next week I'll get around to the Little Man's birthday and other exciting events that have occurred this past week. But, for today, one last Colorado post:

The afternoon of the mountain trip, we headed into town to do some shopping. It did start to rain, eventually, but we survived, and had some fun checking out the little shops of Breckenridge. Needless to say, this was not the most exciting part of the trip for LM. He napped for a short time, and Daddy got swindled  bought this moose for him to help the journey so to speak.

Torchy and the Flamingo

Torchy sort of has a thing for flamingos, so when we saw this really big one, we had to get her photo next to it. This little bird was some ungodly amount of money. It was for sale at a little art fair we encountered on our time out.

Later that night, back at the condo.

One thing I bought in Breckenridge was this super hero cape - it was at a store that had lots of stuff they had made and they had capes with all sorts of letters on them. There was an "L" so I bought it. Because a LM can never have too many capes.

And now for some random videos, all taken in Colorado:

Dancing, part 1

Clapping at the concert

Dancing part 2, but there wasn't much of a beat.

And there were big kids to watch.

An attempt to get the cute way he says "umbrella" on film.

OK, and now I'm officially out of Colorado stuff! I hope you all have a great weekend. Later today, we have LM's 2 year doctor appointment. Then, this weekend, we have his friend Tuesday's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, God help us. Then, we are going to a Zoo member event and having dinner with some good friends. And, I have lots of photos to process. So, that's enough. It'll keep us hopping!  

See you soon.