Well, it was a jam-packed weekend and there are lots of pictures so please click (Read on …)

We’re out of town for the weekend (Mike has an out of town gig). I don’t know if I’ll have internet access or not (which is a bummer since I’ll be stuck in a hotel room with a sleeping toddler while Mike is working), so I may be incommunicado until we get back. Never fear, though, I’m going to set Surfer Sunday to post before we go!

Hope all of you have a great weekend!

We decided to get out of the Valley and the heat (although it’s not as bad now that it’s under 100 degrees) for the day yesterday, and took a drive up to Flagstaff. (Read on …)

We are home. I’m tired and this is going to be a busy weekend, so I don’t know how much I’ll write. I’ll probably write something, because, well…because…well…I just realized that the first anniversary of this domain and this particular blog was way back on August 3, and I’ve actually managed (somehow) to write some kind of post every day since then. So, I’m trying to see how long I can keep it up. I’m pretty sure there will come a day that I won’t be able to post, but in the meantime, I’m going to keep trying. Even if it’s just some short little something. This weekend will probably be mostly short little somethings. But you never know.

In the meantime, y’all have a great weekend. Vacation is awesome, but it’s good to be home. Melody was pretty darn happy to see us and as I type this a little girl is being kissed and licked and is giggling on the floor nearby. Two happy girls. :)

This morning we went to the zoo. We saw many animals. Including the Wild Human Exhibit. Actually I think it was either a middle school right next door to one of the fences or a bunch of kids on a field trip. Little Girl enjoyed the animals, but started melting down at lunchtime. Mike and I were preparing to leave and stopped in one of the gift shops to get her a stuffed animal. The cry of BAY-UH! convinced us that she should have a Panda Bear and lo and behold, like magic, the meltdown was over and we finished seeing what we wanted to see and even made it through the Children’s Zoo which she totally enjoyed.

She fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car and so we decided rather than wake her in 5 or 10 minutes when we got to the hotel, we’d drive down to Point Loma and see the Lighthouse and Cabrillo National Monument. So we did. She woke up when we got there which was just fine.

Then we came back to the hotel and let my poor aching feet rest for awhile before we went to Mission Beach for one last time. Walking in the sand actually feels good on sore feet, by the way.

We took the sand toys and LG had a grand old time thoroughly covering herself in sand. Sand is no longer “ucky” apparently. But the coolest thing? As Mike sat on the beach playing with LG and I wandered around taking photos, a school or family of dolphins swam by fairly close to the shore. I mean really. How often to you get to see wild dolphins? Way too cool.

Tomorrow it’s bye bye beach and back to the desert. I’ll be glad to get home, but I’ll miss the beach. As usual, pictures follow: (Read on …)

Oh I am tired. Tired. Very tired. It was very warm at Sea World today. I hate to say that because the high temperature in San Diego today was 85 degrees, and I live in a place where the high temperature in the summertime often tops 110. But it was warm. I’m going to blame the humidity for the fact that 85 degrees was making me uncomfortable. And the fact that the wind didn’t blow at all while we sat in Dolphin Stadium with the sun blazing down upon us. Ugh.

We are going back to Sea World tomorrow to see what we didn’t see today since we were responsible parents and brought Little Girl back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. We were going to go back this afternoon, but we decided to just relax and cool off and go to Seaport Village tonight instead.

Today I learned that my toddler is actually very VERY well behaved in public. Although perhaps a great deal of that is because her father is not a complete idiot who doesn’t pay enough attention to his child and lets her pick up a hot cup of coffee and take a sip and then spit it out all over said child’s shirt and then proceed to argue with his wife over how many outfits they took to Las Vegas as opposed to San Diego. Oh yes. We witnessed that this morning in the hotel’s breakfast room. Of course, had he actually been paying attention to his toddler, the toddler probably wouldn’t have grabbed the coffee cup and gotten his outfit filthy in the first place, now would he? I’m just saying.

Okay enough talk, click for the day in pictures… (Read on …)

Yep, we made it to San Diego and we have internet. Beach, cooler weather, free wireless. What more could a girl ask for?

Here are some things we learned today:

• Packing the teddy bear in the bag in front of the toddler will cause a major meltdown, but later when you take it out in the car for her to play with, it will bring smiles.

• When you stop for a lunch break, it’s probably a good idea to actually let the toddler run around for a bit so that you don’t have to stop 20 minutes later.

• If there are no changing stations at the rest stop, a picnic table will do in a pinch.

• Feeling ocean water on your feet is “ucky” according to Little Girl.

• Overstimulated toddlers refuse to go to sleep easily in a strange place and will most likely wear out one if not both of their parents before they wear out themselves.

Click for the day in pictures… (Read on …)

The bad news is that I hate packing. The good news is that it looks like Hurricane John moisture is going to mostly miss California. We’re sure getting slammed by a nice big thunderstorm right now, though.

If all goes well, I’ll be blogging from San Diego tomorrow. Have a great week!

Back to packing. Ugh.

Oh how I hate getting ready for vacation. I like the vacation. But I hate the getting ready. So that’s what today has been and tomorrow and Sunday will be. And then Monday we’re off to the beach and the zoo and Sea World and 20-25 degree cooler weather. Yay!

We went to San Diego this time a year ago and I was thinking last night how much has changed since then. In just a year. Little Girl was only 9 months old. She couldn’t even stand up by herself. So, all the pictures of her on the beach are being supported or held. This year, someone is going to be chasing her everywhere. And it’s not going to be me. Ha!

A year ago we still had Majerle and Lady and when we left, we wondered if they’d still be here when we got back. They were, but Lady passed away less than a month later. And Majerle about three months after that. Now we’re leaving a hyper silly almost not a puppy anymore Melody behind to torment our house/dog sitter. And hopefully the house and everything in it will still be in one piece when we get back.

Last year, LG slept through the dolphin show and was pretty wiped out by the time we saw Shamu. This year, I suspect that she will add many many MANY new words to her ever-growing vocabulary while we are gone.

Last year we had to take a box of baby food jars and bottles with us and take time out to feed her. This year she’ll just be eating whatever we eat. I have to say that part is much much easier.

A lot has changed in a year. Some awesome. Some sad. It’s just another reminder that life goes on. And changes.

Tomorrow she will be 21 months old. I suspect there will probably be a post with pictures at some point during the day or evening, depending on when I’m able to get to it.

We will have internet access, or at least that’s what the hotel information says. So I should still be around, albeit not as much as usual. Have an awesome weekend and stay safe!

I sit here on the front porch of my house enjoying the last of the cool weather that we have enjoyed this weekend. Well, it’s cool by our standards. It didn’t even hit 90 yesterday and today the high was about 93. By the end of the week we’ll be pushing 110, which is when I officially use the word “hot” (can’t psyche myself out too early you know) and we won’t look back until about the middle of October. It stinks that I was sick this weekend and spent most of the time lounging in bed while Mike became the primary caregiver to Little Girl. Anyway, I’m sitting on my front porch typing on my laptop and enjoying the weather. Are you jealous?

We did have a good weekend. Mike was home a lot and took over taking care of LG and that was nice for me as I actually got some rest and relaxation that I needed. I even woke up this morning without a sore throat.

Yesterday for dinner I gave LG yogurt and even let her try her hand with the spoon for a change and she actually got a few bites in right side up before she decided that chewing on the spoon was more fun than eating off of it. So I fed her the rest of her yogurt with another spoon. Hey, whatever works.

The yogurt didn’t all go in her mouth of course, so i decided to give her a bath before bedtime. When I went to take off her clothes, I discovered a poopy diaper (still can’t smell those…hehehe) so I took her to her changing table to wipe her down. Then I let her run down the hall to the bathroom naked. Once we were in the bathroom, I had to adjust the temperature of the water slightly, so I let her walk around the room sans diaper. I turned around to get her into the tub and I saw a puddle. Yep, she peed on the floor. Hey, at least it wasn’t in the tub. *sigh*

Mike surprised me this morning by telling me he wasn’t going to work. Whoa. I had myself all prepared to be alone with the munchkin all day and surprise! I wasn’t. So I took the opportunity to go to Michael’s and Target all by myself. That was nice.

I spent the last week eating only healthy things. I actually went 7 entire days without putting a bite of junk into my mouth. I’m not sure it worked since number one, I got sick and number two, I was feeling weak and dizzy by lunchtime today. My body must have been in shock. ;-) Anyway, I also made sure to drink at least 64 ounces of water per day and I was supposed to also be working out, but being sick sort of messed that part up. I did manage to lose 5 pounds in a week, though, and that’s not too bad. I was supposed to do the healthy eating thing for 10 days, but I gave in today because I wasn’t feeling so good and had some ice cream and some Mexican food for dinner. I feel much better now.

Had I know Mike was going to be home today, I would have planned to barbecue and make home-made ice cream or something. And of course this morning we talked about all the things around the house we could get done, and we got exactly nothing done. But who cares? We all need a big fat day of doing nothing once in awhile.

Hope your weekend was wonderful!

I think I mentioned in another post that we had purchased a Christmas ornament in Seaport Village. I finally got around to taking a picture of it today.

Mike and I have had a tradition since the beginning of our marriage: wherever we go on vacation, we buy an ornament that reminds us of our trip, so we have some really interesting and cool ornaments. I love the fact that it has the year on it so we’ll always remember when we got it. :)

And just because they all happened to be lounging around in the same place at the same time, here’s a pic of the dogs and the baby:

Okay, so Rochelle was the only one who asked me to do this, but anyway…I have uploaded two new movies of baby girl from our vacation.

The first one is a quick clip of her on the beach. I was supposed to follow them when Mike walked away, but I didn’t. I don’t remember why, but I know that I had a really good reason not to. ;)

The second one is on the roof of the hotel with the pigeons. In it you can hear me being bossy to Mike. I wanted to edit it but Mike and Rochelle told me not to. Hmph. (And all of you who know us in person can just keep the snarky comments about that being nothing unusual to yourself thank you very much. hehehe)

We are back.

I am tired.

More later.

For some unknown reason, I am awake. It is not yet 6 a.m. But I am awake. Therefore, that must mean I need to write in the blog. Well, it probably doesn’t actually mean that, but I figure it’s something to do until the sun comes up.

The morning started off normally…feed baby girl, eat breakfast on the roof. Okay, normal for our vacation anyway. Because I normally do not eat breakfast on a roof. But I digress.

After breakfast, we walked across the street to San Diego Hardware because they have an immense supply of cabinet hardware (and of course along with the new cabinets we need hardware). They had really cool stuff, but I have in my mind a specific thing I want and I have yet to find it. (I want it to match the trim on the lamps in the kitchen. I should post a picture so that all of you will be on the lookout for me…lol.)

Then we came back and let the child take a nap so that she wouldn’t sleep through Sea World. I relaxed by playing on the laptop. Mike relaxed by reading a geology book about Southern California. Yes, you read that right. Makes you wonder how we ever ended up together doesn’t it? (Read on …)

The morning started off as every other morning does in our household. We woke up and fed the baby. And then it changed. We got all of ourselves dressed and went up on the roof of the hotel for continental breakfast. How cool is that? Breakfast on the roof??? The hotel is about 10 stories high if you were wondering. Anyway, on the roof there were people who actually spoke to us and smiled at us! Okay, no not really. They actually smiled at the baby and spoke to the baby and then spoke to us. ;) It is such a trial to have a cute baby! Not really. But I have noticed that people are way more friendly to you when you have a baby than they might normally be. I think maybe it’s because it gives people a good excuse to speak to you, because it’s always hard to start up a conversation with strangers. But babies? What parent doesn’t want their baby oohed and ahhed over?

Oh, did I mention that in the morning in San Diego it is overcast and foggyish? If it is overcast and foggyish in the morning in Phoenix, that probably means it’s going to rain or at least think about it. But in San Diego? It just means that it will burn off in a couple of hours and warm up. That’s very odd to me. Not in a bad way, though. (Read on …)