Birch Aquarium

Ben had the day off, and Roman got out of school at noon, so the whole family took a trip to the aquarium last Friday. I love that Ben has every other Friday off, because I hate doing things when every one else is! We almost had the place to our selves!

They had a lovely exhibit about global warming, or was it cooling? Some how we tiny little humans have completely altered the universe, and whether the Earth is warming or cooling, it is all our fault. Has nothing to do with natural cycles... or that giant ball of fire that we orbit around. (Don't get me wrong, we should all do our part, and I recycle and try to use more natural solutions when available... but I think global warming paranoia is way out of control)

Then we went to the Sea Horse exhibit. I liked that, Sea Horses are pretty cool. And did you know that the males are the ones that get pregnant and give birth?!?!? They had a video of the Sea Horse giving birth, horrible contractions and all. Some other lady sat down next to me to watch it. We were all too pleased with the male Sea Horses discomfort and pure exhaustion by the end of it!

The boys liked the playing area in the Sea Horse exhibit. It had different colored corals and you were supposed to hide the different colored puppets in the coral that would protect and camoflage them best. The baby liked the ceiling to floor mirror the best :)

They also have a tidepool outside, and we were there for feeding time! Giant disgusting lobsters came out of hiding to snatch pieces of fish floating down from the sky. The way that the guy was flinging them around, I was terrified that he was going to hit an innocent bystander with fish guts. Fortunately, I think it all made it into the tidepool.

After the aquarium, we headed to Extreme Pizza in LaJolla. (Thanks again, Amanda, for letting me barge in and use your printer!!!). By then the baby had about had it. He was tired of being cooped up and just wanted to crawl around, preferably in the tiny not-so-sturdy table. I scarfed down my pizza and then took the screeching baby outside.

All in all it was a good day. I think we'll try it again in 3 more years or so :P

The First Thanksgiving

At RHE the Kinder- gartners learn about the pilgrims coming to American in the Mayflower in search of religious freedom.

So the last day before Thanksgiving break, they have a feast. The Kindergartners are the pilgrims and the first graders are the indians. (I guess that is why they are still called "Indians" to this day... because that's what we teach our kids from first grade on...)

I got to go and watch the performance and the chaos :P It was pretty cute, and they all had a good time, feasting on popcorn balls, cookies, and

juice.

Everyone Say "Brave Mommies"!!

Roman has half days at school all this week, parent/ teacher conferences. I decided I wanted to do some fun things in the afternoons, since he has missed quite a few fun outtings already this school year. Today we went to the WAP with our friends the Prices.

I had Jillian today, so I had 4 kids. Then Amber showed up with an extra kid, so she also had 4 kids. 2 mommies and EIGHT kids. I can't believe we survived! We wandered through every possible non-animal exihibit for the first hour. First a discovery center where they colored and played with toys (but were contained!!) Then fake animal dens, nests, and shells.

Finally we wandered our way down to the tram. That was interesting. The babies wanted to climb and crawl all over, but all in all, they were all pretty good. Not sure if between Aaron crying, the boys all yelling and a certain "Snood" kicking the seats incesantly, if the people around us would agree though :)

I took the picture before we left on the tram ride, and instead of "cheese", they all said "brave mommies" :) And that we were!

Playing with My Camera

Uh oh. They don't look so good on Blogger

We had a Joy School Mom Meeting last week at the park. I took the boys early to get a few shots with my camera in aperature mode. Haven't worked up to Manual yet. Heck, haven't even read the manual. My friend told me to just go out and play with it, so that is what I did.

I think I got a few good ones. The one of the baby on the slide was with the sport setting, he was moving way too much. He was trying to climb up the slide, up on all fours a few times, it was adorable.

Just One of the Boys

Aaron is getting so big. He likes to follow his brothers every where. He laughs when they laugh and even tries to get in on the occassional wrestling match. A few weeks ago we went to the park, and little Aaron followed his brothers from one end to the other, crawling of course.

Last week he climbed up on our step stool to get to the boys Lego Town.... which was up high to keep it away from him :P

There's just no stopping him. He's getting to be a big boy, or at least has the attitude anyway!

Book Ends

So yesterday was a great day, with the Lion King being the central event. But my day also started and ended very cool. I've had a lot of great days lately. Or did I finally change my rotten attitude?? Whichever it is, I hope it continues!!

Dana and I woke up "early", by Saturday standards, and went for a trail run. There is an insane trail straight up Black Mountain, and the last few times I have tried, I haven't been able to make it. I've had to walk. So yesterday I was finally able to make it to the top. It was hard, but I did it! And it felt great.

Then we went to this great clothing swap/ giveaway that a few of the wards in our stake had organized. Scripps Ranch is pretty well-to-do, and they were part of it, so I was hoping for a few good freebies. I was NOT disappointed! Dana and I ended up with a garbage bag each! Their were so many good clothes, and it was very well put together. I got a lot of sweaters and a sweet pair of Calvin Klein jeans! Dana picked out that sweet 80s jacket for Isaac, and he loves it! He calls it his "Rainbow Jacket" and packed it in a suitcase to take to the play. He had to leave it in the car, but it is a good thing he had it, because it was cold when we went out to dinner :)

Then we went to the Lion King, which rocked. Poor dad has not been feeling well, so he went home afterwards, but the rest of us went out to dinner.

Dana has been dying to go to Romano's Macaroni Grill... I've only been there once, and it didn't do too much for me, but I figured the boys would find something to eat there, so that was where we went. Dana and Josh left our house before we did, so when we got to the restaurant and they weren't there, but the rest of Esco was.... I probably had flames coming out my ears. We tried to call them, and they didn't answer. But then I decided to stop being irritated and see if they had signed in. Sure enough, they had called in reservations for 615. Phew. The host came to get us just a minute later.

Service started slow, but then got better. The bread is the best part. The food was comparable to Olive Garden, but you don't get salad with it. Well, the prices are comparable, the food might be a tad better.... but my mind works better in prices :P

The boys were good, the baby was happy to be with his family again (my cousin Kristin watched him while we went to the play). It was just nice to spend the day together. It was a long day, as evidenced by the boys practically falling asleep at the table once they were done eating.

I really do love and appreciate my family. I hope they know that, because they also tend to be the brunt of my grumpiness on my bad days.

The Lion King

The Lion King Broadway show came to San Diego this month. My mom really wanted to go and

couldn't get my dad on board, so invited the rest of us. Actually, dad did go too.

I was worried that the boys wouldn't like it, so I prepped them the whole week before. We watched the movie and talked about how excited we were to go. They like doing anything with grandma and grandpa anyway. And they have seen a few little youth theater performances, so they're relatively "cultured" (say that with a red neck kinda twang in it).

Again, my pictures are in backwards order, I hate that. So the last is the first and the first is the last.

We all crammed into the mini van to save on gas and

parking. I couldn't resist a pic of everyone crammed in like sardines. Anything to save a buck.

We found a parking lot that cost $10 flat rate, but that was the same price as the venue, so we thought if we were going to pay $10, we might as well not have to walk. So the attendant could tell we were cheap, and directed us to a lot across the street that was only $5. Score!

We walked to the Civic Theater and headed inside to rent binoculars and wait for them

to open the door. My mom was able to get a Saturday matinee.... but only the balcony seats were available. So up FOUR flights of stairs we marched. Then, once they opened the doors and we were able to get seated... we had to climb even higher! We were in the 2nd row from the top. Ben and I have spent many a show in the very top row, so these were "good seats" to us :)

The show was great. Ben and I had seen it in LA many many years ago. I almost want to say the show was brand new. The stage in LA was bigger, which only matters really in the opening, with all the big animals gathering around pride rock.

I love the way the costumes are made to move like the animals, the cheetah is my favorite. And I think I counted at

least 4 differnt hyena costumes. It was very cool. Rafiki was a native of Africa, so she did some improving talking with clicks, it was crazy. The boys said the monkey was loud.

The boys enjoyed the show, but they especially liked getting treats from the snack bar during intermission! They were so cute looking through their binoculars. And Isaac talked the whole time, shocking, I know. My favorite was when the hyenas and the lionesses were around Mufasa's body after he had died, and I hear Isaac... from 4 seats away : "Why aren't they

eating him?" Nice.

So we got out of the theater without any souveniers, it was a close call. But we also didn't get any pictures in front of the posters for the Lion King. Josh started saying that we should just photo shop us in front of the pictures from the paly bill. Then someone remembered the giant trailer parked in our parking lot. So that is where we took our picture. Never mind the reflective stickers :P

Thanks mom and dad for a fun day. We love doing things with the family.... just wish the other half would come back to CA to join in on the fun.

** I'm just noticing that Isaac's carseat isn't buckled... don't worry, we were in the driveway, and he was buckled before we hit the road. Thanks for any concerns :) **

It's Rough Being the Oldest!

I've had a few conversations lately about how hard it is being the oldest child. The rules are stricter, the expectations are higher, and the younger ones get to do the fun stuff long before you were ever able to. Case in point: I made a sugar free cake with real fruit topping for Roman for his first birthday. Roman didn't get any refined sugar until he was close to 2 years old. Aaron is just one and already knows the joys of m&ms, candy bars, and now.... SUCKERS :)

This pic is actually of his 2nd sucker in 2 days. Bad mommy.

The Garcias Get a New Water Heater, and a Big Box

Our water heater was about 20 years old and leaking like a sieve. Is that the saying? Well, it was leaking a gallon every three days or so. Ben finally cleared a Saturday to get a new one put in. (AKA I finally didn't have some activity planned that would take the whole day)

We had talked to another friend who said that it took him 4 hours to change out his, but it really shouldn't have taken that long. Ben had him beat... 14 hours. I didn't have ANY water from 8 am to 530 pm. Once the water was back on, I had to take a cold shower to get the boys to one of many Halloween parties.

Of course a big new water heater equals a new big box! The boys instantly claimed it and started to make it their home. It was so cute and brought back memories of playing in a dishwasher box when I was little. My mom let us keep it for at least a week.... I'm not so nice, Ben and I stomped it flat and recycled it right away.

Our Sweet Pumpkins

We bought one of those fancy books with pumpkin carving patterns. They made it look so easy, just 4 little steps.... Actually, it wasn't too bad, and I think they turned out really well!

Trick or Treat!!!

This was our first year of Trick or Treating. I think I was more excited than the boys were, because they didn't completely understand what was going to go down ;)

We had a later start to trick or treating than I had hoped. We didn't care our pumpkins until that afternoon, then rushed over to see the grandparents, grabbed some dinner and finally hit the streets after 7.

The boys were so amped. They got a little shy when the door was opened, but soon they were trick or treating like pros. The "thank yous" took a little coaching the whole night. The baby even got a pack of peanut m & ms, and he would not let go of them all night :)

There was one house that was pretty spooky, including a skeleton that peeks out of a treasure chest. We knocked and where waiting half a minute, and when the lady came to open the door, we all jumped. It was funny.

My little non-walking boys sure had the strength to walk when there was candy at the end of the road :P

When we got back to the house, the boys dumped out their candy, and we are now the proud owners of about 20 pounds of candy!!!