Sea World...

Saturday was Sea World day. Anheuser-Busch owns Sea World. You wanna know why that matters? Because Anheuser-Busch is a big supporter of the military. So as supporters of the military, they give all military personnel three free passes a year. Along with those three free passes comes the ability to sign in up to 4 other people. SO WE GOT IN FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!! All we had to pay for was parking.... which is good... cause Sea World is expensive and we are a family on a budget!

The first thing that we did while we were in Sea World (which I am now going to refer to as SW from now on cause I am tired of typing Sea World.... and I am not even through the first two paragraphs!) was take a picture with a shark.... well technically a person in a shark suit.


This is us... with a shark.... Aeddon could not accept that the shark was not going to eat him if he looked away... cause he is 2 and that is the kind of things that 2 year olds worry about.... and so he is not looking at the camera. Fine... the back of his head is cute too... time to move on.

Then we headed over to see the clydesdales.





This is Alexander watching a horse get a bath.

He loved the horses! We thought that we were gonna have to pry him off that fence with a crow bar!

After the Clydesdales... we saw the dolphins. They were so fat! They live in this relatively small tank and they spend their whole day eating fish out of the hands of tourists. Wait... you wanna see the dolphins? Ok... fine.




Then we started to head to the "reef" part of SW.... on the way I believe I saw one of the least intelligent parents I have ever seen...

See that little girl??? Well her parents convinced her to go try to pick the wild squirrel up so that they could take a picture! AAAAGHHH! You don't pick up a wild animal. One, they could attack you.... and two, they could be carring disease ridden fleas! Or they could be carring rabies! So as we passed them I said loudly "Dont touch the squirrel. It could have rabies!" and kept walking.

The reef area was pretty neat. We saw alot of cool things... including feeding time in the aquarium.







Then towards the end of the area... was a critter that didn't make any sense to me...

Yep. Those are poison dart frogs. What the heck are they doing at SW????

Then we let the boys play for a while...


The boys wanted to go on a roller coaster. So we went to the only ride that they were able to go on... It was a really cute little roller coaster where you ride in the back of a little shamu.

This is Mikaela protesting because she wanted to go on the ride with Daddy.... which is pretty funny, cause at the last minute Aeddon panicked and refused to go on the ride unless I went with him. So Owen stood at the bottom of the ride and took our picture and I went on with Aeddon. Alexander rode in a whale all by himself!



After the fun of the coaster... we decided to let the boys play on the climbing area built for kids. The boys wanted me to go with them. So I did. I got a friction burn on each knee. I also got this really cute picture of my boys!


After they played... we accidentally stumbled on the sea lion show. They were THE BEST TRAINED SEA LIONS WE HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

The show was really cute and included a walrus doing sit-ups!


Then Owen insisted that we go to my favorite part of SW. THE PENGUIN HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the pictures came out really badly... cause Owen's camera is just not designed to take pictures in a dark setting.


I had a hard time being able to tell in the dark... but I am pretty sure that the first picture is of King Penguins. The second one was easier to tell. That is a Chin-strap Penguin swimming around.

The kids each decided that they wanted a penguin toy... and it is not like I was going to protest! I also got a really amazing bowl. It looks like a penguin... and the belly is the bowl part and is big enough for dip!


SO CUTE! I was also pleasantly suprised because when I asked how much it was... (it is a handpainted ceramic bowl after all...) I was expecting her to say something like $35 dollars (which was all of my souvenier money). Instead she said $10 dollars and I almost exploded!

Then we booked it over to the shamu show. Here are the highlights of that.... the full set of all of these pictures is, as always, on my flickr page.





Mikaela and Aeddon loved the show...

Alexander was actually upset at the end of the show... It turns out that he had wanted to be a "whale guy" at the show (the rest of the world would call them trainers) and was upset and hurt that this had not happened... So Owen being the brilliant man that he is... decided to take Alexander over to talk to the trainers! He got to ask them what it would take for him to be a "whale guy" when he grew up.

I could have kissed this man! He stood there and very patiently explained to Alexander that he had the heart to be a trainer someday, but that he would need to learn to be a really great swimmer and that he would have to get really good grades in school and that he would have to go to college and get a degree in whales and dolphins (since the Orca Whale is not actually a whale, but is in fact the largest of the ocean dolphin family). He also told him that he would have to get good grades when he got his degree so that SW would hire him. Now normally I wouldn't have thought anything of this... but as soon as we got back to El Paso Alexander asked me to take his "School Posters" off the wall so he could study. One is the alphabet and one is the numbers from 0 to 31. I did take them down for him for a little while and then he asked me to put them back on the wall. Today he told me that he wanted to show me his new trick. I sat in my chair and he stood on a diningroom chair and pointed to random numbers on the poster and told me what they were. He only got 2 wrong on the whole poster! Then he went over to the alphabet poster and tried really hard to do the same thing there too! He got about 15 of them right and the rest wrong... but he has never come close to this before!

Ok so now that I have taken a break to get over feeling weepy about my big boy learning so much cause of something a stranger told him.... back to the SW story.

After Shamu... we went and fed the ducks and Flamingos for a while... then we went to go watch the Journey To Atlantis ride for a while. Alexander really wanted to go play in the huge splash area from the ride... so we did...

Alexander had a great time playing in the wall of water that comes from the ride...
Then Owen had a very evil plan.... see little Miss Mikaela wanted to go play in the puddles... and she did not understand (um hello she is one!) that to do so would mean that she was right in the path of the 10 foot wave. So Owen, knowing that I had the camera and my Voyager on me, let her go play in the puddles. He said that he was going to run out and grab her as soon as the boat thing began to go down the huge drop so that he would have her out of the way of the water when it came. HE LIED!!!!


This is my baby girl innocently looking at all the water...

By the time I realized he had lied... it was to late... I had no chance to stop the inevitable... so I took a picture instead.... see that white in front of her? That is the water coming at her.

And this is what happens when an unsuspecting 1 year old is hit with a 10 foot high wall of cold water. Owen is really an ass sometimes.

this is him trying to convince her that he is sorry. Notice that she doesnt look like she believes him? That is my girl!

So then I told him that he had to go stand in it while I gave Mikaela some consolling chi-chi milk. (seriously I dont think she is ever gonna ween and with Owen not here... I dont have the heart to force her to...)


Father son bonding.... for the record... Alexander wanted to stand in the water with dad...


I dont have a single good explination for that... Honestly. I know it was something about keeping his belly from feeling cold...

The trees at SW had a serious infestation of Spanish Moss.... so of course... Owen had to put some in my shirt and take a picture.

thanks honey.

Owen and the boys went on a ferris wheel after that....

Except for one thing... once the ride started, Alexander panicked and had to get off. Aeddon, On the other hand, wanted to do it again.

Mikaela and I sat the ride out and ate freeze dried strawberries instead...


Then we headed for the exit... On the way we found this:

A coffee mug that not only has penguins, but that is also done in purples and black!
OMG!!! I am in heaven. So we bought it... because if we had not bought it I would probably have cried.

On the way out of the parkinglot we took a picture of this:

Yep. I want it. Owen says that when we live somewhere where it snows in the winter that I can get one and put it up for the snowy season..... Does it snow in Tacoma?

Well that was our trip to SW in a (relative) nutshell... I will post about the rest of the trip some time tomorrow. It is after midnight and I am getting sleepy. Goodnight all!

San Antonio is so much nicer than El Paso!

Well this last weekend we went to see Owen. We left last thursday night and I drove all night. That is what I do... It is so much easier than trying to drive any distance that is going to take more than 3 hours with 3 children, all under 5, wide awake! So when I make a long roadtrip... it is generally just me and the long haul truckers on the road.

I digress.... I dont have any great pictures of the trip.My camera battery is dead. It will not hold a charge at all. So no pictures. (There will be pictures later though... Owen had a crappy point and shoot!) Which is a bummer cause I saw some really neat things on the road. There was a truck pulling an antique firetruck on a trailer. There was and armadillo. (I think it was dead...) There was the town of Ozona. The aforementioned town would not have been at all remarkable.... except that some funny things happened while I was there. First of all I stopped at the local gas station because, well I needed gas... and the two youngest children needed new diapers, and Alexander had to pee. So I stopped for gas.... And when I got out of the bathroom (yes we used the bathroom first.. you dont tell a 4 year old that they have to wait just cause you want to be a customer before you use the facilities!) the gas station was oddly busy. Yes it was first thing in the morning so I suppose that some of the people there could have theoretically needed gas.... but I did say oddly busy... and the reason I said that is because only 2 of the customers (other than me of course) was pumping gas. They were all watching me pump gas. Seriously.

Now I know that I do not look particularly mainstream... and I am sure that for the people in that town the sight of a young-ish girl with purple hair, all black clothes, and a pair of really tall boots was a strange sight.... but seriously!? Someone had to have called all their friends and said "come down to the gas station! You are never gonna believe this lady that is pumping gas.... and she wanted to pay before she pumped!!!" (I am from cali... you always pay before you pump there cause if you are a gas station owner and you dont make them pay first... you are gonna be giving out alot of free gas!) Now I suppose that you could argue that perhaps the local townspeople always hang out at the local gas station.... but 1. I am pretty sure that I saw a flash go off... like someone took my picture... and 2. as I pulled out of the gas station.... so did the masses. Seriously. I looked back when I got to THE stoplight and there was nobody at the gas station!!!!!

Now that in and of itself was strange to me... but then I tried to listen to the radio.... There were 4 stations.

1. Retro Country
2. Contemporary Country
3. Christian
4. Oldies

Ok. This is a rural area. I get that. But seriously!? And the oldies station wasn't even playing the good oldies! The only song they played that I recognised for the entire 2 hours I was listening to Ozona's oldies station was "Mr Postman" you know that song that goes "wait mr postman! Look and see! Is there a letter in your bag for me?" Plus even the commercials were weird. They were all about "go eagles!" or "Go Lady Eagles!" with a very small blip at the end that would say something like " brought to you buy Jacks Barn Insurance! Dont forget that if you have a metal roof you will get a discount on your insurance!" I am sure that that is completely normal for rural areas... but I am a city girl... A big city girl.

Well that is enough about Ozona! It took me longer to write about it than it did to pass through it! I have to admitt though... Ozona was beautiful. Green and fresh smelling. And the people that I did talk to were very friendly!

So I continued on to San Antonio. I took the I10 the whole way. San Antonio is more like Hollywood than anywhere else I have been in the state of Texas, with one major exception. I felt safe walking around in downtown San Antonio at night.

After all that driving I was tired. You don't believe me? This is what I looked like a couple of hours after we got there:

Yep. I looked bad. I know. It is ok.

So since I was exhausted and the children were not... we took them to Mc Donalds. This was the only Mc Donalds that I have ever been to that actually closed their playplace at exactly 9pm!!!! (I had already been there for a while by now... I am just cutting out the boring parts... like about how Alexander gave himself a concussion at the Commissary) We were still hungry though... so we ate. Then, as we were leaving Alexander decided to climb the wall.... yep. Just hours after knocking himself unconscious at the store he was climbing brick retainer walls!

Nice.

Then Owen gave us a car tour of Downtown.

The Alamo

Somehow... the picture of the Alamo is the only thing that came out at all decently. Well that and some pictures of our riveting trip to the gas station... where my very handy spouse informed me that I was dangerously low on air in my tires..... so he fixed it!

The price of gas in downtown San Antonio.

My handy hubby filling my tires.... Let's ignore the dirtiness that is my van... Living in El Paso has taught me to not waste water washing it, cause 2 seconds after you do the wind is gonna blow and get your whole car covered in dust again.

Then we went to our hotel... called The Rodeway Inn. It looks nicer than it did in person.... but it was a pretty decent hotel, all things considered....

Then we went to bed. That pretty much concludes the first day of our trip. Saturday was all about Sea World.... and I think it deserves its own post... so once the kidlets go to bed for the night... I will write about that.

Do you identify with this at all?

I love Dane Cook. I do. It is ok... Owen knows. I love Dane Cook cause he is one of few comedians whose comedy I really identify with. Right now my personal favorite is this little skit called B&E.... Watch it!!!!!



I can totally identify with this! I thought once apon a time that I wanted to be a criminal.... but I really just wanted a little blue collar mayhem! I just thought I would share that with you.

So on a completely different front.... Aeddon has the cutest vocabulary.... He likes to use big words... the best part is that he uses them correctly... even if he doesn't quite pronounce them correctly.... For instance he loves to say "Thats fantastic!" But he says "that's furdtastic!" He also asks me "are you frusterated?" But he says "are you fudderdaded?" So cute!

On the crafting front... I have been making soakers for Mikaela. Her skin is so sensitive that she can't handle the PUL in some of her diapers.... so I am switching her to all wool. With wool she hasnt had a rash at all in over a week... So I have been knitting as fast as I can... considering... I have finished 2 soakers already and am about 1/2 done with a third one. I will probably need about 6 or 7 in her current size... then I think I will start making her some XL ones so that I wont have to scramble to make them when she needs them! Here are the ones I have done so far.....

This is the first one I made!


Here is the second one...

I know they are not that pretty... but they catch poop... so I am really not that worried about it. Once I finish the 3rd one (that will make 4 total cause I have one that I bought...) then I am going to take a small break from soakers and knit Katja for Mikaela in the super pretty Noro Yarn that I talked about here I think that the blend of cotton and wool in that will make a great little shirt for Mikeala! Plus I think I can adapt the pattern to knit it in the round so that it is faster to make.(Plus I totally suck at seaming...) If I end up liking it I forsee a future for Mikaela of summer wardrobes consisting entirely of katja shirts and the Summerlin dress/shirt by Kathryn Ivy.... So Cute!!!! I can just see it now... anyways...

On the homebaked goods front... I decided to try my hand at making sourdough from scratch... I used the sourdough starter recipe I found online... then I used the Berkeley Sourdough recipe.... I might have to adjust the recipe for the Berkeley sourdough though... cause it just did not rise as much as it is supposed to and I have a feeling that the bread is going to end up significantly more heavy than it is supposed to! I followed the recipe exactly... but the bread dough didnt feel stretchy enough... so it didnt rise for crap. I am gonna bake it anyways and see what happens. worst case senario I wasted some time and about 2.5 cups of flour. It will be worth it if I can figure out how to make my own bread. I get tired of buying 2 loaves a week for 3 bucks a peice when I could make twice that much for half the money! I will post about the bread some more latter... I need to go make it now.....

Anyone have a spare couch in the El Paso area?

My life is an adventure! I know I have said this before... but sometimes I really mean it. Take today for example.....

I decided to make the kids a good lunch for once and not just a PB&J..... Pan cooked Quesadillas to be exact. So anyways... I am just taking the last Quesadilla out of the pan when Alexander comes running up to the kitchen gate (yes my kitchen is gated off.... I found Aeddon "hiding" in the oven one to many times....) and screams "MOMMY!!! MOMMY!! AEDDON MADE A BIG MESS! COME QUICK!" so I do what any good mom does... I finish serving the Quessadillas onto their plates and make my way to the livingroom.... And this is what I see....



Yep. That is Aeddon covered in peanut butter. He had taken a full 18oz jar of peanut butter out of the cabinet while I was cooking (the food cabinet is a stand alone thingy in the dining room... it didnt fit in the kitchen...) and proceeded to rub it all over himself... and all over my couch.

After I took a deep breath I asked him what the heck he thought he was doing... and his response????? Go ahead. Try to guess......

"OOOOOOOOO smooth skin! SO SOFT!"

Seriously.... where do kids come up with this stuff???? Do they go to crazy idea college when you are not looking? He actually thought that the peanut butter would work like lotion! AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Aeddon was easily cleaned up. I gave him a bath... and used alot of soap.... and other than the fact that he smells a little like a walking peanut... he is as good as new.

My couch on the other hand......



Is not going to make it. There is just no way to clean that much rubbed in peanut butter out of a loosely woven fabric. So it is sitting out on the curb waiting to be taken out with the trash tomorrow morning.

Of course there is a down side to not keeping the peanut butter couch... I only had the one couch. So now I have no couch... which means that I am sitting on the floor when I sit in the livingroom....

This sucks. Anyone know someone who has a spare couch they wanna give me?