Pacific Paradise!!

We finally made it to San Diego. We've actually been here about a month but I'm "finally" writing about all we've been up to. We know we're only here for the summer so every minute is spent doing something fun...not blogging I'm afraid. I've got a lot of catching up to do. I have to say, I don't think we've wasted one second here. When I got off the plane I nearly burst I was so excited to be back to the place I've called "home" the last three years. I waited until I got into the car (so I wouldn't make a scene) before I screamed..."I LOVE IT HERE." The weather has been awesome....kind of like heaven...mid 70's. We go swimming nearly every day, walks every night to see the bunnies and lizards on the trail, and scooter rides with Sadie. It's already been such a great summer. We don't want it to end. Here's what we've been up to for the past month..

THE BEACH











Tootsie the Scooter
Ok, so let me explain. Normally putting Sadie on a scooter would scare me to death but we tried going really slow around the side walk and she loved it!! She's asks to go on a "scoooer ride" every time she sees it. Once we get going she squeals with delight and sings her "scooter song." It's fun adjusting the mirror to her face so I can see her grinning from ear to ear.




SAN DIEGO ZOO
Sadie wouldn't touch the big bronze gorilla until I sat on it first. Once she saw me do it, she sat right on top and gave him hugs and kisses. She hugs and kisses everything these days. Whenever I discipline her she says "big hugs mommy...sorry mommy." Or if she rides any ride she gets off, and gives the big piece of metal a hug and a kiss. Too bad we can't put anti-bacterial hand gel in her mouth.

This peacock nearly landed on my head before it swooped down to show off a little. Sadie couldn't believe her eyes.







Sadie's boyfriends

Sadie's little men. She missed them these last 9 months. Peterson and Tanner. Of course they're watching Nemo which explains them all sitting so still for a photo.






SEA WORLD

We bought sea world passes the week we got here because we knew we'd want to get our money's worth from a year pass that we'll only be using for three months. I hate wasting anything so we've gone like two or three times a week and have the place pretty much memorized by now.
Touching "Mr. Ray"
We found Nemo at Sea World!!
Elmo airplanes. Who needs Disneyland. They even have a "tea cup ride" replica that made me want to puke. WARNING...do not go on that ride if you have the choice.

Hanging out with the Dargers....Sniff Sniff..they've already left for New York. We are going to miss them.
Waiting for a dolphin to come say hello.
Again...no expression. Do you think she's having fun?

Sadie is OBSESSED with Shamu these days. She calls him "Shampoo." It really is pretty incredible. I get all misty when they play the cheesy music and Shamu jumps in the air. Sadie of course has no expression. Chase pointed out that I'm like that when I watch movies. I don't normally laugh out loud if something is funny so maybe Sadie is just happy and laughing inside when she looks like this.


La Jolla Shores
There are actual seals sun bathing and swimming in this bay. SO COOL!! Of course you can get much closer to them at Sea World but it's great seeing them in their natural habitat.



$3.00 cookie. We pretty much paid for the frosting. Sadie saw it in the window and had to have it. Probably the nastiest cookie I've ever had. Where's a Backer's Bakery when you need one. Oh well. At least it looked like Nemo. All in all, a great day seeing puppies, seals, laying in the sun and perusing shops. I LOVE SAN DIEGO!!!!

Estamos en camino!!!

On our way to San Diego we stopped in Utah for a few weeks to have some Utah lovin' and see some peeps. My parents were in Europe the majority of the time so we chaperoned Jane during her last few weeks of her Sophomore year. We had so much fun hanging out with her. We were there for her first date and barely missed seeing her picked up for Senior Prom. Chase was the "father figure" when her date came to get her. It was hilarious. He was "supposed" to give the kid a hard time, but was totally "Chaselike" and told him to have fun with Jane. I wonder what he'll be like when Sadie's fist date comes to get her. Here are some pics of Utah. Even though I had a NASTY cold while I was there, it's always fun to be in our home town.



Sadie looking at the airplanes in D.C. She loves traveling. I'll have you know that she didn't move a muscle the entire flight. I limit television for many reasons but one of the best reasons is because when she does get to watch a movie, she's totally into it. A lady sitting next to me on the plane leaned over to me and said.."I have never seen anything like that. What toddler sits still for a four hour flight?" It was a very proud moment. When the DVD battery died she got a little hyper but hey...I'm not complaining. I read my book the whole flight. It was wonderful!!!
Feeding the ducks at Garden Park Ward. So here's a funny story. There was a mother duck with about 8 little ducklings getting out of the water when a big male Mallard duck swooped down and started attacking her. Her little ducklings were wailing (if ducks can wail...but they were upset) and as she tried to get away from this brute I ran to grab a stick and proceeded to whack the guy as hard as I could. As Sadie was watching me she kept saying "be nice ducky, be nice." The mother duck got away and her little ones raced after her into a bush. All that after I fed that nasty little duck a whole bag of cheerios. He's not getting one more morsel from me. The hardest part was trying to explain to Sadie that we don't hit after she had just witnessed me brutally whacking a duck. Hey, I had to do something. Children were involved.
I met up with my good friend Jill at our favorite hires Restaurant. Sadie and Isabella had fun fighting over markers and other toys but got along just as we were about to leave. I love Jill. It was so good to hang out with her, even if it was for a short time.
I love my grandma. She came down from Logan to see Jane's dance concert and I invited her to go to the zoo with Sadie and me. (To all you D.C. people, you can get into Hogle Zoo and many other zoo's across the nation if you are a member of the national zoo. Pretty cool!!) I could seriously hang out with her all day. We had a grand time.
I also got together with one of my other really good friends, Leslie and her daughter Lucy. I am so lucky to have so many fun people to hang out with when I go to Utah. Lucy is hilarious (just like her mom) and she and Sadie got a long great. They ran around picking dandelions and sharing cheerios.

Sadie's first ice cream cone. I know she's a little old but believe me, I've tried to give her one before and she didn't want it. This time she was in heaven. Emigration market has good soft serve ice cream and you serve it yourself. My favorite!!
We went back to the zoo with Chase just so we could ride "Thomas" the train (Sadie's new obsession... literally).

Sadie is on Tour!!

It seems that everywhere we've been we've thrown a birthday party for Sadie. She ended up having three celebrations all together which will hopefully never happen again. By the time we had celebrated the Nemo party and were headed off to Utah, we mentioned that Sadie was "on tour" seeing that everywhere she went, parties were held. Pretty ridiculous!!! Next year we will be in one place and will only have ONE party. Before my parents left for Europe we had a little celebration with the Cannon's and Etherington's. It was intended to be small but my parents made an amazing dinner, we had a delicious pink polka dot cake (thanks Granite Bakery) and WAY too many gifts. Our families are so generous and we thank them once again if they are reading this. Her favorite of course has been her Thomas the Train that she pulls all over the place with her. I love that her favorite toys are Thomas, Nemo, Crush the Turtle, Bruce the Shark, cars, and Marly the puppy. I guess we've got a little "tom boy" on our hands.
She has gotten so used to seeing birthday cakes with two birthdays in April and three Sadie birthday parties in May that blowing the candles out is a breeze by now.

Sadie decided that she only wanted to eat the pink polka dot frosting and proceeded to stick her finger into each pink dot that she could find. Every piece of cake was accompanied by one or more slobbery finger dents.

Reading her birthday card with CC. She and Pops gave Sadie a U of U teddy bear and an awesome cheerleading outfit. She will look so cute when we go to all the games or watch our beloved Utes out in D.C.

Nemo Birthday Party

Sadie loves Nemo. So what better way to celebrate her birthday than by throwing a Nemo party. Lucky for us the dollar spot at Target had a ton of Nemo decor which made party planning much easier. We had the party at the Todd's house so all the kids were there which was a total blast. I'm so glad Sadie was able to celebrate with all her cousins. Also her two best amigas came up from Fairfax, Lizzie Gardner and Moriah Mecham. We love their parents so it was really just a great excuse for us to see them before we headed back to San Diego.
They are "quite the trio." They're finally at the age where playing together is much more fun than hanging out with Mom all day.
I caught eveyone in this picure off guard. I promise people did have a good time althought they look miserable. Thanks for smiling John.
Erin with the new addition to their family...Jude. What a cute little guy. I forgot how fun it is to have a baby fall asleep on your shoulder like that. Don't we love how much newborns sleep?
So even though Thomas has a girly bib on, he is looking pretty darn handsome in this picture.
Lizzie trying to get the fishing pole game figured out. This might have been a little too advanced for a two year old birthday party but they sure loved what they fished up.
Sadie "caught" some Swedish Fish and I actually let her eat them. She couldn't believe that I let her have the whole bag. The poor thing kept stuffing them in her mouth because she thought any second I would wisk them away.
Sadie and her Nemo cake. Yes, I did make the cake. Althought the lower fin is much too large, I am pretty proud of myself. Thank you Google for having directions on how to make one. I guess I am officially a "mom" who makes really disgusting, yet decorative, birthday cakes.
Blowing out her candles once again.
Bombs away!!
Dad got Nemo's "lucky fin."
All that hard work for this!!!
Jess and Erin with their little men.
Opening gifts has become VERY fun now that she's figured out that whatever's inside will actually belong to her. "Mine" and "Sadie's" have become two of her most recycled words these days.
Lizzie gave her a singing chipmunk and Sadie was terrified of it at first. Pretty hilarious actually. It was one of those gifts that would entice Jess and I to dance in the middle of Target. It became Sadie's favorite toy by the end of the night.
What entertainment. Everyone is engrossed!!

Sadie's day

On May 8th Sadie turned two. We were staying with the Todd's that week so we could help Cate out with her pregnancy. The poor thing could barely walk. So they were kind enough to let us throw a few birthday parties at their home. The first one was on Sadie's actual birthday. Chase had the day off from work so we decided to do all of Sadie's favorite things seeing it was her day. First we went to ride some "neigh neighs" as she calls them. The carousel is Sadie's absolute favorite thing to do when we go into D.C. The funny thing is that she is totally animated before she mounts her horse and then completely stone faced while riding. Zero expression. It is the funniest thing. She must have a good time because she always says "again" when it's over.
After the carousel we headed to Petsmart to see some animals (another one of our "have an hour to kill" activities. We were pleased to find that this Petsmart had salt water fish so both Nemo and Dori were there. Sadie was in heaven. Her two favorite characters minus Bruce. We also picked up a few goldfish for the Nemo birthday party the next day. Did you know that a goldfish is $0.25. They only live for about a day, but hey...$0.25 is a real bargain for a 8 hour life expectancy.
After the pet store we went back to the Todd's to play a little "bakiball." Sadie loves watching the games with Chase and loves to throw the ball in the basket. We need to get her a mini hoop and ball. She would be totally entertained.
She's really getting into it.
Action shot!!
What's a birthday with out the park. Luckily the Todd's have one close by. We all headed down there and besides Gracie falling off the swing, it was a pretty killer party.
Next up, birthday cake and present(non plural). We knew Sadie would be having a party the next night with her girlfriends so we had a very mellow little celebration. She loves "fiah" (fire) and after a lot of blowing, got one candle eliminated and needed Mom's help with the second.
101 Dalmatians. Her new favorite movie. Thanks Dad!!!

One of three birthday cakes. Definitely the tastiest but the ugliest by far. Texas sheet cake. My personal favorite. The Todd kids weren't complaining either.
We watched the "puppy movie" after cake and listened to many "Happy Birthday" serenades on the phone from her loved ones all over the USA.
One last book before bedtime. Whew!! What a day. We love reading books because Sadie just relaxes and turns into a cuddler. Coming from a toddler..this is a serious luxury.