Visiting with the 'Rents

My parents got in town on Thursday evening and we have been very busy catching up and seeing the sites.

Morgan had a dentist appointment on Friday. It was touch and go at first, but then she did great, even letting the dentist take x-rays.

Saturday we had perfect weather to go hiking in Castlewood Canyon. Morgan enjoyed climbing over the rocks and splashing in the creek until she splashed down right on her butt. She was soaking wet and we were only half way into the hike. I thought it was going to be a long way back, with lots of whining. We took off her top and she wore my sweatshirt like a dress. Not once did she complain about being cold or wet.

I took off work Monday and we went to the Botanical Gardens. Their "Secret Children's Path" was a big hit with everyone. They had lots of neat things to see and touch along the way including a dig site and tree fort. We had a bit of an experience later in the day. The good news is that Morgan is not allergic to wasps. The bad news is that she was "attacked" by them. She was walking ahead of us, when she came running back screaming "owie, owie" and violently rubbing her head. We took a look and I found "something" smashed in her hair and pulled it out. She kept screaming and rubbing and upon further observation, we found another (alive) wasp. It was completely tangled up in her hair but Baba managed to get it out. Thank goodness, because my first reaction was to smack her in the head to kill it. She would have had a headache AND a wasp sting. We went to the Visitor Center to get some first aid for the sting(s?). After a little bit, she was really to head right back out and continue exploring. What a trooper!

Where Do You Come From?

At Turtle Talk with Crush, Crush asked Morgan were she was from. Morgan answered that she didn't know. Crush asked her who she came with. When she replied "my mom", Crush asked me where we were from. After I told him Colorado, he went back to Morgan and said "your from Colorado little dude. Make sure you follow your mom since she knows the way home". After this exchanged, I figured we better start working on teaching her where she is from.

I decided to quiz her today and see if she could remember. I asked her where she was from and she replied Colorado. I asked her what city she lives in and she replied Sleeping Beauty. Ummmm, close I said. But what is Sleeping Beauty's real name? She finally got it - Aurora!

Introducing Logan Edward

He decided to come on out and join us on Monday night. Mark, Morgan and I got to visit on Tuesday night. He's a little guy at 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Joann and Eddie are beaming.

After holding him for a while, he used his mind control powers to make me think I would love to have another baby. Must keep reminding myself how they are so calm and peaceful at the hospital, only to lull you. It's not until you bring them home that they show you how well their lungs really do work. Must resist....

Random Ramblings

Mark made it home on Friday. Thank goodness! But then she was really crabby over the weekend, testing to see if the "two parent" rules were the same as when Mark was gone. Oh how fun.

I forgot to mention something funny she said while Mark was away. Usually when it's both of us home, she tells the last parent to put her to bed to go downstairs and ask the other parent to come back up (which, by the way, we NEVER do). Anyways, I was tucking her in and she says "Can you go downstairs and tell yourself to come back up" and then bursts into laughter. I thought this was the funniest thing! She's definetely got a clever sense of humor.

And finally, today was Morgan's last swim lesson. We orginally were going to keep her in them until she could save herself in the water. But we are realizing that isn't going to happen anytime soon and we are tired of paying tons of dough for her to frail around in the water. Attention span during swim has equaled none lately. So... we are taking a break from it until next summer, when (hopefully!) she is more focused. Yeah, right!

Can't Catch a Break

Mark went out of town this week for business. I have been single-parenting a child who is coming down from a vacation high and missing her dad, which means she is extremely cranky and sassy. To top it off, I'm really, really sick. Not a fun week, but wait it gets better. At the beginning of this week, when I was feeling my sickest, I had to take away Morgan's tv privileges. Oh, how I did NOT want to do that. I really would have loved to have sat her in front of the tv this week while I nurse myself. But, she broke a huge house rule, not just once but three times so I had no other choice then to ultimately punish myself.

Mark was supposed to be home last night. My whole body ached thinking about the rest I was finally going to get. But it was not to be. I got a call from mom around 5 saying she had Morgan. Mark was trying to get a hold of me, but couldn't. There were no messages on my phone, so not sure what happened. Anyways, he was working in Nebraska and had drove there. On the drive back he hit something in the road and broke the truck. He is stuck on the Nebraska/Colorado border until it can get fixed. Hopefully, it will be this morning, but I'm not holding my breathe. I can not get my hopes up that he will be home tonight. If he's not, I would seriously be crushed.

I've always had a huge appreciation for single moms or mom's who's husbands are deployed for months. Here is another time, when I once again want to applaud them.

Super Butterfly

The butterfly wing shirt arrived from Little One's Baby Gifts while we were gone and it's the cutest thing. Morgan wore it to school today. She was no longer Morgan but Super Butterfly. She was very busy today saving all her friends on the play ground. There are circles on the wings that apparently shot out *things* against her enemies.

I was going to get a picture of her after school, but then Super Butterfly was replaced by the evil villian Detoxing from Vacation, Super Crabby Girl. Once Super Butterfly returns, I will get a pic.

We're Baaaack!

How can I possible sum up our week's vacation in one post? We had an incredible time. Morgan is becoming such a great traveller. A couple of mornings were a bit rough and she had a HUGE meltdown the second morning at Disney (to the point we thought we were going to have to leave) but she always pulled it together and the afternoons were pretty much a breeze.

When we first arrived, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner. We got in pretty late, but figured we might as well head down there to eat. We were going to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. She really enjoyed exploring it, until we were on the second floor and the "storm" kicked in. That was enough to send her running outside where we promptly had to find another place to eat. We found a non-threatening Mexican restaurant. After dinner we did some shopping and watched the different street entertainers. Morgan wanted to watch a violinist for a really long time. We kept trying to get her to go, but she wouldn't budge until he was done. Wonder where she gets that from?

DAY 1 - DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
This was probably the best day we had. There were hardly any people in the park so we got to ride everything without long lines and see the shows without huge crowds. We actually thought the Monsters Inc ride was closed because there was nobody (and I mean nobody!) in line. The only downfall was that Morgan was a measly 1 inch short of the 40" requirement for a bunch of rides. She really wanted to ride them, but handled this fact quite well.

Morgan wore her Snow White costume and got treated like royalty. The whole staff made a point of calling her Princess and treating her extra special. She was in heaven. In Talk to Crush, only three kids got to talk to him, and Morgan was first. He said he never spoke to royalty before and asked her lots of questions. She wasn't shy at all and spoke loud and clearly into the microphone. I wish I got that on video!

Her favorite part was lunch at Ariel's Grotto with Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Cinderella. She is usually a bit leery around characters, but she had no hesitation in hopping right in the princesses' arms. She ate octopus (hot dog cut to look like one) and fish (goldfish crackers on top of mac and cheese). Unfortunately Jasmine (her favorite princess) was not at the lunch, but she was fine with finding her later.

Mark and I took advantage of the kid-swap - where one parent waits in line for the ride while the other parent waits with the kid who's too small to ride. Then when the riding parent gets done, the other parent gets to go right up to the handicap entrance and immediately get on the ride.

All of us agreed that the Ferris Wheel was the scariest ride. Yes, the Ferris Wheel. We went on the cages that swing along the spokes of the wheel, and let me tell you, first thing in the morning, those things are greased up and slick. We went FLYING! After getting over her initial fear, of course Morgan loved it and we rode it three times.

When the parade came at the end of the day. Morgan freaked out and started panicking. I guess she didn't know what to expect and was very overwhelmed. She did calm down a bit and watched it from a safe distance.

This park closes early, so shortly after the parade, we headed to Disneyland for dinner. We were able to catch the parade at Disneyland too and this time Morgan had completely warmed up. She was getting so excited about what float was next and was waving very excitedly to everyone.

DAY 2 - DISNEYLAND
Like I said above, the morning started off pretty rocky. There was lots of temper tantrums, whining and fits. We had some lunch and then she was a new little girl.

The park was a bit more crowded then California, but still not bad. I think the longest wait we had was for the Nemo Submarine ride and that was about a half an hour. The Matterhorn was about 20.

We discovered that Morgan is a thrill seeker. She likes the adrenaline rides, but is scared of the intense visual rides (or at least intense to her). For example: her scariest ride - Winnie the Pooh. Yes, Winnie the Pooh. Why you ask? Well, because she was scared of Pooh's dream of the Huffalumps. She also did not like Pinnochio or Roger Rabbit. We didn't even try the Snow White ride. Her favorite ride was the Nemo Submarines and Gadget's Go Coaster. She would have like the Matterhorn if it wasn't for the "scary gorilla" flashing it's red eyes.


She also loved the Disney Princess Faire, where we stood in line of an hour for her to meet the princesses again. Good thing too, because this is where Jasmine was. Being as Jasmine is her favorite, Morgan was a bit more shy around her. We also watched some of the princess shows. And yes, in my pictures, that is how empty the place was. We overheard one of the dads there say he was about princessed-out. To which Mark replied "Well then you are at the wrong park!"

We stayed until the park closed and Morgan caught some of the parade again. With Morgan, again, frantically waving at everyone.

DAY 3 - La Jolla and Whispering Sands Beach
Today we headed down to La Jolla and checked into the cottage we were renting. The cottage is only a block away from the ocean, so we walked down and spent the day there. It was the first time Morgan has seen the ocean. She was bit leery about the waves but did get into the water a little bit. She mostly wanted to look for seashells, dig holes, get buried in holes and chase birds. It was a very relaxing day.


DAY 4 - SeaWorld
This isn't the same SeaWorld I fondly remember from my own childhood. It had a lot of really neat hands on stuff, but it kinda has sold out to corporate America. There were ad placements through out the shows and the Shamu show wasn't all that interesting. Most of the show was a new chant and hand signal everyone does so the whale splashes them. I thought this was a bit corny. Of course Morgan loved it and was chanting the chant on the rest of our trip. My personal favorites were the Artic Wild exhibit and feeding the dolphins. They didn't feel anything like I thought they would - much harder than I expected. Morgan's favorite part was holding the star fish. We went back to that exhibit at least two (maybe three??) times. Followed close behind was the Sesame Street area that is exactly like some of the rides at Sesame Place. Hmmmm, didn't we do this already??

DAY 5 - La Jolla Tide Pools, Children's Beach and La Jolla Cove
Another relaxing beach day. It was cloudy and cooler today, but still comfortable enough in the afternoon to be in a swim suit. We walked the two blocks from our cottage to the tide pool area and did lots of morning exploring. We found fish, crabs, and hermit crabs trapped in the rocks, but no starfish. Then we made our way down the beach to the Children's Beach, which is now were the seals hang out. After sitting and waiting to watch the seals slowly scoot across the beach, we dragged Morgan away for lunch, again only a couple blocks walk away.

After lunch we spent the whole afternoon at La Jolla Cove, a protected underwater ecological park. The water was bit cold to swim in but we still got in for a while. We saw a seal peak it's head up about 20 yards away. Morgan made a friend. A girl also on vacation named Rita. The two of them spent hours digging in the sand, getting water in a bucket, hunting for sea shells and exploring the cave/tunnel that opened into the ocean. It was amazing how much braver Morgan was in the water when another girl is with her.

DAY 6 - Legoland
This day had all the right possibilities and started out great. Morgan wasn't afraid of things on the ride since they were made from Legos and obviously fake. We quickly got on two rides, they were really neat with all the Lego stuff... but then it went down hill for Mark and I. We waited in line for an hour to go on a ride that is a car that rides in a circle around a track elevated in the air. It wasn't even that busy and the line wasn't even that long! Then we got to the log ride which was two tiny loops with two tiny drops. The line, which was so short it would have taken 15 minutes max at any other park, took over an hour! Of course Morgan wanted to wait and she did a great job waiting, but us parents were not too pleased. Any ride that would have been fun for us grown-ups had WAY too long of lines. Also, the park had really weird height requirements. Rides she normally rides, she was not tall enough to here - including a teacup-type ride.

Morgan's favorite ride was the Beetle Bounce, where you go up in the air and drop. A mini-version of the one she did at Sesame Place. She rode that thing four or five times. Her second favorite ride was the Fairy Tale water boat ride.


Day 7 - Returning Home
Before we left, we made a quick stop at Balboa Park. We arrived just in time for a puppet show so we decided to do that. Puppet shows kind of freak me out and this was no exception. Morgan seemed to enjoy it and even participated by shouting out answers. After the puppet show we grabbed some lunch and ate in a nice open air courtyard with a sculpture garden. Morgan could run around a bit without bothering everyone else eating. Finally, we stopped at the Japanese Gardens. I love Japanese Gardens and wished we had a little bit more time, but alas, the vacation was over and it was time to head back to reality.

The Loot
We let Morgan pick one souvenirs each day we were out there. Each item, she would play with when we got home each day. Here is the run down:

1) Downtown Disney - A Tinkerbell doll playset
2) California Adventure - A Disneyland coloring book and crayons molded on top with the characters
3) Disneyland - A stuffed Jasmine doll that she calls "Baby Jasmine"
4) SeaWorld - Two small stuffed seals. One seal's arms hugs the other one
5) Legoland - A set of regular Legos.

Why is that Lego sets nowadays only cater to boys?? Every set but one on the huge wall contained boy related things to build and most of them include some type of weapon. Sad.

To view all the pictures from our trip click HERE

And We Are Off!

This is my last post for at least a week. We leave tomorrow for the "Happiest Place on Earth". We are heading to Southern Cali for Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland and some time at the beach. Morgan is a bit excited to say the least. I hope she doesn't wear herself out before we even get there.

Or better yet, wear us out before we get there!

Fashion Queen

Morgan got a new Princess skirt from Baba and Gigi yesterday. Can you guess what her favorite part is?

Why Don't We Ever Learn

Whenever we go camping, we lug around this huge bin filled with all sorts of buckets, shovels, rakes, sand molds and other stuff. The kids break it out, play with it for a few minutes and then move on. We forgot to bring it this time, so what did they do? They entertained themselves for hours (ok, maybe not actual hours) with four spoons, one small empty storage bin, one bucket and a bottle of water.