What's better than San Diego and Chris Trapper?

The answer is: Not Much!

I found myself in an awkward spot on Thursday evening. We had been planning a trip to California for MONTHS. One of our favorite singer/song writers was performing at a private event that we were able to score seats at, so we made arrangements for our first trip without kids in over a year. Our friends Joe and Raynee were going as well. I tried to get the baby to take a bottle a couple weeks before and he teased me by taking the first formula bottle like a champ. Needless to say, I went a good 24 hours before the pain of "cold turkey-ing" got the better of me and my stubborn little Ezra would have rather starved than continue taking a bottle. I tried everything. All different bottles with different variations on the contents... I even resorted to adding chocolate syrup to one bottle, to no avail. He's over 10 months old and too smart for his shorts. He knows if he crosses over there's no going back. But back to the story:

I gave up trying, which meant our vacations plans had to be reconsidered. I told Chris to go without me since his brother was showing an interest in going and that way he wouldn't be alone. I went a good week or so with this plan understood by all. My mom even offered to come over for the weekend and help me finish some major projects around the house while Chris was gone. So Thursday night at about 8pm, the idea to make it a family trip came about and I started to freak out. I had laundry to do, four people to pack for, a fridge full of fresh groceries, a sink full of dishes, and a substitute to find for my calling at church. No one else seemed to think it was a big deal. Friday morning bright and early we were off. Chris' brother flaked out at the last minute so it was just the four of us and the boys did awesome in the car. We drove out the LA way so Chris could meet up with some distributors for a business presentation. I made him drop me and the boys off at EXPO Design Center while he went to work. We were stranded for a good couple hours and the store was not busy so you can bet they were grateful we left when we did. Kleven wanted to "try" all the bathtubs and shower displays as well as every single faucet he could reach and was thrilled with the number of animal objects he saw. You could tell he was thrilled by the volume of his reaction every time. It started getting really annoying- all the female employees commenting on "how adorable" or "are they twins" and "wow, you've got your hands full". The men just glared or ignored us all together. Chris finally came to get us and said the meeting went well which made it all worth it. We made it to Mira Mesa with 30 minutes to spare before having to take off for the first show. We bribed our friends Steve and Zil (who we stayed with) and sweet baby Giovanna to watch the boys and we were off to meet up with Joe and Raynee. Chris Trapper was awesome as always and we stayed after until Zil called to say Kleven had started to freak out. He ended up having a fever and what seemed like an ear infection. Thank goodness Ezra was still on his antibiotics- I used the ear drops on Kleven and gave him some Motrin and he was fine.

Saturday morning we headed off to our most favorite breakfast spot in the world: Mission. After driving around and around to find a parking space and having to fold each of my five dollar bills into specks of paper to push into this old school parking meter we were pleasantly surprised to be seated immediately- which has never happened in our last five years or so of frequenting this place together. Just to give you a better idea of how much we like this place, I crave the strawberry granola pancakes from the moment we leave until we return and my mouth waters when we talk about it. Chris always orders the mixed berry muffin with cream cheese filling. I'll let you decide for yourself: You're looking at my plate in this photo, but for some reason the angle does not show you exactly how large these things are. The plate is at least 12in wide, two scrambled eggs, two pieces of bacon, and garnished with fresh berry puree, an orange slice, an apple sliver and half a grape. I don't even use syrup, I just dip each bite in the berry puree. The empty plate in the corner was displaying the muffin at one point.

Zil was shocked at how much food she had ordered. She got the breakfast Quesadilla with black beans and ONE piece of french toast. Chris got the croissant and Kleven had a pancake. Ezra was content staring dreamily at one of the female servers and would occasionally squawk at her to get her attention.
After all that food we needed to go for a walk, and with the beach across the street is there even a question as to where we were headed? The water was freezing, duh, but it didn't phase the excitement. Kleven did not want to leave the beach and Ezra actually enjoyed having sand between his toes.

After a while I realized why Kleven kept running away from me. Every time a jogger on the beach passed by he would turn around and follow after them, like he was missing out on something exciting and had to see where they were headed in such a hurry.

Saturday evening Chris and Steve went to the second show of Chris Trapper's and had a great time. They were able to stay afterwards and chat a bit. Oh and poor Raynee, she had not been feeling well at all. I never did get to see her. I sure hope she's feeling better!

Sunday morning we headed up the street from Steve and Zil's to Lake Miramar to feed the ducks and geese. It was raining but it was so much fun! There was a group of geese that followed us around once they saw we had bread and Kleven got really nervous, the closer the they got. He kept saying,"Careful daddy, careful, that goose might goose you!" We walked down the dock and the whole lake followed close behind. We were swarmed with ducks! So fun!

When we'd had our fill of being chased by ducks and geese, we dropped Steve off at home and made our way to the Wild Animal Park. It was still raining when we arrived, but that meant the park wasn't busy and the animals were all out enjoying the weather. Instead of overwhelming you with photos of the animals, we'll just share a few of our absolute favorites. The Lion exhibit was the most exciting by far. There was the male, two females, and seven cubs. It's as if they're trained to pose for pictures. They came right up against the glass and stared us down. Pretty creepy at times... but so awesome!

We did the Safari through Africa as well and took lots of photos to add to Kleven's animal book. He is convinced he is an animal called a ghemsbock. (spelled sounded out) It's some sort of gazelle looking creature with long horns.

My other favorite animal was this fuzzy little ball of orange fluff:

and the baby that was clinging on for dear life. I thought I had a better close up photo, sorry.

K, I'm tired of typing and listening to the boys whining, so check back later for the continuation. We'll call it: Don't Use the GPS When You Already Know the Way Home

Are you a paper collector too?

I have a really good friend who is a StampinUp demonstrator and lives in our old neighborhood. I have been a member of her monthly scrap booking group for almost two years now and I have collected a vast assortment of some really awesome products! Once a year the company hosts an event called Sell-a-Bration where you can earn free products as a regular participant and not only as a hostess when you make a purchase. This is the only time of year that my friend does "parties" so I'm taking advantage of that and will be hosting my 2nd annual StampinUp party tentatively on Tuesday, March 11th at 7pm here at my house! If you would like to come, let me know, otherwise I'm mailing out a stack of invites this week. You just might be on my guest list already! Don't feel at all obligated to purchase anything- it's just an attempt to get some girls together and possibly start a regular paper crafting group. If you'd like a preview check out their website: http://www.stampinup.com/

Skater-Boy

Here's Kleven's latest hobby, thanks to something he saw on someone else's blog! No names... but just know that it was the cause of an entire two days of my son begging like never before and a completely embarrassing tantrum at WalMart last week. In the past, Kleven would be found quite often standing on the surfboard Wallwoody in his room pretending to surf. Out of the blue one day last week he came running to me with the surfboard in his hands telling me , quite seriously, that he needed one with wheels.

He doesn't do a whole lot more than ride down the driveway sitting backwards, but we're for sure investing in a helmet and pads. He threw a hissy fit when we told him he couldn't ride it in the house, and it took four days to convince him the skateboard would be safe in the garage instead of in his bedroom. So, wish us luck... we've got a skater-boy on our hands!

Balentime's Day @ Postino

Holidays are a whole lot more fun when you have kids! Even the less significant ones become something more to look forward to. My mom gave us some paper doily hearts in January to put in our windows for the month of February. It's one of the many traditions we had growing up, so I was excited to have Kleven help me deck out our windows this year. On February 1st we used double-sided sticky tape to hang them, which was a bit confusing for the little guy. He was having a hard time keeping the hearts off his fingers and didn't quite understand what I meant when I said to spread the hearts out instead of putting all twenty-something in the same window pane square. Valentine's Day was easy to explain though; I told him its a day when we get to tell everyone how much we love them. He repeated that phrase almost on a daily basis... after every time he asked me if today was the day. We spent a few long afternoon making handmade cards (which never got delivered) and ate lots of Dove Special Dark chocolate and read the messages inside the wrapper to each other. When the day finally came we took some treats to my mom and sisters and Kleven was SO excited! Then he had a meltdown because he didn't get to keep any of the treats and couldn't figure out where his presents were. Who said anything about presents? We had a nice evening, the boys and I, while Chris was at school taking a final. Talk about romantic! Actually, he had been planning for weeks to take me out on a REAL date. We went out on Friday night, ditching the ward barn dance, and drove to Phoenix for the most delicious food I have eaten in a long time! (Thanks to Brad and Jessica for watching the boys!) The restaurant is called Postino. It's an old post office turned into a wine bar with a very simple menu. If you like Meditteranean food or if you're craving a panini or bruschetta worth bragging about, this is the place! Better yet, if it sounds at all like something you'd like to try, we'd love to tag along!

Watch Your Words

Be sure to check out the side bar for my newest list. I started writing down the quirky things Kleven has said in the past couple weeks. Some of them are phrases I hear on a daily basis, others I hope not to hear again! I will admit, they're funnier if you have ever heard his voice and can imagine him saying them!