It Smells Like 4th Grade

I have just returned from helping in Landon's classroom and left there trying to identify the smell that is 4th grade. It seems to be a mixture of heat, 30 kids who have been playing outside and who may have questionable hygiene to begin with, open bags of chips, shoes, stuffiness and carpet; these scents all mixed together form a smell I'd like to forget. It was downright gamy in there.


I thought I was just going in for my weekly 1:00 time to help the teacher, but it ended up being a 2.5 hour stint as class photographer and Thanksgiving feast coordinator. It was pure madness in there, but in a good-natured way.


It is great for me to see Landon in action with his classmates. He loves school so much that I am so thankful he spoke up last spring and told me he wanted to go, rather than homeschooling for another year. He is thriving and loves being part of something bigger than himself. It's cool to see.


I had been at the school earlier this morning to watch Whitney's class do a Thanksgiving-themed reader's theater; this meant they stood in a line holding scripts and stepped forward when it was their turn to read.


Whitney always gets really shy with these type of things so her face makes her appear angry. She wasn't too keen on her paper hat either, and only posed for me after much pleading.


I think I would have loved being a teacher. I used to dream (as a kid) about designing my own classroom and all the fun things I would do for the class, but by the time I got to BYU I didn't feel inclined to be one anymore. Perhaps I was just meant to love helping out in class instead.

**Is this your kind of Thanksgiving feast?
Do your kids mind performing?
Were you shy growing up?
What do you think 4th grade smells like?**

Back to life...

We're home again, so that means back to real life...laundry, phone messages, the kids' messy bedroom, white walls (they appear to be glowing), weeding & raking, and just us. I suppose it's fine because I'm pretty happy in my real life, but the contrast from vacation that I'm experiencing today is a bit startling.


I returned home to find a goody bag from Michelle (she has a key to the house) which was a nice treat. Lucas left a funny note and a surprise for Landon and Whitney as well, so we were all pleased to come home to something.


Claudia and Alfredo were such excellent hosts to us. Randy and I slept in their pimped out guest room complete with empty drawers, an empty closet full of all kinds of hangers and ironing gear, a ceiling fan, tv and nice window. We slept great there, even though we were way closer together than normal since their guest bed is a Queen and we have a King at home. I didn't feel like I was living out of suitcase (which I hate) and even did laundry at their house twice. It was seriously great.


Also, I'm so relieved that I was able to blog from their house because it's overwhelming to me to think of even writing about the Saturday and Sunday, let alone our entire trip. Phew! I've been loading pictures into Smugmug all morning (I took over 700) and have already ordered a bunch of prints from Costco.com. I'm on my 3rd load of laundry, have vacuumed the house and showered and listened to the 16 voice mail messages we had received...ugh. Fortunately our mail was on hold while we were gone and hasn't been delivered yet, so I'm not overwhelmed by the huge task of sorting through that yet.

______Back to vacation_______________________________



We spent much of Saturday at Aliso Beach. The kids just couldn't get enough of it, so even though it was only in the high 60's outside and the water was freezing, they played from 11:30-4:30 and were delighted.


Randy was the ultimate fun dad and played with them the entire time. I hung out, took tons of pictures (of course), wrote a card and read my book, but didn't get wet because I had plans to go out with Claudia.

There's nothing like being buried in the sand for the first time ever.
Claudia delighted in being able to read her magazine while the kids played and she had multiple people (me and Randy) to help watch her kids.


Claudia and I left the beach after a few hours, dropped her boys off at home with Alfredo then went out for the night. We had originally planned to get a pedicure and visit Paper Source again, but opted to visit Paper Source then go to dinner and a movie and meet up with Claudia's friend Esther (a blog lurker, hopefully soon to be a commenter). It was nice to be out without kids for awhile and such a treat to see a movie (Dan in Real Life).


After the movie Esther, Claudia and I went next door to the Corner Bakery for hot chocolates and to chat. I think Claudia may have felt a little ganged up on since Esther and I both know her so well, it seemed like we were talking about her and she was squirming. It was good natured, but kind of amusing.


Our long drive home (why does the ride home seem so much longer?) began at 10:00am yesterday. I dozed and read the entire day in the car thanks to Randy's dedicated driving. I kept waking up and then saying, "I'm exhausted" then would fall back asleep. The kids did really well in the back seat reading, drawing and making each other laugh. We all had "church butt" midway through the drive home, but we're professionals so we worked around it.

**Do you sleep well on vacation?
Do you have a guest room at your house?
Do you ease back into reality or
dive in all the way?**

Party of 8

Throughout our week here Alfredo has been asking each day what we're planning to do and offering up helpful suggestions for activities. I have been deflecting some of these due to weariness from previous activities, but yesterday he motivated me to go to Universal Studios. (We had originally planned to go there, but were feeling lazy and unmotivated.) 

{Notice her shopping bag of misc. stuff}

We all piled in their car, with Missy Claudia at the wheel. It was hilarious. She was flying through the streets and then said, "Alf, do you think we have enough gas to make it to the Irvine station?" Only Claudia! We made it there, but it was a wild ride just getting to Costco for gas.

Traffic was slow going so I found myself thinking "this better be worth it" but I harked back to my spring Paris trip and the ordeal it was to get to Giverny (metro, train, bus, sweating, long lines, etc.) but how it was one of the highlights of my trip. Fortunately this proved to be the case with Universal Studios as well!

It was a perfect day, excellent weather, NO LINES, fun company, great stuff to do, just a wonderful day. We had barely arrived when Marge Simpson came and started pushing Jorvik in the stroller (taking over for Whitney) and walked and then danced with Whitney. It was darling.

Five minutes after that we hurried over to catch the Waterworld show. There were guys warming up the crowd by throwing buckets of water and getting the crowd to cheer. Apparently Alfredo told Whitney to wait before running across a section of sidewalk, but she didn't listen and got wet. She was mighty upset about this, but I thought it was funny and had to take a picture.

Claudia and I took this self-portrait in front of these British flags in honor of Amanda, and then realized this was just the facade of the restrooms. So funny.

Landon trying to act like he wasn't ecstatic to be posing with Spiderman. (Nice girl in the background eh?)

Randy, the kids and I got in line for The Mummy ride only to have Landon reduced to tears and wanting to leave. Randy was really bugged (last year Landon wasn't afraid of any rides at Disneyland) so I took Landon and Whitney out while Randy rode it alone. Poor Landon cried out in frustration, "That's 3 things, I'm hungry, I'm scared out of my wits (we had gone on the Jurassic Park ride just before this and the big hill at the end freaked him out), and now dad is mad at me!" (Is it wrong that I thought this was hilarious?)

I ended up going on this ride with Claudia and Alfredo and screamed my guts out. I don't think Landon and Whitney would have been happy riding it. It was in the dark, had sudden drops, went backwards at one point and was just crazy. I felt like my brain was rattling around in my skull. Claudia and Alfredo couldn't stop laughing at my screaming. The picture the ride took of us was hilarious, but we didn't want to pay the $20 to buy it.

Alfredo pushed 2 tables together for our dining pleasure. What a crazy group we were.
Randy had received a front-of-the-line pass for the studio tour for answering some survey questions when we first arrived at the park. We had to run to make it to the last tour of the day but got to be in the first car thanks to our pass. What a treat, we had great seats for all the surprises along the tour.

This is just spooky right?

This is as close as Whitney would get to the shark. She watches a ton of Planet Earth shows, so I figure she can't separate this plastic shark from all the shark facts she knows. Too funny.

Claudia took this picture of us with our 4-D glasses on before the Shrek show. It was really dark in the room (plus she was wearing her glasses) we were waiting in so we didn't know if the picture would turn out. I think it's funny.

Who can resist these things?

We had an awesome dinner here.

The kids fell asleep right away, so Randy blinded them with the flash when he took this photo in the dark (hence Landon's expression). Claudia gave us a driving tour of downtown Hollywood, the Walt Disney Hall (amazing) and downtown LA, which was very cool.

Even Alfredo fell asleep! Claudia ended up driving us around in Fullerton so we could find the place my family lived from 1981-1984. We didn't find it, but it was fun looking. I love that she's so adventurous and willing to drive forever. We wouldn't have abandoned our search except that our passengers were getting restless.

**Have you been to Universal Studios?

Can you sleep in the car?

Have you been on The Mummy ride?

Do you love Buca di Beppo?**

Lazy Day Delight

One of the beauties of being on vacation is that no matter what we do or don't do, we're still on vacation from our normal lives. There are no phone calls, no worries, no obligations, few responsibilities, and nothing that feels like real life. It's wonderful.

Yesterday we hung out all morning and finally left the house around noon to catch a movie (Fred Claus). We were seriously freaked out that it cost $33 for a matinee for our family of 4! Good grief. Add in a huge popcorn, 2 large drinks and a bag of Sour Patch Kids (gross) and it was like admission for one to an amusement park. Wow. The movie was pretty funny and it was relaxing and fun to go, so after the initial shock of the ticket prices we were fine.

We took advantage of the November heat here and went to the beach. It was hot. The kids loved every second of it. Claudia loaded us up with all her beach toys, so we were set.

This just makes me happy.

And this.

And this.

Especially this!

We came back to the house for a great dinner made by Claudia and Alfredo. We had homemade broccoli soup, salad, mashed potatoes & gravy, flank steak and carrots. It was fabulous, especially being able to enjoy it while in my pajamas. It's a gift to be so comfortable while a guest. We got the kids put to bed and then watched The Greatest Game Ever Played.

This is the scene in the mornings. It's art time (not planned) for the kids. Alexei keeps commissioning Whitney (and Randy) to draw dinosaurs for him and then always asks in amazement "How did you do that??"

**Do you need a break from real life?

How do you feel about sand?

Dining in jammies?

Vacation?**

Animals Shmanimals

We are done with animals! Our San Diego 3 for 1 pass served us well, but yesterday's trip to the zoo was a bit disappointing. It's probably because we liked the Wild Life Park and Sea World so much that the zoo paled in comparison. Plus, we're sick of walking and it was freakin hot yesterday! 

We'd be walking around (hiking up many hills) only to find most of the animals sleeping, then Randy would say "You know why? Because it's freakin hot." He also cracked me up by saying "For a zoo, there's a surprising lack of animals."

The highlight was seeing a huge monitor lizard actively walking next to the glass of it's cage. That thing looks like a dinosaur and has a tongue like a snake. It was cool. 

We also got to see a Panda bear eating, which was cool because we hadn't seen a Panda in real life before. The ice cream cones we got were a good treat, considering the heat and our bus tour through the zoo provided a nice rest and saved us a ton of walking. 

We decided to drive back over to Sea World after the zoo because it was so close by and because our passes allowed us to get back in. It was great, much cooler, totally empty, shady and great. 

We passed the flamingos like 4 times!

We love Sea World. We ended up seeing the show missed the other day, spent more time with the sting rays (smooth and slimy), saw the Starfish and a bunch of the awesome aquariums.

We probably should have headed back to Claudia's at this point, but decided to meet her family at Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego. Traffic was bad (of course) so it took them a long time to get to us.

We were all weary and hungry, so we ended up sitting at a table in the food court being mocked by the tasty shops surrounding us. By the time they arrived we had to hurry and snarf down some food so we could make it over to catch the 8:00 ferry. We all fit in their car (a Sequoia) and I sat in the very back with Landon and Whitney. I told them this ride would be like one at the amusement park, much like Indiana Jones, boy was I right! I don't know how she still has a license, seriously. She flew through the streets, flipped u-turns, stopped abruptly and started fast. Good grief. The kids were laughing and probably thought she was driving like that just to be fun. 

We barely caught the ferry. Of course little Alexei had to pee as soon as we got there, and there was no bathroom handy so his wonder mom (Claudia) helped him by providing a take-out container she found in the trash. I said to Alfredo, "You realize not every woman would do something like that right?" She's so resourceful and easygoing, she didn't think twice about it. (She had helped Alexei pee in a cup after our trip to Ruby's the night before.)

The ferry ride was peaceful, breezy, and beautiful. It was a treat to see the city lights and to be able to do so while sitting. Ha. Landon and Whitney had never been on a boat like that before so they thought that was super cool.

By the end up this day I thought I was going to lose it. I had the Jimmy-leg in the car on the way back so badly that I couldn't close my eyes and relax. It was awful. The kids both fell asleep right away in the car, and we all sacked out as soon as we got back to the house. I don't know how Claudia and Alfredo keep the pace they do, they're always on the go, go, go and never seem irritable or tired.

**Do you like zoos?

How do you do in the heat?

Do you drive crazy?

Have you ever had your child pee in a cup?

Have you ever touched a sting ray?**