5 favorite things...january 24, 2009

Ok, so I haven't done a list of my favorites in a while, sorry. I am and have been indeed grateful for many things over the past weeks, so here's a summary.

• my home (i love to travel, but their is something special about sinking into your own bed at night)
  
• family (both immediate and extended)
  
• sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine
• blue skies that stretch for miles
  
• the beauties & wonders of nature (the trees are budding and beginning to flower here & my sister and I were able to see a brand new, less than a week old, gray whale calf and it's mother, how amazing is that!!)
  

Visitors of the Nocturnal Kind

For the past few nights we've been hearing things.....

Strange things.

We couldn't tell if the sounds were coming from the roof or attic....the noises remind me of the movie SIGNS. The sounds didn't have any sort of pattern to them, they were more like big thumps, bumps and whacks. Strange.

I spoke to the farm manager, Salvador, about what we'd been hearing. He suggested raccoons, but most likely rats! I thought to myself, I can do mice and even raccoons, but I can NOT handle rats!!! Just the very thought of a pack of rats scurrying around above my head makes me shiver. We could set traps, but if the things were really in the attic and they died up there......STINKY!!! Anyway, we looked all around the eves of the house searching for an entrance, no luck.

So last night, Trent and I were catching up on our favorite TV shows from this past week and we heard it again. Thump, bump, bump, WHACK, thump, bump....it was like listening to a WWF match, but from underneath the ring. We listened and listened, finally deciding that the sound couldn't be coming from the attic, it had to be the roof. Trent headed outside with a flashlight in hand to investigate. Sure enough, there on our roof, caught red handed were 3 youthful, rambunctious, and naughty raccoons. They weren't scared of us either. They just sat there and had the nerve to look at us like we were interrupting!

We are relieved to know what the noises are, and the kids think it's pretty cool that we have coons hanging out on our roof. At least I can sleep now...now that I know our attic is not infested with rats!

This is the best shot I got b/c they weren't into posing.

Where have we been????

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Life has just been really, really, really busy! I'm going to be back logging posts over the next few weeks because we have to get caught up. I've got to keep this journal going! Here is a quick synopsis of what we've been up to.

We moved into our new place, had Christmas and then headed up to Utah to see my ENTIRE family! We haven't all been together for 4 yrs. We all stayed at my brother's and their were 13 kids all under the age of 7 in the house! I have to admit I was super nervous about how that was going to work out, but they were so great! Very impressive and my brothers kids were so great about sharing their toys and rooms with us. Thanks guys!

After a week of snow, it was time for us to return home. We brought my sister Ali and her son Hugo home with us for a little visit. The ride home was a bit rough (Hugo got sick, thankfully we had a bucket ready) but we made it! I got to work unpacking boxes and trying to make my house feel like a home. We did laundry and tried to relax.

Ali and I had a huge list of activities we wanted to do, and I think we did a pretty good job checking things off of it. We played outdoors, ate fruit, went for walks, explored at the jetty, played in the sand, searched the tide pools for sea life, went to Disneyland, went whale watching, took lots of pictures, and had tons of fun!

Now life is getting back to normal. Ali & Hugo have returned home, my laundry is done, kitchen clean, kids asleep, husband's at work & now it's time for me to rest my head too! I promise to post lots more pictures....so STOP HOUNDING ME !!!!

Night!

The Ocean, Take Four

We had to get Ali & Hugo down to the ocean one last time before they headed back to the frozen tundra of New York. So we packed up the kids and off we went. This trip was all about fun.
The kids just ran along the shore and played the entire time, laughter filled the air!

Carley is an animal at the beach. She loves to run thru the water. She's so cute, she just giggles non-stop and then cries if you try to get her to do something else. Such a California girl!

Luke was all about finding treasures this trip. He hunted and hunted.
Here is one of the many beauties he found.

At first, Hugo didn't want to play in the water. He was having too much fun playing in the sand.
However, when Ali finally got him to go in the water he was all over it!

I love this action shot. He's ready to GO!

DRY ONE MINUTE........

WET THE NEXT.

Time to go.

Thanks for visiting us Aunt Ali & Hugo!
It's so fun to have a cousin around.
We are already missing you!
Bye bye.

Whale Watching!!!

Trent arranged for Ali & I to go whale watching today and it did not disappoint! It was so thrilling to see the blow spouts and the sheer size of an actual gray whale. We didn't see any of them breech the water, but that rarely happens here because the whales are on their migration route. You can see them off the California coast on their way down to Mexico (to have their babies) and then on their way back up to Alaska (to eat, play, eat, mate, eat and eat). The guide told us that they can eat up to 50 times their own weight in food, daily! We also were able to see a special treat. Usually mothers don't have their babies until they reach the warm waters of Mexico, but we saw one that had her calf early! The guide said that the baby calf couldn't be more than a few days old! The mother didn't leave the calf's side. It was really, really, really just an awesome experience and left me in total awe of Gods creations! It was so cool!
Here is my photo journal of our trip, enjoy!

We boarded a San Diego Harbor Excursion boat right next to this huge cruise ship.
It was very massive.

Here is Ali, wearing some mighty fine sunglasses! Bugs will be proud! They might be the ugliest sunglasses on the face of the planet, but they are really awesome at keeping out the glare!

We passed the airfield on the Navy base on Coronado Island.
I thought it was kind of neat to watch this helicopter take off.

Here is a little friend that followed us the entire trip. He totally wanted some free handouts,
but our guide recommended that we ignore him because, " what goes in must come out".
Ewww, that was enough for me, I didn't share my snacks, no way!

This is the light house on Point Loma.

We saw this dolphin in the beginning of our trip,
but it didn't hang out for long. This is the only shot I got of it.

Ok, now for the good stuff...
We saw 4 different whales. We followed each one for a little while.
We got a lot of great shots of the whale's tails (called the fluke).

fluke

fluke

fluke

Here's a blow spout. You can see this whales head pretty good.
Most of the whales we saw were male juveniles. They follow the Mothers down to Mexico.

blow spout

fluke

fluke

fluke

blow

side view of fluke

Here are my photos of the Mother and her calf. The Mother is first, her blow holes are much larger than the calf's who is just behind her.

The circles in the water that you see here are called footprints. This is how you track a whale.
It shows where they came up out of the water. The juvenile males that we saw usually come up 3 times and then go down for a spell. Then back up. They can be pretty erratic and don't necessarily swim in a straight line. The calf came out of the water for about 5 breaths before heading under for just a short time and then back up for 5 more breaths.
The footprint below is from the mother and her calf.

This is just the calf.

On our way back to shore we got a closer look at a bunch of seals
who were sunning themselves and snoozing on these docks.

Of course, my pelican, it wouldn't be a complete trip to the ocean if I didn't get a shot of one. This guy is really pretty.

Snowy Egret

We got a pretty close up view of this bomber.

The guides brought up some real whale baleen (Whales have baleen instead of teeth. They use it to "sift" thru the food they take into their mouths. The baleen lets krill and small shrimp in and keeps bigger, unwanted fish and etc out.). It was neat to see close up.

I hope you enjoyed my little photo tour of our trip to see Gray Whales!

Hugo & Ali's First Trip to Disneyland

We took Ali & Hugo to Disneyland today.
They were both first timers....a little apprehensive...and now they're Disney lovers!!
We had so much fun with all the kids. At first Hugo was so overstimulated that he didn't know what to do with his little self. He didn't know if we were coming or going. Way too much to see. He cried when we had to get off the first few rides because, bless his little heart, he just didn't understand why we couldn't keep on going! After he got used to the routine (wait your turn. get on. have the time of your life. get off. walk or run to the next attraction. wait your turn. get on. have the time of your life. get off....you get the picture) he was fine and the rest of the day went smooth. Here are the highlights, enjoy!

Hugo's very first ride. This is the rocket ship ride in Tomorrowland. He was seriously smiles from ear to ear. Ali said that part way thru this ride he saw the Buzz Lightyear character and he about jumped out of the ship! Hugo went absolutely bananas! So as soon as the ride was finished we went to see Buzz.

Hugo was so pumped to see Buzz, but when Buzz actually noticed Hugo and gestured for him to come forward and give him a hug or hi-5 for whatever, Hugo froze. He dugggg his heels into the ground so hard I thought the pavement was going to start buckling. He wasn't going to go any closer no matter how hard Ali tried to urge him on. Even though Hugo chickened out in the end, Buzz definitely made a HUGE impression on him. So huge that he kept talking about him all day long! It was really cute, he really, really, really loves Buzz Lightyear.

Waiting in line for the Dumbo ride.

Little Miss Carley was a trooper. She didn't complain all day.
She got to ride the rides and bump around while we waited in line. A real cutie pie!

Hugo really liked this little train ride. We got to ride inside of a circus cage!
(this is one he cried after, he wanted to go again! very cute.)

While Ali was visiting with the Mad hatter, buying Hugo his first pair of Mickey Mouse ears,
I took all the kids on the tea cups ride because their was no line.
It was a little crazy, but they all really enjoyed themselves.

We waited in line to see Mickey himself and then one of the Disneyland staff made Hugo upset because he wanted to climb on the set. It really wasn't a big deal, poor guy. We decided it was time to get some wiggles out so our next destinations were Minnie & Goofy's homes. They aren't rides, just places to explore and play.

Carley & Hugo loved this piano that plays funny noises instead of regular music.

I had to post this photo because it's just too cute! Here is Hugo longingly looking at Goofy, his most favorite Disney character, thru the window of Goofy's very own home. I can't remember if he was brave enough to hug Goofy or not? We'll have to ask Ali.

Emry saw Pocahontas for the first time. She was pretty excited. She just held Pocahontas' hand and swung her leg back and forth the entire time she spoke with her. We saw Jesse & Woody right before this, but Pocahontas trumped them and Emry made a b-line for her.

The excitement of seeing Woody & Jesse totally tuckered Hugo out.
He promptly fell asleep when he sat back in the stroller, I'm talking in about 4 seconds flat.
Ali was nice enough to take Luke & Emry on a few rides while I stayed with the little guys.
It was relaxing for me to have a minute to just sit on a bench,
enjoy the lovely day, people watch & eat a chimichanga (my favorite).

until next time Disneyland...