San Diego

Lately Rachel has been fascinated with animals...dogs, cats, birds. So when Steven decided to take this week off, we thought that a trip to the San Diego Zoo was a perfect thing to do.

We went to the Zoo yesterday. We had a great time and was blessed with beautiful weather. The sun was bright and shinning and it hasn't too hot. Most of the animals were out and about and easily spotted. Because this zoo is so big, there are buses you can hop on and off of at several spots throughout the park. Knowing this ahead of time, I planned to not use the stroller and just take advantage of using the bus. We ended up only taking the guided tour and didn't use the bus the remainder of the day, Rachel walked just about the entire day and did a great job at it. It was so much easier just carrying the backpack and not hassling with the stroller.

This was Rachel's first time to the San Diego Zoo, and she loved seeing all the animals this zoo has to offer. In the middle of the day, Rachel spotted a little girl who had had her face painted to look like a Dalmation puppy face. Rachel wanted a "puppy face". Seeing how the prices are cheaper than what we're used to at Disneyland, we told the girls we'd get their face painted. However, upon discovering that the price to have the entire face painted was $11.95, we went into the nearest souvenior store and were able to get off with purchasing them each a Panda mask. LOL. These are just a few of the many pictures I took on our adventure at the San Diego Zoo. To see more of our pictures, you can see them here.

A trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without having dinner at our favorite Mexican restaraunt. Over the course of enjoying our dinner, we decided we weren't ready to go home and wanted to explore some more of San Diego. We made our way to the only place we knew we could access the internet, The Apple Store, and got on Orbitz to look for the best hotel deal. Rachel didn't quite understand it when Hannah kept telling her we were going to spend the night. But for someone who was falling asleep at dinner, she found another burst of energy once we got to the hotel room. The girls wanted snacks, and at 10:00pm, a trip was made to the vending machine and both girls came back to the room with chocolate. One of the enjoyments of being on vacation - having candy at 10:00pm. LOL. Rachel eventually fell asleep, clutching onto her bag of M&M's. This morning we got up and took advantage of the free breakfast the hotel had and then we were off. The USS Midway is on display and open for tours, so we planned to head there. However, it didn't open until 10:00am, so we walked Front Street and looked at the Tall Ships on display. The Midway was a fun adventure (althougth not if your prone to claustrophia). Rachel enjoyed all the little areas she could explore, and did well for the four hours it took to explore the aircraft carrier. After the Midway, we headed towards home, with one more destination in mind, The San Diego Wild Animal Park. We barely made it in time before they closed the gates to incoming guests. We had only an hour before we had to be off the grounds, so we went straight for the Safari tour that takes you out onto the animal grounds. This is a new tour, as their old way of touring the grounds got too expensive to repair, etc. This tour takes you in trams out on the animal grounds were you are eye level with the animals, which was awesome!When our tour was over, the Park was officially closed and we needed to make our way out. Rachel was disappointed she wasn't getting to see more animals. Now that we have a membership to both the Animal Park and the Zoo, we'll be back when we can spend more time there.

We had a great two days in San Diego. Rachel really enjoyed all the animals she got to see. And it was fun getting away.

Helping in the Backyard

We've been putting in some long, hardworking hours into our backyard the last week and last few weekends. And Rachel has been there to lend a helping hand where ever she could. She loves being outside. Here, she's doing her part to spread some fill dirt we got. With the warm weather heading our way, it was time to get the sprinklers working, they haven't been hooked up since before our cement work in January. Steven's been working on the sprinklers for a few weekends and some evenings. Once that job was done, there were a lot of holes and uneven places in our yard. So with the help of Steven's Dad (and his truck), we were able to get two truckloads of fill dirt yesterday and filled in all those places. Once all that dirt was in place, this morning we decided to lay sod in a few of the larger places and reseed the smaller spaces. It was A LOT of work! Here are a couple pictures of the progress. The yard is really looking nice.

Sister Sleepover!

Bedtime often finds Rachel not wanting to go to her bed, but to stay with Hannah in her bed once bedtime prayers have been said. But because Hannah has school the next day, Rachel is always sent to her own bed. On occassion we've found her having sneaked back into Hannahs bed.

Because today is Saturday, we let the girls have a sleepover last night. They opted for both sleeping in Hannah's bed rather than making a bed on the floor. When I checked on the girls before we went to bed, and found them sleeping like this... I think there might have been more room on the floor. LOL. Rachel stayed in Hannah's bed until around 3am and then moved her sleepover to our bed. I think Hannah was a little disappointed to wake up this morning and find that Rachel had left their sleepover in the night.

Some Pictures from Our Day

We spent the majority of Mother's Day at Mommy's favorite place, Rachel didn't seem to mind spending the day there as well. We ate dinner in New Orleans Square where a jazz band plays on the patio. Today, The Queen of New Orleans was there to sing along with the band. Towards the end of her performance, she invited all the kids to come up and grab a tamborine. Our little performer didn't waste anytime in running up there and grabbing a tamborine. The kids stood there and danced while The Queen sang, and then they paraded around the patio. Gramie had never seen this side of Rachel and was pretty impressed. At the end of their performance, they got a strand of colorful beads.

Preschool Open House

Tonight was Open House for the Preschool in which Rachel will be going to in the Fall. It's an evening that allows incoming families to come and check the place out, as well as those families already attending to come and see what their children have been up to. We went tonight not only as an incoming family, but also to check out all the fun things McKenzie has been up to as a Pooh Bear.

All day long Rachel kept asking when we were going to school and when she would get to see Haylee and McKenzie. Finally dinner came and went and we were off to preschool. Rachel had sooo much fun. She ran from one thing to the next on the playground, checking in with her cousins every once in a while. Pretty much exploring everything. It was the same once we went inside the classrooms. Exploring everything, trying everything out.

"Come on McKenzie, I'll drive you to school."
Playing with some brissel blocks.
Rachel LOVED the KoolAid playdough. She played with this the most.
Next year, the three little ones will go to preschool together.
There's no doubt in our minds that she'll do just fine. Although Gramma witnessed a situation that might just get us a phone call from the preschool director come the start of school. Rachel walked up to a little girl playing at the basketball hoop, kicked the little girl in the shin, not once, but twice, and then stole the ball from her. We have four months to pray she outgrows her bulliness. LOL.