::??::

Can somebody explain to me how it's possible that this baby has not figured out how to crawl yet?

He's obviously quite strong enough! He's still only scooting, and only backwards. I'm pretty sure he's only a hairsbreadth away from a breakthrough though, what do you think?

What a goofball.

::beach baby::

This is baby, all ready to go to the beach--or maybe we had just come back from the beach? I can't remember. Anyway, he was an adorable beach baby. These were the only photos I took on our whole trip with my real camera. That's too bad but at least it means I was busy having fun with my hands full. Understandable with this wiggly thing around, right?

::the last bit::

Sunday was essentially our last full day since we were flying out the next morning. We got up and went to see the San Diego temple. If you haven't seen it in person, you should. It's truly amazing. So striking and attractive.
Sand enjoyed touching all the foliage and we just tried to keep Max's ebullience from being too inappropriate.

The only slight downside to the location we could come up with is that it's by the freeway, so there's a lot of traffic noise. But the benefit of that is high visibility. It's pretty amazing to come around the corner and see those crazy rocket ship spires right there!


Awww, cute brothers. I know Max looks like a beach bum here, by the way. You don't have to tell me.

After the temple we went and met up with Blake and Brooke again so we could go to Blake's home ward. It was fun and Kris got to see one of his old roomates that we haven't seen in ten years. That was pretty great.
Here's a photo of the three roomies together--just missing one!


After church was over we went home and lazed around and said our farewells to the beach. If only we could've stayed a bit longer--but then we'd have wanted to stay another bit longer. When would we ever have come home? Max and I could bum around on the beach for an awfully long time.

It was a great trip, so glad we did it!

::even more san diego::

(this flower was growing on a bush downstairs from our little condo--so pretty!!)

The next day we spent time hanging out in the morning while it was misty and grey (it was misty and grey and a bit chilly every morning until about noon, it was nice.) Kris and I went for runs--separately. Max watched a movie and Sand took a nap. Then we walked to Rubio's and had fish tacos for lunch.

Max threw a big fit about something at lunch--I don't really remember what it was about now, just that it was ridiculous. That's why he's not in the picture.
After we got back it was all beach for the rest of the day!
Kris stayed home with Sandy while Sand napped. Poor Kris has a board exam coming up in Sept, so he was glad to have some study time.
Max and I went boogie boarding. The waves were pretty huge.

(this is the wrong day but the right beach)

I haven't been boogie boarding in AGES. It was really fun and I think Max was having a blast with me out there. We rode a few waves in together and it was rather thrilling. Rather thrilling that is until my nice nice sunglasses that Kris got me for Christmas were ripped off my head and dragged off into the deep blue sea.
I was pretty bummed about that and Max and I spent a while looking for them. It was a lost cause. Max was sad and tried to make me feel better with more boogie boarding, but the savor had gone out of it. (I still boogie boarded more with him of course, but it just wasn't the same.)
Later Kris came out with the Sand and I tried to get Sand to enjoy sitting in the sand. He did NOT like it. I sat him down with just his feet in the sand and he was so disturbed. SO mad. Then later I tried to stand him in the sand and he refused. I would lower him down towards the ground and the lower he would get the higher he would tuck his feet up. He just would not touch it.

But of course, he would eat it. I sat him on a towel so he could look around safely. He like that pretty well, and of course decided to start eating the sand. Such a dork.

BLAH.

A sandy Sandy eating sand.

It was such a fun afternoon. Everybody had a good time (maybe even my sunglasses escaping their drudgery on my head.) Nobody got sunburned, though I had a close call. I wish we could do it again tomorrow.

::another day in san diego::

We went to Sea World on friday morning and it was pretty fun. We did have a problem though. They've added a bunch of rides, probably 5 or 6 big ones and some smaller ones. This was all Max could think about. I made the mistake of looking at the website with him before the trip to get him excited, and he spied the rides. That was all he could think about from that moment on--and this did not change when we actually got to the park.
We had "breakfast with Shamu" in which you have a breakfast buffet, eat right next to one of the whale tanks and see a few cool whale tricks up close. That was fun and I'm glad we did it because it was the only whale exposure we got the whole day.
After breakfast I was ready to head to the Shamu show, but Max was dying to go on the big roller coaster, so we went over there. Kris and Max went on that, and Max loved it, so I got in line with him to do it again. But of course the ride broke down, so we were stuck in line for quite a while for no reason--these Sea World guys are not too good at their ride management it turns out.

Anyway, after that we got stuck heading over to another ride, and it got hotter and more crowded. We finally made it to the Sea Lion and Seal show which was fun. Then when we tried to see the actual seals afterwards the area was so crowded it was impossible and we just had to push on. Finally Kris and I got tired of the crowds and after seeing the sharks and a few other things we hauled our boys out and took them back to the condo for some rest.

It was not great management of the Sea World trip, I'd do it differently if I was doing it again. And the Manta Ray area was closed because (of course) they're adding a big ride to it.
I think Sea World should stick with the animal stuff. It's what they do best.

But anyway, we liked this cool Shamu car.


The best part of the day happened after everybody get a little rest. We were able to get together with Kris's old roommate/mission companion Blake and his wife Brooke for dinner. It was just a weird coincidence that we both happened to be out here at the same time. They recommended a delicious Thai restaurant that we really enjoyed (all of us with refined tastes, anyway.)
Kris got fried rice that actually came inside half a pineapple. Pretty fancy, right?


After we ate Blake & Brooke took us down to a beautiful park on the coast to look at tidepools and seals. There were quite a few sea anemones in the little pools, but Max wasn't quite brave enough to stick his finger in them to make the them close.

Baby Evie was though.

Max however, was brave enough to go out to the very tip of the rocks we were out and wish that a wave would carry him out to sea. Weird kid.

It was an amazing view and a lovely sunset. And Max did not get carried away, happily.

It was prettymuch too dark to see the seals by the time we got to them, but the good company and fun conversation made up for it.
It was a really fun night--thanks Blake & Brooke for taking the trouble to meet up with us!
And Blake has a reputation in our family for taking good pictures (he took the photo that ended up being in our wedding invitation) so he took one of all of us on the rocks. I like it.

::today in san diego::

We are escaping our normal lives for a couple of days this week in San Diego at the beach. We found a little condo right by the beach (thanks to a recommendation from a patient parent at the office). It's really amazingly close to the beach--probably less than a block away. We don't have to cross any real streets to get there. It's perfect because Max can spend more time playing in the water, and the baby can take the naps he needs, and all that is within a quick walk back to our place if we need it.

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from today before I got too sleepy.

We went to a fun little shopping area downtown called something like Seaport Village for lunch.

The view of the water was lovely from our table.

And I had another lovely view if I looked to my left--happy babies.


He is so darn darling!
There was a seagull stalking Max's lunch the whole time. Luckily he was behind glass and too big to slip through the cracks.

After lunch Max got to ride on a historic carousel, which of course he loved.

After we walked around the shops for a bit and headed to Target to pick up all the stuff I forgot to pack, Max and I went out to the beach while the baby napped and Kris studied for his upcoming board exam.

Max did some seriously awesome boogie boarding.
Then he had to bury himself because I refuse to get that sandy today.


Poor deprived child. He even wrote RIP in the sand next to himself. Weirdo.
Kris and Sand came and joined us for a few minutes at the end.

Sandy thought the waves were very interesting as long as I didn't dip his feet too much, but he HATED the sand (ironically). He hated it so much. He would hold his feet and legs up as high as he could any time I tried to have him stand in it. We'll see how it goes the next few days.

THEN, after dinner we took a long walk to go and get some ice cream. We saw a cool sunset over the ocean.

We saw a lot of interesting vegetation, chief amoung them this weird succulent black rosebush looking thing. So cool.

Max wore himself out running the first half mile and could hardly make it the rest of the way, but we did finally make it back for bedtime.


I'm going to bed now, sand in my hair and all. Tomorrow we're planning for SeaWorld. It should be fun!

::another first::

I need to remind myself in the future not to schedule Kris hospital cases on the first day of school. With hospital cases Kris has to be out of the house before 6:30AM. So obviously I accidentally did that this year and it was kind of a bummer. Because of course, no matter how early I got up, we had to be late because of a battle. This particular battle was over what shoes to wear. Max wanted to wear his stinky Keens and I wanted him to wear normal shoes so nobody would think he had bad hygiene right off the bat.
Anyway, we resolved it eventually, and got through the breakfast battle. We made it into the car and then were absolutely fine until we got to school and realized that to get a parking space we'd have to park two blocks away and walk. That's pretty fun with a 25 lb baby to haul around.

But the good stuff for the day? Max's new teacher seems really nice. He's in a real classroom when a lot of the other grades are in portables because of school construction. There are a few nice kids in his class that he knows from last year.
The best news? We got him there and we all survived.

And the very best news is that he had a really fun day. YAY!!!

::bye to summer::

Tomorrow is the first day of school for us out here. Kind of a bummer in so many ways. Good in so many ways too. But's it's sad to lose the opportunity to sleep in a bit and bum around and spend time with friends and at the pool. I think we should move to a four day school week. Really. Kids need a little more time just to be kids.

Kids need to bum around and watch Pixar movies with friends and have fun.

Good thing we can do all that and school too I guess, though squeezing it all in is a trick.

Really our summer was super busy with work and summer camps, so we didn't get to laze around much. Maybe that makes the coming to an end part even harder.

You should probably look for a first day of school post coming soon. I'm sure Mr Second Grade will be adorable as he always is.

::::

Pensive baby in Taos, back when we were there for the bike racing weekend.


To the more usual cheery baby.

I sure do love that Bumbo seat. I'd highly recommend it to anybody. It's been a lifesaver in a lot of situations where a high chair wasn't available or the floor just wasn't good for babies to hang out on. I usually just keep it in the car. It's what he always eats meals in at work when we're there.
Besides, his chubby little legs are so darn cute when they're squished into the seat. I love it!

::kris & ginna::

Of an evening in late July...

::scootin' (backwards)::

(No chubby kids were harmed in the making of this blog post. Maybe they're weren't immediately picked up when they wanted to be, but that's a whole other story.)

My little little guy has started scooting a bit. But not forward, where he'd like to go. Backwards. Always backwards. It's because he's not bothering to do anything with his feet, just his arms. And every time he pushes against the floor with his arms he goes backwards, which really isn't what he means or wants to do.
But I think he's happy to be moving at all.

Yesterday he was hanging out on the floor of our big room--the carpeted floor that I wanted just for things like this--scooting crawling babies.
He's on the floor playing with toys, and suddenly I realize that he's halfway across the room, but still facing me. At that point he was having a good time with it.

And he scooted on. Suddenly he realized that he had scooted rather close to the guitar that was leaning against one of the walls. This was cool and exciting.

And actually rather captivating, really.

This is where things started to fall apart. I think he really really wanted to go for the guitar. So he started to try.








He was extremely annoyed with me for giggling and taking pictures instead of helping him go the right direction. What a mean mom.
I'll have you know though, that as soon as I was done being amused and taking pictures of his frustration, I picked him up and comforted him. I had too, he's too adorable. I can't help it.

And that's the scooting report for today.