::tuesday--sandy gets brave and luchadores::

Beach: Sandy got beach brave today, and it was craaaazy.
Like our beach transport set up? Sandy likes it pretty well. But Max got in trouble just before we left for the beach and got yelled at, and so he pulled the wagon very crankily and made me nervous. But it didn't bother Sandy.

Anyway, about Sandy getting brave... I got him brave last year when we were out here for our vacation, but it took pretty much the whole week. And then I kind of regretted talking him into going in the waves because he didn't want to do anything else, and I worried about him the whole time.

This year Grandpa Guy traumatized Sandy in June when we were in Malibu together, by taking him out into the waves to go to the bathroom. That was it and he wouldn't go near the waves again all summer.  He's goofy like that.  It's not Grandpa's fault.  Anyway he was all scared.  Until today. But first we hung out and played in the sand.

And we hung out while Kris did some surfing. Max worked on his skim boarding--it's pretty hard! He got lots of a adivce from passers-by, but it didn't help too much. He's just going to have to keep practicing.




And then I tried to talk Sandy into playing the run-away game with the waves. Again. I've tried to talk him into it about 1,000 times in the last while. But all of a sudden when I was looking the other way he went down there and started playing.  And then it wasn't the run away game anymore.  It was the run IN game.  And suddenly there he was, way down in the water to the point where he was making me nervous. Jumping and running and falling and floating. 

Exciting, but again nerve-wracking because now I've got to keep an eye on him even more tightly than before! But really I'm happy he's getting over some of his fear, it's a really good thing. "See how brave I am?!" He even went under a couple times. Kris keeping an eye out. And of course when it was time to leave he didn't want to get out. So then we had TWO kids still in the water. Oy.
But they had to get out so we could get ready for the next part of our day:

Lucha Libre taco shop!!!
It's one of our most favorite places to eat hre in San Diego. The burritos are to die for. We first saw a show about it on TV--one of the Food Network shows. After we saw the show we knew the place was for us. And it is.
It's a fast food type place, but if you call ahead and make a reservation you can sit at the "Champion's Table" where everything is spray painted gold and they wait on you. You get your drinks in huge goblets and have a big fancy spread of salsas. In other words, it's the VIP treatment. Sandy had been talking about eating and "Nacho Libre" and having the "huge orange drink" for a while. And the drink did not disappoint. Here he is getting a portrait with it and almost spilling the drink all over me. And Max could've had like 15 refills, good thing we were there to keep things real. It's always a good time there, but this time it seemed like the cooling wasn't working and it was SO hot in there. Sandy's hair was soaked with sweat by the time we got done. Wearing a Luchadore mask probably didn't help with that.
After your meal is finished there's a big gold box full of masks and you can choose one to try out and take a photo. The boys always like to do it, but after about the first time I was done. Smelly.

And to finish up the day we went to Deseret Book and after that picked up some cupcakes. It was an ideal vacation day as far as I'm concerned.

::monday--just beachy::

We lost our beach tent on the drive out here, so we spent a lot of Monday morning driving around trying to find a replacement.  And though we're in a beach town, of course no sporting goods store had anything at all.  We had to end up ordering one from Amazon anyway.
But we did find this cute little light wetsuit for Sandy, which was a win.

He's a ninja.

After we realized we weren't going to find a beach tent here we started looking for a big floppy hat for Lucy.  That was almost as hard to find, I finally found one about 3 sizes too big at Target and then had to go searching for safety pins at a grocery store to make it fit.  It's so dang hard to find the stuff you need sometimes.

Then by the time we got back from shopping and lunch, Lucy was all worn out and she conked out for a loooooong nap.  Classic timing.  Babies only sleep when you've got other things to do, right?  So the boys went ahead to the beach and I stayed back with Lucy.  I finally had to wake her up and we headed out to have some fun.

She's so cute in her baby carrier and her hugely huge floppy hat.

She did great at the beach!  I was really surprised, because when we took her to the beach back in June she hated it and cried the whole time unless she was sleeping.  This time she was really interested in everything that was going on, and she loved the feeling of the sand on her feet.  Not so much the cold water, but the sand was great.  And then she thought it was really interesting to grab her sandy feet with her hands.  I don't think she ended up ingesting _too_ much sand.

Sandy always loves to play with the Sand, but he didn't want to mess with the water at all.

And Max isn't in any photos because he was out in the water the whole time, so gleeful and happy to be out there in the pounding waves.  Kris did some surfing and when we headed back and cleaned up, everybody was ready to relax.

It was definitely a good vacation day, and all the kids got gold stars for being such good sports.

::sunday--temple & history::

Sunday started off with some boys building legos--early early in the morning.  They took a break to get showered and cleaned up, and then got back to work.

(I can't remember why Sandy was all cranky. There's always something.)

   
After church we went to see the temple--one of our favorite San Diego spots.  I was remembering when we took pictures of the boys long ago at the temple and I was feeling the need to repeat the experience.

It was hard.  Getting 3 wiggly squinty weird and sweaty children to behave was so tricky.

Anytime Sandy was behaving Max would goof off, and vice versa.

And they really seemed to think that every other picture was a "silly one."
Good thing they're cute.
Oy, I said.  Oy.  Sandy, SIT UP!  SIT UP PLEASE!!

I just have a feeling that Lucy is waiting until she's able to join into the hijinks. I can feel her appreciating and approving of the goofing off, honestly.



Oh the one below, yikes.  That was it.  They were done.

We tried for one more pose and you can see how it went.  Nevermind.

So Kris and I tried to take a couple of just us--in case you were wondering where the boys got their funny face skills, look no further.

Cute Kris and Lucy.  The temple is just such a lovely and dramatic backdrop.  And in the photo you can't even tell how hot and sweaty it was, so you can just appreciate the gorgeousness.

This was right after Max took Sandy up on a big hill and then forgot to help him down.  Absolutely classic.


After the temple we went to Old Town to see the Mormon Battalion site.  It was a great guided tour with fun videos and sets.  Kris got to dress up as an old timey soldier and Max was very excited to hold the huge long musket.
We learned a lot about the Batallion and boy oh boy we're glad we didn't have to walk all the way from Iowa to San Diego. Craziness.
At the end the boys got to pan for gold. They had a blast. The funniest thing was that the boys were so cranky about going to this place. They just wanted to go back to the house and play with legos. All they could do was whine about it. We felt like real parents--making the kids do something educational for their own good. But then they really liked it after all. (What's with Kris and Sandy ruining the serious old photo look?)

For the rest of the day we went back to the house, relaxed, ate good food and napped. We lay out in the grass and read books and at the end of the day we took a walk. Maybe the best Sunday ever? Very possibly.

::driving and legos::

We drove to San Diego for our family vacation over the last couple of days. We didn't get to leave as early as we were hoping for because of work--super classic--late patients, emergencies and an overpacked schedule.  Anyway, we got going at about 6PM and made it to Flagstaff that night by about 10:30.  The kids were pretty good about going bed, though Max threw a fit--everybody has to take turns being bad on nights like that.  Last time it was Sandy.

We made it on Saturday afternoon at about 3PM California time.

(This photo is actually from a different trip.  We're on our way to an early morning flight and the boys were fighting and got totally yelled at which is why Max looks so pleasant.  But I love the sunflare, and the photo does give you an idea of how the car looks when we travel.  Super packed.  Just imagine the top loaded with suitcases, two surfboards, a jogging stroller and a "race car" bike on the back.  Phew)

So the rest of the story is as follows.  About a month before we left on the trip a new lego catalogue came in the mail and Max found a set he really wanted.  It's called the "Fairground Mixer" and it's basically a little amusement park with people, little fariground games and a big spinny ride.  He loved it and looked at it and talked about it and dreamed about it.  Finally I reminded him that we'd be in San Diego on vacation pretty soon and that San Deigo has a Lego store.  I told him to start earning money and to see if he could save up enough.  He got excited and went for it.

With a lot of help from Kris and I and a lot of encouragement and facilitation he pulled it off.  He earned half of the cost of the set and we covered the other half because he had his tonsils out two weeks ago and that slowed him down a bit.

We were going to take them to the Lego store on Monday, but he was DYING to go and get his set so he could work on building it Sunday when he couldn't go to the beach.  We kept trying to tell him no but he was so excited we finally gave in and took them to the mall just about as soon as we arrived.

Because it was a higher priced set he got a couple of freebies with the purchase--like a white nineteen-eighty-something space guy.  Pretty exciting.
He was so excited he even carried the super heavy bag all the way to the car himself without complaining.


Everybody was a good sport at the mall.  We have great kids.  Even though we were all tired after all the traveling and hard work before hand.





And here's the stack of booty, including the set that Max helped Sandy to pick out--Max wanted to take a picture before he started working on the sets--we made them wait until the next morning to build anyway. That was some self control let me tell you.

I think this will go down in the books as a great vacation.  I just have a feeling.

::a few lucys::

This little pictogram was Max's creation.  He was playing with Lucy while I was getting ready in the morning.  I heard, "Look mom, look!"  And there she was.  And it's true, he really does.


Here's a sad and pitiful Lucy.  This was the day I was so sick.  I had energy that morning to stick a bow to her head, but by the time Bryce picked me up from the doctor and took me home, I barely had the energy to carry the babyseat back to the bedroom.  It was a tender mercy that she fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep in the carseat for about 30 minutes after I got home.  She never does that.

When she woke up and discovered that her hairbow had migrated to her cheek she was extremely displeased.  I thought it was pretty fashion forward, personally.


Sunday Lucy in a little Boden dress with Max's foot.  She's doing something important that involved kicking.  I'm so glad we have soft carpet that babies can play on.  Even though she always tries to eat it when she rolls over and I don't like that so much.

Lucy got to go with Kris and I to Phoenix for a big two day seminar with our consulting group and the staff.  It was a little crazy, but she did great.  The first full day she was really patient and just played and slept and ate.  But then she didn't sleep well the that night, so the next half day of class was a little bit of a struggle.  She just wasn't interested in team building or customer service any more.
But we all survived and learned something.  And when it comes down to it we're just lucky.  She's a very patient and sweet little person.

::fake out::

So a lot of parents try to figure out ways to disguise healthy food as junk food so their kids will eat it, right?

That's all well and good, but what I like to do is to figure out ways to disguise JUNK food as HEALTHY food so as to really distress my middle child.  It's the best thing ever.

The other day Max was still refusing to eat after his tonsils and so I went to Target with the aim of finding a tasty treat to tempt him with.  I found these bizarre Wonka banana peel popsicles.  They're pretty fun.

So the next thing that happened was that Sandy wanted a popsicle, and he wanted one bad.  He earned one by the huge task hard of eating all of his dinner, no small feat for Sandy.  Max got one out for him and started peeling it.  Sandy freaked out.  He collapsed to the floor.  "I DON'T WANT A BANANA!!!!"  We told him it was a popsicle, but he just kept crying and insisting it was a banana.
 
Tears and tears and drama until we forced him to stuff some of the candy peel in mouth and then he smiled a beautific smile and said, "It's a popsicle!"

These are photos from the next day, not sure where his shirt went.


There's an oldie but good story that goes with this too:
When Bryce and Nancy visited us back in April we took them to the Cowgirl BBQ restaraunt in Santa Fe.  It's a great funky place and their best dessert there is an "Ice Cream Baked Potato."  It really does look like a potato and it's definitely made of ice cream.  Kris and I especially like this becuase it reminds us of some of the ice cream treats in Germany and Austria.  They always liked to make dessert that looked like food--especially spaghetti "spaghetti-eis."

(We didn't actually each eat one, Bryce & Nan just lent theirs for the photo.  No really, I promise.)

Anyway, we wanted to introduce B & N to the delightfulness that is the potato, so we ordered a few to share amoung the families.  Again, Sandy had to be bribed to eat his dinner (probably super healthy corn-dogs) by the promise of ice cream.

He was off playing in the kids play place when the ice cream arrived.  We called him over and when he saw the dessert he just about died.  The below picture is a still from a video I took, I only wish I could hear it and see it better.  "Not a POTATO!"  "That's not ICE CREAM!!!!"

Again, we had to stuff some in his mouth before he'd believe us.  It was so dang funny to me.


Life is tough when you're a little guy I guess, and your parents like to laugh at you--at least sometimes.