Cara's First Roller Coasters

So three things my girls kids NEED to be into

1. Roller Coasters
2. Vacations/Traveling
3. Animals

Not necessarily in that order, but I will do everything in my power to make it happen for them (unless they develop allergies to animals - then I can't do anything about that). 

So let me preface this by saying I do not usually support Lagoon (in Utah). I just can't give my money to an organization that treats animals the way they do and won't do anything else to help them. That being said, when my work set up our summer party there and were planning on covering parking and entrance costs for us and that meant I could take Cara on her first roller coaster ever - I mean how could I pass that up?? (Technically it's not my money)

I was SO looking forward to going and even thought with two of us we could switch off so we could even ride some big rides (although it would be as a single rider rather than together, but that didn't bother me). Even though this happened to be the weekend right after we got back from our trip, so it meant we'd have a pretty busy/jam packed couple of weeks, it was completely worth it!

We got to Lagoon and I asked Larry if he would mind if I took Cara on her first ride (with Gwen one of us would have to stay off the ride with her) and he said that was fine (I sure got lucky with him!) so we rushed to kiddie land and I took her on the Jumping Dragon ride (I thought it was the Puff Dragon ride - I  just knew there was a circular dragon ride that was technically the first kid roller coaster). Even with sunscreen running into her eyes, she still yahoo'd the entire time and seemed to really like when it went backwards. It was a literal dream come true (you better believe I got all the pictures and videos I could)!

After we got off, Larry took her on the "Odysea" ride, that rises you up and down and even sprays you with water. I couldn't fully see them since they stayed up pretty much the entire ride, but when they got off she was crying a little and I was worried she didn't like the water, but Larry said it was just the sunscreen issue so I had to take her to the bathroom to really rinse her eyes out (she looked like a poor drug addict with red eyes she couldn't open fully).

We rode MANY more rides with her, I rode a couple big ones (I only cared to do at least 2 to make sure I could still ride them without getting sick) - Larry said he was just there for Cara to ride rides and didn't care to ride any. We ate a yummy lunch (didn't realize amusement park nachos could be so yummy!). Unfortunately, the adrenaline rush crashes hard with littles and after riding so many rides Cara was down for the count. I was hoping to go ride the Carousel with all of us, but on the way to that ride she fell asleep and was so tired she wouldn't wake up for anything! It was earlier than I had hoped, but Larry was hot and I think he was ready to head home so I told him we just had to go get some ice cream from Pioneer Village (a Lagoon tradition) and then we could leave. She slept through that, through being put in the car (though she did whine a little there, probably because she thought we were trying to wake her up), and slept all the way home. Gwen also slept on the drive home and I sure had hoped I could've (apparently I had an adrenaline crash once we could finally relax in the car).

At the end of the day I'm so glad we could take Cara on her first rides and she loved them. I'm glad we had so much fun and no one had any big melt down from being in the sun/missing a nap. It was a great day I'll forever cherish!

Gwen is EIGHT Months

I am EIGHT months old!

I like: Dancing (when we move her arms around or dance while holding her), when we rush to her face, tickles, watching Cara, pulling to stand up (or standing in any way), the fish (this has been for a few months now)

I dislike: Being hungry (or seeing food for me and not getting it IMMEDIATELY!), being sat down when I want to move or be held

I am now: We didn't do a weight check so we'll stick with clothes/diaper size. She is still wearing 6-9 months, but I'm pretty sure we can start on 9 month clothes now. anything smaller is way too small for her. She's also still in size 3 diapers.

A Typical Day looks like:

7:30) Get out of the crib while mom picks out clothes for the day.
7:30 to 8) Breakfast time (whole container of fruit flavored baby food & 4-5 oz bottle of formula). Then I changed her diaper and put her outfit next to her for L to dress her in once she finishes her bottle (I get Cara all ready while she eats and then leave right after that).
8 to 9:30)  Hang out, wiggle, crawl, explore, whatever.
9:30 to 10:30 ish) Nap time
10:30 to 11:30) Hang out, wiggle, crawl, explore, whatever :)
11:30 to 12:30) Diaper change, eat an 8 ounce bottle, and more wiggle and giggle time. If she gets cranky we'll give her puffs to hold her over.
12:30 to 2) Nap time. If she gets up early then she hangs out until her next feeding.
2 to 4) Diaper change, eat 7 oz bottle, wiggle and giggle time, go downstairs while dad works out, and then she'll end up going down for another nap.
4-4:45 ish) She naps while L showers and C watches a movie
4:45-5:45) Hang out with Larry and Cara until I get home
5:45-6) Dinner time! She gets a full thing of food (usually a veggie or meat flavored one) and we all talk and visit while eating..
6-7:30) Family time! We go outside if it's nice weather, if it's not we stay inside and just hang out (usually teaching Cara some flash cards and letting Gwen wiggle and giggle or play in the walker/activity table). Around 7 we start our nightly show. 7:20 she gets her last bottle of the night (usually 6 oz of formula).
7:40) Get ready for bed. We do a bath on Sundays and Thursdays (starting at 7:30 since we do both girls). Thinking we might move bath time to 7:40 (and possibly add in Tuesdays since it's Summer now and they are outside w/sunscreen and sweating more) and bed time on non-bath nights to 7:45

This Month I: Said my first word(s): "Uh oh". Went on my first real vacation (to San Diego!). Got to go swimming. Celebrated my first 4th of July. I started crawling around, I even pull myself up (on diaper boxes, small chairs, etc.)

Parent's Notes:

I wanted to argue her first word so much because she's been saying "mamamamamama" for a little while, but she likes to say "uh oh" a lot and especially when prompted (after multiple times trying to get her saying it) so I have to settle with uh oh being her first word haha.

This girlie LOVES moving! She hates being put on the ground when she just wants to stand or be a part of whatever we're doing. She is a big busy body with serious FOMO haha. She also loves to eat and will remind us it's about time for that

 Update on last month's goals:

• Add more foods/puffs: She LOVES foods and puffs so far. We even tried Peas and she ate it all without any faces. She even tried lemon without making sour faces. She can't bring puffs to her mouth (she just ends up putting her thumbs in her mouth instead), but when we feed them to her she likes them.
• Take her out for fireworks: turns out we'll have to wait till next year for this. We didn't watch fireworks at all this year as she was woken up early from her nap and then it started storming so we were told fireworks weren't going to be done so we went home and then it cleared up and we missed them...Oh well.
• Work on crawling: this girlie crawls all over. She scoots if it'll be easier, but she loves crawling to something she wants.
• Go on her 7 month vacation: Check! See that post for those details.
• Work on words: As stated, she says uh-oh all the time and will say mamamamama a lot.

Goals for next month:

• Work on pulling up and stabalizing (getting ready for walking - EESH!)
• Get her more used to the pool and do as many summer activities with the time we have left
• Go on more family date nights (finally during the week, maybe?)
• Work on more words and sounds
  
  

St. George & San Diego Trip: San Diego Portion

San Diego

#GirlDad and the best one out there!

Hotel: We stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Mission Valley. It was a really nice location (by TONS of thing) and had an even better breakfast each day, but I didn't love our room choice. Larry was the one who checked us in while I sat in the car with the girls so I didn't know, until after it was all done, that they put us on the ground floor in the front of the hotel. The "secure" door to get into the building right by our room would also stay open and you had to force it shut and you could just drive up to our hotel right from the freeway/street (you could literally see our room from the freeway) so I was very, very paranoid being in this room (thank goodness Larry brought his gun so I felt a little bit better). We also had a night that someone was blaring rap music and around 11:30 I had enough and called the front desk to see if they could get whoever it was to stop and they said they'd send security so that was nice (it did end up stopping shortly after that too). They had a pool that looked very refreshing and nice, but we never ended up swimming in it. The room was semi-clean, but I think because I felt on alert the whole time I wasn't able to appreciate it as much as I wanted. But it came with a fridge, stove, microwave, it had a room with a bunk bed for Cara (who absolutely loved the beds and that she got her own room), it had a pull out couch in the living room, but we put Gwen in her Pack N Play in front of the couch so we didn't use that very much. It had a desk, dining table, and basic kitchen essentials - it was set up pretty nicely. Our room had the bathroom so I think I'm glad we didn't get Cara potty trained before this trip haha.

Activities: We hit up Old Point Loma Lighthouse, La Jolla Beach, San Diego Safari Park, San Diego Zoo, and Coronado Island/Beach. I don't think I could have picked better stops EXCEPT I wish we had only done one of the zoo options and picked a separate activity so that we were doing something different each day. However, I should've done more research on the two zoos AND it was at least nice to finally cross the San Diego Zoo off our list after our last attempt at it (where we could only do the bus ride because we had to go get Larry's wallet from Six Flags). The bad part was getting a super bad sunburn at the Lighthouse (typical vacation experience for me). They had an almost 2 mile pathway where you could walk and see more of the mountain, more of the boats in the ocean, the helicopters, etc. and we didn't know we'd be doing that so we forgot to put on sunscreen. L and I got pretty bad burns, C got a little red (but we gave her some Tylenol at night so she could still sleep), G was in the Carseat almost the whole time so she was covered and got lucky. But it was (mostly) worth it - Cara got to see tons of bugs and lizards and got to walk on her own (and did really well with keeping close to us). I was just excited to see a lighthouse up close (including going into the house!). The Zoos were nice enough - the Safari zoo is only good for older kids or if you have enough money to do the safaris with it. If you don't do a Safari (we didn't) then it's just another zoo (that took us 6 or 7 hours to get through and with sunburns we were pretty miserable throughout it).

They did have a mini splash pad and a petting zoo with goats that made it more worth it (C loved petting them!) The (regular) Zoo was nice and we were able to fit it in within 3 hours and still felt like we saw enough (we skipped any aviary and if we didn't see an animal as we walked up to the "exhibit" then we skipped it). We brought our own food so it was much better than the Safari food (and cheaper). La Jolla Beach was AWESOME! I kind of wish we had gone there without kids (or with someone to watch the girls) so that we could've done the kayaking in the caves or go down to the actual beach to snorkel, but we saw SO many sea lions and seals and REALLY up close so it was worth it. Coronado Island/Beach was....okay. I was glad to take the girls to the beach and they both warmed up to it after a minute (and G had a MUCH better reaction to the beach than C did in Hawaii for her trip). We only stayed an hour since C started to get pretty cold and it was later in the day so we called it good. You do have to pay $10 to get in because it's like a state park or something, so you decide if that's worth it. The island was really pretty with cute shops and restaurants and homes so I wish we had more time to walk around it (or even stay on it for that day). We also stopped for ice cream a couple of the days so that was nice (I'm all for vacation calories haha).

Food: We didn't eat at a bunch of exciting places, I think the only place notable was this Mexican food place down the street called "Amigos" that I ordered a California burger (with fries IN it - OMG it was delicious!). The rest of the time it was just wherever we were (the zoo places was the worst and most expensive!!) 

St. George & San Diego Trip: St. George & Road Trip Portion

So to keep our planned tradition of taking the girls on their first vacation when they are 7 months old, we decided for Gwen we'd do a road trip to San Diego. We knew a straight drive would be a little much so we planned an overnight stop in St. George on the way there and back (it was such a nice little break for us too). Here is information on what we did in each location:

 

I just have to take our family road trip pic (Gwen is even in this one a little bit)



Doesn't look like much, but it sure took up
Space in the car



St. George

Hotel: We stayed at the TownePlace Suites St. George (for both ways). We picked this hotel because of the option of having a separate bedroom so that we could keep the girls separate since we knew Cara wanders before she sleeps and we didn't want her to keep Gwen awake (so Cara slept on the pull out couch in the living room and Gwen was in the Pack N Play in our room). It was a really nice place to stay in such a hot location. It was close to some good shopping and food places (and by that I mean there were plenty of options for both near us). They had a decent breakfast food selection, but they never had scrambled eggs or bacon (they either had hard boiled or fried eggs and Canadian bacon), but they had enough to fill us. They checked us in quick, which was nice on the way back because we got there right at bed time so we were able to hurry and get as unpacked as we needed, get ready for bed, and just pass out.

Activities: Other than swimming we didn't give ourselves enough time to do too many activities (especially on the way back). Swimming (in the hotel pool) was a big win though! It was so hot there that the pool wasn't freezing and the girls both loved "swimming" in it. We almost couldn't keep Cara with us (we forgot floaties so she needed to stay with us in the pool) so we ended up compromising and letting her wander on her own in the 1.5 ft deep/stairs area. She loved floating while holding onto the railing and she really loved jumping into the pool into our arms. Gwen even got to the point where she wanted us to hold her away from us and let her float.

Food: Other than the hotel breakfast we ended up eating dinner at Village Inn. I didn't used to be a fan of this place, but I didn't know what I was in the mood for so we figured a restaurant like that would have a little of everything and we could see what looked good on the menu. The biggest win was the fact that we went on "Free Slice of Pie Day" so we both got a free slice of pie with our dinners.

Road Trip

We learned a bit about road tripping with kiddos this vacation. For one: when you have a young kid who eats every 3 hours, plan to make stops every 3 hours! While stopping so often can be annoying, it was nice for us to think of those as good opportunities for them to get wiggles out. Driving down to St. George we stopped in Scipio (we were told there was a petting zoo - which there was, but it was closed), it lined up with lunch time perfectly and then we were able to drive to St. George and let the girls nap in the car while Larry and I talked (perfect time to have a nice conversation).

Driving from St. George to San Diego was a bit more rough, just because we didn't plan stops the best way and we ended up in a very hot city where we let the girls "wiggle" in a dollar store (for real haha), but mostly only because it lined up with when we had to get gas. Gwen lost her cool very much on this drive, it wasn't my favorite part. But we did learn that pouches with a baby to snack on is much better than baby food in jars.

Driving from San Diego to St. George was MUCH better. We planned stops, we found great places. We found a sketchy, but at least we didn't die so it was fun, playground in California and a market/gift shop in death valley (hello 113 degrees) that had a fun play area that was awesome AND we got ice cream at so score! We had to make a final stop, about 30 min from our hotel, for dinner at a cute 50s diner (but I was just over diner type food at that point so even though it was good, I just wanted something different).

Larry's Birthday

Larry is officially an old man…because he calls me old and now that he is my age, I get to call him that haha. Really though, being 31 isn’t a big deal, but I still wanted him to have fun with it. Since we do a day celebration for birthdays, we waited till today to celebrate. On his actual birthday I got him a silly saying shirt and a 1988 candy box from Amazon (silly gifts, but I wanted to get him something). I also worked from home that day so that I could mostly help take care of the girls and he could relax a bit more. I did set up a fake computer next to my work one so Cara could play around on the keyboard over there - although that didn’t really last long. I also get a chance to spend some time outdoors with her since it was a slower day. 

So as the week went on I asked him what he wanted to do for his celebratory day and he decided to wait until Friday to let me know he wanted to either drive to Idaho for lottery tickets OR drive to Wendover so he could play a hand of black jack. Yes, he wanted to do this as a small family trip, but I won’t take the girls in a casino (I’m very stubborn about them not being exposed to even a little cigarette smoke) so we did end up finding some parks near by both places so that they could play. This morning he decided to flip a coin and Wendover won. I did convince him on the way there that he could play more than one hand if he wanted to (why drive all the way out there for just one hand?), as long as we left by a certain time.

 

So as we got into Wendover I had him drop me and the girls off at the park (Scobie Park in case you are interested, haha). Luckily it was right across the street from the main casinos (lucky because he ended up having to come back to bring me the diaper bag I accidentally left in the car…whoops!) while he went off to gamble for fun. The best part was, the park was fenced in so I didn’t worry so much about Cara running off, but there were so many other kids/families there that Cara was just so excited to go play with them. She did find some kids that would play with her, but most just wanted to keep to their own group. While she played I tried to let Gwen wiggle on the ground, but watching both girls was a bit more difficult – especially with a teether putting everything in her mouth (and I’ll be honest – this wasn’t the cleanest park).

 

Larry ended up coming back after playing for a few hands/minutes. He had fun, but lost all the money he came to play with. We decided to play with the girls for a few more minutes but around 4 we had to head back so we could have dinner at a decent time. Unfortunately, I totally spaced changing diapers before we got on the road again and Gwen ended up having the biggest melt down. We knew she was tired so we assumed she was over-tired and just was having trouble sleeping, she would only calm down if I was rubbing her face and sang (I only sang kid songs like 5 little monkeys, the ants go marching on, and twinkle little star). We let that go on for about an hour, but then I realized it was probably a diaper issue and so when I finally changed it, it ended up being a horribly, bad diaper. I ended up feeling so bad that I hadn’t changed her and she w

 

 

 

as just sitting there miserable for an hour. Of course, after I changed her she finally slept.

Larry wanted to head to Texas Roadhouse for dinner since we had a gift card, we got there at 6 (on a Saturday – with NO reservations), but luckily we were able to get sat within 15 minutes. I was SO surprised! Dinner was good, both girls were very happy, and Larry got free birthday ice cream (although I had to eat the top because it had chocolate sauce on it). 

Once we got home, we let the girls wiggle for a few more minutes and then put them to bed. I let Larry pick the movie for our movie night tonight and then we are passing out (we’re both pretty exhausted), but he said he had a great day so that’s a win in my book (despite his odd choosing for a family activity haha). 

Anyways, Happy Birthday Babe! I’m so glad we could give you a fun day you wanted. Hopefully 31 is a great year 😊

Independence Day 2019

Fourth of July was going to be one for the books this year! I had made the new goal to be a better planner so this was my first holiday since then and I was going to accomplish what I had dreamed this holiday would become in future years. I also had the idea that since our neighborhood was putting on a firework show we could actually take the girls to see them and since we’d just be a few homes down from ours if they got too tired we’d head home and put them down and it would be okay if they were awake late (we even bought ear covers/protectors for them so we’d be prepared).

So for Independence Day I knew I wanted to make sure we all wear flag themed shirts/outfits as a family and incorporate going to a baseball game or going to a park and playing baseball as a family (since we’re so small this obviously wouldn’t be a real game, just a little practice hitting or catching or throwing type thing) then we’d grill burgers/hot dogs for lunch and eat rocket popsicles (or some other flag-colored sweet treat), then watch a baseball/Independence Day themed movie while napping and then do some sort of afternoon activity (sidewalk chalk, play in sprinklers/a pool, go for a bike ride, do a small hike, etc.), and finally eat dinner and watch fireworks. I want to have fun traditions, but ones we can switch around each year.

This year I was able to make sure we all had outfits (mom got Cara 2, I found a really cute lady bug themed one for Gwen, and then Larry and I went shopping for shirts the weekend before), but as far as the food part went our neighborhood was grilling up burgers so I decided to just make some grilled cheese for lunch (still American – since we had American cheese slices – right? Haha). We didn’t feel a baseball game would work with two too little kiddos so that was out. We did watch Sandlot (thanks to Stace for getting me that movie. I’ve also decided that movie is the summer equivalent of A Christmas Story haha), and the girls napped.

 

 

We didn’t do popsicles since we made cheesecakes for the party and we felt that was enough sugar – even though I didn’t even eat any of them because there were cookies, but I had sugar and that was the point haha. After the girls woke up we walked over to the playground that the neighborhood party was at and Cara played with all the other kids while we just watched and said hi to some of the neighbors. It was honestly a perfect afternoon watching her play on her own and we got to stand off to the side with Gwen (who loves being in the grass). The food was really great, we got quite a few compliments on the cheesecakes we made, and we even had actual conversations with neighbors (something I’ve been trying to be better at).

 

 

Unfortunately, it started to get really windy soon after dinner and we didn’t bring jackets (because it’s early July – who wears jackets at any point that month?) so it started to get pretty chilly for us. Then the clouds started looking ominous and it started sprinkling so once we heard that they were going to hold off on doing fireworks for the night and they’d do them tomorrow night we decided to call it a night and walk home. We did end up putting on a fireworks video from YouTube on our living room TV to let the girls see fireworks - that counts right? After that we just relaxed until their normal bedtime for the night. It turned out the storm was very short lived and never got too wet so they are now putting on the fireworks (that the girls are sleeping through so far). So while we did end up missing them, which is a bummer, the girls (and us) still had a lot of fun and it was a memorable 4^th for us. We also talked to Cara around lunch time about soldiers and why we celebrate the holiday so it was everything I had hoped for (minus not seeing real fireworks)