A trip to the Cove

Today was Civil Rights Day. What that really means to me is another day off from school. We had planned to do nothing, but a few minor project around the house. Nice, relaxing, low key day. My sister called Sunday afternoon and said she wanted to come down with her kids and go to the tide pools. New plans were made. Laundry was started early and the house was cleaned. So much for my nice relaxing day, but we love having our family come down to visit. My kids enjoy playing with their cousins.

So we headed on down to La Jolla Cove to go look at the tide pools. Unfortunately we arrived right as the tide finished going out and then immediately started coming back in. We did see some crabs and sea anemones and lots of barnacles. It wasn't a completely wasted tide pool visit. The kids all liked standing on the edge of the rocks and watching the big waves (which have been rather huge lately) crash into the rocks and make big splashes. They all loved it when they got sprayed.

After the tide pools we walked down to seal beach to enjoy watching the California seals lounge on the side and rocks. The smell finally drove us away. The seals at Sea World don't smell half as bad as the ones in nature. It must be their diet. The kids were more excited to play with the sand then they were to watch the seals. At least as parents we try.

We headed back to my house for a big late lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs. My family has left now, the house is all clean and the kids are even ready for bed. Yippie! I am all ready for 24 now. I love living in Southern California. It feels like summer. I forget it is January.

A Day on the Harbor

Our lovely summer weather continues so we headed on down to the harbor this morning and enjoyed the sights and smells of being near the water. We went on a quick harbor cruise over to Coronado Island. When we got back we were lured in by a bicycle suri driver and he took us back to Seaport Village. The kids thought that was way cooler than walking back. At the village we rode on a carousel and then had lunch down by the water. There are many perks to living in San Diego. Sometimes you have to be more like a tourist to find them.

More ant misadventures last night. I came in to the kitchen about 15 minutes before piano started yesterday afternoon and found ants all over the kitchen sink. The one place they haven't been. I followed their trail and found them in my cupboard where I keep a lot of my cooking stuff. On a closer look I found hundreds of them inside the waffle iron. I grabbed it, put it in the sink and started running water over it only to remember that one shouldn't get waffle irons wet. Oh well. It was covered in ants. It looked like it was moving. So Noah was sucking ants up with the vacuum and I was trying to wash off all the dishes to make sure they were ant free. I called Damon who was told he needed to come home immediately. I cancelled my piano lessons and continued to clean. Dinner was not going to be cooked in my kitchen so we decided to head out. It was 6pm. I glanced up at my pantry cupboards when we were walking out and saw ants on the door. Another hour was spent taking all the food out of the pantry and taking care of those ants. Much anger and frustration. So by 7pm we were all pretty hungry and annoyed. I had been meaning to go through the pantry and clean it out so I guess the ants were just motivating me to do that. The ant guy came out today (which is why we were out all morning) and sprayed again. Hopefully we won't see them again, but I am not holding my breathe. So all my dishes and cookware are on the counter tops in the kitchen and all my pantry food is on my kitchen table. We are having sandwiches for dinner tonight.

Also yesterday the boys and I were riding our bike around Miramar Lake and Noah crashed. I didn't take any pictures, silly me, but you can see some of the damage in the pictures from today's field trip.

Cabrillo National Monument

The kids and I headed off to the furthest point west in San Diego and visited the Cabrillo National Monument. We had never been there and thought it would be nice. The weather is like summer so we figured it would be a nice day for the coast.

For those of you who don't know, Cabrillo was a Spanish explorer who sailed from Mexico to San Diego Bay in 1542. He was the first European in San Diego. We also visited the light house and the tide pools. Unfortunately the tide was in so we couldn't get to the tide pools, but we had a nice picnic lunch and watched the waves come in. It is gray whale migrating season so we were hoping to spot some, but all we saw were some dolphins. We also saw two submarines, some sail boats and 2 destroyers. One was docked, but the other went right past us. The kids all thought that was great. Mom was just happy with a fun filled educational activity. Next activity... Harbor Cruise.

Field Trips

I am trying to make the kids time off school more enjoyable. I would prefer to spend it on a couch reading, but they don't thing that is very fun. On Tuesday we went to Balboa Park to enjoy their free museum day. We went to the Fleet Science Center and the Model Railroad Museum. We ran into a lot of kids from school so I guess I wasn't the only one with a brilliant idea. We had lunch at the park afterwards. The weather has been great so it is fun to be outdoors.

On a much sadder note, last night while I was finishing up my Tuesday Night Biggest Loser walk, I heard a pop on my treadmill. I thought to myself, "That didn't sound very good". I looked underneath and sure enough a piece had broken. After some online research I found it is a piece that can not be replaced. I am so near tears about it. I have had the machine for 4 years and I love it. I guess a new one will be joining our family soon. So here's to you, oh fabulous treadmill, for keeping me in shape, keeping me exercising during Oregon's wet winters, or when it was to dark outside to run by myself. I shall miss you.

The New Year, & some of the old...

Updike Reunion 2008/9

We have been happily busy with life the past week. On the 29th of December my family came down to San Diego (that's a nice change) and went to the New Children's Museum. The kids loved the rock wall and the pillow fight room. We came over to our house after that and played at Jerabek park. Dinner was fun, but a little crowded. It was nice when the family festivities were done for the day that we didn't have to drive home.

During all the holiday merry making we had a baby blessing (Dec 28th) where our new nephew was blessed. It was nice to finally be all together for that special occasion. My dad was all excited to have his 4 granddaughters together. The youngest one actually looks more like my baby pictures than my own kids do. She was so cute and I loved spending some time with her. We haven't seen my brother's family since she joined it. (look pookie, your on my blog!)

Lily has been sick off and on for a month so we have been lying low. Noah was able to go to Redlands with his cousins. We drove up for New Year's Eve and stayed there until the 2nd. The kids brought in the New Year from 8-9pm with smores in the fire pit, crackers (not the food), a game of Disney Scene It, and watching the ball drop. Then they went to bed. The adult food came out with fun drinks and lots of calories. We played games all night and watched the ball drop at midnight.

My new year started with a 6.1 mile run at 7:30am. It was hard and I really thought I would die or stop or walk, but the person I ran with is kind of a zealot and kept me going. We finished it in 51.04 minutes. His goal for me was sub 50 minutes, but the last half mile or so I really slowed down. During the run he kept telling me the distance and I was all excited when he said 4.1 until later when I realized he was telling me distances in kilometers and not miles. That was a bit of a blow, but I still finished. I was dead the rest of the day. We just played at my sister's for the rest of the weekend and ate lots of food. Damon joined my sister, brother in law and the zealot on a bike ride to Huntington Beach on the 2nd. He was dead the rest of the day after they got back. Thanks to my sister and brother in law for hosting all of us at her house. We had fun.

I wish school was starting for us like the rest of you, but alas, We still have 3 weeks left of break. I am sure there will be posts about it later.

Picture of Damon's Parents and us from Christmas Eve

Here are our pictures from our ant field trip.

'Twas the Day After Christmas

"Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house tiny creatures were crawling, they're smaller than a mouse. After fighting for weeks to evict them from here we threw up our hands and said, "the end is near." The professionals came and took care of the ants and to our relief there were no more in our pants. (figuratively speaking).

With all the rain we have had ant problems and I finally got tired of dealing with the problem myself. So yesterday we signed up to have the ant guys come over every other month to take care of the problem. I am totally OK with that. The only downside was that we had to be out of our house for two hours. So we piled up the kids and took them out to lunch, to run errands and then to get a treat. Everyone enjoyed our family time together. (Pictures to follow. I can't find the cord to hook up my new camera to the computer.)

We had a great Christmas day. It was kind of an adventure. We opened presents, had breakfast and left for Damon's aunt's house. We have spent every Christmas there except the 2 we stayed in Oregon. It was nice to see all the family. We had to battle the weather the whole drive to Riverside as well as Noah getting car sick. After Aunt Sue's we went to Redlands to spend Christmas evening with my family. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins. We ended the evening with some very loud rounds of PIT. It was fun to see my mom participate. She usually doesn't like to play games with her over competitive, cut throat family.

The nice thing about the ant man coming was it forced us to clean up all of our Christmas stuff. Our house looks like it did before the addition of 20 million new things. (again figuratively speaking)

We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas too. Now, bring on that New Year!

'Twas the Night Before

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature under 10 was stirring in the house. All the adults were stirring. Some in the kitchen, some under the tree and another were still driving down to our house.

It was a fun and busy Christmas Eve. It started with a trip to the auto body shop because our car was having issues. Water is leaking into the back lift gate. This was caused by the accident. Hopefully everything is functioning properly now.

Damon's mom and I were in the kitchen baking for our family Christmas party tomorrow. She is a trooper. She worked all day in the kitchen. I hope we didn't wear her out. We had yummy clam chowder for dinner. Damon and I ran over to one of my piano student's houses so I could play a Christmas duet with her during her family's Christmas program.

After we came home we had our Christmas program. It was fun to do now that the kids are old enough. We sang songs, played the piano, did some readings, Nana and Papa shared stories from their Christmas's on the islands. It was really nice.

When it was bedtime, Lily, who was so exhausted by the end of the day, got a second wind and was so excited that Santa was coming. She was running around telling everyone to be good and quiet. She got the cookie plate out with the cookies on it. She set them by the fireplace and got into bed. She wouldn't settle down though so I had to stay with her until she fell asleep. It was funny to see her like that. The boys went to sleep right away. Damon and I were able to sneak a way for a nice long walk. Damon's sister, Dara, finally arrived from Salt Lake after 10pm.

Now everything is ready for a perfect Christmas morning. Hopefully Adam's cough won't be anything serious. He is sitting outside right now with Damon breathing in some cold night air. That usually calms down his inflamed throat.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!