Monterey Bay Aquarium

Yesterday we went to Monterey in order to escape the heat. It was so refreshing to be out of this hot weather and gross air. Towards the end of the day we actually had to buy sweatshirts! I felt like such a tourist. We started out at the aquarium, which the kids l-o-v-e-d. We did the older part first, and the newly remodeled Splash Zone. We discovered that European tourists are extremely rude, and that it was pointless to bring the strollers in because Ruth and Alden preferred to sprint between exhibits. Ruthie's favorite animal is the "habapuss" aka octopus, Alden seems to prefer the starfish and kelp. We took a break around lunch time and had some pizza on Cannery Row.

After pizza we went to Trader Joe's and bought some flowers, then we went to the cemetary and put them at my grandfather's grave. To escape the somberness, we then took the kids to Dennis the Menace Park. Unfortunately our battery died at the aquarium earlier in the day, so no pictures of the twins having fun. While I was waiting for Ruthie at the bottom of the slide, I had a nice chat with a woman who just moved to the area a year ago. I commented that the park had changed a lot since I played there as a kid and she said "oh the park has been here that long?" I'm not sure what her interpretation of "that long" was, and I started to wonder if I'm really old, then I realized that I played there TWENTY YEARS AGO. Crap I'm old.

After we left the park, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf and chowed down on some free chowder samples, and we had a caricature drawn of the kids. We also went to the candy store and Ruthie picked out "candy balls" and Alden chose gold coins. That boy, he's all about the money! He loves carrying coins and paper dollars.

After the Wharf we went back to the aquarium and went through the Outer Bay area. The aquarium is open until 8PM on weekends in the summer, but it was mostly deserted. It was so neat to have room to let the kids run and shout without worrying about losing them or getting the evil eye from the previously mentioned rude European tourists. Seriously though, at the Splash Zone, Alden splashed some water. Approximately three drops landed in the vicinity of this little girl's sleeve. The five adults with her all shouted "hey hey hey" and shot Alden dirty looks and clucked their tongues and shook their heads. WHAT THE HELL?! I looked at them and said "he's 2 and you don't all need to yell at him". Ugh. Asses. It's not like he dragged her into the bathroom and gave her a swirlie.

Anyway, here are some pictures!

Big news from Ruth!

About three weeks ago Ruthie woke up and decided she wasn't going to wear a diaper anymore. Yes, she is AMAZING. She peepees on the potty like a pro, and poops too. In fact, she makes family poops. After she dropped a dooce last week she proudly pointed to the different...um...elements and pointed out "there's a mommy poopoo, a daddy poopoo, and a Woofie (Ruthie) poopoo!"! She also does two different types of poop, pieces or a choo-choo. Pieces are little nuggets, a poo-poo choo-choo is a log. Fascinating, isn't it? We talk about poop all the time here. Finding tiny panties has been a little hard, she can wear size 12-18 in the waist and panties come in 2T-3T as the smallest size. Gymboree fits her pretty well, and Hanes from Target. The funny thing is that quite a few of her shorts and capris are way too big now that she isn't wearing a diaper! The good news is that I got out her last year's fall/winter wardrobe and discovered that since she isn't wearing a bulky diaper, she can wear most of her bottoms again this year.

Alden isn't as taken by the potty, he has peed in it on occasion, but I don't anticipate him being ready to potty train any time soon. He wears little underpants but tends to pee in them or take them off and streak through the house. We do a lot of streaking here. Well, the kids do.

As a reward for being a big girl and saying bye bye to diapers, Ruthie got a new kitty. She's a little Siamese named Violet.

San Diego

After our Disneyland sojourn we packed up the car and ventured down to San Diego! We have lots of family and friends in San Diego, and it was nice to spend quality time with all of them. Our hotel was definitely a huge step up from our Disneyland Dive, my brother in law scored us a room at the La Jolla Marriot for a super cheap rate. There was an indoor AND outdoor pool AND Bath and Body Works toiletries in the bathroom. The parking lot was the worst in the world, just ask my sister's brand new minivan. People have no conscience. The highlights of the trip included visiting with college friends, checking out the beautiful grounds of the Mormon temple, and walking around La Jolla.

Disneyland

Disneyland was awesome. I totally misunderestimated (thanks GW for that gem) the twins. I thought they'd be overwhelmed and not have fun, or they'd be bored. HA! In hindsight we should have planned on going to the park for two days rather than just one. Our hotel was a dive but the location was awesome, right across the street from the Happiest Place on Earth. We checked in on Wednesday, hit the park on Thursday, then drove down to San Diego for more family fun on Friday! Ruthie loved the princesses, specifically Tinkerbell. Well, I guess she isn't a princess.....whatever. She loves her! I had to stalk some new pajamas on Ebay so now she has two pair of Tink jammies. We didn't take our camera in so I only have a few pics that my sister took. Enjoy. The first one is Ruthie with her cousins and uncle Tyler, and Cinderella.

My baby sister and my nieces, and Ariel.

Pollock Pines

We had a super fun visit with Grandpa and Nana and my sisters and brother in law and sweet nieces. I loved holding my newest niece Madeline Kate, she is so sweet and cuddly! Makes me want another baby. Shhhhh don't tell the hubster, he'll have me send up the river. Our visit marked the first time I went to the lake part of Lake Tahoe. I've been skiing up there several times but never actually ventured into the lake. It is very nice, lovely sandy beach, decent parking, not too crowded....we brought plenty of drinks and snacks and had a ball playing in the sand, splashing in the freezing water, and spending time with family we don't get to see often enough.

Travel plans

We are gearing up for a fun week+ of traveling throughout the state. On Friday we head up to my dad's house for Father's Day festivities, and Nana's birthday. Nick has to come back for work on Monday/Tuesday, but the kids and I are staying up there until we all leave for Disneyland on Wednesday. We'll drive through Merced for a potty break and to pick up Nick. We head down to LA and go to the park on Thursday, then Friday we drive down to San Diego to visit some dear friends. I'm looking forward to it! I want to go to Mexico too, we'll see what we have time for. Nick says we can't b/c someone will steal the kids. Whatevs, I'm sure I can translate "terrible twos" into spanish and that will scare everyone off.

Two year pictures!

We finally took the twins in for some pro pictures! It was a rough trip, they weren't really in the mood for photos, Alden is getting molars so his fist was in his mouth constantly. When I was changing Roo's outfit I accidentally pinched her leg when I snapped her onesie. Oops. Poor chicken little, her face is all blotchy in the pettiskirt pics, but she's still hecka cute. See for yourself!

Nana made the sock monkeys in the photo, she is amazingly talented! Their matching library bags are hanging on the bench. The twins have been getting a little rowdy at the library, so we bring their sock monkeys and they hold them while Ms. Carr reads books. It is so cute to see them sitting with their monkeys on their laps. Ruthie's favorite book is Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?, she has it memorized! Alden likes any Sandra Boynton book, but especially Hippos Go Berserk.

Alden wasn't happy about posing, I call these his calendar pics. I see a modeling career in his future, what do you think?