You have to leave room in life to Dream.
~Buffy Sainte-Marie

Friday, January 24, 2014

Balboa Park

We are in sunny San Diego! Ben is here for Traffic and Conversion conference. It's HUGE! It's about 2000 people. He said he knows more people at this event than were at our wedding. And I believe it. He has been very busy juggling the conference, additional sessions, meeting with people he hasn't seen and spending time with us. Needless to say, we have had a lot of time on our hands while he has been out.

Yesterday the kids and I went to Balboa Park. We started off at the playground. Adelyn went right to playing. Odin... well, for some reason he wanted to observe for a long time before playing. I have no clue why. When we got there, there were only a few people there. But anyway, he soon discovered the joys of throwing wood chips in his hair. Then both kids went to work on making "snow" angels in the wood chips. I do have a picture. I need to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto here.

After the playground we headed to another portion of the park. We got to the old church tower just as they were starting the noon bell performance. It was prerecorded, but it was still very cool. It would be very neat to watch them do the recordings.

At that point we decided we were hungry. We made our way to the hot dog stand (the only food we had seen up to that point). Adelyn had money in her pocket and she insisted that she pay. So she proudly handed the guy a coin. From Singapore. He was amused and she was happy. The kids love to throw things away. In fact, some times there are fights as to who gets to throw things away. After we were done eating, I divided our garbage so they would each have a few items to throw. There was a foreign couple sitting next to us. Every time Odin or Adelyn threw something away, they cheered. This made the kids even more excited to throw things away!

After lunch we wandered to the fountains and flower gardens. As we were walking back, I told Adelyn it was time to go back to the hotel for Odin's nap. Her response? "But mom! We haven't been to the museum yet!" How could I resist? So we walked through a portion of the free art museum before heading home.

On our way out, we passed the hot dog guy again. Adelyn asked to get some popcorn. I would have said no, but figured it was a good way to keep Odin awake in the car. So I gave Adelyn the money and she went up and bought the popcorn all by herself! Such a big girl.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Twelve Days of Christmas

We had a very long Christmas season this year. My sister and her family came to town (by town I do mean Minnesota) the 13-15. We had family Christmas and celebrated my brother's birthday. Then on the 19, we headed up to the lake to celebrate with Ben's parents. While there, Ben decided he wanted to drive his convertible to Vegas. We're going to try and sell it and figured we could do that sooner there than in MN. The weather looked clear, so we scrambled to get our affairs in order.

Ben left Sunday evening and headed to Des Moines and stayed with our friends, Chuck and Michelle. Monday was his long day. He drove about 15 hours. Tuesday was the rest of the way to Vegas. He got there mid-afternoon.

Meanwhile, I was packing the kids and myself into one suitcase. I needed to fit stuff for Vegas (50-60 degrees), Utah (10-30 degrees) and Florida and a cruise (70+ degrees, plus a dress for every night).  For the three of us. Did I mention one suitcase? Yeah... one because that's all the room we have in the car. Especially since we were adding ski gear too. I made it.

The kids and I had an easy flight to Vegas. Before takeoff the kids were singing and laughing. They were being a little loud, so I shushed them. The flight attendant looked up and said, "Don't shush them! It's Christmas Eve and that's the most beautiful sound in the world!" Let's hope the rest of the passengers agreed. :)

Ben picked us up from the airport and brought us back to the Platinum. After getting us in the room and putting the kids to work decorating a foam tree, Ben went to pick up Chinese take-out. It was pretty good, but it wasn't China Star.

After the kids went to bed, Ben brought out some presents for them that he not only bought, but also wrapped all by himself. I had no idea he was going to do that. It was so sweet! We set the presents out and I put the stockings out (yes, I sacrificed clothes for stockings). We went to sleep.

The next morning Adelyn was so excited that Santa came. We opened presents, had orange rolls and just relaxed. It was the perfect Christmas.