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.

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.

Done? Done?

Last Sunday the kids and I went to church with Grandma and Grandpa Obert (Ben had a work emergency). Grandma and Grandpa read the scriptures for the Advent wreath. Because of that we were sitting near the front. The kids were doing great with the singing and everything. Then came the sermon. I ended up taking Odin out and Adelyn wanted to come with. So the three of us went to check out the Sunday School Class.

After the service was over, the Pastor chatted with us. He said that my kids had been so well behaved and there wasn't a reason for me to rush them out. It's then that I told him that Odin kept pointing to him and saying (loudly), "Done? Done?" That is when I thought we should leave. We all had a great laugh. 

No Problems, Only Adventures

Shortly after arriving in Jamaica, we were told, "There are no problems in Jamaica - only adventures. That is why we say 'No problem' here." We were told this by the Delta employee that was helping us find our missing bags. Turns out, they never left Minnesota. The soonest our bags would arrive was the next day in the afternoon.

After our arrival to the Half Moon Resort, we drove a golf cart over to the "shopping" area. We found the gift shop and bought the things we needed: swimsuits, flip flops, t-shirt for Ben, dress for me. $200 later, we had what we needed for the next 24 hours. Ben was decked out in Jamaica gear... his shirt was the right colors and said "Jamaica", his swim trunks were the right colors and said "Jamaica", his flip flops had the Jamaican flag on them. He so looked like a tourist!

So those were our "uniforms" for the beach party the first night, the business session for the first day, the trip to Chris Blackwell's farm, the pool party with Pato Banton... needless to say, we were happy when we returned to our villa to find our luggage.

Bathroom Humor

Odin is definitely showing interest in using the bathroom. Several times he has grabbed my hand, said, "Poo!" and has gone potty in the toilet! My little man is growing up too fast!

A week or so before we left for Asia, the kids and I were in the bathroom. We had just gotten up, so I was changing Odin's diaper. Adelyn was going to the bathroom too. Or at least, that is what was supposed to be happening. I'm not sure exactly what happened since my attention was on Odin. All of a sudden there was a splash and a scream! Poor Adelyn somehow fell into the toilet! She was so upset. I was trying hard not to laugh out loud. I got her calmed down, dried off and we went on with our day.

Sing a Song of Singapore

On Monday (a week ago) the four of us headed over to Singapore for a few days.

We flew JetStar. I really don't like them. I tried to book our flights online. Well, my credit card was declined. I called the CC company and they said a request never came through, so it wasn't them that declined. I tried another card. And another. Same thing. So I got on live chat. They suggested I try again. I ended up having to call. But since I was calling, I was charged a convenience fee. When we got to the airport we were over our 15 kg limit. We were charged $15 per kg. I was shocked at how much they charged! For our flight home I tried to add more weight to our reservation. But of course, their website wouldn't take my cards. Their phone number didn't work. But the helpful live chat person said they could add it to our reservation. At the end, they said their systems were down but when they came back up in an hour, I would get an email conformation. Yep. That didn't happen. But thankfully, the guy at the counter didn't charge us.

Anyway.

We had a great time in Singapore. We were still dealing with jet lag, so we had to be a little flexible with our plans. We started off staying on the island of Sentosa. We went to the butterfly garden and rode on the cable car. At night we went to the Henderson Waves. It was a nice and relaxing time. At the butterfly garden, Odin got to hold a butterfly. It was so cute!

On Wednesday we moved to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It was spectacular! The views were amazing. The first afternoon we had tea on the top floor. Adelyn thought it was pretty cool to have a tea party. Then we hit up the pool. That evening we walked over to the Garden by the Bay for their nightly show. The show wasn't too amazing, but it was neat.

Thursday we were back to Manila to continue with spending time with family. I will admit that we had the sterile version of Singapore. But I would gladly go back! It was clean, friendly and fun. I was so happy that we went.

Cleared for Take Off

On Wednesday we "left" for Asia. I put that in quotes because instead of being in Asia at the end of the day, we only made it as far as Detroit. Michigan.

We flew from Vegas to Detroit. When trying to board the next plane, we found out that they really were serious that we needed the paper tickets for Odin since he was an infant in arms and we needed to pay taxes since we were leaving the country. We explained that we had just moved so we missed the tickets somehow. No problem. You just have to buy them again. But don't worry - when we find the original ones, we can just call and get a refund. Ben sent Adelyn and I onto the plane so we could try and get some overhead bin space. Odin and Ben got the ticket thing figured out. They got on the plane. We left the gate. Sat around for a while. Then we got an announcement that during their final check something came up. We had to go back to the gate for maintenance to get on and fix whatever. After a while, they announced that they hoped to have it fixed in an hour. So we sat some more. The children were great! They were busy entertaining themselves. They didn't seem to notice we hadn't moved at all. An hour passed. "It shouldn't be too much longer," we were told. After some more time, we were told that we needed to switch planes. As we left the aircraft we scanned our boarding passes to get vouchers. Odin and Ben got off before Adelyn and I did. When I got to the boys, Ben asked where the boarding passes were. I said that I had mine and Adelyn's. Did he remember to get his and Odin's passes and passports from his seat back? ... No... So, I went to the ticket agent and told them what we forgot. We had to wait for the entire plane to deplane before someone would go look for them. Finally, we got tickets and passports in hand. Then was the tricky part to figure out how to spend the vouchers. The lines were long and we didn't have a whole lot of time. And our stroller wasn't given back to us so we were carrying everything, including an occasional kid. We ended up with McFlurry's and a new travel pillow.

We got to our new gate and new plane right before boarding started. We got back on the plane. Got settled again. It was a bit chilly because they were loading up the plane with food, etc. right near us. We were snuggling with Mr. O and his blanket and the Delta blankets as the 30 degree air kept blowing around us. Well, they had loaded everything up, but there was still cold air blowing. And we were past our new departure time. Hmmm.... Yep. Sure enough, a little while later another announcement: they couldn't get one of the doors closed. Maintenance was coming. Great. So, we continued to huddle against the cold as we waited. And waited. A few more announcements and apologies later, we were getting off the plane. This time for the night. They were handing out hotel vouchers with your boarding pass. Ben grabbed as much as he could and got off as quickly as he could since we had heard that sometimes the first few off get a better hotel. I was left with the children. When we finally reunited (no cool hotel for anyone) I realized we didn't have my backpack. Back to the gate agent. By now we were on a first name basis. They were able to get my backpack for me. Then we got to wait outside for the hotel shuttle. After a few minutes, we decided to just take a taxi. There were so many people waiting that we were at least waiting for two more shuttle runs before we would get on one. And it was late. Almost 11. So we took a taxi so we could get settled in and try and get more sleep. Before we went to bed, we found out our new flight was at noon.

The next morning, we put our clothes back on and went back to the airport. Got on the airplane. And waited. But this time, the plane actually took off! The kids did great on the long flight. We decided to just let them do whatever as far as sleeping goes. Those with kids know that to keep them awake or get them to sleep is sometimes just not worth it. We got off the plane in Japan and got right back on. But for our last leg they upgraded us to business class! Adelyn was in her own little pod and she did great. She thought it was pretty cool that her seat turned into a bed. Odin slept most of that flight.

And finally, we were in the Philippines. Hooray!