Staycation week + more

We traveled for a week and then we had a week of vacation at home.  Ben took each of the kids on a date and I capitalized on him being home to get things done.  I realized at the end of the week how un-vacation-y it was to go to the eye doctor and dentist and spend a day catching up on school stuff, but it needed to be done and I'm so glad I didn't have to do it alone.

So, it's kind of funny.  I really had no reason to take Alison to the eye doctor; she has never complained of anything.  I hadn't been since high school and I realized that the pediatrician barely speaks English and wasn't sure if she passed the eye examination or not (not joking), so I made us appointments just to keep on top of our health.  We saw a great optometrist who told us that Alison is near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other eye and therefore her depth perception struggles.  She said if she didn't get help, the development of her depth perception would be altered.  Alison was thrilled that she had to get glasses.  I very quickly had flashbacks to basketball...it all makes sense now...no wonder she was always flinching when the ball was coming toward her...and now we feel really bad for yelling at her to "Get in the game!!!".  The optometrist was so nice that she let Alison look in my eye and gave us some good tips on how we could dissect an eye for school.  I made Ben take Alison to pick out the frames and apparently this is the style now.

We also toured the Quartermaster Depot:

And we had to say good-bye to FOUR families.  PCS season is not fun.   Liza lived just a few doors down and her friendship with Alison throughout this year had it's up and downs, but something really clicked while Ben was deployed.  I think she just become more comfortable in our home and would come over often after school.  I actually became excited for the days that Liza came to play because it was so good for Alison.  The last few weeks they have been working on making a video.  They wrote a script and had their Barbies act it out and then edited it together.  It was pretty cool.

Liza pretending to hold cheese because I said "Say cheese!"

We set up our own "Book It" system for the kids.  It really was intended for Eli, but the other two couldn't be left out of a reward.  Eli is a great reader, he just doesn't like to read.  So for every 10 books Eli reads, he gets to go get a treat with Daddy.  For Colin, it's 10 reading lessons and Alison it's 5 big books (we want her to take on more challenging reading.  That may sound like a lot but she can fly through books).  I'm thankful to say that it worked and really inspired Eli to read.  He asked to go to the library and checkout 30 books!  So we did.  Sunday afternoon, he brought a stack into my room (I may have been trying to take a nap...hello, mother's day) and we read all afternoon.  It was the best present ever to hear him excited to read.

We checked out a new-to-us park and I was really sorry we haven't been there before.  It has a track running around it and would have been perfect for a deployment workout.

Life is back to "normal" this week and it's actually really exciting.  Ben's at work and we're doing school and it feels so nice.  Vacation was good for us, but when life has been out of sorts for 8 months, normal almost feels more refreshing.

The fort

I almost forgot the most favorite part of the trip! We may have to go back to the house in the mountains because I'm pretty sure the kids loved it more than Legoland. Ben built the boys a fort up in the woods behind the house. It was a big deal to them! Eli kept telling Colin that this was real and they weren't just pretending.

There was an abandoned lot next door and Alison found some old broken plates.  She had so much fun collecting "artifacts" and brought them up to the fort.

Eli wore this outfit every day because he called it his pirate costume...and kept flipping the collar under, because that made it more pirate-y I guess.  I LOVE this picture of him.

Protecting the fort.

The kids also decided that this trip would be a great time to do lots of growing.  Usually, they don't eat much when we travel, but this time they were a bottomless pit!  Every single trip, I look down and see their pants are too short!  I swear they fit when I packed them.

Vacation, Day 5

This is how the kids felt about the Legoland hotel:

This is perhaps my most favorite movie of Colin.  I've watched it 1,000 because it makes me laugh, but I also want to put a shirt on him that says "I promise my momma feeds me"...he seriously eats more than the other two most of the time, but we are still rolling up 3T swimsuits to stay on his tiny tush.  The elevator would play music and turn on a disco ball each time you got in it, so we had lots of little dance parties.

The Legoland hotel is the most kid friendly place I've ever been too.  Ben and I would have appreciated a full size toilet, but they had scavenger hunts for the kids to find a lego prize and had building stations in the lobby, a dance party room, juice boxes in the rooms and even a kids food station in the restaurant.  Perk of military service is we got amazing deals on the hotel and Legoland tickets...I felt bad knowing how much everyone else paid to be there.

We also scored on the prefect day to go.  The weather was perfect and there were no crowds!  I LOVE this about homeschooling; going to busy places on their off days.  We didn't wait in a single line and even got to drive the cars for 2 cycles because there wasn't anyone waiting to get on.

Walking into Legoland with Eli holding my hand is my favorite memory of the trip.  The moral of this trip was "just can't capture it in a picture".  The excitement and joy coming from the kids was definitely something to cherish.

I think the Star Wars section might have been their favorite, although Ninjago was a close second.

For non-ride people, we were able to ride pretty much every ride.  I think it really means that the park is geared toward a younger crowd and I'm glad we went when we did.  There were two small roller coasters that the kids passed on, but everything else, we all enjoyed. 

Driving a boat:

And driving cars:

And driving airplanes...I guess we did a lot of driving!

We went through the park twice, stopped for apple fries (I read they were a must, but found they weren't really a must for our family) and spoiled the boys a little at the gift shop.  Then we let the kids swim for a little bit. 

We planned on going to the Sea life aquarium on Friday, but decided to go back another day when we saw the crowds and the rain and we were all ready to get back home to our puppy.  The hotel was great, but by the second day, the constant crowds and commotion was starting to get to me.  Instead, we found a fantastic burger place (The Burger Lounge...go there!) and hit the road home.  I feel like we always add to our trip list while on trips.  Not sure if that's normal, but I don't mind having to go back to cool off when Yuma turns into the surface of the sun.

Vacation, Day 4

We left our little house in the mountains and drove down to Legoland.  We had to go through LA, so we decided to make a "quick" stop by the Hollywood sign.

 We had a hard time getting a camera to focus on the "Hollywood" and not the person.  Alison has been wanting to go to Hollywood for well over a year.  This was our attempt to check that box for her, but I don't think it worked.  She kept asking where the stars were and where were the shows being filmed and wasn't thrilled when we told her this was as close as she was going to get.  

We parked right by the Griffith Observatory to get pictures, so we decided to seize the day and go inside.

I'm glad we did, but the Lowell Observatory is way better.

I was about to type, "Saying goodbye to LA", but we sat in LA traffic for about 2 hours that day and pretty much talked the whole time about how we never want to live in California.  I was so stressed and I wasn't even driving!

We stopped in Carlsbad for pizza and got to the Legoland Hotel by bedtime.

Vacation, Day 3

Colin got up the next morning and said, "Well, you guys have fun!  I'll see you when you get back, but I'm not leaving this house."  My tummy was also feeling all those mountain roads, so we decided that I would stay at the house with the boys while Ben continued on with our plans with Alison.  We didn't want to do separate things, but I really do think it will be a day the kids will not forget.

At the house, we did a lot of rock hunting.

Colin stuffing his pockets with rocks

Classic brothers pose...Colin, "I love you!"; Eli, "Don't touch me."

They lined up all their rocks and talked about which ones were their favorites.

 We had a picnic lunch on the porch:

We played dominoes and while the boys watched a movie, I sat on the porch and read a book.  I actually read a whole book that day...which is sadly worth documenting.

It was actually a day I really needed; a day to do nothing but be in nature and play with my kids and read a book.

Ben and Alison went exploring in Kings Canyon.

Vacation, Day 2

 This was our most full day of the trip so hang on for a ton of pictures.

We started the day off right with some bacon and coffee.  The house was well stocked and they had waffle mix, coffee and hot chocolate waiting for us.

Then we set off to see the Sequoia trees.  I was already nervous about the drive because for some reason I always forget how carsick I get in the mountains.  I drove and did everything I could to help Colin, who also gets car sick.  You can all take a moment to feel sorry for my family because I crawled through the mountains.  Ben took pictures for me...I love seeing waterfalls!

I had a lot of laughs at myself this day.  I forgot about carsickness and I completely underestimated the snow in the mountains.  Sure, I knew we would see some, but I never thought we would be hiking through it...hello, desert brain.  We had to make a special stop along the way to see the snow.

See the book on the ground?  Eli carried that book with him for days.  It was a book about rocks from the library.  The kids were all about rocks on this trip.

That special stop wasn't necessary because a few minutes afterwards, Colin got sick.  We pulled over again to clean him up and let him walk around a little.  The sign said "Picnic area", but most of the tables were under snow!  I needed to use the restroom (that small building buried in snow) and had to slide down several feet of snow to get to it.  It was a pit stop I will never forget.

Fresh air is the best cure for car sickness.

We found a lodge nearby and bought some dramamine from the gift shop.  It certainly saved the rest of the day.  We ate lunch in the car before hiking up to see General Sherman.

An explorer with his book and magnify glass

 
It was a short hike to the General Sherman tree; the largest known tree on earth.  A picture is just not adequate.

Eli asked if he could be the photographer for awhile and was pretty cute taking his job very seriously.

Colin starting to feel the affects of dramamine

picture by Eli

Then we hiked the congress loop through the sequoias.

Colin and Daddy

Eli and Daddy

The snow was melting and created lots of little waterfalls and rivers along the path.  It made for some fun little obstacle courses.  We all thought it this one was the best part of the hike; we had to squeeze under this giant tree, right next to the rushing water.

Just crawling through the trunk of a tree.

We oscillated between warm and cold, so I became the jacket sherpa...and somehow Alison's backpack carrier.  BUT even with Colin feeling "droopy" (as he said), I didn't carry any children on this trip :)

Climbing on the roots of a fallen sequoia.

more climbing on the fallen tree

Another favorite was the Senate cluster.  Again, a picture just doesn't do it any justice.  We felt like we were walking through a scene of Jurassic park and a dinosaur should just appear at any minute.  It may sound weird, but I loved how small it made me feel...I don't know if it's just human nature to think that you are big in the world, but I love the reminder that we are just a speck.

Then we drove up to Moro Rock.  It was a paved hike up with railings most of the way, but this one definitely made me nervous.  

The kids did great!

Colin kept asking me why I wouldn't let go of him.  Ha!  If I could have put a harness and leash on him, I would have.

This is how we felt when we got to the top (Eli got a mosquito bite on his stomach while hiking):

Altitude has a way of humbling me.

Spectacular view, awesome experience and perhaps the craziest thing I've done.

We made it back to the house in one piece and Colin proclaimed upon arrival, "I didn't throw up!!!"  The house was also well stocked with kid movies, so we had a relaxing evening to regroup from all our adventures.