Breakfast at Mimi's

Mmmmm Eggs Benedict.

When we go to SD, Max loves to have breakfast at Mimi's Cafe.

Sea World

First on the list of things to do in SD: Sea World! It was quite hot today! I was a bit worried because before we even got to the ticket area, Sophia started throwing tantrums. I was almost ready to turn around and go back (and suck it up for the 10 bucks that we just payed for parking), but we had a 'little talk' she changed her attitude and we went in. Some really nice lady gave us discount coupons for the tickets too.

Shamu! Shamu! We didnt sit in the splash zone, (too bad, cuz it was crazy hot) but Sophia really enjoyed the show. I think her new favorite animal will be the orca. That's all she talks about now!

Mommy and daughter moment.

PU the penguins are cute but Stinky!
We waited in line for this jumpy thing forever and then they changed shifts and Sophia's group got about 10 seconds inside. I was pissed, but i couldnt say anything because I was so far away snapping pictures when they kicked the kids out.Sea World was lots of fun, the only complaint I have is this stupid play structure thing. I'm not sure what idiot thought it was a good idea to have 4 egresses that are far far apart, (there is not central place to stand and see all the exits at once), hundreds of blind hiding places way up high and a teeny, tiny sign thats says please set up a meeting spot since there is more than one exit. I totally freaked out because we kept losing sight of sophia, and it was hard to control where she was going and where she would pop out next. Max ended up having to go up and get her down so we could leave. All that I could think about is, that thing is a creepy pedofile's dream!

Dinner in SD

Has it already been 2 years ago?? Willie, Kasey, Patrick and Matt came out to Italy and we met up with them. The night before k & p were supposed to leave, the group misread the train sched and stayed a bit too long in Rome, ended up at the train station in Milan at like 12 am. I didnt know how to get there, but luckily they got a metro to a metro stop right near CM before the trains closed and they got booted off. Lucky for them, because i dont know how to get to the central train station, there are a billion exits there so even if i did get there, i dont know how i would have found them. (and of course there were no taxis around at either place) Max had to work at 6 am and they didnt get to the metro stop until around 3. This was back when we still had the ford fiesta, i had to take out the car seat before i left, but with them and all the backpacks, im still not sure how we all fit! it was like a clown car. Why is this all relevant? because...i kept teasing them that they owed me big for the taxi service...i would take payment as dinner when we got to CA. Well we never made it down to SD that year because of various reasons..but those guys remembered and payed up. Which they really didnt have to do, I just wanted to tease them!Patrick, kasey and willie

Uncle willie and Max

Everybody

Jules gets a knuckle sandwich from Matt.

Q'ing at Willies

Uncle Willie Fired up the q and made some crazy good ribs n corn!

Miss Tia

After breakfast we headed down to Chula Vista to go get Miss Tia and headed off for an adventure. We were supposed to go to the Discovery Museum, got all the way to Carlsbad only to find out that the Discovery Museum closed YEARS ago. Apparently i didnt read the fine print on their website. Yes i know i am lame!


But the girls had fun anyways, the DM was located near the beach and so the girls played in the waves.

Road Trip!

Headed down to SD. Had to pit stop for some lunch. We actually went to the worst tasting Taco Bell there is. I thought there was a some sort of TB standard, but apparently not. (And the bathrooms were mega nasty too!)

Sophia didn't really care, she loved the tacos just the same.She's just a chip off the ol' block, Max got down and dirty with some nachos bell grande.

County Fair with the Mattos'

Steve called with a great idea to go to the fair. It was a really nice day and so off we went.
Melissa, Sophia and Maya

The best ride at the fair.

Sophia enters the tractor pull.

The boys on some horrifically high, stomach churning ride.

High fives all around!

Max makes a Splash

and luckily there is still water left in the pool. no just kidding, really im glad he uses it, nobody else does. the pool is too friggin cold, it defies global warming, so only some unspoiled person such as he can appreciate the water when the temperature outside is not comparable to that of hell.

Hula

Bowling

Lucas asked if we could go bowling, I thought it was such a fabulous idea. I know Lucas loves to bowl and Sophia had so much fun last time at Ian's party.

Lucas is really good!

Max sends one down the lane. (he's a good bowler too)

Sophia hated the bowling, but loooooved the food.

the California park

Holly had to come out to Fremont and so she popped over for a visit (and then ended up not going to her appt and playing with us the whole time :O) Karen had invited us to meet up with them at the park and so we had a little mini reunion at Kennedy.

Holly and Tristan

It was hot so the kids got ice cream from the ice cream truck.

Sophia and Lucas enjoyed theirs on the wave bench.
Lucas had a missle pop (thats called something else now) that was my favorite when i was a kid.
Sophia had a freaky Dora head on a stick, that looked like something escaped from Coraline.
Neither of the two finished much of their ice creams and it just dribbled down their arms and all over their faces (max ended up eating sophias, he said it was kind of gross).

Happy Birthday Joyce and the Miniature Tigers

It's Joyces bday, instead of a big party, she had everyone come out to see a favorite band of hers...the Miniature Tigers at Cafe du Nord. Max was feelinging big time jet lag, but he had fun.

The Sleep Over

After McDonalds and playing in the park, the Crane's had to get back to Pleasanto. Lucky for us, Lucas decided he did not want to go, he wanted to stay...so impromptu sleep over it was! (The funny thing is that i think when Holly did sleep overs here, the bed and sheets and room were exactly the same. Our house is such a time capsule!)

Cheese! (doesnt lucas look like mike?)

Splish Splash, they were takin a bath.

Goin back to Cali, to Cali

SF int'l part is crowded and chaotic and doesnt have a whole lot of places to rest and have a good view of the exiting passengers, but...it does have these monitors that tell you at what point the passengers are (disembarking, immigration, etc) and then there are other monitors that show the passengers after they get there luggage and are about a 60 second walk from the exit (that way people can crowd around the monitors instead of the exits). sophia enjoyed looking for max on tv.

the Best Pancake Breakfast Ever!

you know my mom, she is from the school of 'we're going to have fun whether you like it or not.' this time she got it into her head that we were going to do something 'traditional and fun' for fourth of july (and to my dismay, it did not include spending hundreds of dollars on dangerous and illegal fireworks). This year, we were going to drag our butts out of bed extra early in the morning and go have a pancake breakfast and surprisingly enough we actually enjoyed ourselves.

Sophia was so excited to climb up on the firetruck. (we waited forever and then of course some kid just crawled up around the back (at the suggestion of his ever so polite parents) and he was in all the other pictures we took.) I think the breakfast cost something like 5 bucks, it was all you can eat pancakes and sausage with (starbucks) coffee and oj and it was darn good. Sophia wolfed down 3 large pancakes!

later, i passed out from exhaustion (due to what i dont know, i didnt do anything else all day) and sophia went with grandpa to isabel and miranda's house to watch them do fireworks. so this is it for the fourth of july pics. they never come out anyways.

WiiFit

Sophia is really into the wii fit, she especially loves the running one. It cracks me up how she runs.

Natalie

Natalie came over for to play today. The girls did lots of running and screaming and playing and had a great day. Sophia really looks up to Natalie, when we are at home, she talks about her all the time, so Im glad they've already had a chance to play with each other, plus I love chatting with my cousin Wendy (Natalie's mom).

safety day

swim lessons are going well. it's my chance to chat with karen and trisha, who totally crack me up! today was safety day. the kids learn about water safety and what to do in the case of an emergency, etc. sophia takes after my mom in that she does not enjoy any activity that involves the possibility of getting her face or top the head wet. The kids are supposed to jump in with lifejackets on:

Jackie had to drop Sophia in

and lucky there was the other teacher to catch her.

gymnastics

My we keep Sophia busy with lots of summer activities: we are loving west coast gymnastics!