the hotel resort

When we went down to San Diego last December, during the biggest storm in 80 years, we did not use our Legoland tickets.
It was pouring rain.
We had bought the tickets at Costco -- one of those 3 month memberships for an incredible price, like the price of one days admission, but I can't remember exactly.
I do remember it was a deal, because we like to find deals!

In the summer, we have a very small window between when the kids get out of school and when they start their summer programs. We have about a week and a half, and now we have these tickets we want to use before they expire -- so we really want to make this work.

And maybe it won't rain.

Well, we have been on the time share wait list for months and nothing has come up, so we figure that it is time to start looking on our own.
But now I can't find any deals. Even when I could find a place that would accommodate all six of us, it ended up being pretty pricey without having much to offer other than a bed. Mike and I were getting kinda bummed thinking that we'd end up having to stay in one of these places.

Then Ingrid called me.

You know when you have a friend who has a business, but it never occurs to you that they actually have a business?
(you know that you know what I mean)

Well, Ingrid and her husband Michael Pagliocca own Elite Travel Planners and we ended up calling them about our little trip. Remember, we only have this small time to plan anything and we want something near Legoland since we are not planning to hit the other San Diego parks this time.

(so glad about that decision!)

Michael told us about Grand Pacific Palisades and the best part about it (for us) is that you can WALK to Legoland from there, it's that close.
And no joke, Michael found us the best deal!
-- It was not much more to stay there than it would have cost us to stay in one of those motel places.

The rooms were spacious, full kitchen, kids pool, playground and WALKING distance to Legoland.

Mikey sure liked it!

Oh, and, we had an ocean view!

(nice surprise) 

Having never used a travel agent before, and now having had such a great experience, I would recommend at least contacting one and letting them know what type of trip you are looking for.

Of course, personally I think you should contact Elite Travel Planners because even though we weren't taking a cruise or a trip to Europe, they made us feel that our trip to Legoland was just as important.

Now, I am on a mission to convince The Dad that The Mama NEEDS to go back to Hawaii!

Wish me luck ~

walking

Paige was a little peanut and with hardly any hair, so she looked like a baby for a long time. Being my first baby, I encouraged her to do everything. She was always strong. Picked her head up and looked around when she was a day old -- I did not know babies could even do that! So when she was seven months old you found me putting her hands on one of those baby walking toys so she could "walk" back and forth between two people. She loved doing it, but it looked so funny -- she was all of maybe 12 lbs and no hair and looked way too little to be walking!
She ended up taking her first steps on a vacation to Hawaii when she was 9 months old. I was so thrilled!

DJ tripled his birth weight by 6 months old and weighed 20 lbs. He was a Big Boy! But DJ was 'floppy' (for lack of a better word) and never tried to stand or anything. In fact, he never really held on when you carried him.
* I herniated a disc in my back with this guy, but that is a story in itself --
I really believed that there was no possibility that he would walk as early as his sister did. I never coaxed him like I did with his sister. I had learned my lesson. He was already a fast crawler -- I did not want to chase him any sooner than I had to. Well, I was wrong.
DJ also walked at 9 months.

You know, Kelly was really strong too -- maybe it's a girl thing.
By the time she came along and was getting to the 'let me just pull myself up to stand' stage, I was discouraging her from doing it. Her Father and her Grandfather would ignore my warnings and clap their hands for her and try to get her to take steps to them when she was only 7 and 8 months old.
(HA! I warned them)
Even with all the confusion in her life, Miss Independent walked at 9 months too.

I am pretty convinced at this point that it has to be genetic right?
I walked at 10 months
and so did Mike.

Lately I get people either asking me if I am holding him or exclaiming over the fact that Mikey can walk.
I'm thinking:
Uh, Yeah. He has only been walking half his life.
Because with this last one I was just resigned to the fact that he would start walking when he was
9 months old

and he did

Only this one RUNS!

baby board books

Kelly is now a reader for sure!

We were just watching Shark Men (our favorite new show -- they tag and release Great Whites!) and they were showing a map of where the sharks were traveling.

Kelly yells out, "They went all the way to Hawaii!"
I'm all, "Yes, they did" -- then I realized she read that!

We have not really even worked with her on reading skills, other than giving her books and answering the never ending question of "How do you spell that?" (which goes along with the constant telling of addition facts up to 10....)
Oh, and all the kids love to read to each other, which I am sure helped her.

They were just picking a story to read to Mikey and it occurred to me that he doesn't have a
favorite yet --

Paige's favorite book as a toddler was Moo, Baa, La La La
by Sandra Boynton

She had it memorized when she was around two years old. It was the funniest thing, she'd hold it and say all the words very clearly and it looked like she was reading it. Too cute!
There is an app for the iPhone/Touch that reads it to you and you can touch it to make all the animal sounds. Mikey can't really do it all by himself, he hasn't mastered 'turning' the page, so Paige does it with him.

DJ's favorite was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
by Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle

I cannot even come close to guessing how many times Paige and I both read this to him...
He LOVED that book!
When we turned the page to the picture of the Green Frog, DJ would yell, "Watch Out!" every single time we read this story!

I don't know why, but he did it every time.

Makes me think about him back then...

DJ was such a cute little guy ~

He looked just like a little man!

Kelly has always had a strong personality.
(yes, that is what we call it)
I had all these wonderful books for her that I saved from Paige and DJ. All in pretty good condition too. They were never chewed on or colored on, and then Miss K came along and she loved destroying all the baby board books. {sigh} She'd peel the corners and rip them to shred.  Drove me nuts.

Her favorite book was Snuggle Puppy!

by Sandra Boynton

(I like Sandra Boynton)
I still sing her the song from it. I'd like to read this one and even Moo, Baa, La La La to Mikey, but
Destructo Baby got to them.

Mikey does like his Trucks book. He gets it out of the basket and sits and 'reads' it himself. Maybe it's the size or the colors, or because he can slide the tabs. It just doesn't have a story.

 I guess maybe I can count it as his favorite for now.


*all the book covers are linked to good reads