San Diego

We took our first major family vacation to San Diego, California. There was a life insurance convention going on that my work paid for me to attend, so I brought the whole fam (Ted, Blake, along with Gma and Gpa. Grandma spoiled Blake from the very beginning making sure he had his very own Diego suitcase on wheels for the airport - which he had to wheel 'by himself'. We had the longest walk from the gates at the Minneapolis airport.


The first day I woke up with a cold :-(, but due to the time change, Blake woke up at 3:30 a.m, which would be 5:30 a.m. Illinois time and Grandpa actually stayed up with him! The first day there we went to the zoo, then Blake and Heather took naps while the rest of the clan hung at the pool. That night me and Ted went to the Hard Rock, as we do on every vacation.




The next day Gma wanted to eat at Richard Walkers pancake house, so after that we swung by the USS Midway, which Ted wanted to see. But me and Blake weren't feeling that great so we went back to nap again while my parents and Ted toured the USS Midway.



That afternoon we took a tour on a seal, it starts out as a car and then goes into the water as a boat! That was cool cause we saw sea lions just hanging out on rafts and learned a little about the ciy, for example they only have 1 runway at SD airport and they have planes take off over 90 seconds but only between the hours of 6:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. (I think those are the right hours)




That night we did dinner with Charlotte and Miranda, from the moms group in Peoria - her husband was also in town for the convention.


the next day we went to Cornado Island; this ended up being quite an ordeal. We began by taking the ferry from seaport village to cornado island, which we thought came over every 10 minutes, it was every hour and we go there after it just left !@#@! so we got on and expected to just be at the beach, no - there were little shops and restaurants and a bus stop that was supposed to take us to Hoetl Del Cornado, so we waited there forever while blake had a meltdown cause we didn't have milk, he was tired, etc . . . Grandpa got him some juice, we were all good, no bus so we ended up calling a taxi, so it took some time, but it was worth it. Cornado was beatiful. It was a huge beach, white sand and it there was almost no one there so it was awesome. We thought Blake would end up falling asleep but he had SO much fun at the beach. He loved it when the waves would splash on him and he also had a great time getting messy in the sand and then on the ferry ride back - he crashed!



The next day we all left the Hyatt, Ted went back to Illinois and me and Blake hung with gma and gpa. They got a condo at Mission Beach and Blake's favorite thing there was running up and down the outside hall - I'm sure all the neighbors loved us! He also enjoyed hanging outside with Gpa and watched the boats go by on the bay. We just chilled around that night.


Our last day there we visted Sea World. This was one of my favorite things. I just love seeing all of the water animals. Unfortunately Blake woke up super early and used most of his energy in the morning and fell asleep pretty early here, but we were still able to see and pet the stingrays, along with the aquarim fish including the star fish and watch the sea lion/otter show and the shamu show.


I had such a great time spending the whole week with Blake and thought it was going to be so hard to leave him on Monday when I went back to work. But as soon as we pulled into Little Lambs parking lot he said, 'yeah school' then when I opened his door he said' I'm done in your car mommy I'm going to school' and never ran so fast to see his friends. so I guess it wasn't as hard for him as it was for me!

I set up a playdate for Blake at bicycle safety town. I remember going there as a kid and thought it was the coolest place and 20 some years later - it's just as cool. Like a little city for kids to ride their bikes on. Blake LOVES riding bikes so he had a blast. I brought his diego bike instead of the tricycle, but then he wasn't that interested in the diego bike and instead rode Nathans tricycle most of the time, which Nathan had more fun 'running really fast'. The photo is with Blake riding the bike while Nathan walking with him.

The littlest things are the funniest to Blake. I had this suitcase in our room to get ready for vacation. Blake would run in the suitcase and call 'Mom come find me'. then when I would go in the room he would close the lid but you could hear him giggling from miles away. so I would ask, 'Where did Blake go' and he would open it and yell 'HERE I AM' he would do this over and over and it was just as funny every time. I told Ted that we don't need to bring any toys to California, this suitcase will do!

Umbrella

This is Blake's new favorite thing . . . his umbrella. No wonder he became obsessed with them seeing it has rained for so long I forget what a day without rain is like! when we were in the car he just kept saying, I need an umbrella, as we would watch it rain - so he told his grandma and she took him shopping.

This day, it was raining - of course - so he took his umbrella to school and he wanted to show his teachers and friends. so we went in his room and he opened it for everyone and all the little kids came running under it, then they had to take turns holding it - I had no idea an umbrella could be so exciting. But we have got a lot of use out of the last few days!

Nootril Drop

On Saturday Nootril Drop - Ted's band - played at the Jammin for Josh Benefit. Blake was so excited to go see them. In the morning Ted asked him if he wanted to go watch his band play and as soon as Blake woke up from nap he said, 'I want to go watch Daddy's band'. At first he wouldn't leave the stage area. He just stood there and watched his daddy - it was so cute, but we lured him back to our blanket with popcorn! Julie brought Alexa and Jenny brought Kylie and the kids also had fun running around and playing on the playground. Also Randy's daughter Samantha was there, but I don't think she liked Blake too much, cause he kept trying to play with her polly pocket toys.

Blake finding just the perfect popcorn kernal in the bag of kettle corn.

Labor Day Parade

Blake with Paige and Taytem That whole bag is full of candy!!!

For the first time ever I went to the Labor Day parade! It was probably the hottest day of the year, but we got a good shaded spot. It was over an hour long and Blake loved it since he loves trucks and tractors and all that boy stuff, so he would get excited when the trucks came thru - I got excited about all the candy we got!

Visiting Blake's cousins

Over Labor Day Weekend we went to Geneva to spend the day with Ted's sisters and Blake's only cousins - Jamie & Brandon. Blake doesn't see them very often since they live so far away, but he was so excited to see them. They are quite a bit older than he is (they are both 10) but they had so much fun playing with cars, running around outside, and they even had bowling on wii!. These pics are at the restaurant that night.