Surprise Vacation

Because we remembered how much of a chore it is to travel with a baby, we decided to surprise the kids with a last minute trip to California before little brother is born. We secretly packed the car Thursday morning and told the kids to get ready for school. After driving past the school and faking a call from Legoland demanding that we come visit, we were headed to Carlsbad with two very excited and surprised kids.
It was our first trip to Legoland and Alan and Ellie loved it. We spent a day and a half at Legoland and the Sea Life Aquarium and an evening at Oceanside beach. On our last day we took the Balboa Park Trolley tour in San Diego and visited the Museum of Natural History.
We came home exhausted, but with lots of fun memories and WAAAY too many pictures. (=

Sea Life Aquarium

Balboa Park Trolley in San Diego

Museum of Natural History

Oceanside Beach

Mummy Ellie

Video of Ellie on stage walking like an Egyptian!

The Window Show

Drawing on the beloved magnadoodle

Showing off freshly decorated Halloween cookies

Smiling before school

Wearing three ponytails for Crazy Hair Day at school

(she wasn't very disappointed that the silver glittery hairspray wouldn't come out of the can)

Today I heard yelling upstairs. I went up to see what was going on and saw Ellie standing by the window shouting an entire conversation to the little girls in the yard next to ours. The best part was that she was surrounded by a variety of masks, hats, and puppets from the costume closet. She was wearing a skeleton mask and fireman's hat. The girls were staring up at Ellie in the window, obviously being entertained by her assortment of looks. She was also holding a toy electric guitar with one hand and wearing a Wizard of Oz puppet on the other. I'm sure it was quite the show.

Wow, only a month and a couple of days until my due date! I can hardly believe the baby wil be here so soon. I already have a hospital bag packed and a special present bag full of snacks and surprises for Alan and Ellie (from the dollar section at Target.) Hopefully this will give them something fun to do while Ken and I are at the hospital and remind them that they are important too. Alan is extra excited to meet his baby brother and Ellie is warming up to the idea daily.

Today I've felt a particularly strong sense of gratitide for everything I've been blessed with. I'm so thankful for the gospel, which constantly provides perspective and peace of mind. I'm also especially grateful for sweet family and friends.

As usual, I jump too quickly from one topic to the next, and here I go again... I've discovered a folk singer that I really love to listen to. Her name is Eva Cassidy. For those of you who may not have heard her, she sounds a little bit like Etta James and Roberta Flack (two of my favorite artists.) Her album "Songbird" is nothing fancy and exciting, but is sooo relaxing and beautiful. I looked at her bio. and was saddened to read that she died of cancer at 33. You can check out samples of "Songbird" on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000006AKD/ref=pd_krex_listen_dp_img?ie=UTF8&refTagSuffix=dp_img