Welcom Home Clint

Life in the Army means time away from your family. Clint had to leave on Father's Day, June 20th and didn't get to come back until July 28th! Almost 6 VERY long weeks. So to celebrate Clint's return home, I booked a hotel in San Diego and made arrangements for some sight seeing and vacationing.

The fist place we went to was the San Diego Wild Animal Park. On our drive down to San Diego it dawned on me that our Kansas car insurance had canceled on the 24th and it was now the 29th! We both freaked out, pulled the car over and finally got ahold of the insurance company here that I had already spoken to. All we had to do was give her a little bit of information and pay the company and we'd be insured. One hurtle taken care of!


The Wild Animal Park was cool despite all the hills I had to push the stroller up. Some benefits were that the park wasn't very crowded, it was reasonably priced and we did see many animals. Down side was that many of their "African" animals, like Giraffes, Water Buffalo and such were in this big open space and it was very hard to see them. :( Giraffes are some of my favorite animals. Many of the other animals were sleeping, but the Lionesses were sleeping right next to the glass of their enclosure.

We did get to see a cheetah up close.


Then we got to see this really cool bird. Looked like it might eat us, but it was amazing none the less.



After the Wild Animal Park we went to the Hotel. I kept the hotel name a surprise for Clint because I thought it was suppose to have more of a Hawaiian feel, but it didn't really. I had brought us some snacks, some Brie cheese, crackers, figs, mangoes and some sparkling cider for a lunch/treat at the hotel. I was careful to hide it in the fridge so that it was a surprise for Clint. He loves figs and I had also bough some chocolate and Jelly Bellys which are his favorites too. When we got to the hotel, we opened one of the things of cheese I had bought and it was very clearly spoiled. It smelled awful and tasted worse. BLAH! Then Clint was inspecting his package of figs and they were ALL moldy. Grr so frustrating. Trader Joe's let me down and I was so excited to shop there.

Even the sparkling cider gave us a belly ache that night too. :(

It was still a nice hotel and had a nice pool. We had plans on spending the rest of the afternoon at the pool, but it started to get clouded over and was a little chilly for swimming. We braved the pool any ways because I had purposefully not taken Clark swimming so that Clint would get some firsts with Clark after he got back. It was worth the cold.

Here are some pictures.

Clint and Clark getting ready to go swimming.


Clark not wanting to put his feet in the water.


Clark not sure that the water is safe.


Aren't under water pictures cool!



Clark having fun in the water.










Happy Family.




Despite the lack of car insurance, the bad food and the disapointments in the hotel, we had a wonderful trip together and it was nice to do something as a family and to have Clint back home!

Clark's First Fair

Saturday Clark, my brother Jack and I went to the Orange County Fair. I haven't been for at least 6 years. It brought back many fond memories of showing horses since I was 8 at the fair and of being in high school and watching Clint show his steer.

Yep, that's right, Clint owned 2 cows when I met him. And I started off riding horses in the 4-H program which entitled us to go to the county fair and show. Back then it was much simpler to compete in the fair.

I remember my first competition I was doing Western Trail, showmanship, another Western riding class and an oral exam. I rode a 29 year old horse named T.J. who used to be owned by a man who would let the horse into the house and the two would watch T.V. together. It was T.J. who gave me the many firsts in my equine world. For example, the first time I got to pick up horse manure couldn't have been done with out T.J.'s help. Realizing how much horses shed in the spring, T.J.'s help. My first experience in a relay race, Old T.J. was by my side. Literally.

I did a relay that you had to walk or jog, not canter down to the other end of the arena, jump off your horse, put on costume clothes, take them off, get back on your horse and walk or jog back to your team. I was 8 or 9 when I did this aka vertically challenged. I jogged T.J. as fast as his old bones would go, jumped off, did the wardrobe change and then literally climbed back on. I was offered help, but denied it. Little stubbornness coming through and I climbed my way up the saddle and off I went back to my team. I don't remember what place we got, but I DO remember that my trainer's son said I had "balls" and it was the first of many such comments about my willigness to try most things. Eating bugs, NO, but making a fool of myself on a Japanese subway by swinging from the hand rails, or making jumps out on the trail so we could jump them, or doing the bungie/dive swing at Magic Mountain, HECK YEAH!

So here are a two pictures of Clark at his first fair. I'm sure he won't remember watching the pig races, sweating buckets because it was so hot or watching his Uncle Jack win him a prize, but we had a great time.

Us at the Pig races.


I had to take a picture of Clark next to the cow. The poor girl with the cow. I had told my brother that it would be cool if we could get a picture of Clark riding the calf, but a little joking about it realizing that it probably wouldn't happen. So Jack went over and asked her! She of course said no. I like how all three of us have horrible expressions on our faces. Oh well.

Clark's First Visit to the Beach

Today Clark and I met the Merrills down in La Jolla. That's right, our best friends from Manhattan are in San Diego visiting family and I was blessed enough to visit with them today. :) More about that later though...

As for the beach. It's beautiful! There's usually a nice breeze, the water is gorgeous, and the sun kisses you all day long.




And then, there's the sand! I HATE the sand. It gets EVERYWHERE. I means that litterally! In your nose, eyes, ears and that's just at the top! I have never turely enjoyed the beach because of the sand. So this is a story of my adventure with sand and an 8 month old.


Here is the first picture of Clark playing in the sand.


Clark not sure about this sand stuff.


Getting more use to it



Sand slowly covering every orifice of his body. I was going to say that sand got everywhere that wasn't covered by this clothes, but it eventually made it's way under the bathing suite and into his diaper. :(

Notice all the sand on his face! What you don't see is that it's in his mouth, in his ears and in his eye lashes. Poor guy, but he loved it.

This is the shovel toy that Clark thought would taste great. Real yummy covered in sand.


Clark getting a feel for the water. Just after these pictures were taken, Clark sat down thinking that it would be like the bath tub. Then a wave came up and he screamed and tried his best to crawl up me to get out of the water. He liked observing from the safety of momma's arms.



I don't think I enjoyed myself as much as I could of because I was stressing about the sand. I kept looking at Clark as the sand slowley covering every square inch of his body and thinking, Clint is going to kill me. There is going to be SOOO much sand in his car! It's never going to come out. The sand never came out of his last car.

Thankfully La Jolla Shores had showers that you could rinse off the sand. My favorite. Clark didn't like it too much though, but at least I got the majority of the sand off of him and I could rest easier knowing that he wasn't going to be riding home in the car seat for an hour and a half with sand grinding into his little body.

As for my visit with the Merrills; I miss them! There boys are getting bigger and they all look very happy but I miss hanging out with them each weekend. I left there and realized that Jeanette and I didn't really talk. We were too busy watching our kids play and enjoying the beach scene. It wasn't until I left that I was sorry that we didn't get more time to catch up, but Clark wasn't nursing very well, and was getting sleepy and cranky. Plus I had had enough with the sand. My arch nemesis. Takes all the fun out of the beach!

Fun at the Park

A few weeks ago we went to the park for a friends birthday party. Here are some pictures from Clark's first visit to a park.

Fun on the swings:



Fun with Daddy and bubbles!




Clark and Mimi.


Clark and Uncle Jack.



Clark and Grandpa.


Mommy and Clark.