Random Updates on a Sunday evening

Friends


There are a total of three new posts this evening, so don't stop once you're done reading this one -> a lot of little updates that didn't fit anywhere else come first.


Eric usually takes Daniel to swim lessons while Anida does other things, and so she hadn't actually seen first-hand how good of a swimmer he's become until today.

And it was a good day for it too. He got to swim across the whole pool on his back, show that he can breathe properly, but the best part was that he got to jump from the diving board a couple of times. He was proud as a peacock over that one.


Daniel's been spelling out words as he sees them written on signs and buildings, but we didn't actually know that he had cracked "the grownup code" of spelling out things in conversation that we didn't want him to hear. That illusion was shattered at dinner on Friday, when Anida said jokingly to our guest "If you do that, I'll have to kay-eye-ell-ell you", and Daniel said "Did mama just say "kill"?

Oops. Oh well. Could have been worse.


Most of the Rachel updates are two posts down, but we had a similar exchange at dinner yesterday, when Eric - in frustration that Rachel kept making a mess at dinner, referred to her as "a little oink", to which she immediately said "I'm not a pig".


OK, note to selves - kids are listening more than we give them credit for.


Rachel scored major points with Anida for saying "Tank you for washing my pajamas", and then proudly took her clean clothes upstairs.


And that about does it for now. Since these posts appear witht the newest one first, keep reading for 2 additional updates.


Love, ADRE

Swine Flu stinks...

Friends


We were going to spend a nice long weekend at a resort in Cancun with the Pasta family, but given the hysteria around Swine Flu in the last couple of weeks of April, we changed destinations at the last minute.


In retrospect, that decision is looking a little wimpy, but at the time it seemed prudent.


Thankfully, we were still able to pull off a trip to San Diego, which turned out to be a very good trip.


Legoland was a huge success, and everyone had a good time. Daniel was tall enough for the rides that he wanted to ride, and Rachel had plenty to do too.

The highlights were driving a lego car, riding a pirate boat (where you could spray other boats) and putting out a "fire" (which the Pastas, to their credit, did faster than we did).

It was just a lot of fun all around.









On Saturday, we saw the San Diego Zoo in the morning, and the Midway in the afternoon. The Midway was the bigger hit of the two, but Rachel liked the Panda exhibit and proclaimed "I have one of those at home!" We wrapped it up with a chance to play on the sandy beach at Coronado.

The days were full of excitement, and we didn't have any problems keeping everyone entertained, but we might have worn them out a bit. On Sunday, we hit the San Diego Wild Animal park, and when we walked in the front gate, Daniel took one look and exclaimed in disgust "This is s ZOO". We didn't last long at that park, but went back to the hotel for a dip in the pool before going over to Jan Robert and Lia's place for a nice BBQ.


Monday was another full day of entertainment, with a harbor cruise, a ride on a double-decker bus, a drive along the coast and a chance to see sealions in La Jolla. If it sounds like we were busy, we were. The kids had a blast, and so did the adults. Sure, it was a little more work than sitting around a pool in Cancun, but not a bad vacation by any stretch of the imagination.

Tuesday, the Pastas had an earlier flight than us, so we parted ways at the hotel after breakfast, with the intent to return to Legoland, but the big L was closed. So we regrouped and went to the Birch Acquarium, which was very nice, and then played some miniature golf at Boomers, before heading back to town for the trip home. It was our first time playing miniature golf, and Daniel can whack the ball pretty well.


Next stop will be Providence, RI where we're all going to Eric's college reunion, then later in the summer it'll be Norway and Iceland.


Hope everyone is doing well. Will try to do one final posting here before calling it a night.

Love, ADRE.