Ruben H Fleet Museum

Friday after Thanksgiving we were going to hit up Sea World but it was a cold, rainy day so instead we decided to go to the Ruben H Fleet Museum.  I hadn't been there in years, they changed it a bit but it was great.  They have toddler section upstairs and lots of the same science exhibits.  All of the kids, ages 2-5 had fun!

Who doesn't love a good pretzel bagel.  Ri got tall eh?

They sure do have fun together!

Our attempt at getting the 3 of them together, 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

They had a fire truck, Jacob got very possessive of it!

I got involved in the fire truck

The San Diego Zoo

We hit up the San Diego Zoo the day before Thanksgiving, it was a ton of fun but we decided that we like our little Oakland Zoo (which we recently became members of ) a tad better.  I know blasphemy given The San Diego Zoos reputation but we felt like it was too big for our kids, The Oakland Zoo is perfect for us.  We did get to see some animals that The Oakland Zoo doesn't have like, koalas, kangaroos, tapirs, polar bears, and Tasmanian Devils.  We didn't get to the hippopatomus' because the zoo was too big and we had two tired, cranky kids on our hands but we had a great time.  My brother and his wife joined us with Daniel and the kids had  great time!  Jacob loved seeing the koalas and kangaroos because he's into The Wiggles and they sing songs about all of the Australian animals.

Cousins, they love each other so much

The kids loved the koalas

Kangaroo jumping

I'm not going to lie, when this guy was walking toward us and I was standing there alone with the kids, I panicked a bit.  He was HUGE!

We love giraffes in our families

Jacoby loves giraffies!

Silly cousins

Little dudes thighs were rubbing together again

Poor little guy always trying to keep up with big sister

Time out for a foot massage

Silly Riley!

Checking out turtles

Handsome boy

The zoo keepers were taking care of the elephants feet and the kids were asking fantastic  questions

A tapir taking a dip

Thanksgivukah

Hanukkah was ridiculously early this year, as in as of December 7 it's officially over and the decorations are down and packed away.  We're now in birthday gear around here.  Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving this year so we happened to have been down in San Diego for the week.  My mom made Hanukkah dinner on Wednesday followed by Thanksgiving on Thursday, I seriously consumed about 2 months worth of calories in 2 days.  Out of control!  Needless to say I've been an exercise fiend since getting back.  But it was a ton of fun being down in San Diego for the holiday, we drove down and the kids did fairly well in the car.  We actually compared driving and flying and we think flying (with the kids being so young, really only saves us an hour, costs more and is way more stressful so driving wins).  I strategized Hanukkah presents and gave Riley two new DVDs for Hanukkah so we had those for the way back plus I saw "Airplanes" go on sale so I went to Target and bought that.  Hanukkah was SUPER fun this year with Jacob, he gets the concept of presents now and just loved everything about everything, the food, the gifts, the holiday cheer, he loved it all.  We had a great time in San Diego, I was able to pretty much unplug from work, I didn't log onto my computer once, thus being so far behind on blogging, and only checked my phone for emails a few times, and we hit LOTS of parks.  We saw a bunch of friends and overall had a great family week.

Driving down, the kids were SO excited that we let them have McDonald's for lunch!

He dominated that cheeseburger

Helping Nana make some salad, she's our salad maker

Morning busy activity, making crowns

Visiting an awesome park near my parents

Awesome modern merry-go-round!

Watching airplanes with Uncle Ed at dinner!

The amazing Spidey sharing popcorn with me

A bowl of popcorn + early Hanukkah present = 1 hour of quiet, nice play

We got a visit from my high school friend Mollie and her daughters who live in England!

Thanksgiving day fun at the awesome park

Best Thanksgiving EVER, bouncy house fun!

Jacob gives it a go

Kids table 2.0, I remember sitting at the kids table, how'd I get so old that I have kids at the kids table!?!

I gave Ri Lite Brite for Hanukkah one night, it's as awesome as it was when I was little!

Jacob loves to "drive" he sees the steering wheel and wants to get behind it and say "beep beep"

My poor little man is not made for running but he sure does try.  He has to stop and rub his thighs, I think they rub together.

Vacay

So we've been back a week but I'm finally getting around to blogging our vacation.  It's clear after being gone for 10 days that Jacob absolutely NEEDS a routine or else he's a hot mess who doesn't sleep so we've been catching up on sleep, or trying to and getting him on a routine in the hopes that he starts sleeping through the night.  Riley was definitely sleeping through the night at this point at a much smaller body weight so beefcake needs to get with the program! :)

We headed out nearly 2 weeks ago to San Diego and then headed to Disneyland.  I have to pump in 15 minutes and then run and get Ri so we're going to start with our San Diego segment of the trip.  We left at 4:45AM, yes folks, that's AM, Marc and I really never went back to sleep after Jacob's feeding, one of the perks to a having a child who insists on eating around the clock and we hit the road.  We packed the car up the night before so we really just had to pack some last minute stuff and scoop the kids up and go.  They did great on the way down.  We stopped for breakfast just before the grapevine and then again in Irvine for a coffee and a potty break for Riley, we put her in a pull-up but she refused to potty in it.  Anyway, we arrived at my parents around 1:00 and unpacked and got settled.  That night we went over to my brother's to meet my new nephew, D.  They adopted him in January after years of waiting, they started the process right after Riley was born.  Riley and D hit it off!  It was awesome, D was 2 in November and is just as cute and sweet as can be!  It was so fun watching them together.  No pictures of him yet as that is against protocol as they move through the adoption process but we got plenty and Riley loves her cousin D!

Thursday we headed to Sea World because Riley wanted to see the dolphins, of course the dolphin enclosure is being remodeled so we weren't able to pet and feed them, she was really looking forward to that.  Luckily, they were running a promotion that for the price of a 1 day pass you could buy a year long pass so we bought those so now we'll definitely be getting down to San Diego quite often this year.  We did go to the dolphin show which happened to be about a princess and of course stared dolphins, it was pretty much heaven for Riley, I think if we could have gotten Dora in there somewhere she would literally be in heaven.  But we had a great time and that night Jacob happened to sleep through the night.  Don't get excited because it was a fluke, he hasn't since then.

Friday we just kind of hung out, I took the kids to see my dad at work and for lunch at this awesome burger place.  My mom came and brother met us and then I treated them to some books at this amazing bookstore.  Riley and D got to play for dinner that night, it's seriously awesome how well they get along.  And D totally stands up to Riley.

Saturday we headed downtown with the kids in tow to spend time with Marc's aunt and uncle who just bought a place down there.  His cousin and his wife, Gabby joined us as well.  We found out late February that Gabby was diagnosed on her 30th birthday with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Marc and I are so upset about this diagnosis.  Gabby is awesome and it really makes you wonder about why crappy stuff happens to awesome people.  But Gabby is doing great and is responding to treatment fantastically and is pretty close to remission.  On top of it all she has an amazing attitude and is truly amazing.  I am in such admiration of her positive attitude.  The kids loved her and had a great time with her.  We all went to dinner in Little Italy and both of my kids behaved socially acceptable for public, it was a freaking miracle to be quite honest!  Jacob slept and Riley completely behaved herself.

Sunday my mom threw an open house so that her friends could come over and meet Jacob and D.  It was a lot of fun! 

Monday, we packed back up and headed up to Anaheim for some fun at Disneyland.

Phew, that was the abridged version of our trip to San Diego.  So now for some pictures, I know that's what you're waiting for anyway. 

With Gruncle at Sea World

Not so sure about this splash zone thing

Getting a lift from Gruncle Michael

Jacob cuddling with cousin Gabby

Riley loved the Gruncles view of the bay

Daddy an his mini-me

The boys!

All smiles for the ladies

Riley and Graunt Sandy

Family dinner

Mmmm, salted caramel chocolate mousse.  This was by far the best dessert that I have ever had, Riley and literally fought over who's spoon made it in the bowl first.  It was amazing!

Gabby, you so silly!

Jacob-pants with Nana