Road Trip: Utah or Bust

At the end of June we loaded up the minivan for a road trip to Utah to see my nephew's sealing and take in the sights of Temple Square in Salt Lake City. For this road trip I bought DVD players that strap on the back of our seats. It was well worth the money. The girls loved watching movies and I loved not hearing them scream. I also bought mini magnadoodles, coloring books and snacks which also helped. I don't think the movies alone would have kept them content. Once again I must sing the praises of my Toyota Sienna. It makes road tripping actually enjoyable, and that's saying a lot since I've hated road trips in the past. I've often said I'd rather sit on a plane for twelve hours instead of in the car for two hours. My attitude might have also changed due to the fact that traveling with kids includes a lot of stuff. But I digress.

We started off on a Wednesday and drove until Elko where we ate at Costa Vida. In my attempt to live a healthier lifestyle I figured a salad at Costa Vida was better that the Golden Arches. From there we filled up the gas tank and took off. We thought we were making good time until we realized we lost an hour traveling to Utah. So much for being on time to the BBQ that night. We checked into our hotel in Salt Lake City, picked up my parents from their hotel, and drove out to Layton to have a family BBQ.

The next day, we got up early and drove to the Provo City Center Temple for the wedding. My fabulous parents watched the girls while Tim and I went to the sealing, and my mom even gave over all her change to the girls to throw into the fountain. What a great Nana she is. After that we took pictures, my girls had meltdowns, and we left to visit a friend from high school. She graciously made us lunch and our kids played with her kids and their toys. It was exactly what we needed. It was nice to catch up with her. I haven't seen her in about five years. After that we drove out to Layton for a BBQ reception at a park. It was lovely.

On Friday, we vowed to not do a lot of driving, so we drove the half mile to Temple Square to show the girls all that it has to offer. In my mind we were going to have this great family bonding time seeing church history and all that good stuff. News flash Risha, they don't care. All they wanted to see was the fountains and water features. Not the visitor centers, not the temple exterior, not the tabernacle, or the anything else. We manged to drag/bribe them to see it all including the Church History Museum, but I would have liked to have spent more time at the museum. I think I just need to remember that kids don't care about the same stuff I do, and tailor my expectations accordingly. But overall it was fun.

Lilybelle playing in the kids section of the Church History Museum

Oh look Mom, a water fountain

The organ at the tabernacle

On Saturday we drove back home, and stopped at the California Interpretive Trail Center, and had a good time. It was so interesting to learn more about what the people going west went through. I don't think I could have done it. No thank you.

I'm glad we went, but I don't think we are going to go on vacation anytime soon. I need to recover from our latest trips.

And She's Two!

Ten days ago we celebrated Claire's birthday. My little baby turned two. Her latest interest is Minnie Mouse so I decided that she should have a Minnie Mouse birthday luncheon. I didn't do a full birthday party because I figure at two she doesn't know and doesn't care. So we invited the grandparents and celebrated Claire with a Minnie Mouse lunch.

For the occasion I hunted up Pinterest for Minnie Mouse ideas and used my own creativity to finish it up. In the end we ate Minnie Mouse Sandwiches (I baked the bread myself so that it would be in the shape of a Minnie Mouse Head, the ears are a little small I know, but I ran out of dough). I was proud of the sandwich if only because I came up with it and not Pinterest. We also had Minnie Mouse shaped veggie chips I found at the store, Minnie Mouse Watermelon, and a Minnie Mouse Cake. Claire had fun, and loved all her presents.

For the decorations I used a Mickey Mouse sandwich cutter as a stencil and cut out silhouettes out of black paper and hung red crepe paper. I also got her red and white balloons and hung red and black spirals from the ceiling. All in all a nice and low key birthday part.

Vacation

We did it. We successfully went on a vacation with our two children and we all survived to tell the tale. Tim and I have not taken a vacation since Lilybelle was 7 months old. It always seemed like it was too much work to actually leave our house and go somewhere. But I got tired of not going anywhere and felt like Claire was old enough to try a small vacation. We decided to drive down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I figured it was a short enough Here are a few of the highlights.

We dropped Sophie off at my parents' house Monday morning, hung out for about an hour and then took off. I had a movie and TV shows downloaded on our various devices and a bag and cooler full of snack foods. I felt prepared. About an hour into our trip, Claire started screaming uncontrollably, and in the midst of her fit, Tim announces that the tire pressure warning light just came on. I thought we were doomed to never go on a vacation and should just turn around, but instead we turned into a gas station I took Claire out and into the little store and Tim put air in the tire. I got the girls some candy and we set off again. This time the tire was fine, and Claire discovered that chocolate (in the form of M&Ms) can fix all her problems. Just kidding, but she was happy the rest of the trip.

We got down to Seaside, CA where our hotel was, got checked in, and checked out the hotel pool. It was a huge hit. Afterwards we had dinner and settled in for the night. We decided that Claire was probably big enough to sleep on the hotel bed and so her and Lilybelle shared the sleeper sofa in our room. Lilybelle did great; Claire did okay. She got up a few times, but always went right back to sleep.

The next morning we got up, and had breakfast at the hotel. It was delicious. I'll leave it at that. We then got in the car and took the short drive into Monterey Bay. Since we got there early in the morning we were able to get free parking not too far from the aquarium.  We then walked around Cannery Row and checked out the beach because that was the whole reason Lilybelle went on vacation (she talked about the beach nonstop in car ride down). When the aquarium opened we got right in since I purchased our tickets online. Best advice that I found online for our trip. The line to buy tickets was already around the building before it even opened!

We read about the history of Cannery Row and then made our way to the touch exhibit. This is were you can touch a sting ray and other sea plants and creatures. Tim was super excited to touch the sting ray. It was a dream from childhood fulfilled. Lilybelle did not want to do it, in fact she didn't want to touch any of it; not even the kelp. Sigh. I thought this was going to be the highlight for her. Next we made our way to the penguin exhibit. It was cool to see the penguins swim and we even stayed for the feeding. After that we wandered around the aquarium seeing the various sights with various degrees of excitement. They loved the sea otters, Lilybelle loved the jellyfish, and Claire was mesmerized by the school of sardines. Claire threw a fit off and on throughout the aquarium as we struggled to get her back in the stroller between exhibits. If I had to do it over I would have left both strollers at home and just let them walk and carry them. That's the one thing I'd recommend and would do differently.

After the aquarium we had dessert at Ghirardelli. In my opinion, you have to have a brownie ice cream sundae when there is a Ghirardelli near by. After that we got back in the car and drove along the coast line and went to Point Lobos and hiked to China Cove and Gibson's Beach. We then drove down to Big Sur. After that we had dinner and went back to the hotel. The next day we drove back home, and the drive home was much smoother than the drive there. Thank you M&Ms.

Harbor Seals with pups at China Cove

Playing in the sand at Gibson's Beach

Gibson's Beach

The coastline from our car

To finish up 2015...

A new year which means another year is come and gone. I want to wrap up what the Simpson Family did at the end of 2015 before I start into 2016.

Thanksgiving this year was spent with my parents. It was a nice low key day. I made the apple pie this year and to make it look snazzy I used two star cookie cutters on the top crust. I even made it sugar free for my mom. It wasn't bad, but I think I should have used a juicier apple variety since there wasn't good old of sugar to help make the sauce. We just hung out at my old house while my dad entertained my girls. They seriously can't get enough of Papa. We also got a snow storm right before Thanksgiving. It was the first significant snow storm that Lilybelle has seen so I bundled both girls up and we went to the park to play in the snow. It didn't last long though because it was bitterly cold.

Swim lessons continue to go well. Both girls look forward to going and I look forward to taking them. It will be sad to give them up during tax season. Or at least Tim will be the one who has to take them since I will go back to full time starting in February.

This was the first year that Lilybelle really understood who Santa Claus was. She kept talking about him and how he was going to come to her house to bring her a toy. Yes, that was all she asked Santa Claus for this year, and he yes he brought her a toy. Some magnet building blocks that both Lilybelle and Claire like to play with.

Santa Claus came to Lilybelle and Claire's school so we got the annual picture. Lilybelle smiled her cheesy smile and Claire screamed. I felt bad for the poor girl. We also took the girls to a Breakfast with Santa event at a local restaurant. It was fun. Lilybelle gave Santa a hug; she was so excited that he was there, and Claire shook his hand. She seemed a little cautious about it, but no crying.

I also turned another year older, and I swear my biological clock is getting louder. I'm not sure exactly what to do about it. That's a discussion that I've forced myself to think about later. I celebrated with two birthday dinners, because when your birthday is close to Christmas you got to make a production out of it. My mom made me homemade eggrolls that were super yummy and my sister introduced Claire to whip cream in a can. The next night my friends threw me a nice birthday dinner with ham, potatoes, rolls, salad, and brussel sprouts.

We stayed home for Christmas morning and my parents and little sister came up to open presents at 6 am. Yes I made everyone get up super early and drive to my house to be here at 6 am. To thank them for coming to our house so early I made overnight waffles, fruit, and bacon for breakfast. We had a White Christmas this year which the girls enjoyed. Later that night we went over to Tim's brother's house and had Christmas Dinner with his family. It was a lovely time and we stayed much later than I thought. It was way past the girls' bedtime!

The Christmas Eve Jammie picture. Man was it hard to get.

I finally made Claire and Tim's stockings. Everyone now has a homemade stocking

Christmas Eve snow

Christmas morning hot cocoa station

We rang in the new year with sleep. No one in our house stayed up past 10 pm. And that's the way I wanted it. I did take the girls to the Discovery Museum with my dad, and we convinced Lilybelle to climb up in the clouds finally. Claire ever the adventurer followed her sister.