So we FINALLY get there and even Mad is over come by the huge tank with the tuna and sharks and this big ass fish called a sun fish that was probably bigger than all the kids put together.

Hung out by the Kelp Forrest...

Then we went back to the Kelp Forest where they have a diver go in to feed the fish, and eels

:-/ They give him a mic and he talks from inside the tank. It was pretty cool, you can see him in this picture though it's kinda light. This one eel kept getting RIGHT in his face, like eye to eye with him, it was a little freaky even from my end!

They also have a neat tide pool inside/outside area. Inside they have a walkway that is underneath an area that water crashes out every 20 seconds or so.

Outside, the water crashes into a little pond area and you can see what it looks like underwater with this little bubble that was just the right size for Mad in her stroller, she's under there somewhere.

We went to the kids area called "Slash Zone" and all the kids found stuff to do, it was nice cause Mad was actually entertained, not just confined to her stroller being stuffed with goldfish just to keep her quiet :-)


We had all actually had a lot of fun and it wasn't AS stressful as some of our outings have been so maybe it just the age and they are starting to grow out of it, or they were tired, I'm not really sure.


After we left we strolled down Canary Row for a bit and found a cool restaurant on the water. We were just going to stop for a second to relax (read: get a drink ;-) when ALL the kids started whiiiiining - "I'm HUNGRY - I'm STAAAARVING" - so we hung out and had dinner. Good thing too cause we didn't get home until 10:30 as it was and that was without having to stop again for dinner! They were all (including us) tired and dirty, but we had fun and it gave us all something to talk about today, so there ya go :-)

Til Next Time...

Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, we got to go out for DH's birthday. We've been needing some time alone for a WHILE now and I figured this was a great excuse :-) I told his mom that time away is the best present she could give him and I had to listen to her RAMBLE on about NOTHING for around 20 minutes but it worked! We left at about 10:30 am and got home around 10:30 PM! YAY US! I thought maybe would go relax at the beach but he decided he really wanted to go into the mountains...yay foothills :-/ He said he'd always wanted to go to Moaning Caverns and after that we could go walk around Muphy's and wine taste. We got to Murphys and this was just the stream, not even the Main Street that was blocked off for St. Patricks Day...

So today I felt bored and kinda bad about not doing anything with my kids and becoming sedentary so at like 9 AM I packed em up (it took a lot longer than it sounds actually) and we headed down to Lodi Lake. They have a cute little nature trail there and I thought it would give us some time outside in this AMAZING March weather and hopefully get me outta my funk.

The girls ran up and down every little path they could find. They are quite the explorers! Mad and I went up the ones we could but she mostly just slid down on her butt so we trecked on.

It takes a good hour or so to complete the trail, if you have 3 kids anyway. But Mad kept trying to keep up with the older girls and get ahead whenever she could.

This is a beach that I used to go and hang out on when I was 15. Me and my friend would get snacks and a "boom box", wade in the water, sunbath, and jet ski with random people who would come by and ask us if we wanted to - I know I know, real smart - but we were 15, what the hell did we know? I didn't really trust Mad on the sand so close to the water after our last experience with a beach, plus she was being a butt, so I had to strap her into the stroller. I had to ply her with snacks just to get her to sit still long enough to snap this picture. She's just watching the girls play (sitting on the log), but she was snacking so I think she was ok with it :-)

I love the nature area at Lodi Lake. It's a small area where you can just walk or relax (if you don't have 3 kids anyway) and feel somewhat away from it all, or whatever. They look so cute here. The only way to get Mad to smile is to snort - yes snort - like a piggy. Whatever works man.

One thing she does get into is SLIDES! At the entrance to Lodi Lake they have a cute little park play area and of course we had to stop on the way out. SHE LOVES SLIDING!

R, ever my little helper, had to stand at the top and make her sit down or else she would just walk off the edge of the slide! She got really close until Rianna grabbed her - NO FEAR MAN, NO FEAR.

I just thought this shot was cute :-)

So we got home and my internet was down so I thought I might go MAD when she slept for four hours and I couldn't do anything! I've been in such a funk lately and it seems that I only feel better when I am doing something on the computer. I don't know why. So I thought I would make a nice dinner for my poor sick hubby who was going to get home late. I got pretty courageous since I don't cook much and decided to just pick a couple new receipes and throw em together - HA. I went to the store and had to leave before I got everything cause the baby was throwing such a damn fit. I ended up forgetting the main ingredient - CHICKEN - so we had to drive back, park again, go back in and get it and go home. Lets just say it doesn't look like the picture ok. I overcooked the roasted cauliflower and I don't even know WHAT I did to the chicken or the sauce. DH said he loved it, but he has to say that. So most of it is on the stove or on our plates. I guess it wasn't bad, just not good either. The only good thing was that I discovered I can watch my favorite show (LOOOOOOOOOOST) the next day online (YAY DSL) since I am a tired ol lady and can't stay up past 9 anymore (LOOOOOOOOST is on at 10!) So we snuggled up and watched it online with my fav wine, the best part of the meal.

So that's all for tonight. Hope your dinner was better than mine ;-)

TNT

So, Mad had yet another eye doctor appointment yesterday in San Francisco. Going down there has become an all day event due to traffic issues. The my girls are on vacation this week so I knew I would be taking all 3 of them by myself since DH had to work. So I called my Ma and asked if she'd wanna go. We decided to make it into a little girls day out type thing and hang out in the city until 6 or so to miss the traffic. It's funny how a place that really isn't that far away turns into a 12 hour trip. After waiting for an HOUR AND A HALF in the waiting room for her appt. we got the only fast food we could find and went to Golden Gate Park.

I've talked a little bit lately to a few people about how we had to go out and get a new dinning room set and our adventures with that, so here is the newest addition to our little family . . .

It started last weekend when outta the blue DH (dearest hubby) says "oh yeah, BTW, Jim wants his table back." - I said "Uh . . . what table is THAT?" He'd never mentioned that our dinning table was Jim's but that he didn't have anywhere for it to go and gave it to DH. It's still undecided whether he EVER said he MIGHT need it back or not - my guess is probably NOT. Whatever. So he tells me that they don't have the money to go get a table set since they spent all this money on other furniture. So I said 'fine whatever, we just got out tax return so i guess we have the money, let 'em have it' - found out later that they didn't have the money because the bought a $400 HUTCH that they didn't need when the were out looking for DINNING ROOM stuff - but whatever.

So we went out looking at second hand stores, looked at craigslist.com, and kept running into the problem that no one had a table big enough or that came with 6 chairs. So I looked at walmart and target online and still we were looking at $500-600 for an OK set! We went to IKEA and were completely disappointed. In fact I hate that store so much that I will NEVER go there AGAIN! If you have been there let me ask you . . . what the hell is with them TRAPPING you? You have to go upstairs to the "SHOWROOM" = (cattle hurded through modern cheap ass furniture setups that you need a MAP to get through in less than 4 hours!). Then when you are lucky enough to find your way to the exit (or so you THINK) you then have to go down a huge staircase because there is NO escalator like there is going UP. Then when you finally think you have won and you are on your way out . . . WRONG AGAIN HA HA! You must then find your way all the way back through the store on the bottom in a horseshoe to get to the ACTUAL exit. We were so frustrated by the time we left that we swore we'll never go back. Sorry about that tangent - I hate IKEA and needed to get that out . . . plus we didn't find anything >:-/

Then we went to our favorite place that we have gotten all of our furniture, great quality for great prices. Our couch and chair, complete bedroom set, bar table and chairs and now our dinning room set :-) They are the best. I don't know why we even bother really. It looks like a super expensive place but we always seem to find great deals there and come away with GREAT stuff that we just love.

Now we ran into a bit of a snag while there. We looked at TONS of sets, light and dark, bulky and not so, grainy and smooth. I liked the dark, not so bulky and smooth ones, guess which ones DH liked . . . So we looked and came up with two we loved. Mine was a dark wood, smooth top, with black leather padded seats. His was a dark wood, grainy top in a PATCH WORK PATTERN,
with WHITE MICROFIBER padded seats. We kept trying to convince each other that we (I) was right, trying to be cool in front of the sales guy. Finally I just gave up. It had been a long and stressful day after an emotional couple days and I was just not up for the fight cause he was NOT giving in. And I knew that if I pushed and got my way, I would hear about it for the rest of my life. He would say how HE had to give in and I always have to have my way - well HA! I WIN! Sort of :-/



So they went and picked up the set and brought it home to assemble. Most often they would deliver and set up for no charge but because we are so far away from the place there would have been a $125 charge so DH and his friend went and got it. They started putting it together and got through the table and two chairs when Jim bailed because that controlling bitch he is married to called and said "you weren't supposed to hang out all day and help him with chairs JIM!" So of course he tucked his tail between his legs and left. Mad wanted to help too, supervise mostly ;-)





We got the rest of the chairs together and got the set up. The more I see it, the more I love it. It really does tie everything together. The carpet the couches the piano, even the stuff in our bedroom matches! Not exactly but enough for it to look put together. I don't even really mind the patch work anymore, i guess it gives it character?




We celebrated by not cooking last night (!) and called Applebee's CarSide ToGo instead. That stuff is GREAT - LOVE IT. It was so neat though. It felt very cozy, not so loud either. I think its because the high back dark chairs make you feel more closed it and cozy. We had to change our seating arrangement too because he HAD to have the (insert puffed up chest big guy voice) CAPTAIN'S CHAIRS (translates to ARM chairs) so now we sit on the ends and the kids on the side. I wasn't sure about that but I think I like it better now. We used to sit next to each other cause that just feels good, but at dinner we were all talking, the 6 of us, but we actually felt closer cause we could actually make eye contact and talk to each other and the others easier. So it was nice. Breakfast too, I've always loved having family meals but now it feels even cozier. Every time I walk by the room I just love it. I am so glad now that Jim is such an indian giver (I call him that not only because of the table but also because he just told us that he wants "his" treadmill back that I KNOW he gave us and we have been keeping in our storage appearently because we just such great people). It gave us an excuse to go and get something that we probably would not have gone out and gotten but it was so needed and worth it, still lame of him I think though. Whatever!

TNT!

Okay, so yes I am aware that it is March and I am posting Christmas Pictures but they were just so cute and I actually only took them about 3 weeks ago :-D I made DH leave up our Christmas tree even after I took down all the ornaments because I eventually wanted to take some formal Christmas pics with them all dressed up and pretty in front of the tree. Well, I kept waiting for our weekend but then we kept having stuff to do. So the other Saturday morning we were just sitting around drinking coffee looking at the bare tree (at least its still green - YAY fake trees!) and I said - "OK, I wanna take Xmas pics, girls go get your dresses on!" They of course didn't argue but Brandon looked at me like I slipped some Irish Creme in my coffee without sharing! He kept givin me grief but once he saw I was quite serious and was going to do it with or without his help, he helped M with his hair and clothes, still mocking me, but at least he was being helpful at the same time ;-)

So, I just wanted to share these photos with ya, now that I can, YAY DSL! Who cares if I took them in February - BETTER LATE THAN NEVER! Boy, that sure describes me doesn't it ;-)