San Diego

Since Eli's mid-winter break was last week, and Josh's sister Megan and her husband Matt invited us to spend some time with them in their family condo in San Diego, we eagerly packed up and headed somewhere where we could get some vitamin D.  The weather was fantastic, even more so knowing that it was stormy and rainy in Aberdeen the whole time we were gone.  I know California is in the middle of a terrible drought, but I sure was grateful for it while I was there.  Now that we're back, I'd gladly send some rain down their way if I could. :-)

We had so much fun that Eli is now equating California with the Garden of Eden.  Last year we had a great time at Disneyland in March and then again in San Francisco in August.  This trip just solidified Eli's love of California because we have gotten such great weather and have had such a good time while we're there.  We mentioned that it might be fun to go to Hawaii some time, and Eli said, "No, I want to go to California again."  Hilarious!

Eli wanted to go to Legoland on this trip.  We took him out of school a couple of days before his break started because it was cheaper to fly on that day.  I'm glad we did because we were able to go to Legoland on a day with minimal crowds.  There was only one ride we had to stand in line for, but the rest were smooth sailing with short to no wait times.  It was a great amusement park for Eli because he doesn't like roller coasters and "scary" rides.  Older kids and adults going alone would probably not enjoy it very much, but it's great for younger kids, especially if they like legos as Eli does.  In fact, he has now decided he wants his birthday party in a month to be lego-themed.

Driving School was Eli's favorite ride.  He did this one first, and then he did it again, and he would have kept doing it if we hadn't told him he would never get to any other rides.  He even got his own "driver's license" at the end of it.

It's amazing what they can build out of legos.  They built various mini-versions of cities all over the United States.  Pictured here is San Francisco. 

We were in San Diego on Valentine's Day, so Matt and Megan generously watched Eli for us while we went to the San Diego temple that morning.  The temple was packed!  I guess a lot of people felt the temple was the best place to spend Valentine's Day.

We visited Historic Old Town San Diego, including the Mormon Battalion.  Eli enjoyed "panning for gold," listening to the "talking pictures" and other activities while he was there.  I enjoyed strolling around and seeing the historic sites (it was a beautiful day).  I've been to San Diego a few times, but it was the first time I went to Old Town.  

Eli got to try "washing his own clothes."  Behind is where he "panned for gold."

Later we went to Coronado with Matt and Megan and their twins.  We had planned to do a bike ride on one of those Surrey bikes, but much to Matt's chagrin, the twins weren't allowed to ride because of their age (younger than a year old).  Instead, we took a nice, leisurely stroll along the pier.

On Sunday after church we visited Josh's Grandma Rosie's old house and some family graves in a cemetery nearby.  Josh was actually born in San Diego but moved up to San Francisco by the time he was six months old.  However, he still has a lot of family history there.

We spent President's Day in Point Loma.  We toured the old lighthouse and Cabrillo National Monument.  Then we took a look at the tide pools nearby.  We also spent some time at Imperial beach outside the condo earlier that morning.  

I told Eli to put on his swim suit before going down to the beach, but he said the water was too cold and he would just play in the sand.  Obviously that didn't happen. :-)

Our last full day in California was spent at San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  We loved it!  I was surprised by how many birds they have there.  Eli loved the parrots and the lorikeets.  He was totally fascinated by the fact that parrots can mimic and got a great kick out of the bird show.  He also had a blast feeding the lorikeets.  They happened to be very hungry at the time we went, so he got quite a show as the birds tried to peck at my ear and my hair and tried biting Josh's finger.  I thought one had mistaken my hair for a nest and was going to make a permanent home on my head!  Of course, we also enjoyed the tram ride where we got to go around and look at all the African animals.  Eli's favorite animal is the giraffe. 

Toothless

 Eli lost his first baby tooth and obviously had a little bit of inner conflict doing so.  He has wanted a loose tooth like some of his friends for quite a while now.  When his bottom front tooth came loose a couple of weeks ago, he was so excited!  However, when the tooth finally came out as he was eating dinner one night, he started crying.  He didn't want to lose his tooth, he told me.  I could tell that it was one of those bittersweet moments where he's not sure whether he wants to grow up or not.  He's had a couple of those moments.  I've had many of those moments.  Life can be exciting and scary all at the same time.

Christmas and Winter Break

Eli loved his winter break and didn't want it to end.  Every morning this week when I've taken him to school, he asks if he can stay home with me instead.  I keep asking him, "What happened?  You used to love going to school."  I guess he just had so much fun on his break that he didn't want it to end.  He also really loves Christmas and was not happy that I took down the Christmas decorations yesterday.  He wanted me to keep them up all year long.

Christmas for Eli was a little different this year because he knows that his dad and mom are Santa.  I didn't think he would be so young when he stopped believing in Santa, but life throws things at me all the time that I don't expect.  He came to me one day not long after Christmas last year and asked very seriously, "Mom, I want you to be honest with me.  Is Santa real?  Tell me the honest truth."  In that moment, I just couldn't lie to him.  I couldn't even really sugar coat it, though my brain was frantically searching for ways to do so.  I just had the feeling that if I wanted him to trust me later with other things, then I needed to tell him the truth.  Specifically, I had the thought that if he comes to me years from now and asks me if Jesus Christ is real, I want him to know that when I say yes, he can trust that I'm telling him the truth.  Of course, after I told him, he cried.  I felt like I had destroyed his innocence, so I felt awful.  Fortunately, he's fine with it now.  We tell him that we still believe in the spirit of Christmas even if Santa isn't real, and we still do certain things because it's fun to pretend sometimes.  We also tell him he has to pretend for his friends and cousins because their parents might not like us otherwise. :-) 

Speaking of cousins, part of the reason Eli had such a fun winter break was because he had lots of cousin time.  We spent a fair amount of Eli's break with Josh's family since we were all together for the holiday.  We had lots of fun celebrating Christmas and New Year's--playing with toys and games, playing kickball, riding roller coasters at Wild Waves, etc.  We also enjoyed celebrating Josh's parents' 40th wedding anniversary by playing the not-so-newlywed game!

Christmas Eve

I told Josh to get the stocking items this year, and he obviously did a better job than I do because Eli LOVED opening his stocking.  He was so excited to play with a 59 cent foam airplane that we wondered why we bought him anything else.

Josh and Eli with Grandma Rosie and Aunt Megan (pictured here on a rare occasion without one of her twins in her arms)

As you can tell by this picture and the one above, Eli likes to make different faces for pictures.

I Love You More

I (Josh) got to take Eli to school today. On his way out the door he said "I love you mommy". Stephanie replied I love you too, and then as the door closed behind us, he turned around and opened it again and said "I love you more". Stephanie responded, "I love you more than most", to which Eli replied "I love you most than more". I love them both the mostest!