Sunset at Carlsbad

After spending the day at Legoland, we were headed back to the hotel when we saw the sun beginning to set and decided to pull over. When we got out of the car we found that we were right above a hillside of beautiful flowers.

My obsession with clouds continues...

The fields of beautiful flowers we were looking down on

Tristan was so thrilled with the sunset that night that he told us that he wanted to "stop there again" when we drove by the spot the next evening.

Legoland, Day One

Sunday we ventured out to Legoland. It was a rainy, cool, and gloomy day - which made for a great day at the park! It rained sporadically, and as long as we had our slickers on, it remained dry... Because of the rain and the cool temperatures in the morning, there were not many people there, so there were no lines to wait in for the rides (another post so there aren't so many pictures in one post...), and it was just a peaceful day moseying around looking at all the cool stuff made out of Legos. The creativity around there was amazing!

Thomas the Tank Engine

Bob the Builder

Iwo Jima Memorial

Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial

The Capitol Building

(I left the people in here just to remind me that these are all scale models)

Yes, even the boats were made of Legos

Las Vegas

Dreaming...

With my sugar daddy

Wreckless drivers

On the farm

Sea Life Aquarium

Our first stop after arriving in San Diego was at the Sea Life Aquarium at Legoland. This is a spot we didn't hit when in California last year, so after finding out that we were going to have to head out there again to drop off my Explorer, I suggested to David that we go there.

All of the creatures (SCUBA diver included) in these two photos were made out of Legos

It was one of the smaller aquariums that we have been to, but the kids had a ball looking at all the fish and all of the different things in and around the aquariums that were made with Legos.

Our shark babies

There were a couple of areas that gave the kids a chance to get up close to the animals

Starfish

Getting a "hug" from a pencil urchin

We also saw some beautiful fish

The sub, diver, and umbrella were all made of Legos

David was getting pretty hungry looking at all the fish and shrimp

This Lego family was out in the parking lot, and from a distance, they looked quite real.

I guess this guy looked at me the wrong way, and the boy made Tristan mad...

What to do with these boys??

A Room With a View

We had to go to San Diego last weekend (boo hoo, I know), to take my vehicle to port to get it shipped to Korea. We stayed at the Navy Lodge, as we did last year, but this time we had some pretty cool scenery.

These are some night shots of some ships being worked on in the shipyard across the road from us. It was cool to look out of the window and see welding sparks flying and these huge cranes moving around.

And here are some similar pictures during the daylight hours.

David likes all things military, so he was particularly impressed.

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures done yesterday since it's been a good year and a half since we had them taken and with us going to Korea, I have no idea when we'll get them done again! I've got a really nice camera, maybe I'll just have to get a remote for it so I can do them myself. I'm sure there's more than one fabulous backdrop in Korea!

We managed to get a couple good ones of all of us

and the kiddos

but then it became a bit monotonous.

They are laughing because I'm standing behind the photographer wearing silly hats, making silly faces, and "eating" flowers.

Tristan had fallen down and hurt his arm (on top of not feeling well to begin with) while horsing around, and didn't want to take anymore pictures. So, I did what all mothers would do in that situation... I made a fool of myself to try to get a few more decent pictures out of him.

It only sort of helped...

Soon to be toothless

This precious princess came out of her room last night (long after we had put her to bed), and announced that she had a loose tooth! She is thrilled! You should have seen the look on her face... big, bright eyes, and a huge smile. She has been waiting for this moment since she started Kindergarten, I think. The majority of the kids in her class have lost at least one, if not many more, and Grace kept asking why she wasn't loosing any teeth. We just had to keep telling her that they will come out when her permanent teeth are ready to come in. A part of me wonders if she wasn't in her room wiggling a tooth until it got loose.

Being the sentimental mom that I am, it almost made me cry (my husband is sure to tell me to get a grip when he reads this). I just can't imagine this beautiful face being toothless, and then having bigger teeth! Which brings up the next question... where is she going to put those bigger teeth? Despite her talking all the time, her mouth just isn't that big! It houses the teeth she currently has, but shows no room for more at the moment. It will be interesting to see how they come in though, because she sucked her thumb until she was 4 or 4 1/2. Will she be a rabbit like her momma was, or did we dodge the buck teeth? Only time will tell. But in the mean time, I'm just gonna sulk because my baby girl is growing up, and now her pending loss of teeth is just rubbing it in my face that she's not going to be little forever.