Sophie Dance Class, for Elaine

Felix's 8th Birthday in the Snow

We surprised Felix with his first trip to the snow on his 8th birthday. Just 2.5 hours north east of where we are, Idyllwild is a pretty little village with lots of secret places to sled, build snowmen/women and have snowball fights. After his initial disappointment at the compacted, icy roadside snow (!), he had a wonderful time.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

FIRST SLED RIDE:

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

GRACE'S SNOW BABY (apologies for bad quality):

WORLD'S BIGGEST SNOWBALL:

GRACE SNOWBALLING:

SNOW ANGEL:

MORE SLEDDING:

Christmas Day

Champagne on Christmas Day #1

Champagne on Christmas Day #2

So many presents to chose from, which one first....?

Pogo Stick...he actually was much more excited than he shows in this video...he bounced a lot just after this, just didn't catch it on camera!

Present from Granny for Grace

Grand Annie Present for Felix

Present from Granny for Felix #1

Present from Granny for Felix #2

Present from Grandannie for Grace

The New Children's Museum, San Diego

Felix and Izaya at the New Children's Museum in San Diego. Too much fun.





Spinning up a Storm

Chariot Racing

Monster Bash

Ballerina

Horribly fuzzy and dull to begin with but soon Grace's ballerina skills come to the fore..

Balloon Girl

Grace's Birthday Celebrations

This is the girl who will know how to string out a birthday...




October 1, the first in a series (no doubt) of celebrations for Grace's 2nd birthday which is tomorrow, October 2.


Vivian, Grace's nanny organized this one and the whole Brazilian Nanny Mafia turned out in force with their charges. This was my first experience of Grace's secret life and all the secret friends that she has. At last I've met Max ("Maaa") and Piper ("P-p") and all the rest of them. Grace stood serene in her etheral party dress (thanks Yasmin...it's got a lot of life in it yet!) as everyone sung happy birthday to her, first in English and then in Brazilian.


Here's a video of the singing, followed by more assorted shots:

Starlets

Gracie & Sophie enjoying one of the highlights of their trip to Scripps Birch Aquarium...a photo booth.

Leaving the aquarium

Life taken over by real estate

So I'm feeling a little sad that it's been so long between blogs. But my life has been consumed by real estate and is showing no signs of let up.

I notice my last post was mid-March. Just 2 weeks after we put in an offer on a short-sale house. And it's been crazy ever since.

We closed on the house mid-May, started renovations almost immediately and we're still thickly embedded in them.

We moved out of our old house at the beginning of June but we've been unable to move into the new place and have since lived in three different houses and will probably add one, two or even three more to that list before we're finally able to move into our new home. Which will likely still be a bit of a building site. *sigh* as the following photos start to show:

Felix and Izaya get their own construction to renovate.

This pile of dirt has grown to three times its size. Don't ask, just don't ask...

SeaWorld

We've lived here for nearly 7 years and in all that time I've never been to SeaWorld. Indeed Felix only went for the first time last year with my mother when she was visiting.

Why? Well, I guess we're a bit theme-parked out down here. There's Legoland (10 minutes away); the Zoo; Wild Animal Park and of course Disneyland just over an hour away. And I thought SeaWorld would just be more of the same...lots of amusements with a few token sea mammals thrown in.

So, OK I was wrong. It's really very impressive. So to is the rollercoaster, which was really the only amusement, beyond the Sesame St play area, that had nothing to do with fish. Although it does have a lot of water.

AdmittedlyI did still feel a bit uncomfortable when I saw these huge whales in these relatively small pools. Ditto the dolphins and sea lions. I know though that they have an amazing breeding program, which they remind you about constantly when you're there. A handy guilt assuager I'm guessing.

But yes, it was fun. And I'm glad I left it that long as well. There's no danger of us becoming jaded. The shows, as I said, were incredible. Very sophisticated production and well scripted. The two trainers in the water at the same time with their respective whales then pushing them out of the water so they could turn somersaults in the air...well, pretty incredible. And the exhibits were very impressive too. My favourite? The penguins. I went back about three times! Top tip, discovered by accident: go visit them right at the end of the day, they're much livelier.

Thanks to my aunt, cousin and her brood for coming to visit San Diego so we could enjoy such a great day. Here are some highlights below:

Pauline, Gerod, Connor and PamLiam & Felix
This doesn't show what I wanted it to, but if you click on it and look very closely above the whales, you'll see the two trainers, camouflaged by the crowd, turning somersaults in the air. Amazing.

Felix and 2 beluga whales.

Whilst we were getting soaked on the rollercoaster, Grace had her own soggy fun.