October in San Diego

I wanted/needed a little getaway so Mike and I did a little overnighter to San Diego. We had bought a fun pass earlier in the year so that is where we started our day...

Going in and being greeted by a giant pumpkin fish!!

Our usual pose as we came in where they take your picture then try to get you to buy one.

Love the critters all around

This is why we came back... Turtle Reef was open.

Turtles everywhere!!! Very cool exhibit..

Then to the Sea Lion show... It was hilarious... there was a Sea lion there that wasn't suppose to be so they ad libbed through their little skit. Very funny!

More critters...

Love this spot

Pumpkin fish everywhere!

Cute!

Ideas for the backyard... wonder if this will grow in Arizona?!?

Cool succulants

Can you tell Mike was SO excited to pose for this picture... I wanted him to sit here cuz his shirt was red and there were these cool little flowers the same color as his shirt! What a good sport!

One of our favorites... the skyride!!

I got to hold a starfish again!!! More than one time this year!!!

Giant candy!! Yum!!

We couldn't leave Sea World without a waffle cone!!

 We stayed at the Hacienda in Old Town. We love Old Town and this place was great! Lots of atmosphere!

 Then we walked to one of the MANY Mexican Restaurants in San Diego... really they are everywhere and even right next to each other. This one was recommended to us and it was great.

 YUM... good food and good decor and...

great music!

 So it's like 9:00 at night now... normally we would be fast asleep in bed (it's an old people thing)... but I booked us a spot on the Ghost Tour. I wanted to do something Halloweeny!!

 This tour was so fun and very entertaining. Don't have too many pictures  cuz it was DARK everywhere we went! We got on the tour bus and drove to several "haunted" places around Old Town while our Storyteller told history and ghost lore...

 This was our storyteller. She was awesome... she never stopped telling us stories the whole entire time even while we were driving from place to place. No script... she knew her stuff.

 Ha! She looks kinda scarey here ... but she was just telling another story and my camera caught this pose... she was really very pretty!

 Oh no!!! when we got back on the bus there were spiders everywhere!!!

 So after our late night out we got a good nights sleep so we could get up and go shopping! We just walked down the street to one of the little street fairs...

 Ha! a store wth just Jerky and Root beer! love it!

 My skeleton friend!

 Can't leave Old Town without a waffle cone!!! yeah... we LOVE waffle cones... we have to have one almost everywhere we go!!

Such a fun trip ... and we did it all with just backpacks...we are getting good at packing light. Thanks Mike for an awesome fun time!!!

bathroom remodel...

The last piece of tile is going in the bathroom!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Birthday...

Braxon and I share the same birthday! How cool is that!! Happy birthday to us!!

Fun birthday and many more to come... I love having a birthday buddy to share this day with!

and the remodel goes on and on and on...

We may not be the fastest remodelers... but we are good... well Mike is a great remodeler and I am a great supervisor!!Ha! BUT... it is getting closer!!!

Stay tuned for the reveal!!

Blast from the past!

Braxon had a homework assignment... ask a grandparent what they remembered about kindergarten. Piece of cake... I remember everything about kindergarten and why shouldn't I?!?!?!... I'm relatively a young grandparent.... til I wrote the year I started and realized this is my 50th anniversary of starting school!!!!
My goodness... that is 5 decades... a half a century!!!!!!!!!! BUT... I was only 4 when I started!
So for my posterity... here is my kindergarten story:

 Here is a picture of me in kindergarten. I was so mad I didn't know it was picture day. My hair was in a pony tail and I did NOT want my hair in a pony tail on picture day!

I LOVED kindergarten. I went to Kindergarten in Tempe Arizona back in 1961 and I remember it so well! I asked my mom so many times when the first day of school was that I think she couldn't wait for me to go either! I had my dress all picked out for a LONG time to wear on the first day.... it was a white dress with small black polka dots and the skirt was nice and poofy! oh yes.... girls wore dresses and boys wore nice shirts and pants. We had two teachers. Mrs Slinker was the main teacher and she had an assistant. We had a lot of kids but I don't remember how many.

To me our kindergarten room was amazing! On the back wall were
shelves full of toys... LOTS of toys. One of my favorites were the lincoln logs BUT... I didn't get to play with those too much because they were considered a boy toy! we had small tables and chairs where we always had snack time. There was a gathering area where the teacher called us over and we had to sit on the floor with our legs
crossed and our hands folded in our laps. We went over the usual numbers and colors, alphabet, days of the week and sang songs, learned our name and addresses and phone numbers and learned manners too.

 

But my absolute favorite part of this gathering time was Willie the Weatherman! (attached picture). We would have to look outside the window and explain what kind of weather we were having and dress Willie according to the weather. Of course living in Arizona it was mostly sunny and warm so he pretty much looked the same everyday, but I loved that part. Also in our classroom were some little areas that were divided with little walls and filled with a theme for our pretend play time. Like one room was a kitchen and one room had play tools etc... and we would pretend cooking or going to work and things like that. We also had rest time.... I did NOT like rest time. We had to put a little mat on the floor and lay down for what seemed to be a LONG time.

Lots of the kids took little naps but I never did... I wanted to keep playing and learning stuff. We had a playground with swings and monkey bars and a HUGE slide. I was going up the slide one day and the girl in front of me went down tummy first and her feet went last and she somehow kicked her feet up and kicked out my two front teeth. I was NOT happy about that! One thing I enjoyed so much was growing garden. We had a little plot of dirt outside our door and we planted all kinds of vegetables and took care of them and then we ate them!! I still love to grow a garden and eat fresh vegetables! We also went on a field trip one day to a farm. I had never been to a farm before and it was so fun to see all the baby animals! Our teachers were very nice and everyday when we left we hugged each of them goodbye and we always felt very
loved by them. Kindergarten was great fun and I learned a lot and I think I was a perfect little student too! Here's my report card to prove it!!

 So there ya have it... one of my blast from a half a century ago stories.... It doesn't seem that long ago but somehow I now feel like such an antique!!!

Florida part two!

Here's the eal reason we went to Florida... Dustin and Aimee moved there!

Brandon flew out earlier to help make the long drive and Mike and I just went straight to Florida. I didn't take any of the unpacking pictures... but it was just the usual moving and unpacking. Got finished just before it rained! It rains a lot in Florida! 

 Then we had to go out to eat of course!!! Buffet time!!

 Really.... does this look like Florida??!?... there were dense woods everywhere!

 It's time to take a break from moving so we are going to what Florida is famous for... the BEACH!!!

 Hey... finally some palm trees!

 The beaches all have really soft white sand...

 Woo Hoo... Mike is READY!!!

 This is hard to see but these things were flying around all day advertising stuff. It really works cuz we ended up eating dinner at one of the places it was advertising and it was really good!

 Uh oh... no more boogey boarding!!

 Ok... all I heard about before I went to Florida were the crystal clear beaches.... Ummmm.... this is NOT crystal clear... this is GREEN.... like WAY green.... the ocean was spitting seaweed all over us.. in our swimsuits... everywhere. So then we heard that this time of year the ocean cleanses itself... so basically the ocean was barfing seaweed on us... I know there is a scientific term... but anyway... the great thing is that the water was warm!!!

If anyone knows me well they know I DON'T go in the ocean past my ankles... the water is usually too cold and the ocean is full of fish poop and creatures and waves that will drag you out to sharks and stuff.... but that is actually me out in the ocean and I even went out further with Mike... so cross that off my list.... but NO close ups of me in a swimsuit!!! hey look... there is Brandon playing in the sand!!

 We had great fun at the beach... but now it is time to go....

 Mike and I had to head back to Panama City but we had a GREAT time!

 on our way back we drove along the coast... I think Destin is where all the parties are!

 More woods...

 Can you just FEEL the humidity?!?!?

 OK... the airport.... is quite small... and empty... we were the only ones going through security.... and where are all the other passengers?!?!? It was like airport twilight zone!!

 WOW... look at all those flights....

So we waited patiently for an employee and some passengers actually showed up and we made our way safely home! Love to go to new places and can't wait to go back!