To Grandma's House We Go!

If you have checked out the About Me tab above, then you know I grew up in Vidor, TX. And yes, I am proud of that. Because people need to know that normal nice people come out of there haha and maybe some of you are saying, well who are you talking about???

When I was in college, most of my classes were huge, so most days I sat by a new person and usually people are good about small talk before class starts, so a common question was, "Where are you from?" And I would get one of two responses... one was, "oh... really... you're from THERE??? Isn't that where blah blah blah..." or people would have no idea where Vidor was and couldn't care less. Anyway, that's a total tangent when all I'm about to say is that we went to visit my parents in Vidor this past weekend haha... and I love my home town and am proud of it. It was such a great little place to grow up and I have sweet memories and friends there.

Friday, we spent the morning at home playing and watching movies so mommy could frantically run around trying to get all of our stuff together. If you have kids, you know it takes an incredible amount of stuff for them to function.

"Why do you buy me toys mom, just give me a measuring cup."

Then one of my best friends stopped by to pick up some oils she ordered and she dropped off EXACTLY what I needed to get through the afternoon!!! Love!!

After Jacob got home from work and the boys woke up from their naps, we packed up the car and headed over to Vidor-ville. It takes almost/about two hours from Friendswood to get there, and once we can get out of our part of Houston, it's not a bad drive. 

This little dude takes soooo long to fall asleep in the car... and then only sleeps 30 minutes.
Had to bring his fox to cuddle with. :)

As soon as we walk in the door, the boys are ready to PLAY. My parents saved so many of our old toys from when my sister and I were growing up, and Jackson thinks they are the greatest things ever to play with! Novelty gets you everywhere with kids!

I love watching my Dad play with my boys. Sometimes I feel bad for him that he had to put up with my sister and me being all dramatic and girly our whole lives, so it's been fun to watch him play with these little dudes. That toy to the left in the picture below, the little people zoo, was a "gift" from Joanna when she was born haha... 

And because my Mommy loves me a lot, she made my Great Grandmother's gumbo. I'm obsessed. I jokingly suggested it for dinner when she asked me what I wanted to eat, and the next time I talked to her she was all like, "yeah I got the stuff." :)

Thanks MOM!

It's always been a good dinner if you end up only in your diaper afterwards. #bluestripe #momchangemydiaper

And again because my mommy loves me... apple crisp. I may or may not have eaten this three times this weekend. I did go run Saturday morning... as if that helps at all. ;)

On Saturday, we just hung out at my parents house and just let the boys play. It's nice to just get up and sit around on a Saturday morning and let your momma make you breakfast. That's what I did. And I can't remember the last time I did that! Again, thanks Mom! :) 

Snuggles with Papa!

One of the perks of your baby deciding they don't want to nurse anymore, Gramma can feed him!

Jude has recently started eating solids, or beginning to figure out solids I should say. He loves to try to feed himself. I did baby led weaning/solids with Jackson because he also liked feeding himself and didn't really like me spoon feeding him. I've been trying to do both with Jude, but he really enjoys trying to eat with his own hands and it's a really cute mess. He's had pears, bananas, avocado and softened apples so far and also had some cheese and cantaloupe at my Mom's. It's really impressive to watch him I think, and he gets more of it than you think! 

After naps, my Dad came in with his annual "I have something red in my pocket for everyone and am trying to be sneaky about it even though I do it every year so you know it's coming" haha... For the last 15 years or more, my Dad has been getting my sister and I silver coin ornaments. They are so beautiful and each year have a different holiday design on one side and the year on the back. The last couple of years Dad has been getting them for my boys, and this was Jude's first one! 

Who needs a fancy coin, just gimme that pouch to chew on!

My sister and I with our coins! (You might spot my favorite mug from my Granddad sitting there!)

After lunch, we just cuddled and played some more. I really love days like this where I don't have anything "to do" or anywhere to rush around to. I can just sit with my family and enjoy them. The best. 

I love this so much!

After Jackson got up from his nap, my Dad gave him his coin too. Love his little face! So sweet!

We were planning on going to a Fish Fry Saturday with my parents that was being hosted by some sweet people from church here, but both boys woke from naps not feeling good and coughing... of course!! So we just stayed in out of the cold and let the boys rest. I feel like almost every time I bring them home they get sick haha, how does this always happen?!

Sunday morning we got up and went to church and then came back to my mom's for lunch, more playing and naps!

Because once you have kids, no one cares about taking pictures with you anymore!

This one may or may not have ended up becoming my mom's new phone background mysteriously... still not sure how that happened. ;)

Not sure if I've said this lately, but I love this guy. He has made my life so wonderful. :)

My sweet Grandmom June :)

We headed back home once the boys had a chance to take naps. Jackson was pretty miserable the whole way home, crying every time he coughed. I think he ate 8 pieces of chocolate because I was just trying to keep him distracted and happy so his little brother could get a little nap haha... #desperate

So of course, Monday morning we ended up at the doctor's office with a Starbucks vanilla frappucchino in my little one's hands. Because "milkshakes" always make doctors visits easier. He did so great and did everything the doctor asked him to without getting upset. I was really proud of him! Thankfully it was just a cold, but this momma would rather be safe than sorry, especially when they are having trouble breathing from coughing so much! Eek! 

Hope you enjoyed our weekend! More to come soon for Thanksgiving activities!

San Diego, CA Vaca - Day 8: Coming Home! Traveling from San Diego to Houston

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”  ― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky 

This is one of my most favorite travel quotes. I feel this way every time I go somewhere and then come back. You just can't get experiences in other places where you live, you can't experience new people, new food, new things just staying at home. The travel bug bit me a long time ago and I'm not looking for a remedy for that bug bite! ;0)

Even though we had a wonderful trip, it is always good to come home. I missed my house, I missed my bed, I missed my daughter labradoodle... It is good to go and later it is good to return. And then do laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.

Our morning started off well, got our luggage together, checked out of the hotel and went to return our rental car. We got to the airport and checked in and then went for some breakfast. We could have eaten at the hotel but I always get a little nervous about returning rentals and having enough time for security, so we just decided to play it safe today. Once we got through security, we got some breakfast at this little cafe. I had looked online and there was a whole list of places in the airport to eat at, but of course Southwest had their own little private section of gates that had two places to eat haha actually I would say just one and half, because one was a kiosk. But it worked out and was fine, our tummies were full. It just wasn't Einstein's Bagels... yeah I might have been looking forward to that just a little bit! ;0) 

P.S. - I didn't know this but they told me at check in today that if you are pregnant and with a kid, you can preboard the flight, you just have to check in at the gate and tell them. The girl at the gate was a little reluctant but at 33 weeks prego with a feisty toddler, I didn't want to fight the other mass of people trying to get seats on this plane like last time! So I was like uhh yes please! Just in case anyone didn't know that!

Sporting some ninja turtle pjs today! There was a girl in security that asked another guy if he had the same ones haha... he was like of course!

Family selfie plus a BUS!

Waiting for food and spinning the fishie ring

Just enjoying some BACON and doing a little hair twirling.

We finished breakfast and went to our gate, which was packed! Full flight today! So Jackson made some friends, running around like he loves to do and a little bit of floor rolling. You would think that as a parent I might be embarrassed by some of this but you just get to the point where you aren't! At least I have haha... Ain't nobody got time to worry about toddler behavior... He's not screaming, hitting or spitting on anyone so we're good to go.

Grabbed a window seat this time so we could enjoy some of the views taking off. Our third seat partner I dubbed the Candy Man today. As soon as he sat down he whipped out a Snickers bar and gave it to Jackson. Of course he wanted a bite. Who cares if it is 10 a.m.? Then later he gave him a flame bar, which I have never seen before. I was like please stop giving the prego lady with a sad pancreas candy bars! ahhh.....

Corondo Island and San Diego

I love looking at the landscapes from the plane, it's amazing how God has created such a beautiful place for us to live!

Thank you $1 section at Target for keeping us busy for a little while today!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip and seeing our pictures! It may be a while before we go anywhere again haha! Gotta get this baby out and raised a little bit! Happy traveling to everyone!

San Diego, CA Vaca - Day 7: Birch Aquarium in La Jolla and Gaslamp Quarter

So breakfast was PACKED this morning! Apparently a ton of people arrived here over the weekend and were all standing in the waffle line this morning when we got there! So no waffles for little man this morning, but considering he has had like 3 this week, I think he is ok! He has been very concerned with our coffee this week, he always likes getting a taste from me, so this morning we got him his own (empty) coffee cup and he loved it. Little barista in the making!

On today's agenda was to go up to La Jolla (sounds like La Hoya) and visit the Birch Aquarium. It was about 20 minutes from our hotel. The aquarium had a lot of mixed reviews online again, just because it is a smaller aquarium. We enjoyed our time there though, spent about an hour and a half, which was perfect for the attention span of an almost two year old. I found some coupons online and saved us $6, whoo hoo!!

They had a lot of different sized tanks full of "fishies" to look at, and I loved how they had a step up for little people. Jackson LOVED the fish tanks here, he was so excited to look at everything.

My favorite exhibits here were of the sea horses. They had such a variety!

Serious contemplation going on here!

"Fishies!!!!"

I thought this gal was so cute! Loved the colors!

Part of the sea horse nursery

So interesting!

Outside on the terrace overlooking the ocean, they had some tidal pools set up to replicate kind of what we saw at Point Loma earlier this week. Jackson liked looking in the water and touching the water. What cracked me up though was how much he loved the fake rock sculpture and the plastic starfish and shells... I'm like of course haha...

He kept sliding them down the side, it's a miracle we got him away from this thing without him kicking and screaming haha! He totally would be ok taking this huge thing home with us!

Views from the terrace

There's a reason why the stroller exit is through the giftshop... because you end up buying a $4 plastic starfish and a $2 "fishie ring." Jacob was so proud that he picked the pink one haha he had a death grip on that thing, there was no changing colors! And he's sleeping with it tonight of course. ;0)

 We left the aquarium and made our way down into La Jolla to find a place to eat lunch. This little city is hoppin'! It was so congested, even on a Monday! The traffic kept moving, but we were a little surprised at just how many cars there were. We finally found a parking place and walked over to George's Outdoor Terrace for lunch.

City pics

We passed "LaRue's" restaurant! It was tempting to go eat there!

So the kids meal came with ice cream... I know, this kid has had so much sugar this week! He loves ice cream so much, and when the rest of it melted, he drank it with a straw haha...

View from the terrace

We were going to go down to the La Jolla cove to get some pictures of all of the sea lions that gather there, but traffic ate into our time so we just decided to head out for Jackson to get a nap. Traffic coming into La Jolla and leaving was pretty congested. We got back to the hotel and got little man to sleep. And he slept... and slept... for two and a half hours! I think I have thoroughly worn my kid out because very rarely does he take two hour plus naps two days in a row! Wat?! So by the time he woke up, it was too late to go to the Railroad museum in Balboa Park, which I had wanted to do earlier this week, so we headed over to Gaslamp Quarter to get some dinner. This is just another part of town that has tons of places to eat and cute little shops to walk in and out of.

When we got to the car, we realized we had a little visitor hehe!

We went to a restaurant called Wereworlf for dinner and it was so good! Sometimes the staff dresses up like super heroes, but they weren't tonight. The food was great though, ended up being one of our favorite meals.

So you know your toddler is done traveling and parents are done with trying to reign him in when you let him tear through a whole pack of gum while waiting on dinner haha... The staff was so nice here, they thought he was great and said he could run around wherever he wanted just not out the door haha. 

Little hand helping mommy out with her carbs! Definitely lost some bread here haha!

Of course Jacob had to do a werewolf call a couple of times while we were here... ;-)

Pictures of Gaslamp Quarter

So I really don't know how we keep ending up at places like this... maybe because they are EVERYWHERE! I have to say, I have done pretty well this week with my prego pancreas blood sugars, especially considering we have eaten out for every meal for a solid week... but these cupcakes did me in tonight! So sad! Even splitting with my sugar baby didn't help! But thankfully it was as bad as Chinese Food weekend when I was trying to figure out if I had gestational diabetes, but it was one of my higher meals. So tomorrow... back to life, back to reality... no more sweets for this mama!

This is his, "NO mom, I don't care if you want to take a picture, I was to eat this NOW!!!" face.

So that concludes our trip to San Diego!!! Tomorrow morning we fly back to Houston and hope and pray our child can get back to his normal schedule as soon as possible! We have loved our time here, there is so much to see and do and EAT. It is a super friendly town and so easy to navigate, with absolutely perfect weather. I really can't say enough good things about this city. It will be fun to come back again when the boys are older and can do more. I feel like we had a good sampling of everything, but there was so much more that we could have done. I'm so glad that we took this trip before becoming a family of four, we made so many fun memories with each other and action Jackson that I will always remember!