Bop-a-top with Ted

Last year Tyler and I were introduced to an invention that has greatly improved our lives, the Bop-a-top. It is a little devise that is basically a hole punch for drink bottles. We found it at a booth during our visit to a children's expo. We keep one at home and one in the car for our frequent fast food visits. The Bop-a-top punches a hole in the lid of a drink the exact size for a straw to fit into. This eliminates spills even if your kid drops the drink! Huzzah! 

We recently ran out of straws in the car. One day while Tyler was driving with Ted they decided to make a stop by McDonalds. Ted was anxious to drink his chocolate milk to which Tyler replied he would have to wait until they arrived at home since the car was out of straws (they have to be smaller size straws to fit into the hole). Ted's response to this was, "Can you show me we are out of straws?" 

Now, unbeknownst to Tyler, I had replenished the straw supply in the car. So when he went to open the center console and prove to Ted there were, in fact, no straws he was shown an entire bag of them... we both agree Ted will never believe Tyler ever again. 

Taking a walk in nature

Everyday seems to begin and end with an infinite list of requests from Ted. He begins the day asking to watch a show and that is often the last request of the night as well. 

Today's list included asking to go to the zoo, the aquarium, Costco (to buy chips and dip), the park, but his most pressing desire was to go back to the nature center where he would find all the numbers. 

The Shipley Nature Center, as I have most likely mentioned before, has a loop with numbered stops and a map that explains what each number is marking. Since we had the car today I decided to drive there sans stroller. I really did not want Tidus to fall asleep because then he would not take his nap later in the day.

 As it turns out Tidus is a walking machine. He walked almost the entire loop. This is even more impressive when you take into account the trail is covered in wood chips making it very difficult with little feet to walk through.

 Ted was our guide for the day and lead us to each numbered and then pointed out where the number was on his map.

 Anytime you see a picture of Tidus pointing up you can bet that he is pointing at either an airplane or a helicopter.

 Tidus was also super into feeling all the different plants as we walked along the trail. This gave me anxiety because there are signs in a couple areas warning of poison ivy and I have no idea what any of the poison plants look like... other than the voice of Marge Simpson in my head warning, "Leaves of three, let them be."

 We took a few of the side trails this time and found this cool little hut. Next to it was a cougar pelt complete with the head. I tried to get either of the boys to stand next to it for a picture but they were too afraid. Some day we will go on one of the tours so we will know what all we are looking at. For now we just like exploring.

The Festival of Flight

Most of the activities we participate in are found out just by chance. One morning, after dropping Tyler off at work, I was driving the kids to the aquarium and noticed a billboard that was advertising the Festival of Flight. Luckily I was in tons of traffic so I had plenty of time to read the info. Also the festival was to be held at the Long Beach airport which we are very familiar with around here, and it is free so double bonus.

The festival has booths, food trucks, music and tons of airplanes to check out. Most of the airplanes had a not touch policy but a couple were letting people have a seat.

 Ted was filmed giving a thumbs up in this plane when it was his turn to have a seat. I have no idea what he was filming for but it was still cool.

 Ted also got to sit in a police helicopter.

 We all sat in the luxery helicopter that you can pay a couple hundred dollars to get a ride in to Catalina Island. Tyler and I discussed investing in our own one of these. ;) It was so comfy.  

 It's Bulldog from Planes! :)

 This giant plane behind Tidus is a medical plane or something. There was a line that stretched around the world so take a walk through it so we passed on that.

 Ted has become quite the big brother in the past week. He is always helped Tidus, holding his hand, and making sure he is taken care of. Ted also still sits on Tidus and shoves him over so... basically they are brothers.

 Tidus LOVED pointing out all the planes and helicopters that were flying overhead. I think he was more into the planes in the air than the ones on the ground.

The festival even had a bounce house for free. So that was our last stop. In total were at the festival for a little over an hour. We arrived right when it started which was smart because it was starting to get more and more crowded. Plus the clouds were burning off in the sky so it was also getting hot outside. It was a lot of fun! The perfect activity family Saturday activity :) 

Another video for Tyler

It is the second annual Father's Day video for Tyler. Last year I did it way before Father's Day and this year I did it WAY after... but at least I am averaging one per year. 

Tyler is an awesome husband and father and I am so blessed to have him as my own!! 

Going places with a GroPro

That is a pretty misleading title. I am not really going anywhere new. Tyler bought me a GoPro and gave it to me early for my birthday. Having never thought I would own a GoPro this was shocking... but not that shocking since I am pretty into cameras and I have quite a few. I still have another week until my birthday. I am hoping (fingers crosses) Tyler will get the day off work so we can go to Knott's Berry Farm.

The GoPro is famous for its super wide angle, pretty much fisheye, lens which makes for some fun pics. And it is a lot easier to carry around than my big DSLR.

Check out my video I made at the bottom :)

Video of Ted Swimming

Here is the video of Ted swimming. 

The first day of fall!

It is the first day of fall and 73 degrees. Yesterday it was 80! When we moved here my dad thought it would get boring having the same weather every single day. We have lived here for a year now and so far I can say, no... no it does not get boring. 

Other people are probably getting bored listening to me talk about how much I love the weather down here... ;) 

Ted loved his little lambie! We learned a few months ago that lambie is in fact a girl so we refer to lambie as her and she. Sometimes Tyler, always the teaser, will take lambie and Ted says, "Hey that's my girl!" Which I think it so stinking adorable. 

Today on our half hour walk to check the mail Ted put lambie on the front of his bike. Knowing lambie would keep falling off I wrapped an elastic head back around her and the handle bars. It was her homemade seatbelt and Ted was thrilled. It was also ridiculously adorable. 

 Another activity we did for the first day of fall was go swimming!... Who am I kidding, we still go swimming everyday. It is crazy now though because all the kids are in school (awesome) and for some reason when the weather drops to the low 70s people stop going swimming... it is just too cold. Not for us though.

I am posting about us swimming today because TED SWAM ACROSS THE HOT TUB! Let me give a bit more details... we usually start swimming in the pool and then we move to the hot tub and then back to the pool (back and forth, back and forth). We do not turn the bubbles on in the hot tub so it is not super hot but still nice and warm. Ted has been practicing putting his head under water with his goggles lately and floating around. He does this right next to the hand rail so he can pull himself back above water. Today I was pointing out to him that if he start floating out into the middle of the pool just kick your legs and you will move the direction you want to go. He continued diving under water for quite a while and then he took off!

He pushed off the side of the hot tub and just started swimming! This was not floating around and drowning while trying to make it to the surface swimming. This was intentional kicking and paddling under water to get to the other side! I was like whaaaaa? I was holding Tidus at the time so I just walked along side Ted while he swam and let him do his thing and he made it! CRAZY! Our hot tub is a pretty big size so this was no small feat. He even swam around two more times! I could tell he was getting tired but man oh man was I impressed! I only wished I had my waterproof camera... next time ;)

Ted plays soccer, the write up

As you saw in the video from my previous post, Ted is playing soccer!! We signed him up for the Huntington Beach parks and rec team. Here is a fun fact. They don't call it Parks and Rec down here. They call it "Sands". So he is on the HB sands soccer team. What else would you expect from a city with the word "beach" in the name.

We bought Ted a soccer ball a few weeks ago and we have been practicing a bit so Ted would not be too overwhelmed his first day. He is great. Ted has mastered (for a 3 year old) passing the ball, dribbling, and not using your hands.

On the day of his first practice and worked to get him all pumped up. The kids were to meet at the large sports arena by Central Park. I simply followed all the other families with young kids. After getting in line to check Ted in we were told to play around until practice started. Practice was inside a large enclosed field with fake grass. Ted didn't even hesitate. He ran into the field, grabbed a loose ball and began dribbling up and down the field. Parents had to stay outside the shoulder high wall the watch. To begin all the children were lined up and then randomly decided into three teams and given a shirt. Ted is on the black team, the black panthers. They did some stretching, passing, and dribbling. Ted did really well with the basic concepts... Except I don't think he quite knew how to act in a team setting. This was by far the cutest and funniest thing. Ted would randomly run off. He would just run to the other side of the field, grab a ball and dribble it back. Being a spectator on the other side of the wall I couldn't really do much other than to try and point out that they lost Ted. Oh and laugh. It was not super disruptive, just funny.

In the end he loved soccer. He is excited to go back next week... Hopefully he will stay with his team this time.

Going with a bike ride

Ted had his first day of soccer

Sea World

Tyler surprised us this week with a trip to Sea World. He was able to get super cheap tickets through his work which was awesome! They were only open from 10-5 so we made an effort to get their right when it opened which we did and it was worth it! 

My family had just gone to Sea World the month before so I felt like we had some good insider tips to use before heading out. We followed pretty much all their ideas. When we first arrived we went straight to the souvenir stand and bought our cups with free refills. I grabbed a map with all the show listings and we planned out what we we see. It worked out that we were able to see all the shows! 

We had a bit of time before our first show so we went and checked out the Orcas swimming around in their tanks. It is so cool so see them in real life. They are gorgeous. And just as I guessed would happen, Ted LOVED it! He loves the ocean and all things in it. 

 After the orcas we headed to the sea lion show but stopped but the dolphin demonstration that was just about to start. They are ridiculously adorable too!

 Another tip from my family was to not sit in the splash zone. So for the sea lion show Tidus and I sat a few rows back. Tyler wanted to get as close as possible so I let Ted and him sit up front. The splashes from this show were not intense at all. Tidus LOVED this show! He was mesmerized the entire time and was dancing along with all the music. I agree this was probably my favorite show too.

 Tyler and Ted up in the splash zone.

 Next we rushed over to the Shamu show. I knew this splash zone would be intense but Shamu was the big reason Tyler wanted to come so we once again sat right up front. We got drenched!!! It was early in the day on a hot summer day so I was not too worried. Poor Ted and Tidus were pretty traumatized.

 After Shamu we saw the Pet Show which was adorable. Ted had to go potty right in the middle so I ran him out the back exit. Don't tell anyone but I really did not want to miss this show so I had Ted pee in a bush behind the building and we ran back in. :)

Then we scurried over to the dolphin show. Sea World was not crowded but the dolphin show was!! To say we were sitting in the nose bleed section is putting it mildly! I think I saw a plane fly by our heads ;) But we could still see the dolphins flip and by this time I think the kids were getting a bit worn out on shows.

That concluded all the big shows so we walked around and checked out the rest of the animals. Ted was most looking forward to the sharks.

Tyler bought a couple trays of food to feed the bat rays.

 He even made me feed one of them. Eww... I watch these animal trainers and I think man that would be so fun but then I go to feed a dead fish to a bat ray and reality sets in... I will stick with my pug.

 There were absolutely no lines in the kid ride section so we took Ted on all of those while Tidus napped.

 I loved seeing the penguins. They were so cute! Ted was more interested in the moving sidewalk... Oh well..

 Tidus woke up in time to go to the arctic which I think was a bit of a let down. Probably because it was so crowded... Here are Ted and Tidus checking out the beluga whale.

 It was a fun day! I am glad we live where we do and can take our kids on so many different adventures.

Here is my video attempt to catch Tidus dancing... I totally didn't :( Boo! But he is still cute watching the sea lions.