Sea World

OK, I know a narrative of our camping trip is long awaited. I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day! But I finally was able to upload Sea World pics last night. I was having issues uploaded so all I got uploaded was Sea World so you'll have to be satisfied with that until I can get Legoland and the campground up. =)

So we went to SeaWorld on Wednesday. It was pretty nice day. Not too hot but the sun was shining!! We got there right when they opened at 9am. Shoot! It was a ghost town! It was almost like we were the only ones in the park. We headed towards the right side of the park and figured we'd look at a few things and then go back for the 11am Shamu show. So we stopped at the Arctic Experience. We of course could not ride their little "airplane ride" since the kids were too small but we were able to walk directly to the exhibit.











After walking in there and seeing the polar bears and walrus', we walked over to my favorite place - the penguins! Connor liked them too as we had a hard time getting him away from there!



After finally getting Connor away from the penguins, it was time to feed the girls. It was a little bit of a challenge but we learned from our Legoland trip on Monday! We gave Connor a snack and let him eat as I fed one girl and Surbjit fed the other. I'm sure we were a site to see. Although it still was not packed at this time. After getting everyone fed (and diapers changed), we decided to head over to the Shamu show. Boy was it a good thing we did!!!! It seemed that everyone in the park was going to the show. We chose a seat fairly high (we did NOT want to get wet!) and waited for the show to start. I was shocked that Connor waited patiently for it. After Legoland's show we had to wait five minutes for (and he was NOT patient then), I didn't think he'd wait patiently this time either. But we could see Shamu and the whales in the outside tank plus there was water so I guess it was all good!



After Shamu we went to eat lunch. It wasn't too bad. Surbjit wrangled the kids and started feeding Taylor & Emily their solids while I went to get us three lunch. $40 later (I so don't want to know how much it'll be when the girls get older :sigh:) I had our lunch and we ate it.

After lunch we basically just walked around Sea World.



We got to see Dolphins:



Flamingo's:



And we got to see the Tide Pool's and check out the cool starfish:



Then we headed over to Sea World's new toddler area called Bay of Play:



It was pretty cool! They have three rides, plus a HUGE network of nets, ropes, and tons of stuff to climb up (which Connor wouldn't go up the net so no go). Plus a little toddler area to run around in for the under 37" crowd. And they had a beach area with sand to play in:



Then Connor and I made it onto the rides. It was a little sketchy on if we'd make it on or not. Connor is not the most patient of kids (but what 2 1/2 year old is?). But we did! The first ride we went on was the "teacups". They aren't tea cups but that's what everyone remembers this ride as. I personally don't like to make it spin. I get dizzy so I figured we'd be good to go. Unfortunately, because of the momentum of the ride it will automatically spin anyway. So I kept trying my hardest to make it spin only a little but that wheel is hard to make stop!! I tried to use two hands but Connor wanted my arm around him so I had to do it one handed. I thought he wasn't having fun but I kept asking him on the ride if he was having fun and he said yes. Although he kept burrowing deeper and deeper into the side of me. =) When the ride was over, he asked to ride it again so I guess he had fun!







After the "teacups", we rode the flying fishes. It was pretty cool as we got to jump ahead of like 10 people in line because there was ONE car ("fish") left and they were all parties of 3 or more. Connor wanted it up the whole time so we flew the entire ride. We would be going around and all of a sudden I'd hear him say "WEEEEE". He did this like three times. =D It was so cute!!!





After this ride, the girls were getting cranky so it was another round of bottles and diaper changes. By the time, Connor was getting a little cranky too so we decided to cut our losses and head back to the campground. On the way out, we asked Connor, "are you tired?" Of course he said "no" but as soon as we left the parking lot:



He was out like a light!!!

All the kids did awesome. Do I recommend taking three kids under three? Probably not. LOL! But it was fun and Connor is starting to like the rides more so that's fun. I get to relive my youth! How can that not be fun for me! =)

Stay tuned for Legoland!!!!!

My Review of Evenflo Bottle and Nipple Brush

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

Durable and dishwasher safe, this Evenflo® Bottle and Nipple Brush is designed to clean bottles and nipples. Use with glass, plastic and decorated nursers.

Evenflo Bottle and Nipple Brush

Waste of Money

By Heather + Three Under Three from Buena Park, CA on 7/30/2008

 

1out of 5

Cons: Flimsy, Cheap

Describe Yourself: Parent of Two or More Children, Parent of Multiples (Twins etc)

This bottle brush is defenitly not worth it. There are many more that actually have a sponge instead of the bristles that works so much better. Also, this brand has two separate pieces. One bottle brush and one nipple brush. I've found several other brushes that are two in one and come together. Look elsewhere.

(legalese)

Earthquake

Yes, we had an earthquake at 11:42am this morning. Talk about a rude awakening when you are at work. LOL! My building swayed quite a bit. But it wasn't long. We are all ok. We talked to both Connor's daycare and Taylor & Emily's daycare. They are all ok. The kids at Connor's daycare were eating lunch outside at the time and didn't even know what was happening. They were all told to get up and go toward the center of the backyard. They were all like "huh". Not sure what went down at Taylor & Emily's as Surbjit talked to her. But her land line was down and her cell phone took awhile for her to get through. So we are all OK. And guess what? This is Connor's, Taylor's and Emily's FIRST Earthquake!!!

Hey I'm quoted!

Ok, so while we were at All Seasons Campground, there was a reporter doing a story about RV'ing and gas prices. His initial premise wasn't entirely going through (that RV campgrounds would be much emptier than normal) but apprantly he was able to run with it - for the most part. He interviewed me over the phone since when he was walking around the campground we were getting ready to leave for legoland that day but we talked for about 20 minutes. And he even had a photographer come out and take pictures of us by our motorhome. But I guess they didn't get used. That's ok. Anyway, here is the story HERE . You'll see me quoted at the very bottom. Enjoy!

And to get back to the regularly scheduled programming . ..

Since I still don't have pictures to share but I do have news I thought I'd post about it. I did download all 322 pictures from our camping trip. =) So I'll be e-mailing them when I get a chance to upload them to kodakgallery. So bear with me. But in news . . .

Emily has started crawling!! It's just a nudge here and there but I bet within two weeks, we'll be having to figure out how to contain her!!! And she is clapping! It is so darn CUTE!!! I can't stand it. Just thinking about her clapping I smile. And both her and Taylor are waving. Still not on cue but they can wave bye-bye. Now to just get them to do it when I say bye-bye.

Taylor is still my little laid back lazy girl. Oh well. Maybe once she sees her sister crawling and getting places (although Taylor has no problem getting around. She rolls everywhere!) she'll start too. Only time will tell.

Emily LOVES to feed herself the puffs. Taylor looks at them with disdain. It's like you actually expect me to feed myself? And yesterday after we fed them "dinner" we always give them a bottle, Emily was actually holding her own. Of course, when I went to get the camera she stopped holding it and expected me to hold it.

I can't believe they are 8 months already. It came and went while we were camping. They still amaze me with every new thing they learn. Although they aren't near where Connor was at, at this age, they are doing just fine. Connor was just ahead of himself. =) And it's nice that I've actually been able to sit down and not worry too much about them getting into things. With Connor, I never got to sit down after he turned 5 months! It's been a hard 8 months but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Would I wish twins on anyone?? HELL NO but do I feel blessed that I have them? YES!!

And the answer is . . .

I got a call back from reservationfriend almost immediately after I posted my updated entry below. Very nice woman who looked and said that the campground never put it in their system that my reservation was cancelled so she would call up Flying Flags and talk with them and then call me back. Apparently, there are two systems that they need to cancel, their own and the one that sends the information to reservationfriend. Well, i guess they forgot to do that one. No problem, now it's done and reservationfriend has it in their system too so it should show up on my credit card within the next 2-3 days. Whew! Not so hard afterall but it's just annoying. But I do have to say that the customer service was excellent when I did have to contact someone so A+ for that.

Three Things I've learned

Ok, I wanted to write this down before I forget. Three things I've learned from this RV camping trip.

1.) When reserving with Flying Flags RV Park (eta: or actually ANY park that uses reservationfriend.com as thier reservation company) - do so in person (i.e. over the phone). We made our reservations over the internet. Great and easy right? Except when you cancel. I called and cancelled the Wednesday before we were due to go. No problem. They cancelled my reservation and I would get back all my money. It's now almost two weeks later and it's still not on my credit card account. So I called. Since I did it online, the company that does their online stuff has to give us the credit. Flying Flags has my cancellation into them but it's the online company that has to refund my money. Great. Can you say dispute is in my future. ugh.

2.) Find and read online reviews. We were all set to make reservations at the Escondido RV resort based on what we saw online. Then I searched and found some reviews. Not so nice reviews. So we didn't stay there. Glad we didn't! We checked it out since we were in the area. Definitely not for us. And in this regards, it's also made me aware, I need to start writing my own reviews of our campgrounds. So stay tuned!

3.) Try and NOT go to an RV campground sight unseen. We almost went home after checking in at All Seasons Campground. We ended up with a GREAT spot but the first spot we were given was not wide enough and we would not have been able to open our slides. NOT acceptable. But the final site we ended up with was twice as wide and twice as deep so it was awesome! Again, stay tuned for a report and pictures. =)

So all in all, we had a great vacation. The kids did great (although they all caught a cold). But we had fun and went to Legoland and Sea World. Shamu was a hit with Connor (not so much Taylor as she slept through the whole thing). But I will give details later as time permits and I will try and download all pictures tonight for sharing.

ETA: Wow, who knew I'd get traffic by posting this, LOL! I guess I will be updating on my progress of my refund. I've called reservationfriend today and left a message. If I don't get a call back by this afternoon I'll call again and then I'll call Flying Flags back and talk with Dan (thank you Dan for being so proactive!! I haven't even stayed at your campground but this definitely means I won't cross you off my list. We really want to go check you guys out!) So stay TUNED!! =) For update go HERE.

Emily, Emily, Emily

So last night I was working on a scrapbook page (oh my gosh! You mean I might actually have the girls scrapped before their first birthday! WoW! Do you see pigs flying?!?) and I used the cute photo of Emily I took yesterday of her smiling and I did a July Highlight page. I was writing down all the things she does, one of them being sleeping through the night. Well um, why did I have to go and do that?? So I was up late (10pm) and finally went to bed. Right when I was falling asleep, Emily starts crying. I go in, give her her binkie. No dice. I go back in, move her, turn on her music, give her her binkie. Nope. Gonna have to make a bottle. Thankfully (for me that is), Surbjit had taken a nap after the kids went to bed so was wide awake and did the feeding while I went back to bed. I'll have you know, she ate 4 ozs and then still gobbled down 6 more this morning (where usually she'll eat the 4 ozs less the next morning). Apparantly she really is trying to catch up with her sister!!!

Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the last few weeks:

Connor

Taylor & Emily

Taylor, Connor & Emily (I think it's a little too much to ask for all three to smile at the same time!)

This is what our living room has become. Once they are entirely mobile, we'll be in BIG trouble!!!

Mona's Birthday party

Ok, can you tell I have some time on my hands tonight?? Plus I needed to get the pictures off the camera so I have a full 2MB's for our camping trip this coming week. ;-)

So anyway, I swear it was like the hottest day of the year for Mona's birthday party. It was a very nice shaded park though so it wasn't too bad. Connor was way excited to sing Happy Birthday to his cousin. He just LOVES birthday parties (which means I really have to do something special for him this year). They did a Hawaiian Luau theme (i am so jealous because all I have is November birthdays. Oh well). And had some games for the kids to play and a little playground for toddlers right there too. So Connor definitely was not bored!!

The Birthday Girl!

Taylor & Emily having fun at the birthday party.

Daddy & Emily (he always takes such good pictures with the kids!)

Taylor partied so hard she fell asleep. ;-)~p

Connor was having fun with the "hot coconut" (they played the Hot Potato game with a coconut)

Uncle Harjinder "No Connor you can't touch the cake" (Connor wanted to touch the cake so BAD. That and play with all the toys!)

4th of July

We had a good 4th. Ended up going over to Romy and Jeff's so the kids could play together (Connor, Katrina, and Dylon). And Gina and Curtis ended up over there too so Braeden joined in. Connor just LOVES playing with Braeden so I'm glad they were able to make it. We got there around dinner time and had yummy kabobs and rice. The kids got to play in the pool and the swing set. Then after it got dark (a little after 8pm) we set off some fireworks. They sure don't last long. Taylor and Emily did really good. Emily ended up falling asleep in the stroller while we were watching the fireworks and Taylor fell asleep in my arms. Here are some pictures:

Mommy & Taylor

Bruno's (Romy's brother's) girlfriend & Emily

Breaden & Connor

Bruno "Now Emily let me tell you about . . ."

Watching the fireworks (You can see Gina and Lyndsey at the front of the fence on the left and Jeff standing up).

Watching the fireworks

Front: Dylon & Connor

Back: Friend of Romy's, Taylor, Emily, Me, Romy, Katrina

Taylor's Check Up

So today Taylor went in for her check up. Because of the arm fiasco, she didn't have her shots so I had to still get them done. Ugh. After two weeks I was finally able to get in (doc was on vacation, then jury duty). So we went in. I was also able to get their full stats from last time:

Emily

15 lbs

26.5"

Taylor

15 lbs 9 ozs
26.25"

It appears that Emily is catching up to her sister! When they weighed Taylor today it was 16 lbs 11 ozs. But she was fully clothed. I couldn't imagine she gained a full lb since the last time but who knows. Anyway, she was a trooper although she looked at the nurse like," I know who you are and i know what you do." But she didn't cry at all until the stick of the needle. Her appt was done by 3:30pm so I went and picked up Emily and we came home and played. Here are some pictures. I got some great pictures!

Emily "Hi Mom!"

Taylor "Can't you see I like my book"

This book, it's a good thing I have two! They fight over this thing if only one is out!!!

Emily "Hey that toy is MINE now!"

As you can see it took a little bit to get them both to sit up and smile at the same time. Taylor kept falling back but I did succed!!

"Hey Mom! Sure we'll smile for you!!"

Change of Plans

So we are supposed to go on vacation (camping of course!) next week. What started out as a weekend in Ventura, turned into a week vacation in Buelton/Ventura, turned into a week vacation in San Diego.

This is how it all started. We forgot, being that reservations for the month of July start January 2nd, to make reservations for July. So Surbjit remembering that night started looking to see if anything was available. He had seen a post in one of his camping forums he frequents about Emma Wood State Beach. It just so happened they had spots available so he picked a weekend in July (17th - 20th) and booked two sites. Fastforward a month and we get the schedule for the twins daycare. It just so happens she is taking her week vacation July 14th - 18th. Hey, I said, let's make it a full week at Emma Wood. Surbjit responds, you know it's no hook ups right? I said, well let's figure out somewhere to stay before Emma Wood up in that area with hook ups. There is no way I'm camping with two infants and a toddler with no hookups for a week. Uh uh, no way. So we decide on Flying Flags in Buellton.

Now fastforward to the beginning of July. The Gap Fire. It started in Goleta, CA. That's not that far from Buellton or Santa Barbara. We had planned on hitting up the South Coast Railroad Musuem in Goleta and the Santa Barbara zoo. But the Gap Fire - it's only 55% contained as of today. I can only imagine the air quality. So, we start thinking of what else can we do? And San Diego comes to mind. After searching through several tens of campgrounds, we found All Season Campground and made reservations. I'm so excited. We are going to hit up Legoland, Wild Animal Park and Sea World. Let's just hope the girls cooperate and Connor has fun. Well, I know Connor will have fun, let's hope the girls cooperate. =D And let's hope this campground is ok. There isn't much online about this campground so we are going to brave it. It seems nice. They have a pool and a small playground plus a lake. So I'm sure it'll be fine.

Speaking of campgrounds, not being able to find adequate information on campgrounds reminds me of my idea to start setting up a website area for campground reviews and PICTURES!!! It's always nice to see pictures of what you are going to go to if you haven't been there before. So hopefully I'll remember and can start that project.

So we'll be on vacation the 13th - 19th. I'll have TONS of pictures I'm sure. Hopefully I will be faster at sharing them than normal! ;-)

This & That

Wow, time sure does fly. I have so much to say that I don't know where to start so I don't. I know I know, I should just do it when I feel the need or remember something. I'll try.

Connor's last day of swim class was fun, sort of. We got to do basically whatever we wanted to do. They had small floats and stuff around for the kids to play with. And if they wanted to go off the diving board or down the slide they could. Well of course Connor wanted to go off the slide. I told him probably three times, you will go under water is that OK? And he was fine with it. Until it happenen. =) The instructor took them down the slide. Basically when they exit the slide, she pushes them towards the air so they get little time in the water but they still end up in the water. He was hysterical when he got out but he was crying. But he said he had fun. I asked if he wanted to do it again and he said no. It was pretty chilly though and we ended up leaving about 5 minutes early. He got a certificate for completing the class which was nice. And it wasn't too hard to tell him that we weren't going swimming anymore. He really understood that it was over and he was fine with it.

Then on Friday the 27th of June we went to Raging Waters with Melanie. He didn't want to go on any of the slides or through any of the sprinklers because it would get his face wet. He was very into not getting his face wet. Hmm, sounds like his mother. I can remember needing a towel next to the pool so I could wipe my face off immediately after dunking my head. It took me YEARS to get over that! But we did end up taking him on Thunder Rapids. The minimum height requirment was 36" and I believe he is 37". He was taller than the line set up for the ride. ;-) Although the guy when we got on was like "He looks a little short but I'm going to let is pass just hold onto him." I was like," he is tall enough I measured!". Of course he is yelling I don't want to go and all the people in line are probably thinking I'm a bad mother. But when we got off, he said he had a good time but when asked if he wanted to go on it again, he said no. But we did go on it again later that night. It was either that or go home. We also hit up the Amazon Adventure (basically the lazy river) which Connor LOVED floating in so we actually ended up doing 2 1/2 times around. All in all a good day. But I do have to say it's a pain going with a non-potty trained child. Changing his diaper, taking off the wet clothes and trying to put a new swim diaper on wet skin, no fun. And I would definitely not go on a weekend. Going during the week was fine as it wasn't too crowded but now I know to go straight to where I want to sit and grab chairs! We did get chairs just not loungers. If I went with a group of people, it would definitely be worth paying and splitting the fee for the private cabana.

Well, time to get going home from work. I got side-tracked here with actually working, LOL! So it's taken me a little bit of time to write this but I want to get this posted. I need to get the pictures off the camera today so hopefully I can share some pictures tonight of the 4th and I'll write a little bit about what we did.