Friday, January 15, 2010

San Diego & Christmas

I know my blog's not nearly as organized as any of the other blogs I read. This is partly because I haven't figured out how to be a mom yet (does it take this long for everyone?!) and partly because I haven't figured out how to take care of all the pictures I take. So here are a few pictures and a video that you haven't seen yet. And you might want to start at the bottom and work up because they are in reverse order. Don't shoot me.


Adora loves to sit on shoulders! This was Adora's second-favorite zoo animal, the okapi. It is a weird mix between a moose and a zebra and a couple of other animals. At least, that's what it looked like. As a special treat, she got okapi slippers. When Lovey and Bear (with the tummy) got puked on last night, she wanted to hold her lamb and "kapi." So that tells you where they rank in this family.


Adora sitting on the hippo at the zoo.


Jake loves to take these pictures where Adora and I are both pointing at some animal at the zoo. The girls at the San Diego Zoo--me, Adora, and Aunt Kelsey.




Adora liked chasing the seagulls on the beach. Adora loves toddler beds, so I bet Little E was showing his off to her.




Adora and her second cousin (or first cousin once removed? I don't know how that works). They were best buds for a couple of days. This is some sort of flying car ride. I was in the car ahead of Adora and Jake.




Daddy and Adora riding the teacups. Toward the end of the day, we found all the cool kid rides! So Adora was pretty tired but still managed to enjoy some of them. There were absolutely no lines at all, so we could just stay on the rides and ride as many times as we wanted. San Diegans are really afraid of cold weather! Adora pet the sting rays. I was kind of afraid she'd be barbed like the crocodile hunter, but I figured these were probably debarbed, right? She was afraid to pet the dolphins but not the stingrays. Jake got to pet a dolphin, though. They are trained to approach you when you held your hand flat above the water. Then, you're supposed to give them some food, so how do they approach you? With their mouths wide open and their teeth showing. It would've freaked me out, too, if I weren't even two yet.





Adora looking at the Beluga whales. She calls them, "whee-wuls," and I hope she never stops. It's just so cute! Adora with the real polar bear. Ok, ok, there is a layer of glass separating them.




This is our second full day in San Diego. We went to Sea World even though it was cold, because, hey, it's free for military members and dependents. We still had to pay like $10 to park, but we brought soup and went back to the car to eat it, old school :) I think this is when Adora fell in love with polar bears, although she wouldn't take a picture alone with this one.
Here is the beach outside our room in San Diego. As you can see, it was cold! I was really glad we brought Adora's heavy jacket, even though she wouldn't wear it most of the time.




This is Adora opening her kitchen stuff from MawMaw for Christmas. She immediately started to eat it. This is Adora unwillingly taking a picture with Santa at the Riverbend Nature Center Christmas lights display. She is enamored with the idea of Santa, but gets frightened when she actually sees him.


Monday, January 11, 2010

San Diego

Aunt Kelsey reading to Adora in our room. Adora and "Little E" on the beach.


Some of Jake's side of the family. Adora and Little E petting the cow with the mysteriously-missing ear.


We went to San Diego Dec. 7-14. It was so great. The weather was cold, even for December. But our hotel was on the beach, so we went out there every day for at least a little bit. Jake's sister, Kelsey, was there for about half the trip helping us out with Adora. That was so awesome.



Sunday, January 10, 2010

Christmas 2009

Sorry for the grainyness--I dropped our camera and broke it in San Diego, so we have been taking pictures with our video camera. This is how we found Adora sleeping Christmas morning.
First stop--to see Baby Jesus in the manger!

Adora enjoyed looking in her stocking. She got a couple of sheets of cat stickers that she proceeded to put all over her hand!

Mr. Potato Head was a hit.

You might be able to tell that Adora does not like being outside in the snow very much. We made this snowman Christmas Day. That night, she said, "Owie, ear!" in her bath. We had to take her to Urgent Care the next day for a double ear infection.


Adora is snuggling up in her cozy sleeping bag from Nana and Pop.


Here is Adora in her Christmas dress in front of a friend's Christmas tree. Brittany, Alfred, and Celia had us over for a Mexican Christmas dinner on the 26th.


Here is Adora opening up The Polar Express for the first time. She loved it but was very confused that it had a "moo-wie" (movie) that didn't have any stuff to look at (it was the book read on CD). Thanks, Uncle Joseph!


Adora dancing with her SweetPea3, a much-loved gift from Parrain.

We stayed in Wichita Falls for Christmas so Jake didn't have to take any leave. There were many times we missed the hustle and bustle of family fun, but we did NOT miss traveling one little bit! Although a little lonely, our house was full of love and excitement. Adora really enjoyed opening the presents and enjoying each of them. We had a blazing fire in the fireplace and a huge real Christmas tree with lots of ornaments from over the years with lots of colorful lights on it. It had snowed 11" the day before so we had lots of beautiful whiteness to look at outside.

Adora's up from her nap, so I've got to go!