Fun with my Uncle (Strejda Misa)

This past weekend we went down to Marin to visit with my brother, Misa, who had just come back from a month in Alabama in summer time for Air Force Officer training school...fun times! He lives in Alaska and is use to cool weather so Alabama in the summer was a real treat. :) There were 380 other officers in training there and believe it or not...for those of you that know my brother...he received the highest award of best trainee (rated on physical/mental and overall ability) out of the 380 others there! I was quite shocked but I was really proud of him.

Saturday we decided to torture my brother with playing in the park and after nap time a trip to the Oakland Zoo. My brother really isn't in to all this kid entertainment stuff but he was a trooper and sucked it up and spent the day with us. Here he is in the morning with Hannah on the slide at the park:



As for the Oakland Zoo..my camera died in the beginning (I forgot to charge my battery) so I relied on my dad with his fancy camera for pictures...I now also have to wait for him to send me pictures, so I only a few a none with animals yet. I can't say I was too thrilled with the Oakland Zoo..especially the layout...you had to keep backtracking because there were so many dead ends and I wasn't impressed at all with the animal exhibits. The SF Zoo is much better for that. After checking out many empty animal exhibits we went over to the "amusement park" area. My mom, Hannah & I waited in line for 30 minutes to ride the train! And after that long wait we only saw fake animals along the train route...although Hannah was mildly entertained by it. We of course hit the carousel and volunteered my brother for the ride with her:



But after the carousel we convinced the operators that Hannah was 36 inches (she is like 1/2 inch too short) and they allowed her on the tiger roller coaster ride. When I saw the thick bar come down on this ride I was a little bit concerned that maybe she is too small to be on the ride so I am yelling to my brother to please hang on to her. Another mom was covering her eyes for me as if to say "Oh my god she is too little!" and I thought maybe she shouldn't be on the ride but it was too late, plus I knew my little dare devil loves roller coasters. Right when it took off Hannah started laughing like crazy...I couldn't hear her b/c the ride was so loud and it was the fastest "kid's" roller coaster I have ever seen but her expressions were priceless and my brother was cracking up as well so I knew she was just going crazy. Here is a shot of the two roller coaster riders:



She had such a great time that when she got off the ride she still stood there laughing with her head thrown back in laughter. It was hilarious! That definitely made the trip better and then she even got a piggy back ride to the car from her Strejda Misa (Strejda is Czech for Uncle).



It was quite the busy weekend b/c both on Friday & Saturday she was up until about 9:45pm which is unheard of for her...she is usually in bed by 7:30pm. But it was a good visit and when I get more pictures back from the zoo from my dad I will post them.

Tadpole Swim Class

Hannah was approved to be in the Tadpole swim class this week which is for 3 year olds and even though she turns 3 in a couple of months it took an act of congress with the City of Davis to get her in even though her previous instructor approved her for it. I guess that is just how the City works.

When Adam took her on the first day of class we found out that we don't have to be in the water with her and it is a private lesson!!! SWEET!! I can't tell you how relaxing it is to just sit on the grass and observe her lesson rather then be involved in it...this is the first class of its type that we have been a part of. Well of course since I don't have to participate it gave me plenty of opportunity to take pictures. So here they are:

Hannah and her instructor "Ada" sitting on the edge of the pool waiting for their safety lesson for the day:



Hannah practicing her kicking:


Hannah practicing using her arms to swim (she is the little dot in the middle of the picture:


There is always some play time involved..I think she was making some Mac & Cheese here...her favorite:


And here is Hannah & Ada going off the diving board together! Hannah was all excited about it but after the first jump she wasn't so sure. But she was brave enough to try it again...but the jury is still out on if she truly enjoyed it:


And round #2:




The color is a little off in the picture above...I can't seem to get it to touch up the picture in iPhoto...hmmm.

Anyway, Hannah's teacher Ada told me yesterday that she has already learned all her "Tadpole Skills" and that she could advance to being a Turtle, but that is for 4 year olds and her attention span b/c of her age might be a little too short for that. No worries b/c the City of Davis only has one more week of swim lessons to offer and so we are just going to put her straight into either the Davis Athletic Club or Swim America lessons for the Fall & Winter to keep up her swimming skills. I hope to have her be able to swim on her own by next summer so that I don't have to worry too much about her in the pool since I will have a baby to look after as well!

Cousin Time

Hannah is very lucky to have such great cousins and that they all get along so well. In the past Hannah's girl cousins Kathryn (11) and and Krystina (8) have frequently come to visit and the 3 girls are like 3 peas in a pod. They are so excited to see each other and they all get along so well. Hannah also has a boy cousin Joey (6) that she doesn't get to see as often but luckily this past weekend he came to visit with Adam's mom, "Nali" b/c it was her birthday on Saturday and she was watching Joey for the week. Hannah was so excited to see Joey and those two were like peas in a pod also. It was "monkey see monkey do" with those two. Every noise or action one did the other copied. We had a super busy weekend but super fun at the same time so lets see if I can quickly recap it here:

First on Friday Joey & Nali picked Hannah up from school, did lots of playing and then we created a bed for Joey so he could sleep in Hannah's room with her...here is a picture just before bedtime stories:



On Saturday Hannah and Joey got up around 6:45am and I listened to about a 20 minute conversation between the 2 on the monitor...that was hilarious. The two did some more playing and running around. We took Tulip for a walk and as you can see here the kids went crazy running in the field




We also stopped at the park briefly for some slide fun before heading home to head off to Hannah's gymnastics.



Then it was off to gymnastics where normally Hannah has tons of energy but she was already fading by now. Then we went to the Farmer's Market where Hannah and Joey rode the Merry-Go-Round:







After some more playing at the park there it was off to home to take a nap (for both Hannah & I). After a 3 hour nap for Hannah and a 2 hour nap for me we woke up and all went to the pool. By now Adam's aunt had come up to visit for Adam's mom's birthday (her sister) and so we had quite the group heading off to the pool.





After some late afternoon swimming we all went out to dinner to Bistro 33 to celebrate Nali's birthday and afterwards there was a band there so of course there was some dancing to be done:



After dinner to was back home for some birthday pie and presents and the kids finally went to sleep around 9pm! The whole gang spent the night.

On Sunday we all went to the Yolo County Fair to have fun and say hi to Adam who was working the beer booth for the West Plainfield Station Fire Dept. Joey & Hannah were really excited to be going...here they are with their excited smiling faces headed to the fair:



When we got there we of course first stopped by to say hi to Adam in his beer booth:



When we got there the rides had not yet opened up so we looked at some animals:



Joey & Hannah were dying for the rides to open at noon and when they finally did here is Hannah's face filled with excitement when she saw them start working:





Now they say this is the only "free" fair left in the state...yeah well it is free to get in but then they get you on the rides and everything else. We spent about $65 on all the rides b/c of the two kids and the fact that most of the rides an adult had to accompany them. I of course was not that adult thanks to this sign on every ride:



Even though I couldn't go on any rides...which I was pissed about...Adam's mom & aunt went and had a great time and even Adam got away from his beer booth for one ride...so here is what we spent $65 on:

Merry-Go-Round:



Dragon Spinning tea cup like thing:



Whale spinning up and down thing (Hannah loves this one!):




Dragon Roller Coaster:



Really slow train ride but Hannah enjoyed being in the engine and "driving" everyone around the track (by the way that is Adam's aunt on the ride with her):



Caterpillar Roller Coaster:



Truck "roller coaster"...


Hannah saw Joey on this ride so of course she had to go too:


There were a few more but my camera ran out of batteries and so was I in a sense. We were there until 2pm and we were tired!! Even though everyone was tired Hannah still cried on the way out that she wanted to go back.

We got home said good-bye to Adam's mom, Adam's aunt & Joey and went down for a nap. But still when she woke up she woke up crying that she missed her Joey & Nali and it was hard to console her b/c she had such a good time with them. Both on Sunday & last night Hannah cries out "JOEY!!" as she is laying in her crib b/c she misses him and wants him sleeping with her in her room again. Poor thing! At least they had a lot of fun and got to spend a lot of great time together. As I said Hannah is very lucky to have such great cousins she gets along with...it is fun to watch her have all that fun with them b/c I never experienced that. :(

Ultrasound Pictures

So most of you know by now that we are having another little girl. I scanned in some of the ultrasound pictures last night so here they are...although they are not as great quality as in person but you get the idea:

Here is the "hamburger" shot or the very clear girl picture:



Here is one foot:



Here is the other foot:



Here is the spine and and back/body shot...I was a little worried about the spine b/c I kept throwing up my prenatal vitamins in the 1st trimester but as you can see it looks good:



And here is a profile picture. Her little fist is up by her face (the little round spot floating above her nose) so clearly she has the "chipmunk" in her...Hannah has my finger pointing down so I guess this one has my fist down. :)



We compared Hannah's ultrasound profile to this little girl's profile and I think they look identical...I will have to scan Hannah's in so my blog readers can make the judgment for themselves...I don't know why I didn't think to do that last night, oh well pregnancy brain! :)

Mini Vacation

This past weekend we flew down to the Burbank Airport (hella ghetto and old) b/c Adam this year has been chosen to be a part of the Grand Lodge of California Officer line and this weekend was a family gathering and welcome of all the future Officers of California. It was fun to get out of the Sacramento Area and fun b/c the trip was all paid for and not by us! :)

It was also fun because Hannah has not been on a plane since she was 9 months old so it was an adventure too. I was pretty confident that she would do well and she did! She loved it! Adam even managed to get her car seat to fit on the airplane seat and so it was like she had a booster seat and she could see perfectly outside. She loved it when the plane took off and banked and turned, she said it was like a roller coaster!

Here she is having a snack on the airplane:


In Burbank you get off the plane outside so here is Hannah posing for a picture with our plane:


We were staying at the Hyatt in Santa Clarita and it was nice! We got there around noon, had a nap, or I should say tried to but with no luck b/c Hannah slept for about 1/2 hour in the car on the way to the hotel. After we "rested" we had a welcoming social hour with goodies and then had time to go swimming at the hotel pool before dinner.

Here is Hannah swimming with her Daddy:


And Hannah going under water which she does non stop!! She is obsessed with it!


And making new friends with some of the other kids of the Masons who are going to be Officers this year:


She fell in love with this 11 year old girl named Grace and the two were cute buddies because Grace loves little kids. So that is nice to know that she will get to see her a lot over the course of the year.

After dinner we were all going to the production of "Grease" at the local community college. It was at 8pm and I was worried about how late it was but really wanted to take Hannah b/c I knew she would love it. She was starting to fade before the musical started but as soon as the curtains went up and the singing and dancing started her eyes popped wide open, she sat up straight on my lap, and she couldn't get enough. By intermission it was 9:15pm and she was clearly tired and I kept saying she should go home with Adam to the hotel to sleep but she would not budge, she wanted to stay. Adam I think would have preferred to go home, but no luck, Hannah is a "Grease" fan like me. :) About 2 songs into the second part of the musical Hannah finally gave in and went home with Adam. She was exhausted! Especially since she only had a 1/2 hour nap that day and many adventures. Adam said she did not wake up when he took her out of the car or put her down in bed...she was out!

The next day she woke up at 7am (even with the dark curtains in the room!) and off we went to breakfast. There they presented all the kids with hand made totes with each of their names on them that one of the older ladies had made and Hannah was so excited! After she got hers she came running back to me as if though she had just won a million dollars. The lady who made them said the look on Hannah's face was worth all the effort she put into them. Of course this was the only time I forgot my camera in the room and someone is suppose to email me a picture of all the kids with their totes, so as soon as I have it I will post it.

Next we had a brief meeting and had to leave Hannah and all the kids with some babysitters (Hannah and I were both traumatized...she recovered quickly as she always does, I on the other hand cried in the meeting to talk about what is coming up this year). I happily left the meeting after only about one hour and a half though so Hannah and I could get a short nap in. After our hour nap, which Hannah had to be waken up from...poor thing we were off to the house of the Grand Master of California for next year for a BBQ and more swimming! Here are some pictures from that:





Hannah and her buddy Grace again:



And after all that we headed back to the airport to catch our flight back. Hannah fell asleep in like the last few minutes of the flight just as we were landing...


She was exhausted! She only slept for like 5 minutes but that recharged her for the ride home. On the ride home we got to see this lovely sunset:


And we also passed a truck and saw a not so lovely thing. On the back of this truck were two big white boards and one said "Be a flirt, flip your skirt" and the other said "Whip it out Wednesday". I was so in shock that it didn't even occur to me to take a picture of that for proof until after we passed the horn ball. Which by the way as we passed him he had another sign in his side front window that said "Flash Friday" and he was looking out the window at us with a big creepy smile...yuck!! It totally reminded me of the horn ball trucker in the movie "Thelma and Louise" that they kept running into and in the end they blow up his truck. So gross.

Anyway, Hannah went to sleep at 9pm last night finally and didn't wake up this morning until 9am!! Which for those for those of you that know Hannah, a 9am wake time is unheard of! Clearly this girl was super tired and so I let her sleep and was quite late to work. She woke up at 9am in a cheery mood and was giving Tulip lots of attention...I think the two missed each other this weekend: