Fall Break in San Diego

Sea World

 Children's Museum

 Beach

Lego Land

Dave says: We always love San Diego in the fall. The weather is perfect and nothing is too busy. As usual, we took the trailer and stayed in Campland on the Bay. Pretty much every day we were in the swimming pool and spa. Skye is very social right now and is on the lookout for random people and kids to say hi to. One new addition this time was bringing the bike trailer for the kids to ride in. On the first day we rode down the path and around Fiesta Island. Later in the day we went to La Jolla Cove and saw the beach and smelly sea lions.

We spent a day at Sea World with no lines and Skye had a lot of fun doing pretty much everything that she wanted. Her favorite rides are Elmo's Flying Fish that spins up high in a circle and the eel ride that she calls "the green one" that takes you up high and then drops you down a bit. The drops made her laugh. She was feeling reasonably brave and even touched a little shark and a stingray. Alisha and I also took turns going on Sea World's newest coaster which goes straight up in the air and is pretty legit for a roller coaster wuss like me. Jade had a good time looking at everything and crawling around in the area for little kids.

We went to the Children's Museum near downtown one morning. There were lots of kid activities from climbing around to painting but Skye's favorite was playing around on a giant jumping bed area with lots of tire-shaped pillows. Then we did a long walk that included a carousel ride at Seaport Village and a trip along the waterfront down to Waterfront Park. I rented one of those electric Bird scooters to zip back to the car which turned out to be pretty fun. Later in the day we rode down to the beach and got nice and sandy. Jade seemed to like crawling around in the sand quite a bit.

We hadn't planned on going to Lego Land but decided to spend a day there. After waiting what felt like a long time for Skye's roller coaster ride we were glad that nothing else was too busy the rest of the day. They definitely don't have the efficiency thing dialed in like Disney. Some of her other favorites included a ride in helicopters that lifted up in the air, a submarine ride that we could all go on, and an airplane ride that went fast in the corners. Overall, Lego Land seemed pretty well-suited for a nearly-three-year-old and so it was worth the trip.

We had a lot of fun and also learned how hard it is to travel with two young kids. On the drive home there was a lack of napping and a lot of shrieking. It felt like we were hauling tons of stuff everywhere and that it took forever to do anything. At the campground, we felt like there was never an unsupervised moment. Skye is still afraid of the ocean waves which is surprising because she likes water so much. At the same time, we also had plenty of nice family moments together. I'm sure we'll be doing the whole thing again next year.

Preschool School Picture

Alisha says: Here is Skye's first school picture!! She loves preschool and her teachers Ms. Bear and Ms. Mansfield. I think snack time and playground time are her favorite as that is usually what she talks about. She has gotten in a little bit of trouble for throwing sand so we are still working on that. I love the little art projects that she brings home.

The Still Hot Days of Septemeber

Dave says: In September, it seems like fall should be almost here and yet the temperatures are still plenty hot. We spent a lot of late afternoons in our pool and Skye has been an excellent swimmer this year. One Saturday we went over to the beach pool at Val Vista Lakes.

A benefit of the heat was lots of very early morning bike rides. One of our favorites this summer when we could pull it off was out to Canyon Lake on the new smooth pavement that they just put down out there. I also saw a few rattlesnakes on early morning mountain bike rides. In early mornings and late evenings, we found that the kids enjoy going on wagon rides around the neighborhood now that Jade is able to sit up in the wagon. She is really well-behaved and will sit there for an entire ride playing with a toy or old food wrapper. Skye does a bit of riding on her bike, scooter, and pretend horse. Often, I am carrying this object on the way home though.

We also had some fun trips to Payson to escape the heat. One weekend we were up there with Christine's family and did some hiking and looking for crystals and geodes. She got to sit in a RZR which she calls "jeeps" and now she has been obsessed with pointing out jeeps everywhere.

At work, September was my busiest teaching time with three sections of the online MBA ethics course. However, I had great students and it turned out to be another good year.

8 Months and on the Move

Alisha says: Jade has grown up so much this last month. First of all after one particularly rough night where she was up 5 times in 5 hours we decided it was time to move her into her own room. The first week was a little rough as she still woke up multiple times wanting to be fed but we have since settled into a steady routine where she goes to bed at 7:00 PM and will usually sleep until 4:30 AM and get a snack and then she will go back to sleep until about 6:30 AM.

She is officially crawling and can go from a crawling to seated position and back. She even enjoys doing a little bit of standing. It is fun to watch her maneuver herself around to get different items that she wants. She is already getting into cupboards and the tv buttons.

Although she is a mommy's girl and wants me whenever I am around she will also sit and entertain herself a little bit. She also enjoys going on walks in the wagon and will just sit and look around and play with her toys. We love her so much and I love her smiles, giggles and growls.

Baby in a Bucket

Alisha says: I saw this idea on pinterest the other day and so when strawberries were on sale for .79 a package I decided to give it a try. Dave mostly just rolls his eyes at some of the things I do but I think that I got some adorable pictures of Jade.

August

Alisha says: August was another hot one here in Mesa. We spent our early mornings cycling and our late afternoons swimming. I have been able to put in some solid miles in on the bike and feel like my fitness is coming back after having Jade. I have recently started posting more rides on strava and going for a few QOM's that are around here. Dave has been busy with work and went to his work conference early in the month leaving me solo for a week. I had my ups and downs with the kids while he was away but we made it and were glad when he returned home.

Now onto the update on Skye: Skye knows and can sing a lot of nursery rhymes but recently she has discovered that she also enjoys a few pop songs. One that she likes to sing and watch the video on youtube is Thunder by Imagine Dragons. The song basically has two words, thunder and lightning which she says over and over. It really is adorable. She also like to watch the music videos and listen to Roar by Katy Perry and the Zootopia song Try Everything by Shakira.

She has started to do more pretending and has recently given herself the name "Brewster" (it's from a cartoon called Chuggington). She likes to be called Brewster and frequently refers to herself in the 3rd person as Brewster. Other names she has given herself include; bunny, Allie and Carly.

Skye started preschool two days a week. She was really excited about it and did really great her first day. She has two teachers Ms. Bear and Ms. Mansfield. I ask her questions on the car ride home about her day at preschool and for the first several days whenever I would ask her what her teachers names are she would say "Ms. Mansfield, don't throw sand". Which I decipher as Ms. Mansfield has had to tell her several times not to throw sand during recess which I later am able to confirm by the amount of sand that is in her hair and shorts. Haha, oh well. She also gets excited about snack time and sitting "criss cross apple sauce" on the rug. It is fun and exciting to see her grow and start to explore the world around her. Right now we think that she is going to have a more extroverted personality as she talks a mile a minute and likes attention. She has big emotions which is really cute when she is excited about something and not so cute when she throws a fit.

Skye's first visit to the dentist. She did really good, letting them take x-rays and clean her teeth. No cavities!!

Playing at the Children's Museum

Skye's first day of preschool!

We took some family pictures with the whole Welsh Family.

Riding with my friend Victoria! I love early morning riding.

7 Months

Alisha says: Jade is continuing to grow and develop each and every day. She is quite the little wriggler and can maneuver herself around on the floor to reach things in her general vicinity. She is working on the crawling motion and will probably figure that out in no time at all. She does the cutest little baby planks where she is stretched out and up on her toes, she also can get up on her knees in the crawling position. I regret to write that she still has not slept through the night, not even close. Hopefully we can work on that during this next month.

We started introducing Jade to some new foods this month. She has tried avocado, sweet potato, mango, banana, and a few pouches that are a mix of a few veggies. Sometimes she likes the new tastes and other times she doesn't want anything to do with it. I also forgot just how messy it can get feeding a baby pureed baby food.