Sunday Excursion

 I'm really beginning to hate the weekends. I know it makes me sound crazy, but with Ty's new schedule he works every Friday night and Saturday. It just is boring and lonely for me. This last Saturday Ty worked 14 hours and needless to say he was exhausted. I thought he would just want to relax on Sunday, but he surprised me and said he wanted to drive up to LA for the day and visit the Temple and some other sites. (I've never been up there and have been asking to go) So after church we changed and got on the road. The temple was a lot prettier than I expected. The visitors center is so awesome. If you are ever in the area, you need to visit. The sister missionaries/couple missionaries were so insightful and great to talk to.

Christus Statue, notice the painting behind it. It was breathtaking!

Whitney really loved the grounds.

I can only imagine the amazing shots that people get on their wedding day.

 I told Tyler I wanted to see Hollywood so we drove around for a little bit. We had no clue where we were or where we were going so we would just stumble upon things. So, forgive me for the off center/bad shots that include part of the car door. I wanted to document what we were seeing. Part of it reminded me a lot of New York City because of how many people were there and the feel of the place (and smell).

Grauman's Chinese Theatre was packed with people

It was a little surreal to see the Hollywood sign. Sometimes I still can't believe we are down here.

All in all, it was a fun little unexpected trip. And before you ask, no we didn't see any celebrities haha. It was just great to spend time as a family and explore. What new things have you discovered lately?

Inspiration

Do you ever feel stuck in a rut? You're depressed or down about something but don't seem to have the courage or energy to do anything about it? Well, it just so happens I had been in said rut for a few months, until two weeks ago. 
I have a tendency to save every handout I get from church. In my scripture case I have SO many handouts (especially from my seminary years in high school). There's just something about church stuff that I can't throw it away. I feel like I'm throwing away the scriptures or something. Well, the girls figured out that there are fun colorful pieces of paper in mommy's bag and they soon I found them strewn about the house. I thought I had picked up all the papers but a little while later I found a straggler in the girls room. I told myself I would throw away this piece of paper, no matter what it was. (I'm determined not to turn into a hoarder of church quotes) Well, I picked it up and happened to glance at it and if I didn't know any better I'd think this wrinkly piece of paper was really an anvil that was dropped on my head. Here's the quote:

"I do not believe people can be happy unless they have work to do. One can really be more of a slave to idleness than to work. Work also keeps us humble and reminds us of how all our blessings come to us from our Heavenly Father. The gospel of work is a very important teaching of the church. If we learn to work early in life we will be better individuals, better members of families, better neighbors, and better disciples of Jesus Christ. Who himself learned to work as a carpenter." -Elder Neal A. Maxwell

That was all I needed to get up off the couch and start working. Sometimes the hardest part about being a stay-at-home mom for me is being motivated to actually do things. My time is my own and I don't need to report to anyone on this earth. I'm not perfect and my Heavenly Father knows that, and I'm grateful for random things that remind me who I am and what I'm striving for. I'm working hard, but slowly because it takes time to change your life and develop habits. I'm feel that I'm slowly but surely climbing out of my rut and work is the only way to do it. I will share more as time goes, but I don't want to jinx myself. Just know I'm already feeling better after two weeks! And yes, I'm still holding on to random quotes. :-) This particular handout now currently resides on my fridge. Life is a continuous battle filled with never ending weaknesses we need to work on, but if we work hard, we will be blessed! Where do you find your inspiration?

"When you fail at something, that's when you learn and grow the most." -Jillian Michaels

Fun Visitor

 The last two days we had an awesome visit with my brother for two days this week. We were pretty much going nonstop. We had a lot of fun and were so happy to have him here. The girls were in heaven, they attached themselves to him immediately and were sad to have him leave.
David flew into Long Beach so we drove up to there and went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The aquarium was pretty cool, a bit over priced. The weather was perfect and of course I took lots of pictures the whole trip.

That is a huge sea bass! (insert Dumb and Dumber quote here)

We got to see a shark feeding

That is a seal swimming out of the picture. The seal/sea lion show was so incredible!

I'm not sure what this huge fish is, but look in the upper left hand corner. That is a giant spider crab!!!

Seahorses for my sis. (Are they dancing? :-)

This is Rainbow Harbor. I think it'd be a really pretty walk to the lighthouse.

 After the aquarium we drove down the coast to Balboa Island and then took the ferry to Balboa Village.

Out on the pier. There were no waves, so peaceful!

My little cutie

Of course they have to play in the sand any chance they get.

Everyone is squinting due to the sun but I had to include the sign in my pics!

My mom came down here last year for her anniversary and just raved about Balboa Bars. I hadn't tried them yet, so we decided to get some. They were good, but I don't think we like them as much as my parents did.

 That night we showed David where we like to go to the beach and saw the Oceanside pier. The waves were a lot more exciting down here than they were in Newport. I was bummed it was cloudy, we couldn't see the sunset.

David took this pic

 The next day we took David to the place we know best, the Zoo!!! I was able to go to a lot of places at the zoo I had never been. We went everywhere and pretty much pushed everyone into exhaustion, but we saw a lot and rode the skyfari for the first time and it was awesome!

My little bugs

I hadn't seen the Ocelot at the zoo yet. Such a pretty cat. We also saw fossa, turtles and other awesome stuff for the first time.

A meerkat had just run past the glass, so the girls were intrigued.

There are ducks all over the zoo. Since it's spring, that means there are ducklings all over too. They are the cutest things ever. The flamingo eggs should be hatching soon too, so I would love to go back and see those! **Fun fact** Flamingos make mounds of mud as their nests and sit on them during incubation. The bigger the flock, the better success for babies.

These greater one-horned rhinos are brothers, ages 5 and 7. As we walked past them they started fighting. (Do you know any young brothers that don't like fighting?) They just kept at it to the point that they were drawing blood! It was crazy. You need to try to find a video of these guys running. You'd think they would run like they are heavy, but they're so agile!! It was cool to see. Eventually a zookeeper came and separated them and made sure they were okay.

The bears are almost always laying down but the grizzlies and this guy were up and active. I don't know what kind it is (our bus tour guide wasn't the greatest)

We were walking past the alligator habitat and I couldn't find it. Finally David spotted it. Here is a shot under the water. It was camouflaged very well. Like David said, "Yeah, we'd be dead" (if in the wild)

Ty got done with school right before we were finished so he came down and joined us.

I told you everyone was exhausted after the zoo. (I'm a little exhausted writing this long post about it!)

I hope you are doing well and if you want to come see all these things, come on down! :-) Thanks so much for coming, David! We had a blast!

Update

I know, I know it's been forever. At the end of April Ty finished his first semester. It went by quickly actually. We sorbet his two weeks off spending as much time as a family as we could. I'll post various pictures of our outings. Ty is back in school and working more than ever. The girls and I are doing well, and trying to stay busy and active. All of these pictures were taken with my phone, but they'll have to suffice!

We drove up to San Clemente to have dinner with one of Ty's mission companions and his wife. They live right at the ocean and the girls were mesmerized staring out their door at the water.

Here we are at the pier in San Clemente

We still love going to the beach as much as possible

We visited the Oceanside Pier, It wasn't great weather that day, but we weren't going to let that stop us!

There was a brown pelican just hanging out around the pier. It didn't seem to mind being around people at all so it was cool to get that close to it. We also saw a seal and dolphins while on the pier, so we thought it super awesome!

We went to the Children's Museum. It wasn't our favorite, but it's always fun to do something different.

 We try to hang out with the play group from our ward as often as possible. They meet every Tuesday. Well, the first Tuesday of every month is free at the San Diego Botanic Garden. There is so much stuff there for kids and we really like it.

There's a huge outdoor train set with a conductor and everything.

Hard to see, but that's a hummingbird perched on top of that plant

Some plant people, the kids thought they were pretty cool.

Here's a cute little girl from our ward and Whitney. They are way good friends and love playing together. They looked like little twins. Us moms kept getting confused which one was ours. :-)

There is this awesome pond with tadpoles, bullfrogs and turtles. Lindsey would've gone straight in if I would let her. (That's why she isn't in this picture. We tried to keep her as far away as possible)

Can you see the bullfrog?! Whitney actually spotted it before any of us did!

On the last day of Ty's break we decided to go to the Zoo. We went to lots of places we had never been before so it was a blast.

I guess it's the cool thing at zoos to have statues of animals that kids can play on because they are everywhere and clearly my kids love them.

No, in case you are wondering, there are no real saber tooth tigers at the zoo. The San Diego Zoo is amazing, but not quite THAT amazing. :-)

This was our first visit to the Elephant Odyssey part of the zoo. I kept calling it the Elephant Encounter.

We saw the pandas again this time. The cool thing about this exhibit is no matter what they are doing, you can see them. It's pretty awesome.

Can you see the tiger?

The gorillas are always awesome to see. Their exhibit is huge.

Whitney has an obsession with Zac Efron. It started when she watched the new version of Hairspray. Well I decided to start showing her other movies of his because I'd rather her watch more age appropriate movies. So, she is now in love with High School Musical and the sequel. When she hears his solo she has to come running and stand right in front of the tv and dance. She constantly says he is smiling at her or talking to her. Hopefully it's just a phase. And in case you're wondering, no I'm not letting her watch The Lucky One.

I had an awesome Mother's Day. I didn't have to do anything around the house. (which is what I asked for) Ty even did Whitney's hair for church. :-)

By the way, I hate the new blogger layout in case anyone is wondering. I hope you all are doing great. What have you been up to? How are you enjoying your breaks from school?