Harris' birthday was the Friday after we got back from our 18 day road trip. We didn't get his presents before we left but we knew exactly what we were going to get him. A fish tank. He used to have a little 5 gallon one when we lived in Utah but when his fish died we just never got around to getting him a new one. When we moved here he started watching "River Monsters" and gained a new love of fish. We decided that it was time for another tank. A bigger one that could hold bigger fish. We picked out one that was 20 gallons with LED lights. It is awesome! I as so excited to give it to him!
The morning of his birthday he got up early and immediately wanted to open presents. We convinced him to have breakfast first. :) After breakfast he finally got his presents.
He got an automatic Nerf gun and a water Nerf gun from his sister
A Jimmer shirt from the Wakefields
And a fish tank from Mom and Dad.
When all the presents were open he wanted to test out his water Nerf gun so we headed out to the pool for a swim and water fight. After much swimming it was time to get ready to go to dinner and a movie. Harris had chosen Olive Garden for dinner and Cars 2 for the movie.
He was sooo excited to see Cars 2! He had been counting down the days to see it since the day he learned it was coming out on his birthday. He loved it! And sat through the whole thing!
Sooo excited!
When we were done with the movie and dinner we went to Petsmart so that Harris could pick out the decorations for his fish tank. After much deliberation he decided on a pirate/volcano theme.
Lights on
Lights off
The LED lights make the tank glow. There are even Glo-fish! We love to sit in the dark and watch them.
It was a wonderful day. I am sooo grateful for Harris. He is my sunshine! Happy Birthday Handsome!
When we were finished with our land cruise up the PCH we made our way to Utah. Jann and Don were headed to Boston and we were going to watch their kiddos while they were gone. I was a little nervous about having 6 kids for a week but we had a blast!
Chet Sr. and Wendy were kind enough to let us hang out at their house everyday so that we could see them too. There was swimming, b-balling, jumping, partying, eating and even boating!
The kids having some fun, except Aubz. She thought it was too cold.
I'm glad she thought the pool was too cold. ;)
Liv loves to "dance" with her Papa!
I'm not sure where I was when this was taking place but if I would have been there I would have stopped it!!
When we weren't swimming they were playing basketball. They have so much fun playing PIG. They get pretty creative with their shots.
While the boys were playing PIG I was chilling with Aubz, who was patiently waiting for the boys to be done so that she could drive her new car that we bought her. We got it for her after Jann told me that Aubz would sneak out the dog door to go play with the neighbors car across the street!! She loves it and calls it her "bye-bye".
I don't think that she could be any cuter!!!
Occasionally she had to take a break from diving and have a drink. :)
One of the days we were there Chet and Wendy wanted to have a little birthday party for Harris since we were leaving just before his actual birthday. Wendy asked Harris if he wanted yellow cake or brownies for the party but he couldn't decide so she made him both! What an awesome grandma. :)
Waiting for the candles to be lit
They got him a football and a basketball. This is how he posed for a picture with his basketball. Silly boy.
After the party Chet and Wendy's neighbor, Rob, came over and wanted to know if we wanted to go out on his boat with him that Friday. Um, yes please!!
On Friday Chet and the kids got ready and met the others at Utah Lake. Rob has a really nice boat and lots of fun things to do with it like a tube and surfboard. The kids were so excited!
Headed out on the boat.
The Chet's are lookin' fine!!
Cam and Liv got the first ride on the tube.
I LOVE Livs face! She looks like she is having the time of her life.
After the girls it was Chet and Trevs turn.
Trev informed me that in this pic he had just swallowed a bug!
Next was Harris' turn and he wanted to go with Papa.
Having a blast!!
Then Papa with both grandkids.
I'm pretty sure my kids have the coolest Papa in the WORLD!!
And of course father and son took a ride.
Hanging on for dear life!
And then all the cousins wanted a turn.
The Three Musketeers.
After lots of turns it was time to try out the surfboard. Trev was up first and it proved to be much harder than it looked.
Those are Trev's feet on the board not Robs. :)
Since it was so hard for Trev to get on the board Rob thought it would be better for the girls if he rode with them.
Surfer girls!
After an exciting day on the lake it was time to head back. On the way back Rob let all the kids have a turn driving the boat!
The Robinson's
The Wakefield's
Love these kiddos!
It was a great day!
The next day was sadly our last day. We spent the morning picking up and packing up.
Packing up the important stuff! ;)
The kids have this silly tradition of throwing baby powder in the air, Lebron style, to say goodbye. I'm not sure how or why it started but they must do it anytime we are saying goodbye.
The cousin goodbye
We had an amazing week! It is always hard to say goodbye but it makes coming back that much more fun!
I'm pretty sure that in the 3 times we have been to the San Diego Zoo we still haven't seen everything. I think that is part of the fun though. Finding something that we haven't seen before and enjoying the journey.
For example...
...this botanic trail that had 3 bridges and a waterfall. There weren't any animals here just tons of plants so we were the only ones on it. It was so fun! I could have sat there all afternoon and listened to the birds and waterfall.
The kids on the top bridge
There are a lot of things though, that we have seen before that the kids like to do every time. Like feeding the giraffes. They were really excited because there was a baby that they thought they would be able to feed but alas the baby one you don't get to feed. They still loved it.
The kids and the baby giraffe waiting patiently.
The baby is the middle picture. He stood at the back while the adults got snacks from the kids.
After we fed the giraffes we set out to find more trails and animals. We found several baby animals...
Baby Capybara. Even though it's basically a giant rat he was adorable!
All of the ducks had 7 babies. It was so weird...
Mommy baby Takin love each other.
There was one baby that I was really excited to see, Adhama, the baby hippo! As some of you may know, there are 2 animals that Harris is deathly afraid of; bears and hippos. After some convincing we made our way to the hippos.
He hesitantly smiled for the camera
The mother pushed the baby up for a breath before they took a swim.
After "braving" the hippos we decided to "brave" the bears as well. Panda and Black to be specific.
A casual glance over his shoulder. Just keeping his eye on the bear.
Pandas are adorable!
After conquering our fears it was time for a lunch break. The Zoo is very hilly so there are moving walkways up the steepest hills. There are only a couple of them though but they are fun to take a break on on the way to lunch.
Taking a break on the walkway up to lunch.
Almost to the top.
When we made it to the top we got some lunch and enjoyed the weather. It was a perfect 72 degrees.
Harris soaking up the sun during lunch.
After refueling we got right back to the animals. Starting with the Arctic section of the zoo.
The Arctic area leads to the Elephant Walk. There are a lot more animals than just elephants there like the lions, cheetahs, jaguars and then the elephants. Along the trail there were the coolest plants! I was fascinated by them. I really wish that I could remember what they were called because I totally want to plant one!
The kids decided to be goofy in this picture. Those cool tall green things are the plants I want!
So beautiful! They are striped up close. A stripe of thorns and then leaves. So cool!
The elephants were just given a bag full of hay for a snack. He was having a great time, except he kept getting it in his eyes.
After walking around for 8 hours our feet were getting pretty tired. Thankfully at the end of the Elephant walk there were these silly foot massagers. You pay 25 cants and it vibrates your feet. The kids thought it was hilarious and tickled more than it massaged.
After a nice foot massage it was time to head out. It was a perfectly perfect day at the zoo. Even if it wasn't the ABQ Zoo. ;)
Chet has been out of town the last 2 weeks and so when he got home on Thursday we picked up the kids and headed to the zoo. I was really excited to go because the burrowing owls had 4 baby chicks! Owls are my very favorites. :)
The daddy and 3 of the babies.
See where the Daddy is standing guard? There are 2 burrows there each with a chick poking his head out.
After quite a while ;) we went and got some ice cream and then headed to the cat walk. The lions are at the end of the cat walk. The first time we went to the zoo we got a surprise when the male lion started roaring. Unfortunately we only had Chets phone to take video with so the quality wasn't very good. Now whenever we go we are prepared and this time we weren't disappointed!
They were both just lying around when all of a sudden the male stood up and started roaring at the female who was sleeping under the tree. She then started roaring back at him. It was a quick conversation but apparently they both had something to say. :)
On Saturday, the weather was so nice that we wanted to get out and do something. So we headed to our favorite place, the zoo. We always have a fabulous time there and this time was no exception. Of course we made our way to all of our favorites like the polar bears and the big cats. At the end of the "Catwalk" we stopped at the duck pond to feed the ducks. While we were feeding them Liv and Harris discovered that the ducks would eat out of your hands. They thought it was so fun.
After feeding the ducks we went to see the seals. Olivia loves seals and often wishes she could swim like one. ;) Exiting the seal area leads to "Australia". There were several new animals there, one of which was a wombat! Which I have decided is one of my new favorite animals! SOOOO cute! I just wanted to snuggle with him!
SO CUTE!
There was also a Kookaburra. I remember watching Zoboomafoo with Liv on time and there was a kookaburra on the show and they said that the only way to get them to sing is for them to hear other kookaburras. Thinking this would be a cool thing for the kids to hear I looked up the sound they make on my phone and played it for the bird. And what do you know, he sang!
The kids really got a kick out of this and wanted me to do it again. We tried several more times but he just wouldn't sing again. We finally gave up and continued on our way to Africa.
Whenever we are in "Africa" the hippos are always underwater sleeping. This time however they weren't! It was so cool to see them actually doing something. Harris, of course, was terrified. He has always hated hippos. I think that he has heard (more than once) on a certain ride that hippos don't attack unless they wiggle their ears and blow bubbles. Which they always do when they come out of the water. So he didn't think it was as cool as the rest of us did. ;)
A couple weeks ago, Olivia let me know that her class had been studying government and had decided they wanted to form their own class government complete with Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. She further informed me that she wanted to be president of said government...President Olivia P. Robinson... I liked the sound of that.
As Olivia began to make plans for speeches and campaign advertisements I was immediately reminded of my various attempts at student government during my days at Mountain View High School...ah, youth...
Anyway, I was successful as a sophomore in getting elected Junior Class Secretary and had a great time doing things like... planning proms... and as a Senior I tried my darnedest to make a good showing for some sort of "President" job (student body or class) but was nowhere near cool or interesting enough to garner the votes required.
So, back to the present. When Olivia came to me about her desire to become class president I had a number of conflicting emotions; excitement mixed with trepidation, hope mixed with fear, a strong desire to see her succeed but an irrational desire to shield her from failure...you know, basic parent kind of stuff. In the end, it wasn't really all about me (what?!) and she entered the primary election, made a speech and won the primary! A runoff happened to choose her competitors but she took the primaries by a landslide.
As we discussed plans for the actual election she asked about what kind of campaigning she should do, I suggested a humorous video (know your audience, right?) and she agreed. She got the blessing of her teacher and we made plans. Now, back to the past for a minute. I remember one particular election video in High School that caught my attention and thought we could borrow the general theme and put our own spin on it. The video in high school was from a kid whose dad worked as a sheriff or something and it featured him running from the police at night with calls from the officers chasing him of "what are you running for?", when they finally caught him he informed the officers that he was running for some sort of class office (get it?).
Once again in the present, Olivia and I decided on a similar theme of running but more "marathon running" vs. "running from the authorities"...
Below, I present the final edit of said video. It took us a couple days and many, many laughs to complete but was overall a very fun project.
In the end, all our efforts paid off and our dear Olivia was elected class president! No small feat for a 4th grader in a mixed class of 4th, 5th and 6th graders. I am very proud of her for many things, not least of which is not being afraid to try while knowing that she could fail but doing everything in her power to succeed.
On Thursday, Harris was tested to see if he was ready to promote to yellow belt. At our new studio it is quite the process to promote. We've found that at most places you promote based on how many classes you have attended (regardless of what you have actually learned). That is part of it at Blackman but it is also based on the students knowledge of the moves and their ability to do them correctly. So, on Thursday for almost 2 hours he was tested and graded on his skills. He did great!
Master Blackman (a 5th degree Black Belt) watching the kids do their front falls. I just love that he says "niiice!" to Harris after his turn. :)
Testing kicks now.
He passed!
After the test on Thursday there was a belt ceremony Saturday morning to receive their belts. Harris was so excited for this that on Friday he woke up at 6 thinking it was Saturday! I'm so glad that he loves it so much!
