Still alive...

I have come to the realization that I am probably the worst blogger ever. Luckily, I'm busy enough that it doesn't really bother me. :) In the next few weeks, I'll do my "usual" and blog about 15 things and back date them all, but for now I'll share a few InstaGram pics of the latest. 

Since moving to the beach, we have been enjoying a whole set of new activities. One of those being, hitting the zoo for a few hours on the spur of the moment. In Carmel Mountain, we were about 30 minutes from the zoo and if felt like a chore getting there and spending 17 hours walking around the biggest, most hilly zoo on the planet. I know this because I've been to EVERY zoo in the world (naturally). Now we are about 15 minutes from the zoo and we hit it up for 2-3 hours because it's beautiful outside and we don't have anything pressing to do. Gray loves the animals, I love the workout built in by climbing those massive hills pushing G in a stroller. It's a win/win situation. 

We have some plans see some fun new things in San Diego this week but we have been put off by some nasty winter weather (read: 50 degrees outside, intermittent sprinkling rain, windy), but seriously I'm not going outside to walk around in the 'rain,' because I can just wait a day or two rather than be cold-ish and wet-ish while being a tourist. I hope tomorrow is as pretty as today was (the "winter storm" was over by 9am), because I'm dying to get down to the USS Midway and see the new statue! 

Elf on the Shelf!

I decided it would be great fun to get Gray an Elf on the Shelf this year. Josh read him the story while I was decorating the tree and "Tippy"the Elf was born. Why Tippy? Josh asked Gray what we should name him, and Tippy was the first name Gray yelled out. I was hoping for something more festive, like Noel or Jingle or Snowflake or Joy or Yule or Carol or Star or Merry or well... anything but Tippy. Gray seemed pretty set on it, so it's officially written in pen in our book. I think we all know once it's in pen, there is no changing it. It's like a tattoo. It is permanent. 

We talked about Tippy a few times, but Gray's mind was BLOWN when he saw Tippy had left him a note with Lucky Charms the first night. Gray talks about Tippy all the time, basically multiple times every day. This elf watching good and bad deeds all day is genius! Every morning he wakes up and looks for him. We have been trying to be creative (thanks Pintrest!) but it's hard to be ultra creative for 30+ days of Tippy movement. I'm curious if we can do the same things next year and get away with it...

Playing Chess

Chatting with Santa

Skateboarding 

Reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar  

Playing in the toothpaste 

We celebrated Christmas way early (due to traveling), so this date was WAY off. :)  

Candyland

My personal favorite. Making snowflakes.

Flour angels

Bubble bath time. 

Checking out the Christmas decorations

Peek-A-Boo

Flying the CH-53D. 

This was about half of the places Tippy hung out during November/December. The last night that we were home Tippy made a birthday card for Jesus. I loved how involved Gray was this year with Christmas and presents, but he is also beginning to understand things about Jesus thanks to prayers and Sunday School (even if that's not what SoCal calls it). It melts my heart to hear him talk about Jesus being born in a manger and seeing him give gifts to others. I love Christmas. :)

Do you have any Tippy suggestions for next year? Do you have an Elf that you love? 

Beach time!

It would appear that Gray is his father's child. He loves the beach and would stay all day, every day if he could. I, on the other hand, am so pale that too much sun is never a good choice. That and I'm not really a fan of being covered in sand for hours up to days (in the car, in your bag, in your scalp) after each trip. I try to be a good sport and go occasionally, but I would much rather just look at it than actually play in it. 

Pacific Beach is a tourist haven in the summer months, so we are usually driving around looking for parking or wading through a ton of people for a place to lay our towels out. I prefer going later in the season on a week day. There is generally less people out and the weather is usually nice enough to go at least a couple weeks out of every month. The one thing that is strange about the beach here is that it can be FREEZING in May, and warm in November. It is usually warm all summer, all year really, but the weather isn't 76 and sunny all year around like San Diegans would like for you to think it is. I literally wore a hoodie in late May this year to watch Josh surf. 

This particular day there were tons of dolphins in the water. It seems like I see dolphins fairly often down there, but Gray totally missed them this day. I originally saw one fin and got a little freaked out (I even know that if you see a shark you are generally ok. It's when you don't see them that you could be in trouble.) then I saw about 4-5 more pop up. They were surfing and playing along the beach. Josh surfs with them often enough, and I'm pretty jealous about that. Maybe not jealous enough to surf with him... 

Not sure if I shared these two photos below before, but I just love them so much it can't hurt to re-share them. California has beaches different from anything I've seen on the East Coast or the Gulf, but they are all beautiful in different ways. Pacific Beach is no different, it just happens to have a different vibe than most of the beaches in San Diego. 

Yuma

Josh went to Yuma for about a month for some weapons training. He was ultra busy, but Gray and I drove out into the dessert to visit him one weekend. A month isn't that long to be gone, but I think it's not fair to Gray or Josh for them to be separated for that long when we are so close (about 3.5 hour drive). 

Breakfast with Daddy!

Yuma is basically alone out in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn't super easy to find something that we could do fairly quickly outside without melting. Josh had a roommate, so we didn't want to just take over while he was trying to study. That lead us to the Yuma Territorial Prison! It was a very interesting museum/prison from the 1800s. It was a very inexpensive little place to visit, and we all enjoyed it. Naturally after we looked around for about an hour, it was way to hot to stick around. We we went to a little sports bar and watched some football in the glorious air conditioning! 

Gray's sad prison face. 

Cells out in the middle of the dessert.
I'm getting hot just thinking about this place in the summer. 

Gray loved this bell because it was incredibly loud! 

After a day in Yuma, we turned around and came back to San Diego. We got to see some great friends that just moved out there and spend some time with Josh, so it was a great trip. If Josh has to go back out again for more training, I'm going to check into some indoor activities because it's too hot in the desert to spend much time outside. :) 

This is always my favorite part of the drive.
Imperial Dunes just over the California state line.

Exhausted after an action packed day!
Passed out in bed with his Bible and his Daddy! 

Fletch claims his Daddy's spot when he isn't around to do it himself.
We really need to buy Fletch his own bed... 

Boyz II Men!

I heard about a Boyz II Men concert coming to San Diego several months before it actually happened. It was the weekend after my birthday, so I thought maybe Josh and I would go together. The USMC had other plans, and sent him to Yuma for a month, which left Gray and I to do something fun all on our own. Luckily he is too little to have any opinions so I got to plan a super fun birth-week celebration which included a 3 day trip back to Disney and a Boys II Men concert in Oceanside! 

A friend wanted to go with us to the concert, so we got in line and accidentally found he house from Top Gun!! It's all fenced up so you can't go in, but it was still pretty neat to see. I did a little google research to see if it was the actual house and found out that the other houses on the street had been torn down or moved, but this one was saved due to its 15 minutes of fame. There are plans to move it to another location, but it hasn't been moved yet. 

On to the concert! It was in an open air concert venue, right next to the water. The Oceanside pier doesn't give good concert views, but I'm sure it still sounded nice to those lucky people who were on the pier that night. They sang for close to two hours, and they sounded amazing in concert. I was also impressed that after 20+ years, they still have all those fancy choreographed dance moves! 

Passing out roses. The 40-50 year olds were loving it! 

Gray on stage after the concert ended.

The venue has stadium seats, so we sat down with Gray instead of fighting the crowd for a closer view. Gray danced, ran, drank lots of water, and whined because it was hot, but I think he did a pretty well at the concert. We did go stand close to the stage (within a few feet of the Boyz) a few times, but Gray was more interested in dancing than watching the concert. Not a bad first concert experience for the Monkey.

First day of Preschool!

The military housing we live in has a fabulous Tiny Tots program for 3-5 year olds. I was lucky enough to hear about if from a friend who sent her kids to the program, and for $50/month I couldn't be happier! Preschool in San Diego is OUTRAGEOUS, even on base it is considerably more expensive than the Tiny Tots here. The other really great thing is that its about 4 houses down from us, so we walk to school every day! 

Gray was very excited to start "school" today as you can see with these cheesy smiles! He had fun playing with his new friends, making crafts, snack time, and stories in circle time! I am in shock that he is even old enough to be in school, even if it is just preschool. Lord help me when he actually starts kindergarten or high school! 

Figured we needed a traditional front door pic!
He was jumping around because he was SO ready to go! 

Summer Fun!

How about a random post with a bunch of pictures that totally don't match? OK! 

Josh celebrated a birthday, and Gray picked out the cake. There were so many dirt movers on the cake, we almost didn't have enough room for all of the candles. Gray still talks about this cake! 

We stopped by the Pacific Beach firehouse because Gray saw a firetruck come back and was dying to check it out. The firemen were so nice, they let Gray get on one of the trucks and try on one of their super heavy hats! 

Gray got a new hat from the Padre's store, and he wore it constantly until he lost it. Luckily they had not sold out of them before the next game we went to and he got a replacement (that I quickly tagged with my phone number)! He is very serious about coloring in this picture. Or returning crayons to the box.

Fun times at the Safari Park!

Gray lined his boots up by his Daddy's. Awww.
Had to get a shot of that! 

Gray is officially a big boy. No more crib in his room! 

Leaving a Padre's game with Daddy! 

He is so cute, but I'm so scared this is going to end in the ER. 

He is getting TOO big! 

Babysitting two big girls. Fletch is dating both sisters on the sly.  

Skateboarding in the neighborhood! 

Josh taught him how to ride on his bottom. Much less scary for me! 

Sprinkler time! 

Rinse off after playing at the beach! 

Walking Fletch in the neighborhood.  

Beach Day! 

Fletch recovering from a walk. 

Gray gets a hideous hair cut/style.
He looks in the mirror and says 'My hair looks stupid.' 

Bike rides to dinner in Pacific Beach.