Seussical The Musical

There are those moments, as a parent, that I step back and think.... "I'm doing okay. I am a good mom." Last Sunday did not start out as one of those moments.

I really got Nolan pumped up to see Suessical The Musical. Our first introduction to a musical was the Nipomo High School production of Beauty and The Beast and he was enthralled. Since then we've been itching to find another affordable and appropriate show .... not an easy feat for someone who is not yet 3 years old. Then we see a poster for Seussical The Musical. It could not have been any more perfect. The kid dressed up as The Cat In The Hat for Halloween for pete's sake!

So Nolan is all decked out in his Halloween Costume .. hat, whiskers and all! He is ready to see this show. Every 10 minutes or so he says to me, "Mommy, I am so excited." We drive to San Luis Obispo and stand in a very long line and when we get to the ticket counter the dreaded words come, "I'm sorry, we're all sold out." Not only were they sold out but they were oversold so we couldn't even cling to the hope that someone wouldn't show up for their will call tickets.

So I begin to explain to my little cat in the hat that we are not going to be able to go to the show. The mouth quiver begins, the head goes bag and then the wail comes out full throttle. I felt like such an ass standing in front of that huge line of people picking up their reserved tickets. Who get's their kid that excited for a show, dresses them up and then doesn't have tickets reserved!?
He looked so pitiful standing there with tears streaming down his face, smearing his whiskers. So pitiful, in fact, that an amazingly wonderful woman came up to us and gave her one of her tickets. She offered to sit her son on her lap so she would only need one ticket and we could do the same. Amazing stranger lady saved the day! It was an amazing show, as you can see from the smile on his face.


Gertrude, the one feathered bird, and Nolan



Nolan and the Momma Kangaroo (from Horton Hears A Who)




The Two Cat In the Hats and Horton the Elephant.

Bye Bye Boo Boo?

Heidi and kids at Boo Boo Records



Today we all headed over to Boo Boo Records for music time on the rumor that it would be our last. After 13 years Boo Boo Records announced that they were stopping their music program. I felt that guilty twinge in my heart for every CD I had bought on Amazon and cursed myself for not supporting local business. It was heartbreaking news for us since Nolan has been going since he was 9 months old and now Gabby has embraced the Boo Boo experience with gusto.

We headed into San Luis for our last "Baby Beluga" and a promise to buy the kids the Boo Boo Records T-shirts I had been eyeballing for months. We could see the droves of kids and parents flocking to Boo Boo's. Hidie announced that thanks to a huge mommy response the store is looking into ways to keep it going in some shape or form. We have our fingers crossed, but just in case ... I took pictures.




Gabby already trying to join the kids on stage.


Nolan driving his "Fire Truck" to Ivan Ultz

Way To Go Idaho!

So we spent this last week visiting my sister, her husband and all the kids in Idaho. How it the world I got labeled as the hyperactive kid in my family is beyond me! We never stopped, it was food and entertainment 24-7. Nolan's bed time was usually somewhere around 11 p.m for 9 days straight. Jennifer had so many fun things planned for us we took her up on all of it!

After a 14 hour drive to Idaho, we jumped in the car the next morning and drove 2 hours to McCall to go play in the snow. The boys were sledding down bumpy hills at rocket speeds and when I tried to follow I just ended up face planting in the snow. Some little girls showed us a much safer way to enjoy the snow called "Penguin's".

Hannah, Nolan & Martin doing the Penguin. Nolan was yelling, "I'm winning".

Later that night we ended up in the E.R. with Gabby. She was feverish and sounding like a weird squeaky toy with every breath. They diagnosed her with croup and gave her a steriod and Nebulizer treatment. Martin had to hold a mask over her little face while she struggled and cried while I held down her arms and legs. It was the worst feeling ever! What a way to spend her first Valentine's Day. So we hunkered down for a couple of days and celebrated my birthday at the house (that one will get it's own post)


The boys taught Nolan how to do his D.J. This is a pic of him doing his, "Weeka Weeka, Brains in my Head, Brains in my Head, B-B-B-B Brains in my Head". Oh the things he learned from his cousins.

The food ... The food... I swear we all gained massive amounts of weight. My sister, the foodie, I don't even know how to express to you her obsession. Oh, I know. On my birthday we went to Idaho's best breakfast spot, Goldie's. After Jen ordered a special no longer on the menu the waiter casually said he'd see if they could still make it. Wrong answer. By the time the waiter left the table with our order he said, "Okay, I will explain to the cheif that there is a women upstairs about to strap a bomb to her chest if she doesn't get her Currito." Jennifer was satisfied ... and she got her Currito.

All the kids at a restaurant that I can't remeber the name except that it ended with "Trailer Park Cuisine". Very fun.

Nolan had his first bowling experience and loved it.

Nolan really wanted to bowl with an orange ball and Riley to the rescue ... found one!

On our last day in town we drove out to Bogus Basin and went tubing. Unfortunately we found out after we arrived that a church had reserved the whole tubing hill until 6p.m. Jennifer sweet talked her way into buying 3 tickets off of them which we proceeded to share between 6 of us. After a couple of sleep deprived mega meltdowns, Nolan pulled it together and had a blast. On our last run down we decided to get daring and have the guys spin us down the hill. Bad idea. Nolan fell out a third of the way down. With Martin and I helplessly watching from the bottom, Nolan was put in a new tube and launched down the hill all by himself. He was all smiles when he got to us. Whew!

Then it was Nolan's turn to get sick ... on the 17 hour drive back home. You know it's bad when your 2 year old says "No" to : chocolate, gummy bears, juice and lollipops. "I don't want any food, I just want to get out of the car now!" he screamed at hour 14.

Girls vs Boys

Now I'm not making any judgements about Girls vs Boys, it's just a little observation ....

Gabby 10months playing on Winston

Nolan 1 year playing on Winston.....

Brother and Sister Moments

Yes, I've been totally MIA in regardess to my blog but just take a look at the pictures and I think that kind of explains it all. These two keep me pretty busy, in a very fun way.

The kids have just now started to become the best of friends. They are so happy together and have truly started to play together.


Nolan and Gabby's very first visit to Santa Clause. How we got the kids to smile so big and Santa not to is a bit of a mystery. Gabby adored Santa with his hat and beard. She kept making lovey eyes at him. Nolan couldn't believe that Santa was actually out of the North Pole and visiting San Luis Obispo. He felt very lucky.


I'm sure this falls under the category of "Irresponsible Parenting 101" but they were so cute. Nolan drug the stepstool into Gabby's room, crawled into her crib after her nap and played with her in there for at least 20 minutes.


It is impossible to give Gabby a bath without Nolan jumping in.

Big brother is all this girl sees. He is the ultimate in coolness as far as she's concerned. Their favorite games to play together are the busy ball popper and crawling through tunnels after (and sometimes over) eachother.

I realized how much I loved my blog when I couldn't think of anything to write in our Christmas Newsletter this year and I scanned my blog and suddenly found myself with too much to write about. It really has been a neat reflection on the simple moments in life, the ones that make it ... well, LIFE.

To Tri or not to Tri .....

The 1st leg of the race: a 1/4 mile swim in Lake Lopez



So earlier this month I competed in my 2nd Triathlon since labor, Scott Tinley's Triathlon at Lake Lopez. I was highly debating if I should continue doing these races. I have less and less time to devote to training and when push comes to shove all I really want to do is mountain bike. I only compete in races that have mountain biking courses (which are few and far between) so why don't I just start mountain bike racing and ditch this tri crap? I was debating this question as I started my early morning drive to my race. Martin and the kids didn't make this one because well ... frankly ... it's a lot of work just so I can hear "Go Mommy" at 3 different points in the race.


I competed in the sprint distance: 1/4mi swim, 12mi bike & 3mi run. I was sure I had stumbled in enough places during the swim and transition to write the race off. After passing a good chunk of people during the bike I started to feel pretty good about myself until I was re-passed during the run. I wasn't even going to bother to get my official results until a girl I had been leapfrogging with during the race convinced me that I had done well enough to check it out.

Well, surprise surprise .... I got 2nd place in my class (Females 30-34) and 10th place overall (Female competitors). It was a totally small race (8 in my class and 32 females) but it was enough to make me totally ditch the idea of not racing anymore. I stayed for the awards ceremony because realistically, when am I ever going to get to stand on a podium again?!?!

Now I'm busy trying to convince Martin to sign up for Wildflower with me in December. Now if I can just place at that one .....

Auntie Natasha

I love the Fall around here! The weather finally gets warm, the tourist go home and friends come to visit. My best friend Natasha came to visit and the poor girl was launched into Mommy-hood the whole time she was here. Her and her hubby are thinking about heading down that baby path so I guess it's not the worst thing I could have subjected her to.

We started our day out by going out for THE BEST pancakes EVER at Seaside Cafe in Shell Beach. Yummy! With full tummies we went to toddler music and watching kids dance to totally hokey songs with a women who either really digs kids and music or has an espresso machine tapped into her viens ... quite possibly both. That was enough to send us back to the house for naps .... Natasha included.

It was great beach weather so we headed out for a walk on the beach with the kids. It was low tide and tons of tiny harmless jellyfish had washed up. Nolan and I had a great time poking at them.

Since I didn't have to have a hawk eye on a 2 year old I actually snapped a ton of pictures of Gabby. I got so many good ones but I really liked this one. She is such a bubbly happy girl it was neat to capture a picture of her looking thoughtful. She was really taking in the sand and sounds.

That night was probably our worst night EVER trying to put the kids to sleep. Neither one of them was going down without the fight of their lives. I explained to Natasha that it's not like this all the time. I hope we didn't single handedly halt their walk down the baby path!