We just had a grand visit from Aunt Lynn, who came up for her piano lesson with Hosie, and to spend some time with Aria. They spent an hour rolling around in the living room, laughing and screaming. I finally caught Aria on video doing that screaming laugh that she does when she is really excited. It just cracks me up.
After dinner, when it was time for Lynn and Kathy to leave, Aria got upset after they went out the front door. So I took her outside and held her as we waved goodbye. "Bye-Bye, Lynn," I said. "Bye-Bye, Nana."
About an hour later, after Hosanna put her down for the night, I guess she was wired up, and it took her a little longer to go to sleep than usual. She lay in her bed talking to herself for about 45 minutes. After a little while, we were able to catch what she was saying over the baby monitor. Very quietly, she was saying to herself: "Bye-Bye, Lynn. Bye-Bye, Nana."
Last night was Aria's first A's game: A's (yay!) vs. Yankees (boooooooooooooo!!!!) at Oakland Coliseum. A night game. We were nervous because Aria would be up WAY past her bedtime. But we really wanted to go to a game, so we bit the bullet. Plus Kathy treated us for Hosie's birthday. :)
On the drive down we got Aria to say "Let's Go A's!" She was pretty well rehearsed, but once confronted with the immensity of the stadium, crowds, etc, she forgot all about saying it.
I got really hoarse from booing E-Rod since we were along the third base line.
We left in the 8th as it was tied up. Or maybe the A's were losing, I don't remember. Either way, those Athletics came back to tie it up in the 9th, and eventually ended up winning in 12, thanks to the efforts of rookie Travis Buck - my new hero.
(Addendum: The A's went on to take 2 of 3 from the Bronx Stinkers.)
We had a low-key easter egg hunt after unpacking from our trip. Hosanna bought a few plastic eggs and filled them up with animal crackers and dried fruit. Net result? Animal crackers got chowed down, and dried fruit got sucked on and spit out all over the house. We're still locating it all. It's like a second hunt for the parents! :) It was a really fun day. Bummed to go back to work tomorrow.
Just arrived home from a trip to San Diego, where we enjoyed a bit of time off for spring break. We stayed at the Paradise Point resort. We didn't really know what to expect. All we knew was that we wanted to enjoy cocktails on the beach. We never really made it to the beach, as it turned out, but we did enjoy cocktails in the jacuzzi after lazing around in the pool all afternoon. :)
Our experience at the hotel was mixed. On the one hand, there was plenty of relaxing: the grounds are beautiful, the pool is a perfect 70 degrees, the bartenders are really good (best whiskey sour ever?), there was free croquet, we could order virtually anything to our room, and there were lots of kids there for Aria to watch. On the other hand, everything there is *really* expensive. Like, twelve bucks for a drink - and if you get it in your room, wha-? Is that really 35 bucks for two drinks? Yup, because they add a 20% gratuity AND a delivery fee AND you are expected to tip the guy on top of that.
The other main beef is that the hotel is in the flight path of San Diego airport so it is pretty noisy there... and the first room they put us in was ten feet from where they were bulldozing a new pool. I'll give them credit on that one, though - we complained, and they upgraded us to a much nicer room for free.
It took us a couple days to get used to being at a resort. We didn't even go to the pool until the third day. Silly mistake. It was at the pool when we finally relaxed, stopped fighting it, and embraced the experience. Then Hosie got a massage as a birthday present to herself. The masseuse turned out to be a semi-pro cyclist named Matt who had a ten-year-old grudge against Levi Leipheimer. Go figure.
We did take two outings that were really fun: Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. Both of them were fantastic.
First was Sea World. We went twice, one in the late morning and once in the early evening. The first time we went in we made some mistakes. We brought way too much stuff, and went too close to Aria's naptime. After we stood in all the lines, rented a stroller, and got a locker, we had barely enough time to watch the killer whale show before we had to leave. The killer whales were awesome, though. The trainers stood up on their backs, hugged them, and even held on while one jumped out of the water. (whoa.)
When we came back, we went through lots of their different aquariums, then eventually arrived at the shark tank. I took a short video, but unfortunately it is pretty dim in there, so it came out pretty dark. You can still see some of the sharks though.
You can see that they don't do a whole lot to discourage you from being afraid of sharks, what with the creepy music, dim lighting, etc.
On the last day of our trip we went to the San Diego Zoo, which is world renowned for a good reason. It is truly an amazing place. The size, breadth, and planning of their exhibits is unparalleled.
We saw polar bears...
A 6,000 pound rhino...
Elephants...
Lions...
A bearded pig (which looks to me like a cross between a pig and a Schnauzer)...
Orangutans...
Tapirs...
...and my favorite, a pregnant hippo (the most dangerous animal in Africa, we are told).
