Sunday, March 18, 2012

Just so Russell Could Study...

Poor Russell had midterms last week and a scout camp out over the weekend, so Ty and I decided to be "real nice" and leave for a few days.  We found a real cheap flight (like $70 round trip cheap since Ty can still fly for free) and gave Russell a break from our distracting ways.  Actually, my parents practically begged us to come and fill their empty nest from 3/8-3/12, so of course we obliged.  It was fun to just go and play without having any big event to plan or clean up for, just hanging out with the family!  We were lucky to have good weather and Leslie (my sis one city over from home) off work for the weekend, so we did plenty of time-spending with them.

We flew in Thursday night and luckily the flight wasn't full so Ty got to sit in his own seat--SO much more comfortable for me!  The last time that I flew with Ty and not Russell was in September and I swear he was much smaller then.  Plus, when going through security, he couldn't run off like he kept trying to do.  [Side note: rather than watch me struggle trying to keep one hand on my toddler while closing and lobbing the stroller up on the conveyer belt, I'd be totally fine if you offered to help, TSA folks.]  When we're traveling as a family, Russell will usually watch the stuff and stay at the gate while Ty and I explore around the airport.  We have our favorite haunts: the toy store, the people-conveyer-belt thing, pushing his stroller around into people, etc.  Ty and I shared some pizza and watched trucks and airplanes out the windows long enough to keep him occupied before our delayed flight took off.  Russell had downloaded one of the Baby Einstein videos on my phone so our flight went pretty well.  Ty-Ty was so tired by the time my dad brought us home, though, and I'm pretty sure his sleep schedule was all messed up from then until about now.

On Friday my dad, mom, Ty, and I met Sawyer, Leslie, and Carl at a great park near their house.  Seriously, I would love to live next to a park like this someday!

Ty, Mor-mor, and Sawyer sharing snacks in the shade of the slide on the "big kids' playground."  It was surprisingly warm, too!  Too bad Ty was wearing a long-sleeved thermal shirt...whoops.
While Far-far took a nap on the cement, everyone else crammed into one of the cars of the play train going through the little kids' playground.
Sawyer, Carl, and Ty actually played pretty well together!
Friday night we...uhhh...I can't remember.
On Saturday morning we watched my dad play basketball in a church ball league.  Ty cheered anytime anybody made a basket and would call out, "Far-far!" when he saw him on the court...which, turns out, was the whole game since their team didn't have any subs.  I bet Ty would have gone in for someone.

Later that morning we went to the Sacramento Zoo meeting up with the Espinozas again, except this time G-G'ma (Ty's mom's mom's mom) joined us, too!  I have been wanting to go to the zoo for a while (like 5 years) and Ty's now old enough to enjoy it, so timing was perfect.  This is Ty when we first arrived at the zoo--totally excited and ready to go!
It really was a beautiful day and for a Saturday, wasn't too crowded.  Of course Ty didn't want to stay in the stroller the whole time and with big cousin Carl (or Car-ko as Ty says) I don't mind!
Watching the ostrich. He liked the monkeys, turtle swimming in the water, a bobcat-looking thing, and anything else that had a waterfall in it's cage/habitat.  When he didn't know what sound an animal we saw made, his fallback was "Meow."  In most cases, it didn't quite work...
Ty and Soy by the zebras.
With Mor-mor watching the orangutans play hide-and-seek.  Ty found 'em!
Leslie, Sawyer, Ty, and myself next to some lemurs.  (They're to the right of us out of the picture, that's just some random person in the background in case you were confused.)
After we had seen all we came to see at the zoo we had a picnic lunch in the humongous park and picnic area right next to it.  Carl brought a bat and ball and Ty's mom didn't even think about bringing a ball for him to play with so, Ty was suffering from two things: 1) I-need-a-nap-itis and 2) "I see other kids playing with a ball and not me!"  He can take a lesson from Soy and just find a stick.  Unfortunately, this picture captures much of their reactions to life.
(Not) soon enough, it was Ty's turn to bat!  I hope we have many Far-far and Ty batting practices in the future.  I really can only go so far in teaching him how to play...and I've probably already gotten there.  ;)
Saturday night, after attending my mom's Suzuki violin concert (during which Ty was a MOST supportive audience member, clapping and "YAY!"-ing after each piece) we headed back to the church to complete the cleaning assignment for the week.  We made  pit stop in the nursery room and my mom showed this awesome bus to Ty.  We had to pry him off of it when it was time to go.  I don't blame him, though, it is pretty cool.
Sunday afternoon/night we had lots of family over: Carl, Soy, Lel, and Curt, G-g'ma and G-g'pa, Bedstemor (my dad's mom), Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave and Cami.  We had a great dinner followed by chatting and Ty performing oh, so well showing off his number and letter identification skills.  :)

On Monday we went back over to the Espinoza's for a little working/playing in the yard.  Too bad it wasn't warm enough to swim.  We made a quick stop to the outlets (thanks for the new dress, mom and dad!) and headed back home and hung out before we had to leave for the airport that night.  Ty -ty was sure to get reading/snuggle time in with Mor-mor!
And Far-far turned on a recorded BYU football game for he and Ty to watch.  Ty, of course, was thrilled.  I think this picture caught Ty in the middle of saying "Football!" (or "Fuh-baw," rather).  Glad they can share the sports thing!
Our flight back was packed with LOTS of people arriving late.  Like seriously late--coming through security at 8:50 when the plane is supposed to leave at 9:05.  I know because at the dinky Stockton airport, when you're aboard the plane you can still see the gate and security area.  What happened to "must be checked in 45 minutes prior to departure?"  Then again, I've been running late before and wouldn't have wanted to miss my flight.  Ty and I had to share a seat and also gave up our seat and the one next to it (which I was hoping would remain empty) for a mom and 5-year-old so we ended up on an aisle seat.  Aisle seat=aisle close by that Ty sees and wants to run down.  He did wiggle out once and made it down a couple rows before I caught him!  Again, we watched the Baby Einstein video and Ty tried to get comfortable to fall asleep, but to no avail.  Russell picked us up at the airport and asked if we wanted to go back for another visit when finals come around in May.  We just might.  :)

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