Hide And Seek

This weekend, Kristen and Davis played a game of hide and seek in the basement.  Here are some of the excerpts:

Davis: (Hides in the closet and slams the door)
Kristen: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Davis: (Throws the door open)
Davis: Here I am!
----


Kristen: Okay, my turn to hide
Davis: (Puts hands over his eyes and starts counting)
Kristen: You can't look through your fingers!
----


Kristen: Your turn to hide
Davis: I'll hide in the laundry room
----

City Museum and More

Our friend Dave came down from Wisconsin this weekend for Thanksgiving.  It was great to have company in our new house and an extra excuse to get out and see the town.  We had a simple, but great thanksgiving and spent a lot of time exploring and having fun with Davis.   The highlight of our adventures was a day out at the City Museum:

"Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects."

Davis had a blast, and by extension, we did as well.  There was:

1. An outdoor ball-pit
2. An indoor ball-pit
3. Slides
4. Blocks
5. Trucks
6. Art projects
7. Face painting
8. An indoor train track
9. Climbing
10. Lights
11. Caves
12. Mirrors
13. Marshmallows
14. Fire pits
15. Crazy fun

Here are some pictures from the day:

Outdoor ball-pit

Building with blocks

Making a mask with Mom

Glittering up the msak

TRUCKS!

Getting his face painted (awesome)

Tiger!

Tiger in the ball-pit!

More ball-pit

Tigers like marshmellows

Future visitors be warned, we will use you an an excuse to go to the City Museum again.

A Sunday to Remember

We had a fantastic day today.  After a solid week of rain and gray, we finally had a nice day Saturday and were hoping for a repeat today and planned a big day out.  After some great homemade french toast, we went to the Arnold Arboretum for the first time in two years with the plan for Davis to ride his new Scoot around the wide paths while we enjoyed a walk and the flowers.  Davis wasn't interested in his bike, but he was interested in his truck book and running through the grass which he got his fill of.  After 1.25 miles (I was tracking it) in 80 minutes we headed to JP  for a snack then to the Franklin Park Zoo.  We had a great time at the zoo.  We fed the Budgies, took a train ride, rode the carousel, "drove" the tracker, slide down the slide and saw a lot of animals (lions, tigers, gorillas, ostrich, zebra, and peacock were highlights for us).  Davis had a great time and was quite exhausted by the end of the day.

We took a lot of pictures, a few of which are below.

.

San Diego and LA

A couple of weeks ago, we got back from a week long trip to San Diego and L.A.  We went to San Diego as part of a conference where Kristen was presenting and networking and L.A. to visit my brother James, his wife Stephanie and their daughter Melanie.  We had a fantastic time and Davis was a great traveler.  It was great to escape from Boston for a while, see our family and give Davis some new experiences.

We left Boston late in the afternoon on Saturday, arriving very late in San Diego with a connection in Chicago.  Davis loved the airport and he spent all his time on the ground watching plans and trucks.  His favorite part of flying seemed to be landing.  When we landed in Chicago he kept saying "More? More?".  Even after a full day of traveling he was sad to get off the plane in San Diego and kept requesting "More plane?".  We were amazed at how easy it was to fly with him across country and he took to staying in a hotel room like a champ.

We had one day together to enjoy before the conference started and we spent it at Sea World. There is no doubt in our minds that Davis' favorite activity at Sea World was the Orca whales.  We attempted to take him to the Sea Lion/Otter show, but when we sat down and watched for a bit he looked at us like "What? This is really lame".  He was especially confused when people clapped after a sea lion did something, which to Davis just didn't seem to warrant clapping.  We left not too long into the show.  In stark contrast to this, Davis clapped after everything the whales did during the "Shamu show".  If the whales left the main tank for the human-only portions of the show, Davis would sign and ask for "More whales?? More whales??". Increasing in pitch the longer the whales weren't seen.  The entire time, he was standing on Kristen's lap jumping up and down.  We probably haven't seen him so excited before.

Exploring the tide pool at Sea World.

After Sea World, we went out with Mom for a quick dinner, then went to Old San Diego to run around the park before bed.  Part of my strategy for the trip was to tire Davis out as much as possible during the day.  For the most part it seemed to work as he slept in the stroller and went right to bed at night.  

Kristen's conference took up almost all the time between Sunday night and Wednesday afternoon so Davis and I spent a lot of time exploring the sites of San Diego.  Monday we went to the San Diego Zoo, Tuesday the Wild Animal Safari Park, and Wednesday the USS Midway and Maritime museum before meeting up with mom again.

After a great breakfast at the Village of La Jolla on Monday, we ventured to the zoo.  It was enormous and a lot of fun.  Every now and then Davis would notice there were animals, but he really just enjoyed running around and exploring.  Since the zoo was so big so we started with a bus ride around most of the park.  After that we walked, explored, walked and explored and walked some more.  His favorite part of the zoo was the fake caves and sea ice by the Polar Bears.  He spent about 45 minutes in the sea ice eating his apple and being silly with the other toddlers and kids who cycled through the exhibit.  Some of the other highlights of the zoo: seeing a cheetah out for her walk, the female lion who reared up and tried to paw a toddler through the class, watching the Monkeys play above a fish tank, picking flowers and throwing them in the water and the black Jaguar.  

Playing in the Sea Ice

More sea-ice time

Lions! 

The light by the pandas was way more interesting than the pandas

He had a very interesting encounter with a bird who seemed to be guarding something.

My little ham

We spent a lot of time picking up flowers and throwing them in the water.

After the zoo, Davis and I went back to Old San Diego, this time in the sunshine, to have dinner and run around before heading back to the hotel.  Davis enjoyed the cannon, dropping rocks through a hole in a bench, climbing a tree with another toddler and hearing the trains at the nearby depot.

Dropping rocks through a hole in the bench

Climbing trees

Climbing on the canon

Tuesday, Davis and I went to the Wild Animal Park which is run by the same organization as the zoo.  They have a big park where lots of different types of animals are able to mix together.   We spent the whole day are the park and walked at least 6 miles by the end of the day.  We saw another cheetah out for its walk (Davis was asleep when we saw the third cheetah out for its walk) and saw a lot of animals with a lot of space.  The park was about 40 minutes outside of San Diego and they had a lot more room for the animals than traditional zoos.  Some of the highlights: The cheetahs out for their walks, being out in the glorious sunshine, the elephants with tons of space to roam, feeding the ducks, seeing 2 of the last 7 white rhinos in the world and the playground.

Tram ride through the park

Exploring the flowers.

Hanging out by the gorillas

A Secretary bird.  I thought this was very cool.  They stomp their pray to death.

The petting part of the zoo

About to pet the deer.  At least he didn't try to ride it

Wednesday, Davis and I had a short day together before we meet mom after the conference ended.  We headed down to the maritime museum where we saw a replica of the HMS Rose (used to film Master and Commander) then headed to the USS Midway where we had a blast exploring the flight deck and planes.  After the conference ended, we picked mom up and headed back to the zoo.  We enjoyed a quick trip including the polar bear caves again, feeding the gorilla statues and lots of climbing and running around.

Watching the gorillas 

Feeding the gorilla statues

Feeding the gorillas

Playing with the elephant statues

Thursday, we had a wonderful family breakfast overlooking the cove in La Jolla where we watched a person swimming and every minute or so would se the head of a sea lion pop up just behind her.  After that, we headed back to Sea World hoping to see another whale show.  We saw a few of the sites we'd missed the first time, including feeding the sea lions and the shark tank.  Davis and Kristen were even able to touch a dolphin!  (Davis correctly called this whales as well).  We also took in a different, more educational version of the Shamu show which Davis once again enjoyed.  After Sea World, we packed the little one in the car and drove up to L.A. to start our visit with James and Stephanie.

L.A. was great, we had a lot of fun.  Davis and Melanie were fantastic to watch together.  They taught each other a lot and played really well together.  

Playing with one of Melanie's trucks.

Melanie

Playing with Melanie's bike

Davis and Melanie

Friday we went to a train museum / exhibit were Davis was in heaven.  He really enjoyed the trains and taking a model train ride around the park.

Trains!

More Trains!

James, Stephanie and Melanie

And more trains!

There goes a train!

Cousins

Taking a train ride

Saturday went to the local farmer's market were we picked up some amazing fresh fruit and produce.  We had the best oranges we've ever had before packing up the kids and heading to the beach.  The toddlers had a great time digging in the sand smashing sand castles, wading in the water and being outside.  My brother took a few pictures that I hope to get uploaded soon.

The kids had some more fun playing together that night:

Wresting?

Wresting / Hugs

Sunday, Kristen's flight left very early in the morning.  Davis and I had a final morning with James, Steph and Melanie.  We went to the park to enjoy some final sunshine before Davis and I headed back across the country solo.  Davis was a great traveler: I really couldn't have asked for more from the little guy.

Here are a few videos from the trip: