You Silly Little Plonker

One thing I try to do is teach the kids English words. I use lots of English words every day and Addy understands them all. I say nappy (diaper), rubbish bin (trash can), crisps (chips), chips (fries), and the list goes on. I was chuffed to bits with her remarks today:

Dad: Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror?

Addy: Yes.

Dad: I don't blame you, you're beautiful.

Addy: You do blame me, you silly little plonker!

All of us cracked up laughing! Brilliant! You can't beat those moments.

California Trip

We just spent a week in California with some of our good friends and had a great time! Our hub was a beach condo in San Clemente. While the pictures show some of the highlights of our trip, part of what made it so fun was just relaxing with friends. Some of our other "themes" include strawberry shake runs to In 'n Out Burger (yummmmmm), watching the Jazz playoffs, taking little strolls to Del Mar street and hitting up the English shop there to buy minstrels and fruit pastels and such. We have decided that we could definitely live there.

Here's a pic of Barry, Britt, and Lauren on the pier. The beach was a 5-10 minute walk from where we stayed. The only unfortunate thing about the trip was that the weather wasn't prime beach degrees. We still spent time on the beach, but tended to have jackets on...

Here's a shot of the group on one of our walks around San Clemente. Kade and Mary have the 2 boys, Kellin and Ethan. Addy and Kellin had their moments, but for the most part, they are best little buds (from birth) and loved being together again.

We had lunch one day at a Fisherman's restaurant on the pier. Pretty good fish and chips!!

Barry and Lauren...

...Britt and Addy

The kids ate pretty well, but mostly enjoyed feeding the pigeons sourdough bread.

We went to "Aquarium of the Pacific" in Long Beach. Here's a shot of our fam in front of a big aquarium. This place had fish, sharks, sea lions, starfish, sea horses, sea urchins, rays (that feel quite slime-ish - ew!), jellyfish, and all other kinds of sea life. The kids had a great time - favorite moments were probably when the scuba divers who were feeding the fish would wave to them. Yea Scuba Steve!

Addy and Kellin

We also hit Hollywood!

Here we are by Will Smith's hand and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Had to do Disneyland. We were there all day (10a-8p) but didn't really have major lines, so we got to do just about everything we wanted to! I think Barry was wiped out at the end, but I could've gone at least another hour!

Here's the group on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. This was great! Lauren was on my lap and just loved looking through the porthole at all the underwater sites.

Here's Addy with Pocahontas.

It's the best to be walking along when all this sudden you spot some Disney characters. We also got a picture with Ariel (aka The Little Mermaid) and danced with Jasmine (Aladdin), Cinderella, and Mulan after we learned how to become "royal princesses." The highlight of Addy's Disneyland trip (and Barry's and mine too, funnily enough) was having Sleeping Beauty wave, blow kisses, and sign "I love you" directly to her. She also got direct waves from Snow White and Cinderella while they were on the float.

So I mentioned the weather wasn't great for the beach; nevertheless we spent a few days hanging out there. Lauren gave boogie boarding a try - she's a natch!

Addy and Kellin giving their best attempt with the boards.

The frigid temperature of the water didn't seem to faze the kids much...or Barry and Kade for that matter. At Kade's request, however, we didn't include the picture of them with the boards.