Sorry Nate...

This is what my poor husband got to wake up to today. Sorry, babe, at least our kids are cute...

(Note: this was after I had rid my eyes of the goobers that had locked my eyes shut in the night. I think there's a slight case of conjunctivitis [pink eye] going around our house and we'll probably be heading to the doctor tomorrow.)

Whale Watching

Nate and I have wanted to go Whale Watching since we moved to California. I would see Groupons all of the time for them, so finally I just bought one so we would be forced to go. We had done a babysitting swap with some friends, so they took the girls for the morning. We headed up to Long Beach, got aboard a boat, and took to sea! We managed to get an awesome view from the very front of the boat (which unfortunately made Nate slightly queasy).

We saw a huge pod of dolphins, a few hundred of them! They weren't too interested in playing in the wake of the boat like dolphins are sometimes known to do. The captain said they were probably communicating about a "bait ball" somewhere, so they were high tailing it over there. Amazing though!

Fun to see some sea lions. I always thing of the movie Andre. That's it, we're watching Andre tomorrow.

We actually got to see some whales! There were two fin whales, which are pretty rare to see. The captain was great and we got really close to them, and he timed them almost perfectly!

All in all it was a fun date! Fun to do something besides a movie, fun to do something during the day. I'm glad we only paid 30 bucks instead of 60, but I'd recommend it to people who come to visit. (P.S. It gets COLD out on the ocean, especially in the morning.)

San Diego Zoo

The last few weeks of February Nate was working a lot. A lot, a lot. And I'll be honest, I was borderline depressed from being stuck at home and not seeing him EVER. Then one night he came home with some amazing news. He got Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. So what did we do? On Thursday we went to the San Diego Zoo! It was so much fun, and I was so thankful we were able to go on a day other than Saturday. It was hardly busy at all, and the girls were SO good. We were also lucky that it was a little overcast and slightly chilly, all of the animals were pretty active.

Cute lil Rach :)

Rachael's second favorite part was the sky train. Her first favorite part was the moving walkway that took us up a hill. Actually, the map was her favorite part, she still carries it around.

Whitterkins was just adorable all day. Look at all of her goofy, adorable faces! The last picture is when she fell asleep in the Ergo carrier on my back. Love this kid! (I left her bow in the car... so sad...)

How cute is that last picture with Rachael and Nate? SO cute.

Awesome family picture on the sky train!

^This is Rachael at the Central Park Zoo when she was just about Whitney's age. (Cute, right?)

^I had to snag a turtle picture of my Whitney girl!

*List of all the Zoo's we have been to: Central Park, Calgary, Hogle, Santa Ana, Orange County, San Diego. (I've NEVER been to the Idaho Falls Zoo, if you can imagine!) (Click on the zoo name to go to that blog entry, if you're so inclined. Don't ask me why I didn't blog about the Hogle Zoo...) The people at Nate's work think we're a crazy zoo family. We can't help it, there are so many zoo's around here!

Flower Towel

^^Rachael

^^Whitney

Balboa Island

We were looking for an activity a few Saturdays ago, and I've heard a lot about a place called "Balboa Island." I asked on Facebook if anyone would recommend it. My friend, Lexie, said, "Meh," and that is the perfect word to describe it. It was pretty, and there was a ferry to ride (which Rachael medium-loved), but aside from the ferris wheel (which Rachael LOVE-loved!), there wasn't much to do. We're planning on going back to participate in the deliciousness known as "Balboa Bars." Ice cream dipped in chocolate and then dipped in things such as toffee, coconut, nuts, m&ms, a myriad of things. We're looking forward to that for sure!!

OC Zoo

We've been really trying to take advantage of our Saturdays, as well as the gorgeous SoCal weather! A few weekends ago we hit up the Orange County Zoo. It was only $2/person, which is kind of why I only took a few pictures (none of which are featured here). It was a tiny zoo, but they did have a petting zoo (only goats) which Rachael loved, they even had little brushes to use.

Family picture by the duck pond!

Rachael even got to ride her own little pony, which she kept calling a "sea horse." Super cute.

Even Whitterbug enjoyed herself!

The Box

Well, my friends, the Russell Family has finally, FINALLY, entered that 21st century. We recently received our tax return, splurged, and got a 53 (I think...) inch LCD LED 3D TV (woah, that's a lot of caps). Yep, its big, crystal clear, and can turn any movie/show into 3D!! So awesome! We've been watching on Lord of the Rings in 3D, and its awesome. Look at that HUMONGUS box TV up there. Thank you, Nate's sister, Sarah, for giving us this TV when we got married almost five years ago, but that monstrosity is going to a little old lady tomorrow. (I chased her down at a garage sale where she was looking at buying a measly little TV for ten bucks! I told her we were giving her a huge one away, so she jumped on it!) We're loving it, and I'm excited to cancel cable and start streaming Netflix and Hulu. Ironically, I'm hoping that will cut drastically down on our TV watching now that we have a TV that doesn't whistle when its turned on. Here's to our last decent tax return!

PS The TV is now hung on the wall. It was pretty wobbly on that tiny night stand.