Leap Day

Since it only comes around once every four years, thought I'd say Happy Leap Day...

We spent most of our day enjoying the warming weather...

Hey Sista

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

Jessica ~ I hope this day is a special one, filled with all the delicious things that you wanted to included in this day of yours...art, mexican food, family and yummy cake.

I love that you are stubborn and speak your mind. I love that you are independent, but don't like being alone. I love that you don't care how the "outside" world has ever seen you. I love that you have taken on a career that benefits the community and makes for great stories. I love how you love your family. I love your sense of humor and how quick you can crack a joke and always keep Tim on his toes. I love how much you love my children and think of them all the time...and even though it makes me pull my hair out, I love how Griffin is so similar to you in that he is independent and has to do things his way and that is the end of the story. And I love how I get to call you my Sister!

Happy Birthday

too much fun

My mom and I took the kiddos to this museum to see all the glory of Jim Henson. Too much fun...Griffin got to see many puppets up close, Ernie, Bert, Kermit, and one of my childhood favorites, The Fraggles. They had a puppet show section at the end of the exhibit and kids got to put on their own puppet shows...too good. McKenna loved it too...

Griffin kept peeking over as he was working the puppets. It was an awesome day, we played for a few hours, had some lunch and on our way home we ran into my dad accidentally at work, so we stopped and said hi and the kids crashed in the car on the way home...

on these days

On these days I am glad that I stay home and we enjoy a rainy day...

poor baby

So I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine Day. We spent ours back in the hospital. Griffin had a runny nose on Wednesday and I took him to the Doctor Thursday morning because he was having a hard time breathing. So we got there and we were sent to the ER, I decided to take him to Phoenix Children this time because we had a bad experience at the last hospital we were at for this same issue. Poor guy, usually they can hear where the wheezing in his lungs is but it was so bad that they couldn't hear any air moving in his lungs at all. So after 4 straight hours of breathing treatments and 12 hours in the ER they admitted us and we found our way to a room at 1 in the morning. Luckily he recovered much quicker than last time, the last time was 7 days and this was only 2 days, but there are still so many frustrations that I am working through. They want Griffin to take some different meds that he has taken before that greatly affected him in terms of his appetite and personality so we took him off those, and we were told we were wrong that they don't have that affect even though there is research that we found to back up how Griffin reacted to it. I will be taking that up with his doctor at his follow up and looking for alternatives other than pouring endless amounts of medicines in his little body. We also get the answer of his problems are what they are instead of why this happens to him and what is going on in his body to react this way. So we will see. Thankfully, Grandma and Papa helped out with McKenna since she wasn't allowed in the hospital with the RSV restrictions, and because they bring cool presents everytime he is in the hospital...so hopefully he will work his way back up the healthy ladder.

XOXO

Go Cart Races...

Carroll Family Style

On Your Mark ...

Get Set...

Go!!!

my new art work

So here are some of my favorite pics from our trip to the wineries is Ensenada that I am going to put up on the walls....

This was the first pic of McKenna when I walked in, do you think she was happy to see me? And we got Griff this "Nacho Libre" mask that looks like spiderman, good times...

A Whale of a Tale

On our second day of cruising, Tim and I traveled into the world of whale watching. I was so excited to experience this since I have a fascination for dolphins, and have swam with those amazing creatures. So the possibility of a whale up close, I just couldn't wait.

When we got in the boat to start traveling, I was in awe of the many navy ships that were also ported at this harbor. They had helicopters a fighter jets, and were just an incredible site, especially for this patriotic family. This was the one point in our trip that I missed Griffin, because I knew that he would be speechless with the sites and sounds of the helicopters flying so close over us, as they went in and out of the harbor.

We kept traveling out into the ocean, the tour guide was explaining that the grey whales were traveling south to baja, so there may be a possibility that we would see one. Then about a mile away, they crew thought they may have seen a whale. So we began to track this whale, and sure enough we saw this whale come up to the surface to take a breath and then retreat back to the bottom of the ocean, but not before giving a little wave of his tale. After about 15 minutes, we saw two more whales on the other side of the boat, and started to follow them, again just breathtaking. I got lost in the lens of my camera as I was snapping pictures of these whales coming up to the surface and then back down. As we were slowing creeping to keep a distance but keep up, everyone on the boat saw what looked like a sea lion splashing in the water, the crew debated what it was for about 5 minutes because no one really was sure, as it seemed too large to be a sea lion. However, this creature solved the mystery for everyone as it began to approach the boat.

This was not a sea lion, it was a grey whale calf. Probably around a year old, thinking that the boat was another whale or just looked fun to play with. This whale stayed on the surface and began to swim around the boat not just once, but about 15 or so times. I felt my body fill with goosebumps, and stayed stationary with my camera as I realized that the whale would keep coming back around, and I would hopefully capture a great picture. Now I say this after realizing what was happening on the boat itself. Keep in mind there were probably only 4 kids on this tour, and the rest were adults, grown adults. As the whale began its first circle around the boat, I lowered my camera from my face to turn to tell Tim how excited I was. However, he wasn't standing there. He wasn't there because this boat full of adults were running in a circle around the boat with the whale, and yes my husband was right in the middle of the crowd. It was just as entertaining as the whale to see all these grown-ups so excited and running in circles. That is when I decided to stay were I was to try and get as many pictures as possible. The whale stayed with us for about an hour or so, and then began to turn south to catch up with the adult whales we had seen earlier. It was truly an incredible experience, even the crew on the boat was screaming and just as excited because this rarely happens.

I couldn't forget about all the sea lions that we did see...