I have been so tired since our recent trip to San Diego that I don't have the energy to entertain Jackson, I feel like all I do is clean and then crash of exhaustion on the couch (I know, Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!) 
So, the kid has found an interesting way to entertain himself. I found him in the bathtub (no water mind you) rolling golf balls up and down the slope of the tub! 
Well, at least he is well contained and can't get into too much trouble!
Last night Jackson and Matt went for a swim in the "cool" as Jackson would say it, pool as normal people would say it. (The kid REFUSES to say p-o-o-l, he says puppy, pink, purple whatever, but when he says pool he always calls it a cool...it drives Matt crazy! ) Anyway, he jumped out of the pool and ran across to the spa and Matt said it looked like slow motion when he tripped and his face scraped along the concrete! It looks worse in person than it does in these photos! 
We were talking to my dad on the web cam last night and he looked at Jackson's face and said, "Wow, Jack what happened to your face? Did your mom hit you?" Real funny dad! Jackson's response was "Mom hit me!" Thanks a lot, now when people ask him what happened to his face, as people always do when they see your child has a huge scrape, Jackson will be telling people that I hit him!! Just for the record: I did not abuse my child!! He fell, he really did!
We started our day at Sea World around 11 a.m. We rented a stroller for Jackson just in case, and we ended our day around 6ish....Jackson walked the WHOLE time......he maybe sat in his stroller for 2 minutes. He not only walked, he ran, skipped, jumped, and did some weird funky dance the WHOLE TIME! 
Towards the end of the day Matt took him to the play area where they climbed this rope contraption. Matt wasn't sure, at first, if Jack would be able to do it, but he was wrong. Jackson scaled that thing like he was a spider and it was his web! It was crazy! He loved it. 
The Great Shamu! Uncle Jeff and Aunt Brooklyn won this wonderfully large Shamu by shooting hoops. Jackson thought it was great. Everyone who passed us looked at it in awe because it was HUGE!! Jackson would look at everyone and say "This is my whale!" He was so proud of his Shamu. 
They (meaning Bob and Carol) tried to pawn the large beast off on us, but we refused saying that it would NOT fit in our house anywhere! So, we left it for Brook and Jeff to decorate their house with when they get married!!
We spent Memorial Weekend in Cali...making a stop in L.A to pick up Matt's family and then driving to San Diego to visit Sea World. Jackson was excited to see the sharks! 
This is going thru the "shark tunnel". You ride a moving sidewalk and you are surrounded by a huge aquarium where the fish and sharks swim all around you! Jackson was amazed! 
Feeding the sea lions. We were warned that the seagulls will attack when you throw the fish into the sea lion enclosure to feed them. Well, Matt found that out first hand. A sea gull came right at him full force, but he fought it off and was able to throw the fish to the sea lion. Jackson got to try it too. 
This was hanging over the dolphin pool. I don't think that a dolphin actually came close enough for Jackson to touch it, but he loved to watch them swim. He watched with Matt for awhile and then Grampa took over and him and Jackson found a little bench, sat themselves down, watched the dolphins, and chatted over the weather!! I wish I could have gotten that one on camera!
Jackson's eyes were opened up to a whole new world this last weekend. We decided to drive out to L.A to stay with Matt's family, and then drive to San Diego to visit Sea World! It was such a fun trip. Jackson LOVED Sea World. This top pic is him looking at the penguins. 
Sitting with Grampa Bob enjoying the Shamu show. He thought that was pretty cool. 
Entertaining himself at lunch. Of course, Jackson chooses not to eat a lot of the time so while we finished our lunches, Jackson put the wet naps on his head. 
Now, one might think that star fish would be quite boring to look at because they don't jump out of the water or swim around...they just sit. But I think these were Jackson's favorite. He wasn't afraid to touch them and we spent a good deal of time here. 
Another exciting star fish.
To finish off our week with the cousins we had a low key day on Sunday, Matt, Jack and I went to church and Heather and Tiff and the kids prepared to leave the next day. We made a yummy dinner of regular and greek tacos and then headed out to walk around the duck pond for one last HURRAH before we said good bye to my sisters and their kids. 
Jackson was so sad to say good bye to his buddies and still asks for them every once in a while! We wish we lived closer to them all, but we are grateful we get to see them as often as we do.
I was sitting in my room on the floor putting on my make-up when Jackson walked past me and into my bathroom carrying his toilet. And this is what I found when I finished and walked into the bathroom. 
Hmm..I honestly do not know where he got this idea from, but I thought it was pretty funny!
We took the kids to a place called Amazing Jakes after the zoo. We had never been there, but we thought it was just like Chucky Cheese. Well, it was like Chucky Cheese, just times 10! This place was well.....amazing! It had rides for the kids (trains, carousel, bumper cars, race cars, tea cups, not to mention laser tag, bowling and games galore!) We ended up spending three hours there! It was crazy! 
Oh sure, make the fat pregnant woman squeeze into that seat to ride with the boys! Thanks guys! 
The boys loved this train, they giggled the whole time! What cute little guys.
Isaiah got to ride this big ride that took them all the way up to the ceiling and then let them drop. He is the third one from the left, he rode this ride a couple of times. All in all it was a good but exhausting day.
Our little group at the zoo! We had to run thru the splash pad to cool off in the end because it was so hot!! 
Sweet little Gabee! He is such a good baby, and it makes you melt to look into his big brown eyes! He is so cute!
On our way to the Phoenix Zoo! 
Lookin at the baby oragutan.
Isaiah was the ONLY one to get to ride the camel! Poor kid always has to do (or not do) things according to what the two year olds can do and this time he got a very special ride on the camel! 
Lets just say for Matt's sake that this ride was not as comfortable as it looked! I guess he was right on the hump and his hips hurt him for the rest of the day! But well worth it to see the smile on Isaiah's face. 
Sweet little Brookie!! A lady at the zoo commented on how pretty she is and that she looks like a flower! We proceeded to tell her that she is a flower among a big bunch of brutish boys!! She's our little princess!
On Friday we all packed up and went to the splash pad. Koen loved the water and kept sticking his face in it, Jackson was just content to put his hands in it, and Isaiah, well, he wasn't all that impressed with the water! But he had fun on the swings and came away with a pretty nasty battle wound from falling off mid air! Poor kid! 
After the splash pad we headed out to a cute little cupcakery and bought a bunch of yummy cupcakes (they were buy one get one free!) All in all it was a very busy day and we ALL felt like Koen here who fell asleep at 7 despite all the noise and chaos going on around him! 
The Children's Museum, it was a great time to go because we got there at noon and no one was there, so we practically had it all to ourselves! Which is good because these boys are wild! Jackson got a little courage after watching Koen go down the slide head first.
Do we have a future musician in our midst? 
Little rock star! He fits the part! 
This was a little "cafe" where the boys got to pretend to make food and serve it to us. 
Isaiah LOVED the cafe. He had the chef's coat on for quite a long time and prepared many a meal! Maybe he will make it to Top Chef one day!
We were very sad today to drop off our aunts and cousins at the airport. We have had a very fun and busy week with them here! You can imagine how crazy it was with so many kids around in my tiny apartment, but it was so fun and we are missing them already! 
They didn't leave each other's side all week! (That wasn't always a good thing!) 
Ah, I love being the mother that people look at in the stores and think "Wow, she needs to control her kids!" That's how I felt when we took the kids shopping! Two carts for two babies and two toddlers and a five yr. old walking along! 
Brother and sister going for a ride! 
Trying to burn off energy before bedtime! Wow, these kids were crazy! Koen and Jackson's new phrases were "THAT'S MINE" and "I HAD IT FIRST!"
