Sea World

So, we went to Sea World a couple weeks back. I would love to report that it was a fantastic time had by all. Actually, it was really hard. It was the first time I had taken all three kids somewhere like this. It would have been WAY easier if Sea World would let you take your stroller in any of the exhibits. Having to take the baby out of his carseat every 5 minutes in the 80 degree heat trying to shield him from the sun, while chasing after two excited boys, was darn near impossible. And super stressful. Try getting lunch there. Carrying a tray with 3 peoples lunches on it while pushing a double stroller through the switchback line. Or better yet, trying to carry the tray while chasing Jake and carrying Christian. Logistically, I was just totally outnumbered. Next time I will plan it much better. Luckily, this trip was organized by a local LDS girl and half of the south stake was there, so I was able to get a lot of help. My friend Jen watched the kids while I went and stood in the line for lunch. So, all I had to worry about was carrying the tray. But of course, right when we get settled down and ready to eat, Jake states that he has to pee. You don't even want to know what I did in that situation. One good thing was that I went with my friend Heidi and we met her entire family there and they were all so great. They helped so much. They really made sure I was taken care of. That whole family is so great. Anyway, I also forgot to mention that we went to Sea World the day after my sleep deprived family got back from Big Bear at 10:00 at night. We had to be a Sea World at 9:00am so I had to wake up my kids at 6:30am. They were exhausted and so was I ! So, we were all a bit grumpy and boy was I pushing it. Now that I am recapping this day I am thinking , "What was I thinking!?". Well, this is what I was thinking. Getting in Sea World for 5 bucks each. That opportunity doesn't come around very often. But, I was definitely pushing it with my kids and although Ben had a great time, Jakey was exhausted and whiney the whole day. So, the nice part about getting in for 5 bucks? You don't feel guilty when you skip some of the must see shows and punk out around 2pm. The best part of the day was when I took the boys on this water rafting ride. We went with Eric, Brittany, Asher and Kainoa and we all got soaked. And I mean soaked! Jake literally didn't have a dry spot on his body. So, needless to say after that we were really ready to go home.
Right after our first exhibit. Notice Jake's happy face already?

Ben and the starfish.

Jake wanted to take his starfish home.

Watching the dolphin show in the soak zone.

Jake LOVES Eric, Heidi's dad. He opted to leave me and sit with him during the show.

Jake and the dolphin

Cousins!

Dillon, Ben and Jake the night Dillon spent the night.

Dex, Jake and Dill

Dillon, Ben, Jake and Tyler

Ben, Kelsey and Devon

Tanner and Christian

Tanner, Ben, Christian and Devon

So, in January we had the pleasure of seeing both our cousins from Colorado and our girl cousins from San Jose. The boys had a blast with them.

Jake's last soccer game and award ceremony. Good job little buddy!

Practice was going great, as usual. Having a good time dribbling the ball and shooting it in the goal.

Getting instruction from Coach.

Hanging out with best friend Luke Dallas.

Then the game started and this is where Jake spent most of his time. Just fine with me.

Or here, in his baby brother's car seat.

Getting his medal. He was so excited.

Striking a pose. This is what I get when I ask for a smile for the camera.

Or this.

Score as of today.....

3 kids. 3 sick. 2 with Bronchitus. 1 with a cold. 0 sleep. Fun times.

Big Bear

Earlier this month, February 8th-10th to be exact, we got the opportunity to go to Big Bear with our good friends Heidi and Brian and Heidi's parents, the Elsner's. We had a great time. We left Friday at around 3:30pm and hit major traffic. So after stopping for dinner and to let all the kids play, we decided to get back on the road. We made it to the cabin around 10:30pm. When we pulled up Eric (Heidi's dad) informed us that we were looking at the driveway and staircase, that to us just looked like huge mounds of snow. They were buried beneath feet of snow. So, for the next 2 hours Ryan and Eric, with help from Heidi and a little help from me, shoveled all the snow off the stairs and driveway. And when I say stairs, I don't mean a couple stairs leading up to the cabin door. I mean an entire flight of stairs consisting of at least 50 stairs. It was crazy. Quite an adventure and quite the workout. Ryan worked his butt off shoveling and was quite the perfectionist. Every stair had to be just right. He actually admitted that shoveling the stairs was one of his favorite parts of the trip-he really enjoyed it! Strange man. Anyway, so we get in the cabin around 12:30 am. Meanwhile my kids are still awake which is crazy because I usually have them in bed around 7pm. We stayed up and hung out until about 1:30am and then hit the hay. Needless to say, our kids were pretty out of sorts the whole trip due to lack of sleep. They still had a great time, though. So, I won't bore you with the daily log of our trip, but here are some of the things we enjoyed doing. We went sledding, built a snowman, Ben and Ryan shot targets with a b.b. gun (which Ben was so stoked about because we don't even let him have toy guns), went into town for lunch, and stayed up late having good conversation with friends. It was a super fun trip. The Elsner's and Vea's are two of the coolest families and we loved spending time with them. Thanks guys for a great trip!

Check out all those stairs....Now imagine shoveling all of them.

Picture out of the top window of the cabin. Look really hard and you can see Ryan and Jake on an adventure hike.

I hate that blogger turns these pictures sideways.

The boys loved playing their DS's together.

Ben and Kainoa

He liked the yellow snow the best.

Shooting the b.b. gun

Te Gusta?

So, after having Christian, I decided to go blond again....by the way, why the crazy eyes?

Totally cheesy self portraits, but embaressingly( I am totally sure that is not a word, but I am going to use it) enough, I had a really good time taking them!

Wow, what a dork. A dork with cool hair, that is.....

Poor sweet Ben

Well, Ben is our latest victim at the house of sickness. Yesterday was early day at school and before school Ben said he wasn't feeling well. I had heard him coughing a little throughout the night and thought he might just be a little tired. I told him that he never really feels great on early day (has to be the at 8am versus his usual 11:30am start) and that he should go and if he still doesn't feel good, I promised I would come pick him up. So, at 10am I got the call. "Mrs. Harvey, this is the school nurse. Ben is not feeling well at all and he has a 100.6 fever." I guess he was right....His fever proceeded to get higher throughout the night. It topped off at 105 degrees. Yes, that's right, 105. The poor kid was miserable. We had trouble getting the fever down and would feel relief when it would get to 102. He was so sweet and pleasant the whole time. Even when he had to take medicine he definitely didn't like. Finally yesterday I was told to rotate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours instead of 4 and that seemed to help. Today, he is feeling much better. Still a low grade fever, but he is back to his spunky self.

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...

When all we used to see was this........







Now all we see lately is this......

Getting his breathing treatment.

Poor Christian, He is so sick. As mentioned before, he has bronchitus and now a cold on top of that. He had to be put on steroids a couple days ago and they make him extra crabby. We call it his roidal rage. He is so bummed. He isn't sleeping well at all and never wants to be put down. I feel so bad for him. It is so out of character for him to be so difficult so I know he is feeling awful. We are praying he starts feeling better soon so we can have our sweet boy back. Especially sleep deprived mom! PS: Stay tuned for another whole post on our latest sick victim, Ben.