SAN DIEGO ZOO

In addition to Seaworld we also got to spend two days at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. This is the real reason we went to California, I'll let the pictures tell most of our story. It should be pretty easy since I took about 500 of them.

The Zoo entrance... We are all pretty excited to see the animals.

The first big animal we spotted was the tiger. He walked back and forth along the glass right in front of Trevin and Chey.The hippos were surprisingly really fun to watch! They swam around and made really good time, considering how big they are. We even got to see them walk out of the water and yawn really wide!Trevin loved the statues you could play on. Here is the hippo, keep watching for other statues he found at the zoo. He loves his big brother role and always wants to help Cheyenne. He even taught her all of the animal sounds while we were at the zoo.The panda bears were pretty lame on the first day we saw them... all sleeping! But day two was much better. We even got a better look at the baby panda.The gorillas were at the top of the "Must See" list. We watched them more than once and got a great show both times. We saw two gorillas wrestle like brothers. We saw 5 gorillas all at the same time and even saw them all get into a fight (kinda, it may have just been playing) lets just say I'm glad I was on this side of the glass. Trevin found some more statues to play on. He watched the gorillas while he sat on one! He was also entertained when I showed him how big gorilla hands and feet are.The Orangatans were up next. I wonder if he can really see past the folds of skin on his face. Trevin found another character you could stick your face in, if you look close you'll see that he is sticking his bottom lip out like the orangatan. (I was surprised. He figured this out all by himself! Little kids are so observant).The petting zoo was a big hit with the kids. They got to pet goat and sheep.Look at that another statue to ride, Dad joined in the fun this time.Trevin loved this part, (my least favorite) BUGS! He even found some bumble bees in here. The worker kept trying to convince Trevin they were "Honey Bees" but Trevin would buy it. He knows a Bumble Bee when he sees one!The safari animals were next on the list. Cheyenne now knows what a giraffe says thanks to Trevin. (they stick out their tongue and smack their lips, if you were wondering)We stopped and played at the prehistoric stuff for a while. Because these were way cooler than any other statues we found! Trevin tried to roar as big as an American Lion could. We played on the life size statues and tried to identify bones. Me and Trevin even teamed up with a saber tooth Jaguar to scare Cheyenne.I thought this elephant was awesome, I don't remember what it's name was, but it is bigger than a Mammoth. Then we stopped by to see the real elephants that looked teeny tiny compared to all the other animals we just saw. We saw lots and lots of animals... here are some of them...
But our very very favorite (besides the gorillas) was the zoo's POLAR BEAR! They had this big exhibit where you could play in the pretend ice with seals and weigh yourself to see your weight compared to polar bears at different ages. This polar bear was a lot more active than the one at seaworld. He jumped in and out of the water. Played with bags and balls and did quite a bit of swimming.
On our final day at the zoo Gage helped Trevin squish some pennies, so he had something to bring home. They made one that had Gorillas on it and one that had a Tiger. If you think that a full day of activities would wear Trevin out. Think Again! He was so excited to come back to the hotel and play in the outdoor pool. Even though it was FREEZING!In case you're wondering we did make it to the beach. Trevin and I raced the waves and won most of the time.Then we went for a walk on the pier.

I loved staying in Oceanside, I just hope the next time we come it will be a little warmer so we can actually get in the ocean without risking hypothermia. Maybe I'll just have to convince Gage to take us again in a few years!

TREVIN: SWEET AND NAUGHTY

After one failed attempt to potty train Trevin, just before he was 2, I've considered starting again. Last night I asked him if he wanted to go potty on the toilet, and surprisingly he said yes. I was excited. We hurried into the bathroom, took off his pants, sat him on the toilet and he looked at me with an upset face and this is the conversation we had.
Trevin: "No mom, I potty like a big boy."
Me:"Yeah, your going potty like a big boy."
Trevin: "No I stand up like a big boy and go potty"
Me "Oh, okay I guess."
He wanted to stand up to go potty, and he did. I can only imagine the kind of messes I'm gunna have to clean up in the next couple of weeks, but as long as he is going in the toilet in stead of a diaper it might be worth it.

TREVIN'S LATEST TEMPER TANTRUMS:
The last couple of days Trevin has cried really easily if he doesn't get to do what he wants, Temper Tantrums if you will, but not over things you would expect.
#1 Sunday night Trav asked for a hug and Trevin told him no, then we got in the car and Trevin is screaming at the top of his lungs, about half way home he has calmed down enough that we can actually hear what he is yelling "I HUG TRAV!" He calmed down after about 30 minutes.
#2 Yesterday Gage was home when we got home from shopping, but was headed to work. So when he left Trevin was upset and went to the back down to close it, Gage got in the jeep and left. Trevin freaks out when I tell him to close the door. He is screaming "I say See you later Dad." Apparently he he wanted to say See you later to dad, and didn't get to before Gage got in the jeep. So we started using time out. This seemed to work really well.
#3 We are sitting at the kitchen table to eat breakfast, so we start by saying a prayer Everything is going great. Trevin likes to add things to prayers, so we pause for a long time, and then he thinks of something, we add it and repeat. Usually when he can't think of anything else, we close the prayer and life is good. Not this morning. I tried to close the prayer after praying for breakfast, grandma's flower garden, papa, chief, sugar, Cheyenne, Dad and Dad's work." Trevin panicked. After he wouldn't calm down I asked if he wanted to say another prayer. He said yes. We started and I paused waiting for Trevin to decided what was so important that he forgot to pray for.... Alex!
I love this kid. Even if he is a handful!

CALIFORNIA

We finally made it on the trip we've been wanting to take for just over a year! Last year we wanted to take Trevin to San Diego Zoo, he loves animals! It just never worked out and so this year we fit it into our schedule before the official start of the summer. We decided to drive, that way we could spend some quality time together. (okay not really, it was cheaper than flying, but the quality time was a bonus!) The kids did great. They slept for parts, ate snacks, colored on doodle pads and watched NEMO about 10 times. No joke there. I packed 7 movies for them to pick from and all they wanted to watch was Nemo over and over and over.
I think that would have driven me nuts but Gage and I downloaded a book to listen to on the drive down. Hunger Games. It was great and something we were both able to enjoy. Another plus about driving. We got to stay at Kami's house. Trevin had been looking forward to seeing Chase all week. When we got there Trevin was so excited. These two boys are so cute together. They played with sword (that were made out of swimming noodles, so cute!), then they played at the park, blew bubbles, kicked a ball back and forth, the came home to eat ice cream.
After Ice cream they got ready for bed and Trevin got to sleep in Chase's room and watch Cars. The next morning they played and played some more.
Kami and Erwin made us the best food while we were there. Fried rice for dinner and then they even let us have it with our pancakes for breakfast! YUMMY! The left overs they sent with us just got better every time we ate them!
After breakfast it was time to say goodbye. Thanks to Kami and Erwin for letting us come and stay with you! We had so much fun and can't wait to see you and the kids again!

After a few more hours in the car we arrived at SEAWORLD!

We got to spend two days at Sea World which was so great. No stress about having to hurry the kids around to try to see everything. We got to take our time and even see our favorite things TWICE! Our first stop was the Arctic section. Trevin loved to sit and watch the show about flying in the helicopter (even with out all the special effects). Then we got to get out and explore the "Arctic Base" He loved this helicopter and trying to climb onto the crates. We all went through together the first time. Then we let Dad go for the helicopter ride that actually moves and got to do some exploring while we waited for him to land.
Once we met back up with Dad we were off to see some wild life. These two Beluga whales names are Ruby and Anuk. We got to see them do some fun stuff with their trainers the first day and the second day we watched them swim.
Trevin and Cheyenne could have sat for hours watching the animals swim. Cheyenne would smile and point whenever they would swim past and Trevin would tell us they were swimming "Super Fast!"
The Walrus was a much bigger hit than I anticipated. They were much more entertaining the way they made laps around the tank. rubbing up against the glass right in front of us.
We watched them for a little while above the water level, Cheyenne loved to point at them as they did their laps. Trevin made sure Dad and I could see them under the water level too. The second time we saw the walruses we got to see them eat.
The polar bear wasn't very active. We did see them walk both times we saw them, which I guess is better than just sleeping. Our favorite thing at the polar bears was their cave. We got to crawl through it and see their big Paw prints. There were growling noises in the cave that kind of scared Cheyenne, but she was still willing to crawl in after her Dad and Brother. Trevin ended up loving these things by the end of the trip. He would see them and immediately run behind them and ask Dad to pick him up to put his face through the hole.
It was really fun to take Trevin and Chey through the penguin exhibit. Trevin liked to watch them swim and Chey tried to waddle in Dad's arms.
The thing I remember most about the last time I went to SeaWorld was getting to hold starfish, and I wouldn't wait to do it again. Trevin thougth it was really cool too. He was a little nervous the first time I picked one up but then thought they were really cool. After that he kept saying "Tevin Gage Cabtree playin with starfish in a waer"

Dad did a great job helping Cheyenne touch startfish too. She is at that age where if she wants something she says "Me Me Me Me" We heard this a lot while we played with the starfish. After playing in the tide pools for a while we found the Bat Rays that you could sitck your arm in and touch. I thought this was pretty cool too. They felt like they had a layeyer of goo on them and under that layer they were really hard. Trevin and Gage did this for a while but Chey wanted nothing to do with it. The next day at sea world I realized she was the only sane one!We went under the bat ray exhibit the next day to see what was at the bottom. This is what we found! GIANT EELS! I think these things could have swallowed one of us whole if they wanted to. You won't find me reaching into the bat ray tub again. Clyde and Seamore are always a hit at Seaworld and they didn't disappoint. Trevin and Cheyenne were even entertained by it. I love that the show is updated frequently. This time we got to see some American Idol, Survivor and even some dancing with the stars. But you can always count on the classic tricks too. Just outside the sealion show we got to sit and watch people feed the other Sea Lions. They are a lot more aggressive about the food than I thougth they would be. Especially since people feed them all day long. But it was entertainnig to listen to them "bark" and see Cheyenne figure out that these are just like the seals we show her in her book. Then she claps her hands and barks back at them.For Christmas Janae got a turtle that she named Crush after the Sea turtle in Finding Nemo. Seeing that the kids watched Nemo all the way to California, Cheyenne was very excited to see the Sea Turtles at SeaWorld and Trevin was excited that he found Crush. We had a lot of fun watching the dolphins play with balls. They never got close enough for us to touch, but we still had fun watching them throw the balls then swim to get them. The kids had been so good walking around the park and sitting watching the shows that we decided it was time to let them run around. So we went to the Seasame Bay of Play. Trevin loved getting to crawl up the nets and through tubes with Dad. Cheyenne and I tried to keep up, but Trevin could run through the tubes a lot faster than Chey could crawl. (Her and I always ended up with a line of kids behind us in the tube.) Trevin found a big twisty slide that we convinced the worker he was tall enough to go down. He did it 3 or 4 times in a row. Even though he had to climb up 2 sets of stairs to get back to the top. One of Chey's favorite things was bouncing. They had these platforms with a big plastice sheet in front of you and behind you, that you fell forward into and bounced back and forth. She loved them. There is a pic of Gage and Trevin playing in one (bottom left).The other fun part about the Sesame Area, was the little kid rides. Trevin was big enough to go on all of them and he did, TWICE! Cheyenne on the other hand... we convinced the workers that she was big enough to go on 2 of them. You see there criteria is that the kids have to be able to walk. Cheyenne doesn't walk yet, but we tried to prove otherwise, and IT WORKED! She loved both of the rides she was able to go on. After we let the kids play for a while, we told them it was Dad's turn to ride a big ride. So we went over to Atlantis, where Gage rode a couple of times, trying to get as wet as possible. Trevin was more successful at getting wet, just by standing in the splash zone at the bottom of the hill, while he watched for Dad. Gage convinced me to go one it, and guess what happened... the ride broke and I ended up sitting in the ride for 15-20 minutes before they fixed the "technical difficulties". Just what you want to here before you let a ride take up up an elevator to plumet down a big hill!

Last but not least we saw SHAMU! At the end of day one at Seaworld we decide to go see the Shamu show. But more importantly to get there early enough to get good seats. This we did! We sat front and center, literally. No one in front of us except the trainer. The poor guy that was leading people to seats, the one that makes sure no one goes into the roped off areas, etc. Kept looking at us with our 2 year old and 1 year old and asking "Are you sure you want to sit there?" I kept saying yes over Gage's hesitations and that is exactly where we sat. Trevin and Cheyenne loved it. Trevin saw the big whale up close and Cheyenne slept through the entire thing. That's right. She lasted until about 5 minutes before the show then she was out, even through the part when Shamu splashed us with that freezing cold water!We went and saw Shamu again on day two. Trevin was excited and so was Cheyenne. We sat a little higher up and not in the middle, but yes, we were still in the Soak zone. They brought out all 4 of the Killer whales for this one and had them do a lot more tricks. They even had them do synchronized back flips (all 4 at the same time). It was such a blast!

Trevin thought it was pretty cool to go to the bottom of the stairs and watch Shamu swim in the tank after the show. He would point at him and say "A look mom, ats a big whale!" We loved SeaWorld. Next up the San Diego ZOO!

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING

This morning, at 6:30 sharp, we woke up to a very loud thunder storm. I thought it would scare Trevin, but not at all! Trevin, Cheyenne and I sat by the window in his room for a good 30 minutes watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. Trevin would get so excited when he saw the lightning and because he was excited Cheyenne would get excited too! It was pretty cute, and made waking up that early not so bad. I hope you enjoyed the storm as much as we did this morning.

CHOP CHOP

I finally did it! For months I have been talking about cutting my hair. At first it was just a couple inches, to get rid of the unhealthy ends (Yes I realize that only counts as a trim). Then I thought, maybe something more drastic but I didn't have the guts. So the much needed "trim" got ignored until I could make up my mind. I finally made the decision and scheduled my appointment. I was so nervous just scheduling...it's ridiculous, that I can nervous about something so small. I had my little sister take some before pictures. I had gone back in my pictures to find one that showed off it's length, and guess what, I couldn't find a single one! I have tons of pictures but there is usually a child on my hip, or I'm leaning over a table, or it's behind my shoulders, or the picture cuts off the bottom...you get the concept. So here they are pictures that show all of my hair in the same shot.
Today was the day, Sierra came over to watch the kids and I headed out to Onyx Salon on 25th street in Ogden. Alex was there and waiting. When she asked if we were trimming it or cutting some off, I said "Cutting it off." I think she looked a little surprised, here next comment was "Really, does Gage know?"

Gage knew but he hasn't seen it yet. Hopefully he'll like it as much as I do. He hasn't known me with hair this short, but I still feel like it is plenty long.

Alex did such a great job! I love it! We were able to donate it to locks of love and still have it the length I wanted. I didn't have a set plan when I walked into the salon, but Alex was great to come up with a hairstyle that works great for me. Easy to manage and versatile. I can still pull it up easily into a ponytail for work (and not have a stub on the back of my head). I love the layering at the bottom that and I haven't had bangs for a while, so I'm excited to figure out how to style it. Maybe I'll have to given in and start using "product" in my hair. Check out My after pictures. I love it, I'm so excited to have a new style for the spring. It's a change that was long overdue and now that it's done I think I should have done it a long time ago. Alex was great to work with. I met her a few months ago and stalked her on her blog before giving in and calling to schedule my appointment. Check out some more of her work here... then give her a call!

CREATIVE... HA HA

I have a double baby shower to go to this weekend, two girls that I work with. It just so happens that one is having a girl and the other a boy! I just finished making the gifts. I am so excited that they turned out cute. I always worry when it is something I haven't done before and when it is for someone other than family. Anyway I always forget to take pictures before I give things away, but not this time!
Although some of you may think I am creative, you have it wrong. I am just really good at stealing (copying) other peoples ideas. Here are a few examples.....

When I had Cheyenne my Sister in law, Chersti, made me this super cute wipie container. I absolutely love it! I thought it was so fun and cute, not near as drab as carrying around a zip lock bag of wipies! So the next time I had a baby shower to go to I thought..."I'm gunna make them one of those super cute wipie holders!" Here are the two that I made today.

See exactly the same as Chersti's! Thank her for her creative genius if you have one of these from me!

The next item I made today, hooded towels. These are awesome. Trevin got one when he was born and now that he is a little bigger he loves to wear it! His is made out of a brown and tan striped towel. When Cheyenne was born my Sister in Law, Joni, made her a hooded towel it is super cute and definitely girly.

I love all the patch work. I've wanted to try making these since Joni gave us this one! So this morning I pulled out Cheyenne's towel as my pattern and made a couple for the upcoming baby shower. Wow I really was creative with this one, HUH! Notice that the even though they are different colors and materials, the pattern is exactly the same as Joni's. I even tried to do the patch different on the second one I made, then went back to Joni's template when mine turned out retarded. So if you see one of these as a gift from me, thank Joni for all the "inspiration."

I had to add these in... I was trying to figure out a good way to take a picture to show off these towels, so I had Trevin come model for me... can you guess which towel he liked the most?

OK so the captions may have helped. But he seriously wanted nothing to do with the "Princess" towel that I made. He is all BOY!

Like I said before, I am really excited about the way these turned out! But I'll let you decide for yourselves. The final products together! I love when you can make something girly that isn't completely pink and purple. I just hope "mom" isn't opposed to green!I have had a really hard time in the past trying to find "BOY" material, everything ends up looking a little on the girly side. I was so excited to hind these dark materials and then the ribbon that just screams BOY.

So the next time you see me and I have made something that you think is pretty creative, ask me who's idea I stole! And feel free to steal it for yourself!

EASTER IS HERE

Last Saturday I went out and bought Cheyenne's Easter Dress. I was so excited I found a gorgeous blue frilly dress. (Last year she was too little for most of the frilly dresses.) I then went out to find Trevin a tie that matched... not as easy as I thought it should be. I found an adult size tie that matched, so I bought it and tore it apart and then put it back together as a child's size. Trevin loved that when Sunday morning came Daddy had to tie his tie too!
I can't believe the things little kids come up with. Trevin says new things everyday and I have no idea where he picks them up. Sunday morning I got Cheyenne up and got her ready and then woke Trevin up to eat breakfast. He walked down the stairs and saw Cheyenne sitting in the kitchen. He got this confused look on his face and looked at me and asked "Cheyenne, a Princess?" I just laughed and told him "Yes, Cheyenne is a princess." How in the world does he know what a princess is? Since that morning there are no girls and boys at our house just Princesses and Boys! He tells me all the time, "Trevin's a boy, Dad's a boy, Cheyenne's a princess and Mom's a Princess." I love it.
MY LITTLE PRINCE AND PRINCESS!
We are so excited for the Easter weekend. I love when General Conference falls on Easter day. The talks always seem to be even more focused on Christ and the Resurrection (if that is really possible), who better to hear from on Easter Sunday than the living Prophet?
I look forward to relaxing with my husband, while he recuperates from surgery. Maybe it will stop snowing so we can enjoy the great outdoors! One can hope, right?