October Fun with Grandma D and Uncle Jason

PLAYING WITH GRANDMA!

In mid October my mom came to visit for about 10 days. As always, she brought a suitcase full of toys for Jack and he wasted no time getting into them. Before she could even get settled in her room, Jack was asking "What did you bring me grandma!??" One of the first goodies she pulled out was Candy Land. Jack loves board games and immediately wanted to play. 

My mom has been to SD tons of times now so we didn't plan too much for the week. We mostly stayed around the house and let her play with the kids. Kara had just started solids the week before so she was excited to get the chance to feed her.

She loved taking Jack on walks in the red wagon, especially to the coffee shop - his favorite place. Jack was in heaven. 

Kara even got a chance to ride in the wagon too - and LOVED it.  I couldn't believe she was stable enough for it. My mom is always pushing the envelope on what they can do!

One morning we took a long walk down to the park in South Park. Kara got her first ride in a swing...

And Jack had a blast playing with Grandma. She goes all out when playing with him.

All the fun wore Jack out and he wanted to take his nap in Grandma's bed. 

Jack also had fun playing with a silly faces sticker book my mom brought . He wanted to put mustaches on everyone. 

He also spent a ton of time playing with a playdoh pizza set she brought but I didn't take a picture for some reason...

UNCLE JASON AND SEAWORLD

Later in the week, my brother Jason came down from LA for a few days. Jack buddied right up to his Uncle Jason. 

On that Friday we went to SeaWorld. We hadn't been since before we had kids and we heard it was really fun for little ones - and it was. 

The best part about the park was the Sesame Street Bay of Play - which is essentially a little theme park just for toddlers. They had a little tea cup ride that Jack loved...

 

 And an Elmo flying fish ride...that he also loved. I was actually surprised he wasn't scared at all.

And lots of bouncy surfaces. He got to go in the big kid bounce area first thing in the morning but later they told him he was too short. He loved it but he was too little. He couldn't even stand up. 

The toddler/baby bounce area ended up being fun too. 

There were also lots of climbing structures and slides. It was great.

After about an hour or so in the play area, we started walking around to check out the sealife. Jack loved the touching the sharks and other sea creatures in the touch pools.

The park was dead. We had the place all to ourselves. The exhibits were really cool. It felt like being at Disney or something. 

There were a couple of roller coasters that we got to ride too (while my mom watched the kids) but I didn't take any pictures. 

We stayed for the Shamu show even though it is terribly boring. It didn't help that it was over an hour past Jack's usual nap time and he was a walking zombie. 

It was a great day!

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

The next evening we went to a nearby pumpkin patch for some fall festival fun. 

It was our first time going to this particular one and I was blown away at the size and number of activities. They had EVERYTHING - throw the bean bag in the pumpkin...

A hay maze...

A petting zoo...(Blurry pic but I love Jack's expression)

Sledding on cottonseed...(that was a new one for me!)

And all sorts of other games - milk jug bowling, bows and arrows, duck racing, etc. etc.

It was a lot of fun! We tried to take some good kid and family photos. We got a good one of Kara... 

But Jack wasn't taking direction very well in the picture of both of them...

And trying to get a good one of us all just didn't happen. Although I like this one. It pretty much sums up the experience. 

Overall, a fun evening!

PUMPKIN CARVING

The next day we carved our pumpkins (that we bought at the grocery store instead of the pumpkin farm for some reason). Jack was not into the goo. 

Joey and I shared one and my mom and brother each did their own. My mom claimed it was her "first time ever carving a pumpkin" - which seemed unlikely to us. 

Jack colored his pumpkin with markers. 

We tried to get a cute picture of Jack with his pumpkin but he is just so silly these days. I have no idea what he's doing here. Haha.

And here they are - Jacks, my moms, mine, and Jason's. 

They looked great - for about 3 days. I don't know what it is about the San Diego weather but they were mush even before Halloween. Yuck. 

AND GOODBYE

Jason went home to LA and we went out for ice cream on my mom's last night. She had been promising to take Jack all week. 

And that was it. We took a morning good bye photo and Joey took my mom to the airport on his way to work. 

Another great family visit!