Giraffe Heaven!

This is the picture of Damen feeding the giraffe. See the other ones in the background, don't they look happy?

Palm Springs

So I had mentioned before that we were out of town last week on our very first Family Vacation! We went to Palm Springs, about 40 minutes away, and stayed in a timeshare resort there. The resort was really nice with two large pools and water slides. We spent one day swimming and doing a sales presentation because we're not officially owners of this timeshare and that was interesting.
First we did a tour of the facility, very nice, then we were given an explanation of all the other resorts they own, also nice. Then our tour lady turned the experience over to a sales lady, not so nice! We told her we couldn't afford the payment plans, so she offered us a lower option, nope we said thanks though, then she got rude. She told us that we couldn't use the resort in Cabo Mexico next year, which we've already planned, because we need to buy more points. Now I'm not the type of person that just goes along with what someone tells me, and I knew I had looked up our options and we could go to Cabo, so of course I told her so. At which time she tossed a bunch of papers at the other lady, grabbed some reference sheet and looked it over in an uncomfortable long silence, then said, "Well you could go if you went just during the week."(insert attitude) To which I responded, "Yup, that's the plan" (big smile and everything) She said she couldn't help us then and stormed away. The pour tour lady just smiled at us and said she'd be right back with our $100 gift card for taking the tour. Ahhhh, customer service at it's best.
The next day Dustin woke up not feeling very well but we'd planned on going to the Living Desert, this really great zoo/garden/reserve place near Palm Springs, so we went. Damen got to feed a giraffe (of course I totally forgot my camera so I'm waiting for Dustin to download the pic from his phone), pet a goat, and see the neatest train exhibit EVER. Not sure why that was there with the Cheetahs and the Zebras, but whatever. We also saw eagles and coyotes, which wasn't really exciting for me having lived in the great northwest where those are pretty regular sights. After about three hours Dustin said, I'm done, we have to go back, and started walking to the car. By the time we got back to the room he was running to throw up in the bathroom. Poor thing was deathly ill the rest of the day. Damen and I went to the pool again that afternoon. The next day we packed up and came home so Dustin could be sick in the comfort of home.
All in all, it was a good experience for our first ever family vacation, we should do this more often!(minus the rudenss and the sickness)

OHHH-AHHHHH

I have a video camera on my digital camera!! My friend Melissa makes videos on her digital camera all the time, and one day I thought, "hmmm, I think my digital camera does that, I should try it out." And it WORKED!! So for your viewing pleasure, here is my very first video, it's kind of long and there's no sound, but you get the idea of how the marble thing works now. Enjoy!

Halloween already!

We've been out of town so I haven't been able to update and post Halloween pics. We had a great time at our Church's Trunk or Treat for the kids, Damen went around and around the parking lot shouting "Trick or Treat!" Most times he stopped at the cars for candy too. Afterwards we went to visit Dan's Aunt and Uncles house, it was his cousin that inspired and bought the Mickey and Minnie costumes and we had to show them off! We didn't get to do any pumpkins this year, there just didn't seem to be the time for it, but we had fun anyway. Damen has completely forgotten about the candy by now, which we are grateful for, more for us (ok me)!!

Marble Maddness

On Saturday we got a package from my dad for Damen. It's a marbleworks set from Discovery Toys, where you build a tower let the marbles go down. We hadn't opened it up on Saturday and I had mostly forgotten about it. Then on Sunday, during my afternoon nap, I awoke to this strange sound of clinking, banging, and gleeful laughing. I came out into the living room to find this:



They had been playing for about an hour and continued to play with it until 6:45pm! It was the first thing Damen wanted this morning too, yes at 6am when I finally let him up. So, thanks Dad for the fun!!

Also, I know it's not until Friday but we had to try on Damen's costume, SO CUTE!! We also took him and Olivia, who is Minnie Mouse, to get their pictures taken together in costume. We'll have them in about two weeks, they were adorable!

OH HELP!

For the last four, that's right, FOUR days in a row Damen, our sweet sweet son, has woken up before 6am, ranging in time between 5:15-5:40. His bedtime has been varied too because of different things he went to bed at 8pm once, his usual is at 7pm, then we tried to put him down early because he was exhausted by 6pm. Yesterday he was the grumpiest thing I've ever seen and it took everything in me not to harm him. He literally cried for 20 minutes about something, I never did figure out what it was he wanted. This morning was no different, here I am at 6:12am hoping, praying, that this morning will be better. As soon as he woke up from his two hour nap yesterday he was the awesome, sweet son that I usually have. So, anyone reading this in the next six hours before nap, any suggestions on how to keep my cool?? Or, on how to keep him happy?? Thanks from a slightly stressed, tired, feeling guilty mom.

Saddest news EVER!

Ok, maybe not the saddest news ever, but for today, it was sad to hear. A fantastic cookie company has crumbled under the ecenomic stress. Mothers cookies is no more! The frosted animal cookies, the taffy sandwich, and my personal favorite, the cookie parade. So if you come across any of them in the store, it's a miracle, buy them up, eat them up, or freeze them to be eaten on another day. Try not to cry now.