Road Trippin'

As with all grand adventures we Griswold's take, our adventure to San Diego got off to a roaring start.

A few days before we were to leave, Elliott seemed a little off.  Sort of sick, bad cough, the usual for him.   Because of the trip, Ross took both boys to the doctor on the Saturday before we left.  Both got a clean bill of health - Elliott it seems was reacting to having his 6 year old molars coming in and Wyatt was fine.

By Sunday night, even though it had only been 24 hours since going to the doctor, we realized Wyatt was not fine.  On Monday afternoon we were back at the doctor with moderately tragic results for the little chickadee....two ear infections and a mild case of croup.

Awesome.

Why does this kid get sick every single time we want to go anywhere?

The next three days were completely miserable.  My sweet lovable little boy forgot all about that stuff and became a screaming meanie - the three worst days of my parenting experience with him.  He literally followed me around the house screaming.  Forgot all the words he knows, couldn't ask or tell.  Just blood curdling screams.

And of course, we were leaving on vacation.

Wednesday was a trying day.  We got the rental van, picked up Elliott from school, ate lunch, loaded up and hit the road.  Much to the chagrin of the screaming banshee in the back seat.  Of our 6 hour drive to Las Vegas on the first  day of our vacation, that child of mine easily screamed for 3 hours.  We hit major weather (white out snow, and torrential rain) and road delays in Southern Utah and were pretty stressed out.  But, by the time we got to Vegas and loaded up on chicken fingers though, Captain Crazy had calmed down enough to fall right to sleep.  In a queen bed with his dad.

The other kid was in a queen with me.

I don't recommend it.  Head butts to the gut all night long.

The next day we got up, listened to children whining about the inadequate offerings at the hotel breakfast, and were on our way (a bit fearfully mind you) to San Diego.

a taste of san diego

We arrived home last night after traveling 13 hours through 4 states.  My children were excellent in the car on the long drive home except for the last hour or so and who can blame them.  My bum is still numb from sitting in a rented mini van all day long.

We went to San Diego on a grand familial adventure which will get it's own post soon enough.  After I have some clean clothes and underwear.  Which at the moment, I do not have.

I would however, like to share with you some of our food adventures.  When we travel, our children collect stuffed animals as souvenirs.  My husband and I collect full bellies of tasty food.  Here is a small sampling.

Raising Cane's.  THE BEST CHICKEN FINGERS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! If we had the money, we'd open a franchise locally because it totally sucks that we only get these things in Las Vegas once a year or less.  Delicious melt in your mouth chicken, crinkle fries and a giant slice of Texas toast buttered and grilled.  And crushed ice.  They have crushed ice.

Lee's Sandwiches in SO CAL (pretty much just orange county though) is, for my husband, worth any detour necessary.  It's a Vietnamese (or is it Korean?) sandwich joint that has primarily pork based sandwiches on french baguettes that they make in house all day long.  I get the BBQ pork and it comes drenched in soy sauce with jalapenos, carrots, cilantro and a bunch of other stuff I cannot recognize but tastes yummy.

A few others worth mentioning - best cheap eats of San Diego for the last couple of years was Devine Pastabilities.  A pasta and pizza place that serves it's pasta stuffed in a hoagie roll.  The whole concept grossed me out so I got a salad.  Ross however proclaimed it was one of the best things he's ever eaten.

El Indio was pretty awesome Mexican food that had been featured on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives.  The food was good and their chips were awesome.  So good that we actually brought the extras home.

Let's see, what else?  Filippi's pizza and pasta in little Italy.  Not my favorite but one of those huge serving, authentic-ish Italian places where Ross can eat all his lasagna and pasta and the left over pizza and salad and garlic bread and then we have to roll him out of the restaurant.

Also, we ate at Ruby's diner, one of my favorites to take the place of Johnny Rockets for great greasy food and giant malts and shakes that they bring you BEFORE your food. Awesome.

We got doughnuts a couple of times early in the morning and they were good.

We provided a quick meal for some sea lions at sea world but did not partake ourselves.

We bought four dollar cupcakes that were beautiful but not as tasty as they should have been.

And unfortunately, our worst meal, in my opinion came from the Asian flavor spot at the San Diego Zoo (Shock). The only thing we ate the whole trip that had leftovers headed for the trash.

And that my friends, not including about a dozen churros and diet cokes, made up a pretty tasty trip.

Ouch!

Last Saturday I went with a friend to get a pedicure.  Two years ago on my birthday, my husband gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure.  A few months ago I gave it to my friend because I thought she would be more likely to use it.

She invited me to go.

I picked yellow.  My boys said the flowers on my toes look like spiders.



By the end of Saturday I'd already scuffed the polish up pretty bad and got a little wierded out by the yellow so I applied a thin layer of gold glitter to all 10 toes. It's better now.

When I got home from the pedicure it was time to get to business. First, I stopped at the gas station and got a coke. Then my husband and boys got home from the doctor and they brought me a coke. Score! One had lime and the other lemon so I was pretty happy. Second, it was time to make potatoes. A young girl with cerebral palsy passed away in my neighborhood/ward and I volunteered to fix some scalloped potatoes for the family luncheon.

To keep the potato slices uniform, I decided to use the mandolin slicer. On my second potato, I quite literally sliced off more than I was prepared for and took a huge chunk of my thumb off.

I swore.

It hurt.

Under the cold water, the blood was gushing. This kind of think normally doesn't phase me, but on this day, with this thumb, I was starting to lose it. The thumb got wrapped in a cold towel and elevated. It was throbbing and I was woozy.

I marched myself to the bathroom and sat on the toilet with my thumb under some more cold water. Seriously thought those delicious diet cokes were going to come back up for a visit.

Such a wimp.

In the end, my kind husband bandaged my thumb's missing parts (and a big chunk of finger nail, too), helped me off the floor to the couch and got me an ice pack. I settled into the couch in all my spastic glory and watched more house hunters than should be allowed.

Ross finished my potatoes. By the time they were done and needed to be to the church I had cowboyed up.

But only for the next 30 minutes or so. Thank heavens I was home alone and no one was looking.

I was only brave until Sunday morning when I had to take the bandaid off. Part of the adhesive was stuck to my wound. It was time for wimp round two....eventually, after about 15 minutes I was man enough to pull the bandaid off.

That made me a bit dizzy, too.

Cliche

We don't officially celebrate Valentine's Day. We call it "VD" because that is somehow funny.

Even though we don't officially celebrate, there always seems to be a card floating around, some chocolate covered strawberries (the size of my fist and absolutely divine) to be consumed and a small gift, usually including pez, for the boys.

And, this year, I bought myself a new jacket (two actually at 50% off the lowest ticketed price which gave me two for less the price of one...steal) and a box of cherry cordials. Yum!

Oh, and the boys painted ceramic magnet frogs because how else am I going to get them to stop whining at the craft store except with a walk down the dollar aisle?

Cloak of invisibility

I'm sleepy.  We've been busy but no real interest in documenting any of it...at least through the written word.  Here are a few photos though to take you through your weekend.

Our super bowl party menu from last week. We hosted 20 people and had yummy food. For the record, I did not watch one second of the game or the half-time show. I am awesome. I did however set my smoke detector off in the house three times.

On February 25 I'm presenting at my mom's stake women's conference on living an abundant life and finding joy in the little things. Part of my presentation will be to talk about Louis Zemperini because he is awesome.

This is the junkiest most cluttered place in my house right now and it is all mine. I kind of like it. Not really. I think it will get an overhaul this weekend.

Both boys were grumpy and desperate for a change of scene (and a nap) the other day so we went on our usual knock out drive. It makes both boys sleep and I get to see beautiful scenery. Win, win for everyone.

Tough loss for the Wolverines on Tuesday night. The boys and I left early because I was too sad to watch them lose the region championship. But, second place for a team that last year only won 4 games is pretty awesome.

The grocery store had an over abundance of strawberries the other day two packs for $5. We love strawberries and haven't bought them for months because they are out of season and too expensive. The boys and I have nearly snarfed them all but this one took the cake, or the heart, so to speak. What an amazing strawberry - just in time for valentines day.