A fun day exploring the world (and the universe)

This week we took a day trip to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It's an easy drive from our house but I haven't been there since I was a teenager, and they just finished a HUGE remodel! It's an amazing museum and aquarium, and we had a ton of fun!

Bok Boy looking at the rays through a hole in the walkway.

Little Miss and her "big girl" cousin looking at animals.
There's a gorgeous 4 story rainforest, and you can see the whole rainforest

from underneath the lake at the bottom of it.

The Tyrannosaurus skeleton is a huge hit with everyone, children and parents alike!

Coral Reef Fish

One definite note, if any of you should decide to visit, please don't decide to go on the first nice day (aka not raining) of a holiday week! We stood in line outside for over an hour to get in, and if we hadn't bought our tickets early we wouldn't have gotten in at all! They announced at about 11am that they wouldn't be selling any more tickets because the museum was too full, and they were having to wait for people to leave before anyone else could go in.

It was, however, an amazing trip, even with waiting for so long! The major downside was that Claude, the albino alligator, was injured and wasn't on display. The kids (and I) were really looking forward to seeing him, but apparently he made another alligator mad and the other guy bit him!

The planetarium show was a little disappointing, as it wound up being essentially an Imax movie about saving the planet rather than having much information about the solar system.

For a relatively small museum/aquarium/planetarium, it managed to easily fill a whole day, and children 6 and under are free, so it wasn't overly expensive.

Fear of the Teen Years is instilled in me at a very early age

After picking up my daughter from daycare today (which is supposed to give me a couple hours of "me" time once a week, but instead lets me run errands and clean house), we're driving along quietly and suddenly my daughter says "Jackson knows how to kiss". Right about then I couldn't say a word... I couldn't even think! My brain was stuttering and all I could think was "You're 3!!!"

After a large gray streak instantly appeared in my hair and my heart beat until it just about burst my ribs, I finally realized... I looked at my daughter in the rear-view mirror and said "Is Jackson a baby?" She looked at me like "duh mom!" and I realized that a couple of simple words from a small child can shave several years off your life!

What the heck am I going to do once she's old enough for the kisser (or kissee) to not be a baby? I think I'm going to have to agree with my husband and put bars on all the windows!

Joining the world of blogging!

While I've been a follower of several blogs for quite some time, I finally decided it was time for me to join the ranks. This is my first blog, so bear with me!

I'm a work at home mom of two children, living in sunny California. I'm in my early 30s, have been married for almost 7 years, and have two beautiful children who keep me extremely busy. Virtually overnight I went from "just" working at home and raising kids to shuffling kids to school, preschool, karate, soccer, swim class... you get the gist!

Luckily for me I can't fully blame my loss of sanity on my children, but I think I'm in danger of losing what little I have left!

I'm hoping that this blog will be a combination of all types of information and conversations, along with helpful hints, reviews, and (of course) giveaways!