Way back on the 4th of March we went to the San Diego zoo with our friends Marianne, Reeder and Hayes. They now live on Camp Pendleton down by the Naval Hospital about 50 minutes away from our house, but we've been able to see them about once a week since they moved which is really cool. Here Marianne is showing off her Next Top Model moves while waiting to see the Pandas. The pandas were noshing on bamboo while we were there. I guess all of the pandas in the US are actually Chinese nationals with "green cards." They are on loan from theChinese.
We made the trek out to see the polar bears and happened to time it right to see them feed on salad and a huge old meaty bone. Here they are just tumbling around. They didn't get in the water while we were watching, but still worth the trek with heavy strollers up an enormous hill.
Yum, bamboo. I wonder how their teeth are after gnawing on all of those sticks. This one also was sporting a shaved patch of tummy where they had just checked out all of her female parts for her annual physical. I'm giving the panda a bit of privacy and only showing you her head.
We almost got lost at one point, but Reeder and Einar helped us navigate our way to the polar bears.
Right before St. Patricks Day we went down to one of the community centers on base and went to a kids in the kitchen class with Reeder and Hayes. While the bigger kids were making chef hats and "cooking" a magical St. Patricks day treat, Soren and Hayes were having fun playing with the musical instruments in the room. This concoction that they made had colored pudding, crushed up blond Oreo cookies, Lucky Charm marshmallows, and green Peeps bunnies. Einar ( I don't think he takes after me in this department) only ate the bunnies and about 3 spoonfuls of the pudding. The teacher also served Hawaiian punch with the treat. Einar asked for water.
Chef Einar. Doesn't he look more and more like Jared every day? He colored his hat purple which is now up there with pink as his favorite color.
After the cooking class we met up with Jared for horseback riding (or technically pony) and the silent drill team that was visiting base and had a performance. The drill team is in the black tops and the Commandant's Own Bugle corps is in red.
Nothing like swinging around rifles with bayonets attached without any commands and in complete synchronicity! They were silent except for the sounds that the guns would make.
Einar and Jared watching the performance on the drill field.
Einar and Reeder checking out the performance. Reeder's dad also met us down on the field to see the drill team. Watching the two big kids and the babies and trying to keep them all quiet was a bit of a trick.
Here is Einar riding a pony on base called Bobby Socks. He took Einar around the circuit once with Jared. Soren was sleeping in his carseat so I stayed in the car and read the newspaper. Thankfully Jared took some pictures. There are stables on base down by Jared's new office and for only $2 you can lead a pony around quite a long trail. Einar only went once since the hill seemed a bit too scary for him. Next time he'll wear his cowboy boots.
Hayes turned one on the 7th of this month (he's three weeks older than Soren). At his party, Soren drank his first juice box. He got a hold of that thing and wouldn't let it out of his hands until he'd sucked it dry. He ended up wearing a good portion of it, but he sure thought that was cool. He also enjoyed the cake, but he ate that with more self control than the birthday boy:
Hayes really enjoyed his first birthday cake!
Last week I got a haircut and snapped a couple of pictures of it. I now have some bangs/fringe again.
Einar waiting for the monorail to come into the station at Disneyland this afternoon. We rode the train, the monorail, the river boat, the rocket ships, Buzz Light Year's astroblasters, the jungle cruise boats, and saw one of the Tiki room shows. I also got to ride Space Mountain while the boys all shared a slice of pizza.
Soren has now inherited Einar's Mickey Mouse hat and not only likes the hat, but also likes checking everything out at the Magic Kingdom. He waves at everything!
We rode in the tail cone of the monorail on the way out of the park. It was the first time that we'd been on the new monorail. Today the red one was in operation.
This picture, however beautiful it is, does not do justice to the gorgeous sunset that we enjoyed at Disneyland tonight. No rain and a fabulous sunset--perfect.
