Hunger Games...

I wanted to blog about something other than the normal everyday life stuff...and this came to mind.

The Hunger Games


We rented the audio book from the library for our road trip to Cali.  (I'll plug this again:  audio books are life savers on long road trips.  I look forward to when Emmaus is old enough to listen with enjoyment as well.  Jake was enthralled with it....it kept him awake and interested and happy to keep driving....yea!)

The book.  I had heard from a few coworkers that this book was AmaZing!  So it was an easy choice for the trip.  And it was a good book.  They are making it into a movie...as we listened to it, it was quite obvious that it would make the transition to screenplay quite easily. 

I'm not about to do a book review on it....I'm an easy sell.  Jake didn't love how it ended...He'd have to write his own blog about.  I however thought the ending was just fine.  It definitely set up the 2nd book.  (It's a trilogy as of right now...we haven't read the other 2 yet.) but I thoguht it was a decent ending in and of itself.  I don't want to say too much, just in case you haven't read it yet.  (I think it's worth the read.) 

I like how these young adult fiction books have such a vast audience.  It's not just for kids, or we are all just big kids...I'm leaning towards the latter. 

So there you have it.

I'm still reading East of Eden, edging towards the end of that one too.  I'm really enjoying it...curious where it's going to go now...If you haven't read that one, I suggest it too.

(I guess the moral of this post is: if you are going on a road trip, get an audio book....it makes the trip much more enjoyable...except when the passenger takes a nap and has to ask for the recap...haha.)

Last Summer Hoorah

Short Version:  Trip was great.  Wonderful sunny weather. Sea World was fun.  Wedding was beautiful.  We saw 3 different beaches:  Mission Beach , LaJolla Cove, Ocean Beach.  Stopped by Balboa park.  Trip was 15 hours each way, but well worth it and quite enjoyable.  Oh, and of course we stopped by the Hard Rock as well. 

Long detailed version:
Jojo's wedding means road trip to San Diego for the Ulasich clan.  Perfect excuse to get Jake to sunny California.  This has been his destination of choice since we met just over 5 years ago.  I also wanted to take Emmaus on a family vacation while he was still an only child.  He has traveled a little bit, but I wanted this too. 

We rented a mini van in Salt Lake for the drive down.  A: We wanted the extra space for the drive. (And that turned out to be so very nice.)  B:  We had to take an extra car seat and emergency hospital bag "just in case."  C:  We arranged to be the airport picker-uppers for mom and dad and Bill/all around transportation peeps (in exchange for them helping a little with the cost of the van.)  That worked out well too.  I think it added to the amount of time we got to see eachother since it was a quick trip for them.

15 hours later, pb and j, lots of air conditioning, Finding Nemo, Shrek I and II, Despereaux, Signing Time for emmaus, and Hunger Games on audio book for jake and me, lots of potty stops, and our first ever trip to Mcdonalds play ground, and about an hour of Cali traffic, we  pulled into our hotel (Thanks to our smart phone/google maps!!)  Emmaus was great on the trip...only one break down, and who could blame him....that's a long time in a car, and it was just about his nap time when he lost it...he's a trooper. 

First thing Friday morning we went to Sea World! 

(Thanks again Brook for the tip on that coupon..So happy to be able to go back multiple days at the same price as one day!!)  The place looks so different from the fist time I was there (13 years ago I think it was...wow, I'm old...hehe.)  We saw the penguins, Shamu's show, Blue horizon (the dolphins/pilot whales, and some really cool diving.) 

Emmaus was very irritable today at Sea World.  Which was putting both me and Jake on edge. 

Not exactly how I imagined our trip to be....After getting to the car and a short convo with mi espousa, we drove on to the Hard Rock and Down Town san diego before we needed to pick up mom and dad and bill from the airport.  I love my stops to HRC.  and I love that Jake was so supportive... of this particular stop.  It has been a very long time since I was in SD...thanks again hubby.

We stopped at In and Out for some much needed food (mama and baby were about spent without it...) airport, hotel, sushi (daddy's place of choice), then to the "rehearsal."  Jake and I didn't NEED to be there, but since we were dropping off the parents, we decided to stay and hang and be around the wedding party people anyway....it was fun seeing Andrea and the kids...

it gave Emmaus something to do and it was nice that he could run around free in the ginormous back yard.  We went out with everyone for Dolci Mango frozen yogurt afterwards.  It was good, except half of the party got the peanut butter flavor and it tasted sour..fortunatley no one had stomach issues on the big day.

Saturday mom, dad, jake, emmaus and I went out to Mission beach. 

Emmaus' first experience with the ocean...and Jake's first time seeing the Pacific from California.  (He is such a kid when it comes to playing in the waves.)

 I didn't venture into the cold water....A: it was cold, B:  I didn't trust myself...stability and all...so I stayed on the sand with Emmaus...mamaw and papaw showed him how to play on the beach.  Emmaus wasn't too excited about the sand crabs...wasn't sure what they were I think.  Mamaw showed him how to draw letters/lines in the sand..

. and we found a shovel...that was fun for awhile too...oh and the kelp...he liked carrying that around too. Emmaus didn't want to go into the water.  Too cold, and I think too big for him....we did get a little wet together, but that was enough...for both of us I think.

Next we ran a few errands that needed to be done before the wedding started...lunch etc.., then we drove out to La Jolla Cove....It was CRAZY BUSY. 

 Not the best place for a 19 month old.  I took a few pics, then we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the wedding.  We made a quick stop over to Jojo and Sarah's place to get acquainted with how to drive there for the airport run the next morning.  Cute place. 

The Wedding:  The backyard was such a great backdrop for the wedding.  The organizers did a great job with everything.  From tiki lights to tissue paper flowers and other lighting, the scene was set.  It started exactly at 7:00pm.  Normal ceremony, they had communion together, Sarah surprised Jojo with washing his feet.  That was really sweet.  Then they ran down the isle after the kiss and wedding band exchange...(They all had on Tom's.)  They took some pics, then there was some dancing, some dining, some speeches, and some very tired children.  Jake laid on the grass so Emmaus could fall asleep on his chest.  (Such a grand daddy.)  It was nice to see Paul and Alicia.  We'll have to go up north on the next road trip and pay them a proper visit. 

They exited the reception via a line of sparklers...and that was that.  (Their thank you's were bags of candy that you got to fill up from some really stylish, huge candy dishes...hard to explain, I'm sure there will be some photos on FB eventually.)  I liked the photo booth that they had set up...I think it was a friend of jojo's from his UCSD group....it printed 4 pics with the wedding date and their names on it....with a copy for the couple and a copy to keep.  Cute idea.

Sunday morning I woke up at like 345am to take some peeps to the airport.  (There names are supposed to remain annonymous, so I can't say who I took.-sorry)  I made it there and back without any hitches...very proud of myself for driving on the 5, the 163, and the 805 I think it was...all alone.  Yea me (and the smart phone!)

We went back to Sea World, saw sharks, turtles,

and played in the kids play area...(this was so cool, thanks brook for the suggestion.) went back to the Shamu show (met up with Shara and Ebu...this time we sat at the top of the soak zone...it's amazing how the show looks just a few rows lower.) 

It got really hot waiting for the show to start...we headed out a little early this time, wanted to get a jump on lunch and make it over to the sea otter/walrus show and get some good seats. 

We ate really pricy pizza and I had a nice salad...(totally expensive, but I was really wanting some veggies..we hadn't had many since the trip started.) saw the sea lion show...love how they make it funny, I really think this is one of the most entertaining shows Sea World  has to offer. 

On the way out, we stopped by the Arctic exhibit and saw the beluga whales and some polar bears and a walrus....it was cool (literally.)

We didn't pay for any of the exciting things, but I would like to go back in a few years and let jake do the penguin experience, I think he'd love it.

We left from there to pick up David and Bill and head to Balboa Park.  Wasn't sure what to do there, but heard it was big and worth seeing.  Didn't realize that's where the zoo was.  We walked around a little, saw their arts area (didn't go into the shops cause of emmaus, but that looked like a fun place to buy some art.)  We walked into this ravine, looking for a bathroom, Jake couldn't wait and took off running.  Fortunately I had David and Bill with me...otherwise...not sure what I would have done.  we got to the end and had to walk up a really steep hill.  Again , very grateful I had the Gerhardt's with me to help with me and with Emmaus.

Then we left for the beach, but I had to stop to eat something...I was getting way too hungry/irritable to function without food, so we stopped at a thai place, they were closed, kept walking and found a really cute mexican restaraunt that advertised vegetarian too (Bill was happy about that.)  It felt good to sit down and eat a full meal. 

We made it to the beach...I had wanted to be there at sunset, but didn't look like that would happen, but it DID happen! The boys went out and played in the water for what felt like hours.  The life guards sent out a message to clear the water as the sun fell below the horizon.  I was very grateful because Emmaus didn't want to go near the water, nor walk on the sand.  He's so heavy and with my big belly it's nearly impossible to carry him comfortably for more than a minute...so he was only entertained by playing with my Canon...and with his little fingers probing for my lens...that is hands covered in sand...I was getting beyond tolerant of his wishes.  Needless to say the lifeguards call was an answer to prayer...it sucks being stuck like that.

We got back to the hotel, started packing up and had another very early morning dropping Bill off at the airport.  We started the drive home at  5 ish and got into SLC around 9ish (our time.)  15 hours there and back...including a dinner stop at Wendy's.  Emmaus did well, and we were sooo grateful to have David: the backseat babysitter with us.  Emmaus kept watching his collection of movies, snacking and sleeping.  Only made one big fuss about 5 hours into the trip...but I don't blame him.  He is a great traveling companion.  I hope that his sister is too!  (Jake and I listened to the rest of the Hunger Games (really liked this book, and am looking forward to either reading or listening to the other 2 books/and happy the movie is comingo ut too.) and got through 4/5 discs for Wrinkle in Time too...I think I mentioned that we won't be doing anymore road trips without an audio book...LIFE SAVERS.

Thanks for sticking wtih arduous task of reading my very detailed depiction of our California end of summer horrah!

Stay tuned for birth details!!! (as soon as I have some to share that is..hehe.)