The Whaley House

The Whaley House

So my kids have been begging me to take them to the Whaley House. The Whaley House is an old historic house in Old Town San Diego that is said to be one of the most haunted houses in the US. No...not spiders and cobwebs and goblins and ghouls....but a lot of paranormal activity. Charly has a love for spooky things and was so excited when she found out we were going to the Whaley house today. I thought the kids might be disappointed because there really isn't much to see there, but since the museum is half off this month....we decided to go. It was also something fun to do with grandpa. Well, at first the kids seemed kind of disappointed because they thought that they would just be seeing ghosts flying around inside or something but then I took some pictures and you can see the "paranormal" things that showed up on my camera. The kids were so excited about this....Charly also claims to have seen a ghost floating inside the kitchen.

In front of the Whaley house with Grandpa

Notice the "orb" in the picture by the chair. We did not see this with our naked eye.

Here is a close up of the "orb"


This weird streak ended up in the photo....ghost perhaps?

A close up of the ghost in the nursery.

The nursery

We spent some more time walking around Old Town and we let the kids dip their own candles.

This is Charly dipping her dolphin candle. Jack had an owl candle. That was fun for them.

So do I believe in ghosts you ask? YES! I am not sure what we are actually seeing here, but I definitely think there is some kind of paranormal activity going on in that house. I can't answer why or how or even what.......I am not sure what those orbs actually are that we are seeing, since ghosts in my mind would look like humans.....but there is something to all this and so many questions I want to ask when I die and go to the information desk. Hmmmm....so many thoughts are coming to my mind....tell me what you think? Of course Jim's family was quick to tell me I had dust on my camera....interesting how I have never had that problem before even on the same day and only in the Whaley house......

Nonetheless.....we had a great time with grandpa.....we sure love him a lot and were so glad that he could come down and spend the day with us! We are so lucky!

Willy Wonka

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!

On Friday I got to go with Jack's class to see the play Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Last year I read that book with my kids and we loved it. We laughed so hard through the whole book.....so I jumped on the chance to go see the play. It was a delightful little play done by a kids professional outfit. I was really impressed with how good some of the actors were and the stage setting. I am especially grateful to my dad who cam down from OC to help take care of the girls for me so that I could go.

This was my group of 5 students: Shelby, Emma, Ava, Jack & John
John is Jack's best little buddy this year

Two peas in a pod

I thought this picture was cute.

So glad to spend the day with Jack and his classmates.....it is always fun to see the dynamics of his class.

Candy Candy Cotton Candy!!

Cotton Candy!!

So this morning I woke up and it was one of those days where we had nothing on the docket.....just to have fun with Charly today and be home and not have to go anywhere. So I asked her what she wanted to do and she said "we haven't had cotton candy in a long time, let's make cotton candy." My first reaction was "yeah right" since I think cotton candy is disgusting and that is the last thing my daughter needs....and then I thought.....why not? Lets try something out of the box and I was sure I could find a recipe for homemade cotton candy online. Sure enough I did and this is how it turned out:

Ok, so maybe nothing like cotton candy...but it was really fun to make.....and each little strand was as sharp as a glass shard....but still yummy to eat (well sort of if you like cotton candy).
Not so fluffy like the cloud stuff you buy at the fair.

But we had fun. And Charly was sneaking bits of it all day. I had fun with you boo.

Family Day!

A Family Day!

Jim surprisingly got the day off (monday presidents day) So we decided to try out the New Children's Muesum in downtown San Diego. We had a coupon for 50% off, so we decided to go there since it is expensive and we hadn't heard that many great things about it. So we went and here are some pictures. Jim and I do agree that it is not that great of a place.....although we were only there two hours and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves for that amount of time, but no more time was needed than that. It just felt like the museum was trying to be "modern" and "urban" although the articecture was cool, there was a lot of wasted space and not the most interesting things to do. We went to a children's museum in San Fransisco and we spent all day there and didn't want to leave. Anyways, we enjoyed ourselves being together and then we went over to Coronado and ate at Little Piggy's restaurant. It was such a beautiful day and the view was amazing!

The kids had fun making "Spirit Masks"

Riding fun little push cars. They were actually a lot harder than they look.

They had a room with all kinds of weird pillows....jack seemed to like this one.

Rock Wall!!

Jim was creative and came up with this building....looks like DNA

Jack and I built this one together.

Even sweet Violet found something to do at the museum....Although there was a lot of destroying going on and not a lot of building ;)

Molly's Visit

Molly's Visit

This is a picture of Violet and Kyjsa (10 months & 4 months). They were so cute together.

At one point Molly and I heard both of the girls laughing and we looked over and saw Violet over by Kysja in her bouncy seat and she was rocking her up and down and they were both laughing at each other. It was so priceless. I told Violet "give Kysja bonks" and Violet bent down and bonked Kysja on the head with her head.....it was so cute.

It's really fun to have a friend visit from out of town. Molly is from Minnesota and her husband Geoff came and they brought there baby Kysja. They have two other children, but they left them at home. Jack had friday off, so my parents took the kids to Disneyland and kept them for the rest of the weekend. Which was really nice so I could hang out with my friend who was on vacation from two little children. Although Jack and Charly loved Kysja (they are both love babies). Anyways, we had fun and of course the weather forcast was for pouring rain the entire time they were out here, but luckily it wasn't as bad as perdicted and we were able to find ample sunshine time to warrent the needs of two people looking to get out of the snow!

My camera situation still sucks right now, so pictures aren't as good or plentiful as they should be. Anyways, I took them to the Quail Botanical Gardens (one of my favorite places in San Diego) and Moonlight beach (also one of my favs.) Then we got In & Out and it started to rain so we went back to my house and hung out. Then we went to the Mormon Battalion.

The next day it was kind of cold and rainy....we Geoff was at his convention...Molly and I were hanging out at my house and we got this bug and decided to totally rearrange the furniture. So here are some pics.....I wish I had before and after....but I am amazed how completely different it looks but we didn't spend a dime!!!

We moved out the china cabinet and created a lot of space in that corner.

We moved the chair where the TV used to be and the TV over to the other side of the wall.
So much more space!!

Anyways, it was so fun having Molly here. Her and Geoff are people I hold in high reguard. It was like having a breath of fresh air. I love when you can spend time with someone and see the world for a few days from a different perspective.
Molly and I met in college at Utah State. We lived in the dorms together and then we traveled to Russia and taught English together in Moscow. Then we backpacked through Europe. We have so much history that we will never not be friends.

Things I love about Mollly and Geoff.

1. So down to earth. Salt of the Earth kind of people
2. I can't say it enough.....I am so impressed with they way they handle money.....they act how I would hope I would act if I had a lot of money. No need to buy flashy things or impress people with their money....they live within their means and they have extra to share.
3. Such a good couple together...very yin yang. It's always a pleasure to know that your good friend married well and is happy in their marriage.
4. Molly has a lot of qualities I don't have and I have learned by watching her. She is very unihibited in the way that she can talk to anyone.....I have watched this over the years and have tried to emulate this.
5. Funny....I enjoy the way she says things.....she has a way with words that always makes me laugh!