A Visit from the Hancocks and Easter Sunday!

The week before last was absolutely crazy but absolutely fun. I was chatting with Erica on the phone about a month or so ago, and we decided that it had been far too long since we last saw each other. Erica told me that the kids would be on spring break in early April, that Than could most likely work from my house for a few days, and that she would try to get something planned to come down. The night of Camry's birthday party, after Erica and Than hosted a bunch of five and six-year-olds at their house for Cam's party, they drove down to our house. That is what I call commitment to a vacation. We didn't really have a plan, per se, but we knew that we were going to enjoy as much of San Diego as possible while they were here. Day one: the beach. It was definitely a group effort to keep all the kids in one general location at the beach, but I think that Erica and I managed quite nicely. I remember taking Pacen to the beach with Erica when he was about Roman's age, and he would just sit contentedly near our towels, and wouldn't dare enter the water. Camry was a bit more brave at Roman's age, but I distinctly remember her not wanting to go into the water past, say, her ankles. Roman on the other hand is not happy at the beach unless he is in the water, like, really in the water. He loves it, and he'll just run straight out into the waves if I'd let him. Erica laughed and said, "You have a brave one," in a way that that showed she clearly meant, "Holy crap. That kid is going to be trouble." So the majority of my time I spent out in the freezing water with Pacen and Camry and Roman, but it was quite a lot of fun. When I was finally able to get Roman out of the ocean, he and Gentry played in some tide pools throwing rocks, while the big kids collected sea shells, and Claira did her happy dance all around the beach. It was a great, albeit exhausting, day. We got home, made some lunch, and put the babies down for a nap, and then we all (Than included) headed out for some miniature golf and pizza. Mini golf with five children was a little challenging. Erica took a great photo of all of us surrounding the cup on the green as she tried to putt, which I am totally going to steal from her blog and post because it's hilarious, and because I hardly took any pictures the entire time they were here.

Unfortunately I have no pictures from the following two days. On Thursday we all (minus Marc who had to work the entire time Erica and the fam were here) headed to the Wild Animal Park. The butterflies are here right now, and they're only here for about a month, so we wanted be sure that we got to see them. And I have to say, it was one of the longest days I have had in a very long time. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but I think the fact that I am there once a week means that an entire day seems like overkill at this point, but we HAD to stay to see the cheetah run. Seriously. If you are ever in San Diego and have time to go to the WAP, go, if for no other reason than to see a cheetah running full speed just a few yards away from you. It's pretty impressive. The run is usually at 2:30, but they moved it (probably because of the butterfly exhibit) to 5:30. So we stayed, from 10:30 or so to 5:30. I think what also made the day exceptionally long is that Roman does not sleep unless he is in his crib, and by that I mean he absolutely, positively will not fall asleep if we're out and about. So I was getting a bit anxious that we were always just minutes away from a total melt down. But he really did a great job all day, and taught Gentry the bad habit of walking instead of riding in the stroller. Ah, yes. That's my boy. But we saw the butterflies, saw the cheetah, and rode the tram, which I haven't done in ages. And Roman became enamored with his Uncle Than. In Roman's eyes, Than was the funniest, coolest person ever, which became quite tiring for Than because Roman didn't like when ALL of Than's attention wasn't focused solely on him. Welcome to my world, Than.

Day three was spent shopping, which didn't go as smoothly as planned. Roman hated being in his stroller and cried if he couldn't push it around; we couldn't find what we were looking for (Easter outfits for Erica's kids); there was a small incident in the Nordstrom Rack which involved Claira, Gentry, and a shopping cart getting tipped over (everyone is fine, promise); Roman dropped a nail polish on the ground which shattered and splattered nail polish everywhere; and we didn't get home until about 10 pm or so. Luckily, Marc grabbed Roman from the mall when he got off work, because the kids were all getting a little punchy by the end, but Erica did eventually find Easter outfits, and we celebrated with some In N Out burgers and shakes. And it seemed that as quickly as they arrived, the Hancocks had to leave, but my pregnant body was totally okay with that. Roman and I both took some massive naps that Saturday, and then came down with colds, but it was totally worth it.

But wait... The weekend wasn't really over yet because Easter Sunday was the following day. So before my big nap I headed to Cost Plus and Toys R Us for some goodies for Roman's Easter "Basket" (read: dump truck)... oh, and to Gamestop for my other big kid. I was in and out pretty quickly and managed to grab some great stuff even though it was the day before Easter. Oh, and a tip for next year: all of Cost Plus' Easter goods were already 50% off, so I scored big time. And Roman's happy little face Sunday morning proved that the Easter Bunny did not disappoint.

Notice how he's trying to look at the other toys, but at the same time he doesn't want to remove his hand from the new beach bulldozer? I got a kick out of him circling the table to look at something new, but then racing back to make sure that his new truck was still there. And since the Easter Bunny brought the little guy new beach toys, it seemed like the best way to spend the rest of the morning was at the beach. We got dressed and packed up quickly after breakfast and headed out. It was a great morning. Roman got to play in the ocean and the sand with his new toys and with Marc, and I got to relax on our big outdoor blanket for a majority of the time. I don't think anything else would have been better. We'll have to make this our Easter tradition.

After the beach, we all came home and relaxed and took a nap before our next activity: Roman's very first Easter Egg Hunt. Marc and I stayed up the night before to dye eggs so that Roman could go on a little hunt at our house. I hid the eggs in the front yard, and Roman and Marc took Romey's dump truck around to collect all the eggs.  It took a bit for Roman to get the hang of everything; all he wanted to do was move the same egg in and out of the back of the dump truck. So Marc guided Rome around the yard to collect the eggs, and he "found" all but one of them, but really I think he was just over it and wanted to play outside with his truck, so we let him. It was at that time that I realized I had absolutely nothing in my fridge to make for Easter dinner, so we had some deviled eggs and strawberries from the little fruit stand we stopped at on the way home from the beach (can you say "pregnancy craving"?). Even without the real dinner, I think it was a very successful first Easter, and I am really looking forward to some of these new traditions next year. Oh, and lastly, just look at how cute my boys looked. We really didn't plan on having them wear basically matching outfits, but when I looked through all of the pictures, I got a kick out of it. Plaid shirt? Check. Cargo shorts? Check. Flip-flops? Check. So adorable.