Sadie Said

Sadie: "Dad, feel how soft my hair is. Mom put air conditioning in it."

(aka: hair conditioner)

Also:

Sadie: "To be a model you have to live in New York."

Me: "Do you want to be a model?" (As if I didn't know)

Sadie: "Yes."

Me: "Why?"

Sadie: "I just find it fascinating. And you get to wear make-up."

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Vacation

Last week we took our FREE vacation to Legoland. You may remember that I won it off the radio earlier this year. And while it wasn't completely FREE, it came pretty close.

First: Gasoline

I had a free $100 gift card for gas. We ended up spending about $120.00. So my final gasoline cost was $20. Pretty good.

Second: TOLL ROADS! We have never been to Carlsbad before, so we relied on Eric's phone GPS to get us there. And in doing so it took us on 2 toll roads,  2 miles apart from one another. Total cost $6.00 (not much, but still maddening nonetheless)!

Third: Our first night we stayed at the La Quinta. Eric always tries to stay at a La Quinta whenever he goes out of town so we earn points towards free nights. He had about 19,000 points earned. It seems like a fairly large number, and he has stayed for what seems like a huge amount of nights at La Quinta, however, did you know a hotel in Southern California will run you 15,000 points a night?!!!  And....at this particular La Quinta, you have to pay an upgrade fee of $10.00 if you want queen beds. Lame. But still a big savings. A room on a Thursday night would have normally cost us $95.80 (with taxes and fees), but we paid $12.25! Woot-Woot! (And he is currently out of town, staying at a La Quinta, so just think, in one more year we just MAY have enough points for another free room).

But best thing about staying at the La Quinta (other than the beds being really comfortable) is that you get FREE breakfast.

Bonus. And major savings!!

Fourth: Our second day we moved from the La Quinta to the Sheraton. It is kind of like always wearing clothes from Target, and then starting to wear those from Neiman Marcus. It was nice! Like resort for rich people nice.

Sade and Jackson on the balcony:

On the dates we stayed it would have cost us $600.00 (with taxes and resort fees) for the 2 nights. Plus $24.00 in parking. But for us it was FREE!!! However, nice resorts don't have things like free breakfast, free microwaves, and free water bottles, so La Quinta wins on those categories.

Fifth: LEGOLAND tickets! We received 4 free 2-day passes to Legoland, the waterpark, and the aquarium.

Total amount of 4 free park hopper tickets: $396!!! However, since we are a family of 5, I had to buy Sadie a child's ticket from Costco that cost me $70.00.

Sixth: Food and souvenirs from Legoland. Normally I would refuse to buy and food or souvenirs at Legoland, due to the extreme fleecing they inflict. However we had a FREE $100 Legoland gift card, so we ate lunch there both days, had ice cream, and bought a couple of small souvenirs. Total cost: $4.00 (we went over the $100 while having our second round of ice cream cones).

Seventh (AND MOST EXPENSIVE ASPECT OF OUR TRIP): Eating Out. Now I was fairly good on this trip, and brought multiple snacks, along with breakfast supplies for both days we were at the Sheraton. But we had to stop in Riverside to eat at Spaghetti Factory:

It used to be our favorite place to eat, but now Eric and I find it rather blah. But we also at at BJ's, which was enjoyable, Panda Express and Wendys (one our way home). Not bad, but still at a cost of $149.00. By the way, Wendys in California is hella more expensive than Wendys in Nevada. Seriously.

Anyway.....Now for the totals:

Total amount spent (gas, toll roads, La Quinta, Sadie's Legoland ticket, ice cream, food): $261.25

Total Amount Of Free Stuff (gas card, La Quinta, Sheraton, parking, Legoland tickets, Legoland gift card):

$1315.80!!!

Woo-Hoo!

Back To Oatman

On Saturday Eric had to go to Needles, CA for work, so the kids and I went with him. While waiting for him to finish his job, we had a picnic at the park. We are very well acquainted with this park, as we have spent hours and hours there over the past few years waiting for Eric to fix the T.V. system at the nearby Motel 6.

 

After Eric finished, we then headed over to one of my favorite places: Oatman, AZ. I have posted a few times about Oatman before. Most recently, a few months ago, when I detailed my severe disappointment that we were late getting to Oatman, and all of the burros had headed up into the hills. But not this time! The burros were there, and more than ready to eat the carrots we brought. FYI: Bring your own carrots, and bring lots and lots of them. They sell carrots there, but for a very steep price.

Sade is an extreme animal lover, and has no fear of the burros. She was more than happy to feed them carrots.

The burros will completely surround you if they know you have carrots, but will completely ignore you if you don't. Eric being surrounded:

Jackson likes the burros, but not so much he would actually hold a carrot and feed them. He dropped all of his carrots on the ground for them to eat. This one was just his size:

Megan has what she says is a "healthy fear" of the burros. I say it is an irrational fear, but, regardless, she surprised me by feeding one of the them:

But soon they started to surround her, which did not please her in the least:

A few more pics from our time in Oatman:

After leaving Oatman, we traveled to Laughlin, NV to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening on the river:

I love a good day trip.

12 X 12 - September 2011

I woke up at 6:15 a.m.!, to make it to my first ever Boot Camp class at 7 a.m.

OMW (Oh My Word)! The pain! I was BY FAR the worst in the class, and was pretty positive I was going to pass out. I had to stop after 30 minutes. And it was the first day of my period (I apologize to any male readers). I am sure I could have gone 32 minutes if not for that fact. I went back today, and completed the class, but am walking like the extreme elderly.

When I arrived home Megan and Jackson were all ready for school. Eric reported that they got ready completely on their own, and he didn't have to prod them to do anything. Mind you, when I am home in the morning I have to remind Jackson to get his shoes on and brush his teeth 10 times. Hmpffff......

I was far too exhausted from Boot Camp to drive the kids to school. Luckily Eric took over:

As I was laying on the floor, trying not to die, Sade came over and wanted to play airplane. I rallied, but the flight was a short one, due to my exhausted state:

Sade and I before dropping her off at pre-school:

After dropping her off, I came home and had my brunch (I always eat for the day between breakfast and lunch). I had salmon (as I do daily), but I also had kryptonite. Also known as Bavarian Creme Pizza from Cici's pizza. You may remember I don't love Cici's, but I recently discovered the Bavarian delight, and am now obsessed. You can order it to go, and the entire pizza is only $3.99!

After picking up Sadie, I developed a terrible headache. I took some Ibuprofen, and retreated to bed, where I read this book by Sandra Dallas. I am a BIG Sandra Dallas fan:

Luckily I recovered 30 minutes later, and then cleaned the house. FYI: My house is almost always clean around 2:30 p.m. (since the kids are still in school, and Sadie is napping), so if  you need to ever stop by, please stop by then. While cleaning I put away these recent Lego creations done by Megan:

Everyday after school, Megan unloads her backpack and puts all of her books and binders on this shelf. She has such a ridiculous amount of stuff to carry around all day, that I had to go out and buy her a rolling backpack:

After Eric got home we went to Chili's for dinner. If you do not yet receive coupons for Chili's you should go and register for them right now on their web-site. Last night was kids eat free, and you are allowed to use the coupon with the 2 for $20 menu, so it ends up being a great deal.

Sade and Eric walking into Chili's:

It was time for baths and bed when we got home. Jackson, and his big blue eyes after his shower:

Apparently the day would not be complete without another truck repair. Some part (at this point I feel like we have replaced the entire truck) broke, so Eric fixed it.

Did I mention he also fixed his radiator last month? And his air-conditioning? He is very handy.

Pre-School Times Two

So Sade has been featured quite prominently on the blog lately. But I can't help it. My littlest peanut has had a big month!

Today she started pre-school. AGAIN!

She is not only in Kiddie College, but is also attending a home-based Joy School type of pre-school with 7 of her friends. Which means she is in school Monday-Thursday. No wonder I am going through a crisis! Not a mid-life crisis (I'm way, way, way, way too young) but a crisis nonetheless.

They have recess, story time, learning time, craft time, signing time, and snack time. She had all sorts of fun, but said her favorite part was playing outside. Today they learned about the letter "A", and made these cool aquariums.

They also had edible aquariums for snack time.

The first letter I have to teach is "D". Feel free to let me know all of your brilliant ideas. It is not going to be easy to compete with the aforementioned adorable edible aquariums.