Tidbits

There's been a few things recently that I've thought 'I need to blog this' (is that sad.....), and then I get to the part of uploading the pics, editing them, getting them on flickr and I get lost in flickr world. Looking at one amazing photo leads to checking out that person's stream, which leads to their faves, and then I'm out of time. So today, I am playing catch up!

Let's see, we went to Mickey on Ice a few weeks ago with Haley, Taylor, and Tanner. I thought for sure Carolina would put on her own show of excitement. But nope, she had the same reaction as she does to SeaWorld. But she didn't stop talking about it all the way home from the show, and still talks about it, so I'm pretty sure it was a big hit. Yesterday, we were actually going to SeaWorld, and I asked her 'Lina, where are we going today'. She got all excited and says 'Mickey eat Ice!? Go see Mickey eat Ice?! on noooo, I need clothes!' (she wasn't dressed yet).

Family Pic during intermission



Finally eating popcorn durring intermission. One of those guys was going around at the beginning of the show saying 'POPCORN POPCORN' at anyone age 2-12. Once she heard that, any break in action Carolina was asking for it.


Right after the popcorn guy walked by before the show. The beginning of the sentence was 'Popcorn for...."




I had the camera all ready at the beginning for her amazement, but she did this instead. haha. I think she says 'Mickey' and 'Donald' a couple times though.



We've gone to SeaWorld twice since they opened back up. She still loves Shamu and the foam pit. Ever since she rode the teacups in December she will randomly say that she wants to ride them again. So we made a beeline for them as soon as we got to SeaWorld, since we had been talking it up that first morning. Got there, and they WERE GONE! Carolina was so upset! She got over it pretty quickly though when we went to the foam pit instead. The second time she wanted to play on the 'big kids' area, and desperately wanted to go down the slide. Rendon figured he would take her up there and she would be scared, but she went down! Again and again! She also climbed the rope/net hill thing (I don't know what it's 'official' name is) all the way to the top. We were extremely impressed by that.

The First Trip

Feeding the ducks




"There it is!"




I don't think it's been on purpose, but Rendon has worn the same hat every time we've gone to SeaWorld, now immediately when we step into the foam pit she takes it off his head and runs around saying "Daddy! Get me Get me!"




Watching the Shamu show. The first time she's shown a lot of excitement about shamu actually during the show.






Feeding the dolphins. She wasn't quite able to reach them, and kept just tossing the fish in; I think because that's how she was feeding the fish a couple hours earlier, so she didn't understand to feed the dolphins differently.


Rendon helping her so she didn't drop the fish on the ledge where it's hard for the dolphins to get.


Second Trip!

Clapping at the Viva Show. She learned it at Mickey on Ice and now does it anytime there's music! It's super cute! ( Check out the hair, it was sooooo humid, and poor thing seems to have my hair, course San Antonio would probably do this to anyone's hair...)




They didn't have the water park open since it was Thurs. but they had the water going in the kiddie park , and Carolina throughly enjoyed watching all the OTHER kids run in the water. She avoided it, only going through when Rendon would carry her. At one point she even went through a tunnel, but there was water at the other end, so she turned around and crawled out the way she came in--so the 3 kids (bout 4-7 yrs old) behind her had to crawl out too. Great kids though, they didn't get upset about it.

We went with Rendon's coworker and her 2 little boys. The oldest is a rowdy 4 yr old--He was karate chopping the waterfalls and Carolina found it hilarious!






Walking through the tunnels on the big kid area


This slide was HUGE! Probably 20 ft or so high!


Climbing the net. It was the way to the slide without going all the way around to the stairs. Rendon was doing it, so Carolina followed suit. He only had to help her over the ledge at the very top.






She climbed this whooooole way!


Getting creative with the slide!


They did an AMAZING show at the Shamu Stadium. It's usually close to the same thing every time. But I don't know if it was because there were so few people, but instead of the scripted show, they pretty much just had the whales do tricks, with a few scripted areas. It was by far the best show we've seen yet! At the end, where they usually have one or two whales come out and splash everyone, they brought out FIVE. They still did the regular splashing with 2, but instead of ending there they sorta did an encore. The splash was HUGE (if you've been to a Shamu show you can imagine) I wish you could see all five whales upside down on the other side of the glass, but they churn the water up so much!

The side opposite of us.


And our side. We were smart. We sat right above the splash zone. Or we would be one of those people at the bottom of someone elses photo, haha. The lady with the drink cracks me up. I have about 5 of these, and she's dramatic in every one!


We call Carolina our 'genius baby'. We're possibly a little biased, but she's a smart one! She memorizes books in a few days, and 'reads' them to herself throughout the day. Here's a few videos. My personal favorite one that she reads is 'Pajama Time' by Sandra Boynton, but I've yet to sneak a video of it. The first one here is 'Going on a Bear Hunt'. It's from the library and she had it down within the first week. I'm including shots of the pages so you can better understand her. It can be kinda hard if you don't already know what she's saying. The second one is 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear', it's pretty clear.

The words are kinda small, so hopefully you can get the idea.....






(Pardon the panties, sometimes she refuses to put pants on, and since we're potty training it's usually right after she pees, so I don't want to make it negative for her so we just let her keep them off. What's bad is the neighbor came by a little after this video and Carolina ran out the door like this.....)


She loves to sing her ABC's and can get through it herself with help. I sing "A B C Deeee" and she says "efgeeeeeeee". And so on. This day she was singing it to a long forgotton toy she found when we moved and has re-discovered. Typical Carolina, she stopped singing when I tried to video her, but the end is priceless!



On Tuesday Haley and I went to the Japanese Tea Garden to do some pics of the kiddos. We got lots of shots of their backs. Which is about normal for 2 yr olds. They are cute, but I really was hoping for some spring shots that included her face. We lucked out and Wednesday was cloudy too (the best time for pics), so I talked Rendon into stopping by to try again. I still had her outfit in her bag so we did wardrobe change in the car and did the Tea Gardens take 2. She did really well, I think having Rendon there really helped. He did everything and anything to get a smile.

One of Tanner and Carolina from Tuesday. Check out Haley's Blog for more (and better, haha) pis of the 2 of them.







Saying 'awwwwww'


O, I love this pic SO! And I could just kick myself for chopping the top off her head. Just the way she was standing there with her hair blowing and the flower, I just put the camera up really quick before she moved. But for whatever reason, I just find it sweet!


Spotlighted in a moment when the sun came through the clouds


Nearing the end of her rope....


OH! Daddy has CANDY! (itty bitty mints, haha)


Only ONE! I only get ONE!!! (see it in her hand?)



Well, I think that's enough for now!

Easter Sunday

Easter was pretty laid back around here. I have a sinus/cold going on, so we pretty much just did easter basket and coloring eggs, and then laid around. I'm being lazy today so I'm just going to include the video of the easter basket reveal, and pictures of painting the eggs.
















Just a pic from the other day that I LOVE!


The UPS man brought the first package of Alaska gear today, 2 pair of boots for me, and 1 pair for Carolina! It makes the move seem so close and real!




Carolina just HAD to put hers on when she saw me trying mine on. You get from the waist down because she was really close, and she's pretty rough looking because she's going through the same cold I am :-(

Easter Party

Today was Carolina's playgroup Easter Party. It just worked out that it was on the same day as her doctors appt., which of course ran late. But everyone was still eating so we didn't miss the easter egg hunt :-) I was excited about this year, because Carolina would understand what to do, would be able to actually walk around and get the eggs and Rendon was here (last year he was in Iraq). Also last year we had to leave early because she went into an asthma attack. So after eating, playing, and of course some swinging, the egg hunt was on! Kristy just laid them around the playgroup, not really hiding them, and everyone could get 5 eggs. Carolina loved it! And now for the fun part, the pictures!


Cupcakes! Of course! These were the only 3 left, and had been knocked around a lil bit, but they had to do for the photo. I used mini cadbury eggs and speckled jelly beans for the 'eggs'.



First egg!



And Another!




Scanning for more eggs.


Checking out her goodies.


Covered in confetti from Casarones. I had never seen or heard of casarones before moving to San Antonio, but they're a popular mexican party (mainly easter) tradition. It's atually really cute, and even better when you're not responsible for clean up! It's empty egg shells, with a small section removed from the end. Then it's filled with confetti and covered with tissue paper. You then smash it on people's head and it's said to bring good luck. We tried to get Carolina to do it to someone else, but all she would do is give the egg to the other kids. Rendon surprised me, and I thought I'd got all the confetti off but when I saw Becky later at work she pointed out that I still had some confetti on the back of my shirt.....

Bragging

Just a short blog here to do a little bragging on Rendon...you thought it was going to be about Carolina, right? Anyway, he was the relief pitcher for their baseball game on Saturday. His arm had recovered from the last game, and he went in in the 6th inning. Unfortunately, I brought my camera without the memory card, so I didn't get any pictures. They were at a different field and it was great for pictures, oh well. But Rendon took over and did awesome! They went into extra innings, and a guy came up to bat that Rendon had struck out his 2 previous at bats. Well, this time the guy figured it out, and hit the ball, bringing the guy on 2nd home. I know it's all about the team, but I'm so proud of how Rendon is doing so I just had to post this :-) This is the short recap from the game.

"Warhawks Lose in 10!Although the Warhawks avoided a 2nd inning meltdown, they were unable to pull out the win. Rendon Corbin pitched lights-out following the horrendous display of control by Lachlan Galbraith. 7 walks and 3 Hb's wont win you ballgames."

You can check out the full page here.

Now for a few pics of Lina and Tanner at playgroup today.

Haley has an almost identical picture to this from almost a year ago. I was going to post it for comparison, but it's on her older computer. This version is small to avoid Tanner being cut out by the layout...








I didn't realize at first, but it totally looks like Tanner is proposing here. Really Tanner is trying to play patty cake with Carolina, and Carolina was trying to pull him up to sit with her.

It's Official

Our new home.

We are moving to Anchorage, AK at the beginning of August. We thought Rendon had until the end of the month to decide, but Rendon found out he either had to cancel the orders, or cancel the cross training package. They put him on the spot, they needed to know right then. Knowing that the cross training was not a guarantee, and if he cancelled the orders it would be next to impossible to ever get orders somewhere else again, he cancelled the cross training. It may all work out in the next four years; His current job is on the way out so he may have to do forced cross training anyway. If we stay in San Antonio, and he doesn't get the cross training now, he may not get to do it when the job 'goes away' because a lot of people that work in the hospital at Lackland are just going to be transferred to BAMC, instead of going to a new job field. So we will see.


In the meantime I am getting used to the idea of moving. I knew way back in November when we found out we might finally get orders to Alaska that I would have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Up until Rendon had to cancel the cross training I was excited. Then he called and told me that Alaska was it, and cross training was out the door. My heart kinda sunk a little bit. It surprised me, and it was then that I realized I was actually kinda hoping he would get the cross training. At the same time, I think that had cross training come back as a 'yes', I would feel the same way if we decided not to go to Alaska. I know one thing for sure, I am going to miss the friends I've made here. If only I could take Haley, Becky, and Kristy with me to Alaska! But that's military....I know it won't be goodbye forever. Hopefully it'll work out so we can all get together once a year or so to catch up. I love you girls!! And Carolina is going to miss you too!

We've been trying to go somewhere, do something different, for 3 1/2 years. It all worked out, but all at the same time! On an ironic note, the orders came through on March 17th. The very same day Rendon and I met at his frat's St. Patrick's Day party 5 years ago! Rendon can't wait to get back on the slopes on a regular basis, and I can't wait to be able to ski regularly (attempt...) to get good enough to keep up with Rendon on some of the more challenging terrain. He's considering teaching lessons at one of the ski resorts to hopefully cut down on season pass cost ($1200 at Alyeska, phew!). There are a few smaller ski areas closer to Anchorage that will be perfect for teaching Carolina to ski. We are finding so many fun things to go see and do, and can't wait to experience all the new and different things.

A few pictures from Rendon's game. They lost (12-10), but Rendon did well. He started and pitched 7 innings. The positions Rendon gets his arm in to pitch the ball mystifies me....I didn't get a good picture of when his arm looks like the elbow is going the completely wrong way, but the second one here is close.

Throwing the ball to first to cut down on the runners lead (I think that's how to phrase it....)


One of the other kids at the game brought their tricycle, scooter, and bubble machine (dedicated mom there to carry all that....Carolina gets a couple books and a little toy or 2). We thought the little girl was at least 3 or maybe even 4, but when I asked her how old she was she said "I'm 2, be 3 in May!". We were blown away, because she looked much older. Her, Carolina, and another little boy, Zaden, were playing with her multitude of toys. At one point Carolina was playing with the scooter, and the next time I looked back, she was standing on it. At first I rushed over because I was terrified she was going to fall, but then I thought well Jazzmine is 2 and she was riding like a pro. So I knelt down and pulled one of Carolina's feet off and tried to motion it in the right way. She got annoyed at me before I even demonstrated it once. But she was balancing herself great, so I let her be. I kept a close eye on her, and within a few moments she put her foot down (the opposite one I tried to teach her with) and pushed off. And kept going! She went up and down the sidewalk, and the few times that she wobbled, she caught herself! It kept my heart jumping for a lot of the game, but she had TONS of fun. I was thoroughly impressed. Once Rendon saw he was amazed too.

In this trip down the sidewalk she was saying "Weeeee, weeeeee!" every time she pushed off.

So Carolina finally learned how to smile on command. It's the same 'cheesy' smile all kids do, but Carolina adds her own little twist. Every time she smile she turns her head to one side or the other and closes her eyes. haha

Sweet Smiles

I finally discovered the trick to capturing that illusive smile Carolina is so good at hiding when I have the camera out. Put her in a bath tub, with lots of bubbles, and make Rendon jump out from behind the wall and do crazy stuff. And she smiles!











Rendon is on the Baseball Varsity League team this year. Previous years, he's just coached his squadron softball team, but finally decided to go for the base team. He had his first game Monday, although it was just a scrimmage. Not knowing him in highschool, I've never seen him pitch, so it was an exciting first for us. Although I was worried, because even with softball, his shoulder would hurt him after games. It has given him a little grief since he's started back pitching, but according to him, it's a normal amount of pain....not due to previous injuries. There were a few guys that pitched before him, based on seniority mostly, but I was very proud of him for not letting that get to him. He hadn't thrown to a batter in practice yet, just thrown bullpens. So he went up for his turn in the 5th inning and did ok, only allowed 1 hit and 2 walks. Pretty good for someone who hasn't been on a mound in years! (I think so anyway, Rendon might say differently, he was a littler harder on himself) In the 6th inning, he struck 2 out, and the 3rd guy up to bat was out at first! He was the only pitcher to strike anyone out! As he returned to the dugout the coach gave him a pat on the back and said "Why didn't I put YOU in earlier?!?". I'm so happy for him to be back playing the game he loves! Hopefully it'll be a fun and successful season. Carolina really enjoyed watching the game, although we had our close call with a foul ball already. I know now not to try and find the ball in the air, just duck and cover both of us!

By the time Rendon got up to pitch it was fairly dark so the pictures aren't too clear. But his next game is Sunday, so stay tuned.

Carolina enjoying some apple and baseball!