Out of Town Visitor

Jen's Great Auntie Jo came down from Northern California to visit and meet Kali for the first time. We have not been able to head up to north for the past few holidays either due to medical stuff or work schedules...so we have been in San Diego for the past three years and have had only immediate family visit. We miss seeing all our extended families during the Christmas holidays. Cross our fingers that this year we will be able to make it up there.

While Auntie Jo was in town, we spent an afternoon at Balboa Park and enjoyed watching all the different walks of life. We hardly spend our weekends at the park because it can be so busy and the folks that are out and about can be interesting. We tallied up the total number of wedding parties happening on that Saturday and it came out to be around ten or so.

We stopped by the Japanese tea garden and to our dismay...closed for a private event (wedding???). We also ventured to the Botanical Garden...again closed...but not for a special event, we were just lagging and missed the open hours by 15 minutes. Our luck was dwindling. Kalista enjoyed the enormous water fountain and motioned to jump in like it was a swimming pool since all these other kids were frolicking in it (which might actually be a big no no). She loved the rose garden and took us on a long botanical tour by walking through every row of roses.

Auntie Jo stayed for a few more days, but promised to come back to see all the other sights San Diego has to offer another day.

Play That Funky Music

"Ooh Ooh Ah Ah"

It's Wednesday Zoo Day and we got to check out the new Panda Trek exhibit. One panda was sleeping and the other one...well....we're not sure what he was doing.


The orangutans are always a pleasure to see. One of them took to Kalista. Monkey see....monkey do.

"Wonder what Kalista is doing?", says the monkey.

Kalista says, "Let's have a staring contest."

"Wonder who won?"

Kalista's Homecoming Month

September is a special month for us. It's not only our wedding anniversary month, but is also now Kalista's homecoming month.

One year and a few days ago, we brought Kalista home from Rady Children's Hospital. This photo is on the first day she came home, September 1st, 2010. Look at those chubby cheeks! You just want to nibble at them!


One year and a few days later, Kalista has become an incredible little girl. Even on the worst hair days, she is still a little angel.

Look ma...I'm Rapunzel! Hold on..I can't see!

We decided to post this photo since we have a few members of our family that are big Jordan fans and evidently Kalista has become an official fan too.

We always say this....but Kalista has changed so much from her super chubby cheeked baby self to a chubby cheeked little girl. Her favorite thing to do now is to dance when she hears any type of music. It could be coming from the TV, a toy or even us singing...she will bust a move. Jen was singing one of the new tunes from Britney Spears and Kalista started jammin'. Check out the cool dance moves...

I'm dancing the night away...would you hold it against me?

Gotta Love Me Some Tortilla

YES!!!

Kalista did it..almost. We went to Miguel's the other day with family in town. Their queso fundido (white jalapeno cheese dip) is soooo good!

It was so good that Kalista decided to take her first grownup bite from one of the soft corn tortillas. The awesome part is that she picked up, bit it and then started chomping away and swallowed some of it before she fell asleep for the evening. You can even see her bite mark in the tortilla.



Kalista has also been doing some serious grocery shopping because she enjoys sitting in the mini car. We must admit that these little cars are the dirtiest thing you can put your kid in, but luckily most grocery stores now have those sanitary wipes. Scrub scrub scrub is what we did did did. Yuck!

Major Blackout

We just had a major blackout that took out all of San Diego, parts of Orange County and Arizona all because one little man didn't follow protocol. Of course no names were given as to who it was, since we're sure he is on someone's hit list. We were out of power yesterday from 3:45 pm to about 2 am this morning.

Jen and Kalista had just came home from running errands and while Kalista in the middle of watching "Finding Nemo" and being fed, the power went out. We thought we blew a circuit since we have been having a heat wave and the fans were on, the TV was on. But no....there was no circuit blown. All of San Diego was at an energy stand still.

Luckily we had an emergency earthquake kit in the making and we grabbed all the flashlights, candles and radio and prepared for the evening. Kalista got to experience her first "blackout". It really didn't phase her at all. She was determined to play with the wind up flashlight and that seemed to be the highlight of the evening. We are so grateful to have smartphones, since that was the only way to communicate with each other because we don't own a corded phone. Mistake number one...everyone who has a land line needs a corded phone. Our cordless was useless, since it of course relies on power...doh!

Bad news bears...cell phones also run out of juice. Matt didn't get home until almost 4 am since he had to make sure the hotel was fine in the event that the back up generators stopped working. On a positive note, Kalista's Joey/Kangaroo pump was well charged the night before, so she was still able to be fed via pump last night.

Better go finish packing that emergency kit...

Out and About

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend! 

Here's our latest life snippets:

School is back in session and Kalista's teacher came to visit today.  Our goals for the school year are to have Kalista say a few more words and phrases and of course, feed herself more.  She'll get there...we know it.  She has already kicked butt in the walking, smiling, hair modeling and looking cute skill set.

Jen and Matt celebrated their four year wedding anniversary today and celebrated with a nice sushi dinner at Sushi Deli 3.  Yum yum tuna and salmon! 

Because it has been so a muggy sauna here, we hit the pool this week/weekend.  It's all a blur when we went since the heat has melted away some of our brain cells.  All we know is that we had a refreshing time.

 Kali knows that she's gotta protect those precious eyes

Come join us for a swim!

Auntie Jeanette and Mike came to visit this past weekend.  We celebrated her belated birthday with a few tickets to a good 'ol game of baseball...yes....Giants vs Padres.  We're sure you all know who we rooted for.

With Jeanette's help, Jen ironed out all the wrinkles in how to make cake pops look more beautiful and tasty.  This batch was pretty good.  Yay Jeanette!

 Jeanette and Mike waiting to catch some foul balls.
There were a lot of them flying everywhere.

 Watching the Giants kick butt! Go Kung-Fu Panda!!!

Kalista knew it was going to rain on us while we were at Petco Park. 

Her little hand caught a few raindrops.

Kalista picked out her Halloween costume this past weekend as well, so she is ready to go trick-or-treating.  We have decided to all be monsters of some sort this year.  Roar!!!!  Argh!!!! (whatever sound a monster makes)

Last but not least...HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE BILL!  Woo Hoo!!!

Shamu and You Walk

We officially signed up to do the SeaWorld Shamu and You Walk to benefit and raise money for Rady Children's Hospital. The walk is not until October 1st...so we have plenty of time.

Our team name is Team K.I.N.D. (Kids In New Directions).

Please visit our personal page.

If you are in town, please join us in the walk!

It's Truly Summer

"Welcome to my summer home!"

The heat wave has come upon us here in San Diego. This is what we have been waiting for all summer. We have been spending more of our days outside, enjoying nature. (Can't complain since all those poor folks on the east coast are getting hit with Hurricane Irene. We really hope all our friends and family in the east are doing fine in the midst of the storm.)

We have been taking weekly trips to the zoo, but Kalista has also taken a liking to the playground at her school (Alcott Elementary). Her teacher, Jodi, told us about it before summer break started, so we checked it out. It was designed for the little kids in mind by the occupational and physical therapists at the school. Kali loves every inch of the playground.

Practicing her game of Tic-Tac-Toe

Getting over her fear of the tunnel

Swinging like a monkey again?

When we're not outside, we have been working on other fun projects. Jen attempted to join the world in the cake pop sensation. Let's just say it was an EPIC FAIL. Evidently, the secret to awesome looking cake pops is to add a scoop or bar of Crisco. (It was a surprise to even find out that Crisco came in bars.) Here are the results of the "epic fail":

Not bad for the first time! We'll call them Mummy Pigs

Oh..found this picture while we were pruning our albums. We went to Souplantation sometime last week or the week before and there was a balloon magician. We watched Balloon Wizard create balloon sculptures in minutes...boom...boom...boom, a Mickey Mouse Hat, a monkey on a vine and a whole lot more. Since Kali loves dogs, he made one for her. We all watched in amazement. Kali loved it so much that she decided to wear it.

I love it!!!

Vegas Again!!!!

We made it to Vegas and back once again. Kalista is getting used to the desert getaway and enjoys all the sparkling lights of the mega hotels.

We decided to venture to Vegas for some culinary masterpieces. We decided to check out the Wicked Spoon at The Cosmopolitan, one of the new hotels in City Centre. Let's just say...any place that has a mac n' cheese bar has a dear spot in our hearts. Oh my goodness...it was a delight to our taste buds! We can say that all the dishes are presented in its own portioned plate, bowl, large spoon. Their dessert selection ranged from mini fruit tarts to eight different flavored gelatos. The salted peanut flavored gelato won our table over.

The kids enjoyed the variety of tasty treats

Kalista took home a mini loaf of bread as a souvenir. It's as hard a a rock now, but still super cute. The desserts were also presented in their own portioned mini cups. Kalista has taken on the sport of "stacking" and loves playing with the mini cups we saved from our food adventure.


Here are some more pictures from our trip:

Smiles of fulfillment

Kalista wanted to join the Martinez family

Kali with her grandparents

This monster aquarium was even equipped with a live mermaid

Hanging out at the Bass Pro shop.
Are you jealous Gung Gung (G-pa Greg)???

Gotta love Vegas art! A mega platform stiletto.