Stuck in Frump, Striving for Fab

Earlier this morning as we were all getting ready for church, Jeff got back from his morning run walk (okay, so he did jog a good part of the way) a bit late and found that I was in the shower in our bathroom.

In the hectic-ness that is our household on Sunday mornings and because of the way our room is situated, I always lock our bedroom door before taking a shower.

Let's just say that I don't want one of our boys busting into the room when I'm getting out of the shower or dressing, because that image would be a heavy load to bear for the rest of their days. Especially if it involves the struggling into putting on of pantyhose. Nobody should ever have to witness that spectacle, which is rather like a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar.

So anyway, Jeff came home, took a look at the clock and realized he'd better get a move on if we were to get to church on time. To hurry things along, he hopped into the shower in the boys bathroom.

While all of this is happening, the phone rings. Now this is a rarity on Sunday mornings, as nearly everyone we know either knows we are heading for church or are there with us.

Jericho picks it up and a male voice asked to speak to his mom or dad.

"Um, my mom is in the shower right now..."

"Oh, well can I speak to your dad?"

"He's in the shower, too."

Awkward pause.

"Uhhhh...okay then. I'll, uh, have to catch them later." Click.

Jeff knocked on the door a few minutes later and came in to tell me about the "telemarketer" call.

We laughed ourselves silly at the thought of some random telemarketer being at a total loss for words after that little exchange, no doubt having gotten a rather risque impression of the state of things in our household.

It wasn't until I was sitting in church later, however, that it occurred to me that Jericho had said he "thought it might be a telemarketer".

Which led to the realization that he wasn't sure.

Which led me to think that there are certain persons in our lives that it would make me blush with embarrassment for the rest of my born days were they the ones who had been on the other end of the line.

People like my dad.

Or (gasp) church members!

Really, there aren't any people we'd exactly want getting that kind of an un-churchlike impression of us, you know?

So there was Jeff, standing up in the pulpit giving the announcements in our Pastor's absence (he was out of town for a conference) when yet another terrible thought occurred to me...

...One that gave me a cringey-sinking feeling and the sensation of a permanent blush on my face:
The very real possibility that it might have been our Pastor that had called.

To add one last-minute thing to the announcements as he's done before while out of town.

Oy, I can barely bear the thought.

The worst part is that there is no relief from the cringing every time I think of it, because there is no way to know for sure who called.

Why, oh why, did I have to be too cheap to add Caller I.D. to our phone plan?

Yesterday, I went to one of my favorite Thriftique stores and found Judah's "big boy" bed (with rails) for only $25!



This is a really big step for us, putting Judah in a big boy bed.

On the one hand, I feel almost ashamed that we still have him sleeping in a crib at 3 1/2, but on the other hand, when your son is prone to walking around the house in the dark of night and has done this, what else is a parent to do to be able to get a wink of sleep?

We've already long since installed a latch way up high on our front door and are now looking into buying some type of lock for our sliding-glass back door as well, because the old stick-in-the-bottom of the door thing doesn't keep him from getting out.

Despite our attempts at curtailing this behavior, Judah has also become quite adept at scaling and climbing over chain link fencing (thanks to big brother). Even very high chain link fencing.

And there is only one such fence between our yard and our neighbor's in-ground pool! Lord, have mercy!

We're obviously going to need to find some sort of method of alerting us when the boy climbs out of his bed.

Something loud enough to wake us from a dead sleep at night.

What really frightens me about this is that Judah was up wandering the house again last night because he was allowed to sleep in a big boy bed in big brother's room.

He already talks in his sleep, and now wanders the house at night (also apparently in his sleep)...do you see now why I worry excessively?

Have you seen those shows on TV where parents wake to find sleep-walking teenagers mechanically doing things like washing dishes, trying to get into the car in the garage and climbing around on roofs at night in their sleep yet with a blank look in their eyes?

I fear this. I truly do. But he's only going to fit in the crib for so much longer.

It's just that there are few options available that would be fire-safety approved.

Maybe keeping a baby gate in his doorway at night would help? If it was tricked out with bells?

I'm just not sure the other option would be loud enough. Bubble wrap on the floor could get pretty expensive after awhile.

On second thought, maybe I'll just put this bed in the studio/guest room for now instead.

:: :: :: ::

The kids had all been down for their naps for about a half hour or so, and I was in my studio happily drawing up landscaping plans for our newly cleared property when I heard a cry.

It sounded like the cry a little one makes in the night when they've gotten overheated and are all sticky and miserable, annoyed that their sleep was interrupted.

A sound that could almost be mistaken for a cough, but is really more of a cry of complaint. (And I know you're probably sitting there right now at your computer almost coughing, then smiling because you know exactly what type of cry I'm talking about).

"Figures it would be right after they finally all got to sleep, too..." I groused as
I silently tip-toed down the hallway to the other end of the house, hoping that whoever was awake would go back to sleep with a couple of soft pats on the back.

I peeked in on the girls and was relieved to find them both sound asleep. Which was good, because if one of the sisters woke up in the room where they were take their naps, I could pretty much kiss the next two hours of freetime goodbye.

Hoping that Judah would snuggle back into his bedding with the usual smoothing motion across his forehead, I crossed the hall, stepped into my bedroom and found that he, too, was sound asleep.

Well, whoever it was had fussed but managed to fall back to sleep on their own.

I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to work.

After drawing out some sketches for our side yard, I was trying to decide between honeysuckle or jasmine for the trellis there when I again heard crying, only this time it sounded like someone was calling out for me.

Somebody was probably thirsty. I filled a glass with water and headed stealthily back down the hallway to peek in on my boy.

He was snuggled into his blankets fast asleep.

Maybe the dogs barking earlier had wakened one of the girls. I quietly opened that door and found that they, too, were peacefully sleeping.

Coming back out to the living room, I was almost to my studio door when I again heard someone calling me.

Had Judah been pulling a fast one, trying to trick me? He'd never done such a thing before, but I certainly wouldn't put it past him.

Once again I crept down the hall and peeked into the rooms, only to find three soundly sleeping children.

I was just closing the door on the girls room when I heard it again, this time coming from the direction of the bathroom.

What in the world? I peeked in the bathroom, thinking maybe we had mourning doves nesting outside the window there as we did once in the other house.

And just then I heard the sound again coming loudly from outside, "Maaaaaaa-ma-a-a-ah."

And I had a good chuckle, realizing I'd been fooled by the neighbor's baby goat.



The kiddos quickly learned that if they made goat sounds, the kid next door would imitate them.

Little sister came running for me when the goat got too close to her and made it's loud "Maaaaaaah-ma-a-a-a" sound.

She wasn't sure what to make of an animal that could say "Mama".

:: :: :: ::

We broke out the sidewalk chalk after visiting with the goat for a bit.

Little sister was standing by the silly spider I drew.



Here, our Judah had just drawn a heart for his friend.



"Mama, wook...I maked a spiedow!"



Not too bad for a little tyke. I think he may become an arteest one day.

:: :: :: ::

In church on Sunday morning there was no Little Tot's class, and so Judah was in our Teen Sunday School class with us.

I'm pretty used to this, as for a couple of years there he was in my Wednesday evening Awana class since there was really no place else for him to go.

Occasionally he would interrupt, or the kids would laugh about something he was doing while standing out of my line of vision, but I got used to that, and was able to quickly get back on task.

Jeff, however, teaches all day in a school classroom and is unaccustomed to distractions during his class time, having very good classroom management skills. Most of his students are much older and with longer attention spans.

Judah's attention span is admittedly short, but for the most part he will sit quietly and listen.



But occasionally, all the sugar pulsing through his veins from the donuts and juice earlier will get the best of him, and he just can't contain his pent-up energy one moment longer.

This past Sunday, Jeff was in the middle of a fantastic lesson, when Judah climbed up on his seat and looked over at Lyndsay (one of the teen girls that rotates through the Nursery during Sunday Services) who was sitting to his right and whispers loudly, "Wookit, Wyndsay...I can Fwy!" And flapping his elbows wildly leaped off his seat in an arc and landed right in front of daddy's podium.

I don't know if I was just into Jeff's lesson that much or was completely oblivious to my child's distracting behavior, but it all happened so fast and just far enough out of my reach to be helpless to do anything without adding to the interruption.

That he'd been sitting there absolutely silent up to that point, and then suddenly decides to announce to Lyndsay that he could fly struck me as so funny that a giggle bubbled out.

Do you know how hard it is to restrain your laughter when something funny happens in church?

I managed to repress further audible giggles, but it instead took on that other form...silent laughter that shook my shoulders and the bench, until I was snorting and causing a bit of a scene myself.

I finally had to get up, grab Judah and leave.

Man, when is that kid going to grow up?

...When you wake to the sounds of birds chirping and twittering in the trees and building nests under the eaves of your house.

...When you hear the first cricket songs at night and actually enjoy them.

Especially when the littlest family member is the one to bring it to everyone's attention by stopping his own incessant chatter asking, "What dat sound, daddy?"

You see, in the desert, crickets have a tendency to sneak into houses unawares during the evenings (when screen doors may or may not have been securely shut) lodging themselves behind the stove or some other hard-to-reach place and stridulating their hearts out all. night. long.

Ask me how I know this.

I'll try not to think about that, however, because tonight...for the first time this year, several crickets were heralding Spring.

Outside in the yard where they're supposed to be.

And it was a beautiful sound. A welcome one.

And we all paused to listen to the symphony for a while before dashing into the house and slamming the door behind us to be sure that none followed us inside.

You might also know it's Spring when you've been doing ridiculous amounts of yard work, an ice-cream truck goes tootling by and your parents actually spring for a treat.



"Ahhh, yeah. Dat's what I'm talkin' 'bout."

Which brings me to yet another sure sign of Spring:

Boys covered in dirt.

I think that one is pretty much self-explanatory.

Happy Spring, everybody!

One of the things we tried this year during our Easter week observances was to host a Passover Seder.



Jeff read aloud about the Passover in Exodus 12, and a few New Testament scriptures (John 1:29b, 1 Corinthians 5:7, Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:18-20 just to name a few) that helped connect some of the dots for those present, namely that Jesus IS that spotless Passover lamb, and that by His shed blood we can have forgiveness of sins.



It was very meaningful, and something I think we'll repeat in the future.

Then, though it didn't have anything at all to do with the Passover, after the dinner, because everyone was already at our home, we broke out the stuff to dye Easter eggs.



Someone was very excited.






The ugly eggs barely showing on the bottom row were an experiment, hard-boiling the eggs in natural substances (tea bags and onion skins) together with vinegar to come up with other colors. They turned out kind of...interesting. Mostly rust brown and a natural brown egg color. Next time, I plan to research natural dye colors well ahead of time to have the desirable materials on hand for blue, green, red, gold and pink eggs.

Then early Easter morning, Judah and Jericho searched high and low for their Easter 'baskets'.

Here, Judah shimmied under the sofa because he spotted something yellow behind the curtains.



His hunch was correct.



Even though he had already 'found' the present in it the night before in my craft room, lol. (Little turkey even carried the truck out to us and asked, "Is dis my Easteow pwesent?")

Naturally, he was pretty excited to finally get to open it Easter morning.

Here, Jericho was getting 'warmer'. Please excuse the laundry on the sofa there (and all this time you thought I was kidding about piles of laundry on my sofa, didn't you, lol?).

Their old baskets didn't fit the bigger things daddy bought for himself them this Easter, so at the last minute we dug out these goofy turquoise and yellow round things I got from IKEA a couple of years ago. They worked great, even if they lack the traditional feel of baskets.

While the kids looked through their Easter goodies, we did a quick pickup on the house in preparation for Easter dinner in our home after the Cantata and service at Church.

We had a crowd coming and don't normally have picnic tables set up in our living room, lol.

We did break one of our annual traditions this year. *sigh*

We neglected to get a family photo of us all dressed up for Easter.

This was because dinner wasn't for a couple of hours after we got home, and trying to keep two boys in dress shirts with ties for that long is just not possible. Especially when it was a really warm day outside.

It was hard enough just trying to keep them free of grass stains and their shirttails all tucked in at church, what with the sugar rush their excitement and all the running around with their friends afterwards.

We did manage to get Judah in his dress shirt and tie earlier that morning, only because the tie was a gift and we wanted to send a picture in the thank you card.

"Do I wook shawp, mama?" Judah asked as I took the photo. "Yes...you look SHARP!" I replied.

Later that afternoon, the boys were allowed to get out their novelty 'Fossil Eggs' and play Archaeologist while they brushed and chiseled away the 'dirt' from the plastic 'bones'.

Very clever idea, I must say, but with having just heard about the bad drywall in the news that morning (not to mention other recent things like the melamine in baby formula and lead in toys), one has to wonder what kind of industrial slag comprised the unnatural gray-brown colored 'dirt' in those eggs, seeing as they were all from the same place.

We did make the boys wash thoroughly after working on their eggs, but I suspect Jeff would have thought it a little overboard if I'd made them put on respirators, lol.

Jericho very quietly and methodically removed all the 'bones' for his figurine, while Judah mercilessly jackhammered through his with his chisel. "Wookit, mama...I'm diggeen fo dinos!"



While they finished up, I went out back to check out our fig tree which I noticed from my kitchen window had finally budded.

I found cute little baby figs popping out all over the place. When we can finally start picking them, I'm going to make homemade Fig Newtons. Mmmmm.

Here are the emerging baby pomegranates. A brilliant red color.

And here are what I believe are Italian prune plums like my grandma used to have in her yard when I was a kid.

And finally, the almonds...which are full size now and have turned a greenish color.

Though I was unable to get a photo of it, our neighbors got a darling little baby goat. It was bleating for it's mother most of the day as it got used to roaming through a foreign yard, and Judah stood at the fence reporting on it's movements around their back yard. It spent most of the day up on the 'rocks' that comprise their Koi pond fountain, lol.

New life busting out all over the place.

I just LOVE this time of year!

This idea originally came from a book I found in a Bible book store a few years ago, of which I regret to say I remember neither the title or authors names. It was expanded upon, however, to include even more of the Biblical Easter account so that each child in our Sunday evening Children's class at church could open at least one egg. (It is by no means a complete list of fulfilled prophecies or of the events leading up to the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord.)

In the next year or two, I began seeing Resurrection Eggs on the market. Both work well in helping children to remember the significance of the events leading up to the Crucifixion of Jesus, His Resurrection and Ascension and what it all means for us today. For us, it was all all about finding a meaningful, hands-on way to help the kids remember the events that resulted in redemption from our Sins.

Here was my (excited) audience...



...awaiting the fun, interactive activity that is in this basket of numbered Easter Story Eggs.



I gave odd numbered eggs to one child and evens to the other so that they could take turns opening the eggs, but in groups it works well to pass out a closed egg to each person, and have someone ready to ready the associated Scripture passages.

Egg #1: The Triumphal Entry - Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:3-10

These events occurred to fulfill the Old Testement prophecies of Zechariah 9:9, as well as God's promises to David in Psalm 118:26-27, which was a Psalm often sung by pilgrims on their way to Passover in Jerusalem.

(And yes, I know it's a horse. I was working with what I had at the time, and have yet to locate a small enough donkey colt to fit inside the egg. The kids haven't called me on it yet. ;)



Egg #2: 30 Pieces of Silver - Matthew 26:14-16. 21-25, Mark 14:10-11, 18-21, Luke 22:2-6, 21-23

Bible scholars believe that Zechariah 11:11-13 is referring to these New Testament events.

(I used dimes for their silver color. 30 quarters might have made a bigger impression, but they didn't all fit into the size of eggs I used here.)

Egg #3: The Last Supper - Matthew 26:26-30, Mark 14:22-26, Luke 22:14-20

The unleavened bread and wine of Passover commemorated deliverance from Egypt, which is symbolic of Sin in the Bible. Jesus' body and blood are now identified as the true Passover sacrifice of the New Covenant, representing Jesus poured out life (His death on the cross) and our deliverance from sin through His sacrifice.

(The wine jug and unleavened bread were made of Fimo clay, but a small goblet and cracker might work just as well.)

Egg #4: Jesus' Prayer In the Garden of Gethsemane - Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46 and John 17

In Gethsemane, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, Jesus prayed for Himself, His Disciples and all believers. Such was his duress and agony during His prayers that He sweated drops of blood. It's been said that His battle was won here...on His knees in prayer. Prior to this He'd often slipped away from the grasp of the Jewish authorities that wished to stone Him. However, this time His "hour" had come. His prayers for God's will to be done had solidified His very purpose as Savior, and He rose to face what He'd come to earth to do.

Egg #5: Judas' Betrayal - Matthew 26:46-49, Mark 14:43-45, Luke 22:47-48

Judas called Jesus "Rabbi" (teacher), then betrayed Him with the prearranged signal, which was a kiss. A kiss was a common form of greeting between close friends in New Testament times. Even though Jesus knew that Judas was betraying Him, He still called Him friend.

Egg #6: Peter Cuts Off Malchus' Ear - Luke 22:49-51, Matthew 26:51-52, Mark 14:47 and John 18:10

Jesus didn't need anyone's 'help', as He could have called legions of angels. His 'hour' had come for Him to 'drink the cup' that the Father had given Him. Jesus' miraculous healing of the man's ear did nothing to deter the authorities from arresting Him.

(The ear was made of Fimo, and the sword was formerly one of Jericho's Lego toys.)

Egg #7: Jesus is Arrested and Taken Away - Matthew 26:57, John 18:12

Jesus was bound and taken away to face a series of mock trials for trumped up and entirely false charges made by the very men (Chief Priests, Teachers of the Law and Elders) that should have known He was the promised Messiah.

Egg #8: Peter's Denial of Christ - Matthew 26:31-35, 69-75, Mark 14:27-31, 66-72, Luke 22:31-34, 54-62, and John 13:37-38, 18:17, 25-27

Jesus had warned Peter that Satan had asked to 'sift him as wheat', and told him He'd prayed for him. He'd also prophesied that Peter would deny Him three times when the cock crowed twice.

(Yes, also made of Fimo clay.)

Egg #9: The Crown of Thorns - Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:15-18, John 19:2-5

The Governor's soldiers dressed Jesus in a borrowed scarlet/purple robe, a crown made of thorns, which was a mockery of His true Kingship of the Jews. They hit the crown of thorns with the reed numerous times which pounded them into his head inflicting much pain, adding to the tremendous pain of the previous flogging which Pilate had ordered after caving to public opinion and releasing Barrabas to the people instead Jesus, who was innocent.

This fulfills prophecies found in Isaiah 50:6, and Isaiah 53:7 and in accordance with Deuteronomy 25:3. It is interesting that after Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden, they were cast out and the ground was cursed with thorns, which like Egypt in scripture is also representitve of sin. Now the second Adam wears that symbol upon his sinless head, and mocked, spat upon and bloody led Him away to His crucifixion.

Egg #10: The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ- Matthew 27:26-54, Mark 15:20-39, Luke 22:63-65 and John 19:17-18, 20:20-25

It is said that the spikes that were driven through the wrists of the prisoners were approximately six inches long and thick enough to hold the body of a criminal upon the cross. They were likely very thick, not unlike modern day railroad spikes.

Egg #11: Soldiers Cast Lost For His Clothing - Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24. Luke 23:34, and John 19:23-34

The soldiers cast lots for Jesus' underclothing to fulfill the prophecy of Psalm 22:18.

Egg #12: Sour Wine mixed with Gall and Jesus' Death on the Cross - Matthew 27:34, 48, Mark 15:23, 36, John 19:28-30.

The first time He was offered a drink via a sponge on a reed, it was mixed with gall, a Biblical times painkiller. Jesus refused to drink it at that time, however, because His purpose was to take upon His own body on the cross the full load of the sins of mankind, past, present and future, and there was still work to be done on the cross. Later, however, after His work was complete, He took a drink, called out with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

It is significant that the reed of hyssop was a ceremonial implement closely interwoven with God's symbolic ritual in the first night of Passover (Exodus 12:22) and other scripture passages like Hebrews 9:19 and Psalm 51:7.

These events are closely tied in with 1 Corinthians 5:6-7 where Jesus, our Passover Lamb (John 1:29) was sacrificed, and in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:4-5 and Psalm 69:21 among others.

Egg # 13: The Graveclothes and the New Tomb - Matthew 27:57-59, Mark 15:46, Luke 23:53, and John 19:40-42

He was wrapped in clean linen graveclothes and laid in a new tomb, in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9.

It is significant that it was in Joseph of Arimathea's own, hand-hewn new tomb, essentially borrowed for the short stay.

Egg #14: The Stone is Rolled Away - Matthew 27:60, Mark 15:46, 16:3-4, Luke 24:2, John 20:1

Egg #15: The Empty Tomb and Jesus' Resurrection - Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:6, Luke 24:6-7, 34 and John 20:2-10, John 11:25, Romans 1:4



Egg #16: The Ascension of Christ - Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9-11

Egg # 17: The Holy Spirit - John 14:15-19, 16:7-16, Acts 1:7-8, 2:1-4, Romans 8, Galatians 5:22-25, and Ephesians 1:13-14, Ephesians 6:17

The Holy Spirit was given to us to Convict us of Sin, Guide and Comfort us. The Holy Spirit is evidence of our Salvation, and a pledge and down payment on our future inheritance with Christ.


Egg #18: The Word of God Guides Us In Daily Living - Ephesians 6:10-18, Hebrews 4:12-13 Psalm 119:9-16, 119:105



Thank You, Jesus, for...everything.

Our final day of vacation began with yet another trip to Old Town San Diego. That same yummy Mexican place we'd been to the night before also serves breakfast. Their chile relleno omelettes are fab.

The candy shop there also sells Brazil nuts covered in chocolate. Not that I would know about those, you understand, because while nuts are allowed on my diet, chocolate is not. Even if it was just a small amount of chocolate. Ahem.

Anyway, we got to Sea World shortly after it opened.

Judah was excited, but you could sense a bit of trepidation in his tone.

He'd heard of this place before, but didn't know quite what to expect. He kept asking things like, "Do we hafta get in da water wif da sharks?" I got the impression he thought we were just going to go stand on the edge of the ocean, and all the scary underwater documentaries he'd ever seen were going to suddenly unfold before us.

To calm his fears, we headed straight for the Arctic helicopter simulator ride but found that Judah was too little to ride on it.

So while daddy and brother went on that, we took the short cut to get down below and see the Polar Bear, many types of fish, and these cuties...the Belugas.



"Awww, Judah...look at the Beluga whales!" I said as they swam past so slowly and serenely that he was able to get a really good idea as to what they looked like. He was delighted, "De're wookeen at us, Mama!"

This was a tank that held several varieties of cold-water fish. "Hey...wookit da Judah fishies and dere mama!" he yelled when he saw a couple of smaller ones swimming beside a larger one.



Jericho asked to go see the Killer Whales.



Judah is here in the foreground, where he'd run to be closer to daddy when that ginormous black and white creature circled around and came towards the viewing window. Something about that word "Killer" Whale kinda freaked him out.

So we used their other name and exclaimed, "Awww, look at the beautiful Orca."

He finally got close enough to see.



Next, we scouted out the Shark exhibit.

I neglected to get a clear photo of this exhibit, but it involves a large, thick plexiglass tube that folks can stand up in and ride a conveyor belt through so that you can spend a few moments looking up and around as sharks and rays and Nemo and Dorie swim past without holding up the line behind you.

At first, Judah was a little bit fearful, clinging pretty tightly to daddy's neck.



He soon warmed up, however, and got right up to the glass to get a better view.



So much so, in fact, that Daddy had to hold him back to keep him from crawling in with the baby sharks.



In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea that we said, "Awww, look at the cute little baby sharks" to encourage him to take a closer look.

From that point on, he was all about reaching into the open tanks and touching whatever he could.



The Bat Rays were his favorite. They kept popping their heads up out of the water as though to say hi, and Judah just couldn't resist giving one of them a little scratch on the wing like he might do to our dog Raisin's ears. That's a good Bat Ray.

His fingernails came up with this nasty slimy gunk under them, and so daddy took him off to wash his hands.

We needn't have bothered, however, because not far away were the tidepool tanks with star fish in them.





Ewww, what is he holding?!



Oh, no...he's eating it!



Oh, wait...that's just a funnel cake daddy bought for him at a nearby snack shack.

Throughout the day, we again passed some fantastic, colorful flowerbeds.









That afternoon we caught the Shamu show which has always been one of Jericho's favorites.

It is spectacular to see the trainers surf around the tank on the back of a large creature that is at the top of the ocean food chain.



Creatures that toss sea lions and sharks around like rag dolls. (And yes, I do use that decription often, lol.)



I'm pretty sure Shamu is thinking, "Mmmmm....lunch!" in this one.

Here is one of my favorite parts of the show. A little thing I like to call Shamu's Revenge.

(For some reason, as I type these captions, I suddenly adopt an upper East Coast accent. Like say Danny DeVito or Joe Peschi.)

"You think it's funny to tap on my viewing windows, huh? Take THAT!" These people are makin' me crazy!

"You think it's okay that week after week, month after month, year after year all I get for my efforts in this tank are a mouthful of day old fish? Well, take THIS!"



And the crowds get soaked. Again and again.

After taking in a couple more shows involving dolphins and super well-trained pets (rescued from local shelters), and getting a pretty bad sunburn on my forehead, we decided to head out a bit early and go out for Italian at one of our favorite little places in San Diego...Luigi's at Mission Bay. Mmmmm...Eggplant Parmigiana. Yum.

Afterwards, we took a little stroll on the nearby beach.



It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.