Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Legoland, Flowers & Strawberries



This past weekend was fun and relaxing. Erica and I decided that we should get annual passes to Legoland and take advantage of free admission for Derek while he still can get it at no charge(under 3 is free). It was actually a great idea. We don't have to worry about seeing the entire park within a day and we can go to the new aquarium and soon-to-be-open, Legoland Waterpark. This was Derek's first trip to Legoland (besides when Erica was pregnant with Derek). We first started our weekend by taking a morning jog at around 8AM. Then we headed over to Derek's Little Kickers class at 9:30. As soon as that was over, we ate and made some lunch and headed up to Carlsbad for Legoland. We got there at around 3PM and didn't realize that the park closed at 5PM. Its a good thing we got our passes. First, we hit up the Coast Cruise boat ride, which took us around some really nice mini lego structures of cool monuments like the Taj Mahal, New York, Mount Rushmore and others. Then we hit up Captain Crank's Challenge , Derek's first actual motion rollercoaster-ish ride. We found out at this ride that Derek does not like to get his height measured by strangers. The next ride we went to was called Flight Squadron. Erica rode with Derek on this one. Then Derek and I rode Sky Patrol. The last ride of the day was Safari Trek. Can't believe we packed all that in in less than three hours.












On Sunday, we decided to go back to Legoland and take advantage of our passes. We spent about an hour at the playground area. Derek played with this fountain-type of contraption where he placed legos in a pool of water.







After our brief stay, we picked up Erica's parents at the Oceanside train station. They have been watching and baby sitting Derek while my parents went a Mexican Riviera Cruise to celebrate both of their Birthdays. Happy Birthday Mom & Dad! We headed to the Carlsbad Flower Fields, where they had beautiful displays of a variety of flowers. At this attraction, we took a tractor tour around the fields.











As soon as we were done at the Flower Fields, proceeded to the Carlsbad Strawberry Company U-Pick, a strawberry farm just south of the Fields. We paid for an empty bucket, similar to the size of a KFC bucket of chicken, and picked our own strawberries. Derek, Erica's parents, Erica and I had a blast. We picked enough strawberries to make nearly 10 servings of strawberry shortcakes.










Saturday, April 10, 2010

Easter Weekend 2010

During Easter 2010, there were a lot of events, including Derek's first official San Diego Kickers soccer class, 3 Easter Egg Hunts and his first earthquake. Time flies so fast. Just last year at around Derek's first Easter, he could barely walk around. Now he's running all over the place.

On Saturday, Derek began his official first day at San Diego Little Kickers. For those who don't know what Little Kickers is, its a soccer class for kids 18 months old and up. They separate the groups by age group, with the youngest being 18 months. We got the heads up from our good friends Ralph and Sheryl. Their son, Andrew is about the same age as Derek. Hopefully they'll grow up as friends when they get older, playing all kinds of sports.





The first of three Easter Egg hunts was a big disappointment. It was located at our local community center called Winding Oaks. I'm sure their intentions were good, but what was really bad was the fact that they did not separate the kids by age group. It was a free-for-all and all of the big kids were snatching eggs left and right. Erica and I managed to get just 4 eggs for Derek. The highlight of the day for Derek was the Easter Bunny. We took several pics with the bunny and Derek kept hugging him. I think he's ready to see the characters at Disneyland now. We capped the night by prepping for Derek's 2nd Easter Egg hunt. Erica dyed about a dozen eggs while at the same time, I searched all over Otay Ranch and Eastlake for the last set plastic eggs(should have bought them earlier in the day).






On Easter Sunday, we decided to create a private Easter Egg hunt for Derek. Erica hid the eggs while I distracted Derek. This one was much better since there were no older kids stealing his glory. He had a great time and picked up about 10 eggs out of the 32 eggs that we hid. We took a few photos during and afterward the hunt.






After Derek's 2nd Easter Egg hunt, we killed some time in our backyard. We hit a couple of wiffle balls in the backyard and Derek took a quick nap.



We then went to my parents house for a Buenaventura Family Easter. My parents cooked and BBQ-ed and my whole side of the family enjoyed a nice Easter lunch. Derek played all day with his cousins and his grandpa. He participated in his 3rd and final Easter Egg hunt of the weekend. Even though his cousins, Jalen and Jolene were a few years older, they actually let Derek pick up some eggs. He ended up with 15 eggs. After a few hours of the egg hunt, Derek experienced his first earthquake (too bad I didn't get any video or pics). It was approximately 6.9 on the rictor scale in Mexicali and we felt the shake for about a minute-and-a-half. This was the first Easter that the entire side of my family. It was a great end to a wonderful weekend. Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend like we did.