Thursday, May 11, 2017

Swimming with sharks

Whenever the kids come to visit we always pick a place to take them, you know how it is, the kids show up and you immediately go into entertainment mode, we can't have them think that we are boring....Right?

You know how it is, we sit around the house, do the yard work, nap in the recliner while watching the TV, play on the computer, read a few books, heck I've gone an entire week without leaving the property, but this is not boring for me. Then the grandson comes for a visit and suddenly we are all over the place.

He was here a couple of years ago for five days and we took him down to Disneyland which should have been enough, but no we left Disney and went straight over to Knott’s Berry Farm and rented a hotel room for the night, swam in the pool until they closed it, then walked to the theme park the next morning and had a full day there.

We got home very late that night, I was hoping for a day of rest, but instead I was suddenly awake in what seemed like just a couple of minutes by little Benjamin's smiling face "what we gonna do today Papa?"

We stayed close to the house that day, we drove up to Oak Glen, which is just up the mountain from us and toured all the shops, went through the zoo, the museum, the walking trail, sampled the apple cider and got me a jar of apple butter, tried all the samples in the candy store and bought a few bags to go, then went for ice cream and drove back down the hill to home, where Benjamin and I dug a crater in our backyard because "there is gold in California, and I want to dig for gold Papa"

The next morning we drove down to our Daughter Melissa's place in LA, so "she could see Benjamin" never mind her Brother Tim (Benjamin's Dad), or us, she had a plan for us to go to Santa Monica Beach and pier, so she took the wheel of our SUV and said "just close your eyes Mom and no screaming, we will be there before you know it".

We were there before I knew it and there was screaming, but we all survived, she parked the car and we made a mad dash across the sand towards the ocean, truthfully they made a mad dash leaving Cindy and I running in slow motion behind.

We had a ball playing in the sand and the surf with Benjamin, we built sand castles, walked and talked and made fun of Auntie Melissa and her friend Shannon swimming in the ocean, they were actually swimming a lot further out than I was comfortable with, just then we spotted three Dolphins jumping and swimming near the girls.

I pointed them out to Benjamin and he really got a kick out of seeing the dolphins playing, we were waving to the girls when Cindy pointed at the dolphins, Melissa glanced over and immediately began swimming our direction, Shannon looked at Melissa then at the Dolphins and began her own mad dash for shore.

We thought the girls were racing one another, and I joked to Cindy that Melissa looked like she thought they were swimming with sharks, Melissa won the race by a long shot, she walked by us out of breath with Shannon just coming out of the water.

I laughed and said "hey Melissa were you trying to out swim the sharks?" She admitted that she saw the fins and wasn't going to take any chances, "I really didn't have to out swim the sharks, I just had to out swim Shannon."

After this we walked down to the pier, which was extremely crowded, Benjamin and Tim headed for the arcade and played what looked like every machine in the place, I tried my hand at skee ball and thought I had done pretty good winning a strip of tickets, I went to give them to Benjamin and with the double handful of tickets he had won he walked out of there with a rubber shark and a small airplane, the prizes weren’t much but he had fun.

We all went through the aquarium where Benjamin got to go hands on with some ocean critters, and see a puppet show that was supposed to teach about ocean life but was a lot of fun for the kids,  Benjamin and Auntie Melissa rode the Historic Carousel at the pier and  we all went from one end of that pier to the other, it was great.

After our tour of the pier Benjamin was getting hungry, so Auntie Melissa walked us to a place she recommended, I can’t remember the name of the place but I know it wasn’t close to the pier and we were still on foot, the food was good and the beer was better, I was about ready for one by then, I knew that we needed to call it a day when I looked over and saw Benjamin asleep with his face actually laying in his Mac and Cheese.

Driving home that night we realized that we had to take Benjamin and Tim to the airport the next morning, the boys were sound asleep in the back seat, the traffic was pretty good, and Mimi was missing her grandbaby already.

We did a lot in four days, two theme parks and a fancy hotel, a trendy little mountain town with all sorts of attractions from real deer to stuffed mountain lions, a talking parrot, a cowboy with a gun and a train ride that we somehow missed, a fast ride with Melissa, swimming with sharks and walking for miles for a face full of Mac and Cheese.

I think it took about a week or better to get rested up from all of this, and it was really hard especially for Mimi to take the grandbaby to the airport (and his daddy too), they have plans to come back to see us later in the summer, and after we did all of this stuff last time…..
I am looking forward to hearing, "what we gonna do today Papa?" because I’d do it all again.

What do you like to do for fun when you have visitors from out of town, especially little ones?

32 comments:

  1. What a fantastic time you gave that little guy. He'll remember that forever....and so will you. Our 'littles\ are all in town so we see them quite often. We'd go broke fast if we gave them your kind of visit each and every time lol. We have outside games and inside games, toys..sometimes we take them to the toy store or to the kids clothing store, we go to the park. Just humble stuff I'm afraid.

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    1. Hi Delores, we don't normally go out to that extreme, usually just one place, after this trip was over Cindy asked me "Are we nuts"

      If we were closer these kind of trips would not be the norm.

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  2. Replies
    1. Lordy Joe, I think I napped for a week ha ha

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  3. Your accounting of the time has me plumb worn out! Used to do that stuff, can't anymore.

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    1. I am so glad we did it then, I couldn't do it now for sure, maybe one thing but not multiple.

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  4. What a total cutie your grandson is! Guess what, Jimmy? I'm going to be getting my very own grandson in late August! I hope I can be as much fun as you and Cindy!

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    1. Hey Bijoux, Congratulations Lady that is so cool, your grandson will reach right down to the middle of your heart and wrap you around his little finger, you will love being a grandma and this grandbaby will love you more than anything.

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  5. I've always heard that grandkids are more fun than children because you get nothing but playtime and can send them back home when you wear out. Your posts proves that for sure. Hope this year's visit is as special and busy as the last. I don't have kids or grandkids so I can only visit vicariously through people like you and Cindy.

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    1. Hi Jean, yes I will have to admit there is nothing like a grandbaby, you can spoil them all you want and then send them home to Mom and Dad, I have a feeling this trip will be a blast like always, maybe not as busy as last time but just as fun, I am sure there will be stories that will come from that visit ha ha

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  6. Isn't it amazing, we never see the sites and attractions nearby till company comes. Sure hope you are rested up now, that was one hectic if really cool time you put in. Back to the recliner to rest up for the next bout.

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    1. Hey Patti, you are so right in that we only see the sites and attractions in our area when we have company, I hope we will be rested up enough by the time he gets here, I know my recliner will be my best friend once he goes home.

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  7. Whoa! For a minute there, I thought the dolphins really WERE sharks!

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    1. Hey Val, good to see you, it was so funny the girls thought they were sharks also.

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  8. Grandkids make you realize why you have kids when you're young. We're lucky in that we are less than an hour from Disney and Legoland. Those are popular choices for visitors. And that's not even mentioning all the other attractions that Florida has to offer.

    You napped for a week, huh? That's pretty good recovery time, Jimmy!

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    1. Hey Lady, yes we are also not too far from the California versions of both here, Benjamin has mentioned both at one time or another for when they come this time, I really hope that doesn't mean both, just that he is deciding which ha ha.

      I like that "Grandkids make you realize why you have kids when you're young." this pretty much says it.

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  9. Hi Jimmy, that is a sweet photo of the three of you. He is an adorable little boy. You built some great memories for you all. Love the mac and cheese story. There sure is a lot to do in your area. We lived in Los Alamitos years ago and took a lot of visitors to Disneyland. It has been a long time since we had little ones visiting. They are all grown up now but we do get visitors and we have a choice of taking them into Washington DC to the Smithsonian or to the Shenandoah Mountains along Skyline Drive. We will be having a distant cousin from New Zealand visit us in July, so we had better start planning :)

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    1. Thank you Denise, we don't get to see him as much as we would like to, I suppose that is the reason we try to do so much when he is here.

      It looks like you have some interesting places to go also, rest up from your recent trip so you will be ready for your guests.

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  10. I don't have any more little ones to do that with, but I'd probably crap out on them anyway!!

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    1. Hey Fran, it doesn't take long for me to crap out anymore, good thing about running around with the bigger ones is they are more understanding when we do.

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  11. It will take me a least a couple of days to recover from just reading what you guys did! You sure did cram a lot of activities into a short time period. Even drove to Los Angeles, and then all the way to Santa Monica...

    When I was in high school we used to hang out at Knotts Berry Farm on Friday nights. There was no admission charge back then, and it was a great place to meet girls. I'm amazed that you guys did Disneyland and Knotts on successive days. I wouldn't even try it!

    Great photo of guys! Grandkids are the best!

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    1. Hey Pat, going to both Disney and Knotts two days in a row was not one of our better ideas, I definitely wouldn't suggest it.

      I really like Mrs. Knotts chicken restaurant, that is worth the trip.

      Good to see you Pat

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    2. Oh yeah! That chicken is good! Yum...

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    3. I'd skip the theme park and just eat the chicken....

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  12. Youngsters have so much stamina and I always think that somehow they manage to pass it on to grandparents. Not me, tho. I was never that lucky.

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    1. Hey Valerie, You are right they may pass some of it on but it sure runs out quickly ha ha

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  13. Boy you sure do get busy with the little ones! I remember when my grandkids would visit, they were 4 and 2 and we'd just spend the day at home reading books, drawing pictures, baking brownies, pottering in the garden. One of their favourite things was to lie on the concrete driveway and have chalk outlines drawn around them and me, so they could fill in the details. Another thing they liked was to have a bucket of water and a big house painting brush each and they would paint the house, the fence, the driveway, each other sometimes too. Fun days.

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    1. Hi River, your activities sound like so much fun, I'll have to remember the bucket of water and paintbrush that one sounds like a great one.

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  14. We have thirteen grandchildren, and they all live out of state, so I understand your desire to squeeze as much as possible into your visits. We do the same thing.

    You know why grandchildren have so much energy, don't ya? It's because they suck it all out of their grandparents! (But it's still worth it!)

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    1. Hey Susan, you have been there done that I can see, I hadn't thought of that but you just may have figured out why the grandkids are so energetic, they can indeed suck out all of your energy.

      Oh yes worth it for sure.

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  15. I would be in shock if I could stay home for entire weekend a lease.
    Coffee is on

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    1. Good morning Dora, can't stay home when the grandson comes to visit, that is for sure.

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