#4

Yvonne volunteered to be a 4D ultrasound model and we got our first detailed look at baby boy #4. In case you're wondering, that's the baby's right foot sticking out next to his head. We were pretty impressed with the resolution and detail. When we had the twins we had ultrasounds every two weeks and some of those were 3D (but they still ended up looking like Area 51 aliens). This scan actually looks pretty human.

The Zoo

This past week we took another trip to the San Francisco Zoo. We like it because it's close and it's a place where our little animals get to check out other animals. You'd think the cages, fencing and walls are there to protect the us from the animals but I think it's the other way around. If you had to wake up every day to hundreds of screaming little kids, you'd want some form of protection from all of their cooties.

Child Labor

Today we continued our project of converting the office into Rachel's bedroom. As part of that project we bought Rachel a new "princess" bed that was incredibly heavy (I guess because it was made of solid wood) and came in four boxes. Each box came with extra cardboard, padding, and wrapping just to take up space. All three kids were fascinated with all of the boxes and packaging (Rachel especially because she knew this was going to be her new bed). After getting all of the boxes upstairs, I unpacked everything and thought it would be a pain getting rid of all of the packaging.

In a burst of inspiration I looked up and saw three willing faces staring back at me so I put them to work. They eagerly took every scrap of cardboard and wrapping and helped throw them over the banister to the first floor (screaming "bye bye!" along the way). Not wanting to miss out on the action, I joined in by throwing the larger pieces overboard as well.

When we got to done unpacking everything the kids ran downstairs and went back and forth to the side yard with pieces of cardboard. I was surprised at how fast all of the trash disappeared with all these kids around....this can really come in handy (sinister laugh).

Children's Discovery Museum

We went to the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum today. Yvonne and Rachel went last week for a private function but this was the first trip for me and the boys. In a nutshell, it's a place where kids can touch, throw, poke, bend, and drop just about anything. They strategically put chairs everywhere so parents just sit and let their kids run hog-wild. We did pretty good. We only lost Rachel once and the twins a couple times each.

Walking the Dog

We try to get out as often as possible...for our benefit and especially for our dog, Kilo. The kids love walking him and he doesn't seem to mind.
I really like this photo below. It almost looks like Kilo and the boys are doing a dignitary protection detail; forming a protective diamond around their VIP. Come near our sister and you'll have to deal with us...

San Diego

In lieu of throwing a birthday party for our boys, we decided to take the family to San Diego for a LegoLand/Sea World/Hang out at the pool vacation. Irony of ironies, the day we spent driving down I-5 was also our 12th wedding anniversary. It's ironic because we celebrated our 10th anniversary in the hospital maternity ward having just welcomed the boys into the world a few days earlier. We always thought we'd celebrate the big "10" with a trip to Europe or Asia or something exotic...yeah right. What did we do for our 11th anniversary? I have no idea. Before you assume I'm just another guy who doesn't remember details about anniversaries and celebrations, I just asked Yvonne and she couldn't remember either. During that time we were still on the 2-3 hours sleep per night routine and have absolutely no memory of most of that year. I suppose I could convince Yvonne that we actually did take an extravagant trip to Europe or something and she'd just have to take my word for it....but I digress....

And now...the vacation:

I wish I could say the entire trip down south was this pleasant. We had to make a few stops when the kids got antsy but all in all, it wasn't too bad. You can't tell from the photo but our minivan is stocked like a survivalist compound. Yvonne does quite an incredible job moving our pantry, fridge, and toy boxes into the van for these trips.

One pit stop was the Wendy's in Santa Nella (Hwy 152 @ Interstate 5). This was a really relaxing stop because all of the kids just sat there and ate. There was no food spitting, drink throwing, or running around/under/over tables. Yvonne and I just looked at each other and thought..."We finally made it...the kids are self sufficient (well, sort of)"

Our first day was spent at Sea World. The kids really liked the killer whale and dolphin shows. Another highlight was the Sesame Street playground area. Here's Nathan and Daniel doing their best Chinese martial arts Kung-Fu flying impersonations.

Rachel got a kick out of the gigantic bounce house and obstacle course. You may notice the kids are all wearing the same bright colored shirt. This made it A LOT easier finding them when they took off in three directions.

No trip to an amusement park would be complete without COTTON CANDY. Yes, that's cotton candy on Rachel's eyebrow.

On the second day, we purposely kept a very open and relaxed agenda. We started off at a local park and spent the majority of the day kicking back in and around the hotel pool.

Day 3 brought us to LegoLand where we hooked up with some friends. We were a little disappointed because the vast majority of rides were for kids over 42 inches. This meant the boys got to watch Rachel ride but didn't get to go on any themselves. We ended up leaving a little early to hit the outlets nearby.


On the last day we returned to Sea World where we started off the day at breakfast with Elmo and Friends. As you can see, the boys wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Big Bird and spent most of breakfast trying to hide from all of the characters.

All in all it was a great vacation.