Whale Watching

Our big event last Sunday was a Whale Watching trip.  We left from the San Diego bay around 10:00 that morning and returned around 1:30. We found seats at the front of the boat before we left.  We were in the sun so it warmed up pretty quickly and we had to ditch our jackets.

It got much cooler as the we set sail, though, and we had to bundle back up.  As we made our way through the dock, our whale watching expert gave us some history of the things we were passing.  San Diego is home to a huge Navy base that's situated right on the bay.  Here's an aircraft carrier that was parked at the base.

Goodbye, San Diego!

Our excursion director told us to watch the buoys to see if we spotted any sea lions.  Sure enough, we found some basking in the sun.

This little lighthouse was the first one built on the edge of the bay.  Except, it was too tiny and it wasn't really on the edge at all.  Since it was so far inland, boaters continued to run into the land instead of making their way around it.

So then someone smarter came along and built a real lighthouse on the very tip of the peninsula.  Ah, no more crashes.

As we left the bay area, we got really close to Tijuana.  The navigator told us to turn off our phones unless we wanted to be charged crazy high roaming fees.  We did as we were told!

When we finally made it to the open ocean, we quickly found exactly what we came looking for: some whales!

We found a group of three grey whales - two females and male.  Apparently that's how they always travel - two girls and one boy - because the boys think they're hot stuff or something.  These whales were on the final leg of their migration to Baja, California.

A fin!

Can you see the kinda blurry spot above the whale on the right in the picture above?  That's mist in the air from their blow hole.  They don't actually ever blow a spout of water out of their hole, instead they're blowing out air and some water from their lungs and water that's on top of them gets sprayed with it.  Kinda like when we sneeze.

These were the only three whales we saw, but we followed their path and were able to see them a lot.  They would stay down for about five to seven minutes before coming up for air again.  It was fun to try to guess where they'd come up next.

We were one of three boats out watching these grey whales - one was bigger than our boat and one was much smaller.  It's against the law to cross in front of their path or get too close to them, but if you're idle and they come to you that's ok.  Look how close they got to this tiny boat!

After watching the whales for awhile, we left that area and went searching for dolphins.  Along the way, we watched these guys fish for some food.

It didn't take long for our navigator to find some dolphins.  We saw this set coming towards us first.

She (the navigator) said she could see a full path of them and that the captain was going to try to move our boat into their path.  She said they'd love to swim in our wake, and she was right.  They swarmed our boat!

I think this was my favorite part of the excursion.  I mean, the whales were cool and all, but the dolphins were AWESOME!  And there were so many of them!

Can you see all of them under water in this picture?

After the dolphins left, we had to start heading back in to the bay.  Here's a shot of where we stayed.  See the cone-shaped red roof to the left of the bridge?  That and all the other red-roofed buildings are Hotel del Coronado.  It was really nice!

So, as if the whole whale watching and dolphin seeing excursion wasn't cool enough, we just happened to be there on the same day as the Centennial of Naval Aviation Parade of Flight.  And since the Navy base is right on the bay, and we were coming in through the bay, the planes flew right over us!

Here are the Blue Angels:

I have no idea what any of these other planes are, so I'll just show you the pictures.

Ok, this part was pretty cool.  Right after this plane flew by...

...we looked up to see that someone had jumped out of it right above our boat.

We watched him twirl and spin all the way down.  As he got closer we could read the SEAL on his parachute.

And whaddaya know, that little fancy pants skydiver managed to land on his feet right in front of the audience at the Navy base.  Show off.

Because of everything that was going on that day (there were events at the Navy base and on the island all day long - it was a pretty big deal) we had to be escorted through the bay by these guys.

As soon as we got off the boat and saw how crowded it was all around us, we decided to leave the island and go somewhere else.

Where'd we go?  I'll tell you soon!

San Diego Zoo

Last Saturday we spent the majority of the day at the San Diego Zoo. It's the largest zoo in the world and I can confirm that it's ginormous! We got this map as we walked in and we had to use it all day to keep from getting lost.

You know the zoo's going to be awesome when even the bushes are shaped like plants.

The first thing we did was hop on the sky tram to head to the opposite side of the zoo.

I hope you guys like animals because I've got about 254 pictures of them to share. I mean, how can you not go to a zoo and not take a ton of pictures? Especially at the largest zoo. Don't worry, I won't bore you with ALL of the pictures, just a lot of them. You're welcome.

Up first: some hairy pig things.

I have no idea what this animal is, but look! A baby!

These dudes got into a bit of a fight right in front of us.

Just eating. And drooling.

This photo should probably be censored.

Dad? Is that you?

My, what pretty teeth you have.

Tip o' the iceberg...

...ICEBERG!

Obviously we couldn't pass up the monkey masks without taking pictures.

Have you met my husband, Crazy Eyes Doc?

The original Pink Ladies.

Ok, this was one of my favorite exhibits. Seriously, how stinking cute are those ears?

And I thought I could nap anywhere...

The koalas must've partied hard the night before. This guy was the only one awake.

Gao Gao the nineteen year old panda, munching on some bamboo. He weighs 165 pounds.

Loved being at the zoo with this guy! We hadn't been to a zoo since our wedding day.

Midway through the day we rode up this escalator. Seriously, that zoo is huge!

I feel like these guys may be a little dramatic. "Gawd, it's so hot out here!"

Elephants - my brother's favorite.

Meerkat!

Doc and I watched this rhino for a few minutes before realizing the big "rock" beside him was another rhino's rear end.

They kinda look cute while they're sleeping, don't they?

We laughed at this guy who was obviously in trouble and had to stand in the corner.

The giraffes were our last stop and they were so pretty!

My feet were so tired by the time we left, but it was so much fun! We had perfect weather for it, too.

I still have tons of pictures from our trip to share. I'll try to get them done soon!

Making It Official

We've gone back and forth quite a bit over the last few days, but I'm posting this here to make it official: Her name is Lollipop.

Lolli, for short. (Or should it be Lolly?)

I like it because it ends in that "ee" sound like Minnie and we get to keep the pop from Popcorn. Plus, it's pretty similar to Lulu and Lily that were both popular choices.

In honor of this naming ceremony, let's watch the video of the song I've been singing for the last 24 hours.

Maybe, for Doc's sake, I'll stop singing it soon.

Oh, and Jenny, for suggesting the name, Lolli (Lolly?) will reward you with kisses as soon as you come visit her.

Say My Name, Say My Name

Happy valentine's day, everyone! I hope your day is filled with lots of love and hearts and flowers and chocolates. Mine has been (and will continue to be) filled with a little ball of white fluff. See?

Meet my valentine's (and early birthday) present. Isn't she the cutest?

I love her already.

And even though she's a teeny little fluffly white puppy dog, Doc's pretty smitten with her too.

Our new little pup is a Maltipoo, a cross between a Maltese and a Poodle. Some people would say this is a "designer dog" but I say it's just the best of both worlds. She's considered "hypoallergenic" and "non-shedding" even though such things don't actually existed. She was born on December 21 in Liberty, MS and has two sisters and two brothers. Her grandparents on both sides were a Maltese and a Poodle, but both of her parents were Maltipoos. That makes her a second generation Maltipoo.

Wanna know her name? Um...so do I.

See, that's the problem. We can't decide on her name. Her previous owner named her Popcorn (her sisters were Cupcake and Muffin, the boys were Peanut and Pecan) which I think is kinda cute but we can't call her "Poppy" because that's what all the grandkids call my dad. That could get confusing. She does look like a little piece of popcorn, though.

Wednesday was the day we decided to make her ours and we figured we had until Sunday - the day she would actually come home with us - to figure out a good name. Doc and I left Thursday for San Diego (more on that later) and spent the duration of our mini vacation throwing out names and testing them. We had to try out the whole "Come here, [insert dog name here]! Come on sweet [same dog name here]!" to see if the names were easy to call out and felt right.

The first rule of the name game was that all typical small-white-fluffy dog names were a NO. So we scratched Fluffy, Snoball, Precious, and Princess off the list.

One of our early thoughts was that we could move Popcorn to her middle name and make her first name something to go with it like Salty, Butter, or White Cheddar. I thought one of those would be pretty funny until I heard Doc practicing the call with "Here Butt-butt!" and decided that wasn't going to work.

So we tried out a few TV character names: --Seth Cohen from The OC is obviously not girly enough. --Kitty McAlister is a cute name but she's a dog, not a kitty, so that might be weird. --Something about Nancy or Lupita (Weeds anyone?) just didn't feel right.

We moved on to movies: --Lieutenant Kaffee seemed like a lotta name for such a little dog. --Red is my favorite character from Shawshank Redemption, but our dog is white, not red. --Elle Woods was a fan of chihuahuas, not maltipoos. --Dottie Hinson is a pretty cute name. Hmmm...a possible option.

Moving on to celebrities, I asked Doc who his favorite was. When he answered "Mariah" I quickly suggested we switch categories.

We have both read The Hunger Games series so we thought about Katniss, Primrose, or Peeta. Peeta was my favorite of those but would people think I was just saying "Peter" with a weird accent?

My parents dogs are named Henry and Taylor, so we thought maybe we should try out a regular "human" name. Helen, Courtney, and Linda were as far as we got before we decided that was just a bad idea. (Especially after Doc kept yelling out "Helen, NO!" to make it sound like he was cursing at a dog.)

We've considered names that match her appearance. Things like Cotton, Powder, Marshmallow, Pepper, etc. Doc and I were both a fan of naming her Q-Tip but calling her QT (pronounced "cutie") but is that really the best name?

We're trying to watch her personality to see if anything just comes to us, but almost 24 hours in, she's still nameless. My parents actually made the drive to pick her up since we were on our flight back home. They picked her up in Oxford, MS and about ten minutes into the car ride, the sweet ball of fluff tee-teed all over my mom's lap. Nice! My dad tried to claim the naming rights since he drove to get her, so he's calling her Frannie. Back at their house, we played with her in the yard for a long time. She loves to run after us and kinda hops around in the grass like a bunny rabbit. The bigger dogs (she makes Henry look giant) scared her to death. Kids didn't seem to bother her, though.

So, we need help with her name. Maybe more pictures will help you help us.

I asked Jett what he thought a good name would be and he suggested "Brianna." So there's that.

She likes to receive kisses. (She probably doesn't enjoy being strangled, though.)

If you get low enough, she'll give you kisses back.

Look at her little tongue!

Excuse the bad quality of this picture, but you can see that Bren thought she was the best thing in the world!

Bren has a fluffy white toy kitty at home that she calls LuLoosh. She, of course, thought that should be the puppy's name. Either that or "Meow." We actually have been trying out Lulu as her name but for some reason, it just doesn't come out when we call for her.

After we traumatized her with all the kids and dogs, we finally took her home to our house. She spent lots of time exploring and probably picking up Minnie's scent. We don't have officialy dog bowls for her yet, but considering the holiday, I figured these would work for now.

After filling her belly, she was ready to play!

We tried to wear her out. It seemed to work since she konked out on top of Doc while he was reading.

This is when things went a little south. We put her kennel in our room so we could listen for her during the night. I knew she'd never slept in a kennel before but there's a first time for everything, right? I picked her up in her sleepy state and placed her in the kennel and closed the door. I turned out the light and climbed into bed. This is when that sweet little puppy found her voice. And she used it to say "hell to the no." She wimpered and whined and clawed at the door. I honestly don't know how so much sound came from such a little body. We tried to go with the "tough love" method and let her work it out, but after over an hour, we couldn't take it anymore. I moved her to our bathroom, picked up all the rugs and laid down an old towel for her. The kennel was in there too but this time with the door open. I turned on a small light before closing the door behind me. She still wimpered some but it wasn't nearly as loud and it didn't last that long. She finally fell asleep and stayed quiet until she heard Doc's alarm go off shortly after five. Needless to say, today I am sleepy. Please pray that she gets in a good routine soon.

Today she's in the same setup in our downstairs bathroom. I'm going home soon to check on her and I hope the bathroom's not too much of a disaster. Fingers crossed. At some point today or tomorrow I have to take her to the vet to get her checked out, and she's probably going to need a name for her paperwork.

Here are the names that are currently on the list to be considered: --Popcorn (sticking with the original) --Frannie (my dad's choice) --Lulu (after Bren's toy kitty) --Josie (my grandmother's nickname - a choice I threw out) --Macy (one Doc likes) --Cotton, Powder, Q-Tip (the descriptive names) --Pepper (because for some reason I keep going back to "P" names - we keep saying Peanut but that seems "boyish" to me) --Polly, Petal, Pearl, Puff (all from a coworker)

But we're also open to other suggestions! Please help us - what do you vote for?? Or what do you think she looks like? Who knows, you could get credit for naming our new dog.

College Girls

My senior year of high school, when it came time to choose a college, I decided I wanted to go somewhere where I didn't know anyone. I didn't want to follow all of my classmates to the state schools. I didn't want to room with someone I'd known all my life. While I enjoyed my time in high school and the friends that I had, I was ready to go somewhere on my own and make new friends. It was the best decision I ever made. My college years were some of the best of my life because of the friends I made there. I lived in a teeny apartment with five best friends, next door to another apartment with four more of our best friends. There was always someone around to hang out with, and many times we were ALL around, squeezed into one apartment watching Sex and the City, gossiping about boys, reading about celebrities, and making a list of names we'd never name our children. It was very common to see our pack walking across campus to the cafeteria together or cramming into two cars to go out on a Friday night.

Who knew the friends I made in college would be forever friends? Although, after four years together, I can't imagine them not being in my life. While we've all moved to different towns and have different lives, we still remain just as close as ever. We email about everything - wedding plans, birth announcements, rants from work, gossip from facebook, interesting articles we read online, good stories from NPR. In addition to all of that, we make a point to get together at least once a year.

This year's get together was last weekend and it was at Jenny's house. Not everyone was able to make it, but we still had a pretty good crowd. It was a great weekend - no boys, no makeup, and no real clothes (pj's only!).

We trickled in at different times on Friday night. Jenny made a big batch of spaghetti for us.

Catherine was the last to arrive and even though she wasn't thrilled to have my camera in her face, we were all glad she was there!

Poor Lydia was battling a nasty cold so she sipped on hotty toddys all night. I think this is the first time Mr. Daniels has come to any of our get-togethers.

We spent Friday getting caught up since the last time we'd all seen each other (Jenny's wedding). We crashed way earlier than we used to in college, but in college we didn't have full-time jobs!

Saturday morning started out right...with mimosas!

Poor Susan couldn't join in our toast since she brought a bun in her oven.

Did I say it was a boy-free weekend? Well, it mostly was. After we finished our late breakfast, this cute little guy showed up.

Roxy and Rowan couldn't spend the entire weekend with us but we sure are glad they stopped by! It didn't take long before baby Rowan got bored with the girl talk and fell asleep.

One thing we always do at our get-togethers is have a gift exchange. We don't exchange Christmas gifts or do birthday presents in our group, so it's fun to do it this one time of the year. We each bring one gift and play "Dirty Santa" to choose our gifts.

I was dirty and stole the present that I brought from someone. What can I say - I brought a gift that I really wanted myself. I'll show you a full picture of it soon, but here's a sneak peek:

Rowan thought opening gifts was way more fun that girl talk. Well, maybe not exactly fun, but at least he was awake for it.

This little boy has stolen his momma's heart.

You know, in college I remember us texting a lot on our phones (I'm sure my dad really remembers...) but we weren't glued to our phones like we are now. Gotta love smart phones!

After our afternoon nap (we did that in college too - somethings never change), we decided it was time for cupcakes and pizza.

See? No makeup. Ew. (Hopefully since I'm posting this awful picture of myself, my friends won't hate me as much for posting makeup free pictures of them.)

Sunday morning came and we all went our separate ways. I'm sad we don't get to see each other more often, but it was great to have a full weekend with nothing to do but catch up. Thanks for hosting us, Jenny!