Aquarium of the Pacific and the Holiday Toy Express ! (Week 126)

Hi everyone!  Wow, it has gotten so cold lately- and I am LOVING the rain that we got today.  Too bad we don't have plans to go snowboarding this weekend though - sigh - who knows when we'll be able to hit the slopes again.  We do have a trip to Big Bear planned over Christmas Break - but there will still not be any boarding. :(

This past week Will's work had a Winter Open House.  Unfortunately, I had class that night so I wasn't able to make it.  Last year it was interesting to see Will's workplace, as well as the different activities they had set up.  Will figured it would be fun to take Tyler again this year.

How cute is Tyler! - busy at work.  As soon as he saw the computer, he started asking to watch Thomas on it - he remembers watching YouTube videos on it when he was younger!  I had some flashbacks of the phase Tyler had where he would watch YouTube videos until he became sleepy.  Thank goodness he's way over that. :)  Unfortunately, Tyler was having so much fun watching the videos that he didn't want to leave - and, from what I heard from Will, had a MAJOR meltdown as Will tried to get him out of the cube.  Sigh.  We decided to maybe not have Will take Tyler out to events like this alone anymore...

Friday we had dinner with some of Tyler's school friends at Soup Plantation.  I am a big fan of Soup Plantation, heehee, well only when I have a Buy One Get One Free coupon.  It's really family friendly and Tyler loves the little pizzas.  Here are some photos that Tyler took himself that night!

Saturday we had a fun day planned!  I'm all about holiday and special events!  This past weekend the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific had a special Holiday event where if you bring a plastic bottle to recycle you get a free adult admission ticket with the purchase of one.  Whoohoo!  Love that!  Plus they were decorated for Christmas. :)  As we headed out that morning, Tyler was so excited and kept asking to see Nemo!  Here's Tyler and myself in front of the Christmas tree at the aquarium.

Tyler has eagle eyes!  There is a small train track circling the tree and he immediately saw that there was a little Nemo figurine on one of the trains!  After that he kept asking for Nemo nonstop - when we finally got to the exhibit filled with Nemos, he looked at it for 5 seconds and was onto the next exhibit.  ... What?!

Something about getting a free ticket to anywhere makes it even more fun.  Is it weird?  Tyler had a great time checking out the aquarium and the marine life.  We got there right when they opened - favorite time since its nice and empty.  :)

Here's my favorite exhibit from that day - sea dragons!  Love them!  They're like sea dragon fairies or something...they float around so gracefully and slowly.  They're awesome!

Here's Tyler and his buddy Kaden checking out the scuba diver in the Great Hall tank.  They were so mesmerized!

Afterwards, it SNOWED in the main hall!  They had a snow machine of some sorts from the second level that sprayed snow down on us - I'm not sure what it was made of - some kind of non-sticky foam?  Regardless, Tyler and Kaden thought it was hilarious and fun.

Here's Tyler helping wipe the snow off of Kaden dad's Stace's back.  He's so helpful, isn't he?

Tyler loved the fake snow!  I wonder if he'll love real snow - let's keep our fingers crossed that it'll snow in Big Bear during our visit over Christmas - how cool would that be!  We took Tyler last Winter to Big Bear for a day of tubing and he had a lot of fun!  This time I'll need to get him some waterproof pants and boots though...sniff sniff - no tubing for me!

Here's a short video of Tyler playing in the fake snow - he's like spazzing out! heeehe!

I think this is a really cool picture of the boys in front of a huge tank.  Everything is always so new and interesting to them - kind of makes you look at things in that new way too.

This was the AMAZING part of the day.  Tyler took a picture, on his own free will, with Santa Shark!  For as long as Tyler could walk, he's always ran away from any costumed characters.  They make him nervous and he just doesn't like to be around them, not even Mickey!  I think the only exception was during the Disneyland Christmas Parade and Tigger came up to dance with him.  Anyway, we were very amazed - let's hope he's becoming braver.  He wouldn't get any closer than arm's lengths though. :)

Last stop - watching the sea otter feedings inside - they were so cute!  After a couple hours, we were ready to head out to grab lunch and head home.  We are totally morning event-goers - its nice and empty and we can breeze through everything and leave in time for lunch and then a nap home in the car.  Thank goodness Tyler is great at starting his mid-day nap in the car (he's conditioned so that when he gets his special blanket/stuffed animal that he knows its time to close his eyes and sleep!).

Here's a silly photo from outside the Aquarium.  Kaden is checking out what Tyler is doing, and decides, hey - that looks fun too!  Ahh, our boys - they set great examples for each other.  NOT! haha!

Saturday night we headed to the Irvine Metrolink station - the Holiday Toy Express train was going to stop by for a visit!  I've actually never been the train station before - it's pretty nice and I'm looking forward to taking the train one of these days for a weekend adventure!  Anyway, there was a firetruck there for the boys to explore.  Tyler got into the driver seat and started moving the steering wheel like a madman!

Family picture!  Tyler was super excited to see the trains go by (normal scheduled trains) as we waited for the arrival of the Holiday Toy Express. It sounded very exciting -covered in holiday lights, with a live singing performance by Santa, Mrs. Claus, and others!  There were a lot of people there - quite crowded and cold.

Here's Will with Tyler and Kaden.  Tyler LOVES trains right now - what a perfect event for him!

My little ham Tyler.  He really can smile on command. haha!

Finally - the train arrived!  It was quite exciting to see all the lights on the side of the train.  Tyler was really enthralled watching it pull in and stop, all the while with Christmas music blasting.

Here's a short video clip of the Holiday Train.  So festive! Unfortunately, the live performance was quite lame - QUITE lame, and Tyler was not feeling it at all.  Like seriously not liking it - to a point where he started to cry and whimper - not sure what caused it but all of a sudden he was freaked out!  Hmm.. strange.

To end a full weekend, we had lunch on Sunday with relatives (my dad, my grandmother, my 1st uncle and his wife and my 2nd uncle and his wife).  My 2nd uncle lives in New York and is my favorite uncle - so I was really happy to see him!  The picture below is quite sad though for Tyler.  My 1st uncle thought it would be funny to chase Tyler around in circles.  He didn't get the hint when Tyler was really frightened and screaming "No! No!" (Tyler's only met him once I think, like 1+ year ago!).  It wasn't until Tyler ran screaming and crying INTO the parking lot that my uncle realized - hmm, this was NOT fun for Tyler.  Poor Tyler!

Anyway, it was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to many more fun holiday ones!  There are only a few left so we'll have to make them count.  I LOVE the holidays!

We'll end with a video of Tyler Skyping with his BFF Vincent.  Kids these days - skyping already?  It really was the cutest thing though - they were yelling all excitedly at each other and showing each other their trains!  Too cute!