Thinking outside the [cookie] box

Today Kailani's Girl Scout troop participated in an event called thinking outside the cookie box. The purpose was to show that girls can work in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) field. The girls got to visit Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor, and participate in STEM activities. Parents were not allowed in, but it sounded like the girls had an awesome time!

Rattlesnake Season

Today Zachary had baseball practice. We decided that we wanted to do a hike in the afternoon. We've been wanting to go to Torrey Pines for a while, but it was too late in the day to head up there by the time we had lunch, etc.
We decided to stay local and walk some of the trails at Otay Lakes County Park. We only hiked a short distance before we decided to head back out. Zachary was leading the way, but ended up face to face with a rattle snake on the trail! I was freaking out because Zachary was on one side of the snake and we were on the other side. I wasn't sure how he was going to get back to us safely. Luckily the snake didn't seem to be bothered by us and Zachary quickly ran back to us. I am so relieved that we made it out of there without a rattlesnake bite.

Since we were in the area, I decided we should walk the trail behind "The Woods" housing development. The trail is about 2 miles one way. I've run it before and I thought it would be great to show the kids the beautiful views...and the million dollar homes in the area. By the time we finished the trail (out and back) we ended up with about 4.5 miles (and a lot of complaints).

 We saw a road runner (we think) on the trail.

 There were even warning signs for rattlesnakes on this trail. It freaked the kids out a little.

Safari Park

Today we planned to go to the zoo, but due to a lockdown at Naval Medical Center San Diego, we decided we should go somewhere out of that area. We decided to meet up with friends the Safari Park. I can't remember when we were there last. They had an activity for the kids to do. They had to answer a few questions by going throughout the park. At the end of the day, they could turn the activity in for a badge. The kids enjoyed searching for the answers.

The kids spotted an author (Shari Lyon), who was doing a book signing. They didn't have to try hard to talk me into buying them each an autographed book!

Old Town Fun

Today we met up with a few of the Girl Scouts to do a scavenger hunt in Old Town. The girls had 13 questions to answer by visiting certain buildings throughout Old Town. The girls earned a nice fun patch for doing the scavenger hunt.

Kailani had a birthday party to go to tonight. I had planned on dropping her off and taking Zachary home, but Zachary didn't want to leave. They had a game truck to keep the kids busy. Zachary was in the game truck the entire night.

Flowers in Bloom

We spent our first day of spring break at Balboa Park. We went to the Japanese Friendship Garden to see the beautiful trees in bloom.

Afterwards, we went to see the new whale exhibit at the Natural History Museum. We weren't able to take any pictures in that exhibit.

Will Run for Chocolate

Today was the hot chocolate 15K. I remembered from last year that the course was very hilly, so I planned to do the 5K instead. I changed my mind because I wanted to use this race as a training run for the La Jolla half marathon in April. It has a huge hill, so I want to be ready.

I finished in 1:46, which was a little slower than last year.

After the race I was able to go to a baby shower for one of the girls I used to work with. It's so nice to still be able to get together with all the girls from GSDA.

Go Padres!

So...Jason entered a contest online to win MLB All Star game tickets. The next thing we know, we're at a membership event in the Padres clubhouse. We ended up purchasing season tickets (1/2 season) for this year. We get to go to 40 games; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday games. We're excited to get to spend a lot of time at Petco Park this year.

Since we are Gold Members, we are able to purchase tickets to the All Star game this year. Four tickets to the All Star game are going to cost almost as much as our season tickets! But...it's probably a once in a lifetime experience.
After leaving Petco Park, we headed to the expo for the Hot Chocolate 15K to pick up my race gear. We posed for a picture.

I got a new race medal hanger too because the one I have is getting full!

We then, headed up to Legoland for the rest of the day. The kids participated in the "pop badge challenge," where they did a scavenger hunt/activities throughout the park to earn badges. They earned 3 today. We'll have to keep our eyes open for the dates they will be giving away other badges this year.

https://newsdotlegolanddotcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/collect-your-limited-edition-pop-badges/?frame-nonce=93b2158788&preview=true&iframe=true

ACE Awards

Today Kailani received an ACE award today for outstanding effort. I took the day off to be able to watch.

 

Donate your Soles

I organized a shoe drive for our school in order to raise money for the PTO. We are collecting used shoes. We'll earn .40 per pound of shoes. Our goal is 2,500 pounds in order to earn $1,000. The kids helped me band and bag the shoes to place in the storage unit.

San Diego Half and Padres

Today was a rough day to wake up at 4:15am (day light savings time)! I was up bright and early to run the San Diego Half Marathon as a relay with Becky. We each ran 6.55 miles. Last year we did the relay and she ran the second half (with the huge hill), so this year we switched. The hill was no joke! Overall, we finished the half marathon with a time of 2:13:13.

Today was also Zachary's first baseball game. The field was too wet to play on Saturday, so the game was rescheduled for today. I was a little worried since he wasn't put on the tball team and because the team had only 2 practices. It wasn't bad at all. The coaches pitched. Each of the boys got 5 pitches and they either hit the ball or where out. The boys switched positions each inning to get a feel of all of the positions. Zachary even volunteered to be catcher! They played each inning until 3 outs were made or until all of the batters hit. Apparently they play 6 innings or 2 hours. Zachary batted 3-4 times and hit the ball each time. He only got on base once, but he was the last batter that inning so he didn't get to stay on base. We're learning all of the new rules for this level as we go.

Zachary is #9.

Pinewood Derby

Today was our first experience with a pinewood derby. Zachary started working on his pinewood derby car a few weeks ago and finished just this weekend. We didn't really know what to expect, so he kept his car simple. There were some amazing cars at the derby today. We already have ideas for next year.
The pinewood derby is really official. There were 23 cars in the race. There were 2 rounds. Each round had 23 heats of 4 cars each. Every car raced 4 times in each round (once in each lane - A, B, C, and D). It took a long time to get through both rounds. Two brothers actually tied for 1st and had to do a tie breaking race. In the end, Zachary's car came in 21st place! We are just happy it stayed in one piece for the entire derby.