San Diego!!!

Welcome again to the House of Shu! The weather is getting even more beautiful each day, flowers are blooming, and the pools are being opened! Bring on summertime!! Am I right?! Obviously, summer comes a lot faster here in the desert of California, but regardless of where  you are reading this from, the wonderful, warm weather is just around the corner!!

I would assume that the majority of you reading this right now have already enjoyed your Spring Breaks. We did and enjoyed every minute of it! As I said in the last post, Papa Shu got to spend the ENTIRE week with us for the first time in over 6 years!! I cannot even express how much that time with him and our boys meant to me. Papa Shu did a fantastic job making Spring Break special for all of us, and I can't help but to fall in love with him over and over again! 

Who's ready to see what sunny southern California has to offer?! Remember, we don't have a whole lot of time left here, so you should go ahead and book your flights now to come visit! Ha! ;) 

Our trip to San Diego was a very last minute decision. We have made some spur-of-the-moment trips this year, and I am loving it! Our "mommy/daddy" weekend to Vegas was a blast, but getting to spend time with the kids in San Diego, making new and wonderful memories... ah... that was a blessing!

 We started off our Zoo day with a fabulous breakfast at IHop. We don't get to eat out very often, so this was a real treat! Alex and William LOVED their baseball pancakes!

 The beginning!

 Trey had 50 cents in his pocket.... this foot massage chair is what he decided to spend it on.

 Our silly paleontologists! Hehe!

 These are transmitters the biologists put around the neck of elephants to track their movements! Huge!

 I love these boys!❤

 PLEASE be sure to click on these pictures to make them bigger. They are PRICELESS!

He actually ASKED for me to take this one! Wha..? ;)

 Inside the sea lion's igloo! (Tight squeeze for Mama Shu... just sayin'! Ha!)

 Peeking out of the ice! :)

 Hahaha! This was too perfect not to get a photo of!

 Seriously.... how handsome are these guys?!?!

 I absolutely LOVE my family!

 Galapagos tortoise, anyone?

 You can almost see how happy he is! (Don't tell anyone!) ;)

FABULOUS day!

Why not finish it off with a trip to the beach?!

 Who doesn't LOVE the beach?! I suggest everyone visit Coronado Island! Absolutely beautiful!

 This was just a random photo op while we were waiting on our dinner. :)

 Our future shark biologist standing proud under one of his favorites.

 Now that's a BIG fish!

 William checking out different species. :)

Uh... is it dead? Ha! (It wasn't... we could see the gills moving.)

 Alex really liked the seahorses.

 My handsome guys at the aquarium :)

 Robert and Alex in front of our next "fish tank"! Ha!

William showing Alex "Dori".. what a good big brother! :)

 Educational time! :)

 Looking at "Marlin" inside the anemone :)

 Just beautiful!

 Waiting for the tide to come in...

 There it is!

 William and Trey touching the kelp when the tide comes in.

 Me and my boys!

I just love these kids!

Mother and baby whale statues outside of the Birch Aquarium.

One last photo op with my handsome hubby! :)

Before we went home, we stopped for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe!

 We were both pretty tired by the end of the weekend. Ha!

I hope I didn't overwhelm anyone with ALL of these pictures! I have many more but most others are of the many different animals we got to see! We had such a good time being off post and spending time as a family away from everyday life. I can't even explain how relaxing and simply wonderful this weekend was for us all!

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That's 55 Gallons...

As some of you know, we got a new aquarium recently. We are still having some issues with the ammonia levels (any suggestions are welcome), but we keep trying to bring them down. As soon as we get the levels down, doing water change after water change, it comes back up in a couple days. We have tested the water we are adding to it, and that doesn't seem to be the problem. We have rinsed out the filters, re-rinsed the plants, treated the water, and we still can't figure it out. We "killed" all but 4 of our original fish (started with 12), and I recently (when Robert left for the box) "killed" 2 of our new ones. That was totally my fault for not listening to Hubby's instructions.

This was before I, um, drugged the two that we most recently lost.

Hopefully, we will figure out what is going on and stop having to change the water every day or two... mostly because Robert isn't here to do it, and I don't wanna! Ha! I have another week and a half to handle the tank on my own. You know how people that can't grow plants, or kill them quickly, are told they have a black thumb? Well, I am pretty sure my whole hand is black because I can't keep pets to save my life! I kill two fish within a day of Robert leaving them with me, I killed (literally baked) Trey's two fire-bellied toads not long after he got them... I am truly surprised our boys have made it this long! I guess I have more love for them than I do marine/amphibian life. Well, clearly. But, you get what I am saying. I just need to show these fish more love, right? That'll save them! Uh-huh. Well, it better, because our pockets aren't going to for much longer!

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