Won't you be my V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E?

I learned a song in third grade that went something like this, "Won't you be my V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E? Don't you know how happy I would be?"  There was more to it than that, but that's all I remember.  That's how I learned to spell the word "valentine" and chances are if I have to write the word out, to this day you'll still catch me singing that little diddy as I write it out.

Growing up, my mom always had special treats for us on Valentine's Day and I always looked forward to it.  I've made sure to keep that tradition with my own kids.

Double chocolate chip muffins (the kids' favorite), and fun treats!

My mom did strawberry milk for us (since it was pink), but I didn't have time to grab that at the store, so they got chocolate milk instead (and loved it just as much).  The kids and I spent the day calling Shane at work (multiple times) telling him how much we love him.  They had a blast.  ;)

January

It snowed A LOT last month, so we didn't do anything that's blog-worthy (unless you count drinking loads of hot chocolate).  The one event that did happen, though, was a biggie.

Shane got hit coming home from work.  He was driving off the Base (this was mid-January) and a guy turning left didn't see Shane and ran right into him.  The cops on Base don't come for an accident unless it's over $10,000 worth of damage, so the guy tried to dispute that it was his fault with the insurance place.  Then he tried to make Shane take half the blame.  Luckily, there were two witnesses who gave Shane their contact info and he gave it to the other guys' insurance.  After the witnesses gave their story, it was 100% on the other guy.

The guy (I should know his name...we'll call him Bob) and Shane had to use zip ties to lift the front end of the car off the tire so that Shane could drive it home.  When I saw the damage, I didn't think it would be too big of a deal to get it fixed.  I was wrong.

If you look closely you can see the zip ties.

When the inspector guy came out, he looked under the hood and said, "Oooh that's not good."

Basically, when Bob hit Shane, not only did it take part of the bumper off, but it shifted everything inside over.  He shouldn't have even driven it home.  The frame was also bent, which since the car was such a beater, made it not worth fixing and the insurance company decided to total it.  :(

You guys, we just got this car in August!  AND we just put new snow tires on it last month!!  I was so sad.  That car had taken us months to find (it was such a good deal) and was in great condition for it's age (2004...or 2003?...one of the two).  A towing company came out and got it.

Brand new snow tires...*sniff*

 

Bye car!

The insurance company cut us a check, but we decided to wait on getting a second car until we're in our new house.  Gives us more time to save up and we're used to being a one car family.  On the days that Kaden has preschool, Shane gets a ride to work with a guy who lives close to us.  The rest of the week he takes it and we hang out at home, which isn't a big deal since it's winter and we'd be at home anyway.

So, want to hear read a funny story?

We had a rental car for a week while Bob's insurance figured out if they were going to total the car or not, and the car they loaned us was a VW Passat.  Nice car, stupid design in certain areas.  I went to put some gas in it one evening about three days after we got the car.  The 7-11 in Centerville was the cheapest gas, so I headed there.  I had cash, so I had to head inside and prepay (Shane laughed and laughed because I asked how on earth I pay for gas with cash.  It's been a long time!!  I hadn't done that since I was 16!)

Anyway, so I paid for $20 worth of gas, then headed back outside.  I got in the drivers side and looked for a gas "button" or whatever to release the little gas door.  I couldn't find it anywhere!  (Keep in mind that it was literally 3 degrees outside that night!)  I got out of the car and checked on the passengers side.  Nada.  Then I remembered that on my mini-van, there isn't a button, either. The little door just has a lifty spot where you can open it that way.  

BUT the VW did NOT.  I pulled and pulled on it and nothing!  I checked inside the car AGAIN and couldn't find the freaking button!  Finally, I called Shane and had him Google it for me (my phone is too slow for me to look it up when I'm shivering...and also, my mom mentioned later that I probably could have looked it up in the owners manual that was in the glove compartment. Oops.).  He said that VW's are built differently and all you have to do is push in on the little door and it will pop right open.  I tried it and it worked!  Hallelujah!

I hang up with Shane and see a VERY large, white, BOLD arrow pointing right on the gas lid.  I figure that since VW made things weird, maybe you had to twist right instead of left when taking the cap off.   I twisted.  I turned.  And, you guessed it, NOTHING.  It was stuck.

Freezing and shivering by this point, I closed the little door and headed back inside 7-11.  There were two men working that night and doing my best damsel in distress impression I said, "Um, that car I'm driving is a rental.  I think The Hulk was the last person to close the lid.  Can I get some help?"

One of the men followed me back out to the car.  I pushed on the little door to open it....and NOTHING.  Flustered, I kept pushing and pushing while saying, "It worked a minute ago!"  The guy used his nicest voice while saying, "Maybe there's a button inside."

I explained that there was not, in fact, a button and that my husband had just looked it up.  The guy tried pulling at it and pushing on it, but it wouldn't budge.  All of a sudden he looked at me and said, "Is the car unlocked?"

OH. MY. GOSH.

I was so embarrassed!!

*Click*

"Now it is."

The stupid freaking little door popped right open.

The guy twisted the cap right off and struggled to contain his laughter until he got back in the store.  Glad I could make someone's night better!

(P.S. Shane about died laughing when I told him the story.  So did the guys at the car rental place when I took the car back.)

SoCal - Post 7 (The End!)

On Saturday, our last day in Cali, we headed to the Wild Animal Park Safari Park.  I was the only one in our group that had been to the Safari Park before, but I was thrilled to go back.

Gorgeous view from the top of the main viewing area.

See the giraffes by the palm trees?

*Insert lion around joke here*  ;)

 The tickets we bought included the tram ride and I would highly recommend anyone going to the Safari Park to go on this.  It was the best part of the day.

This was Ari the entire trip, "I want MOM!"

Lexi swinging on something she shouldn't be.

Kaden, Danny, Steph, and Lexi

Shane LOVED the Safari Park and kept getting in all my shots.  It was cute in an annoying kind of way.

You don't even want to know how much those people paid for that "safari."

This guy was in "time-out" for uh...spreading his seed a little too much.  They had to bring in another rhino to help diversify the gene pool a bit.

Animals coexisting...

Ari didn't care.  She was like, "Where are my fruit snacks?!"

See the baby?  It was only 2 days old.  *sniff*  So cute!!

I think they said this type of rhino only has 8 left in the WORLD.  Stupid poachers.

The tour guide said in the 15 years she's worked there, she's never seen this guy come out during the day.  He's normally super shy.

I don't know what he was, but he was pretty.

View from the other side of the park.

 

Ok, so I have to explain why the zebras aren't in a massive area like the rest of the animals.  They said that the type of food zebras eat has very little calories, so in order to get the amount of calories they need, they have to eat ALL day long.  That's what they have do in the wild, too.  Apparently the park did have the zebras out with the other animals, but they were hogging the feeding trough and no one else could ever get any food.  The park people tried putting them in their own area to see how they liked it.  They LOVED it and couldn't care less that their enclosure is smaller than everyone else's.

This guy was in time-out, too.  Same reason as the rhino.  haha

Shane got in my shot again....

So I used my camera's awesome zoom powers!  Mwahahaha

 

This was the tram

Tour guide told us that it is very rare to ever see a giraffe lying down in the wild.  They take forever getting back up, so it leaves them too vulnerable to predators.

BABY!!

 After the tram ride, we walked around for a while.

This guy was kinda ugly.  Sorry buddy.

I don't know what this is, but it was weird!

Zebra, hyena, horse, donkey all rolled into one.

LOONG necks!

He was close enough to touch.

 

 

This guy was SO little!!

We had lunch and let the kids play at the play ground.  There was still more to see, but it started sprinkling, so we headed out.  (Plus we'd seen all the animals the day before and all of the adults were tired of walking.)

The kids got good naps in, which was great, because we ended up going out to dinner for our last meal there.  Where did we go?  Where else?  Red Robin!  ;)

We headed home around 6:00 AM the next morning.  The car ride back was fine until the last two hours when suddenly the girls traded off whining and crying about how they just wanted to be HOME.  We hit a snowstorm on our way back in, so that delayed us a little bit, too.

All in all, it was a great vacation and so good to spend so much time with Danny and Steph.  It was perfect and a great way to end our year.  :)