American Idol Adventure

My friend Trisha and her daughter Lauren are dedicated followers of American Idol.  SO naturally when their favorite contestant was returning to his hometown of San Diego, Trish set out to find where they could catch a glimpse of him.  As it turned out he was doing a special military only visit to Miramar Air Station.  With nothing else on my schedule for the day I decided to tag along.  Oh what a day it turned out to be.  When we arrived we were about 40th in line.  We spread out our beach town and began our wait.

Jackson brought along some rubber snakes.  He absolutely loves bugs, snakes, and lizards!  What a BOY!

Shortly after our arrival the MPs (Military Police) came over and told us they had a situation in the building we were waiting to get in to and we would have to moved across the street.  So in an orderly fashion we followed the leader across the street.  We began to her sirens coming from all directions and soon every possible emergency vehicle was on the scene along with the bomb sniffing dogs.  I have to be hinest, I really wasn't feeling really safe just being 100 yards from the building they were sending bomb dogs into.  Having read my thoughts the MPs decided to move us further from the building and put us behind another building.  So we laid out the beach towel and prepared for our long wait.  Why didn't we leave?  Well, my car was parked in a parking lot that was being blocked off.  We had no choice but to wait it out.

Another girl in line with us brought markers and poster board and shared them with Lauren and she made a sign. 

Jackson was entertained with the iPod Touch (another purchase worth every penny) and Goldfish crackers.

Hannah was a trooper and sat in the stroller giggling and trying to cut those stubborn teeth that won't come in.

After several hours we were moved back to the original line and began waiting a little longer to get into the theater.  Hannah was a happy camper hanging  out in the Ergo.
After a long wait we finally were let into the theater.  We were four rows from the front when Adam Lambert sang an incredible version of the National Anthem.  It was a lot of fun and we had a good laugh at the situation.  So watch American Idol this week and look for Lauren and her sign (she was on of 50 chosen to greet his limo as it pulled up).

ZOO DAY...I know surprise, surprise

I have really enjoyed our weekly trip to the zoo.  This time a gal and her 17 month old daughter from the neighborhood Bible study/Play group came along with us.  Jackson loved having a little person along with us and I sure enjoyed the company.  

Jackson and Addison...most of the time she wasn't sure what to think of Jackson

This week we happened to stop by the Gorrillas just at the time they were feeding them.  I was able to snap some good pictures.  Jackson loved how close they were.

The trainer feeding the Gorillas had them do tricks in order to get their food.  Below is one standing up waving.

Jackson really has an obsession with feeding the bronze statues.  Eat up Gorilla!

Hannah sees the zoo in style strapped on my back in the Ergo carrier.  It is by far the best $100 I have ever spent getting this carrier.  She loves it and it is SUPER comfortable!

Jackson loves that he can stand up on the bars and look at the animals.  He is getting so big!

There was NO LINE to get into the Pandas.  Those of you who have been to the SD Zoo know almost never happens.  It also happened to be right before feeding time so the two Pandas out were very active.  Here is one of the females rolling in wood chips which is apparently one of her favorite past times.

Jackson LOVES the Rhinos.  All day he talked about the rhinos hiding in the water.

Lastly, here are a few more pictures of the great flowers.

Until next week....

The Flowers and Plants of the San Diego Zoo

One of the things I think makes the San Diego zoo so unique is the foliage.  Today I was really struck by all of the colors.  Here are some of the photos I took...oh how I wish I had a fancy camera so I could do a better job of capturing the colors.

ZOO DAY - Peacocks and Hippos and oh so much more

I really needed to stay and pick up the house today, but the cooler weather was calling me to be outside so I decided to make yet another trip to the zoo.  Jackson confirmed my plans when I got him out of bed this morning I asked him what he wanted to do and he said "see de animals!" Now I guess if I am to be honest he says this everyday, but I today I decided to give him his hearts desire.  

I am alway interested to see what animal he names that he would like to see first.  Today he wanted to see the "teacock in da tee" (translation: "peacock in the tree").  The peacocks?  Really?  Not the lions? tigers? bears? (Oh My!  :)).  Nope he assured me he wanted to see the peacock.  Lucky for us there was one showing off right as we walked in the door.

Jackson LOVES this Rhino sculpture outside of one of the gift shops.  He has to stop and talk to the Rhino every time we have passed it.

We happened to pass a little patch of fake grass along our route.  I am not sure why it was there and it did stick out, but Jackson decided it looked like a good place to run around in circles laughing his silly little head off.

Jackson's second mission was to see the Tigers and the Hippos.  This was the first time I had seen the Tigers out.  They are usually pacing at the top of the enclosure, but we got lucky today.

We also got lucky at the hippo exhibit.  There were very few people there and the hippo was right on the glass.  This is my favorite picture from the day.

Outside of the hippo exhibit is a huge bronze hippo that Jack decided looked hungary because he sat and "fed" the hippo any leaf and stick he could find within a 10 ft radius for a good 15 minutes.

The Mandrills are usually hiding so I was excited to snap this picture.

Jackson always has to visit the snake house.  He LOVED this Anachonda in the tree.  YIKES!!

Jackson also loves the "big wisards" (Translation: big lizards).  Here is a little Iguana family.

Jackson decided today was a good day for a starring contest with the Komodo Dragon.

This crocodile looked like a statue.  If I had not been to the zoo before and seen him swim around I would have thought it was fake.

Tune in next week for the next zoo adventure....

Danger Lives Up To His Name...AGAIN

Jackson "Danger" Jernigan has done it again.  He has gone to the ER once again for a head wound.  Although he has visited the ER on one other occasion for a minor war wound on his forehead this one was the first to require stitches.  In true Jackson fashion he got his big ole head ahead of his feet and fell hitting his head on the corner of the wall.  Just when I thought things were beginning to get under control.  So after a four hour wait in the ER and two stitches later we made it home.  A friend of mine drove across base to hang out with Hannah so I only had to wrestle with Jackson who was STARVING (I was just about to make dinner when I was interrupted by his screams) and WAY past his bedtime.  All things considered he was a trooper.  Now if I could only get him to leave the bandaids and stitches alone.  He has already pulled out one stitch so lets hope the other stays.  Good thing he is a boy and scars are cool.

Real Brothers in Arms

When Dan called the other day he said he was sitting in his brothers office and that Mike had let him use his phone.  It is nice having a brother in a high place that you can mootch off of.  I guess they are only about 5 minutes drive from each other.  Michael is on the tail end of his tour, but I am so grateful they have gotten to spend this time together.  If you can remember back to when Dan was in Iraq in 2003, he was also able to see Michael there too.  Jackson was so excited to see these pictures of "daddy at work".  We sure do miss him, but enjoyed seeing these pictures.

Don't mess with these two brothers.

There are those fetching Jernigan smiles.

Dan, if you are reading this, we miss you very much!

San Diego Zoo - RHINOS!

Today we headed out for our weekly trip to the San Diego Zoo.  The big winner of the trip this week was the RHINOS, but I got some pictures of some other animals too that I thought I would include. 

On our way to "See de aminals" (Translation: see the animals)

One set of ducklings we encountered on our way to fill our zoo cup.

First stop on Jackson's list was the Elephants!

Jackson has recently (since Dan left) become extremely attached to his blankie and want to have it with him at the zoo.  He refused to leave it in the car or in the stroller.  I caught this shot of him running full speed blanket in hand to the Rhinos.

Jackson telling us all about the Rhinos.  These two Indian One-Horned Rhinos are a father son team.  The father is 4 years old and the son 2 years old. 

The two Rhinos were taking a little mid day snooze so Jackson thought he could rouse them by yelling "WHAIT UP RHIOS" (Translation: WAKE UP RHINOS")

The next place he raced to was the Giraffes!

There was a new baby Giraffe that was born this week.  He was born weighing 153 lbs and is over 6 ft tall!  YIKES!

Peacock strutting his stuff

Jackson was obsessed with looking at the "sharks" which were really large koi fish.

Another peacock hanging out in a tree.

Jackson's reward for obeying during lunch time was to ride the kiddy ride they have in the picnic area.