We took the kids on a quick jaunt to Redding over the weekend. Since Hubby had to work late, we ended up taking two different cars, with me ending up with the three munchkins. My kids are normally good travelers, but it's still about 50/50 if you will see vomit on our drives. I have very sympathetic pukers, so we make sure to take our time and make frequent stops.

Prior to leaving for the trip, Hubby and I decided not to tell the monsters about the trip. It's so hard to let them know in advance because if we do, each day is broken down into twenty million questions about when we're leaving, how many more days, about how many minutes until, and so on. It drives us freakin' bonkers. I scurried about the house, hiding bags, dodging questions about missing swimsuits, and otherwise trying to be a mommy ninja. It worked and they were only informed of the trip when they got into the car and saw two sheets of Chuck E. Cheese coupons waiting for them. It doesn't take long for Chuck E. Cheese hints to set in.

The ride went great and we only had to stop once; the double dose of Triaminic did wonders. The first place we hit was In-N-Out where C-dub proclaimed it was the "bestest" food he'd ever tasted. He was so enchanted with the burgers and fries he proclaimed the place should win some sort of food award, as he was walking out the front door. Before the food could settle in and the kids (or I, for that matter) could get full, we raced over to Coldstone Creamery and partook amongst the world's best ice cream. They have a new flavor called Chocolate Cake Batter. If you love the original cake batter flavor and you even remotely enjoy chocolate, drop what you're doing now and go. Run, swim, power walk, or drive, and do what it takes to get your arse to Coldstone. It was that good.

After rolling ourselves out of Coldstone, we checked into the hotel and I took a quick scan of the swimming pool area. There were only a handful of guests, so I decided it was safe to break out my swimsuit with the kiddies. You wanna see it? I know you do. It's only natural to be curious...

I looked good...

The hotel had a really nice swimming pool, big hot tub, and a fun toddler pool that stayed oddly warm no matter what time of day. Plus, they had pool side bar service which I decided to try out once I had Hubby there as parental back-up.

Once my mermaid and mermen were done swimming, we headed back up to the room to wait for Hubby to arrive. I herded the kids into the bathroom to de-chlorinate themselves. As Gunny walked across the bathroom, I noticed he was leaving a little blood trail. He noticed too and instantly started to yell, "Momma! I'm bledding on dah floor!" He had previously cut one of his little toes and the wound had reopened up during his backstroke.

While applying pressure and trying to talk him into the benefits of a band aid, I heard Taters start to cough. During last weekend's camping trip, she had developed a nasty head cold that result in a lasting seal bark which sometime violently triggered her gag reflex. I walked back into the bathroom just in time to see her upchucking her Coldstone. I lunged forward and helf her hair back - all the while pretending I was in laying out on a white sands beach in Mexico with a bucket of chilled Coronas.

C-dub, who was still lounging in the tub, seemed to not even notice his bleeding brother and gagging sister. Rather, when the chaos settled down, he asked me, "Mom, why is der a naked yady staring at me?"

I did a double take and followed his gaze from his seated position in the tub, and this is what I saw:

A rather crispy edged, 2008 Playboy, probably placed there by some little perverted teenage boy, trying to hide his bath time fun from Momma. C-dub was very interested in what I was going to do with the Playboy, so I threw it up on the top shelf in the closet. Hopefully, I could share some love with the next family with small children - just as we had experienced.

Once I contained the blood, puke, and mild porn, I left Hubby several text messages advising him of the liquor I would need in order to proceed with the weekend. He happily obliged me and arrived at our room just prior to midnight. What a friggin' relief.

The next morning, we made our way to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and Sundial Bridge. This is the second time we have visited Turtle Bay and we love it there. Lots of exhibits, tons of things to see and do with the kids, and excellent air conditioning provide for a super fun time. When we visited this time, they had a special viewing of "Sue" the T-Rex:

They also had an awesome exhibit of Lego structures:

And his butt (ha!):

After the indoors stuff, we visited some of the outside exhibits, including the aviary. I think this was probably C-dub's and Tater's favorite spot. I love birds but having this many birds in one spot and all the aerial poop freaked me out a tad. I also kept get accosted or molested (not sure which one applies) by a little red parrot who loved my camera. Here's the little perv:

And his little pervy friends:

You could buy little feed sticks for a $1, and the little suckers quickly became your best friends:

We then went to my favorite place which is the butterfly house. It's a big greenhouse type setting and there are butterflies everywhere! C-dub is not too big on the butterfly scene, so he guided up through with the butterfly information sheet the worker provided to us. By the time we left, he proclaimed himself to be an expert on butterfly identification.

My favorite shot of the day - found outside the butterfly house!

Prior to leaving, we walked across Sundial Bridge. It has a frosted glass bottom which makes it very interested yet terrifying to walk across:

I gave Taters my back-up camera to shoot with. We fought all afternoon for shots, but I let her have this one :-):

After we left Turtle Bay, we spent a few hours being tormented at Chuck E. Cheese. The kids had a blast and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the room. Unfortunately, the sight of the pool was similar to what a shot of caffeine might do and the kids were once again raring to go. And that's pretty much how we spent the rest of the weekend - in and out of the pool. It was a fun weekend but I'm so glad we're home. I think our traveling is done for the summer - at least until hunting season opens.