Sea World

So we’ve been doing well here in Valencia, hanging out a lot with Shelley’s brother Troy, his wife Christie and their son Cody, and Shelley’s mom. We have rooms set up for Ella and for us. When we got here, we had to clean up Shelley’s room, because it was still the way she left it when she left for high school. Ella has her very own big girl bed, with Princess sheets that used to be Shannon’s daughter’s. We have not entirely unpacked everything, and only just finally cleaned up the car. And we only cleaned out the car because Shelley had a job prospect!!

The first solid job that we have will be Shelley driving a sweet 13 year old from Santa Clarita to her performing arts school in Sherman Oaks, about 25 miles away. We both went to meet Cairo and her family, and they were really nice. Cairo is super on top of things, studious and wants to go to school. The only problem is that she has to get up at 4:45 and leave for school by 6:15, and since they moved out to Santa Clarita she can’t get her mom up in time to get her to class, so she’s been getting lots of tardies. That’s where Shelley comes in, as her ride to school that’ll get her there on time. Shelley will start the Monday after Easter.

We’ve both been applying for jobs with some school districts out here, and have gotten fingerprinted and TB tested so that we’ll be eligible for that. Shelley may be able to start with one this week, but for the district that Shelley’s mom works with, we have to approved by the school board, which won’t happen until April 10^th. Nate put in his resume at Target, and a temp agency and took a couple tests, so hopefully that will pan out. We also have few restaurants that we want to apply too.

What else has been going on? We’ve hung out with Matt and at the restaurant he works at. He was hilarious with Ella, playing around at the table just like he used to. Nate tried to hang out with him another time, but he found out he had to work at the last minute, so Nate watched Dr. Who with his Uncle Nick and Paul instead, which was excellent. Ella is taking a dance class at Shelley’s sister in law’s preschool, and is quite cute. She’s learning ballet and tap. Otherwise we’ve just been lazing about the house, and driving around trying to get jobs. It has been so great getting to be with Gabriella all the time, although she can be a bit trying. It’s totally worth it though. Makes us wish we had quit our jobs sooner.

This weekend we went down to San Diego, to go to Sea World. Nancy rented a big old SUV, and we piled the four of us, Troy, Christie and Cody in, and headed south. It was really fun, Sea World is awesome. We saw the dolphin show, and the Seal and Otter show on Sunday, and decided to save Shamu and the Pets show for Monday. Ella loved to see all the animals and the tricks they do. It was pretty hilarious when we got there, though. We had all been talking up the Dolphins and Whales and Polar Bears, but the first thing she wanted to see when we go there was the Horses. Sea World is owned by Anheiser Busch, and they have some Clydesdales and at least one mule, so we had to go pet them first. But after that it was on to the Aquatic attractions, and we saw lots of them. The shows, and running around the park tired her out, so she slept for a long time while the rest of us ate lunch and saw more stuff.

We went back to the hotel for free cocktails! and some relaxation after a long day of walking. In the morning we had some free breakfast! and swam a bunch, and then got ready to hit Sea World again. Walking through all the shops, Nate was reminded of the time his family went there, and Katie got a stuffed dolphin. If his memory serves him, it was named Connie Egbert Dolphin, T.B. the T.B. standing for Truly Beautiful. Ella has yet to develop that creative capacity for names, but she is on her way. She got a turtle shich she named Fo-fo, but we let her take it to breakfast, where it was lost. She did get a Shamu stuffed animal though, and a hat, so it evened out. The Shamu show was actually kind of dissapointing show wise. It was called "Believe" and there was this dopey introduction with a kid reading about whales in a book, and then carving a whale tail necklace, and then seeing a whale, and then turning into one of the trainers. They did some cool tricks, and the whales themselves are beautiful, but after seeing a ton of trained cats and dogs and pigs and ducks (the pet show, which was really fun), it was a little slow and boring. All in all, the dolphins were probably the best show, and the Shark encouter was really cool.
Nate found out today that he has an interview with Target tomorrow, and also tomorrow we'll be seeing Matt, and lots of Nate's family, which is going to be way too much fun to even think about. Also, if you want to see more pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/NateandShelley
This has some pictures from the road trip and Sea World, and Nate will be adding more as time goes by.