My poor time management skills have forced me to be a slacker about blogging. With my kids involved in more activities and a time consuming calling at church, it's not very often that I go to bed feeling like I've accomplished what I wanted to each day. However, the fact that it is a blizzard outside right now is making me miss the sunny warm weather we just left in California. So, I'm officially going on strike from laundry and cleaning for a few hours today while I blog about our awesome trip.
We went back and forth several times over the last year in trying to decide if we should go on the San Diego trip that Tavi and Brian invited us on. However, I can say that I don't regret our decision one bit. The memories that we made are worth every cent that we spent. I think it was a good lesson for the kids as well. They did a great job at earning and saving money to go.
I'm not sure what the best way to write is, so I guess I'll do a day to day summary.
We left at 3:00 in the morning on Saturday the 4th. Leaving that early made the drive so much more enjoyable because the kids slept clear to Saint George. We stopped in Primm to shop at the outlets and then drove to Victorville, California. We stayed in a really nice, new Marriott that we got for $45 (yeah Priceline!!!).
We went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant kind of like Cafe Rio. During our dinner Ashlyn turned to the man right behind us and said, "Santa Claus is coming to town." I was really confused so I looked behind. There was Santa Claus. Actually it was just a nice California resident enjoying his dinner. But, the resemblance was amazing. He even had a cheery chuckle for a laugh. Well, the rest of the dinner we could not get Ashlyn to stop singing "Santa Claus is coming to town" in her loudest voice. We finally decided to leave before everyone was done to avoid more embarrassment.
The rest of the evening we spent swimming. The outside pool was sooo cold that the guys said it reminded them of swimming in the lake at scout camp. So, we spent our time at the indoor pool.
The adults were exhausted from getting up so early so everyone ended up falling asleep at 7:30 (the kids were sweet to cooperate and fall asleep, too).
The next day we drove the 2 more hours to San Diego. I hadn't been to San Diego since I was around 10 years old so it was fun to go back. San Diego is absolutely beautiful. Brian said it well when we first got out of the cars. He said, "There should be some kind of living tax for people who get to live here." We got to San Diego several hours before we could check into our hotel. So, we headed to the beach. It was a beautiful day and we found a really pretty beach to hang out at.
The kids loved playing in the water.
It was really cool to see several dolphins swimming just out from where we were swimming. I had never seen dolphins in the wild before.We took a little walk down the beach. The kids found tons of neat shells, clams, a crab and even a lobster shell.
I think the favorite activity was playing in the sand. The kids made some pretty neat castles and moats. We stayed until the tide pushed us off the beach.
We had a few sick bugs work their way through our group. There was at least one person who was sick each day. It was kind of a bummer but we worked around it. Sunday was Ashlyn's sick day. We got to clean up a throw up mess in the van. Lots of fun!On Monday we headed to Sea World- even though Tavi and I were sick. Other than having to take a few more breaks, we survived and had a great day. We saw lots of sea and arctic animals.
Ashlyn was terrified any time a whale or dolphin swam next to her- even though it was on the other side of glass. It was hilarious.
We saw three different shows on Monday. Tanner was really cute. The shows were so magical to him. After the dolphin show he decided he wants to be a dolphin trainer when he grows up. He said that the only problem is that he'll have to move to California. I assured him that his dad would follow him to California in a heartbeat (it's Baylen's dream to live in California). After the Shamu show, Tanner informed us that he'll have to decide between training dolphins and whales.Here's part of our group at Believe (the Shamu show). We sat in the soak zone -which was AWESOME!!!
This was one of my favorite shows. They trained seals, sea lions, and otters to do some really funny things. This picture shows the seal singing in an American Idol competition.
Brian introduced us to some amazing barbeque food for lunch. Even though I was sick, the food tasted incredible. I find myself craving it all the time. Apparently I snapped this picture without people knowing!!!
A highlight for Ashlyn was meeting Elmo. She still talks about giving him five.
On Tuesday we headed over to the San Diego Zoo. I'm usually not much of a zoo fan. But, this was a really cool zoo. One complaint I have about every zoo I've been to is that it seems like they are always build on a huge hill. This zoo is also on a hill. However, our pass included a bus ride that showed us 75% of the zoo and a sky ride that allowed us to see alot from above.
Here are a few pictures of the fun...
One of the coolest parts of the zoo was the panda exhibit. We waited in line for quite a while and we had to be silent as we walked through. But, it was really neat.
Ashlyn loved the petting zoo. She would have stayed there all day if my allergies would have allowed it. All of the kids really had fun feeding the animals.
Tanner was fascinated by these little meercats. I heard him tell Mickell, "Next time we play house, I'm going to be one of these." So cute!
On Wednesday we headed back to Sea World. We did the rides in the morning. Tanner and Mickell loved Atlantis. It's kind of a mix between the log ride and a roller coaster. It actually was a lot of fun.
Here's a cute picture of Mickell and the dolphins at Atlantis...
One really cool thing at Sea World was being able to touch the bat rays and sea urchins, as well as hold the star fish. We went to this area several times during our trip.
Wednesday was Hailey's sick day. She spent most of her time on Baylen's shoulders or in the stroller.
Here are the kids at the shark exhibit...
The manatees...
Baylen thought it would be cute to have the kids on the manatee in order of their age. However, poor Ashlyn kept sliding off...
Ashlyn kept saying "Take a picture of me." How could I refuse such a cute request.
We went back to the hotel during the afternoon to let the kids swim. Then, that evening we headed back to Sea World for the night shows and fireworks. The night shows were absolutely amazing. They were high intensity and left you thinking "WOW"! Hailey actually made it on the jumbotron (closeup) at Shamu Rocks. That was cool- but I was so caught up in the excitement that I didn't think to take a picture of it. I really could have- she was on it for a long time! Oh well.
Wednesday night into Thursday morning was spent cleaning up Tanner's throw up over and over and over. For some reason he kept throwing up in his sleep. Good times! I don't think that hotel room will ever be the same again!On Thursday we all slept in (Tavi had been throwing up all night too). We headed back to Sea World in the afternoon.
Hailey loved taking pictures while waiting for the kids to go on Atlantis. This is really the only picture that wasn't a rock or leaf or something. I guess it's proof that I was on this trip too!
We went to the pet show- which Ashlyn absolutely loved. We also let the kids get their souvenirs (which they were soooo excited about). Tanner spent most of his day in the stroller on Thursday.
To finish Sea World off, Ashlyn requested in her cute little "pleeeease" that we do the elmo rides again."Pleeeease"...
We spent Thursday evening swimming. The hotel had a really nice pool and hot tub. The pool never got below 85 degrees. We actually swam everyday but I only took my camera on Thursday. The kids had so much fun. They played dolphins and trainers for several hours. They also had fun playing Marco Polo with the Utah State baseball players who were staying at our hotel.
Several teenage boys came to the pool while we were there. A couple of them were from Germany. Baylen and I talked to them for quite a while. They had the coolest accents. One of the guys asked if all the kids were my siblings. I just laughed. I think he felt stupid but I told him that he made my day!Friday was our only bad weather day. It rained most of the day. But, it worked out for our benefit. The keepers at the Wild Animal Park said that the animals are alot more active in the rain.
We were able to go on a little safari ride to see several of the animals up close. I cannot believe how close we were able to get to the cheetahs and lions. I think we probably should have been a little more nervous than we were.
Here are a few random pictures after the safari ride...
Ashlyn was a little angel for the whole trip. However, by Friday I think she was starting to get a little worn out. I managed to capture one of her cute little melt downs.
One of my favorite things was the bird cage. We paid to feed the birds. When we walked into the cage, the birds basically attacked us to get the food. It was so neat and the kids did better than I thought they would at not freaking out. Actually, I was pretty proud of myself, too!
We waited in line for an hour and a half to see a traveling exhibit on butterflies.The wait...
To make our time worth it, I'd better post a few butterfly pictures...
The Wild Animal Park has a really cool petting zoo that the kids loved.
As we were leaving, we passed the animal nursery. We were able to watch this cute little cheetah who we all fell in love with. It's crazy to think that this cute animal will soon be big enough to seriously harm us.
Well, this novel is definitely a summary. This is a trip that we will never forget. The kids are already asking when we can go back again. Tonight they set up the family room to be an animal show that we saw at the Wild Animal Park. Mickell was the trainer, Tanner was the animals, and Hailey and Ashlyn answered the questions. It was cool to see how many of the facts they remembered about the different animals. I guess it's always a perk when something so fun is also educational!
