This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures. We had an awesome Spring Break. We decided to bump up our family vacation so the weather would be nicer in San Diego instead of middle of the Summer. About a week before we went, the weather said it was going to be raining the whole week, so I got the kids umbrellas and we prayed that there would be good weather while we were there so we could see the shows at SeaWorld. A few days before we left, the forecast showed sunny days the rest of the week, the Lord answered our prayer however small it may have seemed.
We started our journey off by stopping in Vegas for breakfast at IHOP, probably a new tradition. Then we headed out and made it to Victorville and stopped for lunch. We decided on Papa Johns. It was a little chilly out and a bit rainy, but the hot pizza hit the spot. The only problem was that there wasn't a place to sit and eat, so we just squatted near a shop under the covering and at it all up. It was quite a sight I'm sure, but it made for a good memory. :) The drive down was great. We listened to The Magician's Nephew from Chronicles of Narnia and watched a movie, but really the kids were great. We only had a few brief moments of strife.
Tuesday morning we headed out to SeaWorld, the weather was perfect! We invited Ada to come with us. I think she had a good time with our craziness. I'm so glad my parents were able to come with us too. We couldn't have done it without them!
The boys got to pet some lemon sharks when we first got into the park, they loved it. I was proud of them for being brave enough to touch them.
Rylea was a total Grandma/Grandpa girl. She wanted almost nothing to do with Morgan and me the whole trip. It was pretty funny. Grandma loved it!
We got to see the Orcas pretty soon too.
The boys were fascinated! We went around outside and one of the whales came right up to us and parked it and talked to the boys for a while, it was awesome.
Papa, Morgan, Damon, & Tragon all went on the river raft ride. They loved it, they got a bit wet, but came out all smiles and wanted to go again...we never did get a chance to go again though.
While they were rafting, Grandma and I were looking at other things and taking pictures.
Rylea either wanted to be held by Grandma or Grandpa or just be done on the ground walking herself.
I loved how they had a lot of interactive places where you could touch and feel the animals.
Not the turtles though, we didn't touch them, they were huge though, the picture doesn't do it justice.
After a morning of exploring we went out of the park to eat lunch, we folded down all the seats and for a brief moment had all the kids contained...ahhh, pure bliss...hahaha.
After some fuel we headed back in to the park for all the shows. We pretty much went from one show to the next and were able to see all the ones we really wanted to. We started with the dolphins. We almost walked away because it was pretty crowded, but found a nice spot right next to a box, which turned out to be a great thing because we ended up with a dolphin and trainer right in front of us, some of us even got to touch the dolphin.
We were right there next to the wall, I think that's Damon's ear in the picture. It was so cool, we might have missed some parts of the show from where we were, but we also got some awesome up close viewing.
Rylea especially loved it when there was music playing, then she would get excited about seeing everything.
We stopped for a quick treat and got some ice cream, the boys all used their own allowance on stuff like that. They had a really awesome roller coaster, but Logan didn't want to go on it, he wanted to hit the arcades. :) The race car game was his favorite other than another whale race where they each earned their own blue orca whale stuffed animal.
We went to the amazing pets show...it was alright, of all the shows that was probably the least favorite, but it provided a place to sit and rest for a minute. :) I think we were just so excited to see all the fish and aquatic animals that all the dogs and cats just couldn't compete from the beginning.
We finally made it to the show and of course Morgan picked seats in the soak zone...luckily though, we didn't get wet, but pretty much everyone else in the stadium did. It was only our little section that stayed dry...another tender mercy because it actually got a little chiller after that and the kids would have been cold and miserable for the last few hours of the days.
Pictures really don't do this show justice. This was the main show we wanted to see and it was incredible. I think if I had been to SeaWorld as a teenager I would have become a marine biologist or something so that I could train dolphins and whales for my career. :) I guess it's good I didn't then...so I can train my little humans instead. hahah
Rylea girl finally got tuckered out and fell asleep on Grandma, we snuck her over to me so her and granpda could take Jaron and Ada on some rides while Morgan took the older boys back to the arcade to win more stuffed animals. :)
They had a few fun play places to go to at the park, but we didn't have a ton of time to stop at those so we could get to all the shows.
The last show was a fun comedy routine with the seals. It was a tie between the dolphins and the seals for second place.
I was glad I snapped a few pictures.
It really was amazing what these animals can do.
We went to the Shark Attack aquarium last on our way out of the park. We got to go in an underwater tube walkway and see the sharks up close. It was pretty cool, the boys really liked that part.
And they all loved the stuffed animals they got and have slept with them every night since. :)
I love my parents so much. I was so glad they could come with us. I think they had a pretty fun time too! :)
On Tuesday night we got to go to the San Diego temple while my parents watched the kiddos. It was the best experience of the whole trip. It was amazing inside. It was a really good session and we ran into someone after the sessions that was able to show us around a little bit inside. I hope we get to go back again someday. :)
Wednesday was zoo day. We planned on maybe half a day at the zoo. I think it was a little anti-climatic after SeaWorld, but they still enjoyed it, but when they were ready to go, they were ready to go, they wanted to stop by the beach and then swim at the hotel pool, even though it was a little chilly.
We got to see a koala awake and alert, it was pretty cool, apparently pretty rare too.
The flamingos are always fun to look at.
The boys though these chairs for a quick foot massage were pretty cool and every time we passed one they had to sit in them.
Logan got a gorilla butt right to the face. Really, the gorilla walked right up to where Logan was standing, turned around, smashed his bum on the glass right in Logan's face, then walked a little farther away, turned around and sat down, it was hilarious.
Rylea loved the fishies wherever she saw them.
We ate some lunch over by the polar bears, it was cool to see them swimming around and playing. We were getting pretty tired though so we decided to take the skytram across the park and back for a little break.
After the tram we finished up at the reptile house, which was awesome and then the boys got to pick out a souvenir and we headed to the beach. It was cold! The water was freezing and we thought (foolishly) that the boys would just dip their toes in the water and be good, nope they were soaked in their jeans pretty thoroughly. As it turns out, wet jeans are really hard to get off little kids, especially in the parking lot of the beach. We had the boys get into their dry swim suits for the ride back the the hotel...I know, live and learn :). They older boys went swimming while I did a load of laundry and my parents went to the grocery store for some treats.
Later that evening we played the candy bar game. It was fun and the kids did pretty good with it. And I think in the end everybody got some of the candy bar. We got to hang out with Ty and Rachel each night too, that was fun to be able to see them and Jaron loved having Ada as a buddy to play with.
We got up Thursday morning and ate breakfast and were on our way. We miraculously found a binky for Rylea just as we were leaving...we had lost one already...however, no trip would be complete without something...so about 20 minutes into the drive home where there wasn't really a good stopping place Rylea puked everywhere!!! It was nasty, I think after about an hour though we couldn't really smell it anymore. We stopped as soon as we could which turned out to be a McDonalds. I took Rylea in and got her cleaned up and scrubbed her clothes the best I could...not the best bathroom or sink in the world. :( At least it wasn't freezing cold and late at night like it was last time Jaron puked on our travels. :)
We met up with my parents in Barstow and had lunch and then zipped home as fast as we could. We were all exhausted, mostly in a good way though. We had a ton of fun and lots of good memories to reminisce about now. We got home and the kids watched a show while we unpacked. I spent the next day doing tons of laundry, we were glad to have a few days to recover before we get back into the regular routine of things. We got asked to speak in sacrament right before we left, so that was always on our minds, kind of stressful, but also good. And I was really proud of our family for still doing scripture study during vacation, we have done so good to build that habit I didn't want to let it go, so we did some listening in the car on the ride down and back and both days in the morning we were able to get in a little scripture study before our day began, I think that made a huge difference in our vacation.
I love my family so much and I'm so grateful that we were able to take this much needed vacation. I'm looking forward to more fun this year! Until next time......
No comments:
Post a Comment