Spring Break in San Diego: Day Three

Sea World! We started off at the Dolphin Encounter. Brynlee and Ashlee were the only ones that were able to touch them, but it was still so fun to see them up close!  I was holding Trevor and leaning him close to the water, and he would freak out.  I guess he loves animal facts, but the real thing....not so much!

Ashlee got splashed...

Brynlee touching the dolphin...so lucky!

They loved it when you splashed water into their mouths.  It was so fun to see their teasing, funny personalities!

Then we headed over to the Sea Lions (and forked over our life savings for 5 little fish to feed them) Ha...okay, $7 for 5 fish. I still call that robbery! Especially when a pesky seagull comes and snatches one out of your hand before you even get to attempt to throw it to a sea lion. Poor Landon got to experience that one.  Trevor wanted nothing to do with touching the fish.

We wandered around some more, visiting all the different animal exhibits, riding a few rides and seeing some shows.  We went to the Shamu show and the kids wanted to sit in the soak zone.  Yes, that is correct....SOAK not SPLASH.  Olivia and I sat many rows back :)  Trevor soon discovered he does NOT like orcas because they splash ALOT of water.

After their section was splashed repeatedly by the whale's tail, Trevor made his way up to me and Olivia in the upper section.  He was NOT amused.  Is it bad that I was fumbling to find my camera to get a picture of him instead of consoling him?  Poor guy.

Drenched after the show...

The first time we went on Riptide Rescue, Ashlee did not join us.  She hung out by the stroller with Olivia and Trevor.  Later in the afternoon, we went back and finally convinced her to go.  This is BIG, I'm telling you...HUGE!  She clung to her daddy the whole time!

....while Brynlee and Landon had the time of their lives. (I don't think Brynlee heard the "Please keep your arms in the boat at all times" instructions...)   I'm pretty sure they went on it at least 6 times.  There was no line so they got on again and again.  Ashlee was satisfied with her one and only time.  I'm so proud of her.  She is not a thrill seeker AT ALL and I'm glad she did it at least once.

I was really worried about Landon, especially when I rode with him his first time.  He's known for tossing his cookies in the car through Logan Canyon, but he loved it and didn't get motion sickness at all.

She was smiles afterwards, but answered "no" when asked if she wanted to go again.

Definitely a FUN day!  But not one without a few "Mother of the Year" moments.  I realized when we got there that I forgot sunscreen.  Seriously.  What mother of fair-skinned children leaves home without it.  I'm sure Sea World would make a killing on selling that.  I would have paid the $20 I'm sure they would charge for a travel-sized bottle.  And one last "Mother of the Year" moment.  We lost Trevor.  Nothing makes you as sick as not knowing where your child is.  We were splitting up to go on the Journey to Atlantis ride where the line was about 45 minutes long.  Rob got in line with Brynlee and Landon, and I went to wait in the Child Swap line.  I realized once we sat down on the bench that Trevor was not with me.  I wasn't sure if he was with Rob and of course, I had Rob's cell phone in the diaper bag so it wouldn't get wet on the ride.  I left Olivia in the stroller with Ashlee, ran back to find Rob in line, discovered Trevor wasn't there, and panicked.  Rob and I took off, leaving Brynlee and Landon in line.  After what seemed like FOREVER (I'm sure it was only 3 minutes), I found him tucked away in a corner by the sting ray tank, not far from the line entrance.  Of course, I see Rob at a distance, heading away from the area and can't get his attention to let him know I found Trevor.  We tried to go after him, but then I lost sight of him.  I didn't know which way he went so after obviously choosing the way he didn't go, we went back toward the ride and found him heading back as well.  Never want to go through that ever again.

When asked what their favorite part of the vacation was, they all agreed it was Sea World!

Spring Break in San Diego: Day Two

We planned Sunday around "Sabbath-type" activities. It was General Conference that weekend so we watched the morning session of Conference in our hotel room. Then we drove to the San Diego temple. Wow, it is more beautiful in person than in pictures, which is pretty darn amazing! The temple grounds were closed so we got pictures outside the fence.

Then we drove to Old Town to go to the Mormon Battalion Center. Definitely a place I'd recommend. You go through different rooms as the story of the Mormon Battalion is shown via an interactive movie. Quite fun! At one point, the sister missionary asked who wanted to volunteer to dress as a soldier. Trevor's hand immediately shot in the air. I'm not quite sure he knew what he was volunteering for. He stood there as she told about the different parts of the uniform and got progressively shy as people were smiling and "ahhhhing" and commenting on how cute and brave he was. It was quite entertaining, as Trevor always is...

There is a little activity area outside for the kids...

Panning for gold...

Can you see that speck of gold??

Then we drove over to Balboa Park for the kids to play and yep...climb trees.

Yes, that is Brynlee up on top of that arch.  Does it surprise you?  Nope, me neither...

When we were driving around the park, the kids saw this tree and just HAD to climb it.  

We went back to Old Town for dinner at Cafe Coyote for some Mexican food.  It was meh, okay.  I guess I was expecting spectacular authentic Mexican food from the reviews and the extremely long line (as opposed to the walk-right-in-seating at the restaurant across the street) but I wasn't overly impressed.  So long Day Two...next up, Day Three at Sea World!

Spring Break in San Diego: Day One

It's not often that we go somewhere for Spring Break.  In fact, I think the last time we went it was because of the same reason...we had free nights at Holiday Inn.  We had 5 free nights this time and I've really been wanting to go to San Diego for awhile now.  I've never been and thought this was the perfect chance to go.

We drove to San Diego on Friday.  It was a half day for the older kids at school so I opted to not send them and drive the whole way in one day instead.  We pulled into our hotel a "lovely" 13 hours later.  I'm grateful our kids are pretty good travellers.  We've made three 12+ hour road trips in the last 9 months and they've all gone pretty smoothly.  When we got there, the kids immediately headed for the pool.

I'm going to call Saturday "Day One."  I decided to not do the San Diego Zoo on Saturday because I thought it was going to be crazy on a weekend.  That decision later came back to kick me in the butt but oh well.  I'll explain on Day 4.

Saturday was overcast, but still pleasant. It was perfect jacket weather. We drove up to Children's Beach in La Jolla. Rob's mom had told us about the seals on the beach so was that our first stop.

Apparently Tangled is a scary movie for T.  This is when Mother Gothel is telling Rapunzel that she will never leave the tower.  You have to admit, that part is a little scary!

We went down on one part of the beach and there was a lonely seal hanging out in its own.

Then we headed over to another side of the beach where there were quite a few seals laying out.  It was fun to watch them come in and out of the water and flop along on the beach to get where they wanted to go.

Hmmm, something funny?  Guess you had to be there...


When Rob's parents were here a few years ago, there were animal rights activists preventing people from going on the beach.  I guess there was some law passed so now there is a full time park ranger there to keep the people from getting too close to the seals, but you are allowed to go down on the beach. 

Then we headed to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.

Three of the kids on the staircase up to the top of the lighthouse.  Brynlee was in a grumpy mood (this is SO booorrrinng) and didn't go into the lighthouse with the rest of us.

Rob found her outside and tried to get a picture of her but she didn't want to look at the camera or smile.

We headed back to the car and realized at the bottom of the trail to the parking lot that Brynlee wasn't with us.  We thought she had gone ahead of us and would be waiting at the car, but she wasn't.  Rob went back up to find her and convinced her to go inside the lighthouse.

Then they walked over to the Cabrillo National Monument while I fed Olivia in the car.  Stand like a statue...

We went to Point Loma Seafoods for lunch, went back to the hotel to change rooms to a bigger one that became available after our first night there so Landon and Trevor wouldn't have to sleep on the floor, and then headed to the beach.

Brynlee finally declared "This is the best vacation!"  Apparently, all she needs is space to run free!  The kids had so much fun trying to outrun the water and eventually conceded.

Typical Trevor pose with one hand on hip, the other waving around as he explains something that just happened.  Pretty sure it had something to do with a wave getting the best of him...

Biggest and littlest sisters snuggling on the blanket...

 Rob braved the cold water while Olivia and I hung out on the beach...

 
Good night, San Diego...

Olivia at 6 months

Yikes, it's been too long since I've blogged!  I need to play catch up and I'll start off with Miss Olivia.  I'm going to back track to 5 months old since I didn't get some pictures of her on here that I finally downloaded from the camera last week. Olivia always has something in her mouth. Yes, it's mostly due to the fact that babies this age do that. Not only does she still suck her fingers and occasionally her thumb, but she has also added toes to the mix. She grabs everything in her reach and it goes straight to her mouth.

Five months also brought her first taste of solid food. Can't say she was a huge fan, but she's slowly adjusting as we've added green beans, carrots, and sweet potatoes.

More interested in stuffing the bib in her mouth...

Cute, messy face!

I really need someone to teach me how to take pictures (angles, lighting, etc.) but when you're taking pictures of such a cute baby, who cares about that stuff, right?  One Sunday it was a beautiful spring day and she got to wear one of her springy dresses to church...complete with a giant white flower  :)

She is now 6 months old!  Time is going by way too fast.   She had her well-child checkup today and her stats are 16 lbs. 9 oz. (60%) and 27 inches (88%). She has slowed down on her weight gain but the doctor wasn't concerned since she is still slightly above average. Once again, he declared she was perfect. She is sitting up for short periods of time before slowly bending in half or leaning to the side and falling over. She continues to be a really happy baby!

We were in San Diego last week so here are some 6 month pictures of her on the beach.  It was overcast and breezy so Olivia and I hung out on the sand while the others braved the ocean.

 

She loved the sand! Luckily none made it into her mouth.

Up next...Spring Break in San Diego.  We loved it!  Hopefully it doesn't take me a couple of months to blog about it!