La Jolla and Sea World after dark

Day 4 of our trip we originally planned on driving to Huntington Beach and hanging out with my family at the beach. We needed a light day from all the parks and that way Evan and Ryan could play together and I could visit with the family and meet Brooke's other little boy, Adam. Unfortunately, Evan got sick - probably from having too much fun 2 days in a row (he went to a few play dates the day after Legoland). We were heading north anyway so we stopped in La Jolla to visit the Birch Aquarium and check out the beach.

The Aquarium was tiny, as we expected, and the beaches were packed, as we didn't expect since it was overcast. Here are some photos of us at the Aquarium and a few on the beach. We looked for crabs, shells, hermit crabs and seals (on Seal Rock). We had some gelato and sorbetto ~ yes, that's right, Ryan tried something new. He said, "It wasn't too bad" as he was practically licking the bowl.

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We headed to Sea World after for the night show. Sea World at night was pretty awesome. We went there with the intentions of giving Ryan a teaser (we had unlimited entry for 5 days) but we had a ton of fun with not a lot of people around. We went to some of the attractions that we thought would be busy the next day and visited some shows you could only see at night. We did the aerial tram and the sky tower to look above the park. Ryan loved the Arctic simulator ride where we 'flew' on a helicopter in the Artic during a storm, then we saw the Arctic animals in the dark. The beluga whales looked like ghosts so that was cool. I finally got to see the Cirque de La Mer show which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. There was acrobatics and comedy. The highlight of the night, though, was Shamu Rocks in which they did a show with the trainers and the whales set to rock music and lights. It was really entertaining, but late. We were pooped after that. Sorry the photos for Shamu Rocks kind of stink, we couldn't see the whales coming so we did the best we could.

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Wild Animal Park

Day 3 of our trip we went to the Wild Animal Park. At first I was scared that it was going to be a dud compared to the other things we had done, but that was not the case. The Park is beautiful and spectacular. Unfortunately it was a lot hotter because we were further from the beach, but we could rationalize it as an authentic trip into an African safari or an Asian exploration. We saw a lot of animals that were similar to the zoo, since it is a breeding facility for the zoo, but we also got to see Dino Mountain where they had moving dinosaurs in the forest. It was cool to see even though we had to walk up a mountain in the heat. The view over the free range exhibits was amazing. We could have taken balloon rides there and viewed the park from overhead. There were spritzing stations to walk through beacause of the heat. The pond areas were amazing looking as well. It wasn't your ordinary animal park.

We went on a 3.5 hour photo caravan tour, which was definately the highlight of the day. We were able to get up close and personal with the free roaming animals. We fed giraffe's twice and we got to feed rhinos and pet them! We were surrounded by rhinos at one point and they were snorting for more food but they were so friendly - we LOVED it!!! We have a ton of photos of animals but I'm just posting the ones of us in them:

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Legoland

Day 2 of the trip we met up with my cousin Brooke, her son Evan and her cousin Bryce. It was so much fun going to Legoland with another kid because Ryan and Evan didn't seem to notice that they had been standing in lines. We were there from 11am to 8pm and we didn't get to try every ride. We spent too long in some lines that ended up being dud rides but the fun roller coaster rides were fairly quick lines - we will definately remember that for next time. We got a lot of pictures of us from the roller coaster rides but I'd have to scan those in to post:( Instead, I'm posting pictures of us around the park. There were lots of Lego creatures to be on the lookout for and tons of little rides to go on - boat tours, helicopter rides, horse rides, boat rides, the list goes on. We competed in a firetruck race where we had to pump the fire truck from one end to the other, put out a fire, then pump the truck back. We were in second place (but I think we could have done better if we had coordinated better). So much fun ~ here are the photos:

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San Diego Zoo

This is the first part of our San Diego 2009 Vacation.

We left Washington with barely any sleep in the few days before the trip due to record breaking temperatures of over 100 degrees!!! When will we ever get to say we flew from Washington to San Diego to get a break from the heat?

Our first stop from the rental car place was the San Diego Zoo. We walked around for 6 or 7 hours and had a ton of fun looking at the animals, riding the arial tram and zoo tram. Here are some pictures of us at the zoo.

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One of my favorite moments is finding out that it is mating season for the Galapagos turtles. They crack me up! Where was the video camera when we needed it? We got to see the rare panda sisters but missed the mom because she was about to give birth. The elephants have a new area and they looked like they were really enjoying it - they get there food up high in buckets with a hole that they put there trunk through. Of course we visited the reptile house and rode the tram twice because Ryan liked it so much. Although it was fun, we were all ready for a good nights sleep with air conditioning:)

Summer is Here!

We have had some crazy great weather in May and June so we bought a slip'n'slide so we could enjoy the coolness of the water in our own backyard.


Too bad it hurt for a couple of days after.

I wish we had our camera for the day before. We went to Long Lake and Ryan went tubing with Stefany. He was dying to get flipped off and when he finally did it was hilarious. He was in the middle of a conversation with Stefany when Erin took off suddenly and whipped them around so fast over a wave that mid-conversation Ryan got flipped up and over Stefany over the back of the tube with flailing arms and legs. He loved it and didn't want to go home.

Baseball Season

We've been really busy with baseball every weekend so I thought I'd post some pictures of Ryan playing with his team. He's #09 and playing for the Cardinals this season. It's the first year of the pitching machine.

We took some time out to play put put also. I'm taking the pictures because the boys were too busy loosing to me :)

Port Townsend

Here are some pictures of our visit to Port Townsend. We went on the hottest day in April so we didn't get sunburned like all the people who stayed in town. It was a beautiful day and we had a ton of fun.

We were at Fort Worden playing around the Kinzie fortress. It was built between 1908 and 1910 on that spot because it was in the perfect position to see and protect the Sound.

There are all kinds of ladders to climb, dark halls to explore, and abandoned rooms to roam around in. It could get a little scary because it would go from full light to pitch black. Bruce got me and Ryan really good a few times.




We also spent some time on the beach where there were little teepees and huts and abandoned boats to play around in. We climbed rocks around the light house and walked along the water.





Bruce and I saw a migrating whale - well, we heard it first. I thought it was a sea lion moaning but it was the whale. He spit a few times before he went out of sight and he was followed by 3 sea otters. They are so cute. We also saw a bunny rabbit, just so you know. So much fun before they close the Hood Canal Bridge for awhile:)