San Diego

The San Diego zoo was not as spectacular as I was expecting. Everyone hyped it up and so I was not as impressed with it as I thought I should be. It was great and wonderful and HUGE but alot of exhibits were missing oh like the lions. Who doesn't have lions? Anyway what made the zoo great for us was finding out that our city pass included ALL the transportation inside the park!!! That was nice and saved g-ma from a ton of walking.

We did see some great exhibits and the weather was perfect.

Our first stop was the monkeys. We saw some little ones and some Orangutans. There was a huge old grandpa orangutan there. All of a sudden he just appeared. There were chimpanzees there as well swinging all over and one got brave and hit the big huge orangutan!

We moved on to one of the 3 or 4 aviaries. We saw some really pretty birds. The hornbill would not sit still it took me nearly 10 min to get his picture!

The gorillas were next. They were all pretty active. Perfect day to see animals. Not too hot and not too cold. Next to the gorillas was a small area with reptiles and and alligator and a hippo.

We took the air tram to
see the polar bears.

The polar bears were in rare form that day! We got to see them swimming and fighting and playing with toys. The kids really loved that.

We started walking to the nearest bus stop to see the animals on the other side of the park. On our way there we past the panda exhibit. The line was FOREVER long so we didn't go in. As we looked up though we did get to see a panda in the tree tops. We got on the bus and we
drove past the elephants.

They got to see elephants playing with their
toys and winning treats from those toys.

We got off at the next stop to see all the cats. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the black jaguar but he was black so you can't see him.

We were all winding down so we headed back to the front of the zoo to see the children's zoo area. We saw an empty exhibit that was supposed to have little monkeys in it. We didn't see them. Then Ryan yelled "There he is! Theres a Pygmy Marmoset!!"

Her learned it from Diego. Who said having a tv for a baby sitter is bad? There was a petting zoo and a few other animals.

We headed out to meet Joe's cousin Lee,his wife Nieves and their daughter Sarah at Coronado Island. The kids had a blast playing in the ocean. They got ALL sandy and wet. We got to see a HUGE hermit crab. I lost Brynn's shirt in the ocean so now there is fish who is sporting a hello kitty outfit! We watched the beginning of the sunset and got great pictures of everyone.

We saw an aircraft carrier pulling in to dock.

After the beach we headed to Old Town San Diego for dinner with Lee and his family. We went to this great Mexican place. They were very hospitable and kind. After all the food we headed home for the night.

Sea World

Sea World was great! We saw some black and white dolphins. They loved it when you would tap on the window to their tank. They would come and look right at you. It was really neat.

We went on Journey to Atlantis. It's a wet roller coaster and Joe was all it won't be so bad. He got DRENCHED! LOL!!! I have never been on a roller coaster with an elevator as part of the ride. It was cool!

The penguin exhibit was the best I have ever seen. It was fun to see so many different kinds up close. Ry thought the HUGE Emperor Penguins should go on a diet.

We went to the dolphin show. The dolphins were fun to watch. The kids thought it was so cool to see how high they could jump. They knew just how to splash the audience to soak as many people as possible. We didn't sit in the soak zone this time.

Ryan's favorite exhibit was the sharks.



There were so many kids and then there was a tunnel that went under the tank. The sharks were swimming all around us. Ryan was in heaven.

Shamu was awesome! The kids are still doing the Shamu song. It was crazy to see how huge the killer whales are and how much power they have.

The best part of the day was when the kids got to touch and feed dolphins! It was like magic to be so close to them. I am SO glad my kids got to have that experience. After feeding time the dolphins started playing with their ball and would throw it out of the tank one time it landed on Ry's head!

We saw both the sea otter shows. The 2nd one was the best show of them all. We laughed through the whole thing. They made fun of all the other Sea World shows. It was so funny! And of course our video camera ran out right then. We really wanted to record it.

Our last stop was the aquariums. Out side one of them was a huge tide pool with sea stars you could actually take out of the water!!!

California Adventures!!!

What a fun day!!!! We decided to spend the entire day in California Adventures today. We tried to get all the shows but the lines were long ect... or we didn't get there in time.

As soon as we walked in the park the High School Musical show was just about to start there in the main plaza area. So the kids all sat down on the front row. During the show they called kids up to help in one of the songs and Katya and Tay got to go up! They got to drum on buckets with spoons! Later on Tay got to go up and do the limbo in one of them. The last song they called about 50 kids up to teach them the dance and all our kids got to go up! Tay stayed for some reason. It was so cool!!!

We were headed to the Monsters Inc show when the kids met Goofy. He teased Tay's hair till there was a huge rats nest on her head!! The kids loved the Monsters show. Not as much as the Shrek show at Universal though.

On our way to the other side of the park the Pixar Parade started. We got great seats again! We were so lucky that day. I stood on a wall to get pictures. As the Ratatouille group came through there were 4 chefs on stilts. One bent down to say hi the the kids (mine included) and he lost his balance. He tried to catch himself on a palm tree and missed it. He fell right into the crowd. Hit a lady on teh head and landed on a stroller. It was so stunned to even get pictures! The rest of the parade was so cool!

We rode on all the rides we could get on. Katya cried and screamed in the ferris wheel moving gondolas. I was almost embarrassed at how much she was screaming. We were headed out to get dinner when people started to get settled to watch the electric parade. It was the kids favorite parade. It was so cool! Joe was so nice. He brought me a hot chocolate!




As we left, the fireworks at Disneyland started so we stopped to watch and then went home.

California here we come!!!

Our trip has begun! My brother Brad and his wife Janelle were kind enough to let us swap cars with them so we could go on our trip. Thanks guys!!!

We left good old Salt Lake on April 2nd and headed to our first stop. Las Vegas!

The trip went smoothly. Only40 are we there yets and around 5 I need to go to the bathrooms. Not bad huh? Just after Baker there was a produce truck on fire. We got there as the crews were finishing putting it out. We didn't get the camera out in time to get the truck but we got the big line of stopped traffic. 3 lanes completely stopped for 2 miles and still piling up.



In Vegas we got our room and took the kids down to swim.

They have a lazy river and a giant pool and then 2 smaller pools. A really nice resort. After swimming we got dinner at Chipotle and then we were off to show the kids Las Vegas. The loved all the lights and the M&M store. We caught the Bellagio show but the camera chose that moment to stop working!!!!! So I got NO pictures!!! I am still mad. But the kids got to see it and they loved it!

Thursday we were off to Cali. Joe went to Best Buy to get a new camera. Our credit card company actually called us to make sure that we were in Vegas making charges no more then 3 min after he bought it! That made me happy. The drive to Cali was not as smooth as the drive to Vegas. There were more "are we there yets" and so many "you are invading my personal spaces" I was ready to give them space on the roof! But we made it and no one died.

We went to the Sunset Market here in Oceanside and saw so many cool things. The kids got their faces painted and we got corn on the cob . We went to dinner and then came back to the condo.

Friday we went to Universal Studios. At first we were a bit taken aback by the lack of hospitality when we arrived but once we got there we all had a blast!!!

We started out on the Shrek 4D ride. That was so fun. The kids squealed and screamed in delight.

The studio tour was so cool! We didn't get to see any famous people but it was fun to see sets that had been used in movies I love! So that was awesome! We got to see how some of the special effects are done and saw neat cars from lots of movies and tv shows.

Water world. This was an AWESOME show! Katya wanted to sit in the "soak zone". An actor/stunt man I recognized by sight from tv but not by name was the MC. Paul Anthony Scott. He totally picked on me!! He had one if those canisters that you pump then use a nozzle to spray. He was getting everyone that walked by and people in the audience wet. All the while in his English accent telling everyone that this was a soak zone and if you didn't want to get wet then move. He walked right in front of me and got me SOAKING wet! 5 or so minutes later 2 other guys came out and we started having shouting contests with the other 2 stands. If we weren't up to par then the guy leading that side would get us all wet. As the competition progressed the leader was going to the other groups and getting them wet if his group thought they weren't very good. Make sense? no oh well... so the guy from the side next to us came over to get us wet. I missed something that had happened trying to hide my camera and phone. When I looked up Paul was motioning for me to come up to the fence where he was. For a few seconds I didn't believe him but then I went. He handed me one of those bazooka like water cannon things and told me to shoot the other guy! As I took the water gun I realized it was freakin EMPTY!!!!!!! When I said so the guy from the other side soaked me front and back. Paul started yelling at me saying "Why didn't you shoot him?!" So I yelled right back! I was yelling that it was empty and he better fill it so I could shoot HIM instead! He refilled it. Made to hand it to me and then shot me with it! I was DRENCHED!!! He then handed me the again empty gun. I called him a jerk and went to hit him with the gun all the while screaming it was my turn and to fill it back up for me. Yah he threw a bucket of water at me. I stood there so wet it was as if I had jumped in the pool! He took the gun from me and bowed to me and thanked me a million times. Everyone cheered. Later in the show we caught each others eye and he bowed again and thanked me. After the show we got to meet the actors. I walked up to him and yell that he sucked. He turned and just started laughing and then gave me a huge hug. As we talked he told me he has NEVER done that to an audience member before. I'm so mad at myself that I didn't ask why me. So I am trying to find a way to contact him. It was so awesome! I was wet the whole rest of the day but it was worth it. I am just glad I wasn't wearing white!

The kids got to meet Fival, Sponge Bob, Curious George and Frankenstein. Ryan got to meet his favorite people! Dora and Diego! He was SOOOOOO excited to see them! The kids saw Shrek and Scooby Doo as well.

It was a great first day in Cali. I wanted to take the kids to see Graumens Chinese Theater but we were running out of daylight and traffic didn't look promising. Next time....