dragonfly days

Vacation day 6 + 7

 

This was our last official vacation day.  We decided to spend the day at Sea World again. They have a deal right now that gives you a pass for the year for the same price as a day pass.  So it was kind of an easy decision to go there again. :)

First though, a picture from our the beach in front of our hotel that morning. We were right down from the naval training base and if you were there at the right time each day you could see something like this.

First stop was the animal adventure area. Jack was able to pet the alligator and learn a bit about them.

Then to a mini pool to touch star fish, anenomes, and horseshoe crabs. Jack flipped the horseshoe crab over to show everyone how they can flip themselves back over. There was also someone there teaching about the animals.

There was a sloth nearby. Points for references here. :)

 

Back through some of our favorite areas. Like the shark exhibit.

A couple of rides. And then it was time for our Dolphin Encounter.

Meet Razzle.

We were able to feed Razzle.

Touch him and learn a little about dolphin anatomy.

We also gave him a few commands and he did a few tricks for us.

After the dolphins...

We met the eels. I've never been a huge fan of eels. Can't say it's changed either. ;) We talked with the person in charge of them and then had the chance to feed them some squid. I passed. Jack did though and he was one of the only ones who got a bite.

That's him with the squid in the tube. Yuck.

We visited this sick sea turtle again. Then it was our to turtle reef to feed the sea turtles.

We were able to hold a sea turtles shell and learn a bit more about their anatomy. We also learned about ways to help save the sea turtles.

After that we went to the Shamu show again. This time sitting dead center in the splash zone.

Luckily we only got a few drops. Disappointing for Jack, but it is February and I didn't want to freeze.  We had a great view. After that we hit some more rides.  Then he wanted to watch the Sea Lion show again. 

That evening we headed over to Seaport Village for dinner and a walk.

We ate at one of the restaurants right on the water. After we bought some hot sauce for our hot sauce lovers here and some cupcakes for ourselves.  Then back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for our return trip.

The last morning we ate breakfast out on the patio. We had a sea gull stalking our french toast.  Then it was time to head home. The normal 8 hour drive took us 10 hours because traffic was so bad. We didn't get home until almost 9. And it was oh so good to see everyone else again. We had a wonderful time, amazing really.  We also missed everyone soooo much.

 

 

 

 

Day 5

Oops. I forgot one little detail yesterday and edited the last post. I forgot to add that we were able to touch and hold an already hatched shark egg. It was very cool.

Day 5 or Wednesday, we decided to head to the zoo.  

Jack was a bit burned out by this day. He was starting to miss the rest of the family and his routines.

I love gorillas. Once upon a time I wanted to visit the Congo and observe them.

The bus tour was a big hit, especially since we sat on the top of the double decker bus. Luckily it didn't start raining until we were done.

Going on the tour gave us a better idea of where we wanted to spend more time.  Watching the baby giraffes for instance.

And the rhinos.

The last time we visited this zoo they were just finishing up the panda exhibit.

The aviary's were a big hit with Jack.

Who am I kidding? I enjoyed them too. 

Things I don't like- sky rides. Things I like even less- sky rides when it is windy. By the time we reached the other side I was about to loose my lunch.

And right after this is when it started to pour. We stopped for a quick souvenir and then headed back to the hotel to warm up and dry out.

That evening, we headed to the Hard Rock cafe for dinner.

He really enjoyed looking at all the memorabilia.  Afterwards, we headed to the mall next door for dessert.

 

Happily we found it. :)

 

 

Day 4

On Tuesday,  we checked out of our hotel, grabbed one last Starbucks and headed south. 

First stop Sea World. Luckily it was a beautiful day.

We decided to sign up for the Up-Close Tour.  It was one of our favorite parts. First we went behind the scenes and talked about the dolphins and got a glimpse of the mama and baby dolphin in the back, along with some other species. 

Then we saw a sea turtle that was being treated. Next up we were able to see the labs where they test the water and  the operating room.

After that we headed over to the shark lab.

Where we saw the egg incubator.

I don't know if you can make out the shark in the egg, but it was very cool to see in swimming around in the egg. We also were able to hold an already hatched egg, very cool.

Then we were able to touch the sharks in this tank.

Someone was really thrilled about the whole thing.

I think I want a display of shark jaws in my house. Seriously. I should live in a museum.

I would highly recommend the tours. We both learned a lot and enjoyed seeing some of the inner workings. The tour guides are more than willing to answer questions. 

After the tour we had some lunch and walked around some more. It was getting hot out and we were feeling the it, so we bought some hats. Jack picked a fedora, of course. I took whatever hat would fit my big head. They only had one.

We took in the dolphin show. It wasn't like the one I remembered from years past. A lot less dolphin and a lot more human acting. It was neat, but I really enjoyed the dolphin shows. Right after the dolphin show we headed over to the Shamu show.  We really enjoyed that.

Jack was praying to get wet. I was glad we didn't. :)

We stopped by the tide pool after the show to see some starfish. Those have always been a favorite. Then we walked through all of the aquariums.  It was getting late, but we had time to make it to the sea lion show. That was definitely Jack's favorite.  He loved that you could dance and work with sea animals. :)

Then it was time to go. We checked in to our new hotel, down in the bay.  After that we headed out to find some dinner. That turned out to be a lot harder than planned. It was Valentine's day so everything was packed. The only resturants near by were expensive bars, no thanks.  After trying to find another place, we finally settled on Subway. Gotta love it. 

 

 

Vacation day 3

After getting a glimpse of the ocean the night before, Jack was determined that we spend the next day at the ocean. It worked for me. The weather was iffy at best and I didn't really want to pay a fortune to get rained out of an attraction. We headed to Torry Pines beach, which was very close to our hotel.  He was mesmerized.

It was a perfect day for picking up some shells and playing in the sand.

But someone couldn't stay out of the water.

And it was windy and overcast.

And once he got his shorts wet in the freezing cold water, he was pretty much over the ocean. :(  We decided to leave and get something for lunch. I was hoping to persuade him to go back to the beach, but it wasn't happening.   We also walked aorund a few shops in Del Mar. After that we decided to head for the Children's Pool in La Jolla.

It's a wonderful place to observe harbor seals up close.

It's also a pupping ground.

Although one of us enjoyed the spray from the ocean. :) I asked if he wanted to go back to the beach and play and he said no. I told him he didn't have to get wet, we would just play on the beach. He said, "I'll get wet, no matter what. I just can't help myself."

After that it was back to the hotel for a warm shower and some faetime with the siblings.  Then we ate at a pizza joint down the street. He watched a movie while I packed up our things, it was our last night in this hotel.

I'll continue the rest tomorrow, this post got a little long. :)  Tomorrow will  be all about Sea World.

 

vacation days 1-2

I'm trying to split the trip up into managable pieces. :)

Here we are getting ready to leave.  It's a rule to have a pic at the start of a road trip.  Eight hours in the car. That was a long drive. By the time we got there, I questioned my sanity in ever planning the trip.

As soon as we got to the hotel, Jack facetimed home.   That night all we did was get dinner and shower.  I unfortunately ate something that didn't sit well with me and I was up all night long. I repeat ALL NIGHT LONG.  By the time Jack woke up I was a wreck. Luckily there was Starbucks at the hotel. I pulled it together, well with the help of a phone call from hubby and we set out to have a good day anyways.  We decided to do Legoland that day since the weather was in our favor.  Originally we were planning on going on Monday and getting the homeschool discount, but it was supposed to rain on Monday.

He was so excited.  Everything was so thrilling to him. I think I have a rollercoaster junkie on my hands.

This was our first ride.

Of course we had to get a shot with Lego Harry Potter. I didn't even think to get a pic of myself.

This was his first real experience at an amusement park.

He loved the brick wall at the cafe.

Learning how to make apple fries is my new personal quest in life. Those were yummy. And look who actually tried them.

I burned out real quick and by 4 o'clock was trying not to fall asleep on the benches. So we reluctantly called it a day.

We went back to the hotel for a bit so I could rest while he played with his souvenir lego set.  

On the way to dinner, we stopped by one of the beaches right by our hotel for his first glimpse at the ocean.

He decided it was pretty cool.

And by the time we ordered dinner he was looking pretty tired too.

 

I'm happy to say that thankfully we both slept well the second night.

 

 

scenes from the weekend 10/09

The birthday version. For Jack's birthday we went to a nearby city to visit the aquarium at one of the hotels.  (sorry...trying to avoid search terms here).   The boy has been obsessed with ocean life for a while now and what better way to celebrate his birthday than doing something he loves.

Even better when there is a race car parked right in the lobby. Cars and sea life. Awesome!

Alex, Jack and a komodo dragon.  What we found really odd is how sweet and peaceful he looked. It looked like he was smiling.

Piranhas. We also saw some Arapiama, both of these are his favorites from the show River Monsters. He was so excited to see them in person.

Talisa and Jack at the touch tank. There were different rays and horseshoe crabs in there.

Jack, Talisa and the golden crocodile. Awesome since we just studied Thailand.

After the aquarium we: went to lunch, went to the pet store (didn't buy anything), went to the mall, then we went to a kids pizza place to play off some energy,  then it was time to head home.  It was a great day and declared the most awesome day ever by the birthday boy.  Today was spent in full-fledged recovery mode.  Oh and giving Jack his present which was two r/c cars. He LOVES them.

On the list for this week:

• choir
• yoga
• corn maze and farm field trip
• swimming, maybe.
• Apple fest, hopefully. :)
• a nature walk to look for leaves that have fallen
• making cinnamon spice play dough
• decorate for fall, yes still working on it.
• finish painting master bath, yes still working on that too.
• finish dining room picture frames and hang.
• return jeans to target.
• pumpkin snickerdoodles
• r/c car time. :)
• The older kids have two days off this week! Yay! 
• hopefully start baking some goodies for Halloween now that I am getting some room in my freezer.

What's on your list?

scenes from the weekend May 29

 

Jack had his first offical campout this weekend. Pictures are courtesy of Alex.  He was so excited that he was literally bouncing up and down for 12 hours before going saying how excited he was.  They made it home safe and sound and everyone is exhausted, apparently he didn't sleep the night they were gone. 

So on the list for this week:

• catch up on sleep for everyone. :)
• bbq's and neighborhood parties
• Zac's birthday!!
• tennis
• yoga
• park
• homeschooling
• water park time- haven't been getting near enough with the weird weather
• library- oops!
• housecleaning, want to finish some serious cleaning and the little decluttering I have left to do.
• start working on stocking the freezer up.
• garden time. We have tons of kale, chard, and spinach. I want to work on getting some frozen this week.

What's on your list?

 

 

October 18 2010

This past weekend we were able to go away and take a mini vacation. We were meeting our family from back east down in Vegas and we had a load of things we needed/wanted to do  down there so we decided to stay the night. It was exhausting and fun!

Jack loved the water feature in one of the hotels.

 

We were able to find lacrosse sticks for the girls. Did I mention practice started last week. So excited for that.

The boys and I waited outside and tried to get rid of some excess energy.

We stayed in a great hotel and it even had a Trader Joes right across the street.  The kids were able to get some swimming in, we were able to spend a lot of time with our visiting family and we're pretty sure we'll be doing it again.