Sea World

On Friday, we met up with Grandpa Bud and Grandma Lorna and went to check out Sea World in San Diego. Before we entered, we had to see how we measured up!
Addy was not quite tall enough to do anything.
Emily was tall enough to do most things.
Cole was tall enough to do everything.
And Chad was confused and thought he was measuring up to the Gorilla at the Salt Lake Zoo! (Or that's the best explanation I can come up with for this pose!)
I'm not sure what I expected of Sea World, but it was definitely different than I imagined. We started out by seeing some random animals.
I'm not even sure what this animal is!
Nope, not a snake...a legless lizard. I didn't even know that they existed!!
A normal lizard
And a colorful bird.
Another colorful bird.
Cole's favorites, the penguins!
After looking at non-sea animals for a while, we wandered upon the dolphin show that was about to start.
The dolphins were neat and did lots of fun tricks.
However, the show also had divers and a whole storyline that were less intriguing to the kids (and me)!
Although the trainers that rode on the dolphins were pretty neat and talented!
After the dolphins, we decided it was time to see some sea animals (or at least one's that live in and around water).
So we saw sharks,
And a shark mouth,
Some very, very large fish,
And lots and lots and lots of starfish!
We always like the hands-on exhibits where you can actually touch them.
Addy's arms weren't quite long enough to touch them,
Until Grandpa gave her a boost.
There was also a giant starfish. (Kind of like the world's largest groundhog!!)
My favorite part of Sea World was feeding the seals. It was a trick to get the fish to the seal before the bird (you can see it swooping in the background) came and grabbed it. They were pretty aggressive birds.
I think this might have been Emily's favorite part too. Even if it did make her hands smell fishy!
After visiting these animals, we went to see the Shamu show. I enjoyed this one much more than the dolphin show. The killer whale is an amazing animal!
Yes, the kids decided they wanted to sit in the splash zone.
Although we didn't get wet where we were, so Cole and Emily moved down farther so they could get splashed...which they did!
We eventually talked the kids into going on a rafting type ride. They liked it so much we had to go twice! The second time we got much wetter. I wasn't thrilled because it wasn't warm!
We finished the day by going to the Arctic section of the park. Chad, Cole, and Emily took a "helicopter" ride to get there. Addy and I just walked, which made us really tired by the time we got there.
While in this area, we saw possibly the most intriguing, yet ugliest animal alive...the walrus.
We also saw some Beluga whales.
And Addy's favorite animal, the polar bear.
Then, the kids got to pretend to be polar bears and climb through their caves.
There were several other things we didn't quite get to that day, including most of the rides. But, we certainly had a good time and saw plenty. It's probably not my first choice of money value for entertainment, but we had a good time!

Disneyland--The Final Day

Since Thursday was our last day at Disneyland, we decided to spend a little time at both parks to revisit all of our favorite rides and activities. The boys went in early with Aunt Katie's family and rode some of the big kid rides, while the girls slept in and packed up the hotel before heading over.
Emily really wanted to do the Alice in Wonderland ride because she had read the story in her book.
So the girls rode that one and then went to find the boys. Apparently they hadn't had a good breakfast before they left, so they stopped for a snack. The Mickey Mouse waffle is highly recommended. The Mickey Mouse cookie is not!
We couldn't leave without going through Sleeping Beauty's castle again (for at least the 3rd time if not more, I think I lost count!)
Emily also really wanted to go wait in line again to see if there were different princesses today. However, thankfully, after we left the castle to go meet up with the others, we ran right into Sleeping Beauty herself.Thankfully talking to her gave Emily the Princess fix she needed and we were set. I happily took 5 minutes versus over an hour!
Princess Aurora was Addy's absolute favorite for some reason. She even gave her a huge hug!
Other favorites included the Matterhorn (which I couldn't ride so I don't have any pictures of it) and the Toy Story ride,
For which I finally found a way to keep Addy's glasses on her face! (Of course she reminds me of Mike TV from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!)
Did I mention that every time we passed the teacups Aunt Katie talked the kids into riding it?
At some point we stopped for lunch. Apparently Addy felt like she had been starved throughout the week and thus needed to stash some food for later.
It was one of those moments where you just have to shake your head and laugh (and take a picture of course).
We also went back up to Toontown where Cole decided that he wanted to be a Toon! So he stood in front of City Hall.
He took his picture in the middle of Toontown.
He drove some Toons around in a car,
Which he then had to fill with Toon gas!
Eventually we made it over to Goofy's house and playland.
And the girls went to see where Minnie Mouse lives. Addy answered her phone and took a message for her.
The girls took a nap in her bed!
And checked out what she had in her fridge!
They watched her magic dishwasher that runs all by itself.
And finally, they made a wish in Minnie's Wishing Well.
We finished in Toontown by going on the Roller Coaster. That was quite the event. 45 minutes of wait for less than a minute of a ride! Not the best wait-to-ride ratio in the park.
And who knew pregnant women can do pretty much anything at the park, but we cannot ride the Toontown roller coaster!
I think they had fun without me anyway!
You can't visit Disneyland without visiting Mickey Mouse of course!
Of course we couldn't leave without some souvenirs. Apparently stuffed animals were the popular choice!
All in all, we had a great time at Disneyland! We created lots of memories that the kids will have for a very long time. And of course, they are already planning a return trip! I'm pretty sure it fits the ad that says, tickets $160, food lots of dollars, souvenirs $50, time spent as a family...priceless!