Tuesday was another drive, luckily a shorter one this time. We headed over to San Diego so we could squeeze in a trip to Sea World before heading up to the wedding. I think we had to stop three times on that drive. Twice for border patrol checks and once for the CA produce check. It was weird to realize how close we were to the border. I'm so intrigued by other countries and wish I could spend more time exploring them.
About 1/2 and hour out of San Diego traffic started slowing down and I noticed a cop car was leading the lane at a pretty slow speed, then we came to a complete standstill. I think we saw about 5-6 cops converging. I started to wonder if we were going to experience the ubiquitous California highspeed chase. I called my sister to see if she could find out any info on the internet. We figured out pretty fast that it was a car accident. About that time I saw life flight taking off. Once it left we were able to start moving again. Good thing too since we were about to hit rush over.
It was a relief to finally make it to our hotel room. I found an awesome hotel, right next to sea world. We had an amazing view from our room and it was pretty spacious. They nickel and dimed us a bit with no free internet and paid parking, but it was worth it. The kids really enjoyed the two swimming pools and hot tubs they had there. We had to keep a close eye on Fefe though because she was liable to jump in when no one was looking. Loofa had his arm floaties (which he ordinarily cannot use at our aquatic center) so he was in heaven. It was good for him to get socomfortable with the water.
Since Sea World didn't open till 10am we took our time getting ready the next morning. I hadn't been to SW since I was a little kid so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. Luckily they had a schedule of the events on the park map so we could somewhat plan out our day. It wasn't too hot that day, but it is SOOOOO muggy in San Diego that it was a relief to go in the indoor exhibits.
We checked out the penguins first. That wasn't too exciting. I took the kids on an Antarctic motion similation ride while J kept Fefe. Ephant did well on those type of rides at Disneyland so I thought she would be okay. Boy was I wrong. She is no child of mine. At least after the ride let out the she was able to enjoy seeing the beluga whales. I don't know if she will ever enjoy any major rides.
"Piranhas are cool!"
Our first big event we went to was the Sea Lion show. Uncle I had given us a tip to buy plastic sheeting from home depot and sit in the splash zone. We had it all unfolded and ready to go, but we weren't fast enough pulling it up because they splashed us right away. I think I was hit the worst. I smelled like fish the rest of the day. It was extremely uncomfortable. It was a pretty amazing show though, I thought the pre-show was pretty good too.
We ate lunch after that and I tried to stay in the sun so I could dry off faster. At that point I realized I had misplaced my Amex card and the hotel room card. I ran back to the sea lion place, but it was all closed up already. Then I ran to lost and found at the front of the park. Thankfully someone had turned them in. What a relief to not have to worry about that.
Loofa's favorite part was the Atlantis ride (like splash mountain). I think he rode it 3-4 times. The first time I was with him, I asked him if he was nervous and he said "what does nervous mean?" So I explained it to him and he said no. He is definitely my child :) Ephant and Brother B refused to have anything to do with that ride. They did love the Ray exhibit though.
The rays were so friendly (probably because of the food people could buy to feed them) so I think we spent a good 1/2 hour just petting them. Fefe was close to the end of her rope at that point. We discovered the kids area soon after that so she was rejuvenated for a little bit. Once again I forgot to bring diapers, but, unlike Disneyland, SW actually had a place where you could buy them.
This bag of chips was the only thing between us and a nuclear meltdown. Notice the lovely scratch on her cheek? Yep, I did that. Brilliant.
Aaah, peace.
This was Ephant and Brother B's favorite ride. It was pretty tame.
J is sad that no one else will appreciate the true genius of this picture. He managed to snap this while it was going pretty fast.
Shamu was pretty interesting. The whales were amazing although I thought the show storyline was a little hokey. J was late arriving so Loofa could have another ride on Atlantis. Fefe's small catnap right beforehand helped, but even though she is quite an animal lover, the big whales were not enough to make her happy. One of the other shows we attended earlier was a pet show. Cats, dogs and even pigs doing tricks. I thought that would be the highlight of her day, but it wasn't.
When all was said and done with, we were sun burned, we stunk and our bodies ached, but it was a success. Our tickets were 2 days for the price of one, but one day was plenty. It was so dead there that we made it through everything pretty quickly. It was a relief to get home and shower. Fefe went to bed really early that night and even slept through the tv noise while the rest of us were still up.
I found this on our screen door while I was sitting at the computer the other day. I've always loved praying mantis'. This is the first one I've seen since we lived in North Carolina. We kept it in a jar for a couple days for the kids to look at, but let it go after that. I was somewhat tempted to keep it, but it would have been a pain to find bugs for it to eat.
Ephant decided she was ready to try pierced ears again about a month ago. We were walking through the mall and I told her I was willing if she was. She had her ears pierced when she was 5, but we took them out after 6 months of her freaking out if anyone even touched her ears. She is doing much better this time so maybe it'll stick. She seems to have inherited a sensitivity to the cheaper metals so we'll have to be careful with that. So far she is doing a good job keeping them clean and rotated all on her own. She's pretty excited to pick out some different ones when she can.
Fefe is having the hardest time adjusting to her toddler bed of all the kids. She's the first one to share a room with another sibling during that transition. At first she kept taking really short naps and then would come and cry at her door. She's gotten better about that, but she still wakes up early in the morning and tries to sleep with Ephant. Half the time Ephant doesn't even notice and when we come in to wake them up she has no idea Fefe was next to her. The other half we have to go in there and resettle Fefe. I think she's close to learning, but it sure has been frustrating.
I ran my third Run for Sight (5K) about a week ago. I hadn't run the whole time we were on vacation and I've been having major problems with my IT band, but I still managed to get the best time I've ever done. 29:50. Jenn and I got 2nd and 3rd place in our age group (okay, so there were only 3 of us). Her son Jake (9) ran with us too and he managed to beat me. Wish I could bottle up that energy.
