The San Diego Zoo

Mommy and the boys

Mommy and baby Koala...what a life
Isn't this eagle cool?! It is SO huge and pretty that it just looks so fake.
Anderson and Ayden checking the map. Where should we go next?

The Map...crazy right? We actually had to put X's through the places we had seen because it was so overwhelming.

The polar bear was swimming around, usually when I go to the zoo all the animals are laying around being bums.

Brothers

Not sure what we were looking at here
Camel, watch out may spit.
Armand loved the peacock on the roof, we spent several minutes waiting for him to get many pictures of it.
Armand likes lots of posed pictures ... lucky me:(

Ashten, AJ, and Ayden

Ashty riding the sabre tooth
I loved how the animal areas seemed so open, not like cages

Today is our last day in San Diego. We headed to the zoo after waking up late again. We've really wasted hours sleeping that could have been spent in a park, but this vacation has been nonstop so a little rest is necessary, (at least for Mom and Dad) the kids have been doing fine with the lack of sleep. Like the Animal Park yesterday this zoo is huge and overwhelming. It's so big that they have buses and bus stops that run throughout the zoo. We made use of these several times today because we would get to a point where we were going to have double back over a place we had already seen, or else we would realize we didn't have much time to see all the animals so we had to choose between them.

As soon as we got in the zoo we realized that the camera battery was almost dead...bummer! It was almost kind of nice not to have to be worrying about taking pictures the whole time, but at the same time I think the kids are so young that if they don't see the pictures they will not remember this trip.

Anyway, this zoo is so cool! There were a few 'features' that we were amazed by. One of them is the moving sidewalks. They took you from the bottom of a very large hill up to the top of it. Along the way you get to see into the animal homes. At the top of one of them is a bird aviary (I think that's what it's called). This was another really great place. Inside were waterfalls and bridges, and of course birds. The other really fun part is that we got to see a lot of animal babies. The baby rhino koala, and elephants were adorable. I wish we would have had more time at both of the parks here, but we made the most out of the time we did have, running nonstop until it closed. Afterwards, guess where we went?!? Yep, back to Sea World. This time we got there early enough that I could go on the Atlantis roller coaster again. I asked Ayden one more time if he wanted to go with me and he said YES! We got in and he started crying. The first day we were here Ashten had to get out because he was crying, so I said if you cry you can't come with me. He did his best to stop, and off we went! The people in our same car were very loud and excitable which only scared Ayden because they were screaming when there wasn't anything scary. He did fine until we went down the huge waterfall. Then he was super scared. He knew that was the easy part. Anyway, it was funny because as soon as we got off the roller coaster he said 'Mommy, you said you would buy me anything I wanted from the gift shop, if I went on the ride with you.' Oops he was right, I had said that two days ago.

The other thing we really wanted to do on our last day there was to sit in the splash zone at the Shamu show. We sat right up front, and there was no one in front of us. We stayed pretty dry until the last couple of minutes of the show, then we were SOAKED! It was GREAT!! The kids had mixed feelings about it, but they were fine after it was over. (It's a little shocking when it happens because the water is SO cold, and salty.) Anyway, off we went to go find Ayden his choice of toys there. The average cost of something in the gift shop is probably about $40.00. We were lucky that he found a basketball hoop for his bedroom door for only $11.00. What a good boy;) That's our day, we got back to the room and we all crashed nice and early.

Sea World

Ashten, Ayden, Grammy, Anderson, and Papa feeding the seals Look at the look on Ashty's face when a bird swooped in and stole the fish from him

The Dolphin Show During the dolphin show we sat in the splash zone, they aren't kidding.

Brad, Taylor, Britany, and Tana

Ayden didn't love the salty water burning all his little cuts on his knees. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time one of my kids fell on this trip I would be very rich!

My boys checking out the flamingos they were fascinated that the birds could stand on one leg.

There was this spray park inside of Sea World. It was every mom's worst nightmare. There was no gate or anyway to keep them in that part of the park and it was a huge area. So being that there are 3 kids versus 2 adults, it was very crazy. Luckily, everyone was found, but just in case I had written my cell phone number on all of the boys' bodies. Next trip like this I will bring a sharpie!

The kids visiting the Clydesdale, mostly for Armand's entertainment.

Tana waiting for everyone to get back from riding the Atlantis roller coaster.

Taylor

AJ was watching for Daddy to come down the waterfall part

Brad, Ayden, and Armand on the Journey to Atlantis

Ashten ended up chickening out so Britany brought him back to me.
The calm before the storm

Brad, Me, and Armand We stopped in to see this show, it was like Saturday Night Live it was pretty funny. This is the Shamu impersonator (the walrus). Were laughing our heads off!
Walking through the shark tank

Our first Shamu show

This morning we woke up, had breakfast, and went to buy some shoes (my feet were dying) and Armand just wanted some shoes. Brad, Britany, and the girls, and Mom and Dad all trekked down to San Diego, about an hour away. It was a beautiful day despite the weather forecast of low 60's and possible rain. I don't think I had ever been to Sea World before so I was surprised that had rides there. It is a really cool park. Our favorite parts were the shows especially if we got to get wet. We also went on the rides. The best one there was the water roller coaster. Almost as soon as you got on it you were dropping down a water fall, then there was this elevator that the car rolled into that lifted you up while tipping you side to side...very creepy. Ayden and Ashten had been on some big rides at Disneyland, but for some reason they did not want to go on it. Ayden went once and then said he wouldn't go again, but I wanted him to come with me so I tried bribing him with choosing anything out of the gift shop, he must have been pretty traumatized because he wouldn't even consider it. Anyway, we watch a few shows, ate WAY too much (Armand). They had this deal where you pay so much and you can eat all day whenever, whatever you want. Armand's goal was to make his money back and then some. We were successful. I think everyone in our group helped him achieve that goal. Anyway the coolest part of Sea World was the end of the day when they do the nighttime Shamu show. It was great with cool lights, good music, and Shamu of course. Anyway, after a long day we had no hotel to go to so we had Dad find us a hotel on Hotwire and paid only $60 for a super nice hotel. (Which made me even more annoyed about paying $53 for the Motel 6). When we got to our room I worked on my finals a bit, while everyone else crashed. It has been so easy to get the kids to sleep this week. I am loving it;)