San Diego Vacation part 2

On the 3rd day of San Diego we headed to Sea World. It was very different than Ben remembered, but still very fun. I don't know how you would get more than a day or two out of it, but it was perfect for what we wanted. Here they are talking to a parrot. It responded with 'hello'.

 Watching the shows. Tyler loves watching the animals, but all the singing and dancing from the people was not as fun. Everytime the dolphins came out he was in heaven, and then he'd tell us he was ready to go. He got better as the day went on and he realized this was the way to see the animals he wanted.

 Every place we went had flamingos. The zoo, safari park, Sea World...all had flamingos. They are very smelly birds!

 Totally loving it!!

 The turtles were very fun to watch. Some were HUGE. I think Tyler took this picture.

 The pre-show entertainment to this show was the best. The guy was funny and entertaining and it was short and very musical. It was the things like that that reminded me of Universal Studios.

 There is a replica of the megalodon, who these teeth belong to, in the dinosaur museum we frequent. The boys pounted that out to me and then asked for a picture. It's fun having a reader on a trip!

 We stopped and got some slurpees and ate them in the shade. Tyler was more interested in trying to sneak up on the pidgeons and try to pet them. This only happened for about 45 minutes!

 We got some smelly little fish to feed the seals. It was fun and the boys were thrilled.

 Sea World has a little kid play area. It has small rides and climbing ropes. We spent a good two hours just hanging out and relaxing. Paige wanted to ride on this pink Elmo pig. She was so excited!

 Then she pointed out that Elmo was standing near us. (Elmo is the only character she knows, so it was pretty exciting.) She insisted she wanted to see him and then, of course, freaked out when Elmo got close. But she stayed happily for this picture. She called the other character 'pink'. So, then she liked her too....from a distance. :)

 For dinner Paige and I went and found a table while the boys got the food. Paige said we needed the pink table and here she is telling me very seriously about the table being pink.

 This was Tyler's favorite place - the polar bears and beluga whales. We went through twice and it feels pretty good inside because it's so cold in there!

 We told each kid they could get one thing that week. Everyone surprised us and picked a stuffed animal and all from Sea World. Paige insisted from the moment we went through the penguin exhibit that she wanted a penguin. When we went back hours later to the gift shop by the penguins there were lots of cute black and white penguins left, some even with pink feet. And then there was one lone pink penguin that caught her eye and no matter the 20 minutes we spent trying to talk her out of it - she wanted this crazy pink one. I love how much she loves it. She still wants to sleep with it every night and she plays with him during the day. Paige is such a girl!

 Tyler chose a polar bear and Trenton a killer whale. These also are in their beds at night and Tyler frequently plays with his during the day. They certainly knew what they wanted.

The last day in San Diego we took a little trip over to the temple.

 We were married here and this is us 8 1/2 years later.

 My mom took me and my younger siblings through this open house when I was 10 years old. I have loved this temple ever since. I was very glad that everyone was okay driving down to the temple for our wedding day. This is still my favorite temple.

Next we headed over to the Zoo's Safari Park. It was actually very awesome and I was surprised at how much we could actually see and do. They had a petting place where Tyler had a blast visiting all the goats. Paige was less than impressed about the idea of touching an animal, but the boys thought the whole thing was great. This lion is close - I'm not zoomed in here. It was perfect that we could see so many animals and I was so glad because we almost skipped this place entirely. It was worth it.

 These animals we could see from the tram and they were out enough that Tyler could tell us what everything was. Trenton and Tyler sat on the outsides of the tram and they were able to see all the animals perfectly.

I do have to write down one story because it's just so funny (or will be in a few years). On the way back to our parent's homes we stopped for dinner at PF Chang's (which I had been wanting for a few weeks!). Everything was going great and then Paige said she needed to go potty. So, after only a few bites of food by me, I took her. And I sat with her and waited. About 15 minutes. We washed hands and came out and Ben and Trent and Tyler were nearly done. So I ate a few more bites and took Tyler to the bathroom so we could make the trip back. And then I ended up waiting with him for 20 minutes. When we finally got out our food was boxed up and Trenton was in the bathroom, which Ben said he'd been in there for 20 minutes. !!! Somehow all our kids got all on the same schedule and it just happened to be at a restaurant. That I really wanted to go to. I just laughed and we left. Of course when we got to Ben's parent's home I heated up some leftovers and ate what I really wanted to for dinner. I'm certain that every time we go to PF Chang's I will always think of that trip and how I spent my eating time in the bathroom, and not for me.