We Heart Baby Shamu

Shortly after we arrived at Sea World, we heard that they had a baby shamu born in December & only 4 months old! First thing we did was go watch her swim around. There was another baby whale that we got a good video watching...about twice the size of the littlest one.

The day we were at Sea World it was 88 degrees. A Heat wave, even for Southern California. I'm not going to lie, it was a hot & tiring day. Once we even had all 3 kids in our stroller (don't ask) and a not so polite mom said REALLY LOUDLY, "Whoa, those kids must be REALLY tired." I almost said, "Ummm...we can hear you." (but I didn't.) When you travel with twins you kinda get used to people talking about you all over the place as if you can't hear them. That happened a lot too. Its like they don't have twins in San Diego. Weird.

Please note that we had more dumdums on this day than any other. Kaia ended up with a faint blue dumdum mustache.

 

 Waiting for the dolphin show to start. Not exactly sure why I didn't make the cut for this pic...?

 The dolphins did some cool tricks including a double flip! We all enjoyed the Shamu show. Even the tiniest baby whale did some very small jumps for us (but didn't get it on film).

Last but not least, Great Grandma & Grandma gave each of the kids $20 to buy a souvenir. Clearly, Ashlyn chose the pink Shamu. Kaia chose the "baby shamu" and Connor picked out a whale bubble blower. What a fun treat!!

La Jolla Shores

A San Diego vacation really isn't complete unless you spend some quality time at the shore. It was all of our first time visiting La Jolla Shores Beach & it really lived up to its reputation as one of the best!

 We literally couldn't keep Connor out of the waves...his favorite thing! 

He's definitely a "beach person."

 Normally, we don't give our kids candy. However, on vacation I was handing out dumdums like it was nobody's business. They are real mood changers, vacation changers...if you know what I mean. They literally saved the day on multiple occasions. (Then, on our way home I also taught the kids what "vacation snacks" are...snacks I ONLY buy on vacation! They said, "When we will go on vacation again??!!")

I don't know about you, but I, for one, was relieved to see that the lifeguards at La Jolla Shores weren't messing around. They take their watch seriously.  

San Diego Zoo - Safari Park

The Safari Park was Enormous! 

There were literally thousands of animals that we didn't even get to see.

However, our fav moments were watching the baby gorilla "do tricks" (walk around clumsy-like), and riding the Safari Tram.

 

Casey bravely handed his phone over to our six-year old budding photographer for the entire tram ride, so he could take pictures. I think the best way for you to see the Safari Park is through the eyes of Connor & the pictures he took:

 Oh..almost got this close-up of the Mama Giraffe!

 Totally NAILED the baby though...

 Hum, not quite sure what we are looking at here...?

 We didn't pay extra to ride the hot air balloon, but the kids spent the day monitoring it going up and back down (and wishing we were in it, I assume).

 I'm starting to realize that Giraffes are still Connor's favorite animal about now.

 Although, you may not appreciate this picture of the spiky-tree, I happen to remember it's importance (to Connor). Safari Park Fun Fast Fact #1: This is the Giraffe's favorite tree & they use their long tongue to get the leaves out between the spikes-Ouch!

Now, if that doesn't make you want to jump on a plane to see a 

World. Class. Zoo., I don't know what will.

LegoLand

 LegoLand was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G for the Lego Maniacs in our family, especially the under 7 crowd. Its basically an "adventure" park for people who are thrill-haters. All the rides go approximately 0.05 MPH, which is absolutely great if you are 3...and mostly okay if you are 6 too. (In the defense of LegoLand, they did have 3 "rollercoasters", which the over 6yo crowd enjoyed.)

 Here's our boat "cruise." Highlight of the day, was that the boats only held 2 people & Connor was old enough to be a captain. A big responsibility as you had to actually drive the boat yourself.

 I got in trouble a couple of times for letting my co-captain drive....

 Next Up? Driving School. Here are our tiniest speed racers:

 And their Driver's Licenses!!!

And now for the oldest speed racer...

(I think you can really get a feel for the type of SPEED & THRILL present here):

 Honestly, it was the perfect amusement park to take three Lego Maniacs when two of them were just shy of 37 inches tall. The girls could ride everything except the 3 roller coasters & they were pretty happy about that!

 Now it wouldn't really be a vacation if Connor didn't 

ACTUALLY. BUILD. SOME. LEGOS. 

Am I right?