VACATION ~DAY 3 & 4 ~SEA WORLD!

just a warning -LOTS of pics are in this post!

on Monday, July 5th, we headed down to San Diego to visit with my family and "do" S*ea W*orld for the very first time!

below are some shots of the kids playing in my grandma's back yard

I didn't get a good shot of Elizabeth at my grandma's ~so here she is playing at my aunt's. :)



ok-the next few shots I HAD to include cuz they are SOOO typical of these 2. It shows how goofy they can be. :)

now they're giggling and can't stop

so they decide to make things worse by tickling and horsing around

and whoops! back falls Becca ~notice Andrew is just watching her go over and not helping? my ever-sensitive one. :) Becca whined a bit, then giggled. :)

trampolining at my aunt's house. it got a bit crazy with 4 boys all about the same age jumping around ~and wrestling. the girls didn't stay in there long. :)

visiting my grandpa at his care facility

I LOVE this pic my cousin took of Biruk and I!!

my sweet cousin made (amazing!) cupcakes for the kids to decorate

one must really concentrate when decorating with sprinkles!

and true to form~Becca samples more than she puts on her cupcake. :)

Tuesday the 6th we headed to Se*a W*orld for the day!

We are BLESSED that my company, South*west Air*lines gave each employee a pass for Se* Wo*rld for the year...it doesn't get us all in free BUT we ran into someone in the parking lot who had an extra ticket for us to use...so the whole day cost us $13 (free parking, free entrance ~just paid for 2 coffees cuz we were FREEZING, a churro, and a popcorn...we took in our own lunch!)

one of the best parts was one of my BEST friends called me Tuesday AM to say she and her family were going to SW too!! I hadn't seen her in probably 2 years even though she lives about 45 min. from John's sister. We spent the first part of our day with her family and it was SOOO nice to catch up with them in person!


OK-here are pics from the day:

our 4 blessings

the family

oh my heck. this walrus was a fatty. there was another walrus that was big, but seriously, this was the fattest animal I've ever seen!

Beluga whale swimming around

the outdoor penguins

bummed I zoomed in on these pics and didn't get the full effect of the cut-outs..but still cute

the Shamu show

it was OK-it's SO different than when we were kids. they never introduced the whales and most of it was a "drama" about following your dream~not alot of whale jumping and tricks.

want some whale spit on you?!

Andrew was our "map man" the entire day.

seriously -this is what he did the whole time...look at the map and try to figure out where we were and where we should go next.
it was hilarious!

feeding the rays..John was the only one to do it. Biruk and Elizabeth didn't even want to try.

Andrew tried but the rays never came to get his fish.

I put one fish in Beca's hand and she screamed and threw it into the water. :)

the seals and sea lions were fun. the sea lions are the noisy ones..man are they vocal!!!

we saw the new dolphin show ~Blue Horizons.

like the whale show -it was disappointing.

It was much more of a drama about some little girl's dream about the sea spirit and sky spirit than watching the animals jump and play.

still ~fun to watch the dolphins jump when they did come out.

the pilot whale in the show ~they can do tricks similar to the dolphins

Biruk's favorite exhibit of the day ~the sharks!!!

cute pic of the 3 of them watching the fish. :)


even though we were freezing cold at Se*a Wo*rld and the shows weren't as exciting as we anticipated...we still had a great time and the kids LOVED it.

Our time in CA was great ~busier than usual ~but still a great way to escape the heat of the desert.

Thursday morning when we left my grandma's house, it was 60 degrees.
6 hours later, at home, it was 112 degrees.
ugh.

we're wishing we had stayed in CA awhile longer!

I have some pics from this week to post too ~ and a video!!

Biruk has started swimming all on his own ~NO FLOATIES..at all!
We're so proud of him!!