SeaWorld San Diego

I am really not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but Sea World was no that great for us. We did have fun, but it wasn't all we dreamed it up to be for the kids. Maybe it was just that every little thing that could go wrong did go wrong that day. First we slept in way later than we had planned, and then we gave Marshall and Aimee the wrong tickets and had a 25 minute detour to go back and switch those. Then about when we got there the tire on our stroller was flat, and we realized that neither one of us grabbed extra diapers for poor Brody (that left us with just two for the entire day...ummm not so good). Colby was not that ecstatic about the whole sea animal thing...so it was fun, but kind of a ho hum expensive day! But here were some of the highlights.

The dolphin show was my favorite. I can't believe how high those things jump.

This is what we did all day, sit is hot stadium seats, until the shows started. We kept sitting in the splash zone with our ponchos hoping to get soaked and we never got very wet! Bummer.

Can't go to Sea World without seeing Shamu! It was pretty cool, but not as good as the Dolphins.

Colbs and I did have fun touching the star fish in the super cold water! You even got to pick them up. I thought that was pretty cool.

These pictures don't do it justice, but the shark exhibit was really cool. The sharks were literally swimming all around us, as we rode on a moving platform enclosed in a tube of glass. Pretty cool.

Feeding the Sea Lions was really fun! Ewww! Those little fish are so icky, but I made Colby pick them up. They were really aggressive little boogers though, barking at us wildly, I know why they have the feeding tubes. Fingers would be missing.

Brods really loved watching them bark and swim around.

We had to find a place for Brody to get down and move his poor little legs. He was so tired of being cooped up in the stroller, and while it was I am sure pretty germy, this little garden area was shady and cool and let him stretch his little legs. What did he do? Crawled right to the mulch and played with it the whole time.

While resting in the shade, we really needed some serious hydration. Colby had to have a Souvenir cup and $22 later we had two drinks. Oh yeah, $22 for two drinks. Not to mention Colby drank that entire ginormongous 95 oz of Pepsi, leaving him with a serious caffeine fix for the rest of the trip! Thanks Sea World!

There were some really beautiful flowers in the little garden.

Ever since Disneyland when Colby rode splash mountain and all the other roller coasters he has loved amusement rides, so Matt took him on the ride Journey to Atlantis. I was lucky enough to spot them and catch them as they came down the FIRST drop. Colby was super happy and loved it until they went back up and did several more drops and loops, he then got scared and wanted off the ride. So I a was a little bummed I didn't get to take him on it again, but he was a brave boy!

All in all, it was pretty fun, we just had terrible luck that day. You know how it goes, you just expect the ridiculously priced food and junky souvenirs! We did manage to make it with just the two diapers for Brody. We changed him right before dinner, our last quick meal before we left the park. Well we thought we made it until we had to wait 40min for $30 pizza, and then just as we were walking out of the park, we caught a whiff of the glorious odor of baby poo. Just as we had feared. I grabbed napkins from the restaurant to fashion some sort of diaper for our 1.5 hour trip back to the beach house. Just as we were about to walk through the gates, I saw a lady that had a child about the same age, and through the kindness of a stranger I was able to have a fresh diaper for Brods! So what could have been a nightmare trip turned out okay and we had a little fun too!

Are you annoyed Yet?

Do you feel totally bored yet? Annoyed? I hope not, and I promise I have tried to narrow down the amount of pictures....but I really love a lot of them. What can I say, I love my kids. I am sorry to say there will be more to come. Anyway, I had to start with the first two pictures because I seriously just want to eat Emalie up. She is so stinkin' cute in the next two pictures. No, I have not been taking photography classes...its seems like everyone and their mom has decided to be a photographer lately, and I don't know how I got such a cute shot...but it was all a just stroke of luck b/c even if I did take classes, I would never have the talent of my friends and family!

Seriously she is in a watermelon swim suit, I might just eat her up!

So the 23rd was Jesses's birthday! I think he turned 22? Yeah, anyway Mally and Jesse have been married now for almost a year! Last year at the beach house Jesse proposed to Mal on his birthday! Look how cute they are! We call him Uncle Jesse at our house, so depending on how old you are you probably think of two things...Dukes of Hazzard or Full House. Yeah, I know. I am old.

We never get many pictures of Mimi and Papa, so I take what I can get, even if it is just Papa's knees and Mimi cuddled under a blanket!

Colbs with Oreo mouth

I love his hair, I have said it a million times.

This was the cutest thing. Maddie rode in the car with us on the way to dinner and Colby beaming from one ear to the other asked if he could hold Maddie's hand, he was so cute about it...like a little cousin crush! Maddie obliged. How sweet!

Eating out at Claim Jumper for Jesse's birthday. Seriously the portions there are ridiculous. It's like being at an eating contest. Colby's children's spaghetti could have fed all of us!

Rides on the carousel while the girls shopped a little. Only until everyone came looking for me in the same store they left me in, because they thought I had been abducted! Y'all are so weird!

Beach Vacation

So every year Mike and Taya (or Mimi & Papa) rent a beach house in Newport Beach, CA that we all stay in. If your guessing we stay in the one on the right, well, we keep dreaming. We have stayed in the one on the left for the last two years, and we are not complaining, I mean, how lucky are we to even get to do this!! We have stayed in several since at least 1996 when I went with the Greenwalds after Matt and I graduated highschool, but this one is really big. We do like to admire the neighbors sprawling lot, and every year he lets Colby pet his cute little rat of a dog! We always go in June around the 20th and Matt and I really do look forward to it, we love the beach and have dreams of living on the beach some day!

Our first real day at the beach all together we set up camp and literally hit the ground running.

In fact, Colby never stopped. Back and forth from the umbrellas to the water! He ran so much the first day that he got a really bad rash on his inner thighs (mom don't tell them that)!

He played so well with his cousins and they were all very tolerant of each other. Maddie was definately the big sis of everyone (even Colbs) and would come tell me if they were in trouble, and really took care of everybody!

Cousin Andrew...or as we call him "mini-me" No we really don't but he does look just like dad.

Sweet Emalie didn't really get into the water until the last day, but she sure looked cute in all her swim suits.

At first we didn't let Brody near the sand or water, for fear he would eat the sand, but the inevitable happened, he ate a big ole mouthful, but he is a smart boy he only ate it accidentally one more time.

Brods, did spend a lot of time under the shade, but, after a little while, we gave up trying to keep him clean and took him down by the water!

You would never know he was afraid of the big bath tub. He laughed and squealed the whole time.

It wasn't long before he crawled right into the waves. It's a good thing he doesn't know that the ocean is a whole lot bigger than the bath tub.

Colby loved the waves too, he couldn't get enough of it. Making boy noises and goofing around. He was so fun to watch.

Most of the beach days looked about the same on film. Kids in the waves, Mallory and Aimee laying out, Mike and Taya under the umbrella reading, and Marshall, Matt, and Jesse playing with the kiddos, but we had a lot of fun. We boogie boarded, played catch with all kinds of nifty toys, and built sand castles (Papa's are the best). And then there were the speedo guys! I had so much fun taking pictures, but this first day, euro-speedo man kept getting in my shot! Come on! Thank goodness for cropping! And, by the end of the day the kiddos patience with each other had run out (even Madisen, who was a very sweet watching out for all the kids)! At one point I caught them fighting over seaweed! But we had an awesome time and we even got a family picture that wasn't too scary to post! So for the next gazillion posts you get to see even more of our beach vacation pics! I know you are so excited you can hardly stand it...so I will hurry up and try to post more!