Day Six - LegoLand

Just like the rest of our action packed vacation, Day Six was another doozy! We had all been wiped out and slept like rocks.

What do you do when you and your Hubby are up first?

First, you take pictures of your sweet kids all cozy in their beds.

You perk some coffee and you look out the window at the awesome view of San Diego Bay.

You take pictures of some incredible yachts.

Petco Park and downtown San Diego.

Then you wake your kids up and say "Rise and Shine! We're going to Legoland."

They bounced out of bed and were ready to roll! I am glad they are both pretty good morning people.

At Legoland they have a neat thing where one parent can stand in line and the kids can go do some other close activities and then they can meet you at the front of the line. I was the designated stand in liner - cause I am good at it and don't mind it. Hubby took the boys off in search of adventures. Here they pulled themselves up this rope thing about 10 times. My arms would have fallen off I am sure.

When I got to the front of the SkyCoaster ride they came and joined me! Chip kept calling his Daddy as partner, so poor Harold kept getting stuck with me.

We did this family competition where you have to pump the firetruck to move it to a burning building and then pump a water hose to shoot through a window and put out a fire. It was kind of a timed event and there were four firetrucks competing in each round. I swear our family was the only ones taking it totally serious. We were yelling instructions, barking orders, jumping on and off that fire truck like we were the real deal. We did win though - by a country mile. Those other families were goofing off and just having fun. No sir! We were in it to win it and we brought home the gold.

Next up, we rode the Dragon Roller Coaster. Chip was supremely proud of himself. Harold was an awesome big brother and rode in the front car with him. Talked him through it and they both had a ball.

Next up, driving in Lego City. Real street signs and lights, turns, traffic, it was fun.

Next up we all captained our own ship. Chip was loving the fact that he could do so much on his own. I had to manually pull Hubby's boat backwards when he tried to pass me. These boys are so competitive. If he would have had an oar I think he would have hit me with it.

Harold passed his brother on the final turn and it was not a good scene back on the dock.

Harold said "I passed you right at the end. I won."

Chip "It was NOT a race."

Dad "Your mother cheated, I was going passed her and she pushed my boat back with her hand."

Mom "Zip it. Let's keep moving."

I had to take this picture of my Hubby trying to take pictures with Bell's Palsy. He has to manually close his bad eye so he can squint his good eye to see through the view finder. It was a technique that required some practice, but he finally perfected it.

Me and boys rode this awesome spinning, swinging, pirate ship. It was very fun.

Studying the map. What else do we want to do?

Not go to the Lock-Up, that is for sure.

How about ride this ridiculous roller coaster deal? We all rode it once and then the boys went alone. Front row and screaming like girls. They loved this.

They rode the AquaZone with bombs going off, trying to get you wet.

Chip is tall enough to ride alone. That is just big time.

Harold had ridden it before and was a seasoned pro. Neither one of them got very wet.

Lunch time and Hubby eats a Strawberry. Call the press, call the National Enquirer, call the television stations. My husband is eating a fresh strawberry. They were really the best strawberries I have had in a long, long time. Good ones to try for your first strawberry.

None for me, thanks.

After we did all the rides they wanted to do, we walked next door to the Lego Sea Life Aquarium.

Can you find my two fish in this picture?

Touching different starfish.

Lots of the exhibits had Lego ships or people in them. It was actually really well done.

Sharks and stingrays in here.

Boys studying the sealife. It was a small aquarium and it didn't take long to walk through it. After that, we were ready to head back to the hotel.

Hubby can't stand to go directly anywhere and took us on a bit of the scenic route on the way back to the hotel. It was pretty, but it was painfully slow.

Back on the interstate, look at this traffic!!! YIKES! We got lucky and seemed to keep exiting before we got stuck. It got a little jammed up closer to the bay, but not terrible.

For dinner, we went back to the Fox Sports Grill in our hotel to watch Game 7 of the NBA finals. My boys are big Celtic fans and there were several others in the restaurant. Of course, the majority were Lakers fans and it was LOUD. The Celtics blew a huge lead and those Lakers came back and won. Harold was not happy. We ordered the Skillet Cookie and the rest of us got over it pretty quick. Maybe next year, Celtics!

Another, busy fun-filled day! One more day in paradise and then it is back to reality. Wait until you see what they talked me into doing on Day 7.

Wild Animals on Day Five

We woke on Wednesday morning and the boys were thrilled to find out that their Dad was home from the ER and was going to live. Hubby had joked that they might have to take out his eye and poor Chip was super worried he was going to have a one-eyed Dad. He was the most relieved of the bunch to see Dad was intact.

After our "Yeah, Dad's going to be okay" celebration, we cleared out of the DisneyLand resort and were heading for San Diego.

We had breakfast at Marie Callender's and it was yummy. I can't even remember what we were laughing about now, but we had a robust laugh fest going at our table. I told the boys we were going to get thrown out.

Being the budding actor that he is, Harold did a quick little skit of kicking himself out right when we walked out of the door. Ended up splayed out on the ground and I laughed so hard. Dad missed the first kicking of himself out of the restaurant so he replayed it in the parking lot.

We stopped at a Rest Area by the beach to check out the view. Doesn't it look like my boys are on the moon or something? This picture is just weird.

Our family fun destination for Wednesday was San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. It was about halfway between Anaheim and San Diego.

It was beautiful and I have already gone on and on about the weather, so we knew we were in for a treat.

My two monkeys.

We headed straight down to the Safari Ride because we didn't want to miss it.

This place originally opened as a breeding ground for the San Diego Zoo. It is the perfect picture of how all zoos should be. Huge, wide open spaces with lots of room for the animals to roam. The park is made up of 1800 acres, but they only use 900 acres for the animals.

There are giant watering holes and plenty of shade and grass. No concrete to be found.

I can't remember what kind of rhino this is, but he is one of seven remaining on the planet (not sure who does the official count, but that is what Farrah told us on the safari). Unfortunately, all seven remaining are too old to have babies, so once they die, this species is gone forever. Isn't that sad?

There were lots of giraffes. Who doesn't love a giraffe?

This lion habitat was huge and he was all laid up on this Jeep like he was making a movie or something.

I am fairly certain that San Diego is not exactly like Africa, but they sure gave it a good try to make the habitats ideal for these animals. They looked so happy and that made me happy.

If you don't have boys, you may not understand this. Or maybe it is just my boys. When they walk along anywhere, they are constantly touching everything. Chip reached into this bush when he was walking by and these thorns lit him up.

Chip recovered from his injury quickly when asking if I had a quarter to put in the spy machine.

And to get a cool new tattoo.

And to see if I had fifty cents to feed the ducks. It is a workout keeping up with this eight year old.

They had a cute little show and the finale was this beautiful Cheetah jumping up on the hood of a jeep. They picked a lucky audience member to sit in the drivers side of the jeep. That was an up close and personal view of this creature.

Meerkats. So funny and cute.

With our paid admission, the boys got to ride the carousal as many times as they wanted. They wanted to do it twice. At first they all did their own thing. Chip put his hand in the mouth of this tiger.

Hubby rode a donkey. He made me promise I wouldn't say he was an ass riding an ass. Whoops!

Harold rode an aggressive looking panda.

For their second go around they started getting creative.

I think Harold is being eaten alive by his Panda.

Next time around they all have their hands up like they are on a roller coaster.

Then leaning way back like riding a bull.

Then there was boxing.

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. Aren't they a little old to be having this much fun on a carousal.

Then Chip squeezed into an egg - isn't he a cutie? We all decided that this Park was awesome and we would most definitely do it again someday. For now, though the park was closing and we had to finish our drive into San Diego.

After driving in lots of circles we finally arrived at our Hotel.

It was nice to put our feet up for a few minutes.

The hotel was right across the street from Petco Park - home of the San Diego Padres. You know we will be seeing a game, but it isn't until Friday night.

Our room was on the 30th floor and had some incredible views. But make no mistake, I was totally thinking about an earthquake hitting. What do you do on the 30th floor of a high rise? Getting under the desk just doesn't seem like enough, does it?

Family picture in the elevator! Heading down to the lobby for dinner at Fox Sports Grill. It was a delicious meal, capped off with a dessert we fondly remember from a trip a couple of years ago. The Skillet Cookie! If you are ever at a Fox Sports Grill - GET IT! Hot Chocolate Chip cookie, baked to order in a little cast iron skillet topped with yummy vanilla ice cream. Harold doesn't like sweets (he's weird!) but Hubby, Chip and I did away with it in short order!

After dinner we headed back to our room for a good night's sleep! These busy days make for early nights and hard sleeping!