Seaworld...All Day!

I don't know what it is about Blair and I planning things to do but we didn't decide to go to Seaworld until friday night at about 9pm. It seems like everything we've decided to do is very last minute and not a lot of preplanning. So we got the kids up at 6am, got some gas, got some donuts and chocolate milk and off we went to San Diego. They were running a special that I saw advertised on tv. Adults got in for the price of a child plus you got two days of Seaworld for the price of one and the second day can be used anytime before December 2011. So we are going to try and hit Seaworld another time before we leave. (Whenever that may be)

We ended up hitting the dolphin exhibit first and the kids thought they were pretty neat.

This was a fun little starfish pond that the kids could reach in and pet the starfish.

This is Madison at the Starfish pond. Happier now that she's had a quick bum change.

Just checking out the tortoises.

We decided to hit the Shamu show first thing that morning. We debated between dolphin show first or Shamu. Blair made a good choice and said Shamu which turned out nice because every single Shamu show after that was filled about 45 minutes before show time. The kids are busy eating fruit snacks while we waited for the show to start.

What a cutie! Yes Madison your cute too!

We noticed at the Shamu show that they didn't have any of the trainers in the water with the killer whales. I remeber they use to ride them around a little bit and at the end of the show they would come out of the water on the tip of his nose and get pushed into the air. They must have changed that after the death of that trainer in Orlando.

Blair went and bought some food to feed the Sea lions. Cassidy and Statton each got a turn feeding a Sea lion. They thought that was pretty funny. Those Sea Lions see that you have food and they come right up to the glass and stand on their tails and just beg.

I believe I took this picture with all the kids in front of the Piranha tank. Pretty fitting considering I think all my kids are biters! They come by it rightly though since my nickname growing up from my cousins was Piranha.

Looking pretty Diva at the Sea lion and otter show. That hat is suppose to be on Madison's head by the way.

This was a fun show to see mostly because before the show even starts they have one of the crew out making fun with the audiance and then he did a bunch of dancing to different famous songs. Mostly making fun of them and it was hilarious to watch.

Just a cute picture of Statton while we were waiting in line for the Shark exhibit.

It's a giant tube underwater and you stand on a conveyer belt to go through this tube. Kinda quick I wish you had more time to watch but the kids still enjoyed it.

This was probably the highlite for the kids. They have a Sesame Street area and it's all geared towards kids so they have a giant plastic mat where the kids can run around a play with blocks and it's all soft. This was a nice break between things plus it got everyone out of the sun for awhile.

The dolphin show!

Walking through the Wild Artic Exhibit.

We left Sesame Street early to hit the Dolphin show and the Wild Artic Exhibit so we went back so the kids could enjoy some of the other things before we headed for home.

Cassidy just insisted that she wanted to climb into the rope tree house. So I took Cassidy and Statton and we climbed up the giant rope made ladder thing to get into the Tree house.

We were having such a great day right up until about 2 minutes after this picture was taken. If you look hard enough and the end of this rope hallway there is a small twisty slide for the little kids to slide to another platform and then exit to the stairs. Well their is an attendant who guards the slide to make sure one kid goes at a time and apparantly you have to be atleast 37 inches to go on the slide and the attendant lady measures each kid. This slide is smaller than one you would find at a playground. Remember this place is geared for kids right! Well anyway we waited in line and the lady tells Statton to stand up to the measuring tape. Well he barely passes and gets to go on the slide. Cassidy(twin sister) goes up to go down the slide and the lady gently grabs her and tells her she needs to measure her so Cassidy stands up to the tape. Well poor thing is about 2 inches shorter than Statton and is told she can't go down .Well she doesn't understand what she's being told and goes to go down the slide and the lady tells her again "You can't go down" and so I had to pull her away from the slide and then pick her up while she starts sobbing because she doesn't understand why brother got to go and she can't. So she's crying on my shoulder saying "I wanna go on the slide" and I'm tearing up because my heart is just breaking! I told Blair what happened and he said I should have just hurried and pushed her down the slide anway. So as always a fun day ends in tears.

This was my last shot of the day. As we were walking out they had a small little area shooting water so I let the kids go and play a little bit which helped calm Cassidy down after the slide fiasco. I liked this picture because Cassidy and Statton are holding hands walking up to this place. I thought it was a sweet moment between brother and sister. The good part of the day is that we spend the Whole Day! Yep. Blair didn't get called to work all day. Good Times!

Disneyland... Sort of

Well we thought with the four day memorial weekend we would hit Disneyland. Well a day before we left we found out that Blair was going to be on call for work. Well the guys he works with said its pretty rare to be called in. Well we had already booked the condo for the weekend and it was too late to get a refund so we thought we would take our chances and try to go anyway. So we drove to the condo and got all settled in went to dinner and hung out a little bit before putting kids to bed. Well as luck would have it Barstow ended up having the most horrible wind storms that weekend. So at a little before 1 am Blair gets a call on his phone to come back to Barstow to work. Seriously?! So Blair left about 15 minutes later leaving me in Anaheim with no car and 3 kids. Ok no big deal I thought we'll just hang out at the Condo and go swimming or something. There was a bunch of eating places just around the corner so I thought I could atleast walk to food. Blair called early that morning saying he was done and would be back shortly. Ok great we can still go and enjoy ourselves. Then about an hour later he called back to say they got another call and to not expect him until super late. I was feeling a little abandoned and helpless at this moment but after feeling sorry for myself for about 5 minutes I decided that we were here and I was going to take my kids to Disneyland. With or without dad. So I bought some tickets for Disney and some tram passes and hit the bus stop with 3 kids in tow and one jogging stroller. Thanks to a lot of nice bus drivers and passengers I was able to get help with the kids and stroller on and off the tram bus.

Here is Cassidy and Statton by the Cinderella's Castle.

Here we all are meeting Mulan. We stood in line for about 1/2 hr waiting to see some Princesses. The kids were so excited to see them but once we got inside they got very shy.

Statton went right over to Belle and sat down next to her and just stared at her. It was pretty cute. Cassidy was my shy one.

I was able to convince her to go give Ariel and hug. I tried to tell Statton to go give her a hug but he just went and sat down by her and then got up and started showing her the fish on his shirt. What a funny boy.

Statton playing in the jail over at toontown.

Cassidy and Statton posing for a picture by one of the brooms in Mickey's house. Just passing the time until we got to meet Mickey.

They take you in groups to see Mickey. They first take you into a large room and then when the other group is done they lead you into a smaller room where Mickey is waiting. Well while we were in this larger room the lady opened the door and said "Who's ready to meet Mickey!" Well we were in the back of the group and Statton breaks rank and runs by everyone else to get to this lady. It was funny. I didn't realize how excited he was to see Mickey. Madison wasn't sure about Mickey she kept giving him funny looks and when he would lean in for a picture she would push him away.

Well the kids really wanted to ride the train so we went over and waited in line and rode the train that goes all the way around the park. Well by the time we got back to our original stop my featherweight traveler Cassidy had passed out on me. So here I am getting off the train with a baby on my right hip and a 3 yr old asleep on my left shoulder and another 3 yr old trailing behind me. I got a lot of looks. Oh well we managed. So to kill a little time and let Cassidy sleep a little bit we went over to Pixie Hollow. Statton is posing by the giant book full of facts about fairies. This place was really cute.

This is Cassidy and Madison at Pixie Hollow.

What a cute little boy!

Well after having some dinner and catching the parade I didn't think I could handle standing in any more lines by myself with 3 kids. So I decided to let the kids go back and play at Toontown for a little while. Here is the kids just playing in Goofy's car in front of his house. I love this picture of Statton I think I was telling him to smile so he was just saying it back to me and I caught him in some weird moment.

I guess Statton is playing Chauffer to Cassidy since she's riding in the back.

Well I was about done for the day but the kids talked me into letting them atleast ride the Carousel. Cassidy does this funny thing with pictures she always squints her eyes shut and smiles so I kept telling her to open her eyes and smile which results in her tilting her head back and opening her eyes really really wide. This picture I was telling her to put her head down so with all the direction of "Open your eyes, Smile, put your chin down." This is what we got. Not to shabby!

So Cute! I caught Statton trying to blow me a kiss!

Yep! Even Madison got to ride a pony. Can you tell she's going on 8 hrs with no nap and she's happy! What a die hard! We finally left the park a little after 8pm. I didn't want to try and wrestle with kids through fireworks plus deal with the after fireworks crowd on the tram.

Alright! Disneyland attempt Day 2!

Blair finally showed up back at our condo/hotel close to eleven oclock. Thinking that the worse was behind us with his call we decided to attempt Disneyland again the next day. So we got up early ate some breakfast and hit the tram to take us to Disneyland. Statton had been begging me the day before to see Goofy. So we decided that would be the first stop of the day and then we could go see Minnie like Cassidy wanted.

So here's the kids with Goofy! We only had to wait about 5 minutes that morning which was really nice.

So then we slipped over and saw Minnie. This is a little blurry but the only one I had. (That's what you get when you let some stranger try and run your camera)

After you took your picture with Minnie she directs you inside her house. Cassidy and Statton just loved her house! It took a lot of coaxing to get them out of there.

Statton is standing in front of the dishwasher that actually would turn on and light up and the dishes would swirl around inside. Both the kids thought that was great.

Next we decided to hit the Nemo ride. I thought the kids would really enjoy it and the wait wasn't too bad. Madison had fallen asleep as soon as we had hit the park that morning so I sent Blair on the ride with the kids while I walked around with Madison so she could get a nap. I gave Blair my camera to take some pictures and this was the only one he took. I guess I should be grateful for this one. Blair said the kids enjoyed the ride.

Well unfortunately this is where our Disneyland trip ended. While I was pushing Madison around I get a call from Blair who had gotten a call from his foreman saying that they needed him to come back to work. When Blair told me my heart just sank. I was very disappointed and sad that the kids wouldn't be able to do anything else. So after they finished the Nemo ride we headed out of the park went back to the condo and loaded up and headed back to Barstow. We decided that luck just wasn't on our side that weekend and we'll just have to try another weekend to come back. All in all the kids got to see a lot of the characters and meet some princesses. Hopefully next time we can see a little more of the park.

San Diego Safari Park

Well we are off again on our adventures in Apprentice Lineman work. The California Apprenticeship office called the Mt. States apprenticeship office and said they would put some of their apprentices to work until work picked up back in the Mt.States area. So we got a call to ask if we would be willing to come to California and work for atleast a month maybe longer. Well heck yes we said. We are tired of sitting around waiting so California here we come. So we thought if we are only in California working for a month we might as well take advantage of the fun things they offer since we are close by. So we decided to hit the San Diego Safari Park our first weekend here.

They had these molded hand and foot prints of an actual gorilla and so I had everyone place their hands on the mold. We couldn't get Madison to cooperate so it's just Blair and the twins.

This is Statton's hand measured up to a gorilla. Looks like he's got some growing to do.

This is Cassidy's handprint. We hope she doesn't grow into that.

So as part of being the Safari Park they load you onto a train type bus and drive you around to see these animals in their "natural" (man-made) habitat. It was kind of fun. I've been to the Disneyworld Animal Park and it's so much better but this was still fun too.

Just a stop on the way looking at some of the different animals. It was a beautiful day. Supposedly mid 70's with a little bit of wind which helped keep it cool.

We stopped for a needed break and the Discovery Station. They have tables and chairs set up for the kids to color bugs, put puzzles together, and all sorts of stuff. They even brought out a rat for all the kids to look at and the the zoo lady told the kids all about them.

Blair and Madison getting some quality time. Madison is getting a much appreciated bottle. She is such a trooper. She took a nap that morning while we drove to the park but didn't nap at all that day while we were there. I think she whined the least out of all the kids.

I wish I could remember exactly what this thing was but it looks like some sort of giant lizard, iguana type animal. The twins thought it was funny to look at but only Cassidy was willing to stand next to the glass and take a picture. Statton wouldn't get to close before laughing and running away. We had an interesting day at the Safari Park. Glad to be close by to enjoy some of these fun attractions.