One Last Hurrah

Well, we went on vacation again, so I guess it's time for another blog post! We headed down to California to visit family and enjoy some of the fun things there. The week went by so fast...I'm sure because we kept ourselves plenty busy. We hit the beach as soon as we could and the kids loved it, of course!

Claire was very fascinated by the stuff that kept sticking on her hands...

And she loved her first time in the ocean! I wish I could look that cute with that many rolls.

We headed to the Spectrum one night and had a great time, as always! We had a lovely dinner at P.F. Chang's and then wandered around for a bit.

We rode on the giant ferris wheel and Abby loved it. Her dad was a little scared, but I'll spare you the details on that, for his sake!

And of course we HAD to ride the carousel. Abby wanted Grandma Jackie to do everything with her. Good thing she's a good sport!

We drove down to San Diego the next day to enjoy the wonders of Sea World! It was hot (they were having an unusual heat wave, of course), but we still had fun. We got off to a bit of a rocky start though...we get in the park and are excited to be there. We make our way straight to the Sesame Street Bay of Play, ride a couple of rides, snap a couple of pictures, and then see all the Sesame Street characters doing their little show. And just as Abby is running up to Zoe to give her a hug, my camera battery dies. I didn't bring the charger with me (dumb camera seriously gives me NO warning about the battery life), and we have two days at Sea World that apparently I'll just have to remember in my mind. Yep, I cried a bit, right there next to Cookie Monster. There is a happy ending though...I was able to find a charger that night and have a camera for our second day at Sea World! We went to the Shamu show on the first day, so I've got lovely pictures in my mind of that one, but I was able to capture most everything else.

Good thing we had our map reader!

My family has this thing with touching manta rays, and here's the proof. I'm happy to stick my hand in there (the water was also cold and VERY refreshing) and feel the slimy creatures...

...but my sweet hubby, not so much. He almost did (as I sat there with the camera all ready to capture it), and then chickened out at the last second. He is brave about many other things, and I guess I'd rather have him get the spiders anyway.

Happy kids, despite the heat!

Love the flamingos!

This was our life-blood, frosted lemonade. They were four bucks a pop, but worth every stinkin' penny. I would have loved to have an IV drip of the stuff.

By this time, Claire was pretty much done though.

But we couldn't leave without one more trip to the Sesame Street Bay of Play! If you ask Abby what she saw at Sea World, the first thing she'll tell you is "the Elmo flying fish." That would be this ride!

And she loved Oscar's Rockin' Eel ride...

...and of course, the Abby Sea Star Spin.

And then the Sesame Street characters came out again!! I was finally able to get some pictures of Abby with Zoe (despite the red-head picture Nazi that you see).

And this picture made that new charger worth every penny!!

That's Abby Cadabby for those who don't know...

We just love San Diego and had a great time there. We were able to meet up with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time, as well as my cousins who live there. Even with the unusual heat wave, we loved it!

We had to hit the beach again before we went home, and even though we had a few meltdowns, there were a few smiles as well.

We're lucky enough to have family living in such a lovely vacation spot, and we always love spending time with them. We love our three California grandmas!! (And grandpa too...sorry I don't have a picture!)

We all hope we'll be back very soon!!