San Diego

As per the usual, I am back after too long a break. I noticed that the last opst I made was from before Emily was even born! WHAT?!? I really am terrible at this. Instead of trying to write this as a catch up post though, I am just going to focus on the last few days of our lives (Catch up post to come later...maybe). We are in San Diego! A week ago, I did not know we would be here. While not usually a spontaneous person, the stars had seemed to align just right and it simply fell into place. Zachary will be starting a new job in a few weeks and we decided we wanted to take a family trip and have some good together time before he went off into the world of proving himself. So, one frantic day of making, canceling, making, altering and finally confirming travel plans landed us here. We did not tell the girls until Sunday night that we were going on a trip-and even then did not tell them where we were going. Each day has been a surprise and it has been SO FUN to see their excitement. We decided to fly. That's right, FLY. The number of people who were shocked by this decision was surprisingly high. Why do they care so much? It went great! We had a total of 4 hours on the plane, 2 takeoffs, 2 landings =, three girls-NO tears! They were amazing. This was the first time on a plane for all of them and I was a little worried that Hannah would be scared, but she did awesome. Just like her sisters! Something about take off seemed to put Emmy to sleep (stress sleeping) so she ended up sleeping for the majority of each flight. So day one was all about getting here. Airplane in the morning, hotel in the afternoon and grocery shopping in the evening. Day two-San Diego Zoo. This was a first for me as well as the girls (I think I might have gone as a small child but can't remember so I am calling this a first). I was amazed by huge it was. The girls wanted to do the bus tour-which seemed like the lazy route but ended up being such a great experience. We got some insider info from a grandfatherly zoo employee who told us to sit on the bottom right of the double decker bus. Boy was he right. We were able to see so much! It gave us a good idea of what we wanted to go back and spend more time on and they pointed out the exhibits that we could not see from the bus. So really, we probably got to see more combing the bus and walking than had we just tried to hoof it the whole time. The kids did pretty well. There was the usual mumbling and grumbling for snacks, water and "foot" issues, but overall it was very pleasant. They had a moving walkway (like an escalator but flat) that took you up from one of the "canyons" to the top where the polar bears were. This was possibly the highlight of the zoo :) I must say it was a very nice break for the feet. Day three-Sea World. Possibly the most excited I have seen Zachary since I went into labor with Emily. Sea World is one of his fondest childhood memories and he was so excited to share it with his kids. I may have ruined Gracie for thrill rides by taking her on Journey to Atlantis almost as soon as we were in the park. It is one of those water plume coasters and she was not a fan! After she got over what can only be described as her "trauma" we headed out for some tamer entertainment. We saw Beluga Whales, Sea Otters, Penguins, and sharks. Watched Shamu and her Orca family put on an AMAZING show (we sat in the very last row of the soak zone so we would hopefully get only a little wet, which was in fact the case), played in the Sesame Street play area, watched the Sea Lions put on a show, road some rides and picked put souveniers. It was a GREAT day! I shall continue to report tomorrow.