BRAVE

*Small spoiler alert, if you haven't seen this movie yet, stop reading!

Yesterday we took the kids to see the movie Brave.  It was a really cute movie.  I think I may have heard too many people say it was the best movie ever made by Disney though so I was expecting...I don't know I guess to be blown out of my seat.  It was a very cute movie and I have to give props to Disney for once having a mother who doesn't die*, or is cruely separated from her daughter.  I loved that family element to it!

Better Late than Never

Although Softball ended months ago, I guess Coach decided the best time to have a team party was right in the middle of summer...make sense to anyone?  Not me.  Anyway, tonight was the team party.  As you can see many girls weren't there. 

Coach Paco gave out awards and really gave a nice speech about Kelsey.  He really gave her a lot of praise for always showing up (even when she was sick) and always gave 100% .  He said out of all the girls she never disrespected or talked back in any way, and never had any drama.  She was given the best team player award (beam).  Very proud of her, on and off the field.

Vacation Day 1 - San Diego Zoo

Last week was our long awaited vacation to San Diego.  We hit it off by going to the Zoo.  The kids were super excited we finally made it!

I loved that it not only had real animals but even the bushes were animals.  Reminded me a bit of Disneyland.

As soon as we got in and they handed Chase his own map, we instantly had our own guide who showed us which way to go the entire day.  Gotta say he was pretty good at map reading.  We later got him a zookeeper hat to be an official zoo guide.  Our darn guide kept loosing his map though and we were lost.  This is a huge zoo!

We saw lots of neat animals some up close.  The Leopard:

The orangutans were really funny to watch,

We did see the elephants getting a check-up that was pretty neat to watch.  The kids loved climbing all over the statues throughout the park.

We got to see the polar bears having a snack of carrots.

Sadi even danced with one!

We waited in a ridiculously long line to see the Panda Bears.  Not really sure why there was a line, it was kinda anti-climatic.   They were pretty far away and hard to see.

We had a hard time finding the Gorillas, but boy were they fun to watch. 

I think Sadi fell in love with this one.

Chase was almost lunch for one saber tooth...whew, good thing they're extinct!..I meant that he's not they're lunch, not that they're extinct.

Some definite highlights of the zoo:  (1)We got to see this cute little giraffe that was only one week old.

(2) The two baby jaguars were out on exhibit (these were Chase's favorite, and we had to pry him away from them)

(3) We got to see an extreme Rhino fight.  These two ran around and butted each other until they were both bleeding pretty bad.  Pretty cool to watch. 

At the end of the day we even got to take one of the animals home with us!  A new baby jaguar (shut up, I know this is a tiger, but Chase is adamant it is a baby jaguar).  He named him  stripes, go figure.

That night we took the kids to Old Town and walked around and had dinner.

We went to the famous?  Casa de Reyes.  Matt had been talking about this a lot before our trip and was really excited to take us here.

I have to say it didn't live up to all that people said about it.  The service was terrible and the food was only so-so.  But, the company was amazing!

A great start to a great vacation!

Vacation Day 2 - Sea World

Day 2 of vacation we headed to Sea World.  We were ready to go "into the blue", and it did not disappoint.

We first met Pete the Penguin who had to have us pose with him for pictures.

We had fun looking at all the ocean life in the aquariums, although by the time I finally figured out how to use my camera properly for these photos we had already seen most of the underwater tanks. 

Chase loved looking at the sharks, we could not find them at the end of the day anywhere in the park for a souviner (apparently they swim off the shelves).

I think one of the big highlights of the day was going to the Shamu show.  We decide to sit in the "splash zone".  How wet could you really get?  When noone was choosing a seat near us and they started selling ponchos in our area, I got a bit nervous.  Matt decided he would buy us a poncho to share just in case, again how wet could you get?  *Funny side story all these empty seats near us and a huge group of asians come sit right next to Kelsey (when I say right next to her, I mean literally on her lap, there were rows of empty seats and tons of room on the other side of them but they chose to sit right cozy up to her). 

We were amazed when the show started how high these giant whales could jump.  It was beautiful.

This is when I thought..hmmm maybe we sat to close.  This photo is in no way zoomed, THIS is how close we were, and yes they can make a splash!!  Chase was mad when it first began he didn't get wet so he got out from under the poncho and traded places with Kelsey...BIG MISTAKE.

This is us after the show...

Even with a poncho on I managed to get completly wet under it.  Chase was head to toe drenched and had to walk like a penguin the rest of the day.    You can see the pool of water at our feet, yea it was that wet.  *Back to the funny side note.  Remember those asians that were right next to Kelsey they went running like you would not believe as the first wave hit, it was hillarious!  Besides the shows we hit a few of the rides.  Chase loved the Manta, Sadi said she liked the Journey to Atlantis but she will NEVER go on it again and to hear her retell the ride is pretty hillarious.  Kelsey learned Shamu had nothing on the ride Shipwreck rapids.  She came off soaked and everyone else came off dry.  We all enjoyed going on the helicopter ride down to the wild arctic. 

It was cold down there, even the wall was made of ice...

The Beluga Whales were one of our favorite to watch.  So graceful.

I think we will all agree the best show was the Seamore Sea Lion show.  Not for the Sea Lions but for the pre-show with Biff.  *Biff is a Sea World staff member who does a little skit to music that makes you laugh your butt off.  I think I was laughing so hard and so entertained I neglected to get any photos of him.  The kids all wanted to go back to see Biff.

We did go back...three times.  Just as funny, every time!

Vacation Day 3 - Ocean Beach

Day 3 of vacation:  We decided to wind down a bit and have a day to relax, so we headed to Ocean Beach for the day.  It was a bit overcast and windy so we weren't sure how the kids were going to like it.  The girls were a bit hesitant to get in at first, but later did dip in and out.

Although the water was frigid, Sadi laughed I think the most this day going in and getting kissed by the waves...once she got over the shock of the cold water.  Brrr.

Chase made me the most nervous, this kid has no fear of the ocean and the big waves.  He should be a surfer.  He would run out wayyyy to far and run in from the waves,

Get caught by the wave, (giggling the whole time)

and get sucked under by the wave.  Yes, he's in there if you look close you can barely see the brim of his shark hat.  This is why we had to lifeguard closely...it doesn't look like I am panicked by snapping this picture, but I assure you I was having heart palpitations....but a good picture is a good picture, am I right?

This was his first realization that this was not like pool water.  He was just about vomiting salt water through his nose...a good laugh for all who were there.

Although Kelsey braved the water (kind of) she was much more content on the beach lifeguard watching.  I caught her more than once eyeing the hot bodies patrolling the beach.  I think she might have faked a drowning just to be rescued by one of them.

After a day at the beach we took the kids to Seaport village to walk around the board walk, eat dinner, and do a little shopping.  

We saw lots of pirates, and found lots of cool treasures.

We even saw a real pirate ship sailing by and shooting real water cannons at us.

We came across some real pirates on land.  Arggghhh!

We also came across a bird man?  He was out showcasing his birds.  When we stopped to admire them he decided we all needed a bird perched on us.

I wasn't so sure about the one on my head, especially when it felt like he started making his home up there.

It ended up being a really nice evening, and the perfect end to yet another great day.

Vacation Day 4 - Happy Birthday!!

Day 4 of vacation was also Kelsey's 16th Birthday!!  We got up early to run down and make her a special breakfast in bed (although after a few days of waffles I'm not sure how special it was).  I had packed candles and matches, however I did not pack the box which apparently you need to light these particular matches :(  So we had to pretend her candle was lit while we sang Happy Birthday to her.

We did have a few surprises for her to open (which turned out not to be a surprise either because as we were packing Chase continued to yell "Hey Mom did you remember to pack those surprise presents for Kelsey's birthday and Father's Day?!).  She got some new books, DVD, and CA$H! 

After gifts and breakfast it was off for another fun full day at...

 We wanted to do something memorable and special for her birthday so we bought everyone all you can eat wrist bands, which entitled you to eat all you wanted all day at certain restaurants.  It was delicious...and we all left totally stuffed, so I think we hit the mark on the memorable part.

She was even able to get a huge slice of birthday cake!   

We stayed in the park all day and into the night.  When the sun went down, we went to the nighttime Shamu show.  We opted to stay OUT of the splash zone this time.  It was an amazing show, and after there were fireworks.  It was a really fun day.  I hope it was a birthday to remember.